Good Reads

The Open Space of Democracy by Terry Tempest Williams. A collection of essays originally published in Orion, accompanied by some beautiful paintings by Mary Frank. I found the third essay, "Engagement," the most compelling. In it, Williams documents and reflects upon her own town's formation into true community in the face of shared crisis. Beautiful writing and beautiful truth-telling of the lived experience of democracy and its power to shape and unite us in spite of the forces that would divide.

A sampling: "In my private moments of despair, I am aware of the limits of my own imagination. I am learning in Castle Valley that imaginations shared invite collaboration and collaboration creates community. A life in association, not a life independent, is the democratic ideal. We participate in the vitality of the struggle. This has not been easy for a town of self-defined renegades and recluses. Disagreements behind closed doors has been common. . .We are all having to move beyond what is comfortable. Patience is stretched. Personalities get in the way. Egos provide points of obstructions. It is never easy. We are learning to listen. We are learning to forgive. We are learning to go forward, believing what binds us together as a community is stronger than individual bickering points. And we are having a great time."

She's speaking of civic communities, but I think her words ring as true for and are as applicable to communities of faith.

Incidentally, take time to read the notes at the end - not merely citations, some are detailed stories or reflections in themselves. One (in which Tempest Williams deduces that Fellini was simply a documentarian!) recounts a sumptuous meal she and her husband were invited to while living in Italy - it's like something out of Babette's Feast, but the power to build community around a communal table is just as potent in real life as in fiction.

The other book I just finished is Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis, which is an excellent contemporary apologetic. Bell has a real gift for analogy and metaphor, for making all this faith and discipleship stuff come alive in a genuine and relatable way. AND he's got some paritcularly great things to say about the Bible - how its story is our story, and it's a story that isn't over, a story that's living and active, a story that reads us as much as we read it, a story we're called to engage and wrestle, a gem that we need to keep turning because every turn reveals something new. He never puts it in these terms, but I hear him saying, essentially, that the Bible is a living immersive story world, and I whole-heartedly concur.

For my pastor friends, "Movement Four: Tassels", also has some insightful things to say about the pressures of the life of ministry, and the damage many of us do to our own souls in our attempts to be "superpastor."

Finally, I also happened to watch Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium last night, and highly recommend it. It's just a fun movie in itself, but would also make a good discussion piece for church. It tells the story of one's ending and another's beginning, of a doubtful "disciple" who is called to use their own gifts to carry on the work of the "master" (which, serendipitously, fits well with some of the reflections on discipleship I was reading in Bell's book today).

Peace,
Catrina