holiday happenings

On Friday we went to Portland to do a little shopping (key word: little), dinner at Jake's (key word: yum), and a visit to The Grotto, a Catholic shrine and botanical garden (key word: pretty). (BTW, the picture above was taken on our way back to a parking garage in downtown Portland.) The Grotto has had a Festival of Lights for many years, but this was the first year we actually got around to going to it. In addition to the Christmas lights, they have music performances, a petting zoo, and a puppet show. (Puppet show, not so good.) Anyway, it would have been perfect with a little dusting of the white stuff, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. (And I shouldn't complain due to the really nasty weather other parts of the country are experiencing.)

I did just finish reading about snow though -- in the book Christmas on Mill Street. Part of why I liked the book was that it is set during the winter of 1962, when the main character was nine years old. (I was six then). I'm usually up for a little nostalgia this time of year. Anywhoo, it's a warm 'n cozy, feel-good Christmas story which I would recommend if you're into that genre.

a new look at the ol' apostle

OK, by show of hands, how many of you think the apostle Paul is a jerk?



I'll admit that before reading The First Paul (by Marcus Borg and John Crossan), my hand would have been flying pretty high. Because I couldn't help but associate Paul with quotes such as: "Women should be silent in the churches... If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home." ~and~ "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling..."

Borg and Crossan explain why they are able to view Paul in a positive light (even though they don't agree with everything he ever wrote). For one thing, not all of the letters attributed to Paul were actually written by him. Mainstream New Testament scholarship has concluded that of the 13 letters attributed to Paul, only 7 are considered to be "genuine" (written by Paul himself). Later letters were written by others in the early church to "deradicalize" Paul's message of true equality to make it fit Roman social norms regarding patriarchy and slavery. (That's where those quotes I find offensive came from!)

The authors present Paul as a "Jewish Christ mystic" who lived with a deep sense of "one-ness" with God. Putting Paul in the proper historical context, he believed in peace through justice, an alternative to Rome's program of peace through victory (military victory which presumes violence). Quoting from the book: Paul's view of "justice means distributive and not retributive justice (punishment). There will only be peace on earth, Paul claims, when all members of God's world-home receive a fair and equitable share of its bounty, when all members of God's family have enough. Do not confuse, he might have added, peace with lull."


The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon --that's the complete title!-- is an excellent book. Marcus Borg never disappoints me. I highly recommend you pick up a copy (or Kindle it)!

Jesus, Interrupted

I just finished reading Bart Ehrman's Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible. I had read (and liked) Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why a few years ago, so when his latest book popped up on my Kindle, it was oh-so-easy to click "buy"!

In Jesus, Interrupted, Ehrman considers the Bible from a historical-critical perspective (rather than a devotional approach). He considers questions such as: What do the writings mean in their original historical context? Who were the actual authors? (Hint: not whom you might think!) Those authors lived in their unique time and place with a particular set of cultural and religious assumptions. What were they trying to say?

Ehrman details how the Bible is filled with discrepancies, many small but some quite significant. For example, a side-by-side comparison of the four gospels reveals irreconcilable differences in the accounts of Jesus' birth, baptism, and resurrection. (This was not news to me. Many years back--probably 10 or 15?--I decided to read the entire Bible from beginning to end and found such differences myself.) Ehrman asserts that if one tries to reconcile the discrepancies between various books (or even within the individual books), one will miss the larger theological point of the author.

Jesus, Interrupted also considers topics such as what can be known about the historical Jesus and how the 27 canonical books of the New Testament were chosen over the many other letters, Acts, and gospels that existed. I found of particular interest how the religion of Jesus became a religion about Jesus -- and unfortunately anti-Semitic along the way.

People who base their faith on the Bible being inerrant and written-by-the-hand-of-God will likely be threatened by this book. But I have a hunch many of those people wouldn't consider reading it anyway. I think people who would particulary benefit from reading Jesus, Interrupted are those who have dismissed the Bible as being misogynistic, homophobic, and ultimately irrelevant. I think Ehrman, by putting things into the proper perspective, just may help salvage the Bible for them.

the great book giveaway

Once upon a time I was involved with trying to help a mainstream church become more relevant. (Rev SS can vouch for me!)

Long story short, that didn't work too well for me. So now I am dechurched and have 15 (count 'em, 15!) books for which I would like to find new homes.

If any of you revgals want any or all of these books, let me know and I will mail them to you for FREE! (Granted I will send them cheap book rate.) Just leave me a comment -- then we'll e-mail and I'll get your address that way. First come; first served.

If there is no interest, I'll take them to Powell's Books and trade 'em in. They are all in good shape.

Here are the titles (you can read more about them on amazon.)

1. Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church by Doug Pagitt and the Solomon's Porch Community

2. Culture Shift: Transforming Your Church from the Inside Out by Robert Lewis and Wayne Cordeiro

3. Revolution: Finding Vibrant Faith Beyond the Wall of the Sanctuary by George Barna

4. Carpe Manana: Is Your Church Ready to Seize Tomorrow? by Leonard Sweet

5. Emerging Worship: Creating Worship Gatherings for New Generations by Dan Kimball

6. The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal

7. An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had in Mind by Erwin Raphael McManus

8. The Gospel Unplugged by Rich Wagner

9. The Relevant Church: A New Vision for Communities of Faith edited by Jennifer Ashley

10. More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix by Brian D. McLaren

11. The Church on the Other Side by Brian D. McLaren
Now I'm on the other side of the church... Oh, the irony!

12. A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey by Brian D. McLaren

13. a.k.a. "Lost": Discovering Ways to Connect with the People Jesus Misses Most by Jim Henderson

14. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch

15. Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture by Michael Frost

dewey and marble

I just finished a book which had been on my Christmas list -- Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World.

Dewey had a rough start in life. He was abandoned on a bitter cold January night in 1988 in the book return box of the public library in Spencer, Iowa. The kitten was quite frail with little frost-bitten paws when he was found, but he was cared for (and then adopted by) the librarians. Dewey Readmore Books (so named in a write-in contest in town) lived at the library for 19 years, where he was basically a goodwill ambassador and impacted the lives of many people.

The book is very engaging. However, about 2/3 of the way through I started to worry that the author (librarian Vicki Myron) had run out of material because she began describing the cat's constipation in much greater detail than I needed. However, she got her literary second wind and the book finished strongly.

I was happy to learn that the book will be made into a movie, and Vicki Myron will be played by (drum roll please.......) Meryl Streep. Should be good!

In any event, this book inspired me, and I am now thinking of writing a book about Marble. (I may lengthen his name to Marble Spraysmore Chairs.) And I can picture the cover now...



(Marble knows I'm only jokin'.)

short short, big big

Today was the second meeting of the Short Short Book Club, where we have a short discussion of a couple of short stories. My contribution is to write the discussion questions, and I usually throw in related pictures to spice things up a bit.

One of today's stories (A Change in Fashion by Steven Millhauser) dealt with the excesses of the whole fashion scene, and at one point in the story there was a dress as big as a house. Yep, that big! In looking for a picture to go with my questions, I googled "big dress" and here's what came up:


Bride's big day

A bride's dress was so big it got stuck in the church door.

Carly O'Brien's 25 stone dress was 8ft wide and cost £25,000. It took twenty people an hour and a half to push 16-year-old Carly through the church door and up the aisle followed by her 60ft long train.

The 30-layer dress, covered with 3,000 Swarovski crystals, diamond head-dress and train meant dad Frank, 40, had to walk in front as there was no room alongside.

Carly, who spent nine and a half hours getting into the dress, was so exhausted when she got to the altar in Gloucester that the groom, Michael Coffey, 17, and 14 relatives carried her out.

Sister Crystal, 20, said: "Carly wanted her day bigger than Jordan's. She got it."


After seeing this monstrosity, I guess the dress-as-big-as-a-house indeed appears to be the next logical (or illogical) step...

sunday snippets

Today was the first meeting of my brainchild, "The Short Short Book Club". The idea behind the club is to get together once a month for a short discussion of a short story (or two). Really low key! A short cup of coffee is also included, and so far the membership list is short as well. (But enough with the word short!)

The book we are using is The O. Henry Prize Stories 2008. The first meeting was fun! If you want a low stress book club (low prep time!), short stories are the way to go.

In other weekend news...

I painted! I did the downstairs bathroom, hallway leading into the kitchen, and started the laundry room. Used a color called "Soft Brie". Yummy. :) Next weekend I'll probably complete the laundry room and tackle the kitchen. On the down side, it always takes longer than I anticipate, but on the up side, everything is looking clean and fresh.


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all pics googled; top one is a composite which I played with a bit...

the hedgehog and the garbage puff

Between CE classes, I finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a novel by Muriel Barbery (translated from French to English by Alison Anderson).

The book is about Renée, a 54-year-old woman who has been the concierge of a small apartment building in Paris for 27 years. While she plays the part of a not-too-bright, lower-social-class concierge, she is actually very intelligent and has extensively studied philosophy and art on her own. She prefers to keep her intellectual life hidden from the residents, and works hard at maintaining her facade.

Alternating with Renée's observations and philosophical thoughts are those of Paloma, a 12-year-old who lives with her family in the apartment building. Like Renée, Paloma has constructed a facade. She is brilliant but pretends to be just average. Since she is unable to find meaning in life, she plans to commit suicide on her 13th birthday, and set the apartment on fire for good measure.

A new resident, Kakuro Ozu, moves into the apartment building and through him the lives of Renée and Paloma begin to overlap...
(Cue dramatic music.)

Great book! One thing I really liked was the idea that people are often not what they appear to be on the surface. This has certainly been my experience with many of my patients. I'm thinking of one who looks like a typical "Joe Six Pack" guy (to use the term of the month!) whose "hobby" is to fly his plane for medical missions. And there's a non-assuming elderly woman who, as it turns out, spends about half of the year in Switzerland where she sings in a musical ensemble. So yep, I'd agree with that 'more than meets the eye' idea.

There is a lot of depth to the book (especially with its focus on philosophy) -- and I'd highly recommend it.

While I was finishing the novel between classes, Garbage Puff was over in the exhibit hall checking out the lastest in equipment.

fast food bad. slow food good.

I just finished reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (which had been included in my birthday presents from Offsprings #1&2). It was a worthwhile read, a real eye-opener about what we eat, where it comes from, and how it gets to our tables. (I won't bother with a book review because you can read the NYTimes review here.)

Since I'm realistic, I know I won't be making immediate, drastic changes in my eating habits. However, I will definitely be making more of an effort to choose foods where words such as "natural", "organic", "local", and/or "sustainably raised" apply.

Of course part of the trick is making sure those labels are accurate. (Misleading marketing drives me crazy!) Bopping around the internet, I found the Sustainable Table website. You can type in your zip code and find good local resources. So that's a start!

visiting "the shack"

This weekend I finished reading William P. Young's The Shack.

*SPOILER ALERT* If you want to read the book with totally "fresh" eyes, you might want to skip this post as certain plot and/or character details are revealed.

Here's what I thunk:

I know this is a very popular book, yet I was less than enamored with it. Perhaps it is partially because the book and I got off to a bad start. Here's the premise: Mack's youngest daughter was abducted and murdered during a family vacation. In the midst of Mack's Great Sadness, he receives a note from "Papa" (God) inviting him back to the scene of the crime. I'll admit I was a teensy bit resentful of the note. Because my brother was murdered, I am familiar with Great Sadness, yet notes in my mailbox from "Papa" were conspicuously absent...

There were some good points. I liked the fact that God was initially revealed as an African-American woman. I also thought the author handled the complex topic of forgiveness well. i.e. Forgiveness is not about forgetting or saying everything is ok; rather, it about releasing oneself "from something that will eat you alive". Forgiveness is "first for you, the forgiver".

And yet.

My theology is quite progressive, and I found much of the theology in this book less than progressive. I don't want to go point by point (too lengthy for one thing), but let me just say that calling God "Papa" and worshiping "flat on their faces" was reminiscent of a fundamentalist-type church I once visited -- the same one that didn't allow women in any type of leadership role.

Another thing that bothered me was how the author portrayed the 'looks' of Jesus. Mack is surprised that Jesus isn't better looking. Jesus says, "It's my nose, isn't it? ... I am Jewish, you know. My grandfather on my mother's side had a big nose; in fact, most of the men on my mom's side had big noses."

Wow. Way to perpetuate a cultural stereotype.

Soooo.... at best, this book was a mixed bag for me.

what he's reading...

Garbage Puff is midway through McCarthy's The Road. As you can see, he's finding some of the postapocalyptic images disconcerting.

(G.P. will probably review the book when he's finished.)

what I'm reading at the moment...

The last time I was at Starbucks I bought a book on impulse -- The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. The book jacket proclaimed: "(This book) has everything: love, tragedy, redemption, danger...!" How could I not snatch it right up?! Plus it looked interesting because it's narrated by a dog.

A canine narrator! I'll bet HotCup and Diane are probably both slapping their respective foreheads and asking, "Why didn't I think of having my dog (Mocha Java Puppy and/or Scout) write a book?!" I'll admit I was thinking, "Geez, Marble could have penned a novel." Of course he would have called it:


Yep, an entirely different philosophical approach to life.

mini reviews

1. The Friday Night Movie Club (yep, Hub and me) rented The Savages, a dark comedy about an adult brother and sister (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) whose lives are suddenly interrupted by the need to care for their ailing, estranged father. The self-absorbed siblings who must start to grow up are named Jon and Wendy, a little ironic salute to Peter Pan. Since this is a mini review, I'll just say that the acting is superb, and the movie is worth seeing for that alone.

2. I just this evening completed Julie Andrews' Home: A Memoir of My Early Years. The book covers the time from before her birth in 1935 to the early 1960's (just prior to Mary Poppins filming). Her childhood memories were surprising -- I was expecting something more idyllic. The most fascinating part of the book for me was the behind-the-scenes look at her performances. Wowser, theatre work is rigorous!

dry labbing the red tent

Back in undergraduate days I was introduced to the concept (and some might say art) of dry labbing. The urban dictionary defines "dry lab" in this way:

To dry lab is to make up data in a scientific experiment, as opposed to observe or experiment in order to obtain it. Usually this is done in response to pressures to finish the experiment by unethical researchers.
e.g. It was getting past 4:30, so Kagame decided to dry lab her experiment in organic chemistry by plugging in plausible figures.

I'll admit to my rare (and I do mean rare) participation in dry labbing in inorganic chemistry. And I would agree that the word "unethical" can "usually" be used in regards to dry labbing, but one can argue that there are certain scenarios where the ethics are not cut and dried. In any event, scientists can tell you that a bad dry labber is oh-so-easy to spot whereas the work of a really skilled dry labber looks authentic.

Some months ago I ran across a book that I thought just might be the literary equivalent of dry labbing. The title was intriguing: How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, written by Pierre Bayard. In actuality, the book is less a "how to bluff" tutorial and more a satirical consideration of the implications of non-reading vs. reading in our culture.

Bayard's book (and the ol' college dry lab concept) came to mind last night when I attended a book club meeting. The book club, associated with the local Methodist church, is a new one (this was just the second meeting), and it was organized by a couple of friends of mine (who invited me). The book being discussed was Diamant's The Red Tent. Here's the deal. I didn't finish the book. Didn't especially like the book. I only got about half way through because I kept procrastinating with reading it. I know, I know. It has been a HUGE book -- loved by many. But it just didn't grab me; what can I say?

However, true to Bayard's book, that didn't stop me from joining in on the discussion and making witty, even profound observations on the novel. (You'll have to trust me on that "witty" and "profound" business ... And not ask anyone who was actually there.)

So next they are reading Three Cups of Tea. I have higher hopes for finishing that one.

the ghost at the table...

OK, the ghost at said table isn't actually Casper. But every time I hear "Ghost", I think "Casper". But I digress.

I just finished one of the books I got for Christmas -- Suzanne Berne's The Ghost at the Table. It's a novel about two sisters and their dysfunctional-family-Thanksgiving. Frances is the older, married-with-children sister who is hosting the holiday at her home in Concord and Cynthia is the younger, single sister from San Francisco who is overdue for a vist. While in the area, Cynthia, who writes about the sisters and/or daughters of famous people in a "Sisters of History" series for young girls, plans to do a little research on one of her books. Thrown into the mix is the aged, invalid father with whom both Frances and Cynthia have conflicted feelings.

One of the interesting (and true) points the author makes in the novel is that we each have our own version of family history. We all base our interpretation of the past on our own unique frame of reference.

Towards the end of the novel, Cynthia (the narrator) is thinking about her past with her parents and has this to say:

They, like most people, had done their best. You love whom you love, you fail whom you fail, and almost always we fail the ones we meant to love. Not intentionally, that's just how it happens. We get sick or distracted or frightened and don't listen, or listen to the wrong things. Time passes, we lose track of our mistakes, neglect to make amends. And then, no matter how much we might like to try again, we're done.

Berne does have a point there, and I'm sure everyone can relate to it (at least to some degree).

I'd say The Ghost at the Table is a pretty good book -- not brilliant, but worth reading (especially around Thanksgiving)!

memories

Have you ever had a disagreement with a friend over something that happened in the past where you remember things one way and the friend remembers them another way? (Yeah, we've probably all experienced that.) And of course that usually begs the question: Who's right and who's wrong?

(Bonus points if you answered, "If it involves Barb -- Barb is always right!")

Well, according to Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, you're probably both wrong, at least to some degree.

Stumbling on Happiness is a book about how the mind works, and Gilbert points out (with the help of psychological experiments, etc.) that the brain takes some shortcuts in cramming the "vast universe of our experience" into the "relatively small storage compartment between our ears". He writes:

The elaborate tapestry of our experience is not stored in memory -- at least not in its entirety. Rather it is compressed for storage by first being reduced to a few critical threads, such as a summary phrase ('Dinner was disappointing') or a small set of key features ('tough steak, corked wine, snotty waiter'). Later, when we want to remember our experience, our brains quickly reweave the tapestry by fabricating -- not by actually retrieving -- the bulk of the information that we experience as a memory.

Gilbert adds that information acquired after an event alters one's memory of the event, and the tendency to "fill in the holes in our memories of the past with material from the present is especially powerful when it comes to remembering our emotions".

So I guess it's best to take our memories and those of others with a grain of salt, especially if they involve emotions...

happy birthday, sinclair lewis

Do you recall your first "light bulb" book? By that I mean the first book you read where the ol' light bulb went on and you realized there was more to it than just the plot and/or characters. You discovered symbolism... or irony... or metaphorical language. In short, you discovered depth, and voila! there was a whole new world out there in literature-land.

Well that book for me was Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt which I read in high school. It is a satire on conformist, middle-class American life, and (even though published in 1922) still seems relevant today.

I've always been sort of grateful to my pal Sinclair, so when we visited Minnesota a few years back, we made it a point to stop in Sauk Centre, his childhood home. We did the whole tourist thing -- went through the interpretive center, toured his house, etc. I even picked up a first printing of his 1949 novel, The God-seeker. (He was sort of losing his touch by then, but oh well.)

Anywhooo... I heard on the radio today that it was Sinclair Lewis' birthday. So a tip of the hat and blow of the candles to Mr. Lewis!

books 'n' movies

First, the movie!
Hubby & I went to the Kelso Theater Pub (what's better than a movie with pizza and the beverage of your choice?!) Saturday night to see Atonement. I hadn't read the book on which it was based, but probably will now. I thought the film was excellent (stunning visuals, strong acting) -- and the ending was both unexpected and poignant. (And that's all I'm gonna say about the ending!) After the movie, I think you can't help but do some philosophical/ethical pondering on the topic of righting wrongs in life...

Next, the book!
Today I finished reading the novel Bee Season, which was part of my Christmas present from Offsprings #1&2. (There is also a film based on this book, but I haven't seen it.) Myla Goldberg tells the story of a rather eccentric Jewish family. (Actually, eccentric isn't the half of it. This family would be a strong contender for Dysfunctional Family of the Decade.) I'm not sure how Goldberg pulls it off, but she manages to tie together Jewish mysticism, spelling bees, Eastern religious cults, and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Whew! This book also had an unexpected and poignant ending.

Hmmm... Guess this was the weekend for unexpected and poignant endings -- witness the Superbowl outcome!

great moments in literature

Wow, another beautiful fall day and another nice bike ride -- this time around our local lake. About midway through my ride, I came across a tree with a large hollow. Curiosity got the best of me so I just had to stop and see if perchance Boo Radley had left me a present. Chewing gum? Broken pocket watch? Nope. But there were lots and lots of acorns -- which reminded me of another classic of American literature: Donald Duck's Toy Sailboat. You know the book. It's the one where Chip and Dale steal, er...borrow, Donald's model sailboat and take it out to an island to get acorns from a huge oak tree. Foreshadowing, symbolism, dramatic irony -- yep, it's all there.

Want to BAFAB?

It's October 1st and the start of "Buy A Friend A Book" Week! Website is HERE. (First heard about the website over at Yolanda's.)

The concept is to buy a friend a book out of the blue (not because it's their birthday or other special occasion) and just spread some book cheer! I think it would be fun to be on either the giving or receiving end of things. (OK, I'll admit the receiving end might be a teensy bit more fun though.)

Anyway, cool idea... (And I think GAFAB'ing would work too. You wouldn't necessarily have to Buy a new book, just Give a book you had already finished.)