1. I finished reading Leah Sottile's When the Moon Turns to Blood. It tells the story of how Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow's fixation on preparing for the end times and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ became homicidal. I don't know if Leah Sottile would invite this coupling, but, to me, her book and Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven are both primarily concerned with the dark side of religious devotion, with how such devotion, such fanaticism, can motivate cruelty, inhumane action, evil itself. Faith-based violence has a history as long as the history of religion itself and is not confined to any one religion.
So, while both Sottile and Krakauer tell stories of people who regard themselves as Latter Day Saints, both writers make it clear that their stories are not about people in the mainstream of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Moreover, I came away from both books having learned (or having reinforced) that faith-based violence is not particular to Latter Day Saints, but is acted out by people devoted to sects of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and more.
Inevitably, Sottile's and Krakauer's books cause me to turn my attention inward. I've never (or rarely) been drawn to enthusiastic churches and have (almost) always lived a life blending secular and spiritual wisdom. My formation as a person has been shaped as much by the works of William Shakespeare as by what I've learned from the Bible. My experience as a student, chaplain's assistant, and an instructor at Whitworth College (now University) strengthened this blending, and was, to me, at the heart of a Christian Liberal Arts education.
2. While I read, Debbie assembled a small buffet for our living room. I wasn't any help with this, but I could help out spiffing up our living area and admiring how this new piece of furniture enhances our living room both aesthetically and functionally.
3. Debbie and I returned to The Lounge after I did some shopping at Yoke's. We relaxed, had a great talk, and returned home. I immediately went to work in the kitchen dipping chicken wingettes in salt and peppered flour, frying the wingettes in butter, and then dipping them in a mixture of melted butter and Frank's RedHot pepper sauce. I also cooked some broccoli.
Wingettes aren't available often at Yoke's. My guess is that these were out today in support of Super Bowl parties. So, when we have hot wings at home, it's a special occasion and today's batch was fun to cook and delicious to devour.
Butter. To me, it's the key ingredient when preparing wings, whether hot ones, teriyaki, or another style.
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