What have I learned lately?

1. The reason the apostle Paul was upset about the Corinthian congregation’s practice of the Eucharist probably has something to do with the hyper-competitive nature of the Greco-Roman world and their use of meals to distinguish the rich from the poor. This was slipping into eucharistic meals, so that some people were eating tons of food, while the poor would barely get anything. Paul wanted to confront this and remind the Corinthians that they are all one in the Messiah.
2. Banana trees are technically not trees because they are not hard like an actual tree would be.
3. Simchat Torah is the annual festival in Judaism that celebrates the new year of a cycle Torah readings, often celebrated by unrolling a giant Torah scroll across a long distance.
4. We need to do a better job of making efforts to reconcile with those we have been hurt by and those we have hurt.
5. The coca leaf is used in coca cola but is stripped of the contents that contain cocaine (although it wasn’t initially; it was used as a medicine containing cocaine before it was made into a soda!).
6. If you’re a pastor, avoid referring people to outside mental health resources unless you’re certain that the issues the person is bringing to you are beyond your scope of care.
7. There have been some death penalty cases in which prosecutors, judges, and police have deliberately conspired to bury evidence of a convicted person’s innocence even while they are on death row.
8. While other apostles were to receive support from their assemblies, Paul refused to do so to avoid becoming a client-patron to the Corinthians who would boast about their patronage to claim higher status than others.
9. While some people say, “Use your privilege to support those who are less privileged,” this can actually be problematic because it smacks of the idea of the “White Man’s Burden,” which says that white men need to stoop down to help the people who are below them. Such attitudes can be unintentionally paternalistic and condescending.
10. Succulents and cacti, while they have evolved independently, are very similar in their adaptations because they have evolved in very similar environmental conditions.