Continuing this month’s survey of Books Read, here are a few more entries:
- Richard John Neuhus: Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus From the Cross. A beautifully designed volume laced with some tender pastoral memories, the line of argument ultimately collapses for me under the weight of the Augustinian tradition and its emphasis on Paul (or more likely pseudo-Paul) rather than Jesus himself. Despite all of the subtle contortions, I don’t see God getting off the hook here.
- D.H. (David Herbert) Lawrence: Lady Chatterley’s Lover: What a marvelous bit of storytelling! I love the way he’s free to tell, with just enough show to make it compelling. Some marvelous dialect here, too. As for the scandal, he was pushing the envelope of conventionality. All of the anti-social diatribe, however, reminds me too much of Micki. How curious!
- D.H. Lawrence: Women in Love, Sons and Lovers, Short Stories. A tedium sets in quickly with these, especially as one sees them as studies for the later Chatterley. So much of the dialogue awaits action, which proves tepid when it arrives.
- Friends General Conference, Religious Education Committee: Opening Doors to Quaker Worship. Some interesting exercises for deepening an understanding of Friends Meeting, some for adults. One to pass along.
- Walden Bello: Visions of a Warless World. A survey of world religions regarding war, including the dual strands in the Judeo-Christian stream in which God originates as a war deity and is transformed along the way. But I find the broader vision missing – just how, for instance, do we channel the innate aggression in human nature?
- Ernest Fenolosa, edited by Ezra Pound: The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry. What fun to revisit this piece from much earlier in my career!
Jnana's Red Barn 
are those flowers real?
Yes, indeed. One of the ways of enduring a long winter in New England (and anywhere else where it gets cold and snowy) comes in trying to force bulbs to blossom. Paperwhites are the easiest, and they have an aroma that can be pleasant for some of us but annoying to others who detect a bit of burnt rubber. Daffodil, crocus, hyacinth, and miniature iris blossoms are also popular.
Amaryllis, of course, is especially glorious this time of the year, but getting a plant to repeat itself a year or two later is another challenge, one perhaps worthy of a later posting, if we ever succeed. Maybe that’s just part of the adventure of living where we do.
Even so, every winter I love the idea of sitting down to read beside a bowl of indoor flowers and a cup of warm tea or, my preference, strong coffee laced with sugar and milk.
Not a bad way to blog, either, is it?
Beautiful- those flowers.