On motorcars

By George Topârceanu

Out of all the devilish contraptions that have found a shelter in our country, the most dangerous of all must surely be the motorcar. When a motorcar speeds by on the street, instead of relying solely on chance and the Heavens, everyone should take refuge in houses, in cellars or on rooftops.

But this is how people are: after getting used to a peril, they do not find it as fearsome. So it happens that, when a motorcar drives by them, each believes he might have the luck not to be the one knocked down by it… in other words, everyone hopes that, perhaps, another one will be knocked down this time.

The motorcar is a very hurried vehicle. He always acts like he’s on the verge of missing the train. (…) Look at him when he rolls down the street, with eyes coming out of his sockets, fixed forward with mechanical ferocity, passing through two rows of pedestrians thronged on the sidewalk, hypnotized, terrorized, always ready to jump aside to make space for him. If any of these unfortunates tries to cross the street, the motorcar immediately blurts out a short, hoarse command, belched as an imprecation:

–Hrrr!

In his dialect, this means:

–Back out! Let ­Me pass first!

And if you do not instantly get out of his way, he immediately gets into a huff:

–Hrr ‐ hr!

(Which means: Move away, you, idiot, or else I’ll make mincemeat out of you!

Further more: even without moving a muscle, only having the intention of crossing the street to buy something from the pharmacy on the opposite side, the motorcar with his miraculous telepathic recording ability guesses your thought from afar and curtly makes you stand stock-still:

–Hr!

This means:

–Shoo! I will not let you buy a thing!

After discussing with mom & dad and putting their thoughts and my recollections into words, I asked Dani about 10 questions and then assembled his answers.

Here is the outcome:     Easy to read on CF’s site

 I want to share now, in colloquial words, only 3 easy-to-understand statements that Kant holds to be rationally true, as Dr Firestone asserts in his book, In Defense of Kant’s Religion. 

v     the depravity of human nature: the human nature is evil by propensity (predisposition), but not from necessity;

v     the necessity of a disposition that is both divine and human in order to ‘please’ God;

v     the people morally converted to this “principle of good” or this “prototype of human perfection” need to band together in a community, so that they are less ‘tempted’ to relapse;

Conclusion? I wish I could attend such awesome conferences weekly! It helps make a clear understanding of concepts and visions I wouldn’t have the time and patience to study otherwise, even with the abundance of information that we have on the internet and in spite of the desire to know more..

The day ended with the funniest children’s programme I have ever watched: the Children’s After School Club presentation for the parents.

Theme: Friendship with others, with your spouse & with God.

Witty skits, insightful songs with coregraphy, bells choir.. Wonderful! Like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Oh, and look what I got!

We had a short but fun birthday party at her place on the 15th..

with her girls..

~~~

I soon got home, grabbed the photo camera, put my roller skates on and went off to take some shots.. [with my not pro skills  ] But, as all the beautiful or dreadful dreams we have, by the time I got back there, it was all gone..

This is all that was left for my human eyes and optical lenses:

If it would be, I would try harder to make it happen. I would arrange my schedule so that I can do it..  I need to read books and short stories for my seminars, but I never managed to read them all!

I love reading, but I just don’t seem to find enough time to read more..until..I enter the exams session!

I feel time is organized in a different way then. It goes by slower than usually and yet faster than I want.

 Still..that’s when time seems to be all mine..

I wish I would be in this “read-every-spare-minute-you-have” mood the  whole year! I wish I wouldn’t forget that I can really make time to read even when I’m so jammed up..

Reading really is something I love.

~~~

Among my latest readings  is the saddest short story I have ever read: Melville‘s  Billy Budd, Sailor: (An Inside Narrative). I just found out that it isn’t finished.. that’s probably a clue..

A book I absolutley enjoyed reading is Hawthorne‘s novel The Scarlett Letter.  If you want to read it, read it as it is. If not, don’t just read its summary -don’t waste all its beauty! OK?? The style of the author is far more delighting than the mere story. 

Litera stacojie

The book debates themes like legalism, sin, guilt, dignity, repentence, a person’s evolution and other’s involution, law, truth and so on  and it concludes with the words:

“Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”

January 12-18 – a week of evangelism at Emanuel church in Oradea. Brother Sammy Tippit is the special guest, preaching every night, translated by brother Paul Negrut. 

Theme: Hope for Thirsty Hearts                    

 After she gave us each a piece of her birthday cake..

 she hurried to eat hers and go back to her presents.

It was a nice beginning of the year.

  Then we had a concert -for the first time. Last year we only sang during the youth meeting and had a smaller audience. There were dramas again, but without me this time..so they turned out great.

The next day, on Sunday, we celebrated 10 years of youth choir.  We sang together with all the former choir members who were able to come, from Romania and Europe. (I only have 4 years in the choir.)

This is how the church looked like before we all entered with candles in our hands.

Monday, Dec 22nd, some of the young people at Emanuel went caroling at the county hospital. It was touching to see the joy on the faces of sick people, nurses and doctors. They were hoping we would come again..

But we couldn’t, because we all went in other places. With my group, on Christmas Eve, I went in Tasnad, a town 2 hours away and sang in the small church there. Then, together with some of the young people and children there, we went caroling. The people wanted to thank us by giving us money, because that is the Orthodox habit. But we told them that we only wanted to bring them the good news. Got home at 4 am.

On 25 all the children attending Sunday School groups held a programme in the church. It was magnificent. Even us, the teachers, sang a song, but the children’s songs sounded a lot better. )

 Afterwards, we went caroling at our families and 2 old ladies too. The most interesting thing was when an old lady came out of her house, in the street, at 3 in the morning to give us candies, because she heard us carol near her neighbour. The people in the next house woke up and asked us to sing one more song, listening to us from their windows.
 

On 26 at noon I was invited to go to a village. We sang and listened to a student at Management preaching. I always said I like listening to non-theologian better. Then we went to one of us, sang in the street for the neighbours and then spent the night eating, talking and playing an interactive game called..oh, well, it doesn’t matter. ;p

I don’t know if American people keep the habit of caroling at Christmas, but Hannah told me that Swedish people have only seen it in movies..

Anamaria, Andrea, Feri & Tibi also went caroling these days with their Sunday School classmates. They also came to us.

Of course, we decorated our house too, again. I love our blue & silver Christmas tree!  

 

 The stars are pretty cool too.

But no design is more beautiful than the one made by the Original Designer! This tree in front of our house was decorated by Him again and again in the last days. Snow? Neah.. not yet.. Only hoarfrost. But it’s magnificent!

Don’t you agree?

New Year’s Eve is celebrated in Romania  as follows: families spend the evening together eating various fancy foods, playing games, talking OR with friends at different locations: restaurants, bungalows. But just sitting home and watching TV or talking on instant messenger is also a renowned way of wasting the last night of an year -as I’ve heard.. Then, at 12, people go outside, on a hill or in the city centre and watch the fireworks or launch some noise-making-stuff which I have no idea how to call..[heeelp -we call them "petarde"] Some people also make a “birthday cake” in honour of the new born year.

I celebrated it in a way I never did before: went 2 days before at a chalet at one of the girls in my study group, played games, had an intense debate, watched a classic movie.. ;p 

Then, on 31st I went to church and afterwards at what the youth leaders had organised for the young people in my church. From 10 to 5 am we sang, ate, watched slideshows and videos with photos from this year’s activities and camps, played a few games, talked.

At 12 o’clock I went in the centre of the city for the first time ever, to watch the fireworks.

Oh, yeah, we  also have  the habit of making resolutions for the following year. I didn’t do it last year, because I realised I hadn’t accomplished everything I had planned for 2006 and thought it’d be useless to try again. But now I realise that if you don’t try to do anything you will not accomplish anything.. or not much, anyhow. I decided to set some realistic goals that can be measured in a shorter amount of time, like spending at least an evening a week talking with my siblings. Actually, this isn’t only an example, it’s one of the things I intend to do this year.

Why? I used to spend all my evening talking with them in their rooms about everything in this world, from their dreadful childhood memories to the cartoon they saw lastSaturday. Some of the talks were not so interesting as others, but they mattered to them. It was an evening ritual they loved and cherished. They even envied one another, even if I tried to spend an equal amount of time with each of them. This pushed me away a litlle bit, as I was hurt to see them squabble in spite of my good intentions. I also started to be busier because of school and I started spendingless and less time with them. I’m really ashamed to admit it and if mommy reads this she will ask me to delete it, because she cares more about my good name than I do. But I have to admit it and not only to myself.. This confession will motivate me to change and try harder. The fact that I told you what I intend feels like a vow and I feel more compelled to do it now. People sometimes need pressure from the outside if the inner motivation fails to give enough fruits, I guess..  

Will you pray for me for this matter?.. Thanks!

Have a stunning 2009, daring more and more with God and walking in His will!  –I found this to be the greatest happiness for me.