Forecast says only 104 today. A couple of days ago the high hit 107, although the shaded thermometer on my back porch was reading 111. I know this because that would be the thermometer right by the gas grill where Mrs. Blather had me grilling chicken for dinner. I should have conserved propane and just laid the chicken bits down on the flagstone.

No complaints though. As I write here in air conditioned comfort high atop my stucco tower overlooking the roundabout that defines the heart of downtown Colleyville, Mrs. Blather is at home bailing out the water feature in preparation for a pump repair visit tomorrow.The water is green, putrescent and mighty in its stench-edness. The job she’s doing would make a Guadalajaran day laborer weep.

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The book signing party last Thursday night was fun, humbling and surreal all at once. Great fun because a good number of dear friends turned out on an absurdly hot night to support and buy a couple of books. The humbling and surreal part was signing them.

I’m told by people knowledgeable about these things that now is the time for me to propose my next book project to publishers. The vital question is, what should that project be? I’d like to write a book titled, Dear America, Please Put the Grownups Back in Charge Before It’s Too Late. But in order to come out before the 2010 elections it woudl already need to be written. And it’s not.

Part of the calculus in this decision is the question of how I want to be positioned in the marketplace. Am I a “religious writer” for the Christian market? I certainly have numerous inspirational and theological books I’d like to write at some point.

Am I a writer of biographies and history who happens to be a believer? I certainly love both genres and the Paul Harvey book could be seen as a step in that direction.

Or am I a guy who writes about the intersection of faith, media, culture and public policy? The PH book could be seen in that light as well. If the last 200 or so blog posts are an indicator of my passion and purpose, then that is the territory I should stake out.

If you have any words of advice or insight, dear reader, please feel free to share them in a comment or email.

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Just a quick observation about the Sonia Sotomayor nomination to the Supreme Court. . .

Much as been made of the nominee’s “wise Latina woman” comment. The fact is, Judge Sotomayor has made frequent references in speeches and writings through the years to being a “wise woman” or to the virtues of “wise women.” This is clearly a pattern and a strong theme that runs through her thinking about the way she views her job.

My assumption–and this is something I have not heard discussed anywhere in the media or online though I may have missed it–is that Sotomayor has imbibed deeply at the well of feminist mythology.

In university “women’s studies” programs and permeating feminist writing, much is made of the goddess Sophia, the goddess of wisdom, and how she predates all the masculine gods that have helped create all our patriarchal, war-mongering societies. Reading through that literature is a journey through a primal forest of Mother-Goddess-y, Earth-Mother-y, Wiccan-y, thought and speculation.

Quasi-Christian feminists join the parade by pointing out that in the book of Proverbs, “Wisdom” is referred to in feminine terms: “Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square . . .”  This tends to lead to books like this one. Here’s an excerpt from a review:

Schroer attempts to make the figure of Divine Wisdom available as a resource for feminist spirituality. Indeed, this is one of her major contributions. In almost every essay she includes suggestions for how the figure of Wisdom may be appropriated (or not, in the case of the Book of Jesus Sirach) for feminist spirituality.

Included in this group of essays are two small gems: close readings of often neglected texts about wise women in the First Testament, Abigail and the wise woman of Abel of Beth-maacah. Together with a third article, “Wise Women and Counselors in Israel: Models for Personified Hokma,” these two articles show the office of Wise Woman in ancient Israel provided some of the background to the development of Divine Wisdom.

I’ll bet you dollars to donuts Judge Sotomayor has been soaking in such works of “feminist spirituality” for decades– and thus the constant references to the “wise woman.”