aching, beautiful, angering, excellent...

Are you looking for something do some rainy afternoon this winter, when it's too warm to ski (or too expensive), and good movie options are slim? Why don't you check out Blankets from the library and curl up with the hot beverage of your choice for a thought provoking read.

I read it Friday, literally picking it up and not being able to put it down until I finished. It drew me in both as art and literature, with beautiful character development and searing 'coming of age' joys and tragedies. In the end, if you're looking for a feel good story of faith's triumph, this might not be the best choice. But if you're looking for honest reflection, you'll not be disappointed here.

. It's a sweeping tail of love, faith, pain, and finding one's way in life by author Craig Thompson. I won't give anything way, but when you're finished reading it, you might want to consider the following questions:

1) When someone's encounter with Christianity wildly misses the mark and they reject the "Jesus" of their judgmental, legalistic world, are they rejecting Christ?

2) Though we say that Jesus came in the flesh, and that we're opposed to the kind of dualism that elevates the spirit and denigrates the physical world, the reality is that we're often guilty of dualism, still today, as people of faith. Agree or disagree? What examples do you find of our dualism, or (hopefully) our integration?

3) The search for love and intimacy is always present, yet it seems that we have ambivalence about intimacy, both desiring it and being afraid of it. Why is this? What role does our faith play in either contributing to, or overcoming this ambivalence?