Reading material for my week-long family-reunion/vacation:

• My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok.
• No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women by Estelle Freedman

I read Potok’s The Chosen on a reunion trip to Colorado a few years ago, and it was life-changing. Several friends list My Name is Asher Lev as one the most influential in their lives. I found it more affirming than revolutionary, perhaps because I was already transformed by The Chosen. I recommend it to struggling artists and those who feel weighed down by religious orthodoxy.

I’m deeper into No Turning Back, but am proceeding slowly because I keep wanting to write about what I’m reading before moving forward. Freedman’s main assertion is that gender inequity is interwoven with class and ethnic/racial concerns. What’s more, she writes in a highly accessible manner and every assertion is illustrated with memorable historical anecdotes.

For the return trip, I ransacked the Chapel Hill Borders bookseller and pillaged its magazine stands. I like magazines. They’re pretty and you can actually accomplish the reading of an article in between in-flight drink service and when the passenger in the window seat has to climb over you en route to those vertical coffins they call restrooms. My booty included:

• kitchen sink: for people who think too much: I think too much. This was obviously a magazine for me. Edgy short-stories and smart musings on pop-culture. Decided to switch after realizing that my neighbors could probably read the bold-print profanity as well as I could (one of my neighbors was my grade-school daughter). Then I pulled out
• bitch: feminist response to pop culture. I am slowly abandoning Bust: For Women with Something to Get Off their Chests for Bitch. Decided to put it away before my daughter asked about the ribbed, knobby vibrators in the ads. Instead I decided to read about “Bonobo Sex and Society” in
• Becoming Human: Evolution and the Rise of Intelligence (Scientific American Special Edition). Ironically (or appropriately?) this was essentially a feminist article that demonstrated how “the behavior of a close relative challenges assumptions about male supremacy in human evolution.” Apparently females are the primary social links in egalitarian Bonobo communities (chimp society, on the other hand, is dominated by male hunters), and replace aggressive behavior with lots of sex.
• Sojourners Magazine: I read from this liberal Christian magazine as well as from
• Tikkun, its Jewish counterpart, but I’m going to devote an entire post–no, a whole series of posts–inspired by thoughts from Tikkun’s editor, Rabbi Michael Lerner. The highlight, however was an article in
• the Humanist: a magazine of critical inquiry and social concern called “Creative Controversy: Overcoming Antagonistic Atheism to Recast the Image of Humanism.” I probably annoyed fellow passengers with my audible yeses, and it was tricky to underline and take notes even in mild turbulence.

This article validated much of what I’m trying to do with mindonfire.com and in my involvement in ecumenical outreach. It condemns the more antagonistic and disrespectful atheists for harming the causes of freethinkers. Contrast these two approaches to the creationist controversy in American public schools: some atheists publicly berate the stupidity and irrationality of Christians (thereby alienating many of those who aren’t creationists); on the other hand, one atheist gathered 10,000 signatures from clergy who called on school boards to support the teaching of evolution in science classrooms.

Near the end of the article was the following gem:

One would do well to recall that the lesson of the Enlightenment wasn’t that the enemy of reason is belief in God. It’s that fanaticism, be it religious or secular, is the bane of humankind and the true enemy of rational minds.

This speaks to me and my personal mission. There’s far too much exclusion, vilification and alienation in our society, and I disdain it when it comes from secular zealots as well as religious fanatics. I’m not a supporter of traditional religiosity, but I am committed to building on shared values rather than emphasize differences.