8.18.2010

Sy Rogers and The Fourth Turning

The Fourth TurningRecently Sy Rogers came back to our church to elaborate on much of what can be found in One of the Boys: The Sy Rogers Story. He referenced this book called The Fourth Turning in his talk and impressed Marie so much that she bough it...for me to read.

The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (Hinges of History)I wouldn't classify it as a quick read. I'm 40 pages into it after a month, but I haven't read it every day. As I understand it, the authors are offering a different (or returning to an older) way of looking at history. Instead of seeing things as Linear, history can be viewed in seasonal cycles comparable to the season of weather. As I read, I keep thinking of Thomas Cahill's profound work, The Gifts of the Jews. It it Cahill talks about Abraham's move away from civilization as a liberation from this cyclical view of history predominant in Sumerian cultures. I took a negative view away from reading this book, but perhaps I sold it short. I think my own linear historical leanings added a few things to Cahill's book that he did not intend.

Now I'm seeing that history has ebbs and flows, ups and downs, peacetime and war. Wait, that sounds familiar...

I'll be posting on The Fourth Turning more I'm sure. For now, I'm very interested to connect feelings, moods, and seasons with so much of the historical data American education forced on me. Now instead of dates and names and the order of presidents, there are deeper connections and undercurrents of history to consider and that consideration makes the subject seem less sterile.

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