Homework

Whew! I have not been reading so many books at one time in a long time. Extra spaces in all rooms in my house, have open books. They are everywhere, and I am reading them all. You could probably tell my mood at the end of the day, by the book I pick up to read.

A good friend of mine, The Rev. Jim Lewis, has a den in the same shape as mine. When I visited he and Judy, I saw stacks of books everywhere around his reading chair. I smiled and commented about my house. He told me that this is usually a sign of an individual who believed he/she would live forever, having time to read them all to the end.

The past couple of weeks have stood as reminders that we do not live forever and there will be books I do not finish. Maybe I should tell my daughter that she must finish them for me. But those thoughts are for a different day.

While I have been reading, I have been secretly thankful that there would not be a test at the end. My brain is full and I am sure that I am not retaining everything I have read.

The area in which I would not want to be grilled is: why has Sudan been in turmoil for centuries? I would rather see the dentist or visit the IRS.

In reading Emma's War by Deborah Scroggins, I was reminded about those wonderful cellophane diagrams used in the old encyclopedias. You know the books, hard cover books.

Remember the human body diagrams peeling away the skin, then the muscles, then the blood vessels, finally revealing the skeleton? I loved that stuff.

Well, that is what I need to understand Sudan's civil wars.

Here are some of the layers: "the northern government versus the southern rebels, and under that a layer of religious conflict - Muslim versus Christians and pagans, and under that a map of all the sectarian divisions within these categories, and under that a layer of ethnic divisions - Arab and Arabized versus Nilotic and Equatorian - all of them containing a multitude of clan and tribal subdivisions, and under that a layer of linguistic conflicts, and under that a layer of economic divisions - the more developed north with fewer natural resources versus the poorer south with its rich mineral and fossil fuel deposits, and under that a layer of colonial divisions, and under that a layer of racial divisions related to slavery. And so on an so on..."

What does this mean to me?

I will make no assumptions about the person I am speaking with. It would be so naive if I thought that I knew who they were.

What else does this mean to me?

Lots more opportunities to develop relationships.