Tony Hillerman

and Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, RIP.

Jesus, Jesus, I love Jesus

Jesus has been hiding from me lately.  Ok, I know that it's me, not Jesus that's hiding, at least according to the "church" or other religious leaders.  But today, I was watching a Nooma DVD, Dust , and  I realized part of the reason I've been so sad about church, is that I've let the new wave at my church steal Jesus from me.  These days at my church if you're not between 20 and  40, you're, by definition, not creative , not interesting, not anything.  In the immortal words of Lucy or Linus or someone,  "aaaarghh".

Jesus picked people that weren't cool, weren't rich, and just maybe, they were old, what ever that means.

Laughing Boy

I continue my quest to read all of the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, in order, mostly.  Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge won in 1930.  It reads much like a Tony Hillerman book in that Navajo spirituality is critical to the book.  I read it out of order (I'm officially reading the 1926 winner, Arrowsmith) because it was on the banned book table at the library.  The novel is set in 1915, and often uses American stereotypes to the Navajos' advantage.  I still want to find some corn pollen for a morning blessing of the sun.

"Botswana’s Ex-President Wins Leadership Prize"

Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe would be so proud:  Festus G. Mogae

Putting Financial Losses in Perspective

Drug Killings Haunt Mexican School Children

Taliban Kill Dozens in Bus Ambush

Gunmen Kill Unicef Worker in Somalia

9 Chinese Oil Workers Are Kidnapped in Sudan


Just today....

I admit it

I'm proud he's African-American and I'm proud he has a "funny name" because if he's president, people might like me better in Paris.

I Beseech You to Look

Fra. Giovanni was a Benedictine Monk and an architect who among other structures built two beautiful bridges in Paris by Notre Dame.  He is also the author of an inspirational Christmas letter  that I'm singing with Austin Singers as set by  Paul Sjolund .  I think the text is especially appropriate in these days of fear:

There is nothing I can give which you have not;
But there is much, very much, that while I cannot give it, you can take.
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today.
Take heaven.
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present moment.
Take peace.
The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within reach is joy.
There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see;
And to see, we have only to look.
I beseech you to look!

The whole letter is here.

Not the same kind of church family

More fear :


The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

My greatest fear

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