Thé cost of discipleship

 Thé cost of discipleship 

What would He that we / I should do

Get back to His words not our interpretation 

Explains that gap for Lutherans 

Finished listening too it. Enjoyed Recommend . Not light reading.

More comments to come

The Envelope. Richard Paul Evans

 The Envelope Richard Paul Evans

This  book written by the author of The Christmas Box this is not a Christmas story, this is not a cheerful story. It is a formulaic book written to optimize revenue.    It is short, printed in aw ay and paginated such to make it look longer than it is. Padded with inner quotes, blank pages, and short chapters. 

Set in Salt Lake, during the depression, parental avoidance, child deaths, marital discord, racial injustice, death with hope. 

More of a downer as I said than uplifter wouldn’t recommend.

FACTFULNESS Hans Rosling

 

I found this an interesting book, I trying to understand the source and accuracies of data-base anything in todays’ world.  He sets up the premise with examples of how the majority of experts will always 86% of the time gets wrong when trying  to guess the statistical  facts f life: 

• What age are most girls educated  
• Birth rate
• Etc 

Factfulness is recognizing when a story talks about a gap:

Beware of comparisons of averages

Beware of comparisons of extremes

The view from up here - everything else looks equally short but it isn’t

None of us has all the mental capacity consume all the information out there

Critical thinking is always difficult, but its almost impossible when we  scared

How to control  getting angs out of proportion : compare and divide  Never leave a number all by itself. 

Being always in favor or always against any particular idea makes you blind to information that doesn't fit your perspective. This is usually a bad approach if you'd like to understand reality. Instead constantly test your favorite ideas for weakness be humble about the extent of your expertise be curious about new information that doesn't fit information from other fields. Great knowledge can interfere with an expert's ability to see what actually works. We should be highly skeptical about conclusions derived purely from number crunching

To control the single perspective instinct get a toolbox not a hammer; thankfulness is recognizing that a single perspective can limit your imagination. Beware of simple ideas and simple solutions; welcome complexity combine ideas solve problems on a case by case basis. Resist blaming of any kind - much more complicated than that because the problem is that when we identify the bad guy you're done thinking. Its almost always about multiple interacting causes, if you really want to change the world and understand how it actually works forget about punching anyone in the face. (Story of college protests want to punch

1. Global      pandemic
2. Financial Collapse 
3. WWIII
4. Climate change
5. Extreme poverty

Education we should be teaching our children the fact-based update framework life on the four levels in the four regions. 

Need to teach our children humility (you need to speak about extensively about the limits of knowledge; happy to say I don’t know everything and I can  change my opinion.

Four Income Levels

1.Level One. - $2

2. Level Two - $8
3. Level Three- $32
4. Level Four -

Drinking Water

Transportation - foot - bike - Moto cycle  - car

Cooking : fire - tank gas - gas portable top -oven top

Eating 

Sleep

1B - NS. AMERICAN

1B - Europe

1b - Africa

4b - Asia 

The Coddling of the american mind

 The Coddling of the american mind

Listened  to the audio version - so no good notes. Enjoyed  should have read instead. but definitely worthwhile

The lack of challenging curriculum american schools

Time on the River. Bill Gardner

 Time on the River

Bill Gardner

A 200 day quest for a trophy muskey. On a  quest which explains well Blair , and a portion of me. This is a classic for any devoted fisher of trophy fish. Not unlike izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation written in the mid 1600’s. Though I believe this was written in the 1980s. Both great books if you are a fisher of any passion, which I am.

Smaller Country by Gael Faye

Small Country - Gael Faye

Small Country is a  harrowing

 tale of coming-of-age in the face of civil war, race relations, expansionism, class institutional rights' , colonialism. 

French-Rwandan Gael Fayeis  influences- rap laced with soul and jazz, semba, Congolese rumba... 

Small Countryis his first novel. It was a huge bestseller in France, winning the Prix Goncourt des Lyceens 2016, and is being published in thirty territories worldwide.
'A luminous debut novel...Faye dramatises the terrible nostalgia of having lost not only a childhood but also a whole world to war' Guardian

Burundi, 1992.For ten-year-old Gabriel, life in his comfortable expat neighborhood French father, Rwandan mother and little sister, Ana, is something close to paradise. These are happy, carefree days spent with his friends.

'Unforgettable... Gael Faye's talent is breathtaking

A happy childhood combusts when confronted with a world gone hey wire . Their country, and soon their peaceful idyll will shatter when Burundi and neighbouring Rwanda are brutally hit by war. Words such as Hutu, Tutsis, indentured servant ,slave, not as part of my common nomenclature gave me a new lens to examine the world. The simple becoming complex, and kindness and mercy being lost for evil and revenge. We need to live well so Christ will come, not the apocalypse to get rid of evil. 

"French-Rwandan Gael Faye-is an author, composer and hip hop artist. He was born in 1982 has a Rwandan mother and French father. In 1995, after the outbreak of the civil war and the Rwandan genocide, the family moved to France. Gael studied finance and worked in London for two years for an investment fund, then he left London to embark on a career of writing and music."

"He is as influenced by Creole literature as he is by hip hop culture, and released an album in 2010 with the group Milk Coffee & Sugar. In 2013, his first solo album, Pili Pili sur un Croissant au Beurre, appeared. It was recorded between Bujumbura and Paris, and is filled with a plethora of musical influences- rap laced with soul and jazz, semba, Congolese rumba... In 2018 he received the prestigious Victoires de la Musique Award.

Small Countryis his first novel. It was a huge  bestseller in France, winning the Prix Goncourt des Lyceens 2016, and is being published in thirty territories worldwide."

I've avoided most genocide books because reality is a little tough to swallow . Though just the other day I recommended The Rent Collector , which only changes the country not the impact or desolateness,of genocide.

A Far Country by Daniel Mason

A Far Country by Daniel Mason 

A coming of age type novel of a young girl's journey through a vast, unnamed country (I started with Brazil, shifted to Burundi  and settled on India) in search of her brother . When drought and war grip the backlands, her brother Isaias joins a great exodus to a teeming city in the south. Soon Isabel must follow, forsaking the only home she’s ever known, her sole consolation the thought of being with her brother again.  They have a stupendous relationship that has deeper connection than the normal bro/sis - Kinetic vibrant neural network. 

The core exploration captures the fun, excitement and fear which are  normal migrant emotions. Being scourged by the elements  assisted though eventually always exploited by the 'horse' bringing them in; which in turns drives reinvention of the fringe-livers. Its as though she took a snap shot in time across the globe- of migrant experiences and  - US/Mexico, Sn Diego/ Tijuana Greece /Albania Bolivia/Venezuela. (If this interest you (see p 246) describing the Cambodian community which structured its-Caste structure, its society and even its survival within - "Trash" in Cambodia - Pol Po was as bad / evil as they get demonstrated in The Rent Collector by Cameron Wright ).

Wasn't aware of the of all the trials these people lives. Theirs is truly. rough and tumble existence, and in turn take  desire to survive. A worthy read

The White Book. by Han Kang

The White Book By Han Kang I really should spend more time pre-reading books and then my time spent reading books would be less for naught .I was a big advocate of this book on the basis I had read probably half of it and Han turns a lovely translated phrase. Then as finishing the last, I realized that reviews found online are fairly accurate: -ultimately a letter from Kang to her sister--offers powerful philosophy and personal psychology on the tenacity and fragility of the human spirit, and our attempts to graft new life from the ashes of destruction. A less than subtle hint the text may meander or plunge deep into the ashes of destruction. I kept expecting turning the corner and a smile surfacing- generally not to be. Perchance a silver lining behind the dark cloudy day. It’s well written and I enjoyed reading - I’m looking for a larger seeing of hope and happiness. The sad and painful is entirely too quickly at our disposal. Hope is what I carry with me. In the meantime a few bon mots: First one is way too personal about dealing with pain; as are all the other subsequently marked as I was reading the book. And looking back I don’t want to capture them , and hold them as my personal captives. I don’t them appended to my book of life. I’ll keep things that were positive, without denying the existence of the other-I simply prefer to advocate the other view.

Three Hours in Paris by Cara Black

Three Hours in Paris

by Cara Black

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Historical Fiction, Spy fiction, Historical mystery

Not a huge World War II reader, not a huge spy novel reader; put those issues aside and it was a great book. 

The premise of the characters ;the multiple German approaches ,then the British multiple approaches taken back-and-forth. I loved it a lot the way it was presented. You cannot trust anybody in that world. Quick read, fun read, go check it out.

What NYT started saying “Cara Black’s Three Hours in Paris is a highly entertaining historical thriller of espionage and political double-dealing set in the unique atmosphere of Paris during the Nazi occupation...”

Piece of mind Michelle Adelman

Piece of mind Michelle Adelman

It discusses the courage it takes to break my face life each day as individuals and families together and alone as well as falling in and out of them in and out of dependences

When you have no choice you find a way to get things done but nothing you don’t dwell just do when you do you realize a lot of things take care of themselves.

Second Sleep . by Robert Harris.

Second Sleep . 

by Robert Harris.

1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote Exmoor village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. .. Fairfax becomes determined to discover the truth. Over the course of the next six days, everything he believes--about himself, his faith, and the history of his world--will be tested to destruction.

1468 I assumed was during the birth of the renaissance in Europe- wrong

Cathedrals spoke of organized religion the way we are familiar with it - wrong.

Slow starting book means bad book- wrong.

Though a less than satisfactory ending I enjoyed the book and it quickly went by. Call to discuss don’t want to be a spoiler!

Life After Google by George Gilder

Life After Google by George Gilder

Much of the rest of Life reads as a stream of consciousness chock full of references to some of the biggest names in technology, along with lots of insider-y tech talk. As for bitcoin itself, it’s a junk currency.  It is because in terms of volatility, it exhibits all the dollar’s worst qualities in exponentially greater fashion. 


Google offers to its “customers” is free. Internet searches are free. Email is free. The vast resources of the data centers, costing Google an estimated thirty billion dollars to build, are provided essentially for free. Free is not by accident. If your business plan is to have access to the data of the entire world, then free is an imperative.


Money, like the cosmos, has become relativistic and reversible at will. The three hundred years of Newtonian prosperity having come to an end, the new multiverse seems unable to repeat the miracle of a golden age of capitalism. It is now widely held that citizens are essentially owned by the state on which they depend. Slavery, in the form of servitude to governments, is making a comeback as money transactions become less trustworthy.

Thinking is conscious, willful, imaginative, and creative. A computer running at gigahertz speeds and playing a deterministic game like chess or Go is only a machine.

The economy has arrived at a point where it produces enough in principle for everyone… So this new period we are entering is not so much about production anymore — how much is produced; it is about distribution — how people get a share in what is produced.Life After Google by George Gilder

Much of the rest of Life reads as a stream of consciousness chock full of references to some of the biggest names in technology, along with lots of insider-y tech talk. As for bitcoin itself, it’s a junk currency.  It is because in terms of volatility, it exhibits all the dollar’s worst qualities in exponentially greater fashion. 


Google offers to its “customers” is free. Internet searches are free. Email is free. The vast resources of the data centers, costing Google an estimated thirty billion dollars to build, are provided essentially for free. Free is not by accident. If your business plan is to have access to the data of the entire world, then free is an imperative.


Money, like the cosmos, has become relativistic and reversible at will. The three hundred years of Newtonian prosperity having come to an end, the new multiverse seems unable to repeat the miracle of a golden age of capitalism. It is now widely held that citizens are essentially owned by the state on which they depend. Slavery, in the form of servitude to governments, is making a comeback as money transactions become less trustworthy.

Thinking is conscious, willful, imaginative, and creative. A computer running at gigahertz speeds and playing a deterministic game like chess or Go is only a machine.

The economy has arrived at a point where it produces enough in principle for everyone… So this new period we are entering is not so much about production anymore — how much is produced; it is about distribution — how people get a share in what is produced.

The dutch house. By Ann Patchett

The dutch house 

By Ann Patchett

Ok Brigham I confess I’m enjoying it. What’s not to like about sentences like:

-But that’s where we wound up: like swallows like salmon with a helpless captives of our migratory patterns.

-to list the things I didn’t ask my father about would be to list the stars in heaven, so let me throw out one:

“ we were for filling the expectations that have been set for us: the sons of doctors were expected to become doctors because back in the day medicine was still where the smart kids went a handful of them in my medical school class who knows maybe they were one to actually want to be there ... immigrants were expected to become doctors in order to make a better life for their families and others had been driven to work the hardest be the smartest respect

“ I learned a lot about Celeste in the year she been gone I came to see her willingness to not be a distraction as something that took effort I didn’t even know how to be grateful for it; until I was with other women who wanted to read the articles from the paper in the morning I was studying or read me their horoscope for my horoscope explain their feelings to me or crying over the fact that I never explained my feelings to them. Celeste had been so adept at making me her job that I hadn’t seen her doing it l. It wasn’t until after she left that I realize she stayed till Sunday nights because Sunday was when she wash the sheets and the rest of the laundry made the bed and got back in it. 

And so I made the decision to change it might seem like change is impossible with my nature and my age but I understood exactly what there was to lose. It was chemistry all over again. The point was it whether I like or not I liked it . the point was it had to be done.

Back of Candlelight

I think this is on the border of being a romance novel. it’s smart women,in a small town,the bookstore is a central player in the story. Where all the main characters are single women, of various races, ethnicitites persuasions except one - There are multiple second-tier men in the story as well though they are not critical, essential yes, Not critical.

Bibliotherapy words have power to hurt and heal but can do both. will hurt because they’ll give voice to the pain you’re feeling then they’ll help you heal. 

Life of our Lord by Charles Dickens

Life of our Lord 

by Charles Dickens

Between 1846 and 1849 Charles Dickens wrote The Life of our Lord;  The New English version of the gospels,  the story of Christ. He wanted to make sure it was in the language that his children could understand this was just for his kids. They were never published as a book and he made others promise they would not publish it either. Once they were all dead , a grandson , published it in 1934. It was never counted among his published works, millions and millions of copies. His purpose was simple to teach his children about the life in history of Jesus Christ to bring your tears of mercy and forgiveness.

Read it in one day that was meant to be read that way. He made  it easy to read and comprehend the story of Christ Jesus. Power of the scriptures I found it a good Christmas activity.

“It is Christianity to do good always, even to those who do evil to us. It is Christianity to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to do to all men as we would have them do to us. 

It is Christianity to be gentle, merciful and forgiving, and to keep those qualities quiet in our own hearts, never make a boast of them or of our  prayers or of  our love of God, but always to show that we love him by humbly trying to do the right in everything. If we do this, and remember the life and lessons of our Lord Jesus Christ and try to act up to them, we may confidently hope that God will forgive us our sins and mistakes and enable us to live and die in peace.

The Murmur of Bees

The Murmur of Bees Sophia Segovia 

 The main story focuses on the Morales Cortés family in Linares, north of Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s and the scourge of the Spanish flu epidemic. An unpredictable love story of beautiful versatility and dedication to the family, to life, to land and to a brother that has always been waiting. But, also, a story of a betrayal that could end everything.

...and by the rapturous smells of “oranges, blossoms, and honey. Without the bees swarming around him, coming and going, the information he received from the world was linear; while with them, from the moment he had begun to feel sensation, he had grown accustomed to perceiving the world as it was: a sphere.” the changes in his community, the adventures and misfortunes, and, most of all, how Simonopio, a young boy that has a strong intuition to foretell future events, manages to change the history of the family that takes him in and of the whole region

And then told themselves everything was back to normal. Lost in Hardwork they forgot that the families living in exile as far away as possible from ...

Delighted him that his was a story that never been written down. Being in possession of that story meant Simonopio could make endless changes… He does not put it in writing enjoy the freedom to reshape it at will

“ that “you leave a place or say goodbye to someone, and thereafter, you feel the existence you have left behind is frozen by your absence.”

..life had no guarantees regardless of how many plans were made ... while life did not make promises sometimes it offered opportunities... 

... it was if she lived only half life in complete in both places after that because after the experience of three months in exile she knew that life stopped for nothing, not even for the needs of a woman abandoning everything, albeit temporarily to be with her daughters to get to know her grandchildren… She felt The relationship would change she would be left outside like an intruder in her own home , a voyeur who can only look into a cracked closed window. 

The world is for the living ... When should I claim to old habits in a longer work in changing world even if it felt as if they had been hit by another revolution

... It doesn’t matter whether Time passes slowly or quickly. What you can be sure of is that in the end all you want is to have more. ...

If he had his wife in front of him just one more time, and find a way to repeat in the single look all of the tender words that he had said to her since they met. He would make sure that this last look would even create new words just for her.

The permanent absence of her husband had given her no choice but to admit it out loud life offers no guarantees to anyone and waits for nobody has no consideration for anyone

Houses die when they are not fed with their owners energy… Living house where I was born gave me everything that defined it when I left...

How did the bees do it ... it was important to listen to listen to what life sometimes murmurs into your ear, heart, or gut. Listen carefully and pay attention, Francisco. 

Tell the story to my children they only know pieces of it it’s time for them to know at all tell them I love them very much they’re worth the years I spent that see my brother tell them to walk in the shade to listen with their eyes to see what their skin feel with their ears because life speaks to us all just need to know wait to listen to it see it feel it I know all too well that these lessons come late but I wasn’t ready to teach them until today.

We walk without looking back because on this journey all we care about is our Destination

Remind you of the ending of Chronicles of Narnia as they walk to the greenline remind you of the ending of great divorce as people walk to where they become real to having

Overground railroad: the green book and the roots of black travel in America.   by Candacy Taylor

The green book represents an ingenious solution to a horrific problem - optimism of a race of people facing tyranny and terrorism.

An opportunity to examine America's story of segregation,  black migration, and the rise of the black leisure class; and you go to these sites you remember that America is a messy collection of customs traditions and values and beliefs systems that have been shaped by capitalism patriarchy and white supremacy.

“Don’t buy where you can’t work” great theme for a protest I think

“Sundown town” is an all white enclave that bands black people from entering after dark.

Esso corporation headed by Rockefeller had a vision for treating black people with dignity and respect back in the 1930s. I never knew he had done such good things wayback when and had someone of color, even at the VP level. 

Some green book hotels are literally the first tourist homes - the first Airbnb’s

The new Jim Crowe mass incarceration in the age of color blindness found that more African-Americans are under correctional control today than were enslaved in 1850.

History does not repeat itself humans do!

Prison gerrymandering takes black people out of their communities and places them at least in the census in a nearly all black inmates are counted as resident in the prison instead of the towns where they are from .

Not a particularly well written or structured book. Fraught with redundancy  and cobbled together thoughts. It was extremely well researched and commented. Overwhelming in the totality of institutional racism that has and does continue to define America. Yet, another voice that aids in the awakening of the need for change  in the US of A.

Here in the Real World  by Sara PennyPacker

Under the guise of pre-screening a new book to share with Eden and or Dean, in the NYT Reviews,I found this from the author of Pax, - Here in the Real World - a middle grade novel that is “an ode to introverts, dreamers, and misfits everywhere”.  It had me second guessing at the beginning, in candor to the end, whether it was an evangelical, born-again novella. It was not, she simply uses that vocabulary and language in a comfortable, natural, non-forced manner. I should do more of that by embracing gospel terms in my everyday language. I think the kids will enjoy it. I did.” Don’t ask to be normal - you are so much more than that.” The main characters are different yet the same as they try to self identify and as they do , how to live in a world that does not always embrace who you want to be. Naturally, it is set in Florida.

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell.

Gladwell proposes that we don’t know how to talk to strangers because of this we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding that have a profound effect on life in the world. He provides very solid examples. However I feel short-changed at the end in that he doesn’t provide sufficient solutions or workarounds. Still an interesting read.

• Assume the best of other people is an anchor point of modern society
• There are definitely limits to our ability to decipher a stranger . And statistically were easily mistaken
• we need to exercise restraint / caution and humility when evaluating a stranger
• Truth and transparency are needed recognize that we don’t understand the stranger 

We are the weather Jonathan Safran Foer

We are the weather - saving the planet begins at breakfastJonathan Safran Foer

We all have to choose to make a difference as little as I can be and as public as it can be

   Over the years my motivations changed because the available information changed because my life changed aging has proliferated  my identities ,  time softens ethical boundaries fosters a greater appreciation for what might be called the messiness of life 

      A pivotal moment in the Bible where God asks his people where they are he finds Adam hiding after eating the forbidden fruit and says where are you?and when he calls to Abraham before asking about sacrifice his only son clearly an omniscient God knows where his creations are his questions are not about the location of a body in space but the location of a self within a person

⁃ 59% crop growing land is growing crops  for livestock 

⁃ 1/3 of all freshwater that human use this for livestock 

⁃ 70% of the antibiotics produced globally are used for livestock 

⁃ 60% of all mammals on earth are raised for food 

⁃ There are 30 farm animals for every human on the planet

The four  highest impact things an individual can do to tackle climate change are :

1- eat a plant-based diet 

2- avoid air travel 

3- use the car less

4- have fewer children

I  could not see it because I was not looking for it

It’s a shame that instead of having a minority of climate atheists we have a majority of climate  agnostics

It is not enough to say that we want more life m, we must refuse to stop saying it! can you show me a home together which was arguing with ourselves and we shall make a home together

Kindness and Wonder Fred Rogers By: Edwards Gav

Kindness and Wonder

Fred Rogers

By: Edwards Gav

I just finished listening to this delightful book of an exemplar man; and I’m anxious to see the movie with Tom Hanks . Fred was incredibly consistent between his public and private self; in a good way. 

I enjoyed listening ! 

Phrases to go by

1-there’s just one person in the world just like you and I like you just the way you are

2- A gift of a grand piano from his grandma change the way Fred saw him self

3- there’s no contradiction in using a secular tool for religious purpose (his view was the TV the brothers today as the Internet)

4- pray more for other people in the morning before your day starts

5- that which is essential is invisible to the eye - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

6-You can talk to me about anything you want to and I will try to help you in anyway I can

7- Did I help someone in need today and I let them know I was their friend

Emulate Fred Rogers:

• Be deep and simple 
• Be kind to strangers
• Make a joyful noise
• Tell the truth
• Connect with other people in anyway you can
• Love your neighbor
• Find the light in the darkness
• Always see the very best in everyone
• Accept the changing seasons
• Share what you learn
• (Spontaneous acts of kindness)

The Convert A Novel. Stefan Hertmans. Translated by David McKay

 T

The Convert

A NOVEL.

by Stefan Hertmans 

Translated by David McKay

The story where worlds collide. What’s the blond-hair blue-eyed Viking descendant daughter of a Christian manor lord doing getting married with a Jewish son of a rabbi traversing old France to Egypt evading pogroms and the Crusuades kicking into gear in the 1090’s .

This historic novel is narrated by the author (within the book - not Stephan hertsman) writing the book about the woman convert . Retracing her steps of the 1100s as sleuths

the puzzle of documentation and place 1000 yrs after the fact , by retracing her steps today.

If you like the middle ages , like revisiting places in Egypt and France and Spain that you visited before; like a blend of good guys between Muslims and Christians and Jews - then this is a book for you. I enjoyed all those aspects what a fun read it was a quick read.

Lost and Found. Orson Scott Card

Lost and Found

Orson Scott Card 

Coming of age , growing up story - find your place in the world , no matter how odd - old you might be ; and grab on to your potential 

The boy who harnessed the wind

The boy who harnessed the wind. Film

The boy who harnessed the wind   

This film depicts in subtext, how climate change deeply affects people so dependent on farming for every bite of food they eat and what little cash they can earn. While this film is primarily about a very bright young man who helps his family and community, the underlying conditions affecting them are apparent. It brings home why people become so desperate to leave their homeland when even basic education is denied their children and famine is staring at them with ravenous eyes.
We have so much here and somehow think we are special, blessed. But we are just the beneficiaries of ancestors who were forced by circumstances out of their homelands to come here and steal the lands of the people who had been here for thousands of years. Instead of being grateful for what we have, we sit on our largesse of goods like misters and begrudge even our own poor enough to live. Look at the tents of the homeless lining our city streets.
Yes, this film raises all of these thoughts and questions and it is marvelous how this 13y boy succeeded to help this one community. But if the rest of us sitting on spaceship Earth don't recognize soon that we are all one family dependent on our One Strange Rock we too will find out what it means to be destitute and abandoned by our elected government. Wind power indeed, a real solution and we can help by supporting the development of it and solar energy, no polluting, clean and available everywhere.

A good film to learn from and spark conversation