remember how it all began, the apple and the fall of man

"The Golden Compass" comes out this Friday, and I am looking forward to this with perhaps-excessive anticipation - my excuse being that this Friday also marks the beginning of a whole entire weekend off. ("Atonement" also opens this Friday, and I think I'm planning on spending a large and mindless chunk of Saturday at a movie theater somewhere.) I've been perusing the reviews - which have been, sadly, mixed - and I discovered this interview with Philip Pullman: contains some spoilers for the books but is an insightful discussion of the religious aspects of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Pullman is one of those authors (along with Kingsolver, Cunningham and Butler) who consistently articulates something very similar to my own views and convictions with much more precision and eloquence than I can manage, and I was particularly struck by this passage, which explicates exactly some of my own frustrations with my natal religion:

What on earth gives Christians to right to assume that love and self-sacrifice have to be called Christian virtues? They are virtues, full stop. If there is an exclusively religious sin (not exclusively Christian, but certainly clearly visible among some Christians) it is the claim that all virtue belongs to their sect, all vice to others. It is so clearly wrong, so clearly stupid, so clearly counter-productive, that it leads the unbiased observer to assume that you're not allowed in the religious club unless you leave your intelligence at the door.

But the whole (lengthy) interview is great: conducted via email with the film reviewer for Christianity Today. Equally intriguing, for me, is reading the interviewer's questions, which are, necessarily, from a pointedly Christian and dogmatically religious perspective. (Also amusing is how Philip Pullman seems to live under a bit of a rock.)

I'm post-call and will be going to bed just about as soon as I'm done with dinner, but I'll be catching up on emails and phone calls to everyone this weekend. (And, Ellen, I'll definitely be taking photos of my new finished objects when I'm home during daylight hours, but if you're still looking for some holiday knitting inspiration, the new issue of Knitty is up today! Also, I've been making a few of these, which are just too fun and completely jump-started my holiday knitting motivation.)

I want to wreck my stockings in some juke box dive

(Or, you know, be able to stay awake past 10 pm. That would be fun, too.)

There's something about cold rainy days that make me want to cook comfort food and listen to Joni Mitchell albums. Luckily, the weather is completely awful here (just cold enough that it's not quite snowing, but not really raining either) and I got out just after 5 today, so.... there's cornbread and muffins in the oven, and chili simmering on the stove. (If you're reading this and haven't had dinner yet, feel free to stop by around 8:30.) I really do enjoy this first part of winter, when snuggling up with a sweater and tea is not yet necessary to maintain my circulation and so it's just cozily comfortable.

Internal medicine has been tremendously fun, if time-consuming (see above re: my usual bedtime these days) and I'll be sorry to leave it behind and switch to surgery next week. I haven't quite figured out how to blog about my patients without violating HIPAA about six million ways, but I haven't had any crazy cases yet, so it really hasn't been an issue. I did hear today that we have the city's first influenza case in house now - 'tis the season.

I actually got some knitting accomplished over Thanksgiving - the shrug is finished (Karen, remind me to return your needles - thanks!) and I've finished 5 of the 7 repeats of Ben's scarf, so we're making progress. Photos pending.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!