Hey. Cool. My Sunday New York Times finally showed up this morning. This is the fourth week since I subscribed and I pretty much had given up on ever getting a Sunday paper. I have been using the Replica edition which is pretty good. But there’s nothing like sitting and sipping a cup of coffee and reading the paper.

And then there’s the New York Times Book review.

In fact, the article above caught my attention and now I’m very interested in the two books in the review.

I have just ordered copies of these two books from Amazon.  Gal Beckerman’s review sucked me in. I was thinking about his ideas about the power of quiet today when I decided to not improvise my boss back to the pulpit after she read the gospel. It was silence that was drawing me in.

I think it would be good for me to ponder the plus side of being invisible and on the outside. It’s where I am for the most part. And I do feel the value in solitude and quiet. I often retreat to being alone and quiet, although I do read my poetry out loud.

In fact, I have a sense that maybe it’s a bit too easy for me to withdraw and live the life of a hermit (with my lovely wife, of course). It’s interesting that Beckerman brought up Thomas Merton. Merton has had a huge influence on my life. I haven’t read much of him in the last decade or so, but many of his ideas are sort of stuck in my brain.