Friday, June 14, 2013

Reading can be Dangerous

Fair warning: taking on a writing assignment can lead to spending time as though there are a million tomorrows. I have spent the last few weeks reading a lot about United States history, not my subject. In college, my major was British Civilization; my graduate work was on the Tudors. I've been to London more times than I've been to Brooklyn. But I am in love with this country. So, when I was inivted to give the sermon at my synagogue's July Fourth Shabbat service, I was honored.

It did not occur to me instantly that one of the leftovers of being a history major is that I could not write my sermon from the heart alone. I needed to do research, go to the sources. And as anyone who has ever written a Master's thesis knows, the main thing you get from studying any source is the imperative to go on to another. So for the time being I am reading and reading and reading, stopping today only to put into writing here that I am preparing myself to write a sermon not a Master's thesis. And if spring has passed us by this year, summer still starts in a week, and our July Fourth service is only three weeks from tomorrow.

Wish me the discipline to stop reading and start writing...soon?

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