Check-in

The past two or three weeks I've increasingly felt that history is speeding up--you know, having one of those times it occasionally does when events seem to move more quickly than usual, even to cluster. The bombing of the Shiite mosque in Iraq today--not to mention the reprisals--didn't alleviate the feeling any; it made me feel quite sick, in fact, and I'm not even Muslim. The annoying part--other than the fear and sorrow we can feel over the loss of life that turbulent times often bring--is not knowing which of the many things seeming to go wrong are important, knowing that only history will tell that tale or tell if the feeling is even right or not. Hindsight is relatively easy; being in history is confusing. Prayer for those who have more active roles in history-making can sometimes seem a flimsy defense against chaos.

Maybe I just pay too much attention to the news?

One good distraction just started though. NRO started a book blog yesterday to discuss Rod Dreher's newly released book, Crunchy Cons. I forgot to pre-order the book, so I don't have a copy, but the blog is interesting. A little "How should we live?" discussion beats "What the hell is going on out there?" worrying.