Talk about what happens to best-laid plans . . . My hopes of “getting back into work” this week just haven’t materialized.  And with good reason, really.  A couple of days ago, my church voted in a new pastor.  So Saturday was a meet-and-greet, Sunday was meeting and voting, and yesterday was my opportunity to treat my new pastor and his wife to lunch and dessert.  Take all that and throw in quality time spent with neighbors and you end up with a great week without much work.  Ah well.  Maybe tomorrow?

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Last week’s classic Peanuts strips saw Charlie Brown shuttled straight from school to summer camp.  By the end of the week, though, he had been sent home for “causing trouble,” even though he didn’t do anything.  That’s because Peppermint Patty, who goes to a girls camp across the lake, confronted the little red-headed girl that Chuck has always obsessed over.  Chuck still hasn’t found this out yet, but Linus has.  Today’s classic strip from gocomics.com:

I’m thinking we could all use some gut-level medicine in some way or another.  That’s what the Gospel is on every level, of course.  I’m currently working my way back through a Cavadini essay about Augustine’s view of the self, something that Cavadini says many people have misconstrued on Augustine’s part.  The inner self is a mess, the assertion is made.  And it’s the Gospel, the truth of God communicated through Jesus, that gives us the first real thing to base any sense of self on.