Three Beautiful Things 07-31-2024: Learning More About Ruby Ridge, Yakkin with Jeff Steve, A Simple Pleasure

1. No doubt this project will consume the next several months. I am working my way through a reading list Leah Sottile published, inspired by a recent NYTimes list of the top 100 books of the 21st century so far. 

I read Leyna Krow's Fire Season and now I'm engrossed in Jess Walter's book, Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver Story. 

I'm learning a great deal about how Randy and Vicki Weaver came to be unwavering in their Christian apocalyptic world view, shaped, in part, by their deep distrust of the U.S. government.

I'm not even a quarter of the way into Walter's book. In his book's early stages, Walters is not only developing the Weaver family story, but also the story of the emergence, in the 1980s, of white power movements in North Idaho and Eastern Washington, with emphasis on The Aryan Nations and the violent white power group called The Order. 

In the early chapters of his book, Walters also reports on the FBI's and ATF's investigations into white power activity in North Idaho and Eastern Washington. 

He's carefully laying the groundwork for the 1992 confrontation at Ruby Ridge that lies ahead. 

2. Around 4:00 this afternoon, Carol and Paul hosted a surprise birthday party for Cosette's stepdaughter, Saphire. I am being cautious about participating in large-ish get togethers. It looked like about fifteen people might be at this party and so I decided not to go.

Coincidentally, however, Jeff Steve had arrived from Ventura at his family's lake property on Cougar Bay and invited me to pay a visit. 

Time with Jeff, sitting behind the lake house, looking out over Cougar Bay, struck me as not very risky at all, and so I blasted over. 

Jeff and I had a superb time for nearly 90 minutes. He told me about his recent trip to Wisconsin to deliver a canoe he built for a customer there and the wonderful visits he had with different people on this trip. Jeff is in town largely because this is the weekend of Coeur d'Alene's Art on the Green and Jeff's family was instrumental in getting this festival started over 50 years ago. Jeff will be performing on his guitar this weekend and one of his elegantly designed and constructed canoes will be on display and juried. 

Jeff reminded me that when he was a student at Whitworth, he had, on occasion, played his guitar meditatively for the Compline service. When I was a Chaplain's Assistant at Whitworth in 1976-77, I was in charge of the Wednesday (or was it Thursday?) evening Compline service and it was invigorating for me to talk with Jeff today about meditative, liturgical worship and the Compline service in particular. 

3. Back home, I enjoyed a simple, but lasting pleasure. I fixed myself a toasted sharp cheddar cheese sandwich on Great Harvest Dakota Wheat bread. I guess that saying that is always making the rounds on social media applies here: IYKYK (If You Know You Know)!