Help me out. It's a sunny day here in West Tennessee, and W wants us to go get a Fraser Fir to set up and decorate this evening.
I want to go home and climb into bed and emerge only to watch Tennessee get crushed on Saturday (sorry, Buzzrd & Hammie, as is your case with LSU, my hatred of UT knows no bounds).
Herein we have a problem. Tree decorating takes time and a good amount of effort on my part, and this year we have a Little Boy who knows enough to be really thrilled by the whole process. It needs to be done right, by which I mean with enjoyment and enthusiasm on my part. I can't seem to muster the desire.
Why should this season mean that all my energy is poured out in the Andy Holt Humanities building, with only the dregs left to carry home to my family?
UPDATE, 9:00 pm:
Well, we did get a tree and put it up and put lights on it and got about a third of the way through the decorating--Little Boy was having a blast--when we heard a fizz and a pop and saw a tiny flame. Nothing will 're-grinch' your day like having to take all the ornaments and all the lights back off the tree before bedtime.
11.30.2007
11.29.2007
11.28.2007
Adventures with Students, Vol. 14
Not my student, thank goodness. I'm reading senior theses from SU, my alma mater, and in an analysis of Paradise Lost, I read this line:
Sin not only existed from the beginning, but it is what gives God purpose and meaning.Good luck proving that one.
11.27.2007
How do you go in & teach
when the last thing you confront before you walk in a room is a tearful student sobbing that she's going to lose her mom to cancer within the year?
11.13.2007
11.10.2007
Fiddler on the Roof at Bethel College
So we went to McKenzie last night to see my brother's drama group perform Fiddler on the Roof. It was a change of pace to a certain extent--most of the other productions we've seen down there have been more comedic in tone. This marks, I guess, his fourth production in a year and a half of work with the Renaissance program down there.
I find it hard to express how much I admire the work he's doing. With a cramped space, scant institutional support (indeed, he has been met with extraordinary hostility by the college faculty), and a really small recruiting pool, he's putting on productions that appeal to a broad community of people. And he really has some fine students: there were four or five students, including the actors playing Tevye, Hodel, Perchik, and Motel, that stood out and could really compete for roles on any college campus. Congratulations, brother.
My dad was up from Atlanta for the production, which made The Little Boy happy; they had a huge time yesterday.
I find it hard to express how much I admire the work he's doing. With a cramped space, scant institutional support (indeed, he has been met with extraordinary hostility by the college faculty), and a really small recruiting pool, he's putting on productions that appeal to a broad community of people. And he really has some fine students: there were four or five students, including the actors playing Tevye, Hodel, Perchik, and Motel, that stood out and could really compete for roles on any college campus. Congratulations, brother.
My dad was up from Atlanta for the production, which made The Little Boy happy; they had a huge time yesterday.
11.08.2007
Hugo Project #3
Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz. (1961 Hugo winner)
An erudite, humane novel. I really enjoyed this one for a couple of reasons. First, there is Miller's knowledgeable and relatively sympathetic rendering of the Catholic Church. The church in this book isn't perfect, but it certainly isn't the typical sinister cabal you see in many texts. Clearly, Miller knows whereof he writes.
Second, I enjoyed cyclical structure of the story where he takes us from a bleak postapocalyptic dark age to a new Renaissance to yet another blossoming of technology and its end in a second nuclear holocaust. It's a bleak ending in many ways, but it's also honest. And it keeps its own scope relatively narrow, i.e., the world of the monastery and its interactions with the outside world.
I was going to write that the whole nuclear holocaust scenario was clearly a Cold War concern that may seem a bit dated to us, but Fukuyama's "end of history" hasn't turned out as comfy-warm as we would like. Maybe it's becoming timely again. Powerful stuff.
An erudite, humane novel. I really enjoyed this one for a couple of reasons. First, there is Miller's knowledgeable and relatively sympathetic rendering of the Catholic Church. The church in this book isn't perfect, but it certainly isn't the typical sinister cabal you see in many texts. Clearly, Miller knows whereof he writes.
Second, I enjoyed cyclical structure of the story where he takes us from a bleak postapocalyptic dark age to a new Renaissance to yet another blossoming of technology and its end in a second nuclear holocaust. It's a bleak ending in many ways, but it's also honest. And it keeps its own scope relatively narrow, i.e., the world of the monastery and its interactions with the outside world.
I was going to write that the whole nuclear holocaust scenario was clearly a Cold War concern that may seem a bit dated to us, but Fukuyama's "end of history" hasn't turned out as comfy-warm as we would like. Maybe it's becoming timely again. Powerful stuff.
11.07.2007
11.06.2007
Pig Pickin Pics
apologies for the relatively gruesome shot worthy of Lord of the Flies. But hey, we were cooking a whole pig, after all. Thanks to my brother Dave, the artist, for most of the shots. More to come!
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| Pig Pickin |
11.05.2007
Home again
We've gathered in the sails for a while, resting at anchor.
Got some work to do on the ol' bark--
isp down at home, so updates may be sporadic for a few days
Got some work to do on the ol' bark--
isp down at home, so updates may be sporadic for a few days
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