Dave Update

So, here I am in my apartment, sitting and typing on my mom-in-law's little white iBook. Sarah's making the rounds, turning off the lights and picking up the various and sundry things that the smallest member of our family left in his amazing wake. He's fast asleep now; he doesn't yet share his father's latest talent of lying in bed for hours without falling asleep.

This has been a hard semester. A hard last couple of months. Emotionally, it has reminded me of the times I used to lie stacked up near the ceiling of traber six, focusing on the simple action of breathing because any mental inch past that would hit the unstable complexity where things fall apart. Circumstantially, things are a bit more layered than they were back then. I am a father, a husband, a student. In those senses, it's a lot more scary when things don't hold together as neatly as I'd like them to.

Ok, Dave, enough poetics, what do you have to update?

Who are you?-- so rudely interrupting my descriptions-- I'm not sure I was finished.

I don't know, I just thought you actually might be getting to something that has anything to do with your title. Just a thought.

You're right--you know, that is my problem. It's my problem with the papers I try to write. It's the problem with the essay exams I try to compose. It's the problem with my grand schemes to change the way Churches operate in an urbanizing world. I've got a lot of grand ideas floating around in my head--then when I go to put them down in any logical order, all I do is start blabbering about obscure details which have little to do with....I'm doing it right now. Sorry.

Since I last wrote, I've completed another semester of terribly interesting but terribly confusing courses. Seminary definitely raises more questions than it answers. True, I knew this would be the case when I came; but simply cannot avoid the emotional process of actually walking through complex confusery, if you know what I mean.

I applied for a job that I knew was a bit out of my reach and made it to the first round of interviews but no further. Gordon College (not the seminary) has started a partnership with the city of Lynn through which they connect student interns with urban development opportunities. This is a growing program, and the woman who has developed it (through Gordon) has big visions for it--she hopes both to engage in wide scale urban development as well as wide scale educational reform (turning the current incubator model of education into a service-learning model). Anyway, it's a growing program, and they have just added an Associate Director position to it. This is the position to which I applied. So, on the one hand, it's been hard dealing with the disappointment of a dream job not working out. On the other hand, it's encouraging to know that there is a type of job out there that I can get really excited aobut.

This week, Sarah and I will be traveling with Andrew down to Florida to pick up my parent's car (long story) and slowly drive it back up to MA over the course of the week. I'm looking foward to spending some time just letting my system reboot (ha! the metaphors that emerge with technology!).

OK. I'm tired. I hope this hasn't been to confusing of a post for you to progress through.
I miss you guys. We should do more writing about our lives. It's hard to get things out in type, but I think it's worth it.
Anyway. Over-and-out. Until next time.

Bringin' in a couple o' keys

Well friends, did you know that at the time of Julius Caesar's famous quote "veni, vedi, vici" it would have been pronounced "weenie, weedie, weekie"?

That's totally beside the point. The Point, as Harry Nilsson might not say, is that Tomorrow morning, I will be embarking on a cross country drive that will consumate my move to Los Angeles. I've decided to move to LA for several reasons, most of which involve unbridled hedonism of the highest order.

As a footnote to my undoubtedly nightly romps, I also have the opportunity to be working doing something I really enjoy: researching the music of the Beach Boys. There's also a chance I could work at the TV station "The Style Network."

It will be interesting, to be sure. I've been wanting to move back to LA after moving away almost 16 years ago, so I'm really happy and excited. But it will be a new challenge that I'm not used to.

I'll let you all know how it goes, when I'm not floating on a raft in the waters of scandinavia, that is.

Has anyone heard from Aeijtzsche lately?

Because this sounds like it could be him...

well, it sounds like the kind of story he would tell the authorities, anyway.

A letter from A. Duane Litfin

So, I don't know whether or not the rest of you are receiving alumni emails from Wheaton (I assume that most of you probably are), but I thought I'd share this letter from Dr. Litfin just in case. I find the format interesting, though I'm trying to interpret exactly what some of the phrases mean and-- more importantly-- why THIS PARTICULAR event warrants an email to all the alumni of the college (and why the administration feels that they need prayers more at this moment than at others). I will be praying for Wheaton during this visit, but not the exact prayers that seem to be solicited by this email. I'm praying that the interaction will be free from condemnation, moral assuredness or closed-mindedness. I'm praying that there will be fear and trembling in the interaction and a genuine trepidation when speaking to people about something as central to character and identity as their sexuality. I'm praying that the encounters facilitated by this event will provide students with an opportunity to think-- not merely receive answers or reify prejudices-- and that, whatever tentative conclusions they come to, they will have thought carefully, seriously and openly (a prerequisite condition for the other two) about sexuality and about what their roles as Christians should be in a culture that often persecutes homosexuals.

I know that we do not all agree on all aspects of Christianity's prescriptions regarding sexuality, identity, community and other issues raised by this letter, but I do think that each of us here could gladly offer similar prayers for our alma mater (which, interestingly, means our "soul mother") at this time. I hope that we can all pray for a soul-birthing for Wheaton's students through this experience.


Dear [Coye],
I write to ask you for your prayers.
On Thursday and Friday of this week we will be visited by a group of homosexual activists traveling on a bus tour across the United States to various Christian college campuses. Their agenda is to draw negative media attention to institutions who maintain an historic biblical stand on the issue of homosexuality. This, of course, Wheaton does. (See Wheaton's Community Covenant) Hence our place on their list of targeted institutions.
We did not invite these visitors to our campus. But since they are intent on coming anyway, we decided to make a virtue out of a necessity by turning their coming into a teaching opportunity for our students. Given the ongoing changes in our culture, today’s students are potentially facing a lifetime of confrontations over the issue of homosexuality. What should be their Christian response? We have endeavored to prepare our students to respond to these visitors with the biblical balance captured in the injunction to “speak the truth in love.”
Wheaton’s provost, Dr. Stan Jones, a psychologist who has done extensive work in the area of human sexuality, has prepared a biblical rebuttal to the false teaching of this group. (See “CACE Resources on Homosexuality”) These and other written materials, along with various scheduled meetings and chapels, have been devoted to helping our students understand the many issues and shape a balanced Christian response. This process has been highly educational for all involved.
After this event is over, we will let you know how it went. In the meantime, please pray for us, asking that God will be glorified, His truth will be upheld with grace and humility, and our Christian witness to a watching world will be an effective one.
Thank you.
Duane LitfinPresidentWheaton College

Alan Jacobs Article

I stumbled across this article today from First Things.

new pics

Steve, those are some pretty sweet pics you posted. What software did you create your online gallery with? I now organize my pictures with coppermine. www.marlett.net/photos

I Dub Thee Judas the Good

Forget everything you’ve ever heard about Judas. You know, the treachery, the greediness, the betrayal. That whole, tired story was just a huge misunderstanding. It turns out that Judas was the confidant of Christ, and that Christ asked Judas to betray him to the Romans. In fact, Christ apparently said to Judas: “you will be cursed by the other generations, and you will come to rule over them."

Now, I know what you’re thinking. No, Dan Brown did not just finish a new novel. Actually, scholars have just rediscovered and translated the long-lost Gospel of Judas. Click here for the New York Times story, and here to take a look at the actual document on the National Geographic website.

Symbolic Action

There's plenty to be read here.

Here's to Cinderella!

So I now attend a school that is in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. I didn't expect this to ever happen, but I have sincerely enjoyed shouting at the television set over the past couple of weeks. It's tempting to camp out on campus overnight to be in line for tickets to the Final Four in Indy, but it's hard to justify the move. Not much to report here on a more personal note. I'm swamped in midterms which I sort of need to do well on.

Go GMU!

Anyone interested?

My spring break is coming up soon, and I think I'm going to spend it on a tropical island in Thailand chilling and snorkelling. Would any of you guys be interested in joining me? The beach bungalows are really cheap. Or we could camp. It'd be from like March 27-April5.

I hate big decisions

A few new updates. Besides fighting a war in Iraq, I have made a couple of big jumps. First, I am having a new house built while I am away. Becoming a home owner is a scary yet exciting process. The scary part is that I have not even seen the lot, but I saw the floor plan and the builder is one of the best around. One of the interesting features is that he has hidden speakers in all of the rooms. I think it would be fun to have a house filled with music!

The second piece of info is that I was selected by commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division to attend graduate school (around year 2011) at the school and program of my choice. The army would pick up the tuition tab, and unlike ROTC, I would continue to be paid my full salary and housing expenses. This commitment would obviously take me well beyond my current commitment and propel me farther up the food chain. I don’t want to spend my life in and out of deployments, but retiring at age 42 with a life pension does not seem like a bad idea. For the time being I will keep this grad card in my back pocket. I am still applying for my other grad school options.

Iraq is going well. I am looking forward to pinning on Captain sometime this summer or early fall.

Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin

Both I and Calhoun Hall (English) are reflected. 

Popcorn and Ice Cream

Ahhhh... the joys of being an adult. Tonight I had popcorn and ice cream for dinner. If you remember being a kid and wanting popcorn and ice cream for dinner-- or maybe chocolate milk and an ice cream sandwich, or Cheetos and root beer-- and if you never actually had those things for dinner, then I say go for it now. Carpe diem! Chances are, it won't even make you sick (like your mom said it would), and even if it does, you'll still be living that childhood dream. That's what it's all about, boys: taking every opportunities and enjoying the small things in life. Small things like popcorn and ice cream. For dinner.

news from Ryan

I've been substitute teaching the past two months and it has been excellent. That is, bad pay, but great experience. It has given me an overview of how Christian education is done in Tyler and particularly how it is done differently by baptists, anglicans, and catholics.

It has been easy to see theologies in action...very easy.

But I am postponing this survey of pedagogues. I am going to become a full-time ESL teacher at one of the schools. Incredibly (to me), there are about 30 international boarding students here and there is even one student from Japan. Most of the others are from Korea or Taiwan and otherwise, 2 Croatians, and 2 Mexicans.

My job will be to help them out of any and all English-related difficulties in their life in America.
It's going to be good. I start Monday.

As a bonus, the school has some connections to Wheaton. The headmaster is from Wheaton. The Wheaton college orchestra visited there recently. And, tell me if you don't think so too, it even looks like Wheaton: http://www.brookhill.org/

Snoop Dog's translation

click here

Confucius

Tzu-chang asked whether we can know what is to be ten generations hence.

Ryan said, "Whoa. I like that question."

The Master said: "The Yin inherited the manners of the Hsia; the harm and the good that they wrought them is known. The Chou inherited the manners of the Yin; the harm and the good that they wrought them is known. And we may know what is to be, even an hundred generations hence, when others follow Chou."

Ryan said, "That's right--where can I learn more from you ancient Chinese wisemen?"

The Master said: "Learn from my book of sayings and also from Sun-Tzu. Also, ask your friends if they know anything about me or other ancient Chinese wisemen."

respectfully submitted,

-Ryan

Old Man Steve

Happy Birthday, Stephen! I hope your cold has improved enough to facilitate a little celebration. (Is this the quarter-century mark for you?) Your aging like a fine wine, I'm sure: a little better every year. [at this point, you have to imagine the guitar riff from the Beatles' "You say it's your birthday" starting up in the background] Happy birthday and "sake o onegai shemas" (I know it isn't a proper transliteration, but sound it out and see if you can get it)!

Global Warming and Wheaton

Litfin got quoted on the matter of global warming.

link

Should the college be taking a stance on this issue? Personally, I'm cool with it, but I don't have any better defense for it than I am for reducing man's impact on climate shifts.

I live in a great house. My room is on the second floor and it is like forest tree house. Since moving in here last October I have been putting birdseed on the ledge outside my window and throwing it down to the ground and I have even payed $40 for a hanging bird feeder. Today I added two more species to a list of birds I have patronized. Here is my list:

cardinal
sparrow
titmouse
bluejay
house finch
grackle
chickadee
flicker
downy woodpecker
carolina wren
goldfinch
mourning dove

isn't THAT interesting? heh :) To me, it is delightful.

More than 2 will be interested

Well, here in Japan (not India, not America) I have been cut off from most English language manifestations of one of the means of grace: the preaching of the Word. BUT there is the internet, which can feed me streams of audio from any preacher I can think of (including my home church pastor) and at any time I want. I have been especially drawn to internet sermons and lectures since getting an iPod for my birthday.

One of my favorites is Ravi Zacharias (though he does go a bit heavy on quotes I think). Anyway, I went to his site just now (www.rzim.org) and something near the top-left corner of the page caught my eye. Is that? Yes, that is a name I know. Could it be the same one that I knew from Wheaton? A little investigation...wow it IS the same! And now she's working for Ravi Zacharias? That's cool!

(in case they've changed the front page, here)

Maybe some of you already knew this, but it was news to me.