Coffee Break - Saturday a.m.

So much to read and digest, so little time. Life will be crazier than usual for me in the next couple weeks, between the onset of high school track season and club outdoor soccer (aka football) and the special tasks for the day job, including preparing for an upcoming conference and presentation (which will allow me to get away from my desk, travel to a great city, and sit in hotel conference rooms all day for days on end). But for now, let me just note the following:

Andrian Worsfield (Pluralist Speaks) has a brilliant essay up on Rowan Williams' second Lent lecture on Faith and Politics. Someday I would really like to weigh in on it myself, but Adrian has not only hit the important points but has some tremendous insights of his own that are well worth reading.

Mimi (and her ghost runner Doug!) has alerted everyone to a terrific opinion piece, "Who is the Real Patriot" by Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss featured at the Chicago Tribune.

Clumber, besides having his usual fun with the high and mighty, has this bit on what I would call Blind Ambition. Although I would quibble about the source of the information (Jerry Zeifman - a Vince Foster conspiracy theorist, and someone who circulated this story years ago in a book now out of print) and some of its spin, I think it does point to the source of some of Hillary's problems with ethics. I'd love to riff about John Dean, Hillary, and Watergate, what it is like to be a young lawyer, especially among politicians, and maybe even the judge I clerked for, who was with the Justice Department during part of the Nixon administration, but... well, another time maybe.

Finally, I'm sorry no one at Jake's really wanted to engage on PB Katharine's video but I do recognize the difficulty of talking about that kind of poetic, inspirational sermon. I, do, however, also think there are some important ideas in there as well about thought, action, belief, and, above all, hubris in relationship to what religion should really be about. And then... well, the poetry. The dead fish, of course, but also... I dunno.... something about the physics near the beginning made me think of the bit in the musical Camelot (thinking Richard Harris movie version) about Merlin teaching Arthur to fly high as a hawk so he could see land without boundaries, etc.

(Someday I'll learn not to say "Finally" in hopes I'll cut things short!]

There is the business about the Va. court ruling. As an Episcopalian and a lawyer I feel I should say something. Blogging is self-indulgent enough -- seems to me one should pay back the free forum, in a sense, by occasionally writing about something one really knows something about (or could without much effort). But... I'm afraid that much that I might have to say would be pessimistic and, at least for that reason, unhelpful. OCICBW, and in this case, I hope that will prove true. Maybe when the dust has settled, I might find something helpful to say after all, but... for now it's off to the high school track in the cold and mist and rain. Should be good to clear the head, at least.