Fridays are for fragments. And questions.

09Oct
by Jon Swanson

I have a a stack of black, square-ruled, 5.5 x 8.25, Moleskine notebooks. My last one was orange and ran out about a year ago. Or better, I became unreliable. I’ve used several other notebooks that were cheaper. And less suited to my way of working apparently. I recently came back home. I may start thinking better. I’m pretty sure that, for reasons I cannot adequately express, it matches me. There may be a lesson for all of us who have felt disrupted. What could you resume that would give you order?

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I’m reading from a Bible without verse numbers, without chapters, with only one column on a page, without footnotes (or any notes). (The Books of the Bible: New Testament). It’s helping. I realized that Jesus was not circumcised at the temple.

That seems like an odd thing to come from a different layout of the Biblical text. But without verses and with just paragraphs, it was easier for me to see that there was time between these two verses. I’ve had a sense that the writer of Ezra and the writer of Luke did a similar kind of gathering and then sharing pieces of story. I’m seeing that better.

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Our minds are pretty scattered. (I don’t think it’s just my mind.) So I have a question for you this weekend that could help you focus. And maybe could guide conversations with friends and family. What’s one thing you’ve been involved in that turned out better than you expected? Not in the country or in the world, but in your life. It could be that you planted seeds and they grew. It could be that you had a conversation and it went well. I don’t know your story. But you do. Tell someone. (For that matter, tell us in the comments!)

4 thoughts on “Fridays are for fragments. And questions.”

  1. Gary Mintchell

    I searched for one of my little notebooks yesterday to review an interview I had done last summer. I realized a by-product of not traveling to conferences–I’m almost out of those nice little notebooks. I’ll have to break down and actually find a local store where I can buy another Moleskin. Sometimes I fill one in maybe two months. Sometimes four months. I mostly use the same size as you, but some are European sized if the sponsoring company was German.

    I like that printing of the Bible. I encourage people to read parts like a story. Or read Paul like a letter from a friend. To try not to read in a reverent voice, but like reading any biography or letter. Try to make it more personal.

    Thanks

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    1. Jon Swanson

      Ah Gary, I love that picture of unintended consequences. You haven’t stopped thinking even though you stopped conferencing.

      And I’ve been working on helping us read the Bible in its reading context for a long time (received as a letter, received as a campfire story) but this printing helps that so much.

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  2. beckyjmccray

    I really did plant some seeds, and they grew. And it turned out way better than I expected. It was enough to take lettuce and cucumbers to a friend who is taking care of grandkids, and several small sacks of peppers and cucumbers to the local food bank to share with others. We ate the tomatoes ourselves. 🙂

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