Living to Read, Reading to Live
“The Word became flesh and lived among us.”
My 5’8” dad at his weightiest never hit 150 lbs. He had a saying, ‘Some people live to eat; others just eat to live.’ With me, substitute ‘read’ for ‘eat’. Plus for me, this is not an either/or but a wonderful dance of both. Besides the enjoyment of books (living to read) there is the meaning of living and dying that books at least partially reveal (reading to live).
So, the other side of the John 1.14 mystery of Word into flesh is the wonder of flesh becoming words…then again enfleshed in our living and dying.
Here are some books that 'en-worded' some life in the flesh meaning for me in 2016.
THE GREAT SPIRITUAL MIGRATION: HOW THE WORLD’S LARGEST RELIGION IS SEEKING A BETTER WAY TO BE CHRISTIAN. Prolific author Brian McLaren is at his best here: developing what he has previously named ‘a generous orthodoxy,’ even better, ‘a generous Christianity.’ How the God of Jesus and scripture takes us forward to somewhere we have never been, more than backward to some place we once or never were…more about courageously including people, than fearfully excluding them.
CONCLAVE: THE POWER OF GOD, THE AMBITION OF MEN. Robert Harris gives an absorbing fictional account of cardinals electing a new pope, that has the ring and sting of the real way religious leaders mix ego with their positions, be they conservative or progressive. Early on, two cardinals have a conversation about the recently deceased pope, who seems modeled after present Pope Francis, more committed to what’s humane than dogmatic. One asks: “The Pope had doubts about God?” The other responds: “Not about God. What he lost faith in was the Church.” Ka-ching and ouch!
JAYBER CROW. Not sure why I am so late coming to the writings of Wendell Berry. But thanks to the triangulating efforts of Sally, R.G., and Carolyn, I got started with the account of Jayber the bald barber in the fictional Port William, Kentucky, and all the related people and places explored in that book, and in Berry's other Port William novels. Jayber has poignant experiences in his own life, as well as keen insights into the lives, hearts, and heads he trimmed.
HIS FINAL BATTLE: THE LAST MONTHS OF FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT. For various reasons, I have long had a fascination with Roosevelt and Churchill. I have lost count of the books about them I have read. With both, the more I know about them, the less I like them, but the more amazed I am at their mix of human flaws and near superhuman genius…and luck. Joseph Lelyveld gives a page-turner account of the last months of Roosevelt’s life: his secret fragile health; his duplicity galore, juggling of people, personally and politically; his leading to the ending of the WW2 and beginning of the Cold War.
REDEEMING SEX: NAKED CONVERSATIONS ABOUT SEXUALITY & SPIRITUALITY. This was read by the Holy Conversation group our Bishop led with clergy representing pretty much the continuum of perspectives on same gender sexuality. Minister-author Debra Hirsch is winsomely transparent about her own experiences in her search for sexual identity…that was interlaced with her spiritual search for an authentic faith. Evangelical and Biblical in the best sense of the word, compassionate not condemning, accepting not rejecting, Hirsh centers on real people relationships in the ever complicated spiritual/sexual lives of all of us sinner/saints.
THE PIGEON TUNNEL is a collection of autobiographical chapters about the life and books of the arch spy novel author John LeCarre – nom de plume of David Cornwell. Terrifically readable: which is more than I can say about some of the passages of his novels. Interlaced with accounts of famous people, there is also tender sharing about LeCarre/Cornwell’s charmer, con man father. Though LeCarre maintains his time as a spy was short and peripheral, that his books are fiction, not veiled accounts about the real spy world, he raises a piercing question. How much violence, lying, blackmail, betrayal, and dark deeds can we condone before we are as bad as the so-called bad guys we are trying to stop?
FEAR OF THE OTHER: NO FEAR IN LOVE. Unsure if the newest but at least this a recent book by Bishop Willimon. Simple and profound, Willimon explores the Bible’s core care for persons variously translated as ‘aliens’, ‘sojourners’ and/or the ‘immigrants’ in the land. Our fear of the ‘others’ – be it immigrants, Muslims, same gender sexual orientation or our enduring racial bigotries – reflect and project mainly our own internal dis-ease with, our fears of our own inadequacies in, ourselves. Discomforted but glad I succumbed to buy yet another Willimon book.
A MAN CALLED OVE by Swedish author Fredrik Backman was a delight suggested to me by Dianne, a gift to her from her friend Peggy. Ove – not sure how to pronounce it – is a crusty aging widower. The book is sad and funny, honest and encouraging about the grief and ongoing impact of people whose life on earth has ended, but not their abiding presence with us. How our best mission is to give that love forward to the exasperating/exhilarating people around us.
LAB GIRL by scientist Hope Jahren, thanks to Annie’s rec, was a surprise good read. I did not know how financially difficult being a scientist is today. Or how interesting and entertaining setting up a lab and doing experiments are. Yet again how fascinating, amazing, even awe-inspiring is all that goes on in soil, trees, and leaves. All of which provides food and air for us and the planet. Go(o)d for us!
Instead of ending this list with my intended WHISTLESTOP: MY FAVORITE STORIES FROM PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY by newsman John Dickerson – perhaps not quite as rough as the recent election – the crazy, mean stuff has been a part of presidential elections since Adams and Jefferson duked it out – I have decided to recall one of THE most seminal books I have read in recent years…
THE RIGHTEOUS MIND: WHY GOOD PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED BY POLITICS AND RELIGION. I have been referring to and recommending this book by Psychology and Business Ethics professor Jonathan Haidt since I first read it in 2012. Thick-ish book. Well referenced. Good stories and helpful diagrams. Entertaining and persuasive. Haidt describes how our brains and personalities form our strongest values: beliefs/religion and views/politics. The key is how our emotions play such a surprisingly huge part in this. His image is a man riding/ trying to guide his elephant. Man, small = cognitive. Elephant, large = emotions. There are sincere reasons why some people commit themselves to conservative and others to liberal positions. We can’t just yell at, shame or charm one another, to accept our views. We have to learn how to listen, find ways where both sides are stretched to see the other side. Well, too much and too little on this. Not for the faint: the book or life.
On the buffet of my reading table remains more to be read than read. 2017 off to a good start spending time with a book of Bonhoeffer readings my son Andrew gave me; Krista Tippett’s SPEAKING OF FAITH: WHY RELIGION MATTERS – AND HOW TO TALK ABOUT IT; and SPILL, SIMMER, WITHER by Sara Baume, a novel about an eccentric Irish guy and his one eyed rescue dog – the dog just better not die, at least in the book!
So many books – so little time.