Trying to follow

I feel distraught trying to mention this. It seems like it should be the kind of thing that has already made it’s way into news and conversation and more, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

BBC News on the Earthquake.

Join your Nashville friends in an all out Quarantine of Walmart.

Kansas City, January 26
Hundreds of concerned citizens successfully quarantined Walmart. (more)

From Geez Magazine:

Abba Isaac said that Abba Pambo (304-373) used to say, “The monk’s garment should be such that he could throw it out of his cell for three days and no-one would take it.”

I had not heard this quote before the last two times my bike was stolen, but I’d say this summarizes well my feelings. When my bike was stolen my initial thought was that I owned something that was better or nicer then others had and I had been keeping it for myself. Now, I understand there is a good chance the person who took it did not take it out of need for a bicycle, they might have simply taken it to sell it for some money. Regardless, I find myself uncomfortable with the need to put locks on my things.
The very act of locking up my possessions seems to say “this is mine and you can not have it.” This attitude is not how I want to live my life. Locking up my things acknowledge’s that I have in my possession something other’s desire and I intended to keep them from it. If I truely love my neighbor as myself, how can I withhold from them and keep for me?
I want my life to be one where I see another’s need and I do everything within my power and resources to meet that need. If I leave my “garment” out for three days and someone takes it, then it is a good sign to me that I probably should have already give it to them.

And, yet, I use my bike to get to and from work, which makes it possible for me to have the resources to provide for others needs. I bought a bike and I’m torn about it.

Is Abba Pambo’s words challenging advice? Or are they too radical?

I figured I could sneak in after all the hype and talk and get my hands on the Da Vinci Code to see what it was all about. I put it on hold at the library and it came surprisingly faster then expected. I’ve started in and I’m only a few chapters through, but I am already struck now by one of the major premises of the book. It seems the deep dark secret that is being kept has a lot to do with the elevation of the feminine and the fact that the church forced a patriarchal rule over society that was not originally there.
There are a lot of “facts” mentioned in the book that might or might not be true, but they are interesting nonetheless. I think, true or not, this book should at least challenge folks to think a little about the church and women.
If anything, I would hope the book and movie, and all the talks going on in churches and elsewhere are acknowledging that women have been oppressed and mistreated and put down in a way that is not Christian at all.

I say all that having only read a few chapters and I really have very little idea what turns the book will be taking later.