When I got home from hanging out with my friend Randy Nelson all day and watching him open for Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3 at the 400 Club on Cedar Ave. in Minneapolis this evening, (he played a fabulous set!), I jumped into bed and cracked open Leo Tolstoy’s “The Kingdom of God is Within You,” pulling out my bookmark from where I’d left it last. This was the first paragraph I read:

The more the understanding of Christ’s teaching was obscured, the more the miraculous was introduced into it; and the more the miraculous was introduced into it, the more the doctrine was strained from its meaning and the more obscure it became; and the more it was strained from its meaning and the more obscure it became, the more strongly its infallibility had to be asserted, and the less comprehensible the doctrine became.

I’m sure I’ll have more quotes to pull from this book as the weeks progress. (I realize I’m reading it rather slowly, but there’s a lot to digest.)