Somethin' That Made Me Laugh

I was listening to a Tony Campolo speech, and his opening made me laugh. I thought I would retell what he said here to his crowd (from memory, so this is not exact).

'You are all winners here. Everyone's a winner. There are really two types of people. Those that know they're winners, and those who are winners but don't quite know it. If you are one of these, just think. Just think, at one point you were all a sperm. And you were there with millions of other sperm. And you looked out and there was this long, long tunnel and at the end of it was one egg. And it was a race of all you millions to get there. AND YOU WON!!! We're all winners.'

Vermont!!!!!!! Bucknell!!!!!!

A lot of people think it odd that I like sports as much as I do. Really, I'm in grad school for English, and I take time out of everyday, no matter how busy I am, to watch two shows: PTI and Around the Horn. And of course, my favorite time of the year is March Madness. I love the underdogs. I think I do because I'm a masochist. I'm a person who lives in Texas and still chooses to be a die-hard Cubs fan. Anyway, I love March Madness because it's one time when the underdog gets in the spotlight. It's true that the big schools ultimately exploit those little schools because the midmajor/major matchup pulls in the viewers before dropping the underdogs that never had much of a chance. But they do, at least, have a chance, and the players are all suckers who wouldn't have it any other way, and I'm a sucker who devotes a couple of weeks each spring on the verge of having a breakdown while I root for these little schools to pull it off. And of course, sometimes they do, and it's so worth it. Vermont and Bucknell won tonight. Vermont was my choice coming into the tournament. ESPN did a little documentary on them, and I've seen them play several times. I love their coach, and I love how they play. It was exciting. Even my parents, normally totally apathetic toward sports, were into it. And when Vermont's point guard hit a forty foot three pointer (this would have been one of the all-time stupidest shots had it not fallen), we all were screaming (except Dad and Abby, but they were happy). And the Bucknell game was awesome, too. I've never been more than fifty miles east of the Mississippi, but these are currently my two favorite teams. I'm attached to them. And I can't wait until Sunday when they both play again.

St. Patrick's Prayer

I've always loved St. Patrick's Prayer. At least most of it (a few parts would annoy today's reader, but we can just ignore them). Anyway, on this St. Patrick's Day, I thought I would post a (highly edited) version of that prayer. You can read all of it at http://lent.classicalanglican.net/index.php?p=119 if you want. The translation is by Kuno Meyer.

St. Patrick's Prayer

I arise today
Through the strength of
Christ’s birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of
His crucifixion with His burial,
Through the strength of
His resurrection with His ascension,
Through the strength of
His descent for the judgement of Doom.

I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me:
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak to me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to save me,
Against every cruel merciless
power that may oppose my body
and soul.

Christ shield me today
Against poisoning, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So there come to me
abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of
every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of
every one who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye of
every one who sees me,
Christ in every ear
that hears me.

...And the Bad

Even though my break has been good so far, there was one story I heard from my Dad that depressed me quite a bit. Since my blog is primarily used for my venting, I'm going to write it out here.

Anyway, it happened down at the nursing home where Dad works. The building down there is split into two parts--the nursing home on one side and the retirement center on the other. Well, last week a couple in their eighties moved into the retirement center together. The man is in pretty good shape, but the woman isn't in very good health, and several people think that she should have gone into the nursing home instead. Nevertheless, the couple are in the retirement center where they get meals and participate in the nursing home activities, but they generally take care of themselves. Anyway, the other day, the woman fell in her room, and her husband walked through the halls looking for someone to help him lift her off the tile floor. He found the nursing home administrator, a middle aged man in good health who likes to where his conservative brand of Christianity on his sleave. The husband asked the administrator to please come help him lift his wife. The administrator said no. If she expected his help, she should have gone into the nursing home rather than the retirement center. Then, the administrator walked off, leaving the eighty-year-old man without someone to help him pick up his eighty-year-old wife. The old man eventually found one of the many other people down at the building that had at least the basic human compassion to help him lift her from the ground. But it's that administrator's denial that sticks in my mind.

I'll never understand how people, particularly people who call themselves Christians, can be so cruel. A lot of times, it even seems as if Christians are, in fact, the most cruel and unmerciful people there are. I remember reading the Frederick Douglass's autobiography how slave owners would become more cruel after converting to Christianity (and Douglass was a Christian too). I also remember seeing a preacher on tv bring military tanks onto the stage with him in order to urge support for the Iraq war. I could go on for a long time this way. Of course, I, much like Frederick Douglass, would say that Christians who display such cruelty aren't actually living out the story of Christ. That's evident. And it's clear that Christ warned about this over and over when he rebukes the Pharisees. But it's still so despairing when you see this so often.

The Good...

So far, my spring break has been wonderful overall. Of course, I haven't gotten nearly enough homework done. My plan coming in was to read at least four novels, and I've only read one at this point. I have done a lot of grading however. I'm a bit ahead there, and I think I'm going to try to get a little further ahead before I go back. I'm also eating a lot and sleeping a lot. That's been great (especially the eating part). I've also done a good bit of quality tv watchin'. I'm hooked again on American Idol, and March Madness begins Thursday. This was a good week to have spring break on. I've also done some reading on Larry James's blog (larryjamesurbandaily.blogspot.com), which I highly recommend. I also listened to a sermon online by Mike Cope (you can get the link through his blog--mikecope.blogspot.com) on women's role in the church. It was excellent. Yeah, this has been a good break...

Yaaaay!!!!!

Today was good. I went and did my whole presentation, and things went really well. It's strange how I am terribly inarticulate when I am in a classroom and am having to wing it as I do on regular day, but when I am prepared ahead of time, like when I have a presentation, things go really well. I'm even a terrible storyteller normally, and the story I told for the senior seminar class went over really well. They laughed quite a bit. They particularly liked the phrase "English major arms." It was pretty funny. The only thing that didn't go well with the presentations is that we members of the panel said some pretty contradictory things. We all have some pretty different experiences in grad school. For instance, I complained about the seeming lack of meaning or reality that sometimes creeps into English grad school for me. I mean, I'm reading a poem by Wallace Stevens, and I typically either think that the poem is utterly meaningless or is so elitist that it's too disconnected from reality for me to find value in (though Wallace would take a lack of reality as a compliment). So anyway, I told the students about my problems with that the key to success in grad school was humility. By that, I meant two things: (1) that they should be humble because each class is a fight to seem smarter than everyone else, and survival means not playing by those rules. I was urging them to develop humility so that seeming really smart wouldn't be so important. (2) That they should develop humility so that they don't forget reality. I'm one of those Paulo Freire sorts of idealists who thinks that any skills with words should be used to help others develop freedom. Anyway, I made all these points about developing humility, and the next guy totally contradicted me by saying that being elitist if totally fine, and is what he has done in grad school, and is what he's very happy about. He's a really nice fellow, but this was certainly a point I disagreed with. Nevertheless, in a really informal setting like this was, there wasn't much room for debate, and I didn't pick a fight. Anyway, I doubt we helped the students that much since we contradicted one another so much. So it goes. I did my part at least, and I felt pretty good about the things I said.

I felt particularly good when the day was over, however. That's because TOMORROW I'M GOING HOME!!! I'm actually excited enough to use all caps and exclamation points--two things I normally hate. I haven't been home in a long time, and I'm really ready to get there and eat some of Mom's and Dad's cooking. I think I'm having fried catfish tomorrow night. It should be great.

Should they have asked me?

Well, a few weeks ago, a former professor of mine asked me to come and talk to her senior seminar class and answer questions about graduate school. What is it like? What should I do to get in? What mistakes have you made that I shouldn't make? I don't know that I'm exactly the person they should have asked. I'm not going to give a really pretty picture of grad school or Texas Tech. Nevertheless, I'm going. And these are the things I'm kind of thinking about saying.

First, I'm going to tell them a little story that kind of encompasses my grad school experience. The story goes a little something like this: First, you should know that I live about a 25 minute walk from the English building, and I like walking, so I normally walk to class. I could ride the bus that comes right by my house, but I don't ride it much, and it took me a long time in the semester until I rode it for the first time. I don't ride it because I'm also kind of anxious about riding it. I just don't ever like the thought of being in an enclosed place with a lot of people. I don't know if I'm claustrophobic or not, but it makes me a bit anxious. So, I avoid buses. But one day, once upon a time, I woke up and it was raining pretty hard, and I had a presentation, so I was dressed nicely, and I really didn't want to get wet that day. So, I got on the bus. Here's the picture: I'm anxious, standing in a crowded bus, I've never ridden the bus before and don't know if it'll actually take me where I want to go, and lastly, the skinhead guy is driving, and the skinhead guy just has fun when people are standing on the bus, and he was jerking the bus around, and everytime he stops, I just keep thinking that I should get off this bus and walk even if it is raining outside. And so, that's my analogy for grad school. Grad school is like being on a bus that is cramped, that you don't know where is going, and that is being driven by a madman, and that you are holding onto for dear life. And of course, the tidy moral to the story is that eventually the bus shows up to the right place, and everything's fine. That's how my last semester ended up. I finished doing 18 hours, which is half of my degree, in five months and a week. And I looked back on that hell, and realized that it had been worthwhile.

Be warned. However difficult we all say it is, it's harder. It's a lot harder. And you will basically have no life except for grad school for the time your in it. It's really unbelievable. And it takes a lot of commitment to stay in it.

So, here's my advice about the decision to go to grad school and the school to choose.
1. Know that your willing to commit to it; know that your willing to get something out of it. (m.div and missionary story)
2. Take the application process seriously. (wasted money, and a lot of luckly breaks; GRE test also)
3. Choose a school that will stretch you in some way. (Tech v. ACU)

My advice for surviving grad school.
1. Do whatever your professor tells you to do. (Maybe Jazz story)
2. Prepare ahead of time.
3. Pace yourself.
4. Be humble.
5. Work on your faults.
6. Talk to your teachers.

Ah, funny...or sad...

My parents told me something funny tonight, and it was about me, and it was funny (at least to me), and it was sad (I'm sure this part may have wider appeal).

Anyway, this week American Idol has been on each night at 7:00. My parents know that I like watching American Idol. The problem is that I can never remember to actually watch it. So, my parents are kind enough to call me up every night it's on to remind me. That's sad enough that I can't even remember to turn the show on when I've been looking forward to it all week. It gets sadder, though; tonight, my parents told me their strategy for calling me. They will only call me right at 7:00. They don't call me any earlier to make sure that I get things ready so that I can watch the show. They know better. You see, if they were to call me at 6:55, they've realized I would forget to turn the tv on by the time the show came on five minutes later. It's true. I've done that before where I forgot in those five minutes what I had just been told. And it was rather funny/sad to be reminded of my forgetfulness (I must have forgotten about my forgetfullness for a while).

Ah, me...

A Good Weekend

I've had a good weekend. This is for three reasons. First, I got most of my homework done, and it wasn't too painful. Second, I went to a symphony on Friday that was excellent. Primarily, however, my weekend was excellent because of a guy named Randy Harris. Randy Harris was one of my professors back at ACU, and he was possibly the best professor I ever had. There were a few who could compete with him, but he was probably the professor who influenced me the most. The strange thing is that he would have no idea who I was if he saw me or heard my name. I took his class for only one semester, and I hardly spoke the whole time. It was a freshman Bible couse, and I had little idea at that time what was going on in the things we were reading. But he convinced me that something was going on in the New Testament that I wanted to look at some more. He made all of that Christianity stuff seem appealing for the first time.

Anyway, back to the thing I was saying at first. Randy Harris made my weekend much better this weekend, not because I saw him, but because I heard him. I stumbled on a website that had a few of his sermons, and I spent the whole weekend listening to them. And he has a strange way of actually being able to speak the word of God. And the things he said hit me a few times. And I'm going to have to go and listen to them again. But there was Something to those sermons. They were painful, but they're going to change me. I'm not totally sure how, but they are. And I would recommend them: http://www.listentogod.net/randyharris.htm and http://www.wineskins.org/content.asp?CID=48101.

I'll probably post on these sermons a number of times in the future, but for now I'm just going to list one thing that he said. I'll put it out there for you and for myself. What it is is a list of things that Randy Harris says to himself every morning, and they set out a good way to live. Here's the list of things to say to oneself each morning at the mirror:

1. I'm going to be incompetant today.
2. I will be fully present today.
3. I will be the Christ today.
4. I will see the Christ in every person I meet today.

These aren't bad goals to set for oneself each day.

I've Been Boring Lately

I've been living up to the promises about this blog that are in its desciption. More specifically, my blog has been rather boring lately. I've just been pretty busy for a while, and when you're busy you don't have time to think the sort of random thoughts that produce a decent blog. So it goes. (By the way, if you want to read a good blog, you should consider mikecope.blogspot.com).

Anyway, today's blog isn't really going to be any different. Since I haven't been taking the time to think in several of my recent blogs, I've put in poems or quotes that I thought were interesting. I'm going to do that again. The reason I've been busy recently has been because of a paper I'm writing for one of my classes. It's a close reading of one of Robert Frost's poems, a love poem written to his wife entitled "Meeting and Passing." I think it's a really pretty little poem. Here it is. If you have any ideas on it, pass them along. They'd be greatly appreciated. I might stick it in a graduate paper, and then I'll be able to blame you for my poor grade on the assignment. That'd be nice.


Meeting and Passing

As I went down the hill along the wall
There was a gate I had leaned at for the view
And had just turned from when I first saw you
As you came up the hill. We met. But all
We did that day was mingle great and small
Footprints in summer dust as if we drew
The figure of our being less than two
But more than one as yet. Your parasol
Pointed the decimal off with one deep thrust.
And all the time we talked you seemed to see
Something down there to smile at in the dust.
(Oh, it was without prejudice to me!)
Afterward I went past what you had passed
Before we met and you what I had passed.