The librarian reads my blog and now she knows that I have been enlisting others in my swap-food-for-tech-advice scheme. Hi Andrea! I had another good day fixing computers and wrassling with technology generally over in New Hampshire. Twelve hours at three times my regular rate, I'm going to go out and buy myself some shoes! I'm not sure when the last time was I bought new shoes, probably before my last library job started.

I'm a little mopey today. One of my favorite local activists William Sloan Coffin died this week. He had always been a model for me of how to believe in something fiercely and strongly and have that belief inspire and motivate, not threaten. And yet, he's been outspoken about the craven emptiness of war -- this one and the one in Vietnam -- and what he feels is the general ill will coming towards the American people from their own government, to say nothing about the rest of the world. In an American gone mad with zealot Christian fundamentalists, his steady faith and willingness to challenge the beliefs of others within his faith while still being an outspoken yet caring advocate for social justice and the power of faith always impressed the hell out of me and left me wanting to do better at all the things that I do. Here is an excerpt from a PBS interview with him two years ago

Q: How about your own death? Do you think about that?

A: Not very much. I'd just as soon live a little bit longer. But when you're 80 you can't complain. To quote Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his inaugural address, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Fear of death is what is insidious, and once the fear is behind you, then it is only the physical death which is ahead of you. If we didn't die we'd be immortal, like the Greek gods, and perhaps up to their same dumb tricks. It's a very good thing we die. In fact, it's death which brings us to life. But we need to be scared to life, not scared to death. I await death with no protest. "Do not go gentle into that good night, rage, rage against the dying of the light": I'm sorry, Dylan Thomas, but that's not always the case. You can go gentle into that good night. Stop complaining. Remember that, as old Hamlet said, "The readiness is all." Basically, when I said I don't think much about death, I was really thinking, I don't think much about what comes next because I believe our lives run from God, in God, to God again. And that's enough. We might want to know more, but we don't need to know more, and demanding that I know more about the afterlife somehow demeans my faith. I think, one world at a time. The second world will be in God's hands, whereas we were lucky enough to live in this world.