First Flurries

Yesterday we awoke to reports of the first sightings of snow flurries in our area. Not much; not everywhere; but enough to signal more to come. Winter is on the way!

I was also feeling better yesterday—at least, better than Monday! But then the devil is always in the details—which were finally spelled out for me after the implant procedure. It seems I’ll be rather restricted for the first two weeks; then they shared the nugget that the real symptoms from the implants begin to appear after 7-10 days and will last for at least two months!

For the technically inclined, I received 89 Cs-131 Isotopes with a per seed activity of 3.21 mCi. This equates to a total activity of 285.69 mCi with a measured exposure at three feet of 0.12 mR/hr. The half-life of the Cs-131 is 9.7 days and it should be inactive in a little over two months after the implantation. Energy: 29 KeV; total dose: 115Gy. The seeds are contained in titanium and are permanently in place.

One of the restrictions they gave me was for two weeks not to lift, push or pull over 10 pounds. This is so as not to dislodge the seeds until the prostate has time to heal and they are securely embedded. Well, that wasn’t hard to take since it allowed me to get out of some yard work that needed to be done this week! But: its was also easy to forget. So, Tuesday I “forgot” and wound up moving something that was far heavier. You guessed it. I almost immediately felt the strain and today have had a bit of a problem. After visiting the doctor’s office this morning, I decided (actually, Cynthia decided) I should rest again today.

While laid aside, I have been able to do some reading. Sunday evening I began the Robert Ludlum novel, The Bancroft Strategy. I finished it Tuesday afternoon. It turned out to be quite a morality play, as well as a page-turner of a thriller.

Tuesday evening I finished Cornel West’s Democracy Matters (I started it two weeks ago and got interrupted—its not “light reading”). West is, in my estimation, the leading black intellectual of our time. He describes himself as a committed “follower of Jesus,” but does so from what used to be called a Modernists viewpoint. Although not a Bible Believer, he is a steadfast believer in democracy and a penetrating thinker about culture from the philosophical view of Christianity. If you want to understand the reason the Black community (as a whole) views cultural things in fundamentally different terms from the White community, and what those differences really are—then you need to at least read West. I must confess that he makes me think, and keeps me balanced by reminding me I am not always right!

West’s critique on “Constantinian Christianity” and its use as a cover for imperialism, by itself makes this book worth the read. His treatment of the impact of Jazz is too!

Now I am on to Evangelism After Christendom, by Bryan Stone. This is a dissertation on reclaiming evangelism in what is termed our “post-modern/post-Christian” era. Beginning, as it does, with the declaration, “The church can no longer assume as it once did that the surrounding culture will assist in the task of producing Christians,” and moving on to the assertion that evangelism must encompass the “subversive activity” of the gospel, made me want to read this book!

Interestingly, he too has a section on “The Constantinian Story” of Christianity. This is, of course, a carefully crafted euphemism for Romanism—the institutionalizing of Christianity into an imperial religion.

Well, I guess that lets you know my mind is still working even if other parts of me are having problems. I just watched the midweek study from Shorewood via the internet. Alex did a grand job teaching on prayer; the connection was good. Interesting to see what folks are seeing when we are doing our thing!

Maranatha!