A WORLD ADRIFT

BLOG #43, SERIES #6
WEDNESDAYS WITH DR. JOE
A WORLD ADRIFT
October 28, 2015

Once, very long ago, we had Pax Romana, which lasted for a very long time. If you include the Eastern Byzantine Roman Empire, it lasted well over a thousand years. Then came Pax Britannica that lasted over a hundred years. It was followed by Pax Americana—it has lasted about a hundred years. But now that America has all but abdicated its role of global peace-keeper, the proverbial Pandora’s Box has been opened with a vengeance.

Up until recently, a system of global alliances, anchored by the authority and credibility of America, has helped keep the world from ripping apart. Not so today: Hardly any nation seriously believes America cares much about anyone other than itself any more. Result: Russia has stormed into Ukraine—and now Syria; America is retreating from Iraq and Afghanistan; and is permitting China to challenge it across the Pacific. The Middle East is in shambles and millions of displaced people are overrunning the nations of Europe. Europeans assumed national boundaries meant something—but when people are starving, nothing short of wholesale slaughter will stop them from their desperate search for a better life.

In history, democracies have rarely lasted longer than two centuries. Now many are wondering whether or not the same will hold true for America.

In economics, if global trust breaks down, nothing will be able to save the global economy.

If we ever needed God before, we certainly need Him now.

CHRISTMAS IN MY HEART® 24

BLOG #42, SERIES #6
WEDNESDAYS WITH DR. JOE
CHRISTMAS IN MY HEART® 24
October 21, 2015

NEWS RELEASE

 

Joe L. Wheeler, Ph.D. has a new book out: the 24th consecutive yearly collection of Christmas in My Heart® stories. This is his 91st book and 76th story anthology. It was released in mid-October by Pacific Press Publishing Association in Nampa, Idaho, and is part of what has become the longest-running Christmas story series in America.

Like its predecessors, this new collection stays true to what has helped it to survive for so many years: horizontal trade paper format, Currier and Ives covers, old-time woodcut type illustrations, spiritually compatible stories that deeply move the reader, and stories for all age groups.

If this will be your first Christmas in My Heart® book, you will quickly discover that there is no connection between books: each is a stand-alone. Nevertheless, once you immerse yourself in this book, in all likelihood you’ll want to pick up earlier collections. Untold thousands have them all—unthinkable to face another Christmas season without the newest collection!

In this particular collection, you will find the following:

● Catherine Parmenter’s poem, “Holy Night.”
● Wheeler’s Introduction: “Our Top Twenty Christmas Stories.”

Over several years now, completists (those who own the entire series) have been mailing in their candidates for inclusion in a definitive list of the Top 20 Christmas stories ever written. In this introduction, you’ll find the results. There are actually two lists: One voted for by our readers, and the second consisting of Wheeler’s personal favorite 20 stories.

● “A Wood Crowns the Waters,” by Eric Philbrook Kelly
● “Little Cherry’s Star,” by G. M. Farley
● “The Christmas Kink,” by Lucille Adams
● “Flight Before Christmas,” by John Scott Douglas
● “Denny’s Christmas Revelation,” by Faith Freeborn Turner
● “The Belated Christmas Train,” by William McGinnies
● “Joy to the World,” by Mary Russell
● “The Lighted Path,” by Temple Bailey
● “Let Nothing You Dismay,” by Goldie Down
● “The Lost Child,” retold by Mabel Lee Cooper
● “Celestial Roots,” by Thomas Vallance
● “A Story for Christmas,” by Jody Shields
● “The Baby Camel That Walked to Jesus,” by Walter A. Dyer
● “Choices,” by Isobel Stewart
● “The Dream Catcher,” by Joseph Leininger Wheeler

You may order the book from us. After many years at $13.99, the publisher has raised the price to $14.99. But you may get it from us at a discounted cost of $13.99, plus $4.90 shipping. Inscribing, when specifically requested, at no extra cost.

Mailing address: P.O. Box 1246, Conifer, CO 80433

Dr. Joe’s Book of the Month – James Hilton’s “Lost Horizon”

BLOG #40, SERIES #6
WEDNESDAYS WITH DR. JO
DR. JOE’S BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB #45
JAMES HILTON’S LOST HORIZON
October 7, 2015

Since the advent of this novel in 1933, Shangri-La, the setting for this utopian novel, has come to mean a place of peace and contentment to people all around the world.

James Hilton (1900 – 1954) was, like most of his contemporaries, deeply impacted by what contemporaries called “The Great War” (World War I). A war so horrific, many wondered if it would doom civilization. Hilton, born in England, wrote several books exploring aspects of the war. This one, however, set in 1931, conceptualized a mythical utopia set high in one of the remotest parts of the Himalayas. Here, if the world self-destructed, civilized life could be given a chance for a rebirth in Shangri-La, where the High Lama has discovered the secret of extending life beyond even 200 years.

The vehicle bringing five passengers (four British, one American) is a high altitude plane that somehow made it to the mountains of the Blue Moon.

It is a riveting romance that has fascinated readers and movie-goers ever since it was printed. Its original publisher: William Morrow & Co., Inc. It was widely reprinted in hardback by Grosset & Dunlap and in trade paper by Pocket Books.

Questions readers will ask themselves are these: How much of this book could be true? What lessons about life can be learned by reading it? Is it a true happier-ever-after utopia—or might it have elements of a dystopia in it?

When you purchase your own copy, be sure it is unabridged. It’s not a very long book anyway.

M O V I E S

(1983Twyman Catalogue)

Two movies have been made from this book:

1937 – B&W – 138 minutes –
Frank Capra (Producer and Director)
Robert Riskin (Writer)
Dimitri Tiompkin (Musical Score)
Actors: Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, Sam Jaffe, H. B. Warner, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton, Isabelle Jewell, Margo – Academy Awards (2).
Nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor.

It is a rare movie masterpiece that touches the heart of all who experience its dream—that some little plot of earth exists to which one can retreat, safe from the ravages of time and the world—one’s own little Shangri-La.

(1980 Clem Williams Film Catalogue)

1973 – Color – 150 min. – Columbia

Charles Jarrott (Director)
Ross Hunter (Producer)
Larry Kramer (Screenwriter)
Burt Bacharach (Music)
Hal David (Lyrics)
Actors: Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann, Sally Kellerman, Charles Boyer, George Kennedy, Michael York, Olivia Hussey, Sir John Gielgud