Random Clearinghouse of News

If you've never been over to Bruce Droppings, um fix that. Basically, Bruce is me plus 20 or 30 years (I'm not entirely certain how old he is and I'm too lazy to figure it out) if I'd stayed on my Seminary course. It's actually interesting, since I'd seen a lot of pastors who steadily got more insane and assumed I'd end up like them. Bruce is an indication that it might not have gone that way. Either way, he writes with a poignancy I sometimes hope I can achieve and an experience-based knowledge I really can't match. It's good stuff. He's been doing a couple posts on Christianity and Mental Illness (here and here) and I think he will be doing more. It's quite good stuff on how Evangelical Christianity damages people, then does nothing about it and assumes the damage is actually a good thing. So go read it. Now! Wait, no, read the rest of this post, then go read it. Then! ------------------------------------ Meanwhile, if you're going to be in Chicago (or, more accurately, forty miles west of Chicago) on Labor Day weekend and really, really want to spend some time outside surrounded by unrepentant hippies (and who doesn't?), pop on out to the Fox Valley Folk Music and Storytelling Festival. My concern there is strictly with the "Storytelling" part of the Festival, since I'm not that big a fan of folk music that doesn't come from the British Isles. But the storytelling is fun. I've never seen any of our featured storytellers myself, but we've got Michael McCarty, Luann Homan, and Gwen Hilary & Enoch Williamson. I'm assured they're excellent. Plus, hey, there's the Fox Valley Storytellers Guild, which means you might just be able to hear Linda Gorham, the Double Deckers, and Mike Speller. They good. Sue Black is also amazing, but rumor has it she won't be telling at the festival this year. Sad face. Oh, and chances are I'll be telling a few stories (by which I mean, like, three, maybe four). But that shouldn't stop you from coming. I'll make them as painless as possible...