nevermind the bricolage

United

I am not a huge sports person--and I have little traction with any American sports--Baseball and American football just don't do it for me. But I do have a soft spot for Manchester United. Since I was a kid they have been my team and that hasn't diminished living here. At one time I barely saw soccer on the telly (the US was a soccer wasteland for many years), so I couldn't enjoy it unless I was home in the UK, but now it's on all the time and I spend a bit of time with friends enjoying the beautiful game. United lost on Saturday in the FA Cup to Portsmouth, who seem to be their stumbling block this season, there goes any dream of a Treble this season, but that's the way it is with football, you never know how it will turn out.         
    Craig and I touched on sports in our book on theology and pop culture, but given the fact that the book was principally directed at US audiences, I left the bulk of it to Craig and focused on other topics, but increasingly sports keeps coming up in conversations and conferences I am involved in and it might be time to revisit the relationship between sport and religion once again.

The Wrong Books

"Shortly after dawn, or what would have been dawn in a normal sky, Mr. Artur Sammler with his bushy eye took in the books and papers of his West Side bedroom and suspected strongly that they were the wrong books, the wrong papers..."
I have been mulling this sentence from Saul Bellow for a while now. This idea, from Bellow's book, Mr. Sammler's Planet, of recognizing that perhaps you have been reading the wrong books and papers is a feeling I am familiar with. Although I didn't phrase it so eloquently, it has occurred to me once or twice that maybe my library was not where I was, was not contributing to my on going growth, but rather, had become a bit of a millstone around my neck. I think this can be particularly true of spiritual/theological libraries, that's why I think it always a good idea to read beyond one's comfort zone--just to keep things interesting...and vulnerable.

Football?

The LA Galaxy unveiled their latest player today, David Beckham. What this means for football here in the U.S. is anybody's guess, there is little interest in the game beyond certain ethnic demographics, the Galaxy are hoping that global superstar Beckham will help change that. He has a lucrative deal, big-time endorsements and a growing celebrity index. His first game will be an exhibition match against Chelsea next week, it's sold out, a sign of things to come perhaps, or maybe just an initial curiosity. On the subject of football,