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Favorite Things: June 2018 edition

Practicing The Way / Bridgetown Podcasts


 Bridgetown is a really interesting church in Portland, OR.  They have a focus on following the practices of Jesus.  Taking the things we see in Jesus's life and turning them into practical things we can put into practice ourselves.  Practicing The Way has a bunch of material on practical things to try in order to change your lifestyle be me more like Christ's.  It's an old concept but one I feel is lacking in modern Christianity, that followers of Christ should end up looking/living like Him.  The sermons that go along with the site are available in podcast form and are very interesting and engaging.  Worth a listen.

Beartown

I just finished the novel Beartown a few days ago.  I have to recommend this book.  It reminded me of a slightly less dark Swedish version of "13 Reasons Why".  The plot centers around a youth hockey team in a struggling rural town.  The hockey team is really the Beartown's last hope of survival.  Their neighbors in Hed by contrast seem to be doing pretty well.

 There was a lot ot relate to in this story.  I Grew up in a small community without much going for it.  A town where sports is important to many people (it might be gone now, but there was a mural of Ken Dayley, a pro pitcher who made it to the world series and went to The Dalles High School, on the wall of High School gymnasium when I was a kid).  While unemployment and drug use were rampant in The Dalles, nearby Hood River seemed to have everything going for it.  It was easy to make comparisons between Beartown and Hed and the rivalry we felt as kids between The Dalles and Hood River.  That's not the main focus of Beartown but the part I related to the most.

 Beartown is full of insights into social issues and problems with growing up.  I don't want to spoil the book to much but this story (though fictional) is a great example of the problems with what I can only describe as "rape culture" which can be sneakily prevalent in our communities.  I'm excited to pick up the next book in the series (once it's out in paperback).

 One silly note: This book was originally written in Swedish.  It wasn't immediately obvious to me before I started reading that this was a translation.  As a result a lot of the prose and dialogue felt really clunky and unnatural to me.  Realizing that this was translated made some of the clunkiness a lot easier to look past.  

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