Give Up Catching Up

Wait, it's June? What happened to half the year? Work, sleep, home improvement, too much TV. Can I find any trails through the little I've read recently?

All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy

Two 20th century, coming of age, western adventure stories. By western I mean horses, ranches, nostalgia, toughness, wide open spaces, gun fights, deserts, mystical indians, orientalized mexico. McCarthy leaned hard on his vision of "old Mexico", a land where the past still lives, a land where mythic forces undulate close to the surface, full of needs and questions projected by white america, so on and so forth. Pretty Horses was much smoother, tight and familiar, very much the hero's journey. The Crossing was weirder, longer, more interesting. By the time I got to Cities of the Plain, the third book of the "Border Trilogy," I had lost momentum. That had more to do with my depression and less to do with the books. McCarthy certainly enchanted me with his layered descriptions - landscape, spirit, rhythm, emotion, religion, back to lanscape.

Jesus and the Disinherited - Howard Thurman
The Essential Enneagram - David Daniels and Virginia Price

The only two books I've read recently for my Ruah class. I was trying to remember exactly when I first read Jesus and the Disinherited, I know it was during a summer in college. Anywho, at the time I was more unconvinced than convinced that my religion was, at least, potentially helpful. This book pulled me into its living faith.

Our class discussion and investigation of the Enneagram was very exciting, and it's been a lot of fun talking about it with Lindsey as well. I self-typed as a "four," woe is me, something is missing in my life. Five and nine were strong candidates. I sympathized with one of my classmates who objected, "But this is all made up!" I think he's right, it is made up, but is it more made up that Id, Ego, Super-Ego? Or is it more made up that archetypes and the collective unconscious? Is it more made up that Introvert, Extrovert? Maybe so. In any case it was a good retreat.

Being Peace - Thich Nhat Hanh

I really wish I could hang out with him for a year.

On Prayer - Tertullian, Origen, and Cassian

Selections on prayer, centered on the Lord's prayer. Tertullian was wild. Was he always itching for a fight? Origen's piece I had read before. The selection from Cassian's Conferences lit me up, so I hope to read the rest soon.