Archive - Dec 2009 - Oct 2016 http://colleagueslist.blogspot.ca/

Friday 27 April 2018

Colleagues List, April 29th, 2018

Vol. XIII No. 43 

GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE

 
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address:
wholst@telus.net

This email is sent only to a voluntary subscriber list.
If you no longer wish to receive these weekly columns,
write to me personally - waholst@telus.net

*****

Dear Friends -

My Special Item this week is a book notice for a colleague and friend who did me the honour of serving as my doctoral advisor and defence supervisor when I graduated from St. Stephens College, University of Alberta in 1989 - that is almost 30 years ago! Adrian was a professor of religious studies, specializing in biblical studies, for many years and I happened to work with him (as a fellow Lutheran) about mid-course in his career. The fact that he taught in a school of a more conservative Lutheran church body than me did not hurt our relationship in the slightest!

I always respected his love of the Bible and no doubt some of that rubbed off even though my specialities were systematics and missiology.

Adrian informed me that his latest book The Prophetic Vision and the Real Jesus had appeared late last year and I am pleased to share some things about it with you now! I hope you find this book on the influence of Hebrew prophetic tradition on a New Testament Christian Gospel will be very enlightening and expansive.

In this issue as usual, I provide Colleague Contributions, Net Notes and Wisdom of the week.

Blessings on your week,

Wayne

*****

SPECIAL ITEM

Book Notice -

THE PROPHETIC VISION
AND THE REAL JESUS
Growth of the Prophetic Vision
and Its Impact on the Mission
of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel
by Adrian M. Leske

Wipf and Stock Publishers
Eugene Oregon, Oct. 2017.
Paperback edition. 248 pages.
$39.00 CAD. $28.40 US
Kindle $10.00 CAD.
ISBN #978-5326-3415-6.

Publishers Promo:

Using the method of intertextuality, Adrian Leske has traced the growth of the prophetic vision from Amos to the Exile, demonstrating how, after the Exile, the dominant influence on that vision down to the time of Jesus is the positive and new message of Deutero-Isaiah. With opposition from the Zadokite priesthood, and exploitation from foreign rulers, the prophetic and Levite communities find refuge in Upper Galilee and surrounding areas. Using the Gospel of Matthew, the most Jewish of the Gospels, Leske demonstrates how that vision impacted the teaching of Jesus to these communities and how he perceived his mission as the Servant/Son of man.

Understanding this prophetic vision and the Jewish nature of Matthew’s Gospel brings new insights to Matthean Christology, as well as the authorship and date of that Gospel in relation to the other Gospels.

--

Author's Bio:

Adrian M. Leske is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Concordia University of Edmonton, Canada. He is the author of the commentary on Matthew in The International Bible Commentary (1998), and has also published numerous articles in the area of biblical studies.

--

Author's Words:

This book is a study of the development of the prophetic tradition, beginning with the first writing prophets. It traces how the prophets learned from each other and responded to their changing environments as they were impacted by the events of history. It also touches on how the prophets influenced alternative visions, and particularly, how it found its fulfillment in the message and mission of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospel of Matthew.

Having taught both the prophetic literature and the Gospel of Matthew for many years, it became quite apparent to me how closely they were related, and how the Gospel of Matthew and the teaching of Jesus therein were dependent on the prophetic literature.

Of course, it has always been acknowledged that the writings of the New Testament had gained much from the Hebrew Bible for many of its concepts, ideas and terminology. However, the close connection between the Gospel of Matthew and the writings of the prophets, which exceeds that of any other New Testament writing, and in its portrayal of Jesus coming out of that prophetic milieu, has not always been acknowledged.

The prophetic vision was a gradual development over centuries... and met new circumstances as it grappled with social and political change...    

So much of New Testament scholarship has been carried on with only superficial acknowledgement of the prophetic heritage from which the Gospels have emerged...

(The author then goes into considerable detail about how Matthew has been treated in modern Christian theological scholarship and quest for the historical Jesus studies. He then argues that Jesus cannot be understood only in the context of the gospel ethos. He emerged, and especially the Jesus of Matthew, from a much more extensive Hebrew prophetic tradition)...

While lip-service has increasingly been given to the Jewish background of the Gospel of Matthew, it is hoped that this study will make that indebtedness clearer. More and more, the author of this Gospel has been regarded as a Jewish follower of Jesus, but the implications of that have rarely been spelled out...

(This focus on the Jewishness of Matthew places into question various assumed theories about the sources of his text, and how many modern scholars have failed to understand the true Matthew, and the Jesus he proclaimed in his Gospel. Leske is not so much interested here in how the various Gospels compare textually, but in how Matthew portrays Jesus against his Jewish background and particularly the prophetic content.)

Jesus was popularly proclaimed to be a prophet. If we wish to find the Jesus of history, the “real Jesus,“ we will find him in the fulfillment of the prophetic vision... and this will help us to better understand the significance of Jesuslife and teaching for us today.

- edited and paraphrased from the Introduction
   (the interpretation is mine)

--

My Thoughts:

One of the major benefits of this study is the author’s skill and clarity in describing the historical development of the Hebrew prophetic tradition. My exposure to biblical studies helped me to encounter the Hebrew prophets on the one hand, and the Christian Gospels on the other.

But this book helps me to see the connection between the two; and especially the connection between the prophets and Matthew.  

Another gift of this book is that the author keeps an important question before him throughout. If the true Jesus of history is profoundly part of the Jewish prophetic tradition out of which he arose - so what? What does this mean for people today? How does it help them to understand Jesus better?

I think Leske helps us to move past the textual and critical debates to the matter of essentials, and that is helpful to me. There is a place for understanding these academic debates, but too much concentration on them confuses people and fails to let them come to the point of it all.

It is good to learn from a teacher who takes the Bible (both Hebrew and Christian texts) seriously. Too few of us seem to want to make the effort to do so, and we - as well as our hearers in worship and classroom - are the less because of it.

Finally, I would suggest that a study like this could be used effectively in inter-faith (especially Jewish and Christian comparative) biblical studies. For too long we have looked at these texts in isolation from each other.

It is good to know that books of this quality and substance continue to be written. I thank a teacher of mine - and one who helped me considerably in my vocation - for writing this one.

____

Buy the book from Amazon.ca:
https://tinyurl.com/y8ek8j8m

Buy the book from Wipf and Stock:
https://tinyurl.com/y7xbbtre
 
*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS


Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Web Site,
April 23rd, 2018

“The Shortcomings of a Digital Immigrant“
  https://tinyurl.com/yaswmhuo


--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log,
April 23rd, 2018

“One Earth Day a Year is Not Enough“
  https://tinyurl.com/y7nywh9a


--

Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON.

Sermons and Blog
April 27th, 2018

“Loneliness and Connection“
 
https://tinyurl.com/y73782sc


--

Philip Yancey,
Colorado

PhilipYancey.com
April 26th, 2018

“Unexpected Guest“
  https://tinyurl.com/y7ab3hpq


*****


NET NOTES

DOUGLAS JOHN HALL
Celebrating Ninety Years -

An American Appreciation

Sightings,
April 26th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/y83zpuey

--

HOW YO-YO MA BECAME GOD
(Or Something Like That)

Religion News Service,
April 24th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/yaqk2tdv


--

72% of AMERICANS BELIEVE IN GOD
But Not Necessarily in God of the Bible

Religion News Service
April 25th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/yc5gtt9v


--

RELIGION TAKES CENTRE STAGE
IN UPCOMING INDIAN ELECTIONS
Ruling Party Working With Hindu Groups

UCA News
April 25th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/yb3ymjxb


--

WILLOW CREEK ELDERS ADMIT
FAILURE IN BILL HYBELS CASE
More Accusations of Abuse Emerge

Christian Post,
April 23rd, 2018


https://tinyurl.com/ya3s7bmz

Publishers Weekly,
April 23rd, 2018

Book Publishers Cancel Contracts
https://tinyurl.com/y9x9ooan


--

RUSSIA IS TRYING TO ERASE THE
UKRANIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CRIMEA
It is Using Strongman Tactics in the Process

La Croix International
April 26th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/y839a5ze


--

ANCIENT MASS CHILD SACRIFICE SITE FOUND
Possibly Largest - Occurred in Peru 500 Years Ago

National Geographic Magazine,
April 26th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/ycy7lm8s


--

A PASTORS JOB IS NOT TO MAKE
BAD THINGS SEEM BETTER
It is Best to Stay With the Truth

The Christian Century,
April 14th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/y8tt2kkn


--

WILL IT FINALLY BE POSSIBLE TO
BUILD A CHURCH IN SAUDI ARABIA?
The Nation Wants an Image-Change

La Croix international
April 23rd, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/ybdn4zdh


--

BEFORE POLICE NAME A MOTIVE,
ISLAMIC TERRORISTS ARE BLAMED
Toronto Terrorism Now Suggests Canada
Included in Global Crisis. But is It?

The Guardian, UK
April 25th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/y7wer6sh


*****


WISDOM OF THE WEEK
From Sojourners and the Bruderhof online

Cities have the capability of providing something
for everybody, only because, and only when, they
are created by everybody.

- Jane Jacobs

--

It is justice and respect that I want the world to dust off
and put – without delay, and with tenderness – back
on the head of the Palestinian child. It will be imperfect
justice and respect because the injustice and disrespect
have been so severe. But I believe we are right to try.

- Alice Walker

--

It's ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest
the fruits, vegetables and other foods that fill your tables
with abundance have nothing left for themselves.

- César Chávez

--


The duties and cares of the day crowd about us when
we awake each day – if they have not already dispelled
our night’s rest. How can everything be accommodated
in one day? When will I do this, when that? How will it
all be accomplished? Thus agitated, we are tempted to
run and rush. And so we must take the reins in hand
and remind ourselves, “Let go of your plans. The first
hour of your morning belongs to God. Tackle the day’s
work that he charges you with, and he will give you the
power to accomplish it.”


- Edith Stein

--


Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be
extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting
tired. How does a lamp burn? Through the continuous
input of small drops of oil. If the drops of oil run out, the
light of the lamp will cease, and the bridegroom will say,
“I do not know you” (Matt. 25:12). What are these drops
of oil in our lamps? They are the small things of daily life:
faithfulness, small words of kindness, a thought for others,
our way of being silent, of looking, of speaking, and of
acting. These are the true drops of love that keep your
religious life burning like a living flame.

- Mother Teresa

--

The great and golden rule of art, as well as of life, is this:
that the more distinct, sharp, and wiry the bounding line,
the more perfect the work of art, and the less keen and
sharp, the greater is the evidence of weak imitation,
plagiarism, and bungling. What is it that distinguishes
honesty from knavery, but the hard line of rectitude and
certainty in the actions and intentions? Leave out this
line and you leave out life itself; all is chaos again, and
the line of the Almighty must be drawn out upon it before
man or beast can exist.

- William Blake

--

Be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray, if your
prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling and new
meaning in it, which will give you fresh courage, and
you will understand that prayer is an education.

Remember, too, every day and whenever you can,
to repeat to yourself, “Lord, have mercy on all who
appear before you today.” For every hour and every
moment thousands of people leave life on this earth,
and their souls appear before God.…How touching
it must be to a soul standing in dread before the
Lord to feel at that instant that for him too there is
one to pray, that there is a fellow creature left on
earth to love him. And God will look on you both
more graciously, for if you have had so much pity
on him, how much more will He have pity who is
infinitely more loving and merciful than you. And
He will forgive him for your sake.

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

*****

CLOSING THOUGHT -  Hannah Brencher

Remember: whatever is burrowed deep in one
hungry soul is bound to be tethered to the hearts
of many, many more.

*****

(end)



 

Friday 20 April 2018

Colleagues List, April 22nd, 2018

Vol. XIII No. 41 

GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE

 
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address:
wholst@telus.net

This email is sent only to a voluntary subscriber list.
If you no longer wish to receive these weekly columns,
write to me personally - waholst@telus.net

*****

Dear Friends:

We focus on a distinctly Canadian theme in this issue of Colleagues List. My book notice is entitled: "Metis Pioneers" and is about the special contribution of two Metis women through their service to their people in two regions of Western Canada.

Recognition of the rights of Canada's Metis people has been slow, but that now seems to be developing. This book helps us better understand their story. The Metis contributed and continue to contribute much to our country. If you want more background on them please click: https://tinyurl.com/yb2gqzag

Other sections of Colleagues List are included as usual.

Thanks for reading.

Wayne

*****

SPECIAL ITEM
 
Book Notice -

METIS PIONEERS
Marie Rose Delorme Smith and
Isabella Clark Hardisty Lougheed

Two Remarkable Metis Women's Lives
During the Prairie West's Transition
From the Fur Trade

by Doris Jeanne MacKinnon,
University of Alberta Press, Mar. 2018
2018. 556 pages. Paper. $40.00 CAD.
ISBN #978-1-77212-271-8

Publisher's Promo:

In Metis Pioneers, Doris Jeanne MacKinnon
compares the survival strategies of two Metis
women born during the fur trade—one from the
French-speaking free trade tradition and one
from the  English-speaking Hudson’s Bay
Company tradition—who settled in southern
Alberta as the Canadian West transitioned
to as sedentary agricultural and industrial
economy.

MacKinnon provides rare insight into their lives,
demonstrating the contributions Metis women
made to to the building of the Prairie West.

This is a compelling tale of two women's acts of
quiet resistance in the final days of the British Empire.

---
 
Backstory on Metis in Canada
https://tinyurl.com/yb2gqzag

 
--

About the Author  - Doris Jeanne MacKinnon

Doris Jeanne MacKinnon was born on a farm in
northeastern Alberta and attended school in the
historic town of St-Paul-des-Métis. She has a PhD
in Indigenous and post-Confederation Canadian
history. An independent researcher and post-
secondary instructor, she lives in Red Deer, Alberta.

---

Author's Words:
 
Marie Rose Dorme Smith was born in the Red River colony in 1864 (in what is today Manitoba). Isbella Clark Hardisty Lougheed was born in 1861 to Metis parents. She spent most of her younger years in the Northern Mackenzie district (NWT/Upper Alberta). Because of her marriage to James Lougheed, she settled in Southern Alberta (Calgary). Both women, in public at least, attempted to subsume their Metis ethnicity into a larger European community.

The comparison of these women may, at the beginning, seem illogical because the first was of French Metis, and the second of Anglo Metis ancestry; but it is now agreed by scholars that Metis identity should not be narrowly defined. It was diverse but inclusive. With this modern understanding, both women qualify as Metis, in other words.
 
Indeed, both women were linked to indigenous people, and both showed themselves to be intelligent, resourceful and strong women whose lives are living testaments to the role of Metis women to the construction of the Prairie West.
 
The changing social landscape (of) the fur trade was coming to a close at the end of the nineteenth century. When Alberta became a province in 1905, all Indigenous people, including Metis, would eventually be relegated to occupying small tracts of land. All Indigenous people, including Metis, were increasingly seen as uncivilized, and unsuited for success as farmers and business people in the emerging capitalist society.Questions about Metis identity created challenges. Were they mixed blood, where they Indigenous, to which community did they belong, did they belong to all or were they forever to reside between other peoples, and would subsequent generations be less Metis and more Euro-North American?
 
(Few scholars have ventured to more closely describe the differences between various kinds of Metis groups. For the two Metis women in this study, identity was much more complex than the place (e.g. Red River or Alberta) from which they emerged. The fact is, there was a silence about Metis identity in their own lives and how they defined themselves. It is difficult to research Metis backgrounds in comparison to those of various European cultures. Still, biography is important in the study of all women's history, and - increasingly - for less well-known women for whom written documentation is hard to find. Biography is an important way to define women of that era. It tends to be much easier to write biographies of the men of the time. So, a study like this attempts to go beyond the traditional biographies of that period. Biography of "great women" does not tend to exist; but stories of the lives of women of that century are certainly accessible.)
 
Many Metis women were forced to define their identities in environments that were increasingly Anglocentric. Their work involved raising their children, and the unpaid service work they undertook; work that is so critical in organizing and maintaining social institutions as new societies emerge. They formed business partnerships that helped their families negotiate and succeed in the changing economy.
 
In the end, both women in this study felt the need to suppress or repackage the Metis identity and culture that had sustained both of their fur trade families (with whom they maintained ties) and that, in many ways, continued to sustain them.

- from the Introduction

---

 
My Thoughts:
 
What Doris Jeanne Mackinnon, the author of this book does not say specifically above, but which I find most valuable, is that the two Metis women she writes about were playing a major role in a process of cultural evolution that is still unfolding in Canada today. Indigenous people of all kinds - First Nations, Inuit and Metis - are finally having their human rights recognized in Canadian society. This is happening through such developments as the recent Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report. The cultural bridging demonstrated by the two women subjects of this book is both evident and significant.
 
While "cultural assimilation" may be a term used by some to describe their contribution, I would prefer to call it "multi-cultural progress" where individual cultures can retain distinct characteristics, yet become part of the unique and larger societal experiment that is Canada today.
 
Recognising the special role that the Indigenous people have to contribute to the making of Canadian history and society is only beginning to dawn on many of us.
 
--
 
This book helps to fill a significant gap in the process of understanding that history.
 
It is now more than twenty years that I first became aware of the existence of Metis people in the cultural mix that is Canada. Many of us had for years been concerned about the human rights of First Nations and Inuit peoples. The Metis were off the radar screen for many of us. Gradually, however, I became aware of them, as several Metis church leaders began to speak out at conferences and in the media. It comes as a great personal satisfaction to hear their story being told through efforts such as this book represents.
 
The voices for justice that first began to be heard in the churches as far back as the 1980's seem now to be proclaimed in society as a whole.
 
I must admit to some surprise when I read in Metis Pioneers that James Lougheed's wife was Isbella Clark Hardisty Lougheed, a Metis. She would have been the grandmother of Peter Lougheed, a pillar of Alberta politics. While Isabella may have "subsumed" her Metis ethnicity in her day, that same Metis ethnicity is becoming a matter of growing pride in modern Canadian society - along with all the other Indigenous ethnicities.
 
Given the social stigma accorded mixed race people all over the world, I am proud that, in Canada, that "stigma" has been evolving as an asset.
 
Granted, we still have a long way to go, but we are at least on the way to a new period of enlightened Canadian society.
 
Thanks to the unsung contributions of women like Marie Rose and Isabella and many others, we have the opportunity to engage a new history in the making. If you have an interest in this exciting chapter of Canadian progress, I encourage you to secure this book.
____
 
Buy the book from Amazon.ca:

From the University of Alberta Press:

https://tinyurl.com/y9esfpmz

*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log
April 18th, 2018

"Earth Day and Goddess Worship"
  https://tinyurl.com/y7radtdw


--

Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON

Sermons and Blog
April 14th, 2018

"Wow!-What?-and-So-What?"
  https://tinyurl.com/y8pptll2


--

John Stackhouse, Jr.
Moncton, NB

Context,
April 16th, 2018

"First, Let's Get a Few Things Straight"
  https://tinyurl.com/ybscdbdb


--

Martin Marty,
Chicago, IL

Sightings,
April 16th, 2018

"Papal Polarities"
  https://tinyurl.com/y9ka5uqv


--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX.

Personal Web Site,
April 16th, 2018
 
"Moral Outrage"
  https://tinyurl.com/yahe3rvt

*****

NET NOTES

WHAT IS HELL?
Investigating a Traditional
Christian Belief System

Religion News Service,
April 18th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/yazswmlx


--

EGYPT TO LEGALIZE 102 CHURCHES
Controversial Issue in a Muslim Country

La Croix International
April 19th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/ybgyhgx6


--

WHAT ARE INDIA'S CIVILIZATIONAL VALUES?
Land of Gandhi Needs to Get It's House in Order

La Croix International
April 19th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/yccxzcmn


"Rape and Murder of 8 Year Old Girl
  Challenges India's Secularism"
  UCA News, April 17th, 2018
  https://tinyurl.com/y8pewjs5


"Tamil Christians Protest Against Harassment, Violence"
  UCA News, April 18th, 2018
  https://tinyurl.com/y9agdr3l


--

CLARKSON AND SAUL
GIVE INSPIRING U. OF C. TALK
A Presentation About Inclusion
and Resilience in Canada Today

U Today,
April 19th, 1018

https://tinyurl.com/yac8azer


--

JIMMY CARTER TALKS ABOUT
HIS NEW BOOK ON FAITH, POLITICS
Will This Be His Last?

Religion News Service,
April 13th, 2018

 
https://tinyurl.com/y9anc4oh

--

"INDIAN HORSE" STAR HAD HISTORY
OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Claims the Problem Resolved, However

CBC.ca
April 15th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/ycqn672n


--
 
REMEMBERING THE CHILDREN
OF THE WARSAW GHETTO
Seventy-Fifth Anniversary
 
Religion News Service,
April 19th, 2018
 
 
--

AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS
QUESTION THEIR EVANGELICALISM
They are Having Second Thoughts
After Trump and #MeToo Movements

Religion News Service,
April 19th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/y7e93qnh


"Evangelical Leaders Discuss
  Future of Movement at Wheaton"

  Religion News Service,
  April 17th, 2018
  https://tinyurl.com/yatxamhb

--

 
PROTESTANT PLAN WOULD MAKE
CHRISTIANITY MORE FULLY CHINESE
Supporting Contemporary
Socialistic Values
 
UCA News,
April 20th, 2018
 

--

WHY IS GOING TO THE THEATRE
SUDDENLY OK IN SAUDI ARABIA?
New Leadership, Young Population

BBC News
April 17th, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/yayh8wbk


*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

From Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:
 
I am the product of many whose lives have touched mine,
from the famous, distinguished, and powerful to the little
known and the poor.
 
- Dorothy Height
 
--

We are all born / so beautiful / the greatest tragedy is /
being convinced we are not

- Rupi Kaur

--

Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.

- Amy Chua

--

The most beautiful experience we can have is the
mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands
at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever
does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer
marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.

- Albert Einstein

--

The earthly-minded person thinks and imagines that
when he prays, the important thing – the thing he must
concentrate upon – is that God should hear what he is
praying for. And yet in the true, eternal sense it is just
the reverse: the true relation in prayer is not when God
hears what is prayed for, but when the person praying
continues to pray until he is the one who hears – who
hears what God is asking for.

- Søren Kierkegaard

--

It is not only prayer that gives God glory but work.
Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing
a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything
gives God some glory if being in his grace you do it
as your duty. To go to communion worthily gives God
great glory, but to take food in thankfulness and
temperance gives him glory too. To lift up the hands
in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a dung fork
in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give him glory
too. He is so great that all things give him glory if you
mean they should. So then, my brethren, live.

- Gerard Manley Hopkins

--

Inspection stickers used to have printed on the back,
“Drive carefully: the life you save may be your own.”
That is the wisdom of men in a nutshell. What God
says, on the other hand, is, “The life you save is the
life you lose.” In other words, the life you clutch, hoard,
guard, and play safe with is in the end a life worth little
to anybody, including yourself; and only a life given
away for love’s sake is a life worth living. To bring this
point home, God shows us a man who gave his life
away to the extent of dying a national disgrace without
a penny in the bank or a friend to his name. In terms of
men’s wisdom, he was a perfect fool, and anybody who
thinks he can follow him without making something like
the same kind of fool of himself is laboring not under
a cross but a delusion.

- Frederick Buechner

*****
 
CLOSING THOUGHT - Amy Chua
 
Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.

(end)
 
*****