Chapter Title

An eavesdropped conversation.

Last Friday I took the dogs to the vet.

While Hondo was with a grooming technician, the front office staff played an icebreaker game. I listened in.

A staff member drew a card from a box, and asked the three other staff members, “If you assigned a chapter title to this moment of your life, what would it be?”

One pondered, and replied: “Hell.”

Shocked expressions appeared, consoling words were spoken, light jesting ensued, encouragement was given.

I left.

I came back the following Monday.

I approached the desk.

I looked at the staff, recognizing the afflicted.

“I’m here to pick up medicine for my dogs,” and turning to the staff person I had overheard speaking Friday, I said, “But first I want to know if you’re still in hell, or if you’ve turned the page and begun a new chapter.”

“You heard that?”

“Of course! I was sitting right there!”

“I was speaking quietly,” she said.

She then said she had a stomach bug—not an encouraging piece of news considering our seemingly eternal and persistently ongoing era of heightened concern regarding communicable disease.

“I’m a writer,” I told her.

“I listen for stuff like that.”

Book Notes

I finished James K. A. Smith’s The Nicene Option: An Incarnational Phenomenology. I also finished a collection of writings by Jacques Ellul, Essential Spiritual Writings.

Sights and Sounds

Last week I watched Batman: The Killing Joke (2016), If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd (2018), and Shelby Steele’s 2020 documentary, What Killed Michael Brown?

I liked Dune, will reread the novel, and look forward to the next installment.

Last Words

On the blog: I shared a funny story from Laity Lodge about a bottle of wine, a sermon illustration on faith, and a quote from Jacques Ellul about myth-making, religion, and the modern world.

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Be well this week. Bless others.

Best,

BAS

P.S. - A glimpse inside my planner.