Seven shopping days until

'Twas a most successful shopping day today. I didn't get everything I needed, but I did get all of adfamiliares's gifts, and I'm quite pleased with them. (You have to wait a week to see them, sweetie! Taunt taunt taunt.) I got wrapping paper as well, pretty enough to make the checkout girl in another store ask where I'd bought it. How Christmariffic!

I drank a peppermint mocha before coming home, rereading On Blue's Waters in Uncommon Grounds, and the intersection of caffeine, sugar, and Gene Wolfe sparked thinkings:

• A man handed me a church tract on my way out of the coffee shop—not a crazy tract, just a "Hey, try our church!" tract. It triggered the notion that Christianity seems suddenly alive in a way it wasn't in my youth (or else I'm simply more aware of it). Once Vatican II had played itself out (I am imagining), the denominations were pretty fixed and stable; people had worked out their creeds, and you knew that a Lutheran was a Lutheran. Now, six years of rising political fundamentalism seems to have knocked more moderate Christians out of their ideological ruts, and individuals and congregations and denominations are addressing fundamental issues like same-sex marriage and gender equality and environmentalism. The world is still full of hidebound Christians, but I feel there's been an upsurge of true seeking in the new millennium. People are less willing to accept the status quo. Is this a real change, or am I just more attuned to the intersection of religion and politics?


• I've been moping and grimacing about a dead spot in my book for the last few days, saying, "There's no movement in this scene!" I realized that what I really mean is "There's no conflict!" Scenes are shaped and moved by characters in opposition, in big ways or in small ways. (This is obvious, but I need to learn this lesson time and time again.) Fixing a scene, very often, is a matter of figuring out how to turn an agreeable situation into one that requires resolution. Even better, this particular scene echoes a previous "agreeable" scene; by introducing conflict, I can change it from a worrisome retread to a contrast, thereby underlining what's changed in the interim. 2fer!

I've rented Dog Soldiers to watch tonight, and I have some Amazon orders to place. Life is good.