How Google can help clean your bathroom

The Internet isn't a library, but like library stacks, it can be a lot of fun to browse. Ten or twelve years ago when I would attend a professional conference, we'd hear comments like "The Internet is like having a key to someone else's garage," or "The Internet is like a library with everything on the floor." It's come a long way with incredible finding tools, especially Google. But I still love serendipity and browsing, the same thing I do in libraries. Here's this morning's trip and I started with a book:

For morning devotions I've been reading "Keep a quiet heart" by Elisabeth Elliot. Flipping through the back I noticed the 266 essays are actually culled from Elliot's newsletter, "The Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter" published 6 times a year, for $7.00/year. I flip to the front and see that my paperback copy was published in 1995, so I figure it's unlikely the newsletter is still in publication. I've actually met her when she gave a talk at our church many years ago on finding God's will for your life. But I get up from my comfortable chair and sit down at the computer--for two hours!

When I Google "Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter" I find a website for AA, Alcoholics Anonymous bibliography, that had quoted her newsletter's mention of Gertrude Behanna, who is apparently a well-known star among speakers on alcoholism, and I stop to read her autobiography, "God is not dead." It's really super, and I strongly recommend it if you have an alcoholic or druggie in your life.

I see that her life story was made into a movie starring Anne Baxter, The Late Liz, but skip over that tucking it away to check our library's excellent video collection (assuming it hasn't been rejected because of spiritual content).

But I got interested in her sons (of different marriages)--one a recovering alcoholic who is not a Christian and the other a priest who isn't an alcoholic, so I Google "son of Gert Behanna" since she didn't mention their names. This just brings up more references to the movie, but does link to the 27 page pdf list of videos by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. This looks like something our church librarian might like, so I print it in draft, and the printer spits the 27 pages all over my office while I'm in the basement putting a load in the washer.

The last page I pick up is p.1, since it prints backwards, and my librarian's obsessive spirit asks, "Well, just how difficult could it be to check a few of these titles on the Internet to see if they are available for purchase?" The first title is "The gift of the creed," by Dr. Timothy F. Lull and Rev. Patricia J. Lull, presented to the 1993 Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA (our synod). Although I find a reference to it, I don’t see availability, so I then Google “ELCA DVD” browse its list of available video products and decide it’s either too old, or was a very limited production only sent to churches.

Then I Google “Timothy F. Lull” and find out he died in 2003 after surgery. However, he was such a popular teacher at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, some of his students put together his lectures on Luther and Lutheranism and published it on Lulu.com at “The Press of the Society of the Three Trees” dedicated to the study of the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions. This press has published 5 titles, plus a journal, Christus Lux.

Because I collect first issues of journals, I decide to Google Christus Lux to see if it might be worth buying Vol. 1, no. 1. (It’s $15--a bit out of my range).

I notice another book by this press titled, “What’s wrong with sin,” by Derek R. Nelson--and I wonder if our church library might want this so I google the author, and find out he is now at Thiel College in Pennsylvania, a college with Lutheran ties I’ve never heard of. So of course I have to check out its web page, stopping at its library to look at an art show by a Kenyan. I stop to e-mail the author to ask if he thinks it is appropriate for a parish library of a very evangelical Lutheran church.

Then I notice it is about 6:45, so I take my printed and reassembled pdf list of the videos of the Eastern Synod of Canada and go to Caribou. While drinking coffee, I note many other videos I think would be good, like The joy of Bach (Gateway Films), The Great Mr. Handel (Gateway Films) and an interesting video on the art of choral directing by Lloyd Pfautsch of Southern Methodist University produced by Augsburg Fortress in 1988.

When I get home, I carry the laundry up to the bedroom where my husband is getting dressed. I recount to him all the fabulous things I found on the Internet this morning starting with Elisabeth Elliot’s book. His eyes glaze over.

While I’m hanging up his towels, I see the bathroom needs a good scrubbing.