Part II

So I have finished reading "Blue Like Jazz" and there are a couple other segments I would like to share with you. Apparently a lot of y'all have an interest in this book so I'm so glad I have more to share with you. Enjoy.

"I lay there under the stars and thought of what a great responsibility it is to be human. I am a human because God made me. I experience suffering and temptation because mankind chcose to follow Satan. God is reaching out to me to rescue me. I am learning to trust Him, learning to live by His precepts that I might be preserved" (101).

"Even our beliefs have become trend statements. We don't even believe things because we believe them anymore. We only believe things because they are cool things to believe" (107).

"The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: Life is a story about me. [...] no drug is so powerful as the drug of self. No rut in the mind is so deep as the one that says I am the world, the world belongs to me, all people are characters in my play. There is no addiction so powerful as self-addiction" (182).

P.S. And this last one is long but worth the read.

"The lecture was about the power of metaphor. Spencer opened by asking us what metaphors we think of when we consider the topic of cancer. We gave him our answers, all pretty much the same, we battle cancer, we fight cancer, we are rebuilding our white blood cells, thing like that. Spencer pointed out that the overwhelming majority of metaphors we listed were war metaphors. They deal with battle. He then proceeded to talk about cancer patients and how, because of war metaphor, many people who suffer with cancer feel more burdened than, in fact, they should. Most of them are frightened beyond their need to be frightened, and this affects their health. Some, feeling that they have been thrust into a deadly war, simply give up. If there were another metaphor, a metaphor more accurate, perhaps cancer would not prove so deadly. [...] Because of war metaphor, the professor said, we are more likely to fear cancer when, actually, most people survive the disease" (217,218).

This book was really fantastic. Its the fastest I have read a book in a long time and mark my words, I go through a lot of books.