There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.
On this day in 1943 German pastor and anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer arrested by the Gestapo. Bonhoeffer was executed at Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 8, 1945, just two weeks before U.S. soldiers liberated the camp.
We’re four months in to 2021. The Merry Month of May is just around the corner.
Goodreads is telling me that I am six books behind in my reading goal for the year. (I’ve read six of forty).
To paraphrase Shawshank Redemption, I’ve got to get busy reading, or get busy changing the goal.
Never mind that at this very moment, I am somewhere in the middle-ish of five books. They’re listed below.
Never mind that have I have a whole stack of books I want to read and daily add to the list.
Never mind that every time I write a post like yesterday I add more biographies to the list.
Never mind that I spend a good two hours daily multi-tasking while I listen to podcasts.
Never mind that I’m on level 413 in Candy Crush. Give me a break. I limit my game playing to waiting rooms and the evenings while listening to the British History Podcast.
So I’m not slouching.
Not really anyway.
I keep meaning to get to the reading chair. But when I do I find it just so conducive to napping.
Don’t @ me, Karen. If you’ve been reading my posts you already know that I’m also battling insomnia.
And yes, some nights I do get up and read until I can fall asleep again.
It’s not really that I don’t have time to read.
Just like everything else I have to make time to read.
But it’s a challenge when I try to be all things to all people, or perhaps a Man for All Seasons.
Work with me. The New Testament and British history are on my reading shelf this year.
In a perfect world, I’d have all the time I need to read on the beach, come in, take a nap, and then write all afternoon.
I think that perhaps I’ve just written my own prescription for having more time to read.
I love my home office. It’s cozy. It has all the things I need to do my day job, to manage the theater, to do my writing, to do my art projects, to do virtual Santa.
Are you beginning to see one of the problems?
It’s a little cramped. It’s full of distractions.
It’s where I’ve spent most of the last thirteen months.
But until I can retrofit the garage or build what one of our local radio hosts calls his “Broadcast Hut” I’ve got to make this office work.
I’ve set a summer goal of having the office cleaned out and rearranged…again…so that I can work, and yes read, more efficiently.
That means going through lots of boxes.
Think of all the books I’ll find.
Cover Photo by Florencia Viadana on Unsplash
MUSICAL INTERLUDE
Aretha Franklin’s Respect, was released on this day in 1967 and became the Billboard Song of the Year.
WHAT I’M READING
RANDOM LINKS YOU SHOULD READ
Republican Rebuttal to Biden’s Speech: Tim Scott’s Full Transcript
The New York Times
But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that bring us closer together. But three months in, the actions of the president and his party are pulling us further and further apart. Read more. (you really should)
Planned Parenthood CEO’s condemnation of founder Margaret Sanger’s ideals rings hollow
Live Action
Though Johnson claimed in her op-ed that Planned Parenthood is done making excuses for Sanger’s unacceptable views, Planned Parenthood’s very reason for existence is based on Sanger’s views and those of her questionable cohorts who played an undeniably large part in the corporation’s history. Read more.
Writing Inspiration for Real Life Writers
Marion Roach Smith
There is an old expression in journalism that states, “go with what you’ve got.” It’s a dictum I live by. It does not mean that you do shoddy work or publish something that is half-done. Read more.
Comer: Biden’s 100 Failures in 100 Days
Committee on Oversight and Reform
Simply put, we’ve gone from America First to America Last under President Biden. Read more.
State Education Officials Must Restore a Sense of National Character in Public Schools
The Heritage Foundation
CRT has its intellectual origin in Critical Theory, which is a philosophy based on applying Marxism to every area of life—counter to America’s promise of freedom and equality under the law. Read more.
Conservatives ceded all influence to the left. We are now living the consequences.
Out Spoken
They control what we see, how we see it, and what we are supposed to think about it. Read more.
PODCASTS I’M LISTENING TO
BENEDICTION
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26