Don’t flay the sheep.

The Big Read is an NEA program designed to encourage community reading initiatives. They’ve come up with this list of the top 100 books, using criteria they don’t explain, and they estimate that the average adult has only read 6 of these. So, we are encouraged to:

1) Look at the list and bold those we have read.
2) Italicize those we intend to read.
3) Underline the books we LOVE (I’ve used an asterisk)
4) Reprint this list in our own blogs

Here goes…What about you?

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien*
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte*
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling*
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee*
6 The Bible*
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte*
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot*
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis*
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis*
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez*
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery*
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez*
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett*
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson*
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt*
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White*
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl*
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

I’ve been thinking about the classic books lately (I’m reading this, about a middle aged guy retracing the Odyssey and we went through boxes and boxes of books last week while organizing our basement.) This list makes me feel like there’s a whole lot I’ve read and there’s a whole lot I haven’t read. Maybe I should stop trying to find the perfect new book at the library and just hit the oldies for awhile!

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No whining here

Ann tagged me…10 things I am grateful for?

1. Zora
2. Erik
3. An incredible family, who I get along with.
4.  A good night’s sleep, more often than not.
5. Moving this week.
6. Fresh bread.
7. A church that love its pastors.
8. Vacation.
9. That I get to preach this week. (That I get to preach ever!)
10. Friendly cats.

I tag Meg, Heidi, and Meika.

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What to preach?

Has anyone looked at next week’s lectionary?

I’m preaching on Sunday, and honestly, I’m at a loss for what to preach on. When I’m at a loss, I usually defer to the lectionary. Plus, I need to get this thing written: between the 4th holiday, a week when I have no child care after Tuesday, and packing up the apartment for a move, I figure I’d better have this one close to done maybe even on Tuesday night.

As I see it, these are my options:

1.  I’m just not in the mood for Paul. The Romans passage seems way too heavy for a holiday weekend. Plus, it’s a short sermon (we have communion this Sunday).
2. Same for the Matthew passage. As Erik just said, there are some Jesus-sayings that are pretty nutty, and I’m not sure I feel like preaching my way out of that corner this week.
3. Isaac and Rebekah. Sure. We had the Genesis passage this week for the sermon. And it’s a great story. I just have no idea where it would go.
4. Song of Solomon. Yep. The sex passage. (And, since I drew the straw for the “thou shalt not commit adultery” sermon when we did a series on the 10 Commandments, I would only be solidifying my reputation and record as the pastor who’s said “Sex” in the pulpit most often.)
5. Combine 3 & 4, do something about what could possibly redemptive about sexual attraction. Do my best to keep it PG enough that no one is forced to give the birds and bees talk earlier than they planned to.
6. Ignore the lectionary. Do something for the 4th, kind of a God and Country thing. I’d probably use Psalm 146:

Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God.

I think this would likely be more controversial than the sex-themed sermons. Because my general take on God and country is “get your nationalism out of my church.” I don’t think people go for that so much around the 4th of July.

What do you think? Preachers, what are you preaching? Non-preachers, what would like to hear?

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Speaking of youth trips…

Add this one to the file for “youth trips I’m glad I wasn’t leading”.

First, and most obviously, because that’s just a scary scenario.

Second, because I can only imagine what the more tense moments of that trip were like. teen age drama taken to it’s max, and I speak as one who engaged in a bit of teen-aged drama myself  when hiking in the Sierras with my own family, even when we knew where we were!!

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At least she’s social

Zora is living the high life this week: mornings involve bible school at church. Today, day two, she was so excited to go that she was waving her hands through the air and shouting all the way to church in the car. It’s just being around all the other kids that makes her happy. By the end of the morning, she’s standing in the middle of a herd of kids, laughing and waving her hands in the air like she’s at a rock concert.

After a nap, we’re off to the pool again today, I hope. But none of this leisurely mama at poolside thing. She gets in and out and in and out, pretends she’s going to jump in, run/walks to the deep end, lays on the edge and pretends she’s going to roll into the pool. I get in and out, go back and forth, run the circuit with her.

The kid is a dynamo. (After a week with 15 year olds, I’m starting to wonder what we’re in for when she hits high school.)

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um, not so fired up

OK, never mind, “fired up for VBS” doesn’t exactly describe where I was at this morning. I had no clue what I was doing in the opening and closing worship sequences, and now I’m pooped.

I plan to pretty much only do VBS this week, and be home in the afternoons. This afternoon, I plan to devote myself to laundry and a pool trip. That’s about th speed I can handle right now.

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A few reasons why the youth group trip went well…

Yes, I am back from the youth group trip, alive, and after two long nights of sleep (12 and 10 hours, thank you, Erik!), I’m fired up for VBS (in 1 hour).

It was a good trip. So, here’s some of the stuff that went well:

1. Awesome kids, awesome leaders, number one reason it was great.
2. Who knew eastern Ohio was so beautiful? Hilly, little farms, rivers. I was having flashbacks to growing up in NY.
3. I made the youth leaders take an afternoon/evening off, on recommendation of Bart (my fellow associate). Some were skeptical, but one of the skeptics told me later it was a good thing. really truly, you need to take time for yourself if you are spending a week taking care of 40 teenagers. Even if they are great.
4. I made myself take an early morning run 4 mornings. It was worth it to get up at 5:00am, 4:00am central time, just to be alone with my legs, a few sermons on iPod, and God’s good green earth.
5. Epworth Center was FABULOUS. I would highly highly highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a summer mission trip. Even our bus driver wanted to bring back information for his church.
6. Speaking of our bus driver, he was fabulous, too. First off, he was amazing at getting the bus into some very odd, hilly, little back-hills places. But, even better, he actually started dressing down so that he could help on the worksites! We loved him.
7. And, who knew longhorn cattle could be as much fun as whitewater rafting, water parks, malls, or roller coasters? On our day off, we chose a tour of a longhorn cattle ranch over all those other things and it was so very riotously fun.
8. And, last but not least, no hospital visits. None. Whew.

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Minsterial privilege

I was warned in seminary not to take advantage of ministerial privilege’s granted by the community. I think, what was meant by this, was the way, a generation or two ago, many merchants would offer pastors discounts or so. In many communities, this made sense. I know that my grandpa, as a pastor in a farming town, had people who brought poultry and produce, and things like that. My dad had someone who owned a shoe store offer to help out with shoes for the kids once a year. But mostly, those days are over.

Except, apparently, at my local t4rg3t optical…

On Monday, I decided it was finally time to get a pair of prescription sunglasses, maybe even in time for the youth trip (leaving Sunday morning, bright and early). I’ve held off on this for years, but I hate driving, traveling, lounging in the summer on sunny days when I’d rather wear my glasses than contacts since I have no prescription sunglasses. Some days, the contacts are just too dry…

So, I mentioned to the optician that I would be delighted if they were done by Saturday, but realized, since they send their stuff out, that this might not be possible, and that was fine.

The optician expedited the order by picking the glasses up and bringing them back to the store, in her off hours, I can only assume.

She was not there when I picked them up today, but the woman who was kept saying that they were so glad to do this so that I’d have them for my mission trip. Then she upgraded the glasses case for me.
And, she sent me out the door with a hearty, “Go save the world, woman!”

Hey, I’ll take the encouragement wherever I can get it.

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Local-ish meal number 2

Thursday and Friday (the days of our local farmers markets) we’ll be in the city, but on Tuesday, I was driving back from a meeting at the PresbyHQ two counties west of here. I stopped at two farm stands and scored:

• strawberries
• asparagus
• green onions
• lettuce
• radishes (mealy and bit past season)

Much more reasonable than last week’s farmers market stash, although, to be fair, we still have some duck eggs and cheese left.

This haul has produced a few decent meals or parts of meals:

• my lunch today: salad with radishes, green onions, olives, oil, vinegar, and a smidge of the good cheese
• Zora’s breakfast today: duck egg, homemade whole wheat bread, asparagus
• many sides of asparagus all around

I’m finding the duck eggs a little…gelatinous. I’m not sure if this weirds me out because it’s different or because it’s gelatinous. Maybe I’ll use them for baking. I heard they’re good for this and Erik’s birthday is coming up.

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Local Eating

During farmer’s market season (when the schedule allows, I have to say, since the summer youth ministry thing and vacation time will make this a little tricky), we’re going to try to cook one local meal a week.

At the same time that we’re attempting this, I am trying to lose the final 8 pounds in my weight loss goal. (The final eight of 35 pounds…I’ve basically lost an entire toddler in the last few months). The irony of this is that I have to ask questions like, “And, how does the fat content of the duck eggs compare to that of the chicken eggs?” and “So, do you have, among all these lovely artisan cheeses, one that is low fat?” I think these are big no-nos in the local food world. As far as I can tell, part of the POINT is that there’s no nutrition information on the food. In addition, on the way to the farmer’s market today, so that I would not buy things that I shouldn’t buy because I was too hungry, I ate a rather delicious weight control type bar, the ultimate in frankenfoods, and surely something that was manufactured using child-slave labor and shipped here from who-knows-where using all kinds of petroleum (and, probably containing petroleum, too.) I am torn between the two big problems of the American diet: fatness and not-localness. What to do?

Anyway, I bought mixed spicy greens, beautiful swiss chard, duck eggs (!!), radishes, and small chunks of a lowfat/low salt farmer cheese, and a fantastic “bandage cheddar”.

I’ll try to record our menus for this experiment here (maybe I’ll even do pictures if I remember), so here goes for this week:

• wine-braised radishes and chard stems
• steamed mixed greens
• soft boiled duck eggs
• local cheeses
• whole wheat crackers

(Dang, I feel like Alice Waters!)

Local ingredients:

• chard, duck eggs, cheeses, greens, radishes, thyme from our kitchen pots

Not local ingredients:

• shallots, garlic, broth, wine, Erik’s beer, olive oil, regular grocery store chicken eggs (to compare to the duck), and the vasa crackers (we were going to have some of the whole wheat bread that I whipped up this morning, but I left it behind–we are staying at my parents for a few nights, and so I had to pack everything up, making the meal less local. Whatever.)

Cost of meal:

• I can’t bring myself to admit it because I think my Dutch ethnicity would be rescinded.

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