The Things They Carried and Crazy Love

I got to fit in another couple books in my busy schedule (mm.. mostly by reading when I should be lesson planning) and I've gotta hand it to Tim O'Brien for his The Things They Carried for his innovative and refreshing story telling ability.

The "things they carried" were whatever baggage he and his Vietnam War comrades hauled around for the time they served in the war.  The beginning chapter listed all the standard equipments, listing them by name, utility, and even weight.  Then, he goes on to list other things they carried, varying from person to person by their cultures, beliefs, and sentiments.  I felt a dull kind of pain for the man who tied his girlfriend's pantyhose around his neck before every trek, only to have her leave him in a letter.  Kind of silly, yes, but he claimed the pantyhose still held its charm to protect him from the bullets, the forest, the bombs, the night... but you just knew he felt an unsettling and panicking fear that the one thing he had depended on to get him through the war was no longer his valid motive to carry on.

And then, the final chapters were about the emotional burdens they carried: fear, guilt, shame.. love.  These weighed as much as their M-16 gas-operated assault rifles which weighed 8.2 pounds when fully loaded with their 20-round magazines.  Probably weighed even more.  All in all, it was a fascinating read, one that made me really understand a war not by its facts, but by its stories that evoked a very raw emotion in me.

From one martial war to another personal war...

I reread Crazy Love by Francis Chan again.  He's a very convicting speaker (I got to hear him in Philadelphia in the summer of 2008), but he's a convicting writer as well.  Not much to say about this book except.. it had my heart doing cartwheels and wanting to hide in the corner at the same time.  Its message is very urgent, which is that we have no time to waste if we're aware of such a love as God's.  And I was rejoicing and ashamed simultaneously.  Anyway, great author, great book, great message.