Bookmarks--140 And Counting

140 And Counting by Joanne Merriam
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In an effort to write less and say more, I have taken to using the Twitter format (@bluemonk63). Along the way, I have found several others doing the same thing, precious few of them well.

In 140 And Counting, Joanne Merriam has collected 141 pieces of microlit: tiny poems and very short stories previous published in her webzine 7X20. I had expected to find some clever little lines, the sort of thing one thinks is funny or poignant the first time it is read and tedious after the third posting. However, nearly all of them are worth reading over and over.

What should appeal to the average reader is that most of the poems will not read like the haiku so many dislike because it seems to say nothing quickly. These poems, for the most part, are well crafted and thoughtful. The best of these caused me to stop and replay them in my mind.

The stories here also work like good poems, jabbing at the senses, the heart, and the mind like a dagger making quick work of our preconceived notions about fiction. Don't be surprised if you find yourself chuckling one minute and gasping the next.

A handful of the selections didn't work for me, but there were very few of these. And when I read over them a second time, I couldn't help thinking they would work for someone, that what didn't immediately resonate with me might well spark something in another reader.

Chances are you have not heard of any of the authors in 140 and Counting. But I hope you will have before too long. Joanne Merriam has collected some terrific pieces which well represent a genre that needs to be taken seriously.

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Bookmarks--Between The Bridge And The River

Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


One might think, a few pages into Mr. Ferguson's novel, that the author is trying to piss off as many people as possible. I know I took a little offense at some of the jabs, not so much at organized religion (which has, by and large, earned the disdain), but at the pictures of Christ and St. Francis and other religious figures.

I also have trouble with any stories where there are no characters with redeeming qualities. And one almost has that in Between The Bridge And The River. Almost every main character in this rollicking novel is about as contemptible as can be drawn. Of course, like many people, as the reader gets to know some of these people, it is difficult to keep from liking or at least sympathizing with them.

On the other hand, these characters redeem themselves for me as a reader because they are interesting. They are not caricatures of bad people, but very human beings who have taken paths of what they would never call unrighteousness. Because we see their falls (or rises, if you prefer) from the beginning and from their perspective, they are much more compelling. If you read this novel and think any character is evil, then you cannot help but connect that evil to what we have come to accept.

Sure the book is philosophical, but that may only be my take on it. This is a very funny book, though not in the way viewers of Craig Ferguson's late night show have come to expect. Highly entertaining, sharply written, and thought provoking. What more could you ask for?


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Bookmarks--In God We Trust

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Christmas Story is probably my favorite holiday movie, so it is with some trepidation that I finally got myself to start Jean Shepherd's book, on which much of the film is based. I try to keep away from comparisons of books and movies. They are different art forms, and so should be judged separately. And since only about three and a half chapters from this book are actually in the movie, that distinction seems even more important.

But I cannot help but make a couple of notes. For me, the movie is a funnier experience. Part of the movie's charm is Shepherd's narration, deadpan and filled with hysterical description and hyperbole. For those sections of In God We Trust that are dramatized, however, Shepherd sometimes tells more than shows. Oddly, the book as a whole is not like this. Many of the stories here are told with rich and delightful details, much like what we see and hear in the film.

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash is a collection of remembrances held together by the narrator (Ralph) as a grown man visiting his old hometown and spending the day sitting in the bar talking to the proprietor, his old friend, Flick. Ralph has escaped the industrial crumbling town to live and work in New York. As the day keeps going (and many beers have been drunk), Ralph goes over a variety of incidents, including his quest for the Red Ryder BB Gun, his father's "special award," his first fishing trip with the Old Man, a funny marching band story. Along the way we see Ralph's triumphs and embarrassments as well as a mostly warm picture of life during the Depression. (The images of angry women throwing gravy boats and Ralph trying to explain The Decameron of Boccaccio still make me laugh out loud.)

Shepherd's semi-autobiographical book is a satisfying read. Don't expect the movie. However, like the film, the book reminds us of our own stories and friendships. Expect to be entertained and to remember a few things.

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Bookmarks - Fast Fiction

Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes by Roberta Allen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Roberta Allen's Fast Fiction focuses, as one might expect from the title, on writing and refining flash fiction or what she and others call the "short short story." But she does include some information about taking these small nuggets and expanding them into longer stories and even writing novels.

The crux of Allen's method is to write for five minutes at a time, using short prompts to guide the freewriting experience. One could use what she calls a directive, such as "Write a story about a broken promise" or "Write a story about a crime," or the writer could use a picture and one of the questions posed for that picture. An example of the latter is a picture of a house with the question, "Who couldn't wait to leave this house?" The idea is to write whatever comes to mind about the topic until the timer is up without straining to worry about what the inner critic says to stymie the creative process.

As I read, I took some of her advice and modified the process to suit my own goals. I found that the experience of drafting such short works (mine were a little longer) was pretty liberating. I often started with something I thought would lead nowhere only to find an interesting (at least to me) story came out. As of this writing, I have not worked through the revision stage as she suggests, but Ms. Allen really wasn't breaking new ground for me.

So to a degree, I think the process can work. And as I reflect on the book, I think with modifications, the general idea could be used for a number of writing needs, some creative, others not so much. But I do have a serious reservation.

Ms. Allen focuses much of the book on feelings and "energy." Her answer to nearly every question about whether something works or doesn't is that it "feels right." She suggests looking for the lines that have the most energy and working from those in revision. While she talks about her own students work-shopping their exercises, she does not really address the fact that writers are not always good judges of their initial work.

In addition, Ms. Allen ignores the discipline it takes to be a writer, whether a novelist or a writer of flash fiction. I am not saying that feelings are not important, but there are far too many writers working out feelings and writing crap and many who say they are writing, but don't get the right feeling, and so produce next to nothing.

All that said, I think Fast Fiction contains some useful ideas, particularly for those writers who need to try something fresh or would be writers who can't seem to get started. But like most books on writing, one should take what can be of use and ignore the rest.


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Bookmarks -- Come Climb My Hill

I ran across this volume browsing in the library in Royse City. Normally, such a book turns me off, but perhaps my recent reading and commitment to walking has awakened something in me where I could not help but smile with this quaint poem and delightful pictures.Come Climb My Hill is about what you might expect, a call to wander in nature and seek what you may not even know what you need to find. But the poem avoids the polemic and sermonizing about finding God in nature (though it admits the possibility). I love the way it begins, saying to the open reader:

    because--

      you have listened

          to the heartbeat of the earth

      you have been invited to --

Along the way, the reader is reminded "only a Master Artist/can create a meadow." Okay, that line is a little hokey, perhaps, but Mr. Abbott manages to show its truth, not by argument or shouting to just look at nature, but by describing the details and delights of simply walking where nothing distracts the eye and ear.

Bette E. Bossen's drawings are more than complementary to Mr. Abbott's verse, but I think an integral part of experience of reading the book. They encourage the reader, like the words, to take forward steps to on a simple, but transformational journey.

The verse and pictures of Come Climb My Hill don't come close to Wordsworth, but they doesn't need to. This little book is an invitation worth accepting.

Bookmarks -- If These Trees Could Talk

If These Trees Could Talk, by Brian W. Smith, is about two boys who are sexually abused and plot together to kill the men who are molesting them. In addition to the victims and the perpetrators, we meet the mother of one of the boys and the teacher who knows something is wrong, but doesn't have the evidence to prove it. Sounds like an engaging story.

And for the most part, it is. If These Trees Could Talk is very interesting, though not really groundbreaking. It doesn't have to be unique to be a good book. Readers will be very interested in the characters and will want to know what happens next. But sadly, this is not as strong a novel as it could have been.

While overall, the story reads fine, it contains too much prose which, for lack of a better word, needs revision. There is needless repetition, sentences that lack life or punch, and lazy description where the author opts to refer to television shows rather than really describe. Those problems are not on every page, but appear frequently enough to put me off. There are also a few moments where the narrator inserts information or sermonizes, pulling the reader right out of the story instead of adding to it.

As I said, the novel is readable and interesting for the most part, and I think that most who finish it will find the twist at the end something to think about. (I'm not sure I care for it, but am willing to admit that my feelings may be a matter of my personal tastes rather than a flaw in the story itself.) Smith is at least trying to tell an important tale here, and he gives us perspectives that we might easily dismiss.

Bookmarks -- Wanderlust: A History of Walking

I loved this book, but I do have to get my one problem I had with it out of the way. Wanderlust, in all that it manages to cover, does not even mention Japanese haibun, a literary form that merges short prose and haiku. Many of these writings came out of long walking tours and travel accounts. Not mentioning Basho's Narrow Road to the Interior seems a crime to me.

That omission aside, I can still say that this is a terrific book, surprising even to me as a walker. From the English walking gardens to Las Vegas' disappearing public space, Solnit manages to weave history, literature, politics with her personal experiences concerning her subject.

Rebecca Solnit shows that walking was more than a mode of transportation "back then," but part of the method of meditation and rumination for many philosophers, writers, and artists; a form of protest; and the way one most intensely experiences the world. She also looks at the politics of walking and argues persuasively that walking has been denigrated for many years, and that much rests on the fight, not only for public space. Near the end of the book, she writes, "The fight for free space -- for wilderness and for public space-- must be accompanied by a fight for free time to spend wandering that space."

But Wanderlust is not a manifesto. It is filled with fascinating stories about the people and places where this history continues to live and be written. And even for me, one who has found great value in the simple walk, Solnit's book has inspired me to make walking not just exercise, but an integral part of life.

TV Notes -- Thanks for Leaving out the Kissing

For me, nothing gets that TV shark a jumpin' quicker than a drama adding romance after the main narrative has been established. I'm not talking about sexual tension or stories where a romantic relationship is not part of the story. I am inconsolably miffed when a storyline that has never needed or much hinted at romance crosses that line where suddenly something akin to love sparks into a flame that, sadly, does not engulf characters, writers and producers who thought the "relationship" was a good idea. For me, even classic shows like ER and Moonlighting were never the same after the stories became hinged on how events would affect goofy, tossed-together relationships.
 
Why do these sudden blossoms of love and pollen bother me? First of all, romance radically changes the dynamic which drew me to the program in the first place. I'm not against love stories, but most often these plot devices are intended to "spice up" a show that doesn't need it. If the show needs something to make in more interesting, I say try writing a better show.

Second, it almost always produces something artificial, like teen drama. Watch most shows aimed at teens on Nickelodeon or ABC Family, and you have many characters whose "problems" are not real crises. When mainstream dramas add these liaisons, they also include the same sort of fake issues that make me a little nuts when my kids are watching the shows. It isn't sweet or cute. It is annoying.
 
As bright and interesting characters are relegated to gooey-eyed simpletons, their dialogue turns downright stupid. Even romantics should be tired of the cliches that get thrust into their speech. Several expensive minutes of air time is choked with uncomfortable filler that does nothing to help the story along.

 
This is why I want to tip my hat to the writers of "All's Well That Ends," the season finale of USA's In Plain Sight. The well paced and clever show about marshals working for the Federal Witness Protection Program (WITSEC) could easily have ended with Mary Shannon and her partner "finally" hooking up after years of working together and becoming best friends. Instead, writers gave us a thoroughly satisfying, and much more realistic and interesting conclusion.
 
I feared the romance was coming. After all, Mary and Marshall Mann (her partner) had not only developed a close relationship (made even more significant by Mary's reticence to open up to anyone), but with the return of Mary's long lost father, all the daddy issues were right up there to carry the plot, should that plot be in the hands of lesser writers. And no one knows daddy issues like the wise, intuitive Marshall. 
 
Further, tension was building because of Marshall's impending marriage. As I sat down to watch the final episode, I fully expected Marshall to leave his bride at the alter, profess his undying love for Mary, and well, you know the horrible rest of the story.
 
But no! Marshall tells Mary he loves her. However, it is a love that comes from a deep friendship, the sort of love almost never celebrated in our culture, as he tells her that she has got to stand on her own. "When you call, I will always come," he tells her. But it is clear he wants her to care about him enough to not call, so he is free in the new chapter of his life.
 
In Plain Sight was not a perfect show. It did have its share of formulaic episodes, and sometimes even I got tired of Mary Shannon's misanthropic musings. However, it did a good job of drawing a unique character who has to navigate some of the same work and family problems all of us have and problems many of us cannot quite understand. Even when I didn't "like" Mary, I was always interested in her. We got to see a character grow without wanting to yell at the screen, "For Pete's sake, grow up!"

Meditation XVII -- Arrogance

Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus tells us a great deal about the extent and depth of arrogance to be found in the unrighteous. We are told the rich man, after living in comfort and luxury, went to Hell, while the diseased beggar Lazarus at death to Abraham's side. But this is not, for me, a story about the evils of wealth versus the virtues of suffering.

Our Lord told this story not long after rebuffing the Pharisees, who we are told in Luke's gospel, "were lovers of money." Jesus had said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted before men is an abomination in the sight of God." So it is not money itself or wealth that makes one unrighteous, but placing it above God. That seems worse when one has to defend or explain away the skewing of priorities.

What amazes me about the parable is the rich man's gall in asking Abraham to have Lazarus serve him. He knew the name of the beggar with sores, and he could not, even then, could only think of his as a being below him. Further, when Abraham tells the rich man why his request will not be granted, the rich man again asks Abraham to "send him to my father's house" in order to warn his still living brothers. Again, he sees Lazarus as a servant who can be ordered from his comfort to do the bidding of those of higher status.

The rich man did not go to Hell because he was rich, but because he rejected God. The sign of that rejection is that he would not see anything in the world as less important than him, and even death and the torment of flames did not burn such selfishness and arrogance out of him.

Bookmarks -- Little Girls In Church

Like her prose, Norris' poems are well crafted and moving, devoid of maudlin sentimentality, but plenty of honest feeling. These poems address the sort of real life grace Flannery O'Conner brought to life in her stories and wrote about in her essays. I found myself grinning as I read several of these poems, particularly those with children at the center, as I recognized the innocence and earthy faith one sees in kids. 

Norris makes the the Psalms and liturgical offices come alive, not by merely quoting or referring to them in some esoteric manner, but by imbuing them with connections to the world one must accept grace among. An example of this is in "The Ignominy of the Living":

Then a recording of "My Way" came scratching out

on the electric carillion

"Oh, hell," I said,

and prayed for Frank Sinatra, too.

And the longings of a soul in love with God and also with the earth can be seen in poems like "The Monastery Orchard in Early Spring":

I, too, want to be light enough

for this day: throw off impediments,

push like a tulip

through a muddy smear of snow

I felt blessed when I ran across this volume, and I hope for more such blessings to come. I already felt Kathleen Norris was an important writer before having the chance to read her poems. This book only solidifies that opinion for me.

Meditation XVI -- Punctuation

But he would withdraw to desolate places to pray.

Jesus had healed a man of leprosy, and told him not to tell anyone. However, news of the healing spread so much and so quickly that Our Lord was inundated with people who wanted to listen to him and be healed of their own maladies.

But even during these times of busyness, Christ took time to get away from people and talk with the Father. One might get the impression that doing so was essential for his work. He told us he was here to do God's will; how else was He going to not only know, but live that will without spending time alone with the Father?

Too often I have looked at solitude and prayer as luxuries when I have been overwhelmed by the tasks that "must be done." Foolishly, I forget that prayer is essential for any spiritual person. Otherwise all work, even ministry, is futile. It is, as Saint Paul said, "beating the air."

Lord, nothing is as important as my relationship to You. Let not my work be punctuated by fits of prayer, but may prayer be paramount and my work be punctuation.

Music Notes -- Direction

Eddie Healy's Direction has emerged as one of my favorite recordings thus far this year, and I expect it to stay in my listening rotation for some time. Each crisply produced track was composed and adroitly performed by Healy himself, including duets, trios, and quartets as well as brilliant solo pieces. This is an album of sublime beauty and depth.

I am impressed with how nicely each song fits with others on this project. There is no drop is coherence when moving from a solo guitar work to a quartet. The three tunes composed for video games do not sound out of place among more "classical" pieces, a testament to Healy's compositional prowess and a demonstration that good music is at home anywhere. Yet each song is distinct and unique. Favorites include "Compulsion," "A Life of Consequence," "The Night Is A Rope," and the suite "The Path to Truth."

I don't know if it the titles or the tone of these works, but I find Direction to be quite spiritual. Many of the songs are reflective and/or majestic. There is a communion of sorts here, certainly between listener and the artist, but also between the music and the universe it brightens. Like some of the best instrumental music, these songs sound much like open prayers. This is not to say they are religious. They are better than that. Direction appeals not to our sense of belief or dogma, but to the oft neglected part of our souls, that is most awakened when we encounter beauty. This isn't pleasant music to augment meditation (though many pieces could be used as such), but instead music that causes one to pause, to stop what busies us and gather ourselves in.

You can listen to pieces from Direction and buy the album at ReverbNation

Bookmarks -- Calico Joe

Redemption and family are two themes in John Grisham's novels, and we certainly have both here. One story in Calico Joe involves a bitter, aging pitcher and the rising star whose career is ruined with one beanball. The other involves the same bitter man and his failure as a father. The story moves between first person and third and back in forth in time, between the son and his trip to see his dying father and the events leading up to the awful game. This can be a little confusing, but I got used to it pretty quickly. (I never did get quite used to the verb tense shifts though.)

On certainly does not have to be a baseball fan to appreciate the history of the game, which Grisham clearly knows and loves, or to enjoy reading about these people. The narrator is as interesting a character as the title character, Warren Tracy, and Clarence Rook, though not as dynamic as one might expect. But that is not necessarily a flaw. Sometimes a novel's best message is in what it doesn't say, not it what is beat over our heads.

I fully expect this book to be made into a movie, and when it is, I hope it is handled by a bright and creative director instead of getting turned into a Hallmark presentation. Otherwise much of the real grit of the issues addressed in Calico Joe are likely to be lost, and that would be a shame.

Bookmarks -- Prime Directive

Bryan Dietrich's Prime Directive is a moving elegy is the truest sense. The book length poem is about mourning, not only of a father, but a father's mind, and of a world that crumbles around one during loss. Wrapped with the myth of Star Trek, this book provides a fascinating journey. Dietrich covers, of course, life and death, but also deftly handles the ideas and ideals one wrestles with when one encounters one's own mortality.

My own father and step-father passed away, three months apart, and I recall that as a part of the grief process, I came to one of those startling realizations of the obvious. When a man's father dies, a man "finds out" that he is going to die too. It is one of those things we know, but ignore so long that it is as if we do not know. Dietrich's poem wrestles with this idea, and many others.

For those that might worry that Prime Directive is a poem with the usual dense poetic language and references to a television show readers are not familiar with, be still. One does not have to be a Trekkie or Trekker, or have a doctorate in ancient mythology to understand what is happening. Familiarity with these helped to enrich the experience for me, but I don't believe it is necessary. Dietrich provides a first rate essay at the end of the book, "Star Trek as Myth," which is a terrific companion for the verse. It does give the reader some insight into the poem, but as I said, it stands alone just fine.

Full disclosure: Bryan is a friend of mine from graduate school. But I can easily say that had I never known him and I came across Prime Directive, I would still think of the poem as a modern In Memoriam.

Meditation XV -- Wanting

"and whenever you want, you can do good for them."

Let us set the scene for this verse. While Jesus was having dinner at the house of a leper (one who was expected to be shunned), a women came and gave Our Lord the honor of anointing Him with nard. She, most likely, should not -- based on social convention -- have been touching a man. And the men there scoffed and scolded, claiming that the ointment could have been sold and money given to the poor.

Several times in Christ's earthly ministry, His friends and disciples tried to keep others from him. Always it was with the excuse of something "more important." Once they tried to keep children from being blessed by Him because presumably Jesus was too busy. Here they exploited the poor. Sounds good on the surface. Jesus the VIP. Jesus the defender of the lowly.

But Jesus is not interested in the logic of businessmen-followers. He wasn't Jesus the politician. He answers that we will always have the poor to give to. Whenever we want. Of course, because The Lord has demonstrated His Love and Holy Concern for the poor, we should too. But His words cut deep, because the implication here is that His disciples really did not want to do good to the poor. They had another agenda.

Perhaps worse than ignoring the children of God, be they the poor, sick, or incarcerated, is using those children as an excuse to keep Christ (or what we expect Christ is) to ourselves. For loving God is not a matter of acting in a particular way or avoiding certain things or people. Loving God wholly means also loving good, wanting to do good.

Lord, test and turn my will, that my desire to serve you will be pure, free from selfishness or agenda, except the agenda to love You more. Amen in Christ.

Bookmarks -- The Shallows

As I began to read this book, I have to confess that I use the Internet so much, I was scared to find out how bad it is for me. Not only do I use the Net for as a writer (research, writing, keeping track of submissions, not the mention to submissions themselves), but it is an integral part of my teaching. My students essentially do every assignment online, and I do all my grading online via a course management system. I keep track of my family and friends via the web, including arguments and prayer requests. I even follow my favorite soccer teams by watching them as much online as I do on television.

I mean, I already kind of knew something was amiss, but I was not ready for what I found out in Nicholas Carr's The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing To Our Brains.

This is a fascinating book about the way the Internet has not only revolutionized the way we do things, but the way we think. Carr lays out a strong argument that the brain's plasticity allows it to physically change due to a variety of stimuli, and that what is inherent in the Internet makes those changes rapidly. Where we gain in some processes (and Carr is quite fair about the value of the Internet), we lose in such necessary elements as meditative or deep or critical thinking. The is the type of thinking is as important as the type of quick thinking the Internet encourages, as it needed for creativity and problem solving among other things. The book also exposes the shift in thinking since the first computers were created from a sense that knowledge encompasses many elements to the idea that knowledge is merely a matter of getting data (any data) as quickly as possible.

Carr includes a great deal of history and science to develop his ideas, including details about more than how the first computers were invented and put to use, but the ideas behind those who built and used them. Where controversy might occur, he includes plenty of information from those who are not likely to side with him, so the naysayers have their say. And the book includes a number lighthearted moments, such as the "digression" chapters and Carr's awareness of the ironies inherent in writing a book as this.

I like that Carr does not take an alarmist tone, but I must comment on two chapters that have me thinking I should do some re-thinking about how and how much I use the web. One chapter is "The Church of Google," where Carr present the history of the search engine/company, but also explains the frightening rationale used to make us believe that data and information is the same as knowledge. The other chaper is the one that follows, "Search, Memory," in which Carr persuasively argues against the metaphor that the brain is like a computer, particularly in how it stores information and memories.

The book is a bit difficult to read, but that is because it is filled with research and scholarly inquiry. I think every teacher should read The Shallows, at the very least, because it addresses the very nature of how we learn. Students should read it too, but ironically, many, having grown up in a world where the Internet was always in existence, may find it tough sledding.

Years ago, when I started teaching, and students were nervous about using a word processing program to compose their papers, I remember telling them that within a month they would wonder how they got along with it. I have said this about a number of technological innovations since then. Now, I'm convinced we better find a way to get along without the Internet, at least for longer periods of time, to give our brains the other stimuli, nourishment, or whatever you want to call it to bring us back into the balance we need.

Kudos to Nicholas Carr for his very important, honest, and even response to a growing, if unacknowledged, crisis.

Meditation XIV -- Salted

"For everyone will be salted with fire."

Salt is a preservative. Salt alters the taste of food. Even the salt on our skin can sting an open wound.

In popular culture, we may think of people who are "salty," not so much as seasoned, which they most likely are, but as course, as altogether too earthy. These are people who have been changed, perhaps, not by a single experience, but by a lifetime of experience living in the world.

Salt changes the food it touches irrevocably. Over-salt something, and it might be ruined. You can wash the salt with much water, but it won't ever go back to its original form. So it takes practice and great care for us to salt properly,even to our own taste.

God does take great care with us, but that salt is necessary. Otherwise we are not only bland, but do not last, and are useless.

Lord, help me to accept the fire you salt me with. Change me to your taste, for in such actions you prove I belong to You. Amen.

Meditation XIII -- Leaven

And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.

Leaven and bread are two different things. Leaven is put in bread to make it rise. It is an agent of change. Bread is what we eat. The disciples were so focused on their bellies, on their immediate needs, that they were unable to comprehend the spiritual needs -- the eternal needs -- Jesus was addressing when he said, "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."

How often are we so focused on the temporal, the literal, that we miss the metaphor, the greater teaching? So like Martha running after the work of the kitchen instead of like Mary, setting ourselves to the work of the soul.

We see the immediate need to fix our hunger, and so neglect that our souls are in immediate need as well. It is when we are hungry that the leaven of the Pharisees can take root, and spoil the loaves that are our lives.

Lord, help us to remember you always meet our bodily needs, so that we may focus our minds and hearts on You. Let Your leaven work in us that we may always work in You. Amen.