First day of school!

I guess the first day of school holds little weight when you have 14 years of secondary education (yep, I repeated kindergarten) "first days," then 4 years of college "first days," and 2 years of graduate school "first days."  (Not to mention the completion-challenged 2nd graduate program multiple "first days.")  Then, there are first days of school as a teacher and there are 9 of those.  Actually, I've had a first day of school every year since 1984.  Whoa.

Anyway...

Classes today... Tolkien's Apocalyptic Imagination and Th.M. Research Seminar in Christian Thought.  Already, I have to read and finish the Silmarillion by next week for the Tolkien class and give a presentation on some Calvin sermons on Ephesians.  Plus, a load of Barth reading.  The other two classes start Thursday and Friday.

It's kindergarten all over again.  "Hey, ummm, my name is Ruth and I'm from North Carolina."  "Hey y'all, can I sit at this table?"  "Excuse me, do you know how to work the library printer?"  "Does anyone know where AC 240 is?"  I've also done my fair share of that super awkward wandering around the buildings on campus because I got somewhere too early or I just don't really know what I'm doing.  You put your hands in your pockets and then realize you don't have pockets.  Then I look down and "Drat!  I dressed like a teacher... I look all out of place... everyone else is way casual."  Then you pull out the cell phone to look like you are the kind of person who folks like to call or send a text message to.  You scan the phone but, as usual, no messages.  So, then, you just look up the weather and stare at that for a good 10-15 minutes.  Then, you put the phone away and look for a stick of gum in your purse.  As soon as your start chewing... "Drat!  I'm about to go to lecture and it is so rude to chew gum in front of your professor (or at least I hated it as a teacher.)"  Now you have to spit out your gum but you can't find a trash can so now you are the girl who is overdressed, holding chewed gum between your thumb and forefinger, incredibly disheveled, and dropping things because your phone didn't quite make it back into the pouch in your bag.

It was Ruth, in all her glory.  : )

But, truly, being in class was like taking in a higher level of oxygen.  It was so refreshing to be a student yet simultaneously, I was ACHING to teach.  OH, how I wanted a chalkboard and a podium!  Instead, I reminded myself that I am spending loads of money to have them teach me.  I did, however, laugh at all the profs jokes because I know what it feels like to make jokes that your students either don't get or don't think are funny.  Ah, but it was so sweet to be in that hallowed ground called... deep breath... a classroom.  The place where ideas are in the air you breathe and you can almost hear minds do what they were created to do.  It's so wonderfully freeing and right and wholesome that you just want to hug someone, or do a little jig, or something...

I just love school... even though I have to study Calvin this week.  At least I get some Tolkien thrown in there somewhere.

And you should never say never to first days of school... let's hope I get to be in all kinds of contexts where that happens in the future. 

And, next time, I'll remember not to overdress or chew gum or be awkward...Yeah right... who am I kidding?

Feelin' Groovy.

I was walking around downtown Boston today on my way to church and THREE different people stopped to ask me for directions.  Either I appear to know what I'm doing or I seem more approachable than an intense urbanite.  Probably the latter.  I like approaching wide-eyed, slow, hiking shoe wearing people too, when I have a question.

Homesickness.

One of the lunch discussion topics I brought up at the English L'abri this summer was homesickness.  Why do we feel sick at heart about not being at a particular geographical location we call, "home?"

I've been reading through Lord of the Rings in preparation for a Tolkien class I'm taking and I find myself identifying with Frodo and Sam regarding their almost mythic loyalty, longing, and passion about "the shire."  Not everyone has a "shire."  I think the idea and attachment to "home" can be potent for some and not for others.  Being one who resonates with this attachment, I believe those who do not have this potent sense of belonging to a real land are missing out on a powerful theological/emotional dynamic.  Dorothy was right.  "There's no place like home."  Without home, we are truly islands.

Home, of course, conjures up a lot of sentiments.  Like the theme song to "Cheers" (here in Boston... it's on my 'must visit' list...) ..."Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came."  Home is belonging.  It's the place we decided, intentionally or not, to dig our heels in and say, "I'm going to spend my life loving, investing, and knowing intimately this place.  So, the place is a piece of us and we are a piece of that place.  We can even start articulating it as loving a town or city, almost like it's a person.  I've wanted to try to hug Asheville from time to time, or the mountains.  Mountains make me feel snug... maybe they're trying to hug me. 

With all this personification of nature, you may think I'm reading too much Tolkien.  Perhaps.  But, I do believe there are spiritual dimensions to geographical places and communities.  And, I might add, I think we often overlook them... to our loss.  If we forget this, we inhibit our capacity to see that when God is our home, it is not simply in some ethereal, vague sense of "being with God."  No.  It is far more.  God is our home and we can be anywhere in the world and be at home, in a way.  But, when home is "the shire," God being home takes on a whole new meaning. What if God moved into "the shire?"  What if the Spirit of God transformed and redeemed the spirit of a place in such as way as to make it more "the shire" than it ever was before?  That is precisely what I think is happening and will happen. And... that is a glory to behold. 

And, that glory is one worth feeling homesick for. 

Day 15 Observations...

1.  New Englanders do not sell, make, or know about pimento cheese.  Such a shame.
2.  Boston does have Chick Fil A's but you have to purchase your meal to go and hide it until you get home and eat it in secret.  Otherwise, folks think you are making a political statement.
3.  The roads are really bad... like, wow, I think I'm driving on the surface of the moon bad.
4.  North Shore drivers are super nice!  Shocking!  When I need to turn left onto a busy road, it's not uncommon for people with the right of way to stop until I can make my turn.  Everyone stops for pedestrians... even when you aren't at a cross walk.  Even in really busy streets, folks in all lanes of traffic will stop during my run to let me get across.  ... and they do the Southern hand wave thing...
5.  Boston is beautiful.  It is such a walkable city.  Such a pity the accent is so hideous.
6.  Folks don't really wear bright colors or prints... but, that might be just because I'm not in Asheville anymore.
7.  I haven't seen one pair of Chocos here.  I've heard that 4 hours north in Burlington, Vermont, I'd find a ton.  Need to do a road trip up there this winter... they have SNOW SHOEING!!!
8.  A ton of people have swimming pools in their backyard, which is funny because they can't really use them very often.  My best guess for the large pool in yard-per capita is that air conditioning is not a given up here so the only relief is water???
9.  They have these high wand-like things that stick up from all fire hydrants and I couldn't figure out their purpose until it dawned on me that this is the only way for the fire department to know where they are in the winter when the snow gets really high.   ugh... I'm kinda scared of winter here, but the alternative is no snowshoeing so...
10. Boston lingo... Peabody (a town nearby) is Pee-bity, Target (the store) is Taaa-git, yesterday is yestadey, Labor day is labah day, and parking your car is paahking yah caaah.  God, help me preserve my y'alls and all those other lovely southern tones... I'll never be ashamed again of those great sounds.
11.  Not much diesel fuel.  And, most pumps are full service, so you have to sit there while someone pumps your gas, feeling like a silly, stupid princess.  : (
12.  There are a TON of signs all around that just say "children."  I guess that is communicating that children live nearby or that some might be playing nearby.  Oh, and horses are not allowed on the interstate, or so the signs say.  Good to know.
13.  Dunkin' Donuts is like some kind of kudzo weed that is seeping onto every turn and street corner around here.  It's actually a little creepy.
14.  I will never complain about traffic in Asheville again.  Asheville doesn't have traffic, just "more cars than usual and things are moving slower."
15.  You can actually feel the faster pace of living and intensity here.  It hovers and hangs "out there."
16.  The ocean is beautiful.  I understand why the pilgrims wanted to stay here, despite the whole starvation thing.
17.  The oldness of everything is really wonderful.  Nothing is contrived to look old.  It just is.  Each town I pass in and out of boasts a founding in the 1600s.  Pretty cool.
18.  There is a pretty decent folk music community here.  There is an entire radio station that only features folk artists.  Yay!
19.  Another shocker... yankees listen to country music.  I'm not kidding.  I hear it blaring from people's cars.
20.  One word.  Wicked.

Dorothy Sayers, thank you.

I won't bore folks with why this quote most recently resurfaced and brought deep refreshment to me.  I'll just provide the quote.

"What is repugnant to every human being is to be reckoned always as a member of a class and not as an individual person.  When the pioneers of university training for women demanded that women should be admitted to the universities, the cry went up at once, "Why should women want to know about Aristotle?" The answer is not that all women would be better for knowing Aristotle but simply what women want as a class is irrelevant.  I want to know about Aristotle.  It is true that most women care nothing about him and a great many male undergraduates turn pale and faint at the thought of him.  But I, the eccentric individual that I am, do want to know about Aristotle.  ... and I commit that there is nothing in my shape or bodily functions which need prevent my knowing about him."

Dorothy Sayers, 1947
From: Are Women Human? 

Yum Yum all the time!

Great news!
Ruth now works here!

 

Yep.  I work at a bakery in downtown Beverly, MA!  Woo Hoo!  Bring on the bread, pastries, cakes, and truffles!  And, what a great way to serve and be among my new New England community!

Trolley Tour of Witch City.

On Tuesday, I took a trolley ride around Salem, MA.  It was an hour and a half tour and then I walked around town the rest of the afternoon.  It is a cute, walkable, historic town.  I've also never seen so many pagan tourist traps and authentic witch and wizard shops in one town in my life.  And I'm from Asheville.

I stopped by the "Witch House."  This would have been the location of many of the preliminary accusations.  Witches were brought here by accusers and questioned by the magistrate who lived here.

  

 

I couldn't get much closer to this sign because of all the traffic but it says, "Victorian Gothic Wizard and Occult Shoppe." 

 

 

Some of the places, however, were definitely in business for the tourists.  Halloween is an insane time here in Salem.  The whole month of October is filled with activities and the city swells an additional 100,000 people during that month.

The trolley driver recommended this tattoo shop.  I didn't get a tattoo.

What's funny to me is how the witch motif fits in (or does it?) with all the wealthy, colonial, straight-laced parts of this New England town.  Just to throw a wrench into things, there's even a pirate museum because Salem used to battle pirates along their port.  So, unlike Asheville, there are people walking around town and they all pretty much look the same on the outside.  However, like Asheville, these people are actually remarkably diverse and they all live in this town with all of its paradoxes.  Pirates, aristocrats, witches, tourists, yuppies, wizards, puritans... feels like home!

Bob the cat.

                                                  Bob: Lagomorpha Killer!!!

Meet Bob, the cat.  Bob is HUGE... I should have put down a quarter or something as a reference.  He is also STRONG.  His paws are mammoth.  He is also VIOLENT!  And what's worse... he has a reputation for killing little bunnies!  AHHH!

Skip is so far completely unaware of this feline danger.  But, the other day, Bob came by the door sniffing and leering... I think he's on to my little furry friend.  Pray for Skip's safety... I'm worried what I might do to a cat that hurts my rabbit.  That's not a threat per se... just sayin'.

Let us just be honest about this.  Animals that kill animals are part of the problem in the animal kingdom... bunch of bullies, really.  And humans are the worst.  What exactly is wrong with a creature that desires to harm this wonderful furry friend?

Operation "Know your neighbor to love your neighbor"

Warning: Boring yet informative blog post.

Wednesday, I moved up to New England to embark on a crazy adventure.  The plan has been in development for months and now...  I'm here!  For the next 9 months, I will be working on and completing a post-graduate degree in Theology.  The program is a somewhat self-directed research degree that allows you to focus on one area of study. 

My research will involve understanding Neo-Pagan subcultures (particularly, Neo-Pagan spiritualalities found in Asheville) with the goal of finding better ways to foster dialog between Neo-Pagans and Christians.  In the end, I hope to demonstrate (through a long, boring thesis!) how the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead and the incarnation serve as both the content and method of meaningful dialog with this subculture.  Then, I plan to go back home next summer and flesh this whole thing out in the city I love so much!

Fittingly, the graduate program has me located minutes away from Salem, MA, a city that boasts a title as bold as "Witch city USA."  Let's hope some research this year comes up with better alternatives to Christian- Pagan interaction and a re-defining of what it means to communicate the gospel as truly "Good News."

Where I am right now.

In the last 7 days...
1.  I left my job of 9 years
2.  Moved out of my own house
3.  Relinquished my car temporarily to the Volkswagen people
4.  Handed my beloved bunny over to my parents for safe-shepherding

Sounds like a great start to an adventure story...

... or the beginning of the craziest thing I've ever done...

... or both.