1) Parlor coffee and devotional. I called on Mother’s spirit to direct me to something appropriate in her Lamsa Bible, and it came open at II Kings, chapter 11, which I never recall reading before. This is the story of Queen Athaliah, who slew all the members of her family in order to occupy the throne — except for one child, her grandson Joash, who was raised in secrecy until the age of seven. Then he was revealed as the true king. Athaliah, witnessing this in the temple, cried “Treason!” She was later executed.
2) How many of us just do not go back to the source material? In yesterday’s column I was advocating for everyone to go back on their own and read our Founding Documents for themselves, and not to treat the pronouncements of their Preferred Demagogues as “the pure milk of the Word.” It is really the same with whatever the established text of your religion is. We all need to make the time for individual study and do the work!
3) With freedom from a 9-to-5, I allegedly have all the time in the world for reading, which I very much want to do. Yet somehow the days pass, and I never get any further in the books I want to read, and the copies of The Economist loom larger and larger.