What weapon did David use to defeat Goliath?

Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Dude Abides

Home
Progressive Christian

Last updated on: May 26, 2006 at 9:57 pm by Cathleen Falsani

2006-05-26T21:57:00-07:00 Cathleen Falsani

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

GREETINGS FROM CALABASH 2006:

A LITTLE PIECE OF LITERARY HEAVEN

Ah, bliss.

Had I known this is what the literary life could be like, I would have written a book 15 years ago.

Walking into Jake’s resort here at the wonderfully pristine Treasure Beach on Jamaica’s quiet southern coast was like dropping through a rabbit hole and winding up in a tropical Wonderland.

Color. Everywhere.
Waves crashing on the coral shoals a few feet from the veranda . . . a few feet from our canopied bed.

A pelican diving for his breakfast as we sip strong coffee and listen to the hush of the surf and the song of a hundred birds singing us awake.

Two friendly lizards the color of khaki pants greet me in the oudoor shower, the walls of which are covered in a mosaic of conch shells, colored glass and shards of china. A huge coral boulder (with a shell-shaped piece of black, flowered ceramic (circa 1920, seemingly) serves as my soap dish. I nudge a skittish and translucent gecko as I reach for my bar of Neutrogena.

As I write this now, a tiny mocha-brown lizard less than an inch long is running up and down the bubble-gum pink wall behind the writing desk and below the framed poster from the 1972 film “The Harder They Come.” (Its director, Perry Henzell, is the proprietor of Jake’s with his wife, Sally, who was the art director for the seminal Jamaican film starring Jimmy Cliff.) Sally’s designed most of Jake’s herself and her boundless whimsy and creativity show. Everywhere. It’s a marvel.

This morning Maury and I joined a dozen other writers for an excursion in a long boat (named Natural Mystic)

(here our fearless leader, the novelist Colin Channer — who has the best, most infectious laugh I’ve EVER heard — herds us onto Natural Mystic)

to the Black River to see crocodiles (we saw three — up close and a little personal for this writer) and scores of egrets and other avian life.

Along the way we were accompanied by dolphins. Amazing creatures. I think they were even more intrigued with us than we were with them. A magic moment.

Next stop was the Pelican Bar — aptly named. It’s on stilts in the middle of a sand bar. Another wonder of this wondrous place.

Here are a few photos from our morning adventure on Day 1 of Calabash (the Woodstock of the Caribbean)…

God Girl and her main congregant at the Pelican Bar:

Chris Farley, the journalist and author of the new book Before the Legend, about the early days of Bob Marley’s life, and his lovely wife Sharon relax at the Pelican Bar:

Ishle Park (the poet laureate of Queens, NY) chills in the Pelican Bar’s hammock:

Tonite we’ll hear the actor Delroy Lindo read from Iron Balloons, Calabash’s new anthology. And tomorrow the festival begins in earnest with thousands in the audience and hours of poetry, fiction and non-fiction (including yours truly) readings, followed by music long into the seductive Jamaican night.

I could get used to this …

Uncategorized

Previous Post

May 25, 2006

Next Post

June 1, 2006

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A little happy ARCHIVED COLUMNS BECOMING FAMILY BelieberNess BREAKING NEWS! Disquiet Time DJ JEFF'S SPINTASMS falsani FILM from OCRegister From Sojo.net God Nods GODSTUFF I Take Requests incubatespirit LURKING IN THE NARTHEX On My Nightstand ONEMOMS Polling the Room PONTIFEXCELLENT Thru My Eyes TWO CENTS Uncategorized Upcoming Events VASCO VASCO'S HEART

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 May 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 April 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 October 2003 March 2003 December 2002 October 2002 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What weapon did David use to defeat Goliath?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A sword A bow and arrow A sling and a stone A spear