Wild

Finishing up the New York Times bestselling WILD: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, by Cheryl Strayed. Might have to watch the movie, starring Reese Witherspoon. Rated R, just like the book.

Next up: Me Before You, by JoJo Moyes. Also a hit movie. I recommend.

Monday: slept in this morning. Later we went for a 3-1/2 mile walk with Lee and Nancy, down by the river. Walked east under Roswell Road and 400, checking out how the City of Roswell has cleared out new park space. Later we did some extended cleaning upstairs. A 10000 step day. Went out and got my RaceTrac drink, a bottle of wine for Ceil from Trader Joes (the first bottle of wine I have bought in my life). Then I picked up a pie from Pizzeria Luca up near the Roswell Square.

Tuesday: spent extra time at the gym, and ran / walked for an hour on the treadmill. Zero breathing concerns, even though I had a tiny bit of wheezing when I was getting out of my car at the gym – due to cleaning out dusty things yesterday. Normal heart rate.

Question of the day: what was the greatest home run in each team’s history?

Braves: Hank’s 715th.

Dodgers: Kirk Gibson’s pinch hit homer.

Yankees: Ruth’s called shot

Red Sox: Fisk hits the foul pole.

Twins: Kirby Puckett’s World Series walkoff

Blue Jays: Joe Carter’s World Series winning walkoff.

Cardinals: Ozzie Smith’s playoff walkoff.

Pirates: Maz’s walkoff to win the 1960 Series

Several of my JFBC cohorts are attending a conference at Ridgecrest in October. C is invited but I’m not sure she can attend.

Article: scientists say they may have figured out the "Origin of Life" but aren’t saying how God figures in to it.

Article: a Smithsonian Exhibit Monkeys Around with the Scientific Evidence on Human Origins. Humans are not just 1% different from apes, it is a much greater difference. 

FRED CLARKE  [SABR Bio] is the only manager able to secure a 100-win season for them for the Pirates. In 1902 he led the team to a 103-36-3 record to set a new NL record. The World Series didn’t exist until the following season. In 1909, Clarke, who was a player/manager for 18 of his 19 years as manager, led the team to a 110-42-2 record and a victory over the Tigers in the World Series. In his first game with Louisville on 30 Jun-1894 Clarke went 5-5, with 4 singles & a triple. He took part in the Oklahoma land dash, but was unable to stake a suitable claim at the Cherokee Strip, on 16-Sep-1893.

As Denison noted in his response to the Minneapolis church shooting, circumstances cannot change the character of an unchanging God (cf. Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). He is today what he was before the tragedy. Or perhaps my doubts say more about me than they do about him. It makes sense for me to question the character of someone only if I know enough about them for my doubts to be fair to them and accurate to the facts. But I cannot see the future consequences of God’s present actions. I cannot know how he will redeem present suffering for a greater future good, as with Joseph’s imprisonment in Egypt, which led to his saving Egypt and his own family from starvation. Trusting God even when he disappoints us moves our faith from a transactional religion to a transformational relationship.

C. S. Lewis wrote after his wife died of cancer: “Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about him. The conclusion I dread is not “So there’s no God after all,” but “So this is what God’s really like. Deceive yourself no longer.”