Jan's Today

Today:

• I am trying to find the next book to read for the Wisdom Class, which meets every Tuesday morning at All Saints Episcopal Church. We are finishing up But I Tell You: Jesus Introduces a Better Way to Live by Karen L. Oberst. So I am reading a lot. The two most recent books are:

• A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story by Diana Butler Bass: "Organized chronologically, each section of the book includes a chapter on religious observance and one on social justice, illuminating the author's conviction that authentic Christianity can be discovered in the practice of loving God and neighbor." Bass is trying to follow Howard Zinn's book on American history, A People's History of the United States, in focusing on those people who seemed "outside"--those who tried to live what Jesus taught and embody the kingdom he proclaimed (or "walk the talk").

• Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices by Julie Clawson: I've read about half this book now and am impressed with her info, sources, and links about injustices most Americans are unaware of in our spending and living. The chapters are about coffee, chocolate, cars, food, clothes, waste, and debt. I am grateful that I don't drink coffee! (However, I love chocolate!) Reading this book is why I posted the badge for Equal Exchange at the top of my blog and why I posted a video below.

• Tomorrow Maisie will be spayed. Poor puppy, but she's six months old and it is time for this to happen. I took her in to the vet's office yesterday for her blood work to be done in preparation for this surgery. The vet said that after the neutering, we need to keep Maisie quiet for 14 days--which sounds impossible!!

• MJ got home yesterday, and today we had lunch out together. Then we went to the Art Center where we saw my friend Judith DeShong Hall's exhibit. I love her paintings, but cannot afford to buy one.

• MJ will be home for 1 1/2 weeks. Then she will return to Trinity University for the summer where she will do chemistry research. It's too bad that she had to move all her stuff out of her dorm and then will have to take it back to a different dorm for the summer. (Trinity University has a rule that for the first three years of college, its students must live in dormitories.)

• Rather oddly, both my daughters went to Trinity, while my two sons attended Texas A & M University in College Station. (And CB and I went to the college in our hometown of Bellingham, WA--Western Washington State College, which is renamed Western Washington University.)