A long, lazy Saturday

Okay, folks. I know I was a day off and a dollar short last night when I posted about Friday Fun—I mean Thursday Fun but Thursday doesn’t lend itself nearly as well to alliteration. And truth be told, I was a day off in my mind. Today, I know it’s Saturday.

Because it was a long, slow Saturday for Sophie and me out in the cottage, with only glimpses of Jordan and Christian. I often start Saturday slowly, somehow picking up the vacation atmosphere of the day even though my workdays are far from rigorous. But today I decided to take a vacation and bury myself in a book. It’s been a busy time, and I wanted to empty my mind. Also, just a possibility—I’m avoiding going back to the work-in-progress. I’ve now left it twice, and I’m uncertain about the last 10,000 words or so. I know the ending, but I’m not sure how to get there. Monday, ah Monday.

So tonight, I’m half way through what I think is the first Christian mystery I’ve read. I’ve seen posts about Christian fiction forever and wondered exactly what characterizes it. In this case the novel is not openly labeled Christian but clues give it away, although the author is someone whose work I’ve admired for a long time. This has a Bible study group solving crimes—first clue—and an engaged couple who are far too distant with each other and concerned about virginity (of course they don’t openly say it that way, but in one instance a vague “it” seems to refer to marital relations). In this day and age, I find that a bit unrealistic.

It’s not the Christian elements that made me a little disappointed in the book. I think it was the long buildup to the first murder. I am truly a believer in action (probably murder) in the first chapter. In this novel, there was a long spell of Bible Study meeting and a day-long picnic, with full landscape description, before I got to—aha! a body! In the woods. Meantime I was checking to make sure the book was truly classified as a mystery. After the murder, I was much more engaged in it. No, I’m not divulging the title or author—I really like the woman who wrote it.

Nor was the mystery quite enough to take my mind off the troubling news of the day I saw someone refer to Trumpf as President Embarrassment, and I may start using that title. But like many today, I am struck by his vitriol against sports players and his pardon of Joe Arpaio. Add to that his apparent unconcern with rescue efforts in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. Besty DeVos has changed rules about campus rape to give rapists more respect—is she truly serious? And the Trumpf/Kim Jong Un war of words escalates. We keep hearing that conclusive evidence of Trumpf’s collusion with Russia is near—could we please have it before he and the North Korean dictator blow the world up in fits of ego? And always once again, there is the suspense about what greedy Republicans will do about the Obamacare repeal. The website for Obamacare will be down for maintenance during the enrollment period—did I really hear that correctly? I do know Republicans have tried to bribe Senator Murkowski by allowing Alaska to keep Obamacare. Can they legally do that?

So much in this world to worry about, and I find it more on my mind these days.