Jesus and John Wayne

I thought this was going to be more about patriarchy in the church and less about politics. It was mostly politics, and something that I don't get involved with.

As a biblical feminist for my whole adult life, I did not see all that she said as evident in all iterations of evangelical Christianity. That is simply hyperbole.  

It is a man's world. That is evident in both the secular and sacred. Mainline Protestantism and evangelicalism. The MeToo movement and all the sex scandals in the secular and sacred world shows us this. Patriarchy is a problem. I do not doubt this. But she just wanted to shoot down one segment of the population while making another segment seem like they are perfect and wonderful. (You do know that Bill Clinton has his own history of sexual assault and his abuse of power when it comes to women, right?). 

It happens on both sides of the aisle, and it is equally disgusting. 

She went through a ton of history that I already knew. So, I was pretty bored. 

There were some things that I laughed at because they were factually inaccurate, and someone who does not know history is going to assume that it is history rather than just the author's interpretation of history. We are all entitled to our opinion though, but it should be stated as so rather than saying it is a fact. I wouldn't want my kid in one of her classes. I would want a balanced view of things. 

So now I know what all the fuss is about, and for that reason, I am glad I read it! 

A Year in Provence

After struggling through Adventures on the Wine Route a few books back, one of the people who also slogged through it said that this book would be much better. I heartily agree. It is delightful. 

A British couple moves to Provence. It is about cross-cultural communication, country life, and good food and wine. Delightful.

I liked the series by the same name too. It is a bit dated, but it followed the book really well! 

We want to go now and try a Patis!

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

This charming narrative, in which former advertising executive Peter Mayle chronicles his inaugural year as a British expatriate in Provence, offers a refreshing respite from one’s own routine. In pursuit of a long-savored dream of the sweet life in the South of France, Mayle and his wife purchased a two-hundred-year-old stone farmhouse between the medieval hill villages of Ménerbes and Bonnieux in the Luberon, set to work on its restoration, and settled—sometimes with élan, sometimes with awkward Englishness—into the rhythms and rituals of Provençal life.

Women Talking

All I can say is WOW! I highly recommend this book. I saw the movie. So I had to read the book. It is written in the voice of the only male in the room because he is the only one who knows how to write. 

It is based on the story here: 

https://time.com/6250526/women-talking-mennonite-bolivia-real-story/ 

It might be my favorite book this year. It is so important to discuss this. Patriarchy is real and not biblical, people. This is an extreme example, but it happens in milder forms. 

Freewrite: GLORY!

One of my directees yesterday is going to be speaking on glory. After our session, I took a walk (typical of what I do to digest the time and process it with the Lord). I walked up near the "Wildrose Loop" and saw the clouds parting, giving way to the sun. I entitled it "Pathway to Glory" and sent it to my directee. There was something glorious about that sun that had just come through after the clouds parted. 

It has been a good week. I have eaten too much, but I had a good talk with God about this this morning and am back on track.

My back is a little wonky too. I have not had back wonkiness since maybe last Spring when I was teaching my last classes in May. I think not wearing a lift in my shoe to church did it. That is all I can say that I possibly could have done. So strange. 

We went to see Jesus Revolution at the Regal. Who knew I had an account for the Regal Club and was able to get our tickets for $5 Tuesday! It was such a beautiful movie. (See my review of the book a few days ago). I cried through the whole movie. So beautiful, and I LIVED IT! I was part of the Jesus Movement (we didn't call it a Revolution back then). My heart is warmed. I highly recommend watching it. Talked to my spiritual director today, and she knew one of the people in the movie because she was part of the beginnings of the Vineyard. So fun to hear her perspective on things. 

One Way - JESUS!

Speaking of my director, I just love her! She is a great lady. She challenged me to talk to someone about something. Usually, she does not tell me what to do, and she pretty much said at the end, "Just talk to ________." So, I will. I am really not that afraid, and I know that it will be received well. I just have a lot going on right now. 

A lot going on but not too much. I just love the balance of input and output I have going on, and God just seems to give me that balance as I have asked him to do it. I was willing to make time for a couple this morning even though it would be meant two days in a row of more activity, but they canceled, and I think this was just what I needed to do. I was able to process what my director said to me rather than going on to the "next thing" with this couple. So, it is good. Now all there is left is leading Silent/Centering Prayer at 12:15 today, and I think I am going to do what I have already done with a directee from last Thursday, Friday, and twice yesterday. It is so good. I have not really meditated on this poem in a while. So soaking in it before going into Centering Prayer has been so good. So good. My director did something she had done with me before (maybe two or three years ago?), but it was great. 

So I am going to go ahead and repeat what I did with this group last September. The probability is that most of them were not there for it anyway!

I just finished two books today and am looking to read a new one, but Libby app seems to not be working right now. Thus, why I am writing this Freewrite.

The rest of the week is just prepping for the Instinct class tomorrow and leading it on Saturday. So the week peeked yesterday and is going downhill now! It culminates in a dinner with the Wrobs on Saturday night since we had to cancel two weeks ago due to her sickness. 

I am looking forward to it. Well, off to maybe take a little walk and do some stretching and hoping my back loosens up! 

Learning Humility

I loved this book. It might be the final one by Richard Foster. It is winsome and wise and HUMBLE. It is Richard's musings about humilty over the course of a year. He follows the different moons of the Lakota Indians. It is lovely. I have especially loved having the podcasts and journaling prompts that are provided by the Renovare Book Club. 

Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France

This book took me ages to read. This isn't a subject I would have ever dreamed of pursuing, and I had to spend time looking up word after word. But oddly enough, I ended up learning so much! 

This guy could probably learn a little bit about cross-cultural communication though. He seems to offend a lot of French winemakers along the way! 

I feel like it was a feat to have finally "finis"! 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

In 1972, a young man named Kermit Lynch opened a little wine shop in Berkeley, California, hoping to introduce neighborhood customers to the sort of artisanal wines he was passionate about. A year later, invited to accompany an importer on a buying trip to France, he discovered his true calling. In the decades between then and now, Lynch has sniffed, swirled, and tasted his way to prominence as one of America’s most renowned importers of wines of character made the old-fashioned way—especially those that won’t break the bank. Part memoir and part travelogue, Adventures on the Wine Route is also a manifesto about the wine business and the ways in which conglomeration, trends, and market demands can threaten the very things that make the fruit of the vine worth savoring. Peppered with gorgeous (and often amusing) black-and-white photos by Gail Skoff, the book is suffused with the qualities the author seeks in casks and bottles—nuance, surprise, subtlety, expression, authenticity. By turns wise and very funny, Lynch—to say nothing of the many quirky vignerons he introduces us to—is good company indeed on this delightfully readable tour of the wine regions of France.

The Ascent of Rum Doodle

This is absurd. The fact that Bill Bryson loved it intrigued me (you have to read his Note from a Small Island), but I think Bryson is much funnier. It does make fun of mountaineering, and I think anyone who would want to climb Everest is a little crazy.

I would not have put it on the list, but...

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

Originally published in Britain in the 1950s at the peak of mountaineering’s prominence in the public eye—Everest, after all, had just been conquered in 1953—The Ascent of Rum Doodle is an inspired send-up of expedition books in general, and of climbing and its literature in particular. Imagine Three Men in a Boat Go Mountaineering or Monty Python Climbs the Matterhorn, and you’ll get some idea of the hilarity Bowman provokes in this small gem of literary comedy.

Lost Illusions

I LOVED this book. This is my second Balzac novel. This was much better written, and it was a page turner. This man could write. I was transported back to a time where class and geography (provincial city versus Paris) meant everything (maybe it still does?) in France.

I cannot wait to get the 2021 movie from the library, but I have to wait for 9 more people to watch it before me. Maybe the summer?

What a tale. I don't want to spoil it. 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

Lost Illusions is a massive novel—more than six hundred pages. Written in three parts between 1837 and 1843, its several story lines conspire to display most of the author’s abiding concerns: the claustrophobic dullness of provincial society and the ruthless snobbery of its Parisian counterpart; the wounds inflicted by every class distinction; the corruption of love and art by money and intrigue; the tawdry expediencies of the literary world; the cynicism of the press; the energies of commerce and industry; youth’s endless capacity for delusion. Balzac no doubt poured his own youthful disenchantments into Lost Illusions. But he filters these disappointments through an intelligence so alert to every nuance of physical, social, and commercial experience that his novel exudes a loyalty to life that no amount of disillusion can diminish.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

I am doing this post and realize I read the WRONG book! LOL! It has the same title as the one that Mustich says you should read. 

It was a very good book, and the title comes from the book that is referred to in this book.

This one is about an Australian in a POW camp. It is exquisitely written but has some parts that made me physically ill! 

I am still laughing that I didn't read the one on the list! 

Here is the summary by Amazon:

A novel of the cruelty of war, and tenuousness of life and the impossibility of love.

Richard Flanagan's story — of Dorrigo Evans, an Australian doctor haunted by a love affair with his uncle's wife — journeys from the caves of Tasmanian trappers in the early twentieth century to a crumbling pre-war beachside hotel, from a Thai jungle prison to a Japanese snow festival, from the Changi gallows to a chance meeting of lovers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die: