Editing The Bible

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Coco

Have you heard of The Jefferson Bible?

As the story goes, Thomas Jefferson took a razor to the New Testament and cut out the portions that he thought strayed from Jesus’ own teachings. He removed passages relating to the mystical, and passages relating to doctrine that he ascribed to the Gospel authors. He then arranged what was left from the Gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in chronological order. He titled his work “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.”

When I first heard about this, I thought that Thomas Jefferson was quite bold and conceited to think that he could re-write the Bible and just eliminate the parts that he didn’t like! (Although, honestly, there are many of Paul’s writings that I could do without!) But now that I have learned more about Jefferson’s own beliefs and the context in which he undertook this project, I have a new respect and appreciation for this work.

Jefferson believed that faith was an individual, personal matter, and advocated the separation of church and state (literally, he worked to cut the ties between the state of Virginia and the Anglican church). He faced tremendous personal and political attacks for these views, but pressed on to fight for religious freedom. Of course, I know that our Founding Fathers adopted this as a foundational principle of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, but I forgot how truly revolutionary their ideas were at that time. When I think about it in this context, I can understand how such a brilliant, free-thinking man might want to free his Bible of passages that he found inconsistent with true Christian principles.

I certainly have no plans to re-write my Bible, but I have to admit that during our Easter service one passage from our Gospel reading (Mark 16: 1-8) grated on my nerves.

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Jesus. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”

When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.” . . . .

I actually like this telling of the Resurrection, but the split construction in “had already been rolled away” got under my skin. (I want it to say “already had been rolled away.”) Maybe it’s not as egregious a grammatical sin as a split infinitive, but it is the type of phrase that I revise when I spot it in my own writing, or in writing that I am reviewing for work.

As I was trying to get beyond the grammar and bring my attention back to the miracle we were celebrating, I smiled as I thought of the person who instilled this reaction in me–someone who has mentored me for 20 years at work. Not only is he a stickler for grammar, but he also is a pretty devout Jew with a wry sense of humor.


(His self-portrait with a note: “Please see me–Guess who?”)

He probably would be quite amused if he knew that the writing style he taught me had me wanting to edit the Easter Gospel!

Is there a common grammatical error that really annoys you?

Posted in Life, My Faith | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Training Log: GW Parkway Classic (Week 2)

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Coco

This was my only full week of “training” for the GW Parkway Classic on April 22, since part of last week was spent recovering from the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, and the end of next week will involve several light days before the race. 

To get ready for the rolling hills on the first few miles of the course, I did three different routes on my neighborhood hills and tackled the Wilson Bridge on Sunday.

Monday (Hilly Route 1)
Running: 4.5 miles, 42 min (9:21 avg pace)

Tuesday (Weights)
Elliptical: 15 min random program
Weights: 45 min full body routine

Wednesday (Hilly Route 2)
Running: 5.5 miles, 51 min (9:11 avg pace)

Thursday (Weights)
Walking: 1 mile morning dog walk
Weights: 25 min arms + abs
Walking: 1 mile afternoon dog walk

Friday (Yoga)
Elliptical: 20 min forward/reverse intervals
Yoga: Rodney Yee “Standing Poses”

Saturday (Hilly Route 3)
My friend came over to join me on my neighborhood hills. Neither of us were in the mood to run, but we just chatted the whole way to keep our minds off of the effort our bodies were making. The weather was lovely (mid 40s) and we ended up keeping a decent pace.
Total Distance: 7.3 miles
Total Time: 1:09
Avg. Pace: 9.30 min/mile
Splits: 9:29, 9:21, 9:31, 9:37, 9:27, 9:48, 9:25
It’s interesting to see such even splits when last weekend’s were all over the place. 

Sunday (Wilson Bridge)
I felt pretty good after Saturday’s run  (not to mention my Saturday afternoon massage) so I decided to do my Wilson Bridge run after church. It was warm (upper 60s!) and sunny but I figured that would be good conditioning in case it’s warm next weekend.
Total Distance: 6.3 miles
Total Time: 57:28
Avg. Pace: 9:06
Splits: 9:01, 9:19, 8:57, 9:07, 9:14, 9:01
The first mile felt hard, but I thought I was going slow, not fast. Once I saw my mile 1 split time I tried to relax. The other variations in the split times reflect whether I was running mostly uphill or mostly downhill during that mile.

I think my friend and I both are gearing up to enjoy the race without killing ourselves for a PR. We’ll see if we can hold back our usual type-A, competitive spirit and just enjoy a nice run on the parkway! 😉

Posted in Fitness, Training Log | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Three Things Thursday (Chobani Recipes With Deviled Egg Chicks)

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Coco

After confirming that my Mom would be joining us for Easter dinner, I remembered that one of my friends had not mentioned having any Easter plans, so I invited her and her husband to join us. Although I still planned to keep the meal simple, having company motivated me to get a bit more adventurous in the kitchen.

Deviled Egg Chicks

First, I wanted to make the too-cute-to-resist deviled eggs that made the rounds on the internet from  Pinterest to Facebook:


(I’m no Martha Stewart, but I do think these turned out pretty well!)

For the filling, I used the Healthy Deviled Eggs recipe from Anne’s fANNEtastic food blog, which calls for plain Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise.  Of course, I used plain Chobani®.

Caesar Salad Dressing

I also wanted to fix a big Caesar salad, but couldn’t bring myself to buy creamy Caesar dressing with 19 grams of fat per serving. I wondered if Google could save the day, and by searching for “Chobani Caesar” I found a recipe for creamy Caesar salad dressing on Erica’s Itzy’s Kitchen blog that uses plain Chobani® as the base.

Strawberry Shortcake

For dessert, I made strawberry shortcake with my stand-by recipe from the back of the Bisquick box. Years ago I started using plain yogurt sweetened with Equal® instead of CoolWhip®, but after discovering lemon Chobani® last year, I think that is the perfect topping!

So that’s three recipes made healthier–and better–by Chobani®, which left me more room for chocolate eggs and black licorice jelly beans.

Did you try any new recipes this weekend?

Posted in Food | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Wordless Wednesday (The Newspaper Delivery Edition)

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Coco

Posted in Life | Tagged | 4 Comments

How Counting Calories Drove Me To Drink

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Coco

It was a long journey from my days of drinking a 6-pack of Coke a day


to my days of really, truly and honestly preferring water.


It’s been a long time since I’ve kept a food journal or counted calories, but I realized recently that the years I spent focusing on my calorie consumption had driven me to drink.

When I was dieting, I went through phases of pretty obsessive calorie counting. Software programs, websites and PDAs (remember those, before we all had smartphones?) fed my obsession by providing detailed data on every type of food imaginable, forms to record every micronutrient, and colorful graphs to plot my daily or weekly consumption. As obsessive as I was, there were three things that I never counted:

  1. My morning coffee (not withstanding the carefully measured tablespoon of fat-free Half-and-Half)
  2. The Gatorade I consumed during a long run (since I never added “calories burned” to my “calorie budget”)
  3. Any alcoholic beverages (although I did limit my consumption to 1-2 drinks on weekends)

My calorie counting days are over, but I think they’ve driven me to drink, although it took me a long time to realizing what was happening.

Lately I noticed that I’ve developed a habit of drinking a glass of wine or 1/2 a beer on most nights. I was talking to a friend about this, and trying to figure out where this habit came from. I don’t like to get buzzed, let alone drunk, so I’m not drinking for the effect. On the other hand, I have gotten more and more picky about the beer I like and have no problem not finishing a beer that doesn’t live up to my standards. So I came to the conclusion that I am drinking for the pleasure of the taste.

This thought made me realize that I rarely drink any other caloric beverages (other than the coffee I now enjoy with full-fat Half-and-Half or the Gatorade I might put in my water bottle if I’m running long on a warm day). After years of dieting, I have internalized the idea that “juice = empty calories” and I don’t even think of pouring myself a glass of juice, even though it would offer my taste buds the same pleasure as an alcoholic beverage. What makes no sense whatsoever is the fact that my glass of wine or beer does have calories, and they are just as empty as those in juice!

Now that I’ve realized this inanity, I’ve given myself permission to enjoy a glass of juice–or even lemonade. I am still conscious of the calories, but I am no longer ignoring the carton of fresh-squeezed OJ in the fridge when I know that it really would hit the spot. I know that wine–and even beer–may have health advantages, but juice also provides vitamins and other nutrients that can be good for me.

Do you have any “forbidden foods” that you just won’t eat?

Does your list of forbidden foods make sense?

Posted in Fitness, Food | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments