china and the war prayer

A rainy morning, just the right background for finishing my current book, Factory Girls, From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie Chang. I learn so much about the world from reading non-fiction. Here's a paragraph from page 289:

Almost everything was done communally. The children got up together and stood in a line at the edge of the yard, brushing their teeth and spitting into the neighbors yard below. Every meal was eaten together--vegetables, rice, and always pork, since a family typically slaughtered a pig in the autumn and dined on it all winter long. Bath time was also a group activity: In the evening, the women of the family would heat a basin of water. One after another, they washed their private parts and feet, without changing the water in between. Then the men would refill the basin and do the same. Every so often, the family members took a sponge bath, but that was usually different from the once in many days they washed their hair. Eventually every part of the body would be clean, although rarely at the same time.

On another subject, because this month has been the bloodiest so far in the Afghanistan war, I offer this prayer:
Dear Jesus,
This war is like a puzzle that does not make sense. The pieces are strange and ugly and will never fit together. We need your help and guidance to allow our leaders to use their wisdom to bring this needless war to an end. We need a rainbow for us all.