1. Tonight I finished reading Haruki Murakami's book, Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche.
I admit, I didn't come away from this book with a clear understanding of what the title calls "the Japanese psyche".
Nor, after reading Murakami's interviews with those past members of the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo (known as just Aum) or with those who remain loosely affiliated with Aum, did I see any patterns in terms of these members' backgrounds, family life, level of education, or much of anything else aside from a shared desire to live a more purposeful life, to follow the disciplines and practices and demands of Aum and renounce the secular world in order to experience a more fully enlightened existence, and, for many, enter into a monastic life.
Those who consented to be interviewed saw Aum's leader, Asahara Shoko, as a man of great wisdom, inspiring teachings, deep insight, and something like spiritual purity.
But, he turned out to be corrupt.
He orchestrated two sarin gas attacks and ordered assassinations and set several other criminal actions into motion.
Aum Shinrikyo disintegrated.
Asahara Shoko was tried, found guilty, and eventually, in 2018, executed by hanging.
Regarding my ongoing project to learn about extremism, I have more reading planned.
I have some reviewing to do of things I've already read.
I have questions.
No answers.
I'll leave it at that for now.
2. Debbie, Christy, and I agreed this afternoon on what we are going to do for Thanksgiving.
Carol and Paul will be in Meridian.
Debbie and I will have three guests in our home: Patrick, Meagan, and our niece, Misty.
Molly will be in town and we'll see how our plans and Brian's family plans mesh (or don't).
We set aside a plan we made a while back to have our Thanksgiving Day dinner at the Inland Lounge.
We set aside a plan to have a second Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday.
We will have dinner at our house on Thanksgiving Day and we will follow the menu that Christy created for the dinner we were originally going to have on Saturday.
I was really happy that we settled on this simpler plan and that we worked it out so easily.
3. Months -- oh many months! -- ago I bought a couple whole chickens at Costco and one of them has been in our freezer ever since. A few days ago, I decided it was way past time to thaw that chicken and cook it.
Today, it was finally thawed out and Debbie told me she'd like to fix it.
She prepared it in the crock pot and fixed a delicious combination of chicken and leftover rice we had on hand. She also made a terrific zucchini salad. Our dinner was simple, delicious, and comforting and, best of all, we had enough food left over that we can have a simple dinner ready on Thanksgiving Eve when Debbie arrives home with Misty, after picking her up late in the afternoon at the Spokane airport.
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