1. For the first day back in the office after two weeks away, today was remarkably productive. Not necessarily the first 6 hours, but the last 2 were.
2. I have a bunch of back-logged things I want to blog about, but I haven't done it. Why is that? Perhaps because my commenters have silenced themselves? Anybody out there?
3. I have been growing very worried about the state of the country. I feel like there is a growing fear-based rage out there that is pushing us past a barrier of civility from which it will be difficult to return. The recent disturbances at 'town-hall' meetings and the 'birther' movement and such. Read a very interesting article that I haven't figured out how to link to yet, about how 'socialist' has become a code word for 'black guy who wants to steal all our stuff.' Seems pretty probable to me. Clearly, they can't really mean that Obama is a socialist, since he's so clearly not.
4. I have had occasion today, more than once, to bump up against my own prejudices and fears, by observing my reluctance to encourage persons of certain mental states into deeper relationship with me or my church. It is disappointing to be so bad at loving everyone the way Christ would, or as if they were Christ. I kind of suck at it. Sigh.
5. I went to a very pitiful farmers market today. There were three vendors and two of them pretty much only had tomatoes (which I didn't need). I got 3 cucumbers and a green pepper for $2. Still a good deal.
6. The episode of L&O:SVU that we just watched made me realize that it's entirely probably that Parkinson's disease is highly likely to be the state of my final years. My impression of it is that it's a good day/bad day kind of experience. I wonder if they'll have a cure by the time I'm 75?
7. Eunice Kennedy Shriver might actually make it onto our dead famous people list at All Saints Day this year, unlike many of the recently departed celebrities.
8. I love serving on the Committee on Ministry, but three meetings in the space of 8 days is a bit much, don't you think? At least each one has its own special purpose. Unfortunately, I don't know that I will be able to add on a trip to Costco to any of them, because of scheduling issues.
9. The previous mention of Costco should not really be taken as an endorsement. I'm still mad at them for trying to propose a bogus 'third way' alternative to the Employee Free Choice Act. Any day now I'm going to blog about the lying email they sent me. Speaking of which, they still haven't written me back after they said they'd send my response further up the food chain.
10. I need a good book for our ecumenical book group to read this fall. It needs to be around 200-250 pages, non-fiction, dense but readable, able to be stretched out over 12 weeks of reading a chapter or so a week, preferably at least indirectly related to faith issues. I sometimes describe the perfect book as 'one we know it's good for us to read that we might not get through on our own.' Any suggestions? I've been thinking another anthology might be nice. We read "Practicing Our Faith" in our second session many moons ago; it's kinda cool to have each chapter written by a different person.
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2 comments:
Our church is doing "Christianity for the Rest of Us" this fall, but I suppose that would only really work if by "ecumenical" you really just meant "mainline Protestant." So, maybe not.
I can also recommend "Jesus for President," and though I haven't read them yet, I be that Eugene Peterson series ("Eat This Book," "The Jesus Way," etc.) would be good. I like EP.
hey there, lucky! i am just beginning to read Barbara Brown Taylor's new book, "An Altar in the World". VERY cool. if i were a pastor and not a chaplain, i'd do a book study on it. happy book picking! yukonsally - aka: jennifer
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