I am coming off of vacation mode and boy, is it hard! I wanted to sleep s badly this morning, but I got up and taught The Crusades anyway. When I was in school I hated learning about The Crusades. I remember thinking it was one of the most boring things ever! However, this time around, it has been really fun. We watched an excellent documentary that The History Channel did several years ago, and read a few very interesting books. It was fun listening to Jake and Emma ask me if I knew that people listening to Pope Urban II's speech (to encourage and ultimately begin the first crusade) responded with, "It is God's will." Also, I must say that Salladin was a very interesting person. I might just have to research him a little more for my own sake.
Anyway, it is nice to be back to my daily ritual of green smoothies. This morning I had spinach, blueberry, orange, mango. By the way, I don't think I wrote about seeing Paul Nison speak before we left for the Bahamas. I really liked him and everything that he had to say! He was very informative. He has a very balanced approach to eating raw foods so if you are someone who is interested in learning more about raw foods, he would be a great resource!
I am going to bed early tonight to see if I can get some good rest and wake up tomorrow ready to hit the ground running. I have got to get out of this sluggish mode! Sweet dreams!
There's an interesting new book from someone at Emory about the Crusades, arguing that the view of them as "Christian aggression," while no doubt true for some players, is in need of nuance. In particular, he argues Salladin was less chivilrous than he is sometimes portrayed to be (enjoyed cutting off prisoners' hands as much as anyone else) and that there were significant threats to peaceful Christian pilgrims. I haven't read it, but it sounded interesting. Can't recall the title off-hand, but it was published late last year.
ReplyDelete