Bad Times And What I'm Reading

We've got our hands full with taking care of our brother, he's too well for the hospital to have to take back but too bad to take care of himself.  If I didn't know it was futile I'd propose a steep tax on cheap liquor to pay for taking care of people who kill themselves with it before they die.   I can't see but that problem is going to get worse.

There isn't much time to write and, from what you can see, I'm in a pretty bad mood so I probably shouldn't  It's going to be re-posts and posts of other things.

On the other hand, I have decided to read what I can manage of Walter Brueggemann's work, working up to his most scholarly books on the Old Testament.  I've begun with a book from the mid 1970s, The Bible Makes Sense, which was written as an introduction for the general audience - the short introduction in the edition I have calls it a "how-to book",  but which I'm sure I'll have to read several times to make any good progress in.  His discussions of various models of reality, industrial-scientific, existentialist, transcendentalist and comparing them to what he makes a persuasive case for as being the Biblical, covenental-historical model, is short but quite profound.  The depth and breath of his reading of scriptures which are easily mocked when read on a superficial level or at the level of fundamentalism, is a revelation.   In the forty years separating the book and today, his understanding of the scriptures and their relevance in life are remarkably stable, from what I can tell.  Here is a video On Idolatry posted a month ago.