Windy Wednesday

I see from reading the news that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. There are a few things that give me some relief from that.

The first is that God really is taking care of things, no matter how unlikely it may seem at any time. The second is that from my studies of history, I know that the world has always been going to hell in a handbasket, so what's new? The third is that there is nothing I can do about it, so I may as well spare myself the worry, and save my energy for the things that are right under my nose and that I can do something about.

One thing right under my nose is preparing for house and yard work this spring -- if we ever get a spring this year. One of the things I like about late winter is that there's no shoveling and it's too early for yard work. (The soil in my yard has thawed only about two inches down.) So I stay in, tidy the house, and read books.

One book I'm just finishing (for the third time) is Philip Trower's The Catholic Church and the Counter-Faith, an account of philosophy since the so-called "Enlightenment" era, and the impact of that on the modern world. Very interesting, but it has taken me three readings to get out of it what I have gotten. It's not light bedtime reading.

If I want light bedtime reading, I grab a detective story or murder mystery. "Whaat?!" you may well say. I like detective stories and murder mysteries. I grew up on Sherlock Holmes, and I'm fond of Roderick Alleyn, Mr. Campion, Father Brown, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Brother Cadfael, and Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. I like the escape, the intellectual challenge, and the characters; but above all I like it that, in a murder mystery, justice is usually served in the end.