this woman’s work

One about the myth of the redemptive power of suffering but I just got back from a morning meeting and have to leave in twenty minutes for another meeting.

Julia and I talk some about the work she does for the PKD Foundation, particularly with other parents facing a new diagnosis.  She’s found a way to make meaning of her family’s challenges but you know, I get the feeling she’d give up all that meaning in a millisecond if it could make her kids healthy. But then maybe she ought to quit being so committed to serving the PKD community because that’s so much focus! So much attention to something negative! Why dwell on the bad things? Move on, Julia!

Why do we ignore the fact that the most activist good comes from people obsessed? (That MLK! That Ghandi! So single-minded! Sheesh!)We less obsessed people who show up for the rallies, write our letters to the editor — we’re riding on their coattails. (Do you think I would have testified if Marley hadn’t been keeping track of the legislation?)

I don’t know. It’s running through my head from some of yesterday’s comments and then hearing Terri Gross interview Bart Ehrman yesterday about his book, God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question — Why We Suffer. It’s worth listening to if you have the time.

But instead of wandering around on this topic for hours, I have to go eat lunch and head back out into the snow.