Manchester: Cold go away!!

Yesterday morning I arrived at a hotel in Manchester. I had originally planned to stay with my friends for the whole time I was here. However, my friend had to make a trip to the USA. I decided to take advantage of my need to get some RandR and check into a hotel. This isn't the kind of trip to England I'd hope to repeat. Being sick in Europe isn't my first choice. It is what it is. However, it has been nice that I've been able to take some down time to rest as I need it. Yesterday I watched TV, read and slept. I watched Britian's Got Talent, Eurovision and then a special on Susan Boyle. I find it interesting that the big shows of the week are on Saturday. What if American Idol were on Saturday night? Would anyone watch it in the US? Maybe so.

I was planning on going out on the town today but darn it I'm feeling worse today that I was yesterday. Go away cold, go away! Ok, so another day in a hotel sleeping, reading, drinking fluids, and watching British TV. I can handle this quite well. I am really looking forward to being home...in Nampa!! But until then I'll drink in the rest and hope my system will finally decide it is done with whatever it is fighting and be better for the return flight home!

I'm reading Brian Mc Laren's new book, A New Kind of Christianity. If I'm hauled up in a hotel room at least I've got some good reading material. Good stuff Brian!! In one of the opening chapters on scripture he talks about a time when he lined up people on the cuff to help us consider how Greco-Roman our view of scripture has been vs the view of scripture using the voices of scripture (Adam, Abraham...Jesus). As I read I thought to myself, "I think I was there when he did that and our group had that conversation!"

I'm enjoying his telling of how to think about the Biblical narrative. He writes: "God's unfolding drama is not a narrative shaped by the six lines in the Greco-Roman scheme of perfection, fall, condemnation, salvation, and heavenly perfection or eternal perdition. It has a different story line entirely. It's a story about the downside of "progress" -- a story of human foolishness and God's faithfulness, the human turn toward rebellion and God's turn toward reconciliation, the human intention toward evil and God's intention to overcome evil with good." (54) And in light of just finishing Tutu's book on Goodness Brian writes, "Good has the first word, and good has the last." The good is God's good.