Amy Winehouse; Sherlock Holmes

First, the tragic news of Amy Winehouse cuts deep. 'Back to Black' was a phenomenal record, both for her tremendous musicianship on it (she has incredible pipes) and for the wave of female UK pop stars that rose to prominence (Adele, Duffy, etc.) on the trail of Winehouse and Lily Allen. Personally, Amy's death takes me back to the end of my freshman year at Calvin, when I trekked to the Best Buy on the Beltline to snag 'Back to Black' the day it came out. But her death reminds us of two things: even with tremendous talent (if put to Godly use), all our righteous acts "are like filthy rags" in the eyes of God (Isaiah 64:6). And we're also reminded that God's common grace sustains all of humanity, preventing mankind from falling into utter depravity (Ps. 119:64, Ps. 145:9, Luke 6:35, Acts 17:25). Absence of that common grace allows people to fully yield to the true passions of their heart (Romans 1:24-27). Hence, it is tragic to see someone created in the image of God feed her drug addiction to the extent of death.

Second, in honor of the first part of the fantastic BBC miniseries (on Netflix) on 'modern takes' of classic Sherlock Holmes mysteries, I snagged 'A Study in Scarlet,' the very first Holmes mystery from the BPL. I love the scientific nature of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writing and here's a quote I greatly appreciated:

"'You see,' he explained, 'I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It's a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.'"

I'm sure responses would be rather different, based on your theory of education. :-)