Month: August 2021

Two miles, fruit breakfast, a bit of research, coffee at Rick’s, where I wrote out the spinal ideas for Sunday’s sermon, back home for research, research, research.

Two miles, hot breakfast, reading for research, and that was mostly it for today. Grocery trip, walk into town to return a library book and look in at a few shops.

Flora, Minke and I are on our own this morning as Margaret visits a friend in Brighton. I ran a mile and a half (knowing that I’d be doing more walking than usual), fruit breakfast (Margaret made a smoothie for me before she left), research reading, and dogwalking.

Och, coming up with ‘titles’ for skeletal posts!

Two miles this morning, fruit breakfast, finally finished my first pass through Legends III (Moses ranks first among the pious men of history, outstripping Adam, Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph, even the Messiah[!], but at the risk of speaking out of turn, he was sort of a big crybaby about having to die at the age of 110). Pleasant walk to the city to pick up a reference book from Blackwells, and reading. Did you know that the press division of Blackwells used to occupy a house just across the street from St Stephen’s House? Now, that would have been handy… or dangerous…

Two miles (while the rain was just starting), hot breakfast, ‘Moses Serves Joshua’ almost to the end of Legends III; I should finish it tomorrow.

Two miles, hot breakfast, spent an hour or two sorting out a weirdness about John 5:39 in Codex Bezae, ‘Moses’ Prayer for Suspension of Judgment’ (long section), ‘God Tries to Comfort Moses Concerning His Death,’ and ‘The Intercessions for Moses’ from Legends III, and some reading from The Cowley Fathers.

Two miles, fruit breakfast, ‘Wealth that Bringeth Destruction’ and ‘Moses’ Death Irrevocably Doomed’ from Legends III, and more reading from The Cowley Fathers.

Two miles, fruit breakfast, reminiscence, reading…

Much reflection on the music that has so deeply informed my life these days. I thought (this morning, while I was running my two miles before fruit breakfast) of how short the Beatles’ moment was for a young observer in the US. Of course I was aware of them in a general sense from the Ed Sullivan appearance, from the films and the background music of cultural life, to the point of anticipating the release of Sgt Pepper’s; the White Album was the first Beatles record I owned, so let’s make 1968 my first full-on engagement with the Beatles, and the break-up, followed by the release of Let It Be, is only three years later. Three years is not long, especially in the retrospect of the timeline of rock history, especially in the retrospect of a lifetime. Even if (as a USian) one had been paying close attention all along, 1964-1970 is only six+ years. That’s a huge cultural impact in a very abbreviated window.

(Reflecting on retrospect also reminds me that one of the chart-toppers in my adolescence was the bathetic ‘Reflections (Of My Life)’ by The Marmalade, also from 1970.)

Two miles, hot breakfast, and a determination to dig in and benefit from yesterday’s instructive conversation. I was steered away from a grave false step, and steered toward many (too many) research sources; some tentative conclusions confirmed, some presuppositions disabused. Much reading, when the dogs allowed concentration.

One mile this morning, fruit breakfast, coffee with a colleague for a productive conversation about Anglican hermeneutics, home for an appointment and dog-oversight, and really not much time or energy for anything else at the end of the day.

Two miles (three days in a row), fruit breakfast, some reading but all in all a difficult day for getting things done.