Today, while walking toward the library, I saw a black dog running free on campus. Just cruising along checking out the plants and the people, he seemed rather content. Here in seminary, contentment may not be in short supply, but it's dwindling like Sly Stallone's believability in Rocky VI. I smiled as I watched the dog, not knowing how soon my smile would erupt into something louder. The dog meandered this way, then that way, until he found some bushes. Then, he squatted and delivered. Yeah, what can brown do for you? I started laughing so hard. Something about seeing an animal so completely free of pretension that he was willing to drop a load in the bushes at THE Dallas Theological Seminary that produced sheer laughter and a little envy. Not envy for what you're thinking, potty head. Envy because I never feel that free and comfortable in my own skin on campus. Envy because I constantly obsess over what I wear, how I look, sound and smell that I bother myself. Leave it to an animal to teach me something about contentment. Speaking of the animals...
I've been reading Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek for my creative writing class. If you've never read her, you should. You'll either find that you love her, or that it's a great exercise in following through on what you've started no matter the cost. In PaTC, she won the Pulitzer for basically talking about nature for 200+ pages. Now, I'm not a particularly huge fan of "nature," per se, owing primarily to my aversion to sleeping in the dirt, but this book is interesting. If I can grant Dillard nothing else, I at least have to grant that she seems to know how to see in ways that I can't, or just choose not to. She spends pages relating the sheer morbid experience of mating praying mantises. She talks in depth about microscopic organisms that few others would bother more than a paragraph on. And it's all because she sees. She sees beauty and intricacy and value in unlikely places. She's got me wishing I could see.
My creative writing professor broke her collarbone in a freak accident on Tuesday night. You can read all about it on her blog. Please pray for her.
On Tuesday, my Old Testament History prof showed us a bunch of relics and such from Israel. Some of the stuff was dated to be about 3,000 years old. Yeah, from 1,000 bc. Pretty crazy. He had pottery, a couple small idols, a spear shaft and stuff like that. And then he passed around a bag with bones in it. Human bones. Like from some Israelite's hand. How incredibly creepy will it be when the resurrection comes and that dude needs that again?
That's all for now. I'm supposed to be writing a paper. A laptop with wireless internet just seems like it should be put to more fun uses than that.
Word of the day: revenant, n, "one who returns after death or a long absence"
Like the one-handed Israelite.
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3 comments:
First, I didnt know you were going to THE Dallas Theological Seminary, i guess i missed that on the monday night intros.
Second, the UPS tagline very clever and i laughed out loud my self.
Third, In this world its hard not to care what others think, to believe what you wear isnt good enough because of the pressures society places on us. The fact of the matter is that those of us who have truly great people in our lives whether it be family or friends, they dont care. They like us for who we are, not what we wear or how much money we make. Of course if we dropped dockers by the bushes and dropped Morpheus off at the Neber-Kenezer then our friends might think we are weird but love us all the same.
p.s. Greta whats happened to pokey reese?
LOL! What can brown do for you? And LOL again over the creepy hand needed in the future. Funny, funny stuff. Move over Dave Barry.
You got the point of reading Dillard. Bravo!
Thanks for the prayers and the link.
Benjamin...this is hilarious dude!
Fear-of-Man my friend Fear-of-Man, my arch enemy...I wrote about it on Monday ('holidays'on my blog)after an awesome weekend but with this creepy crook seeping into my brain when I start enjoying authentic friendships - what if they find out about...
...a killer to my soul.
The best part of our writing class is that there we can just let everything hang out - the strangest to me, is that I feel so naked due to all that we've read together but still it is the only place on this continent (since I showed up 18months ago) where I feel truely understood (by some)...one of our class mates actually asked me jsut recently if I was from England.
I enjoy your pieces so much and I hope that we get to share many more in the future...
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