Can you believe it's been TWO CHURCHES since I updated? This is because I also have a job. And friends who have needs. And children who have more needs and a husband who has even more needs, if you can believe that. Oh yeah, and then there's this book I'm writing about 52 churches....which leads me to an explanation of this picture here to the left. That is the backside of a Hindu temple. My friend Laura and I attended a Pooja here. Attended is a misnomer. Crashed is, perhaps, more accurate. But the worshippers were quite accomodating. They received us well and with kindness, a little bit of explanation and a couple of sweet cookie balls that we (ok I) ate on the way home. Hinduism is a freaking old religion. The ceremony we watched - full of flowers and milk and honey and sandalwood and incense - transcended both time and geography and pulled us onto the lap of Indian history for a story of faith and sacrifice and adoration.

This picture, to the right, probably requires a bit more explanation but will have to pass with less, perhaps. Carrie took this one at her church, the church of Bono. Something I've learned so far is that religion is a very wide river. I promised to keep an open mind because I am most certainly not qualified to rate or judge or even define religion. When Carrie approached me with the idea that music is her religion I first thought, will that really fly? And then I thought, hell yeah it will. Because music in general, U2 in specific is the tributary with the power to connect my friend to that wide river. What more can a religion hope to do than cause a soul to shine, move a person to tears, bring a girl home?