About Two Years

I have had this blog now for nearly two years. Lots has changed - I hope for the better overall.

Things are looking up after a long dark period. Hope things continue on this path.

Happy Holidays!!!

The Brother of Jesus

I just finished this book on the "James Ossuary" controversy and the life of James the Just, said to be the brother of Jesus. This edition was written a few years ago (after the IAA report), but from what I can tell, the controversy still goes on today.

In case you don't know, an ossuary was found in Israel with an inscription that went something like, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus". If authentic, and it may well be, there is a good possibility that it refers to the New Testament James the Just, Joseph and Jesus Christ.

Interestingly, the ossuary seems to date from the right time, and statistics on name usage indicate that there is up to a 50% chance that the Jesus is the Jesus we know as Christ, the Joseph is his father and the James is his brother. The book details lots of other interesting evidence too. The naysayers points are explained, but are mostly weak.

There is also a large section on what is known of the life of James, who was head of the first Christian community, the Jerusalem Church. Not too heavy, but there are lots of interesting points here - like on the brother controversy.

In any case, it is an interesting book. Not too long or erudite if that suits you. Give it a try.

Quantum God?

This is not a book review, but some of my own thoughts on the (possible) nature of God. I admit that this is influenced by things I have read and what others have shared with me, but I guess it does have my spin on it.

First, God is said to exist beyond time. That brings to mind that the Theory of Relativity says that when something moves very fast, time really slows down for it. Maybe God is moving so fast in some sense that there is no time for Him. I like this idea for many reasons. One, it means we are "slower" than God, which I guess we are. It also means that we do not have to imagine that the laws of physics no longer apply when it comes to God - not a disaster if they didn't, but that would make me "nervous" about the "after-life". In any case, we can imagine that God created these laws, or they are part of His nature, so he is not really a mere subject to them as we are. What do you think? This means that science can give us an understanding of God - at least eventually. Why else do we have reason and curiosity about nature? Of course, we have a lot to learn about nature.

Second, God is said to be all knowing and powerful, but He has given each of us freedom to choose. Allowing that predestination would seem to defeat the purpose of giving us this choice, God seems to have decided to put a limit on himself in some respect. I guess He could do that if He wanted to, but that is hard to square with the all knowing and powerful thing, right?

Perhaps an aspect of quantum mechanics can help us out here. I refer to the there being an infinite number of possible outcomes in any situation, albeit, most have a very low probability. Remember that show on TV, Quantum Leap? Anyway, maybe God set things up that way so that we had choice and not only that, but that he could intervene when we asked him - by adjusting the probabilities so to speak. The more "faith", the bigger the adjustment.

Karma could be worked in here too. Bad karma skews you to worse outcomes and good to better. Everything constantly adjusting. Since this is all time dependent, but God is not, then maybe He can somehow still see how things come out, at least all the possibilities. A sort of ever evolving creation so to speak.

I admit there may still be some "problems" with this outlook, but it does have some nice features. Let me know what you think.

The Essence of Style

Yes, I admit it. I read this book by Joan DeJean. But, it is not all fluff as some may imagine.

Let's start at the beginning. DeJean's thesis is that what we know as "style" today is really French and was for the most part invented during the reign of Louis XIV. This might seem a bit of a stretch when you first hear it, especially in how things are globalized today, but after reading the book, I think that she may be right.

DeJean dicusses the usual suspects - clothes and shoes and things like that - which was a little dull for me and I would imagine a lot of guys, but she also brought up the importance of the introduction of street lighting and the folding umbrella. These last two made things a little more mechanical and male friendly, but were also shown (surprisingly to me at least) to fit in to what she was trying to show overall quite well.

She also describes the development of the mirror, champagne and the diamond trade among other topics which made for interesting reading as well. I did appreciate her attempt to place a value on things in today's money so that readers could get an idea as to how expensive things were back then - some things we take for granted today like mirrors were outrageously expensive. (It seems clear that the French nobility was really asking for the Revolution given what they were spending and how they were living compared to the common people who were really financing what were often very frivolous lifestyles - not that I am a communist or anything like that.) DeJean also throws in a lot of French phrasing with helpful English translations; this proves amusing at times, especially if you understand a little about the French language.

I do have a few issues with the book. There were not enough pictures of things she described that are difficult to understand, and the pictures she did use often did not clearly show the things she claimed were in them. Her language got a bit vague in places. She also breezed over some topics that should have been taken up in more detail. For example, I would have liked to know more of the techincal details on making many of the items she described. So many books today are too long, but this one was too short.

Give it a look if this sort of thing interests you.

The Pagan Christ

This is a book by Tom Harpur. His premise is that Christ is basically an ancient Egyptian concept that has been borrowed many times and that Christianity went from being esoteric and right to literal and wrong. That being said, I cannot recommend this book.

First, the writing is very repetitive (annoyingly so) and not always clear. Some judicious editing would have helped a lot.

Second, the leaps in logic cover some long distances. It seems like the author left out some very important pieces to his story. I wanted to toss the book out a few times, but it was like seeing a car wreck and not being able to look away.

In fairness, the author introduces some interesting concepts and expresses some nice and occasionally profound sentiments here and there, but they are not tied together into any cogent argument.

It is also a bit of a shock to hear the Jesus Seminar being criticized for not going far enough. The comments on George Bush were really uncalled for as well.

If you decide to take a look anyway, don't say I didn't warn you.

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

This is a book by Deepak Chopra. It is in many ways along the lines of Dyer's Power of Intention that I wrote about several months ago, but it brings out other points of interest.

The discussions of all the seven laws are interestingly presented, but that of the first and last made the biggest impression on me.

The discussion on the first, the Law of Pure Potentiality, makes the point that we must avoid "object-referral". That is, we should not concern ourselves so much with getting the approval of others, control or external power. This is based on our fear and is ego driven; ego being as opposed to the true Self. Chopra recommends silence, observation of nature and non-judgment as ways of finding the Self and becoming self-referred instead.

The discussion on the last, the Law of "Dharma" or Purpose in Life, gives a procedure on finding one's purpose. In it, Chopra says first to ask yourself what it is you would do if you had all the time and money in the world so that these were not issues. Then ask, how you can best serve humanity. I guess that gets right down to it, doesn't it?

Perhaps these seems obvious/too simple, but one should ask oneself, am I really putting this into practice? I am trying, and it is not that easy in many respects.

If you get a chance, take a look at this book. The other five laws are worth learning about too. Let me know how it works out for you.

Vedanta by Torwesten

I finished Vedanta, Heart of Hinduism, by Hans Torwesten a little while ago. Overall, I would recommend it, but there are some caveats.

First, the writing is very ambiguous at times - it is often not clear what a pronoun refers to for example. This can be irritating. There are also some really strange sentence constructions at times. The book was translated from German into English; perhaps the translator was a little too literal.

The first chapter of the book was confusing. The book is supposed to be an introduction/overview, but it assumes the reader knows a lot of things up front that most probably do not. In addition, the writing could be clearer.

Afterwards, things do improve quite a bit. Now and then though, especially near the end, the author assumes that the reader knows a lot about certain philosophers making the book hard to follow if you do not.

Despite these issues, the book does have its good points. It does give a pretty good overview of Vedanta philosophy - one of the six orthodox forms of Hundu philosophy. A reader would then know what parts are worth further study by him/her.

I did find Torwesten's comments near the end of the book interesting that concern merging the concepts of Vedanta with western/Christian views to get a more balanced whole. His take is that Vedanta offers so much on the big picture, but loses touch with what is going on here on Earth, while western/Christian philosophy tends to do the opposite in many ways. A happy medium would seem best. Makes sense to me.

I also like the cover of the book. Silly reason to read a book, but it is a nice cover.

In any case, if my caveats don't scare you off, give it a try. There is much in it of value.

My Journey

Someone wrote a comment on a recent posting asking about my religion/journey. Perhaps that is a little hard to figure out from the postings I make here. I'll try to explain.

Currently, I attend a Christian/Disciples of Christ church near my home. They are not all that concerned with creeds there, although it is clearly Christian. There is a great Sunday school for adults ( I attend an adult class that takes up various spiritual issues in a contemporary fashion), and the service is very traditional with sermons on more comtemporary issues. Just my kind of place - at least for now.

I was raised Catholic, but left the church many years ago. It is the faith still of most of my family. I still respect it, but it is too much ritual and in other ways too limiting for me. I did learn many faith basics growing up Catholic which I still retain. I also learned personal discipline from the church and from attending Catholic schools for most of my pre-college education. I will defend the church against people who are unfairly critical even now. It is what it is, and it means a lot to many sincere people. It has done some wrongs, but it has done a lot of good - it is only a human institution after all.

I later experimented with some other faiths, and stayed with one for many years, up until about 2 years ago. It took a long time to see it, because it was so subtle in many ways, but this last one was way too controlling - made the Catholics look very liberal.

After this, I looked into old-style (Christian) Unitarianism and Universalism. I have not given up on them entirely, but they seem a bit too narrow. I started going to a Disciples Church for a lot of reasons that are too complicated to go into here.

Recently, I have read many books on various aspects of religion. I am even doing a Bible study. Currently, my main focus is Hinduism, especially when in a synthesis with Christianity. I plan to look into the Tao and Zen to some extent later on.

One thing that I have learned is how some Hindus have seen Jesus. He is pretty great in their eyes, for reasons that most Chrisitians have never heard I am sure. Think of something way beyond the Gospel of John type Jesus, but still something a classical Unitarian could accept. Pretty good stuff so far.

I think that I will stay basically Christian. It is the basis of my culture and ethics if nothing else. I could not see throwing it out totally. It will, I am sure, at least remain the foundation for my spiritual journey.

This is where things stand. I hope to keep on with my search until I find the thing we all are searching for, whether we realize it or not.

Autobiography of a Yogi

Finished this book last night. It was very interesting on many levels. I read the edition by Self Realization Fellowship - the orange, not the blue cover.

The book is made up mostly of stories of extraordinary people that the Yogi, Yogananda, met in his life. Many of the stories described various "supernatural" abilities that these people had. Even if one didn't accept these as fact, the book also goes into a lot of religious philosophy and ways of getting closer to God that are really worth looking at.

Yogananda seems to have merged Christianity and Hinduism in his system. His interpretations of the New Testament made a lot of sense to me; some passages had always seemed odd to me, until I read what Yogananda had to say about them. I have noticed that a two volume New Testament interpretation by him has recently come out; I have looked throught it, and it has some interesting things in it.

I'm not sure where I stand on some of the stories, but the philosophy made a lot of sense to me. Who knows, maybe the people he met really could do the things he said. I think we would all be better off if things were as he described.

The book has inspired me to investigate Yogananda's philosophy some more. I am signing up for the Self Realization Fellowship home study program - it is very reasonably priced I think.

Give the book a try.

Best Guide to Eastern Philosophy and Religion

A pretty good introduction to Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, as well as to five other systems such as Shinto.

The author's sense of humor may seem a little irreverant to some at times, and she sometimes may gloss over things a bit, but for the most part it was an interesting and insightful introduction to the various systems it covers. Certainly gives enough information to guide one to further study into details.

For my part, I will be looking more deeply into Hinduism and to a lesser extent Zen and Taoism, as well as a few other topics. I'll be updating this blog on those efforts, I am sure.

Give it a try.

50th Posting

This is my 50th posting!!!!

Almost two years ago, I started this blog. My vision for it has changed somewhat. Now it is mostly book reviews. Wonder what it will be like at the 100th posting. We'll see.

Tibet, Tibet

This book is by Patrick French. A theme of the book is that the real Tibet is not like the Tibet of the mind (what we probably imagine Tibet to be). This was certainly true for me!

I have always been somewhat fascinated with the idea of Tibet - sort of like Shangri-La to me - until Mao got involved, at least. All those peaceful Buddhists and all that.

Well, the facts are a little different. Tibet wasn't all that peaceful before Mao arrived, and it was really a bad place after that and until fairly recently, it seems. Mao really caused some bad things there. The Tibetans have my sympathy.

As an aside, I remember an episode from the Honeymooner's (1950's TV) where Ralph (the main character) reads aloud from a newspaper about a new road from Tibet to Mongolia. Sounded like a good deal. Well, Mao came as part of that bargain - if indeed the road was not made up for the program.

The Dali Lama is shown in a sympathetic light, but not as perfect by any means. Of course, events were not totally in his control to say the least.

I liked the book, except for one or two things. The book is written as a travelogue interspersed with historical background; this usually works for me, but didn't in some places. The author suddenly is in the middle of nowhere in western China when the book really gets started. It is so disjointed. Also, the historical background sometimes goes on so long and gets a little off topic based on where the author is at that point, that one can get a little lost at times. Not fatal flaws, but there could have been better editing here and there.

The author did a good job overall. Give it a try.

Traditional India

I found this book at a used bookstore recently. It is a compilation of writings by various authors, along with some editorial commentary, on various aspects of ancient Indian culture and society.

I liked it quite a bit, but it is a little hard to follow in places if you don't have at least some basic background in the topics involved. For example, I was lost for most of the write-up on Indian music, but near the end there was an excellent observation on the difficulty of surrending in a religious context when it comes to our identities and will. There are interesting write-ups on religion/philosophy in India - Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Other topics are covered as well.

This book was published in 1964, so it might be hard to find. If you do, I think it is worth a try if the subject interests you.

The Great Divorce

Read this book!!!!!

This book by C S Lewis is about what separates Heaven and Hell. It is told as a story about a bus trip from Hell to the outskirts of Heaven.

It is not a very long book - the edition I read was about 120 pages. I started it yesterday I think and just finished it. Very hard to put down and a very fast read.

I think the main theme really is on the true nature of love - not what we think of it ordinarily on Earth. Among other points, it was shown how good works become ends to themselves (bad) instead of expressions of love (good). Also, we should not allow love to be held hostage by misery.

Another interesting point was that Hell was really very small compared to Heaven - Hell being something all folded into itself and not expansive as is Heaven.

Highly recommended!!!

The Idiot by Dostoevsky

I just finished reading this novel. I started with an older translation, but it was painful, so I switched to the Pevear/Volokhonsky one after a short while. It was easier to get through.

The book is diffcult to summarize. Suffice it to say there are many tragic characters with the main one being the Prince who has fits and other issues at times, hence the title.

I cannot really recommend this book. It seemed overly long, tedious and somewhat incoherent/pointless in many places. I was glad to get to the end.

That being said, I did find the very first chapter, the first chapter of Part IV and the last two chapters of the book to be pretty good. The first chapter does peak one's interest as to what will go on in this novel. That of Part IV has some interesting insights into the character of certain types of people. The last two chapters build up a great deal of suspense and conclude tragically, and somehow surprisingly. There are some good parts scattered elsewhere in the book, but not that many in my opinion.

I have to say that the ending was memorable, but it sure took a long time for the author to get the reader there. Of course, he wrote a long time ago, and maybe it is a sign of the change in times that I say what I do here.

If you have a lot of time on your hands and don't mind a long wait to get to the ending, give the book a try. Otherwise, I would not attempt it.

A Quaker Book of Wisdom

An interesting book, written such that various points are illustrated by examples from the author's and/or his relatives' lives as Quakers. The author was headmaster at Sidwell Friends School in DC.

It has been said that this book represents an ultra-liberal viewpoint, but I think that is a bit extreme. The author may be an ultra-liberal, but if so, he toned it down in this book - and I am pretty conservative, so I would have noticed if otherwise.

There are chapters on various topics such as Silence, Simplicity and Conscience, as well as others that Quakers are known for, so to speak. I found them to be well balanced and sensible overall, and they would be of benefit to many in our over-materialistic and secular society. "Let Your Life Speak" was my favorite pearl of wisdom - it is pretty self-explanatory.

Give it a try. It is not very long and is pleasant to read. There is not much detail on Quakerism as a religion if you are looking for that though.

The Book of the Vedas

Only about 125 pages, but packed with interesting and well organized information on Hinduism. Highly recommended for someone who wants a quick overview. Lots of pictures too!

I found the book hard to put down. It has inspired me to look into Hindu philosophy in more depth and maybe even visiting India soon. I never realized how interesting Hinduism is.

Amazingly, I learned that Hindus are really monotheists - well in a way at least. Bhakti yoga is much like Christianity in basic philosophy.

I have lots more to learn. Will keep you updated.

Out of the Silent Planet

This is the first in the Space Trilogy by CS Lewis.

I found the book to be entertaining, but in some ways unsatisfying. Perhaps, Lewis was a little too subtle for me.

The book has many Christian undertones/messages, and I found in it an interesting parable on racism. It concerns a trip to what seems to be a Mars that is inhabited by three intelligent species. The Silent Planet is Earth. I'll leave you to read it for the details.

It is worth a look, but I have decided not to continue with the trilogy. If you go beyond the first book, and find it is worth it, let me know.

The Jesus I Never Knew

I just finished this book by Philip Yancey and the study guide that goes with it. I was looking for a good introduction to who Jesus was. This worked out pretty well I think.

There is much to recommend here. If the study guide is more than you want to do, then at least read the book. But, they are both very worthwhile. The study guide does have an interesting writeup on movies about Jesus.

These five things I got out of the book should give you a good idea of what it is like:

(1) The worship of success is the form of idol worship; an example given is Hitler in the 1930's.

(2) Don't be like Satan in the desert tempting Jesus; that is, don't expect God to do miracles for you all the time. He respects your freedom so that you can grow.

(3) The Kingdom is partly NOW and partly NOT YET.

(4) The Christian right should be careful about going too far; that is, it has always been bad when the church and the government move too close together.

(5) Just let God love you. I especially liked this one.

I am sure others will find things of interest in addition to some or all of these. Give it a try.

The Luminous Web

I just finished this book by Barbara Brown Taylor, and I highly recommend it.

Taylor is an Episcopal priest who has made a study of cetain frontier areas of science like evolution and cosmology. In this book, she looks at what she learned from the perspective of how science and religion interact or the boundaries separating them (if any).

It appears to me that she sees less separating than a lot of scientists might. I am on her side on this.

Although I really liked the book, I did find that the last chapter went off the edge a few times. For one thing, she seems to equate Heisenberg's principle with the observer effect which I think is wrong. Fortunately, this does not seem to prevent her from reaching some reasonable conclusions.

Despite a few flaws, the book does raise many interesting questions and even suggests some answers of sorts that greatly satisfy. I strongly recommend it.

The Death of Ivan Ilych

This longish short story is by Leo Tolstoy. I had heard about it many times, but never read it. Recently, I read something about it in a book about Jesus and decided to give it a try.

I liked the story very much even on a surface level. The deeper level might be a real eye-opener for some! You can't miss the latter either, because Tolstoy pretty much spells it out in the last few pages.

Not to spoil it for you, but to give you some idea, Tolstoy is not exactly writing about the virtues of the middle class. Made me stop and think about what I have been up to in the last several years.

See what you think.

The Mythmaker

This is a very interesting book by the Talmudic scholar, Hyam Maccoby, that was republished by Barnes and Noble. The subtitle clearly states the general theme of the book: Paul and the Invention of Christianity.

The author believed that Christianity as we know it was an invention of a somewhat deluded, yet sincere Paul. He also believed that Paul was not above a little "embellishment" of his background in the pursuit of promoting his new faith.

Interestingly, much of the evidence for these contentions is derived from the Book of Acts and Paul's letters. Many other sources are mentioned as well. Pauline Christianity, in the author's view, resulted from Paul's synthesis of Gnosticism, the Mystery cults and Judaism. The religion of Jesus, James and the Jerusalem Church was lost for the most part, but can still be glimpsed - being basically Judaism with Jesus as Messiah.

The author's reasoning seems good in most instances, but in a few places I was not totally convinced. I think I would have to agree though that much of what he believes seems to be the truth.

It is not a very long book - about 210 pages. Give it a try and see what you think.

The Sparrow and Children of God

I recently read THE SPARROW and its sequel CHILDREN OF GOD by Mary Doria Russell.

These books are about Jesuit expeditions to another inhabited planet, Rakhat. Lots of wild stuff happens - some of which might be distasteful to some. Many topics to ponder while and after reading this book. Note that the book moves back and forth in locale and time which can get a bit tedious sometimes. Recommended if you are up to all of this.

The first book takes a while to get going and ends in a rather bad place in my view - disturbing might be a better description. You need to read the second book to really understand what happened on Rakhat; one can get a very wrong idea from reading only the first book. Personally, I liked the second book better.

I have never read anything quite like this before. It is not your standard science fiction. I don't want to say too much, because it will spoil it. Give it a try, keeping in mind what I say here.

Made to Count

I saw this book in stores several times before finally buying it. It turned out to be a very worthwhile read.

The subtitle of the book is "Discovering What to Do with Your Life". That is a good summary of what the book is about, but may not mean what many might think. The book's message is about finding and carrying out one's unique mission from God. There are many illustrations of the points made using examples from the lives of real people, many of whom are well known.

The book may seem a bit too "fundamentalist" to some, but I say to them, look beyond that. This book has a lot to offer. I think I may have found my mission while reading it or at least the right direction to head in in this regard. Maybe you will too. Give it a try.

At least in the edition that I read, there is a code inside the front cover that allows a reader to get a personality profile and spiritual gifts analysis for free online. I found mine quite enlightening. A great added bonus!

Wishing you the same good luck I had with it.

Mere Christianity

I finished this book by CS Lewis this morning. It is excellent, even though in some places some might think it perhaps a little "old fashioned".

Lewis squeezes some very interesting insights from some "well understood" topics. There is probably something to learn/think about for everyone here. Many of the topics are not what one might think of as exclusively Christian issues.

The book is not very long and written in a fairly simple and well organized manner.

Highly recommended!

The Power of Intention

I finished this book by Wayne Dyer today. WOW! Drop everything and read it NOW!

Surely, I cannot do this book justice in a few lines, but there are a few points I'd like to make here that will hopefully encourage you to give it a read.

The book is about the "power of intention", but not the way that is usually understood. Dyer uses this phrase to describe the power available to anyone who connects up with the creative power in the universe.

Perhaps the most important thing I got out of the book was a realization of how negative my inner thoughts truly were. I was very unpleasantly surprised as to how extreme they were, but I was immediately in better shape after having this realization. And there are benefits that follow this awareness too. Imagine, I asked myself, if I really worked at this a little.

I also want to mention how connected I feel when I put the suggestions in the book into practice. Makes me feel like I can really get were I should go - and helps me know where that is.

Things in the book might seem a little hookey at first, but give it an honest try and see if you don't agree that Dyer is right.

Hurry up and start reading. You'll be glad you did.

Big Firms - Follies and Fallacies

I am normally considered a capitalist, but on one point, I am beginning to wonder. Is big always better?

Mergers are supposed to be good for business, with economies of scale and all that, but are we finding only diminishing returns from them now, or worse, negative returns? I'm not talking about for the "insiders"; I am talking about everyone overall, including society at large.

I see evidence all around me that mergers are producing some really negative results. It seems that prices go up or at least do not go down as touted and service certainly does not improve and usually gets worse.

Take an example that maybe not everyone would think about on first blush - law firms. Do clients really benefit when a firm goes from 40 to 4000 lawyers? If you think so, please explain that to the rest of us. The results I have seen are higher hourly rates/uncontrolled overhead and an alarming trend to poorer quality work and less accountability.

Some firms appear to be responding to these charges by employing "contract" lawyers - too many parallels to the tenant farming system to make this justifiable if you ask me. Of course, firm associates live in a tenant farmer-like world too, albeit a better paid one. The work is suffering in both cases as the tenants are not happy campers.

Even if the tenant farmer analogy does not fairly fit a particular firm, I don't think you will find the lawyers there saying they are so much happier than they were 5 years ago. And we all wonder why the legal system is such a mess.

Is an avaricious legal oligarcy to blame? Maybe the profession needs to rethink where it is going. Smaller firms would probably result in the average lawyer making more money, do a better job and be a lot happier. The legal system and society is a winner in such a case too. Does anyone feel sorry for the few "kingpins" who would make less money under this plan?

Think about it.

Nicomachaen Ethics and the Golden Mean/Ratio

I recently read that Aristotle taught the golden mean (moderation in all things) in the Nicomachaen Ethics. Interestingly, the golden mean is another name for the golden ratio, the number phi (about 0.618), which turns out to be quite important in nature and other areas.

As to phi, I believe such things as the ratio of the length of the lower arm to that of the whole arm is about 0.618 (phi). There are lots of other similar statistics.

This got me to thinking. I don' think that Aristotle meant that one should necessarily aim to always take the path at the exact midpoint, but rather something somewhere in the middle area. Maybe considering a postion just off the midpoint, say based on phi would be about right. Taking the exact average all the time seems like a mere cop out and a function of how extreme the endpoints are relative to each other.

OK, I'll admit that there are still some bugs to work out on this concept, but there seems to be something here. I will keep you posted.

An Interesting Lady from Botswana

I just finished the first in the series of the Alexander McCall Smith books featuring a lady detective in Botswana, Precious Ramotswe, and several other interesting supporting characters like Happy Bapetsi - the names are great all by themselves.

Precious has lots of adventures in this book and at the same time introduces us to life in Botswana. It seems to be quite an interesting culture, especially in its viewpoints on life.

Here is one example of the latter. While Precious is daydreaming about her retirement to come one day in the future, she thinks how sorry she is for white people, because they worry themselves about things that are going to happen anyway. What good does all their money do them if the can't sit still and take in the view? She thought that the rare white people who understood the truth were regarded with suspicion by the other whites. I must say that Precious may have a point here.

The book is worth a look for the Botswana philosophy alone. Give it a try.

Anne Rice Replies

Mrs. Rice has replied to several of my recent emails to her. I thought that was very nice of her - she's a very famous person who doesn't know me.

She told me that she is very committed to her religious study and that she does not plan to return to her old writing series - those before Christ the Lord I think she meant.

I wonder if she will write something on her religious research. It would probably be good reading. Time will tell.

Christ the Lord

This book by Anne Rice is quite a departure in many respects from what she has written in the past. I was skeptical, but had enjoyed many of her other books and decided to give it a chance.

I liked the book very much - finished it in a period of only a few days which is fast for me. It is hard to say exactly what it was that I liked most about it; perhaps it was the portrayal of Jesus as a human searching for answers and learning what he was supposed to be doing here. I didn't agree with some of the theology she presents in the book, but I liked her overall message.

It may be that the part of the book I found most interesting was the Author's Note at the end. In it, I learned that Mrs. Rice was very sincere in writing this book and that she did an enormous amount of research beforehand. In a way, the book is a sharing with those who read it of an epiphany she had.

The one comment that she made in her Note that really stands out for me is that she found that many "Jesus scholars" seem to despise their subject. There is probably a lot of truth to this, and it might explain much of the "decline" we see today in people's faith. I guess some true objectivity would be an inprovement.

I was moved to email Mrs. Rice about what I describe here and hope she responds. I'll let you know if she does. While waiting, take a look at this book of hers. It is an original!!!

The Heart of Christianity

This book by Marcus Borg is one of the best I have read in a very long time. In only about 225 pages, Borg covers a lot of ground in a way that is fresh, easy to understand and even easy to accept.

The book addresses many traditional Christian topics from a new (at least for me) and expansive viewpoint. Some major topics include personal transformation to who one really is/should be and compassion for others/the world. There are also interesting discussions on God, Jesus and the Bible; Borg has written other books on each of these topics.

My description does not do the book justice. READ IT!!!! You will be glad you did. It may just bring some new joy into your life - it did for me.

Island

I recently finished Aldous Huxley's book, ISLAND.

It was written near the end of his life in the early 1960's, and it is filled with philosophy popular at the time or soon after - free love/sex, mind expanding drugs, Eastern philospohy, etc. etc. These points of view were brought forth within a story about a utopian island in Asia.

I had looked forward to reading this book from what I had heard about it. I was somewhat disappointed. There was very little story and a lot of preaching about how bad/wrong the "West" is about everything and how sex, drugs and Buddha could save mankind - Buddha might, but not in the preachy way of this book.

No, I did not care very much for the book. The ending was not even a happy one.

The one positive thing I can say is that I do think I really got the concept of "not-thought" at one point in reading this book. That has value. It is along the lines of another book I talked about a while back, THE POWER OF NOW; I think that ISLAND is specifically mentioned in it.

If you read ISLAND and don't like it, then don't say I didn't warn you.