soapboxdiner

Love ya, Babe. And that's NOT just gossip (or maybe it is. I'll never tell.)

Another forced 3-day weekend began Friday, but I suppose I can't complain about that. Surprisingly, it was very nice -- in the moments I wasn't fixated on work.

D00d and I trolled Half Price Books and ate a leisurely lunch -- just the two of us -- while sitting on velvet brocade completely emersed in the newly opened and carefully faked vintage environs of The Spaghetti Factory. We spent a whole day just reading and laughing and talking and holding hands and caressing cheeks and pinching butts (but only each other's) and staying warm and dry on the inside while we watched the weather storm and blow outside.

Doesn't that sound almost like a perfect lazy rainy day vacation?

I bought three books: Gift of the Jews, The Battle for Christendom, and Marcion, Muhammad and the Mahatma, and all for under $25!

I started on Gift first, since I've already read the other books in the Hinges of History series. The author talks a little slowly for the Dummies in the room (example: Telling the reader in a footnote that he uses B.C. and A.D. because the average reader doesn't understand the more current C.E. and B.C.E. terminology. Bear in mind now, this is a book about JUDAISM, and he's using the Before Christ and Year of Our Lord designators! "No offense intended," he says.)

In our very own charmingly quaint and most assuredly enduring common vernacular, dear Diaryland, "ROFL."

But a good dumbed down book is entirely in order of late, and Mr. Cahill is a fabulous storyteller, so I will forgive him.

Next, Marcion, Muhammad and the Muhatma:

A modern attitude to the New Testament might perhaps resemble the attitude taken by early Christians like Paul to the Old Testament - with the significant difference that the radical reapplication of scripture should take place consciously, and not in a hidden or unreflective manner.

This radical argument is worked out through considerations of such varied sources as Paul's Letter to the Romans and Luke-Acts; Marcion; Muhammad; [...] and Mahatma Gandhi. Radical questions are asked, but the aim is a thoroughly positive one. Could it not be the ultimate goal of the dialogue that Christians should be better Christians, Muslims better Muslims, Hindus better Hindus, humanists better humanists, and so on. And should not each try to help the other to reach this goal?

All, rather cheekily juxtaposed (in my brain at least) against the really fabulous, 300K ads on TV here lately: Cath0lics, Come Home vs. Cardinal Sodano's refutation of the existence of preistly p@dophilia.

In other very exciting news, "unplugging" from work for three days has completely revitalized my whole brain. So much so, I am very proud and happy to say, I was not dumb or ridiculous ALL DAY! I even revamped an outdated procedure that cut processing costs for said particular expense by 75%. Go me.

8:23 pm - 04.05.10
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