Reading & Mending... Jan 22

I'm on the mend in Boulder.  Spending a week with Gram is great.  Its the first time since the beginning of the trip that I can drink coffee again (my cold was not allowing me to), so I busted out my pound if Leotah's Place coffee that I squirreled away in my car and am sipping it while I do all my reading here.

So I'm finishing up the reading the epic history of the Navajo-Hopi-USA fight over mineral/land/water rights on the reservation. This argument goes back a couple hundreds years and has just been relentless.  The Natives have been relocated, lied to, manipulated, pushed around, and fenced in tighter and tighter throughout the whole thing. And there is in-fighting amongst the Natives as well as the US Gov't in reference to what decisions to make, etc. Messy. One of the themes in this history that just irks me the most is how the US Gov't assumes that the Natives would gladly take on the ideals and lifestyle of the US white-man culture and drop their own culture without much thought.  In the reading so far, there doesn't seem to be much respect for preserving their lifeways that they've had for thousands of years.  An old story, for sure. But neverendingly frustrating to hear about.

The other book I've picked up is The Rich and The Rest of Us; A Poverty Manifesto by Cornel West and Travis Smiley. I just started it. I am reading it for the institute at Ched's in February. At the institute, we are going to be talking about many verses in Luke that talk about the rich and the poor. So far it looks like Lk 7:36-8:3, 10:25-37, 12:13-21, 12:22-34, 13:10-17, 14:1-6, 14:7-14, 14:15-24, 18:1-6, 11:5-8, 16:1-14, 16:19-31, 18:35-43, 19:1-10, and 18:11-27.  These will be some of the jumping off points for our week of study, reflection and discussion.

On a different note, I shimmied over to the Goodwill this morning and got a heavier coat for when I am sherherding.  The one I had just wasn't going to cut it. I also got this perfect pair of snowpants, which I'm super pumped about. Over the last few years, I've been a bit limited in my snow-filled activities because of my lack of snow pants, so, Boosh! Nevermore.  Just you wait, snow- Ima jump in you so hard!

the only pose i could think of when in snow pants...

Then, when I walked out of Goodwill, I looked to my left and saw this.  Man, this is why I love Colorado.

Mountains to the left of me, plains to the right, wish I was stuck in the middle with you.
uh.... don't tell anyone i just wrote that...