Ending the Bender

Mary Ann and I have been bingeing on Heroes for the last few weeks.  As fans of the show realize, the third season of Heroes begins this Monday, so we needed to play catch-up.  Let me explain:  I'm a contrary sort of guy.  If a TV show gets popular I do my best to avoid it.  There's something satisfying in the look of bewilderment on a Lost fan's face when I tell them I don't watch the show.  The same goes for 24, though I'm not sure that one has as big a following as it once did.  Up until a couple of weeks ago Heroes fell into the same category.  Fortunately for Milo Ventimiglia, I recently regained an interest in comic books, which lead to a softening of the heart when it comes to shows involving super heroes.  We were picking up some $.99 movies at Blockbuster, so I grabbed season one, disc one.  We got hooked.

Two weeks have passed, and it's all over.  We have seen seasons one and two, often watching two or three episodes in a night.  Most of the time we would start at 10:00 PM and continue until about 1 AM.  This hasn't been great for our ability to think clearly during working hours which, I'm certain, has contributed to my anemic post-count in September.  I can't seem to write anything good these days.

This will seem a bit over the top, but I feel a bit like I've gone on a bender and am just now sobering up.  My head is clearing up, and soon I'll be able to write . . . for my classes.  That's frustrating.  I haven't kept up with my reading very well this semester.   It's been hard because I am heading in a different direction now.  It's not that I don't want to learn the stuff being taught--it's the Bible after all--but I need to be writing so I can have something good ready for an MFA program.  And I need to prepare for the GRE.  But hey, at least I remember what I need to do now.  That's the first step in recovery.

A Brief Exchange

Max:  "Why was Jesus as bright as the sun?"

Me:  "Because he had the glory of God all around him."

Max:  "Eyebrows are made of hair."

The End.

Whuddamigonnado?

Ah, it's good to be back!  The end of the semester seriously cut into my blogging time, but I have returned.  It's funny, I've been working and studying for these papers and tests for a good while now, finishing my last one at two o'clock today, and suddenly I have nothing left to do.  No papers.  No tests.  There is nothing for me to put off until tomorrow.  I can't even procrastinate.  It's as though I've been robbed of my identity.

Here I stand, paralyzed by a pulchritudinous pile of possibility!  I even did half of my summer reading during the semester, so Godric and The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay do not beckon.  That's the price I pay for using them to divert myself from schoolwork, I suppose.  But I'll always be able to find new books to read.  Or new old books to read.

I think I'm starting to ease into things, though.  I picked up a copy of Danny Gospel by David Athey the other day, and it's pretty good.  I thought the first chapter was a little shaky, but I'm into chapter three now and it's moving along well.  It's not "Good Country People" or anything, but so far it's the best fiction to come out of the "Christian Fiction" world since . . . well, I don't know.  I haven't read any official "Christian Fiction" since the first book of the Left Behind series.  Danny Gospel leaves that in the dust without breaking a sweat.  It's been getting good reviews from others as well, so I recommend it.

Of course this reminds me that I need to revisit my own fiction before my trip to Dallas on June 12 (to the Trinity Arts Conference, for those who don't know and can't be bothered to scroll down a few inches).  I haven't even read my chapter of The Brown Sisters (a working title) for a few weeks.  Finals have a way of demanding your attention.  I'll do that, work on some new parts and hopefully by the time the conference rolls around I'll have a nice fat chunk of prose I can be proud of.  I mean "a nice fat chunk of prose of which I can be proud."  Yeah.

Because You Were All Wondering . . .

No, this is not me:

Xavier's Josh Duncan

Though I did teach him everything he knows about basketball . . .

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

I want to go to the Trinity Arts Conference.  I received a brochure for it in the mail a while back, and I came close to throwing it away immediately because conferences are generally not feasible.  There are usually schedule conflicts, the cost is almost always prohibitive, and what would we do with the kids?  They certainly couldn't sit through a marathon-style writer's workshop.  No, conferences don't work for the Duncan family.

But . . .

A few days after the brochure arrived Mary Ann was cleaning some clutter--most of which was mine--off of the kitchen counter.  She was flinging junk mail into the trash rapid-fire.  Since I am the pack rat of the family she often comes across items I have senselessly kept, and in the midst of this particular purge she came across the brochure.

"Did you want to keep this?"

"Yeah, I just keep it around to torture myself," I replied.

"You want me to throw it away?"

Her arm moved toward the trash can.  I hesitated.  It's a funny thing; last year I didn't think twice about the Trinity Arts Conference.  Maybe I thought it was a nice idea, but I wasn't even tempted to go.  I was (and still am) a poor seminary student with a wife and multiple children, after all.  Somehow this year felt different.

"Let me see it."

Mary Ann handed me the little green paper and I looked it over.  $135 for the conference, housing included.  I'm also considering pursuing writing as a career, so whatever critique I could get would help.  If I saved a little money, or maybe asked for an early birthday present . . .

But what about Mary Ann and the kids?  Well, that is a problem.  On one hand, the conference is in Dallas, and Mary Ann's aunt Pam lives about a half hour to forty-five minutes away.  That could work, but that would keep us apart for the weekend.  It wouldn't be as fun by myself, and I'd probably get lonely.  Not only that, but Mary Ann ain't a bad writer herself.  Those of you who have read her blog know this.  Anyway, she has a good idea for a children's book and would probably benefit from the writer's workshop as much as I would.

I don't know if I'll go to the conference or not.  It would be sweet, I don't deny, but I don't know if I can justify it.  So, if anyone has any advice just leave a comment.  Or, in lieu of advice, send money.

Spring Semester 2008: My Kinda Study

This is a good semester at Covenant Theological Seminary.  I have four classes and three of them I enjoy immensely (I enjoy the fourth class as well, but 'immensely' would be too strong an adverb).  Christianity and Imagination focuses on creative people within the Church like Flannery O'Connor, C.S. Lewis, and Annie Dillard.  The class has also introduced me to Frederick Buechner, which is a nice bonus.

Gospels is another excellent class.  With Dr. Dan Doriani at the helm class lectures are informative, spiritually enriching and a lot of fun.  We are also reading a number of good books, Jesus and the Victory of God being chief among them.  Wright's treatment of the gospels does an excellent job of taking 1st Century Jewish history and showing how the Synoptics fit the context like a glove.  Of  course Wright has his problems, as Dr. Doriani pointed out just last night.  If you're interested read on; if not, skip the next paragraph.  

The problem, Dr. Doriani explained, was that Wright ignored the context in which the parables were written.  As an example he used the parable of the Prodigal Son.  In context Jesus is defending his association with 'tax collectors and sinners' to the Pharisees.  He uses three parables in his defense:  The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (prodigal).  The idea was that it makes sense for Jesus to seek those that are lost.  Jesus adds the portion about the elder son as an offer of himself to the Pharisees.  They were so busy being upset at the 'sinners,' who were represented by the prodigal son, that they refused to celebrate when they entered the kingdom like the elder son.  Wright doesn't really address this, spending more time showing how the parable fits his conception of 1st Century Judaism.  Frankly, it was nice to hear an intelligent critique of Wright because I myself am utterly incapable of providing one at this point in my academic career.

My other favorite class is ethics, with Prof. Anthony Bradley.  Prof. Bradley was my covenant group leader during my first year at seminary, so I was looking forward to taking a class with him after getting to know him last year.  He has not disappointed.  The book list is a little unwieldy, but there is good variety.  We still have the standard text, Biblical Christian Ethics by David C. Jones, who recently retired from the post Bradley now fills.  Then there's The Peaceable Kingdom by Stanley Hauerwas.  This book has been a real mind bender for me.  Hauerwas thinks about ethics in an utterly different than what I'm accustomed to.  I come from the world of evidential apologetics and analytic philosophy, which makes me much more at home thinking abstractly about ethics.  Reading this different perspective has been invigorating for me.  It will take a decent amount of time to decide how much of Hauerwas I can accept.

We're also reading Thomas Sowell, who I think of as coming from a far different perspective than Hauerwas.  Then there's The Elements of Moral Philosophy by James and Stuart Rachels.  This, as I understand it, is a basic college level text in ethics.  It's alternately interesting and maddening.  Rachels has a tendency to briefly critique positions and act as though the matter is settled.  In his chapter on religion and morality he points out the difficulties raised by the Euthyphro Dilemma and acts as though they carry the day.  He does not even offer a disclaimer like, "There have been counter-arguments offered, but I believe the dilemma stands."  We're also reading Elements of Justice by David Schmidtz, but I'm not far enough into it to offer any sort of critique.

I'm enjoying this semester so much I'm even looking forward to writing research papers.  I think I've finally decided on my topic for Ethics:  The theology of aging and dignity.  This will hopefully encompass a number of aspects of aging, including whether dignity is affected by progressive diseases such as Altzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, etc.  The biggest issue right now is that I need good resources.  I want academic level studies in medical and theological ethics on the topic.  If any of you out there in internet land have any suggestions let me know!

Last Minute Leap Day Musings

I flatly refuse to allow January's output to exceed February.   I had four posts in January.  That's an average of  . . .  let's see . . . one per week.  If I did my math right that is.  February only had three up to this point, but thanks to that glorious event called Leap Day I still have a chance.  I'm going to try to get in under the gun here.  I'll even try to have some sort of halfway decent content.

I'm going to comment on the Oscars.  They've been called boring, and in fact they were supposedly the least watched Oscars in a long time.  Frankly, I enjoyed them.  I didn't watch the Red Carpet ridiculousness, but the awards show itself was fun.  It gave me a lot of ideas for movies to put in the ol' Netflix queue.

Politics:  I still have no idea who I'm going to vote for.  I'm still a Republican, so do I vote for McCain?  Meh.  Obama?  Hillary?  Seems unlikely.  There is no good candidate.  If ever there was a year in which I could not vote and still maintain the right to complain, this is it.

Life:  School is going well.  I'm enjoying my classes.  I have ethics, Gospels, Intro to Counseling and Christian Imagination.  I have found enjoyable points in each class.  The readings have been excellent.  Annie Dillard, N.T. Wright, Stanley Hauerwas . . . the list goes on.  Sweet stuff.  Hopefully I'll have something of substance to post here as a result of these readings.

In closing, stay beautiful. Only you can prevent forest fires.  Watch Futurama.  Follow Christ.  That last one was serious.