Cold, cold, cold

We have been hit with an arctic blast! It was below zero this morning when I got up and it is only about five degrees now at 4:15 p.m. I've just returned from the Dummerston Church where I was using the back pew as a space on which to sort out the invoices and receipts from 2021. I had them all in a big shopping bag, stuffed full! Now they are roughly organized into file folders: relating to various financial institutions, health and medical costs; expenses for the house; auto; taaes, insurance, retirement income, etc. I think there are 18-20 folders alltogether. Some of the folders will need to be ordered into sub-categories for the purposes of income taxes. I didn't get a picture of the pew covered with piles of paper - too bad! I'll get one of the folders. It was not super-warm at the church, so I got a bit chilled there, but now I'm home by the fire and very cozy, despite the freezing temps outside. So grateful for our fireplace! I also just had a snack and a cup of hot tea. Warm inside and out. This week looked like an open week and we thought we might visit some folks. But the Omicron case numbers are so high that we are thinking it might be a good week just to stay home. I'm debating in my mind whether to go to the pool or not. Which is more important - getting the exercise or staying clear of COVID? Hard call.

Good guess. There are 18 folders in all. One of them is missing here however: the one relating to health and medicine. That's the biggest one by far, and there are too many items in it to fit into a folder. I'll need to organize that into subcategories and throw away what I don't need to keep. Then I think it'll all fit into a folder.

Last night, supper was Andy Davis Hash - a mix of roasted root vegetables and chuncks of sausage. It is delicious, and I thought it was sort of photogenic as well, along with the colorful fruit compote.******************************************** Meanwhile, last evening I found 5 more books in a box either by or about Kierkegaard. Plus, Works of Love arrived. That makes about 18 books in all (same as folders!). There are more books in my library about Kierkegaard than any other one person. If I take Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich and Karl Barth as a group, I have about as many books relating to them as a group as I have about Kierkegaard.

Six more books about or by Kierkegaard! I don't think I'm going to read all these books, but I've already read more by (or about) S.K. in the paat week than I have for years - maybe decades. I can see why he fascinated me 65 years ago or so. He is a unique and compelling author. But both I and the world are in a different place today - though his critique of "Christendom" -- i.e., coventional, main-stream Christianity - is still quite valid, I think. What I really would like to figure out is what a Kierkegaard-like theologian would be saying today. I don't know of anyone like him today. I just yesterday read an article in The Christian Century by a woman who has devoted much of her life to Thomas Merton's writings, and even produced a documentary film about him, but who is now wondering if the time has come to "let him go." Merton is a white, cis-gendered male, and we need to be making room for other voices to be heard. The same could be said of S.K. But the reason people are still reading S.K. is because there is no one like him. Much of what he says is "out-of-date" for sure. But I think that much of it is also timeless, and has nothing to do with his race or gender or ethnicity, etc. It has to do with his seriousness. He took the question of "What does it mean to be a Christian" so seriously, that he had to admit he could not live up to his own standard! The question needs to be reframed today, but it is still a valid questiom, and we need people who can take it as seriously as he did.