Pilgrim in America

Going to PSU. On my way there I was meditating on the connection between Francis David's theory, the Freudian castration complex, and the LGBT in churches.

With Joe and Maryann on PSU: The American Intellectual Tradition. This time presented by a different teacher (Dr. Patricia A. Schechter). Joe introduces us to her. She is a middle aged lively woman with curly hair and lots of teeth. She explains ideas with all her body.

One student talks about philosophers Henry David Thoreau from North, and George Fitzhugh from the South: principles on society, economy, slavehood. A second student: man and woman relationship, its role in political thinking in North and South. It was good to be there, I asked the teacher if I could come to the next classes also.

Lunch in a Thai restaurant. I asked for a large bowl of vegetable soup with "meat balls". Big pieces of cabbage, onion and sausage in hot water. Small cakes with slips of paper hidden in them telling me that you are having nice thoughts of me...

Goodbye to Maryann. She is going to leave to Mexico with Camille. I take a short walk with Joe.

Went to the Powell's to buy the American Intellectual Tradition. I bought six more for $38: three Jung, two Fromm, one Frankl. Took them home, came back to the church to attend a lecture. Had an Angus hamburger at MacDonald's.

I had one more hour before church program, so I went back to the Powell's. It is amazing the amount of books they have, and it is a good system. Here's the red room where I spend most of the time:

Freud and Jung have a whole rack. Four years ago I bought here Henry Clarke Warren: Buddhism in Translations. I was looking for it for 20 years. They had it! A single copy. I feel at home. This morning, musing on some issue I marched into the women's restroom, and was taken aback by a female adjusting her makeup in the mirror.

I read for a while and looked at my watch: 7 minutes to 7! Covered half a mile in 7 minutes to the church. The person at the reception already knew why I came, he showed me the way without my asking. Enews:

Back from Afghanistan (Our Peace Action Group invites you to hear Tom A. Peter, a freelance Middle East and war correspondent based in Jordan who writes regularly for The Christian Science Monitor, and Global Post, and has provided ground analysis from Iraq for NPR.

Young guy with an Arabian style beard. He talks about the situation in Afghanistan, how dubious it is the American presence there. Even the humanitarian aid. A power plant built highly over the planned budget, working only with half capacity. Missing electric wire system. Most of the houses having only one bulb. Villages where people have never seen a mirror. A person decapitated for a charge of collaborating with Americans. He received humanitarian aid. Election ballots completed by a few guys who didn't mind the jurnalist taking pictures. Americans reluctant to leave, lest Talibans take over their place. Confusion near Pakistan: travellers harrased with the charge of illegal crossing, 10 miles away from the border. Indian workers paying $2000, denied both work and going back home, staying in a tent, 6 sharing one bed for 2 months. Greg Mortenson is a well-known, and appreciated person in the Middle East. His book is a must read there. His schools are working well, unlike those of the Taliban's.