Acceleration

Right about now, after a more than adequately busy fall, the year feels as if it is accelerating quickly. The fundraiser is fast upon us and there are a few more things that need to get done by then, followed by Mary's family coming in for the holidays. Meanwhile client questions and wrinkles are popping up left and right. It is hard to keep it all stable and solid to hold down the middle.

Which is where the virtue of my routine comes in. (Even as I type this, I hear that the neighbor's landscaper has fired up his leafblower, which is my signal to get it in gear and get to the office).

Staying on the topic, however, of acceleration, I should note that the Bible too accelerates a little as my reading of the New Testament progresses. I am now reading First Romans, Paul's first letter. We've had the four gospels and then Acts, in which the early church, primarily Paul, travels about spreading the Word amongst Jews but more notably Gentiles. In First Romans, Paul (it appears that the authorship here is not questioned) starts to abstract Christianity up into more of a general proposition, presumably based on thinking occasioned by a lot of wrangling and debating with others during his travels. He goes back to the Old Testament for precedents, but really he's at the beginnings of building a systematic theology on the basis of a lot of tales and stories. Moving from haggadah to halakhah, but in a more universalizing way.