Lots of people in the Village are trying to finish The Brothers Karamozov in time for the discussions we'll have this weekend on the book. Doug Thorpe, who teaches English at SPU, will be here to lead those discussions. Doug, a member at St. Mark's Cathedral, is a long-time Holden person, most recently a regular on the Teaching Staff. There are few Spark notes around, and yesterday Carol Hinderlie downloaded the Wikipedia synopsis! It is a long book, but what a good one! I read it 35+ years ago, and I don't remember enjoying it so much. This is a newer translation - 1999 - which received rave reviews as making Dostoevsky's style really come out in English. So maybe that's the whole thing. But it is a great book. I'm especially impressed with the dialog. He is clearly one of those authors - Iris Murdoch being another - who can write pages of conversation and you never lose track of who is talking. Amazing.
Some non-book notes: it's been snowing today, which will be nice for all the people coming in for the week-end and for next week. The Village will more than double in size. It will put quite a strain on the power supply, so we're all cutting back on any unnecessary electrical use - even more than we've cut back already. It's very interesting to live so close to all the things that make our little town work. In the city, the sweep in so broad you lose track of the infrastructure. Here, it's part of your dinner conversation!
Back to the vile Karamozov and his screwy sons!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
A Beautiful Mountain Day
Although the weather has been unseasonably warm, with forecasts for more temperatures in the 40's, we awoke today to a beautiful cold, clear day here in the Railroad Creek Valley. Here's a picture of Copper and Fernow this morning:
We had a wonderful Woman's Retreat over the weekend with an excellent group of women, mostly from Western Washington, with a few from Minnesota. Now we have the "Spinning Sisters" from St. Placid Priory in Lacey. They come up with their spinning wheels and all and teach anyone who wants to wander into the Dining Hall. This all started in 1998 when Sister Monika met Pastor Jim Christiansen at a spiritual directors' retreat at the priory. He raises sheep, they were learning to spin, and the rest is history. They have become quite famous for their felted sheep, many of which are sold in the Holden store. (See blog Post 1 for a picture of our welcome sheep!) One of the nuns at the Priory is just knitting sheep #900! Jim gets all the centennial sheep, so this one will add to his collection. They also lead worship for us while they are here, which is very nice. They have adapted the Benedictine hours into a lovely set of very inclusive liturgies that work well here at Holden. Jim also brought fresh lamb for us, which will be lovely for dinner one day.
Tuesday evening is craft night after dinner (we've had our worship for the day at breakfast) and tonight the St. Placid folk will teach how to needle-felt hearts for Valentine's Day. Fun!
We had a wonderful Woman's Retreat over the weekend with an excellent group of women, mostly from Western Washington, with a few from Minnesota. Now we have the "Spinning Sisters" from St. Placid Priory in Lacey. They come up with their spinning wheels and all and teach anyone who wants to wander into the Dining Hall. This all started in 1998 when Sister Monika met Pastor Jim Christiansen at a spiritual directors' retreat at the priory. He raises sheep, they were learning to spin, and the rest is history. They have become quite famous for their felted sheep, many of which are sold in the Holden store. (See blog Post 1 for a picture of our welcome sheep!) One of the nuns at the Priory is just knitting sheep #900! Jim gets all the centennial sheep, so this one will add to his collection. They also lead worship for us while they are here, which is very nice. They have adapted the Benedictine hours into a lovely set of very inclusive liturgies that work well here at Holden. Jim also brought fresh lamb for us, which will be lovely for dinner one day.
Tuesday evening is craft night after dinner (we've had our worship for the day at breakfast) and tonight the St. Placid folk will teach how to needle-felt hearts for Valentine's Day. Fun!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Wednesday Book
After the weirdness of Merrily Watkins in cider-coated Herefordshire, I went back to Scandinavia and read K. O. Dahl's The Fourth Man. It is a very good read. I almost suspected I had read it before when someone's hytta (Norwegian "chalet" they say in the book) burned down, but I think that happens often in these Norwegian/Swedish/Icelandic mysteries. (Anybody know a Danish one?) It is a nice complex plot, clearly nicely written and good in translation.
I moved on from there to my next Andrea Camilleri Inspector Montalbano book, Rounding the Mark. This one is laugh-out-loud funny. I love these books! They are so real and such good stories, full of all the joys, sorrows - and, being Sicily, crime - of human life. Salvo Montalbano is a terrific character. In this book his very favorite restaurant closes when the owner retires, but he quickly finds another as good. The descriptions of him eating and savoring his food are worth the books. I want to go to Sicily for pasta in squid ink! Please, read these books! Here they are in order, and in order they should be read:
The Shape of Water (La forma dell’acqua, 1994)
The Terracotta Dog (Il cane di terracotta, 1996)
The Snack Thief (Il ladro di merendine, 1996)
The Voice of the Violin (La voce del violino, 1997)
Excursion to Tindari (La gita a Tindari, 2000)
The Scent of the Night (L’odore della notte, 2001)
Rounding the Mark (Il giro di boa, 2003)
The Patience of the Spider - 2007 (La pazienza del ragno - 2004)
The Paper Moon - 2008 (La Luna di Carta - 2005)
August Heat - 2009 (La Vampa d'Agosto - 2006)
The Sphinx's Wings - 2009 (Le Ali della Sfinge - 2006)
The Sand Path - 2010 (La pista di Sabbia - 2007)
The Potter's Field - 2010 (Il campo del vasaio - 2008)
The Age of Doubt - 2010 (L'età del dubbio) - 2008
There are two more, but they aren't translated yet. There's TV, too, and two episodes were aired in England in 2008. They don't seem to be appearing here yet.
Now I finally gave in and started Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize winning novel about Thomas Cromwell. What a book. It is amazing writing and story/history telling. It is a reading feast. We have a stop day here tomorrow, and it's a good thing or there might not be a sermon on Sunday! I will have to take a break though as we have the annual Women's Retreat this weekend and I have to do Bible Study. (The Bible - I recommend that one, too!) But we also have Doug Thorpe, who teaches English at SPU, coming up over Valentine's weekend to do sessions on The Brothers Karamozov, and I'm going to take a shot at getting through a lot of the newer translation that came out in 1999 - supposedly way better than the one I read in college! So Wolf Hall will have to wait until the week after next. That's ok. It's the kind of book you don't want to finish in a hurry because it will be over.
Happy reading!
I moved on from there to my next Andrea Camilleri Inspector Montalbano book, Rounding the Mark. This one is laugh-out-loud funny. I love these books! They are so real and such good stories, full of all the joys, sorrows - and, being Sicily, crime - of human life. Salvo Montalbano is a terrific character. In this book his very favorite restaurant closes when the owner retires, but he quickly finds another as good. The descriptions of him eating and savoring his food are worth the books. I want to go to Sicily for pasta in squid ink! Please, read these books! Here they are in order, and in order they should be read:
The Shape of Water (La forma dell’acqua, 1994)
The Terracotta Dog (Il cane di terracotta, 1996)
The Snack Thief (Il ladro di merendine, 1996)
The Voice of the Violin (La voce del violino, 1997)
Excursion to Tindari (La gita a Tindari, 2000)
The Scent of the Night (L’odore della notte, 2001)
Rounding the Mark (Il giro di boa, 2003)
The Patience of the Spider - 2007 (La pazienza del ragno - 2004)
The Paper Moon - 2008 (La Luna di Carta - 2005)
August Heat - 2009 (La Vampa d'Agosto - 2006)
The Sphinx's Wings - 2009 (Le Ali della Sfinge - 2006)
The Sand Path - 2010 (La pista di Sabbia - 2007)
The Potter's Field - 2010 (Il campo del vasaio - 2008)
The Age of Doubt - 2010 (L'età del dubbio) - 2008
There are two more, but they aren't translated yet. There's TV, too, and two episodes were aired in England in 2008. They don't seem to be appearing here yet.
Now I finally gave in and started Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize winning novel about Thomas Cromwell. What a book. It is amazing writing and story/history telling. It is a reading feast. We have a stop day here tomorrow, and it's a good thing or there might not be a sermon on Sunday! I will have to take a break though as we have the annual Women's Retreat this weekend and I have to do Bible Study. (The Bible - I recommend that one, too!) But we also have Doug Thorpe, who teaches English at SPU, coming up over Valentine's weekend to do sessions on The Brothers Karamozov, and I'm going to take a shot at getting through a lot of the newer translation that came out in 1999 - supposedly way better than the one I read in college! So Wolf Hall will have to wait until the week after next. That's ok. It's the kind of book you don't want to finish in a hurry because it will be over.
Happy reading!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Texas! Part 2
The Hispanic Theology Conference in San Antonio was the program for the regular January gathering of ELCA pastors in Texas. The three synods in that state join forces each year for their pastors' conferences. Carol and Nancy learned a lot not only about Hispanic Theology, but also about Texas Lutherans and pastors. We had a very good time. I felt just as much at home among those folk as I do here in the Pacific Northwest. Very nice indeed.
The speakers were quite different in many ways, but each good in her/his own regard. Probably the star of the show was Dr. Justo Gonzalez, a Methodist pastor and theologian. His main presentation was a very poignant (and very funny!) assessment of what it's like to be an "in-between" person in the United States. One of the interesting features of him and one other speaker was that they both came from educated, doing-fine families before coming to the US, and then were surprised at being regarded as neither here - in fact, not being regarded at all. Gonzalez also did a Bible Study on Acts 6 which was very good - a new view.
Another speaker spoke about the love for the Virgin Mary in Hispanic culture, likening it to other ancient observances, and even to the huge esteem still showered on the late young rock star Selena. Others included an ELCA pastor who works at churchwide, and a seminary professor from PLTS. As noted above, each brought a different perspective to the blessings and challenges of being Christian and Latina/o. We learned a lot.
Two of my dearest friends from my seminary days are pastors in Texas, and I was very happy to be able to visit with David Henry, a soon-to-be-retired pastor in Marble Falls (he and I have these almost exactly parallel careers!), and Don Carlson, on the staff of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod. It was really fun to see them. For all you Faith folk, I also had a great visit with Charles and Phoebe Meyer. Charles is Rich Meyer's brother, and part of that host of people from Faith who have gone into ordained ministry. His whole career has been in Texas. Carol and I also made good Holden connections with Ann Hafften and Franz Schemmel, as well as recent staff member Mindy Roll.
In between the lectures and the visiting, we walked the Riverwalk and enjoyed ourselves. Here's a picture of Carol on the Riverwalk:
On Monday night we walked to an interesting-sounding restaurant in Southtown that was a Latin American fusion place. The name is Azuca. We again made a meal of appetizers, and a very good one it was. Tuesday night dinner was part of the conference after a Eucharist at St. John's Lutheran Church.
On our way to the Eucharist with Mindy Roll, we stopped at a shop we'd seen the night before and bought hats! These were used to great effect when we returned to Holden, both getting off the boat and getting off the bus. Lots of fun! Here we are in our hats:
We returned to Seattle on Wednesday evening. Nancy had a Candidacy Committee meeting on Thursday, then picked up Carol in Mukilteo and we headed for Leavenworth and another great meal at South - a really fine Mexican restaurant right there in everyone's favorite Bavarian Village.
So now we're back at Holden and it's February. Lent is not too far away, and the warm temperatures give us a hint of the Spring to come. But we'll remember January 2010!
The speakers were quite different in many ways, but each good in her/his own regard. Probably the star of the show was Dr. Justo Gonzalez, a Methodist pastor and theologian. His main presentation was a very poignant (and very funny!) assessment of what it's like to be an "in-between" person in the United States. One of the interesting features of him and one other speaker was that they both came from educated, doing-fine families before coming to the US, and then were surprised at being regarded as neither here - in fact, not being regarded at all. Gonzalez also did a Bible Study on Acts 6 which was very good - a new view.
Another speaker spoke about the love for the Virgin Mary in Hispanic culture, likening it to other ancient observances, and even to the huge esteem still showered on the late young rock star Selena. Others included an ELCA pastor who works at churchwide, and a seminary professor from PLTS. As noted above, each brought a different perspective to the blessings and challenges of being Christian and Latina/o. We learned a lot.
Two of my dearest friends from my seminary days are pastors in Texas, and I was very happy to be able to visit with David Henry, a soon-to-be-retired pastor in Marble Falls (he and I have these almost exactly parallel careers!), and Don Carlson, on the staff of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod. It was really fun to see them. For all you Faith folk, I also had a great visit with Charles and Phoebe Meyer. Charles is Rich Meyer's brother, and part of that host of people from Faith who have gone into ordained ministry. His whole career has been in Texas. Carol and I also made good Holden connections with Ann Hafften and Franz Schemmel, as well as recent staff member Mindy Roll.
In between the lectures and the visiting, we walked the Riverwalk and enjoyed ourselves. Here's a picture of Carol on the Riverwalk:
On Monday night we walked to an interesting-sounding restaurant in Southtown that was a Latin American fusion place. The name is Azuca. We again made a meal of appetizers, and a very good one it was. Tuesday night dinner was part of the conference after a Eucharist at St. John's Lutheran Church.
On our way to the Eucharist with Mindy Roll, we stopped at a shop we'd seen the night before and bought hats! These were used to great effect when we returned to Holden, both getting off the boat and getting off the bus. Lots of fun! Here we are in our hats:
We returned to Seattle on Wednesday evening. Nancy had a Candidacy Committee meeting on Thursday, then picked up Carol in Mukilteo and we headed for Leavenworth and another great meal at South - a really fine Mexican restaurant right there in everyone's favorite Bavarian Village.So now we're back at Holden and it's February. Lent is not too far away, and the warm temperatures give us a hint of the Spring to come. But we'll remember January 2010!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Texas!
The second trip in January was to Texas. Holden Director Carol Hinderlie and Nancy signed up in the Fall to attend the Tri-Synodical Pastors' Conference in San Antonio January 25-27. We had heard about it because the program title was Hispanic Theology. At Holden each August there's a Spanish-speaking week called Abriendo Caminos, and Carol thought it would be helpful to hear the perspectives of the speakers at the January conference. Nancy went because of her role as chair of the Candidacy Committee in the Northwest Washington Synod. There are two Latino candidates in Mt. Vernon who are doing their seminary work in what's called TEEM: Theological Education in Emergent Ministries. The candidates are raised up and work in their own communities, and work with specific seminaries for their theological education. These two do their education at Lutheran Seminary Program of the Southwest in Austin. TEEM was going to be a major part of the conference.
The conference was in San Antonio. But, since we both enjoy good music - especially Texas-style bluesy stuff - we flew into San Antonio on Saturday afternoon, rented a car and drove north to Austin. We had a great hotel to stay in - the Hotel San Jose - on South Congress Street right across from the Continental Club, a fairly famous funky Austin music club. Here's a picture of the hotel:
We started out with a dinner of appetizers at an Italian restaurant down the street called Vespaio. Go there if you're ever in Austin. Terrific. We got the recommendation from someone on the Holden staff who has friends who run an organic farm in Austin called Boggy Creek Farm. They supply organic vegetables to this and other Austin restaurants.
After that we set off on foot across the river and checked out 6th and 4th streets. We were a little early, but things cranked up eventually. We heard great blues in two venues. We really liked a woman named Tish Lancaster and her Mizzbehavin' Band. Great stuff. We walked and walked and listened and looked and just took it all in. We took a cab back to the hotel and then walked across the street to the Continental Club for the 10 p.m. show. We heard a Texas Roadhouse Blues singer who's been doing this a long time and was fabulous. Her name is Lou Ann Barton. Her guitar player was amazing. After all the walking, and then standing for over an hour in the club, we were ready to go to sleep!
The next morning we didn't do church (boo), but we knew we'd be doing it for three days at the conference, so with no guilt at all we got great coffees and delicious home-made jalapeño scones at the funky coffee place next to the hotel. It was a beautiful day, so after we got organized and checked out, we headed west for Johnson City for the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park and the Johnson Ranch. It was very interesting and a beautiful spot. Here's a picture from the ranch - Lyndon, the Bull:
We headed to San Antonio from there, stopping on the way at a wine-tasting room of Texas wines and found a couple pretty nice bottles for Larry and Paul.
On our way into San Antonio we stopped for an early dinner at a Luby's cafeteria. The Hinderlies have enjoyed these for years when they came down to South Padre Island for a winter break. It was pretty good. We learned it had actually started in San Antonio. We returned our car, went to the airport, and then took a cab to our hotel. After checking in, we watched the Vikings and the Saints football game, checked out the Riverwalk, had a glass of wine in the bar, and retired. We had another nice walk in the morning before the conference.
This is part 1. Part 2, with more pictures, tomorrow!
The conference was in San Antonio. But, since we both enjoy good music - especially Texas-style bluesy stuff - we flew into San Antonio on Saturday afternoon, rented a car and drove north to Austin. We had a great hotel to stay in - the Hotel San Jose - on South Congress Street right across from the Continental Club, a fairly famous funky Austin music club. Here's a picture of the hotel:
We started out with a dinner of appetizers at an Italian restaurant down the street called Vespaio. Go there if you're ever in Austin. Terrific. We got the recommendation from someone on the Holden staff who has friends who run an organic farm in Austin called Boggy Creek Farm. They supply organic vegetables to this and other Austin restaurants.After that we set off on foot across the river and checked out 6th and 4th streets. We were a little early, but things cranked up eventually. We heard great blues in two venues. We really liked a woman named Tish Lancaster and her Mizzbehavin' Band. Great stuff. We walked and walked and listened and looked and just took it all in. We took a cab back to the hotel and then walked across the street to the Continental Club for the 10 p.m. show. We heard a Texas Roadhouse Blues singer who's been doing this a long time and was fabulous. Her name is Lou Ann Barton. Her guitar player was amazing. After all the walking, and then standing for over an hour in the club, we were ready to go to sleep!
The next morning we didn't do church (boo), but we knew we'd be doing it for three days at the conference, so with no guilt at all we got great coffees and delicious home-made jalapeño scones at the funky coffee place next to the hotel. It was a beautiful day, so after we got organized and checked out, we headed west for Johnson City for the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park and the Johnson Ranch. It was very interesting and a beautiful spot. Here's a picture from the ranch - Lyndon, the Bull:
We headed to San Antonio from there, stopping on the way at a wine-tasting room of Texas wines and found a couple pretty nice bottles for Larry and Paul.On our way into San Antonio we stopped for an early dinner at a Luby's cafeteria. The Hinderlies have enjoyed these for years when they came down to South Padre Island for a winter break. It was pretty good. We learned it had actually started in San Antonio. We returned our car, went to the airport, and then took a cab to our hotel. After checking in, we watched the Vikings and the Saints football game, checked out the Riverwalk, had a glass of wine in the bar, and retired. We had another nice walk in the morning before the conference.
This is part 1. Part 2, with more pictures, tomorrow!
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