Last week was good and bad, long and short, all at the same time. It was bad because the weather was cold and rainy for a good portion of the time, and work was more stressful than usual. But now on to the good stuff.
I joked to some friends that it's a good week that starts with Jon Stewart, continues with Tim Keller, and ends with Easter. They were fake-shocked that I would lump Easter in there with the Daily Show. But it's true, it was a good seven days.
First, an attendance of The Daily Show with my partners in crime, Laura and Todd. Not as fun as The Colbert Report, but at least now I can say I've been there, done that. And the audience was bigger, louder, and much more diverse than Colbert's audience. Jon Stewart had some good jokes, but Larry Wilmore's take on Governor Paterson being both blind AND black hit the ball out of the park: it was worth the trip just to see him. (BTW, this show capped a weekend of fun visiting our family in Queens. We played basketball with the nephews, sang in the church choir, and checked out a couple restaurants, including Otto in Manhattan and a brand new cafe in Astoria.)
Midweek brought an event with Tim Keller at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. He was talking about his new book, The Reason for God, which I just recently finished. While of course I enjoyed his talk, I knew I wasn't really the audience for it, and thankfully there were plenty of skeptics who asked some tough questions. I was glad when Keller answered one woman's question about Christianity and tolerance by explaining the concept of common grace! I silently pumped my fist, mentally thanking Dr. McClelland for his constant references to "CGI's" (common grace insights).
On Easter Sarah, Laura and I sang in the choir at the Lutheran church downtown. I didn't realize how much I missed singing in a real choir with a real orchestra until the first notes of the violins floated into the air at the beginning of Saturday practice. The whole day Sunday was filled with singing, eating, singing, more eating, and then more singing later at our Dorchester church. I wore a skirt and open-toed shoes in defiance of the chilly weather. The sun shone brilliantly and the day was full of celebration. Such a welcome end to the week and beginning of a new one.
In the middle of all this activity I managed to finish Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. I highly recommend this book, especially if you want to know more about the Chicago gangs during the height of the crack epidemic in the early 90's. More to the point, this book is an insider's view of the Chicago projects because Venkatesh decided to live there for six years, rather than rely on cold data. The result is a truly personal story full of suspense, plot twists, character development, foolishness and heroism. It beats a lot of other nonfiction I've ever read. (Not that I've read very much nonfiction.)
This week promises to be a bit of a breather for me. Now I can tackle my next book (see sidebar) and wait in anticipation for my new bike to arrive in the mail.
