Notice of New Website

For the most up-to-date information about Seth,
as well as his latest articles and written works,
visit his new website at www.SethWillard.com.

Thanks for your patience and patronage.

I'll be back when the day is new / and I'll have more ideas for you

College and homework. Generation Joshua club and writing guild. Campaigns and meetings. Projects, projects, projects. When I get started on one, I abandon another...and I'm sooooo busy!

What sounds like excuses is my excuse for not posting recently on SethWillard.com. I just don't have time; well, actually, I'm only taking 4 classes so I do get more free time than most college students. It's just that, well, posting isn't always my first priority.

Nor should it be. I'm still living at home, so my first priority is my family. What comes next is a broad range of interests, from reading to bowling...and the blog just isn't up there as far as it used to be. Plus, two things always bother me about it.

1. I fear the only readers I have are spammers. And I don't write to have someone leave a lame comment like "Do you like to cook or do you just like to type?"

2. I have a hard time coming up with articles. Perhaps it would be easier if I knew I had readers, but I can't just sit down and write unless I'm in the mood.

Thus, this post will have to serve as my farewell post, at least for the time being. The blog will stay online, making the pictures, recipes, articles and musings available to you. And I'll probably update it periodically, so be sure to stop by once in awhile. If you do, write a comment to let me know. I automatically get an email with your message, so it works dandy. As long as you know me you'll know the address: SethWillard.com!

I already have tears in my eyes, so this sabbatical may not last long...I could change my mind and be back tomorrow. But Alas! Work is calling, projects need time, the teacher is knocking.

Thanks for reading.

Where's Seth?

It's time for an update on what's been going on in my life and the basic answer is one word: college. I started this week and am ready for a productive semester at Alexandria Technical College which is 15 miles from my home. I am taking general classes that will transfer to other institutions including public speaking, composition, college algebra and U.S. history.

I have many plans for 2007 that I am putting together and have also been busy with Generation Joshua and our homeschool group. (Yes, I graduated, but I'll always be a homeschooler...)

I'll try to post here regularly, so don't stop visiting this site on occasion.
Thanks a lot!


By the way: the Rebelution has a whole new look and many new features that truly make it a top-notch blog. (Not that it wasn't already...) Be sure to check it out.

ROC: Accept Instruction and Gain Wisdom

My first article for Regenerate Our Culture Magazine appeared in today's issue. Entitled Accept Instruction and Gain Wisdom, it seeks to help you value what your parents have to say.

Here is an excerpt:

After days of debating over healthy organic feed versus conventional chemical-laden feed, I finally conceded and came to the realization that, since this is our first experience with raising poultry, it would be best to make the process as streamlined as possible. By using the pre-mixed feed, there would be less chance of death and disease and a better chance of survival and adequate nutrition (we couldn’t make mistakes by forgetting to add the vitamins, for example).

Now, after four weeks of chicken chores, I am remembering the arguments Dad and I had. And I say to myself, “Boy, am I glad we aren’t grinding the feed ourselves; those birds have been trouble enough! I don’t want any more to die, and I certainly don’t want any extra tasks!”

Be sure to read the complete article as well as the other fine features in this Back to School issue of Regenerate Our Culture Magazine.

Touring D.C.

My brother Ian and I will be taking a bus trip to our nation's
capital from August 7-13.
It is through Key Ministires, a local group that provides tours and bus service to churches, homeschoolers and other members of the community.
The cost: $150/person
We are going with a few friends and will see as many museums, monuments and historic places as we can. It promises to be a great time!

Reading: a thing in itself

While he was an Ambassador to Russia in 1811, John Quincy Adams wrote in a letter to his son:

I hope you have now arrived at an age to understand that reading, even in the Bible, is a thing in itself, neither good nor bad, but that all the good which can be drawn from it, is by the use and improvement of what you have read, with the help of your own reflections. Young people sometimes boast of how many books, and how much they have read; when, instead of boasting, they ought to be ashamed of having wasted so much time, to so little profit. I advise you, my son, in whatever you read, and most of all in reading the Bible, to remember that it is for the purpose of making you wiser and more virtuous.

Even though I have a hard time digesting the part about being ashamed of reading a lot of books, I find that I agree in spite of myself, because of what value is reading if the lessons learned are not taken to heart and put to use every day in one’s own life?

You may have seen the article on the sidebar titled “A look back on my Vassal’s Guild” about the servitude book club I and a few friends did. If you read it I’m sure you noticed that we went through those books for a reason: so we could observe the examples of the characters, realize where each of us fails, and then apply the lessons learned to our own lives. This is the way Mr. Adams is telling his son to read. Books are full of meaning and we have to know how to use what we read.

It turns out that the way a person thinks and what he thinks about cannot help but appear in his writing; thus an author’s worldview will become apparent when you read carefully and observantly. “Reading speed is totally irrelevant,” notes James Sire, author of How to Read Slowly. “If you think you can learn to read well without [re-reading often] I ask you to re-read anyway. I am not insulting your intelligence by doing this. Good readers re-read many things many times.” And when you do this, besides catching details you would miss reading fast, you uncover the message the author has placed there, perhaps unconsciously. You will be able to tell what they think about God, creation, the purpose of living, the family, money and education.

Depending on who you are and what your worldview is, you may or may not agree with what is being revealed. As a Christian who believes in the sanctity of marriage, I would like to thank Gene Stratton-Porter for stating-through Leslie-in Michael O’Halloran: “It’s my opinion that modern marriage would be more satisfactory if the engaged parties would not come so nearly being married, for so long before they are. There is so little left for afterward, in most cases, that it soon grows monotonous.” Indeed she says it plain and clear, what today’s youth need so badly to hear.

With fiction the reader has to look for the worldview while with other kinds of writing it is easier to spot. Take a biographical volume as an example. In The Letters and Lessons of Theodore Roosevelt for His Sons Doug Phillips has compiled the writings of our most beloved president to form not only a history of TR but also a guidebook for a boy’s life. (It is published by Vision Forum, along with The Bible Lessons of John Quincy Adams for His Son.) Teddy wrote straight from his manly heart about school, sporting, behavior, and life events in letters to his sons while they were separated. Here he tells “Blessed Old Ted:”

The thing to do while at Harvard is to attract as little attention as possible, do not make a fuss about the newspaper men and camera creatures by letting it be seen that you do not like them. I believe it is just an unpleasant thing that you will have to live down. Ted, I have had an enormous amount of unpleasant things that I have had to live down in my life at different times and you have begun to have them now. (paraphrased)

TR bestowed advice and gave encouragement, all while holding firm convictions which he makes plain in his letters, essays and autobiographical memoirs included in this book. Under such titles as The Vigor of Life and Character & Success his boyhood, life as a cowboy, adventures and presidency are recounted for the reader. I want to include a few of my favorite lines from these insightful sections.

What we need is to turn out of our colleges young men with ardent convictions on the side of the right; not young men who can make a good argument for either right or wrong as their interest bids them. (page 177)

But a man whose business is sedentary should get some kind of exercise if he wishes to keep himself in as good physical trim as his brethren who do manual labor. (page 198)

No community is healthy where it is ever necessary to distinguish one politician among his fellows because “he is honest.” (page 290)

Here opinion is expressed outright and again I highlighted these sentences because I agree with them. Whether a different reader would agree with them--for instance you--depends upon your (that’s right) worldview: your beliefs about everything at large and these subjects in particular (lawyers, physical fitness, honesty).

Another type of literature I especially enjoy is theology. Or---better---books talking flat out about Christianity. They say what they believe and believe what they say. One doesn’t have to dig much farther than the Foreword to discover the writer’s worldview but that’s a good thing because it allows Believers to read books that will build their faith without flipping through a shelf of rubbish.

Right now I am reading the C.S. Lewis classic Mere Christianity. Even though I have probably underlined nearly forty percent of this amazing manuscript, I am left speechless with how to describe it and unsure of which part to quote to you. It is obvious what Lewis believes--what his worldview is--but it is even more obvious what he wants us to believe: the truth about the Faith. “We are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel. Enemy-occupied territory--that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.” A holy war with a glorious rapture and a happy ending--or non-ending; at any rate it will only be happy and glorious for those who place their lives in Christ’s hands. That is what it’s all about.

But yet all the small details of life on earth must not be forgotten. As a homeschooler you realize how important it is to train up children in a Godly way as they are the leaders of the future. Dr. Wess Stafford, president of Compassion International, a ministry to impoverished children, knows that also and pleads on behalf of all children in a book written directly to Christians. He urges us to turn a hearing ear to the problems they are facing and reminds us that they are Too Small to Ignore. Dr. Stafford grew up as a missionary kid in West Africa and experienced poverty, abuse and bewilderment first hand. “Now when I speak to audiences, I often say that everything I really need to lead a worldwide child-development ministry I learned from the poor themselves…they taught me what matters most.” So in this published plea he shares what he learned, tells about his life, and plainly yet masterfully explains why he believes it is so important that American Christians wake up to the needs of children, both those under their roofs and those with no roof at all. He shows how we can make a difference in the life of a child, and states that--while it does take money--it also requires much more. This book was actually a very sad read because of the child abuse portrayed but the message is so important that I must say one thing: even if you don’t read any other title I have mentioned, please make sure you read this book. It will change the way you view children--and the world’s problems--in a very positive and Biblical way.

And now since I am not confident that the main point has been understood clearly amid all the distraction of quoting different authors I will state it again and conclude the thoughts: reading is a thing in itself, neither good nor bad, but all the good which can be drawn from it is by the use and improvement of what you have read. Therefore learn to read critically, alertly and slowly, making note of the author’s worldview—his or her beliefs and values. In non-fiction it is easy to spot as the author may state what he believes outright, trying to convert you. (This is nothing to be afraid of as long as the author is a Christian. If he is not, you may want to read anyway but proceed with caution.)

In fiction an author’s beliefs may be hidden: sometimes they will be easy to uncover while at others they will remain a mystery. But some hint will surface if you watch closely, and you will become a little more mature. Thus, reading lots of book is nothing to be ashamed of if you read for the right reason. Armed with the knowledge that comes from careful and deliberate book learning you will be able to make wise, educated and Biblically sound decisions in your journey called Life.

There are so many good books to read and think about: if you love pondering the messages presented in various types of literature, I’d like to hear what your thoughts are and what your favorite books happen to be. Please post a comment or contact me for further discussion: sdwillard@gmail.com

Strong governments

Be sure to read Joel Belz's column in the July 22 issue of WORLD Magazine.

It's right on, and I heartily agree that people want to be lightly governed by strong governments.