The Thrill of New Friends

So, the worst thing about my life is how often I find myself slithering out of mostly greasy, cramped window seats on airplanes. If Emerson thought that 19th Century horse-drawn traveling was a fool's paradise, imagine what he would make of the congested horror and security indignities of LAX's Terminal 4 at 5:30am. I am so over the trips thing, but I figure until I master the perfectly kind and charitable thing, giving speeches is a fitting kind of atonement.

But, I digress...

The nearly best thing about my life is the cool people I get to meet when I am traveling. (I say "nearly" because I have a lot of wonderfully cool friends in L.A. and I only have to travel to Pasadena, Los Feliz or North Hollywood to click my inner ruby slippers and know that there is no place like the shadow of the Hollywood sign for me.) This recent trip has meant intros to a whole new crop of really cool people. IN Austin, I got to spend quality time with the wonders of Jeremy Begbe and Eugene Peterson. (Hopefully, more about them soon.) But first in Notre Dame, I got to hang out with Dawn The Dawn Patrol Eden. Dawn was a rock journalist turned Evangelical and then Catholic who has lately become a compelling apostle for the Theology of the Body. I first started reading her blog when she was just taking on the barbaric hypocrisy of Planned Parenthood. I became a real fan when I read her book.



And I knew we were going to be friends. Dawn is just what 21st Century post-Christian society teetering on the brink of insanity ordered - smart, articulate and with the steel glint of conviction that comes from having grown up in the shadows of the Sexual Revolution and found it full of lies and dead men's bones. Go check out Dawn's blog, and order her book.