I held onto AKMA’s “Faithful Interpretation…” for a week or so. It was tough reading. I bristled and groaned. I grumbled and moaned. Dr. Weinberger suggested I start with AKMA’s 1995 volume, “What is Postmodern Biblical Criticism?” I ordered that book too.

Saturday we had twenty adults and six children here for a Quakerly retreat, a lengthy period (two and a half hours seated in silence) of silent worship, a wonderful lunch, and an afternoon of “worship sharing” — a few more hours with each of us reflecting on a couple of queries regarding faith, religion, and community.

I had an interesting exchange with a Friend from Dubuque. It was complicated and I can’t do it justice here, but my friend suggested that knowledge and common understanding are not absolutes, that the word a-p-p-l-e is not an “apple” and that it doesn’t mean “apple” the same way biting into a crisp and juicy McIntosh does, and in fact that each of us experiences that in a subtly different way. I thought he would enjoy AKMA’s book.

Toward the end of the day most of us went out into the drizzly gray afternoon and walked the labyrinth. Molly played football with the kids. Then we all came back together in the living room, centered again into silence, thanked each other for a wonderful day and went each our own ways.

So, I gave away my copy of “Faithful Interpretation…” to the Dubuque Meeting, and after our friends had departed I went to the mailbox to collect Saturday’s mail. There was “What is Postmodern Biblical Criticism?”

Tracy and Margaret dropped in today and laid out a labyrinth that Amy had designed in the field. Beth and I walked it when I got home tonight. I didn’t measure it but I’d guess it’s about forty feet in diameter, laid out with ribbon stapled to the ground with wire from clothes hangers. Tomorrow we have twenty-eight people coming by, including half a dozen kids who we hope will elaborate the labyrinth with rocks, perhaps, or firewood, or other basic natural stuff.

Molly was racing across it while we followed the path. She was sublimely indifferent to the boundaries we were observing, a thoroughly modern dog. She’s been to the groomer and looks and smells real good. I had forgotten how much of her fur is white.