Gnosce Te Ipse

It all began with one member of our group telling a run-over dog story. He arrived to EFM visibly upset, though he said he was over the worst of it. B is an intense and bright man, wonderful at heart, who converted to Catholicism about a decade ago and then moved to the Episcopal church when he and his wife semi-retired from the Bay area to Sierra foothill country. I like B. He has a long resume as a recreational sailor and even a racer. What I saw that night was a heart-depth his strong will and mind had hidden. He was coming home from his twice a week trip to the Bay and when he pulled into the driveway of their ranch home he saw his wife screaming in horror from the front porch. It turns out the front wheel of his SUV had run over their dog, was in fact on his dog, wheel on belly, as he stopped moving to try and figure his wife out. When he realized what had happened, he had to roll back off the dog. This would be traumatic for anyone; for some, it's almost the same as r...

Garrison Keillor, of whom I have long been a not so closet fan, begins one of his books by saying he once wrote two really great short stories, his best ever, then lost them while travelling with his family. Since then, he's been trying to find that level of art in his fiction. It's a joke of course, but I feel the same. More than a week ago I wrote what I thought was a pretty artful post I called 'turning winter,' and when I went to post it blogspot blipped and zip zap gone. All I have is the first couple paragraphs. Oh well. It has been snowing at my house for almost three weeks. We get little breaks between storms, but the temperature has not been going much above freezing, if at all, and each storm has brought a foot or more. My yard, my deck, completely buried. It looks like we'll get a break this week finally, with temps getting into the forties for a couple days. We don't get four true seasons in the Sierra the way the midwest gets them, or the n...

This is not a political blog; I don't know much about politics. Nevertheless, in the past I've expressed my belief that invading Iraq when and how we did was idiotic because it has hindered the actual war on terror and will likely end up leaving something in place in that country which is far from the western style democracy the current administration envisions. Our administration has assumed a free vote will result in a civilly free and open market society. More so, that those in Iraq will soon discover the soft luxuries of western living on a broad scale, tivo and personal computers and fast food; that they will embrace the societal plurality, the cultural freedoms, we value (freedom of religion, speech, the press). This in turn will lead to alliance, at least amity, with the west. Time will tell; this is a grandiose vision. What really worries me is that I have a son who will soon be fourteen. He is the most beautiful human being I know. He is conscientous, sensitive,...

I remember when Ojo Taylor posted to Scott's blog and Scott knew he was in the presence of royalty. Well, as far as I'm concerned, my blog has been equally favored (for me, more so). Chris Price, the person who wrote the critique of Doherty's reading of Hebrews I link to below posted to my comment on his article. I don't know how he found me; some kind of link tracer or something I guess, but I'm honored he did and appreciative for the other links on Doherty and Jesus-mythicists in general. I will read them. My blog has been in blimbo lately. I haven't known what to do with it and was seriously considering quitting. Even this morning I was thinking this. Maybe, I consider now, there is a place for what I do here; amateur white-knuckle apologetics and emotional necessity sharing. Odd combo, I know. Somehow I just feel encouraged by Chris' post at the end of two very hard days. I'm digging in deeper, working on core ocd, and it's blows most h...