Catchy title, eh?
I'm working on an issue in my fifth chapter, and I'm looking for opinions (NO! not because it will get into my dissertation, but because I am killing some free time).
Here's the setup. 2 Samuel 13 describes the rape of Tamar by her half-brother Amnon. What is Amnon's great sin in this text?:
1) that he raped Tamar (one woman scholar actually argues that Tamar was asking for it because she was too flirtatious and naive! What the #$%&?!)
2) that he committed incest (eeeewwww, but if the "sin" was incest then why does Tamar make the suggestion of marriage? legal kissing cousins? eeeewwww)
3) that he hated her afterward and refused to marry Tamar after he defiled her (shameless bastard!)
4) that he was trying to humiliate his half-brother Absalom, rival to the throne (because it's always about men; somebody actually argues this)
5) any combination of the above (because your a liberal protestant and you can see "many diverse perspectives", or to put it another way, you don't want to offend people who believe strongly about one of the other choices)
6) none of the above (I would hate to go shopping with you)
7) who cares? It's friday night (where I'm coming down about now)
I have always thought that the key to conversion was a "real life" experience.
To this point I have been supportive of students' complaints about the library. I have been genuinely concerned about the lack of hours, the lack of availability of reserves material, the hold on acquisitions, etc. I even filled out my petition.
BUT today, I was trying to track down a couple of resources for the section of my diss. on which I am currently working. So, I went down to the Garrett side of the UL. The time was 4:55 p.m. DOH! I had forgotten that the library is now closed at 4:30 Mon through Fri. I blurted out a couple of profanities and went home.
I now am converted officially to the status of angry protester. I am a believer!
I am a person of rewards. I movitate myself through little pleasures. I write a paragraph, I get to eat another Sweet Tart. I finish a page, and I get to eat one square of a Hershey's with almonds. I work straight for three hours, then I get a liquid refreshment break (usually soda). This may be good for my motivation during writing, but it can't be doing wonders for my waistline. I guess that I will have to reward myself with several trips to the gym after I finish this draft.
Personal revisions are pretty much done for chapter four. I will be sending it out to my committee today or tomorrow. This is good news because it means that I can finally get back to finishing the last chapter prior to my conclusion.
I'm getting closer...
I love visiting other churches. The past three weeks, my family and I have been going to First Presbyterian Church of Arlington Heights, where I am doing a five week adult ed. forum on the prophets. It is a church with 1960 members (yes that is the exact count in the annual report). I have been very impressed with their adult ed. format, which they call First Forums. They have an actual curriculum through which any member can learn basics about theolgy, bible, church history, polity, etc. They also have topical classes. Their courses run through a series of five terms that go from Sept to May, with 9-10 courses per term. Their pastoral staff does some of the teaching, and they bring in seminary professors from the Chicago area. Better yet, I really can tell the difference when I teach them. These people know their stuff. Their goals for adult ed. center on christian formation rather than "bringing in the expert" to talk about the latest hot topic. It's good to see a church doing adult ed. the right way.
Comment of the day, from Margaret Adam:
"You know there are no heights in Arlington Heights."
Frank's commentary: If cities' names were descriptive of the place then all cities in the midwest would be Des Plaines.
When I was in high school, and being "cool" was so very important, I would have never imagined that at 37 I would be spending Saturdays in the library. Well I may be a library geek, but at least I will be a geek with a finished dissertation soon!
Have you ever noticed that Sweet Tarts taste like children's vitamins?
It's 4 degrees F with a wild chill of -13. Those of you who are in warmer parts of the country make sure that you say a prayer of thanksgiving...that you're not with us.
The Carolina Panthers vs. The New England Patriots for the Super Bowl? Now there's one to get a Ram's fan excited! Not! New England broke St. Louis' heart in 2001 in the big game, and Carolina ripped out our guts in last week's OT thriller. This fan says, "who cares?"
This is probably a good thing as I hit my dissertation deadline. God works all things out for the good.
Frank
Just to give an idea of how twisted my mind is right now...
I was thinking to myself, "What do I want to do once I finish my dissertation?" The first thing that came into my mind was, "Clean the basement!"
Oh god, I'm screwed up!
Unrelated...
Prayers for my sister Trish and my brother-in-law Kevin who have run into complications while trying to become parents.
In preparation for my Boar's Head sermon, I came across different versions of the feast's legend. The one I liked the best made it into my sermon. Basically, a 16th C. student from Oxford was walking in the forest, reading Aristotle, when he was attacked by a wild boar. The student defended himself by shoving his book down the throat of the swine, shouting, "Graecum est" (Latin for "it is Greek"). Afterward, he and his fellow students carried the boar back to the college and roasted it.
Stanley Fish was wrong, theory (in this case philosophy) CAN save us.
I almost forgot to mention this. I was in Pittsburgh this past weekend, planning an ATS (Association of Theological Schools) consultation for Asian and Asian American faculty in ATS institutions. The ATS is the accrediting body for seminaries, div. schools, etc. Kwok Pui Lan was there, who is in my mind, one of the most influential Asian/Asian American feminist theologians. I love her work. Anyway, at lunch on Friday our planning committee was talking at length and in great detail about ... FOOTBALL. That's right, football. As it turns out, Pui Lan is a huge New England Patriots fan. She is excited about the Pats' season and anticipates that Tom Brady will lead them into the Super Bowl. She really knew here stuff. As she said, "I am a contradiction." Bless you Pui Lan.
Thanks to AKMA and Margaret for the digital coupons, a.k.a. free favors for a Ph.D. student and spouse who are hitting crunch time. Had to cash one in today!
Finished revisions on chapter three today. It will now be in the hands of my full committee. The rest of the week I will be working on my own revisions for chapter four so that my advisor can take a look. Chapter five, the last chapter prior to my conclusion, is in progress. A draft of it will be done soon (if I ever finish these revisions!).
I got an email from my advisor today with some news that almost gave me heart failure. As most of you know, I am finishing my dissertation. My assumption was that I would be finished by mid March or late February. In the email, I read that the deadline for my final draft was due by February. Gulp!
I wrote back immediately. As it turns out, my advisor meant a final draft prior to revisions suggested by my committee. I had thought that she meant the whole thing, committee approval and all before February.
In short, the news was not as bad as I originally had thought; but it was a good wakeup call. It's time to buckle down and finish!
Prayers please!
My Rams have done it to me again, getting my hopes up only to dash them against the rocks. They made a tremendous comeback to push their playoff game against the Panthers into OT. They were dominating the game in OT and had two chances to win the game. I thought for sure they were going to win. Then Jake Delhomme and Steve Smith ended the Rams season with a 67 yd. TD pass. UGH!
I am too sad to cry :(
Well, my blog is back. Unfortunately, the person who set it up for me on Seabury's servers has not given me much control of the site's look. Ugh! I will hopefully get this changed soon. Until then, this will have to do.