More snow for tomorrow's afternoon commute. 1-3 inches predicted. Jeff, just don't bother going into work, okay? (See previous post comment section) I packed it in at about 4 o'clock yesterday, and just before I left, I took a look at MDOT's metro traffic page. The interstates I use to get home, 35E and 94, looked relatively free-flowing, so I hopped on thinking that I might be home in 45 minutes or an hour tops. Wrong. Stop and go the whole way. 94 the opposite direction was worse, as Jeff can tell you. I heard on the radio that traffic was backed up from Mounds Blvd to Broadway. That means it was jammed up from downtown St. Paul all the way to the north side of Minneapolis. Ish.
Today is clear and bright and cold. Tonight is "Book Club" night, so I'll pedal on over on the winter beater. One day I'm going to try winter riding on the fixie but I'm too lazy to take it off the trainer for right now. Man that's lazy. In the "Club" we've been reading "Christ," by Jack Miles. Miles is a ex-Jesuit, Ancient Near East scholar who has written a couple of books about God by reading the Bible as a literary critic, not as a theologian or biblical scholar. The books are pretty dense, but endlessly fascinating. He doesn't ignore the orthodox Christian understanding of God, it's that he just he leaves those issues in the background to concentrate on how the story is told. It's amazing to me that someone who has been steeped in the traditional ways of understanding the Bible can step back and write about it from a literary perspective. Take, for example, Moses encountering God in the burning bush. Miles' take is that God has yet to name himself to humanity. In meeting Moses in the burning bush God successively tells Moses that He should be called "I am who I am," "I AM," and "Jehovah." (Exodus 3:14,15) Miles doesn't get hung up on where the names come from, the old Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, Priestly debate, or how the editor put these verses together. He is only concerned with the final "edition" of the text. Three names in two verses. I've read that section of scripture probably dozens of times and didn't think twice about the different names. After reading Miles on this passage, it's almost if God is saying something like, "Call me Joseph. Wait, call me Joe. Ahh whatever, just call me Dude." If you are concerned with scriptural inerrancy or are tied to an Augustinian view of God - the timeless deity, unmoved and unchanged and all that - don't bother reading Miles' books. They'll just make you mad, and that's not the point. If you want to see God portrayed in ways that you've never seen before, by all means give his books a try.
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9 comments:
I just have to leave early and go do a different route....so stupid of me not to get off of 94 and take the backroads...
Another note, we won our last tournament...so you guys need to come and see Caleb play in St. Louis park on the weekend of Jan. 5th!....I am still agonizing why we lost our championship game by one point in our second tournament, I just can't believe I didn't prepare the kids better....
All this snow talk is dashing my plans to move to the Land of Lakes when the ATL runs out of water in a month or so. I'm not sure I remember how to drive in snow (or rain).
Francis, don't worry. If my observations are correct it takes about 1 week to forget how to drive on snow. I don't know about CLE, but here in MSP all the drivers are idiots, except for me.
Chase apparently is interpreting the Bible from a preschooler's perspective. Today Caleb overheard him singing his own little hymn: "Jesus doesn't like Maren."
Well as long as Jesus loves Maren, it's ok, right?
Skiing!
Neil
The Land of Cleve, at least on the east side, is lake-effect, snow belt territory. I learned how to drive through the deep stuff way back, but these 12-13 years driving in the snow-free ATL have dulled my skills.
I hear you on the drivers being idiots. They're the same way here, except for me. And they don't even have snow as an excuse! (I blame the lack of driver's ed, transplants from the northeast, and NASCAR.)
And one more thing: I'm not sure what interpretation/perspective Christopher is working with, but after weeks of Jen telling him not to say "Oh My God" but rather "Oh My Goodness" in response to a surprising situation, he has decided that only God can say "Oh My God," Jesus can say "Oh My Gosh," and the rest of us need to say "Oh My Goodness." Figure that one out.
I know this entry is a little late, but I wanted to tell you about seeing winter through the eyes of our Taiwan exchange student, Jessie.
We have watched her experience snow for the first time (and second and third. The first snow that fell in November were those little styrofoam type pellets and she was all excited about the "snowflakes". We were watching the news just before the last big storm and Jessie heard the term "snow removal" and needed to have that explained. After the first big snow, she was disappointed that we couldn't have a snowball fight or make a snowman because the snow was too dry. We made her go stand out on a frozen lake before the first snow and took her picture on the frozen expanse--she'd never walked on water before. Today she was going to try ice skating for the first time with another exchange student from Columbia (who has the same amount of experience with winter as Jessie). I was going to take pics of them, but it was too ding dang cold outside and I didn't want to go out. Jessie is all excited about trying snowboarding, so Mark, Lizzie, Jessie and I are planning to head over to Wild Mtn as soon as it warms up a little. I plan to ski. The others are planning to board.
We are having a blastwith Jessie and watching her interact with winter. I highly recommend having an exchange student.
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