*sigh*
I Did Not Finish (DNFed) another book today. It's from the Hufflepuff Reading Challenge I set for myself, so it's not like it's of global importance. I think it's on the list that others recommended because Professor Sprout is head of Hufflepuff House, and it's a nonfiction book about plants: Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History.
It sounds riveting, right? I didn't even start to read it until I'd renewed it a third time, and it's so dry that I can only take in one or two plants at a time. Parts have been interesting, but I can't renew the library book any more, and it's due tomorrow.
I am reading another nonfiction book that is beautiful and amazing, and I want to buy a paper copy so I can take it in again and write margin notes. It's called Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul by Rabbi Naomi Levy.
Aside: I love the idea of female clergy. I was raised Mormon, and that is one of many religions in which women are relegated to supporting positions in life and in the structure of the church. My point in mentioning it now is not to detail why this makes me grumpy, merely to say that the clergy seems to be a natural fit for many women. The most relevant person in Christianity after Jesus is his mother, after all. And more than one person has seen a woman officiate at a wedding and thought how appropriate it is when you think about maternal stereotypes. I'm not saying all women are like that any more than all men are gorillas. But I've encountered many women -- Mormon and not -- who would be a more natural fit into the position of an LDS bishop than some of the bishops I've had.
I'm listening to Rabbi Levy narrate her own book on CDs, mostly as I drive. What she calls the soul in her book seems to equate to what Mormons call the spirit. In Mormon teachings, the spirit (brought into being by God, animates the body) and the body (the physical part of a living being) make a soul: Spirit + Body = Soul. Other times, she seems to be describing what Mormons call the Holy Ghost or the conscience, which are two separate things: the Holy Ghost being a member of the Godhead (not the Trinity; we believe they're separate beings), and the conscience is the sense of discernment -- an internal moral compass -- that most of us are born with.
But I'll use Rabbi Levy's definition of the soul from here on in. She discovered a quote from Albert Einstein in a letter to Rabbi Robert Marcus. Since then, she has been trying to find Rabbi Marcus's letter to Einstein. I haven't finished the book yet, so I don't know how her search ends, but she spends much of the book recounting other correspondence, stories of the rabbi and the lives he touched, and Jewish doctrine and mysticism.
I relate to many of the things Rabbi Levy describes and talks about. The importance of meditation, the distractions and uses of the physical world, friendship and grief, and the nature of humans and God are all mentioned. She uses her own experiences to show what leads to these topics and her conclusions.
I'll report back when I finish reading. I should get in another hour and a half of the audio book, since I have a long drive to rehearsal and another long drive back.
No news on the job front. I know I'll pass the background check as long as no one has stolen my identity and gone on a crime spree. I'm just impatient to start working.
It sounds riveting, right? I didn't even start to read it until I'd renewed it a third time, and it's so dry that I can only take in one or two plants at a time. Parts have been interesting, but I can't renew the library book any more, and it's due tomorrow.
I am reading another nonfiction book that is beautiful and amazing, and I want to buy a paper copy so I can take it in again and write margin notes. It's called Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul by Rabbi Naomi Levy.
Aside: I love the idea of female clergy. I was raised Mormon, and that is one of many religions in which women are relegated to supporting positions in life and in the structure of the church. My point in mentioning it now is not to detail why this makes me grumpy, merely to say that the clergy seems to be a natural fit for many women. The most relevant person in Christianity after Jesus is his mother, after all. And more than one person has seen a woman officiate at a wedding and thought how appropriate it is when you think about maternal stereotypes. I'm not saying all women are like that any more than all men are gorillas. But I've encountered many women -- Mormon and not -- who would be a more natural fit into the position of an LDS bishop than some of the bishops I've had.
I'm listening to Rabbi Levy narrate her own book on CDs, mostly as I drive. What she calls the soul in her book seems to equate to what Mormons call the spirit. In Mormon teachings, the spirit (brought into being by God, animates the body) and the body (the physical part of a living being) make a soul: Spirit + Body = Soul. Other times, she seems to be describing what Mormons call the Holy Ghost or the conscience, which are two separate things: the Holy Ghost being a member of the Godhead (not the Trinity; we believe they're separate beings), and the conscience is the sense of discernment -- an internal moral compass -- that most of us are born with.
But I'll use Rabbi Levy's definition of the soul from here on in. She discovered a quote from Albert Einstein in a letter to Rabbi Robert Marcus. Since then, she has been trying to find Rabbi Marcus's letter to Einstein. I haven't finished the book yet, so I don't know how her search ends, but she spends much of the book recounting other correspondence, stories of the rabbi and the lives he touched, and Jewish doctrine and mysticism.
I relate to many of the things Rabbi Levy describes and talks about. The importance of meditation, the distractions and uses of the physical world, friendship and grief, and the nature of humans and God are all mentioned. She uses her own experiences to show what leads to these topics and her conclusions.
I'll report back when I finish reading. I should get in another hour and a half of the audio book, since I have a long drive to rehearsal and another long drive back.
No news on the job front. I know I'll pass the background check as long as no one has stolen my identity and gone on a crime spree. I'm just impatient to start working.
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