Do you know the book of Jonah? Everyone knows the story, right? Jonah was a disobedient prophet who rejected his divine commission, tried to run away, was cast overboard in a storm and swallowed by a great fish, rescued in a marvelous manner, and returned to his starting point. Lots of people know this much of the story. But that is the briefest of summaries of just the first chapter. The summary above does not include a lot of information and perspective from the beginning verses. It ends up missing the point and trajectory of the first chapter and the whole book itself. There are three more chapters after the great fish and the subsequent rescue – and a lot more to know about the Book of Jonah.
The Book of Jonah
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In today’s 
“He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp” – frightening and dreadful words. Spoken to leprous people in the wilderness, a people on the Exodus betwixt and between the slavery of Egypt and the promised land of Palestine. Words that ban, isolate, shun, and place someone beyond the connection to the community. These are words spoken to loved ones that pushed them from the routine of life into the wilderness. In modern life, we have our own words or lack of words that push people into a more modern wilderness where our loved ones are ghosted, cancelled, deleted, blocked and isolated – all this is a time when we all feel the effects of pandemic fatigue. Perhaps “outside the camp” sounds tempting during these safer-at-home days of the covid-19 pandemic. But this is different.
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In 
Shira Ovide of the New York Times writes a daily newsletter, “On Tech.” It is mostly always interesting and in a non-geek kind of way. Yesterday’s newsletter was interesting because it followed up on something I heard the other days on the radio news – that Apple was considering investing in the electric car market. The final shape/vision of the investment was to be determined, but either way, it was surprising. Seems like a bit of a stretch at first glance. There is the old story of the railroad companies that did not understand their business was transportation, not just railroads and so missed out on automobiles/trucking, airplanes, and the like. Who knows what Apple is thinking? They view their business in ways that have been innovative and profitable. Very profitable.
t used to be that on my day off I could go to Ft. Desoto (Fla) with my beach chair and umbrella, watch the wind surfers, read a book …. Between dozing off to the sounds of the wind and surf. Thursday is still my one day off each week. Today in the Tampa Bay region temperatures will reach the high 70s. Today in Northern Virginia is it raining with a high of 36 degrees.
Earlier today I posted a great video from the folks at The Bible Project. The video is part of an on-going series on the nature of God as described in 
Today is the Feast Day of St. Scholastica, the foundress of the Benedictine Order of nuns and the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia, founder of the Benedictine Order of brothers. Together they are credited with establishing monasticism in the western world.
friarmusings 