this is entirely personal, so i’m not representing christianity at large or—oh for goodness’ sake, just say what i want to say:

i get uncomfortable/upset with people who claim to have all the answers about how to live and how to “make it” to happiness/fulfillment in a very specific way because i think we should be acknowledging and embracing diversity as beautiful and healthy and holy. i mean, look at nature: biodiversity is CRUCIAL for survival and our food sources are getting totally screwed up because it all comes from a very genetically narrow (not to mention artificially modified) base that becomes less and less nutritious and fortifying with every crop rotation and breeding season. similarly, we become more and more divided from each other and from ourselves every time we put up a wall because we can’t love “the other.” THERE IS NO OTHER! we are all the body and the cancer and disease comes from dualistic, exclusive mindsets, not from parts of the body.

In which I use my Agrarian Philosophy final paper as an outlet for my frustration with Western Christian theology and our broken relationship to the land, but end up spouting cheesy generalizations and not feeling any nearer a holistic solution. (And, in all fairness, how on earth is one meant to tackle this subject with a ten-page limit?)

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Mondays are becoming my favorite day of the week.

Last term I took an Agrarian Philosophy course with one of my favorite professors.  There were 13 of us in the class, and most of us are still in the area during the summer break, so we decided not to disband as a group.  We meet on Monday evenings  in our professor’s yard and eat homemade food and read Wendell Berry and talk around the fire pit.  Last week a classmate’s husband came along and brought his banjo and shared some of his songs with us.

About half the group is vegetarian or vegan, and I’m gluten-free, so everyone brings something that they can eat and share with the rest of us.  I volunteered to be in charge of the food for tonight, so I’m making chickpea potato curry (I was all excited to try something from my new Thai food cook book, but everything calls for fish sauce) and vegan coconut rice pudding (without the raisins - barf), and rumor has it that someone is bringing fresh salad rolls with peanut sauce.  I have the entire house to myself, there is a lovely cool breeze coming through the screen door, new music playing on my laptop, and everything smells like coconut and cinnamon.

Monday is also my day off work. And it’s Music Monday (which I need to be more consistent with.  Starting now… er, next week).