Searching For Meaning

Wow, it’s been awhile. Hey guys!

I had an excellent week off; thanks for asking! My trip to Boston with my wife was a lot of fun, and the time I spent seminary hunting was fun as well, though not as productive as I was hoping it would be, but not to worry! Such things are not setbacks, for we learn in spite of them!

Anyway, I have a confession to make: I bought a book. Yes, I know I said I wouldn’t. I know I said no more book buying until Christmas, but it was just too hard to resist! I was down in Philadelphia on Saturday at the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology (which was pretty cool) and while walking to get lunch, my friend and I happened upon a really neat anarchist bookstore called Wooden Shoe. Though I don’t fully identify as an anarchist myself, I love people who have interesting views of life and politics, so I could not resist the opportunity to step inside and have a look around. While in there, I could also not resist the Verso Book of Dissent, sitting there ever so nicely on the New Books shelf, calling out, “Buy me, Patrick! Take me home with you! Use your hard earned money to buy me and support the nice people who run this store!”

So I did. This book better be life changing, even though I’m not reading it right now.  This did occur a second time at a thrift store, this time with a really, really nice copy of the Book of Common Prayer.

I should also confess that I received at least five free books over the weekend.  I don’t feel as bad about that; they didn’t cost me a dime. Either way, my total book count has gone up to about 554, which technically sets me back, but that’s OK. The books were free.  Except for the one.  Which better be awesome.

Moving right along, it was nice to have time off. I did do a bit of reading in that time, though I have not picked up the Wright book for awhile now. Instead, I started in on Man’s Search For Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy by Viktor Frankl. A former coworker of mine recommended I read it. Dr. Frankl was a psychiatrist from Austra who developed a new form of psychoanalysis known as “Logotherapy,” in part due to his experiences as an inmate at such concentration camps as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau, and others. I’ve only gotten about 70ish pages in, but the things I’m reading about his experiences in these camps are astonishing. I’m not even done, and I highly recommend this book already. More to come on this in the week!

I’m also going to be starting a book (probably sometime tomorrow) by Ed Dobson entitled The Year of Living Like Jesus: My Journey of Discovering What Jesus Would Really Do. It’s pretty much his journals and thoughts about his experiences, and comes highly recommended from a friend of mine who’s part of a pretty awesome intentional community in Harrisburg called The Pancake Mansion. Anyway, looking forward to it!

It’s good to be back, folks! I’ll be back to regular posting tomorrow, though it may come later in the day than usual.  See you guys then!