While we ordered this book as a present for a certain young man we know whose birthday is coming soon, we will certainly be adding it to our own library as well.
The first thing I noticed was the beautiful cover. Simple. Elegant. Bright red with bold black and gold type. A bold design paired with the perfect title: an irresistible lure for even the most stubborn non-reader. What red-blooded boy could resist? The back isn’t covered with silly publicity blurbs, just two simple statements: “Recapture Sunday afternoons and long summer days. The perfect book for every boy from eight to eighty.”
There’s no dust jacket here. Why bother? It would only be torn or lost. The cover is sturdy, cloth over cardboard. The book has a nice heft too. Feels about the weight of a good junior high textbook. Did I mention the marbled end papers? (There’s a whole chapter on how to make marbled paper.)
If your eyes don’t light up as you flip through the pages of this book, then you never were a child. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World nestle between instructions for The Greatest Paper Airplane in the World and Five Knots Every Boy Should Know. Here are famous battles, extraordinary stories, snippets of Shakespeare and Latin catchphrases, marbles and treehouses, pirate flags and skipping stones, first aid and Navaho code talking, instructions for making secret inks and fireproof cloth, tanning skins and dog tricks. You can learn rules of poker, chess, rugby, marbles and the English language. Understand longitude and latitude, star maps and wrapping a package in brown paper and string. Really, I want to list the entire table of contents because it is all just so cool. Did I mention the Seven Poems Every Boy Should Know?
It’s eclectic, exciting, the perfect thing for a rainy day, a sunny day, a clear night or a long car trip. You’ll want to order a dozen copies, give one to every boy you know and keep a copy for yourself. No matter how old or young you are.
When you’re a man, you realize that everything changes, but when you’re a boy, you know different. The camp you made today will be there forever. You want to learn coin tricks and how to play poker because you never know when the skills will come in handy. You want to be self-sufficient adn find your way by the stars. Perhaps for those who come after us, you want to reach them. Well, why not? Why not?
from the introduction, “I Didn’t Have This Book When I Was a Boy”.
Thinking about this and your other post on the vocation to the single life, I have to say that there is one other good reason to affirm the single life as a vocation. Consider the case of those who feel themselves to have homosexual tendencies (or simply, do not feel themselves to have heterosexual tendencies). The Church teaches that these individuals should devote themselves to chastity. If there were not a vocation to the single life among individuals who are heterosexually inclined (sorry for the PC language—I’m trained in it), then those who feel homosexual attraction would truly be the subject of persecution of the Church, as many claim that they, in fact, are. However, many of use recognize the call to chastity as Church teaching for any individual not called to matrimony, and, as these post make clear, not all who are not called to marriage are called to a religious vocation. I hope this is clear and not as circuitous as it feels. The idea, though, is that like heterosexuals who are not called to matrimony or the religious life, those who feel homosexual attractions are not called to matrimony and may not be called to the religious life, and so the necessary alternative for all individuals in these circumstances must be the single life, which, indeed, is its own cross to bear.
A very good point. There is so much agony and controversy about how to minister to our brothers and sisters afflicted with same-sex attraction. And I think in the past this idea that there are only two vocations, to marriage or to the religious life, has caused much harm. One way in which it has not served us well is by fostering the idea of the religious life and especially the priesthood as a “gay” vocation.
One clarification: all Christians, married and single, are called to live the virtue of chastity proper to their state in life. For single persons, that means the celibate life. But married couples are also called to be chaste, living the gift of their sexuality in accord with God’s plan.
Not surprisingly, chastity is the most misunderstood virtue in our society today. Would it be going too far to state that all of our societal problems can be traced to our lack of understanding of this virtue?
One clarification: all Christians, married and single, are called to live the virtue of chastity proper to their state in life. For single persons, that means the celibate life. But married couples are also called to be chaste, living the gift of their sexuality in accord with God’s plan.
True, of course. But typically, in non-Catholic circles, chastity and celibacy are equated. So it’s an easy slip to make!