Time: // 8:49 am.

The scene: // Wet and humid. It feels warmer than it is because it’s so muggy. We needed the rain, for all kinds of reasons

Listening to: // “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley: “Don’t worry about a thing, ‘cuz every little thing gonna be all right.”

This month’s book club selection turned out to be very relevant to the time, even though we chose it nearly a year ago

Reading: // “Ain’t But a Place”: An Anthology of African American Writings about St. Louis edited by Gerald Early. Our book club selected this almost a year ago, but it’s turned out to be very helpful in processing and understanding current events.

Blogging about: // Ferguson. I pulled together what I learned from “Ain’t But a Place” with something from the radio to give a hug to St. Louis and investigated the London Riots of 2011 for my British Isles Friday post.

Participating in// Obsessively monitoring news events and trying to help white people figure out how to respond. Starting with: have a response. Better to be awkward than silent. Be engaged without being paternalistic. Listen more than speak. Share the good things you see, because the headlines are more negative than the facts on the ground. This morning, for instance, the events of an hour or two in the middle of the night obscure the many, many hours earlier of peaceful (but not quiet — honking horns is part of the scene) protest.