Fitness

Actually, what I've done was fail to make an appointment with the physical therapist immediately after my doctor recommended one to work with my shoulder.  I have, however, been to the exercise groups I told you about last week.  It feels like I'm "running" all the time, trying to keep up with things I've scheduled, even though I'm retired.

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Blogging ~ for ten years

The first thing I wrote for this blog was posted

ten years ago — on January 30, 2007.

It was about Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake.

Chris @ Chrisbookarama also celebrated ten years this month.

Sunday Salon ~ Bernice King, daughter of MLK

On Friday, I went to hear the Rev. Bernice A. King, youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.  She shared her own inspirational story and introduced her mother's book.

My Life, My Love, My Legacy ~ by Coretta Scott King, as told to the Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds, 2017, autobiography

The life story of Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) — wife of Martin Luther King Jr. and founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center) — as told fully for the first time, toward the end of her life, to the Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds.  As a widow and single mother of four, she worked tirelessly to found and develop The King Center as a citadel for world peace, lobbied for fifteen years for the US national holiday in honor of her husband, championed for women's, workers’ and gay rights, and was a powerful international voice for nonviolence, freedom, and human dignity.  Coretta’s is a love story, a family saga, and the memoir of an extraordinary black woman in twentieth-century America, a brave leader who, in the face of terrorism and violent hatred, stood committed, proud, forgiving, nonviolent, and hopeful all of her life.

I left at the end of the evening with this thought about nonviolence:

Violence is holistic; it's how we think as
well as how we act.  It's a way of life.

We must act.  Take action.  That fits with this line from Chapter 1 of Bernice's own 1997 book Hard Questions, Heart Answers:

"We must do more than honor a man of this magnitude with just a holiday; we must honor him with action."

I learned that Bernice King graduated from the same seminary I did — Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta — but three years after I did.  Apparently, she started in the fall of 1987 after I graduated that spring.  I wish her the best in her ministry and in her role as the CEO of The King Center as she continues to uphold her parents' legacy of nonviolence, social justice, and racial equality.

Bernice A. King's website

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.

Beginning ~ with the color of her hair

"She was called Isabelle, and when she was a small girl her hair changed colour in the time it takes a bird to call to its mate."

The Virgin Blue ~ by Tracy Chevalier, 1997, fiction (France)

Meet Ella Turner and Isabelle du Moulin — two women born centuries apart, yet bound by a fateful family legacy.  When Ella and her husband move to a small town in France, Ella hopes to brush up on her French, qualify to practice as a midwife, and start a family of her own.  Village life turns out to be less idyllic than she expected, however, and a peculiar dream of the color blue propels her on a quest to uncover her family’s French ancestry.  As the novel unfolds — alternating between Ella’s story and that of Isabelle du Moulin four hundred years earlier — a common thread emerges that unexpectedly links the two women.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

I Dissent

"It's superhero day at school.  My daughter has been reading the heck out of I Dissent and decided on her own to dress as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, because she fights prejudice and injustice.  Girls who read really are dangerous, to unfairness and outmoded inequalities." — shared by Krista T., mother of a supergirl who chose an excellent superhero!  The first- ever picture book about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was released last fall.  You can see her daughter is holding the book:

I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark ~ by Debbie Levy, illustrated by Elizabeth Baddeley, 2016, children's biography, 9/10

Library Loot ~ January 25

The Jesus Sutras: Rediscovering the Lost Scrolls of Taoist Christianity ~ by Martin Palmer, 2001, religion

In 1907, explorers discovered a vast treasure trove of ancient scrolls, silk paintings, and artifacts dating from the 5th to 11th centuries A.D. in a long-sealed cave in a remote region of China.  Among them, written in Chinese, were scrolls that recounted a history of Jesus' life and teachings in beautiful Taoist concepts and imagery that were unknown in the West.  These writings told a story of Christianity that was by turns unique and disturbing, hopeful and uplifting.  The best way to describe them is collectively, with a term they themselves use:  The Jesus Sutras.

The origins of Christianity seem rooted in Western civilization, but amazingly, an ancient, largely unknown branch of Christian belief evolved in the East.  Eminent theologian and Chinese scholar Martin Palmer provides the first popular history and translation of the sect's long-lost scriptures — all of them more than a thousand years old and comparable in significance to the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Gathered, deciphered, and interpreted by a team of expert linguists and scholars, these sacred texts present an inspiring use of Jesus' teachings and life within Eastern practices and meditations — and provide an extraordinary window into an intriguing, profoundly gentler, more spiritual Christianity than existed in Europe or Asia at the time, or, indeed, even today.

Palmer has devoted more than a decade to seeking the extant writings and other evidence of this lost religion.  His determined search eventually led him to rediscover one of the earliest Christian monasteries.  At the site was an  8th century pagoda still intact.  Within it Palmer and his team found more evidence, including statues, underground passageways, and artifacts, that helped them uncover and re-create the era and rituals of the Taoist Christians.

The Taoist Christians, who wrote the Jesus Sutras recognized equality of the sexes, preached against slavery, and practiced nonviolence toward all forms of life.  In particular, this tradition offered its followers a more hopeful vision of life on earth and after death than the dominant Eastern religions, teaching that Jesus had broken the wheel of karma and its consequent punishing, endless reincarnations.

Vividly re-creating the turbulence of a distant age that is remarkably evocative of our own times, Palmer reveals an extraordinary evolution of spiritual thought that spans centuries.  A thrilling modern quest that is also an ancient religious odyssey, The Jesus Sutras shares a revolutionary discovery with profound historical implications — imparting timeless messages and lessons for men and women of all backgrounds and faiths.

That long description is from the dust jacket, and I also like this quote from Thich Nhat Hanh on the front cover:

"The Jesus Sutras tells a valuable history of the beautiful teachings of a faith built on living practices of brotherhood and peace.  The Sutras show us the interbeing nature of Jesus, Buddha, Tao, people, cultures, transformation, salvation, and unity through deep and mindful living."

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages us to share the names of books we checked out of the library, but Claire hasn't posted a Mr. Linky this week.

Two become three ~ on TWOsday

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Megan is back!  I added another exercise class to my week yesterday, when Introduction to Movement started up again after a four-week hiatus.

I started a couple of fitness classes at the beginning of the year, so now I'll have group exercises three times a week.  Having these on the calendar help me exercise more consistently.