Julia M. OBrien

My husband and I recently watched Connie and Carla, a 2004 comedy starring Nia Vardalos and Toni Collette.

I am a grammar snob.  While I don't grade seminary students on the mechanics of writing, I do mark infelicities of English style and insist that communicating clearly is a matter of courtesy as well as a defense against being misunderstood.   "I don't know what you're thinking unless you can explain it to me"  has become my mantra.

Right after I uploaded my last blog post on The Bible as Instructions, I found this comic in my local paper.  It fits!

As long as the word "Bible" is used to mean "definitive" or "instructions," is there any hope people will read it for its stories?  What chance do those of us who want to open up the reading of these writings have in the face of pop culture definitions?

That's the question that ran through my head as I pondered a display outside of Borders at the local mall.

The 40-year anniversary of the moon walk of Apollo 11 has me nostalgic.  I remember where I was and where I was headed on the evening of July 20, 1969.

It was the first night of a month-long, cross-country family car trip.  My father, who loved to travel, hatched the idea and planned the details with the help of AAA.  He and my mom bought a station wagon, topped it with a Sears luggage carrier, packed up all four kids, and headed out from North Carolina to California.  I was 11 at the time.

My title at the seminary recently changed:  instead of "Professor of Old Testament," my business card now reads "Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament."   This was my idea. Why did I ask for such a long, cumbersome title?

My daughter, a college senior, saw the new Harry Potter movie at midnight last night.

Last week, two colleagues from Elizabethtown College and I took a field trip to a reproduction of the biblical Tabernacle.  It's housed in the Mennonite Information Center in Lancaster, PA-- close to Amish tourist sites, a Target, and two outlet malls.

"There's no such thing as knowing what you want to say but not being able to find the words," claimed one of my teachers.  "If you can't find the words, it's because you really haven't figured out what you think.  Spend time on the idea and the words will follow."

I've been learning more about the Changing Lives through Literature program, in which "criminal offenders with charges ranging from drug violations to assault with a deadly weapon read and discuss literature as a condition of their probation."  In the program, offenders join judges and others in a democratic discussion of literature.

The group's website is filled with testimonies of how discussing literature in a group can lead to transformation: