At Attention

Well, my spiritual autobiography went off well. It tired me out; but I will mention an Annie Lamott quote I harvested from Owen's blog (thanks, Owen!):

"Forgiveness is giving up all hope of ever having a better past."

At the tail end of my talk in Chapter, I mentioned this quote to Virginia, and she said that she had been struck with the idea that God will not fail to continue redeeming a person's past ("He who began a good work in you..."). I said, but somehow it is also necessary to give up hope of that redemption of our past. And Virginia said, "Yes, exactly. It's another form of that paradox where you give up your life and find that you've saved it..." Indeed.

And in other news, my sister IMed me last night and sent me a link to an article she has written for The Ooze. It's brilliant. Go read it.