Three Beautiful Things 09/28/07: Engagement, Invisible Poor, Rain Arrives

1. My 10:30 class sizzled today while discussing the short movie, "The Family Tree". Their insights and understanding of the movie stimulated me, making wish the class period wouldn't end and that we could go on digging into how the movie is structured and how it treats the experience of loss, survival, and reconciliation.

2. Coffee with Penny was really good. She works with VISTA and is going to give a talk to other VISTA workers about her life-long experience with poverty and she wanted to try out her ideas and approach on me. I think she'll blow her colleagues away with the depth of her understanding and the difficulties of her experiences and with the way she understands the hidden blessings of her difficult life.

3. Rain is finally beginning to spit a bit in Eugene. It felt good to have the air be a little heavier, to hear some claps of thunder, and to see the dusty ground get a little moisture. Before long, we'll have longish stretches of rain and it will grow tiresome, but I always welcome the tentative beginnings of the rainy season, of grim clouds pushing themselves upon the blue sky.