There are so many things more interesting than property right now.
Next weekend my online book club will actually be discussing a book, so I decided today to buy it. The first Barnes & Noble I visited didn't have the book in stock, so I headed up to the one on 22nd Street (or so). The walk would've been nice (it was lightly snowing and wasn't too cold) but I somehow managed to step into the same puddle on 19th Street twice -- once with my right foot on the way there and with my left foot on the return trip. My shoes were gushing water. I did find the book, though, and I'm looking forward to starting it later tonight.
When I got back to NYU, I decided to attend tonight's public interest lecture by Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin. It was good lecture. Governor Doyle is endearingly blunt and I generally enjoy listening to lawyers working in public service. More than any other kind of lawyer I've encountered, they seem to be consitently excited about and challenged by the law. Doyle also made reference to his Catholic upbrining and faith several times during his talk and I'm fascinated by liberal Democratic Catholics. My own relationship with the Catholic chruch has been tenuous, at best, for the past few years, but I still grudgingly think of myself as a member. Catholics who are also liberals seem to, by their very existence, demonstrate the challenges and ambiguities of religious identification.
While I was at Barnes & Noble tonight, I started looking through a day planner filled with conversations with authors about their faith. Many authors I respect are included in it and I bought it in order to finish reading their thoughts (plus, it was 75% off). So far, I've found interesting two comments about the formative effects of Catholicism.
The first, from Mary McCarthy:
The second, from Mary Gordon:
It's interesting to consider how much of my currently not-so-religious life was shaped by my early religious experiences and education. I've also recently acknowledged that what I value and miss most about my undergraduate education is the in-depth conversations about how issues of faith inform and influence individual choices, human conflict, and even the law and public policy. I used to talk and think about religion and faith nearly every day (in class, with professors, with friends) and I'm sad that that element of my academic life has faded. The next couple of books I'm planning to read are all, in some way, about faith and religion. I'm excited about that.
A couple of weeks ago, when my friends from college were visiting, we attended a Lutheran church whose pastor is an alumnae of our college. After the service, we had coffee with her and she's both incredibly intelligent and charming. So charming, in fact, that she gently coaxed me into promising to come back to her church. I've decided that I'm going to make good on that promise. While I don't think I'll ever be a Lutheran, it does make a lot of sense to me to spend time at places and with people who are challenging and thought-provoking. Her church is one of those places.
Anyway, that's what I've been thinking about tonight. Last night's request for music recommendations has thus far been successful (keep sending 'em!), so I'll ask my Augie friends (and anyone else for that matter) to also suggest books that might be helpful with tonight's train of thought.
When I got back to NYU, I decided to attend tonight's public interest lecture by Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin. It was good lecture. Governor Doyle is endearingly blunt and I generally enjoy listening to lawyers working in public service. More than any other kind of lawyer I've encountered, they seem to be consitently excited about and challenged by the law. Doyle also made reference to his Catholic upbrining and faith several times during his talk and I'm fascinated by liberal Democratic Catholics. My own relationship with the Catholic chruch has been tenuous, at best, for the past few years, but I still grudgingly think of myself as a member. Catholics who are also liberals seem to, by their very existence, demonstrate the challenges and ambiguities of religious identification.
While I was at Barnes & Noble tonight, I started looking through a day planner filled with conversations with authors about their faith. Many authors I respect are included in it and I bought it in order to finish reading their thoughts (plus, it was 75% off). So far, I've found interesting two comments about the formative effects of Catholicism.
The first, from Mary McCarthy:
I am not sorry to have been a Catholic, first of all for practical reasons . . . If you are born and brought up a Catholic you have absorbed a good deal of world history and the history of ideas before you are twelve, and it is like learning a language early; the effect is indelible.
The second, from Mary Gordon:
Flannery O'Connor says that the writer learns everything important to him or her before the age of six. So every day, for however often I was taken to daily Mass, I was learning lessons in rhetoric.
It's interesting to consider how much of my currently not-so-religious life was shaped by my early religious experiences and education. I've also recently acknowledged that what I value and miss most about my undergraduate education is the in-depth conversations about how issues of faith inform and influence individual choices, human conflict, and even the law and public policy. I used to talk and think about religion and faith nearly every day (in class, with professors, with friends) and I'm sad that that element of my academic life has faded. The next couple of books I'm planning to read are all, in some way, about faith and religion. I'm excited about that.
A couple of weeks ago, when my friends from college were visiting, we attended a Lutheran church whose pastor is an alumnae of our college. After the service, we had coffee with her and she's both incredibly intelligent and charming. So charming, in fact, that she gently coaxed me into promising to come back to her church. I've decided that I'm going to make good on that promise. While I don't think I'll ever be a Lutheran, it does make a lot of sense to me to spend time at places and with people who are challenging and thought-provoking. Her church is one of those places.
Anyway, that's what I've been thinking about tonight. Last night's request for music recommendations has thus far been successful (keep sending 'em!), so I'll ask my Augie friends (and anyone else for that matter) to also suggest books that might be helpful with tonight's train of thought.
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I did know that -- you loaned me The Group a couple of years ago. In fact, when I read the Mary McCarthy thing (which is longer than what I quoted) I thought, "Hans Brix would appreciate this." Well, actually I didn't think "Hans Brix," I thought your real name.
Posted by
North Maple |
12:49 AM