Random notes....

So I've added links to a couple blogs below.

"Oil Wars" is mostly commentary on Venezuela, from an American married to a Venezuelan, I believe. He's quite a bit more centrist (liberal, social-democrat) than me, but is generally slightly more favorable to Chávez than to his opponents. The comments run the gamut from moderate-conservative to communist, so the debates get quite interesting.

"Gravity's Rainbow" is by a super-smart (quite a bit smarter than me) young botanist. Naturally I don't agree with all the opinions expressed therein, but she is a friend of mine and you should definitely read her blog!

"In Medias Res" is from an, again, super-smart, Christian-Socialist viewpoint. The owner is, interestingly, a follower of the Latter Day Saints church. Having always lived either in the Northeast or Midwest, this isn't a church I have much experience with, but I'm always interested to learn more.

I have to work now on a teaching presentation for early January, so I will get going. In the background I am listening to an old favorite, "Freedom Train" by Toots and the Maytals. As with a lot of songs, it sounds like it maybe has double meanings. Is the "freedom" that the singer talks about just referring to the U.S. Civil Rights struggle, or perhaps the struggle for Jamaican independence? Or is it also talking about the freedom from sin and death, the freedom in Christ, when he says, "Gonna ride on that freedom train/ Ain't gonna live this way again"? In Toots Hibbert's beautiful gospel-inflected reggae tones, it could be both, which is what makes his songs usually so interesting. (Toots Hibbert was, interestingly, an Adventist, which is not a particularly common or well-known confession in the United States. I did get to know some Adventists in Madagascar, through the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, and let me tell you they do some amazing work, truly living out the spirit of Matthew 25 in their lives. It's not surprising that so many people in the developing world are attracted to the Adventist church.)