Bravery and Babes

I've never felt very brave. I was picked on a lot growing up because I was shy, and I stuttered, and wore glasses. And even after the stuttering was "fixed", I had a hard time not allowing my feelings to be swayed or hurt by other people. This feeling has lasted for many years, although I grew much better at masking it. In the meanwhile, I developed as a writer.

I joined the high school paper, Lion's Roar, my freshman year, as an outlet for writing. It was so fun seeing my name in print and contacting people, asking them what they thought, collecting the facts, writing up a story. I remember when I was named Sports Editor, one of two juniors who got a spot usually reserved for a senior. I was so proud of my little section, which I grew from three writers to six. Our space grew too - a whole page!

I had the glued-to-my-phone pre-req. down

I went to college and decided I didn't want to do journalism any more, so I didn't sign up for the college paper. But then, I got drawn into the independent paper, and spent my entire college career editing, writing, promoting and nurturing it. The tiny staff again grew under me, as I pulled in every resource I could, helping my writers and making them feel wanted as much as they were needed. I hurt a lot of feelings with my edits and editorials and "Hillsdalians of Genius" columns, but I didn't stroke any egos, and I told the truth, and people respected the paper. I even got along well with the journalism department, and got a scholarship to write book reviews for it my senior year.

It seemed the obvious answer, then, when asked what I was going to do after college: journalism.

Statehouse reporting was thrilling, but my work environment was not. I worked for a non-profit, who accepted a grant to fund two journalism positions. Though I was successful, my articles were well-received and picked up by outside outlets, it was a difficult work environment for me, and for personal-affecting-professionalism reasons, I quit.

That was one of the scariest things I had ever done, and it changed my whole life. I had accepted that job because it was great cub reporter experience and I was two hours from home. But now I had quit, and I was thinking about the other job I turned down in Washington, D.C. Was that the better choice?

I decided not to pursue journalism when I returned home, which my journalism mentor severely disagreed with; he told me not to waste my talent. Since then, it's been an interesting ride: family business, nannying, freelance, and plenty more "not-for-profit" writing -- as well as more family time, a new family, marriage, a new city, a baby, and a whole new set of challenges. And I'm happy, even though a part of me twinges to be back in journalism.

And what does this have to do with bravery? I still don't think of myself as particularly brave. I'm still introverted and still have glasses. But I've tasted "failure" - I know what it's like not to have what you want. I know what it's like to think you know what you want. I've known surprise, and I've known success. I know what it feels like to stand at the crossroads, and make another decision you know is going to change your life. Then another. Then another. I keep pressing forward. That's brave. That's living.

We all live with the consequences, whether our action by active or passive. And can you live with regrets? Sure. That's one way to live, but it's not a preferable way - because regret stains all future successes if you allow it. Or you can learn from your mistakes, which is my attitude: I have only one real regret, and that was letting people lead me to think I wasn't worth it: as a friend, as a girlfriend, as a student, as a writer. That is a lie, no matter who you are. We all have potential. We're all on a road to Damascus. None of us have completed the work we were put on this earth to do; most of us are still discerning what that work is, exactly. We should keep working, keep seeking, keep trying, keep loving, keep going.

In Jennifer Aist's book Babes in the Woods: Hiking, Camping & Boating with Babies and Young Children (my current read), she tells parents back off a bit and to let their kids explore (while still under supervision, of course!):

Watch an eight-month-old baby crawl around a coffee table. If left to explore it on his own, he'll run into it a few times, bonk his head on the bottom of it as he tries to crawl under it, and maybe even get a bit frustrated by it. Very quickly, this same baby will learn to duck going around that coffee table, slow down to avoid crashing into it, and generally learn how to be safe around it. The baby with "hover parents" never has an opportunity to learn by trial and error. So though this baby may never bonk his head on the coffee table at home, he also never develops the skills to avoid bonking his head on any other coffee table. Teach children the skills they need to safely negotiate any coffee table they may ever encounter, and you have given your children an incredible gift. You will have taught your child to be capable. 

Remember, frustration teaches children problem solving. Boredom teaches children creativity.

This is the same for adults as well. Be brave enough not to squander the chances in life to try, to "fail", to be who you want to be. You are exactly who you're supposed to be, and that is a true gift to the rest of us.

Oh College Days, What Art Thou?

I do not often respond to other posts, but my fellow Happydale classmate Kiernan recently posted a blog subtitled “What I learned (and didn't learn) in college.” It was inspired by a column in The Guardian and an e-mail from her sister, who asked her how to get straight A’s.

I did not go into college ever thinking I would leave with straight A’s. And I didn’t. That doesn’t mean I slacked off in my studies; major au contrair, mon amis! Academics have always been very important and prioritized in my family. I simply decided and did not allow my studies to completely devour or define me. That isn't living, nor is it college.

Senior year: I FINALLY got Bear to a football game!

I gave my time to other things, like the Hillsdale Forum, Kappa, babysitting my advisor’s kids, RAing for two years in Mac, coaching a little girls’ soccer team, playing soccer, serving as Social Chair for both Catholic Society and the American Studies honorary, pulling pranks, becoming friends with my teachers, getting published, eating cheese, etc.; all the while, enduring constant, jesting mockery for "never leaving the library" from my fellow classmates. (Or so it seemed; I am rawther partial to libraries.)

I suppose the major thing I noticed missing from her evaluation, however, is the need for perspective. Learning in college does not mean having a perspective but gaining one. Mark Steyn once told me he was going to teach me to shingle a roof because writers need perspective. How can one get perspective, however, without the urgency and adgitation that there is more to do and more to learn? Pushing one's limits, either physically or intellectually, can help one know more, by doing, not simply being.

For example, Kiernan instructs her sister in all-caps to NEVER pull an all-nighter. I say, why not? My sister Kato has only pulled one all-nighter and it wasn't even for academic reasons. (It is also a really, really funny story to listen to.) My college career, on the other hand, could easily be defined by the ceaseless all-nighters my roommate Bear and I pulled and my participation in the infamous “graveyard shifts” of American Studies majors.

This is not an endorsement of all-nighters; they were often painful, and always caffinated. A person has to be mentally prepared for it. My first all-nighter freshman year was horrrible. I felt terribly ill by the end of it. The second one was better, and the hundredth one was second-nature, with typing away at 6 a.m. and hearing the birds chirp always a pleasant surprise, as in, look what I'm doing! But this is what worked for my schedule, and I figured that out by doing it, is my point.

Our room in the last month of college... at least we passed our comps and successfully defended awesome theses!

Secondly, Kiernan defined college as “necessary, interesting, and not-overwhelmingly-pleasant chapter in my life.” She said, “I loved my professors at school, I loved the books that I read, I loved my friends. They were the bright lights that often got me through a dark day. But, I did not love college. It was not everything I expected it to be. Unlike many people, I will never consider it the best years of my life.”

I do not disagree with her description overall; but really, only people like Tom in F. Scott's 'Great Gatsby' peaked in their undergrad years. College isn’t “the” best years, but they are some of the best. I made more mistakes in college than I did in years before. I faced challenges and grew as a person. I was faced with adversity to my faith, and found the courage to stand firmer; I found fellowship and knew truth. I learned not to think, but to think better and more analytically.

College gave me my sea legs, essentially, through joy and sorrow, tears and laughter. It is because of these experiences that I can fondly return to this second, Happydale bubble with a strident step in my walk, and be glad I am gone from the place; for, "we shall not cease from exploration/ and the end of all our exploring/ will be to arrive where we started/ and know the place for the first time." College prepared me to move forward; it is a means, not an end, in life. It is a good, not a best.

Still, it delights me to know Kiernan and I both picked Hillsdale for the same reason: I too “decided that I would go there to learn how to become a writer.” (And a few other things, too!)

Her "don't" list echoed my collegiate career: I got wrapped up in socializing; I took way too many credits; I took classes I didn't feel comfortable taking; I didn't willingly pick sleep; I studied fairly well under pressure; I studied mostly with people. I didn't get all A's, but I did well. My roommate was a Biology/ English double major and Art History minor, so there wasn't much room for slacking during college-- just lots and lots of random dance parties.

Bear and Bird as sophomores

I won’t rehash all of Kiernan’s points, except for this one list—

"Things I Did Not Learn At College (and that you therefore should not expect to learn)":

1. How to be creative

2. How to enjoy literature (or history or art or music) more deeply as a person, not an intellectual

3. How to write, not merely according to the rules, but with my own panache and flair

4. How to enjoy learning

5. How to be a life-long learner

Why do I quoth the raven-haired one? Because it is here that we truly part paths. Because this is the list of things I take from my four years in college. This was my endgame. That was not her's. And that's okay. That's the beauty of a liberal arts education. It gives different people different experiences while using the same system and foundation.

John Henry Newman said the purpose of a liberal arts education is to "open the mind, to correct it, to refine it, to enable it to know, and to digest, master, rule, and use its knowledge, to give it power over its own faculties, application, flexibility, method, critical exactness, sagacity, resource, address, [and] eloquent expression..." But more than that, this type of education helps each student, if they will so take the path, to understand what it means to be human. To be a human is to be a child of God; and there is nothing less sacred than the undertaking of getting to know him through his children, whom are made in his image. No book in the world can treat a person with compassion like a human can; no book can be a friend like another human can; no book can touch a soul and change a life the way another human can. It was in these ways that I have been conditioned and treated, alongside my mind, at college.

But can I revise number ten? By removing the word "never"?: "Can I repeat - PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER! ESPECIALLY BEFORE AN EXAM!"

Ah, that's better. If you don't know, you're just going to have to trust me on that one. It's definitely an experience worth having!

Don't Forget to Vote Today!!

This morning, all five registered voters in my immediate family voted. My vote was definitely influenced by all the propoganda being output by the DNC, namely slogans like this: "Vote tomorrow and support President Obama's agenda. Together we can keep America moving forward." No thank you! I think he's done and spent enough. 

Voting together as a family was epic, kind of like this video:



Today is also All Souls' Day, so please pray for those dear departed ones and all those who need your prayers I'll keep y'alls intentions in my prayers too.

Recently a Kappa sister e-mailed me, replying to an article I wrote for the Forum a year ago (which she asked me to send her because A) she is a teacher and B) she was also an American Studies major). She apologized for her tardiness, but really, I am just impressed she replied at all! I usually have to answer e-mails right away, lest I move on and they never, ever, ever get answered.

So, for kicks and giggles, I posted the article here:

We Don’t Need No Education
Julie Robison
Editor in Chief


If there is one consistency at Hillsdale College, it is that dedication to the cause and the search of the Good, the True and the Beautiful. Dr. Pestritto, the featured speaker at Fall Convocation, juxtaposed the college’s mission to truly educate its students with the academic philosophy of Woodrow Wilson. Wilson, our country’s 28th president, may have impacted America more domestically than any other president as an strong advocate of progressivism in the American public education system.

In true populist sentiment, Wilson wished to make education less elitist by advocating diversity of individuals, not minds, and a development of the mind for civic and practical purposes, not cultivation of true breadth of intellect. This type of “liberality” has become the standard in many schools nation-wide, resulting in less education where students no longer have to think, but answer, the pinnacle of the system’s failings coming together in the creation of the Department of Education.

Today in America, more problems loom on the horizon. The public school system currently faces the predicament of cutting teachers, even with over-full classrooms. With state and local revenue down, the national government has, naturally, stepped in to provide an over $100 billion dollar stimulus package to hire back more teachers. While this is good in theory, the problem lies in which teachers are staying on payroll. Many teachers are being cut without a proper evaluation, the jobs going to tenured or unionized teachers instead of the most effective ones.

This money was not given pro bono publico, for the public good. This administration is very transparent through their actions that they have a more vested interest in paying homage to the Unions than in the future of their country by actually educating the youth with effective and well-qualified teachers. The stimulus money represents not only a continuation of progressive education, but an expansion.

The country’s mediocre high school graduation rates hovers around 69%; only 51% of Black Americans even finish high school. These number should disturb the public and President Barack Obama, motivating him to use his leverage as president and a Black man to be a role model for youth, an example of a good education and hard work. His grassroots website, “Organizing for America,” correctly diagnosed the problem, saying “We need to stop paying lip service to public education, and start holding communities, administrators, teachers, parents and students accountable.”

The three solutions offered, however, suggest the opposite. Firstly, the administration wants the government to invest in early childhood education. If responsibility really is to fall on the communities, then the local community needs to rise to the occasion, not the national government.

Secondly, their way to “improve K-12 schooling” is to recruit new teachers and “develop innovative ways to reward teachers who doing a great job.” While a fruit basket is always a classy gift, it is not the government’s role to be rewarding teachers for doing their job. If teachers are not doing a great job, they should not be holding that job.

The final suggestion that “after graduating high school, all Americans should be prepared to attend at least one year of job training or higher education to better equip our workforce for the 21st century economy” is to say that only jobs which require a higher degree than high school can contribute to the economy. This is a fallacy. Gas station clerks, for instance, do not need one year of job training to know how to do their job and they still contribute to the economy through having a job and thus, paying taxes.

Not only is higher education not for everyone, but it is not necessary for everyone. The unintended consequence of this may have Americans thinking their college education renders them “above” certain jobs. If this becomes the case, it shouldn’t be a surprise when more American jobs go to immigrants because they’re willing to work lower-skilled and thus lower-paid jobs.

Progressive education is combated by a rise in the home-schooling and classical education movement in recent years, but even those are being attacked as not sufficient, meaning not compliant to progressive education. Obama is attempting to pass legislation which will cement his name in history as an advocate of change, but if he wanted to make a true difference in this country, he would focus on education, from which all things come. He would pull the government away from dictating in the classroom and give it back to local school boards, who have a personal relationship with the actual school, its faculty and students.

With the actual school in control, the school board and parents can have more of a say in their child’s education. Ineffective teachers will ideally be shuffled out, leading towards real learning in the classroom and focus on the child’s development. That type of change would lead towards a diversity of minds and an intellectual curiosity, propelling the nation towards real change because of the country’s citizens, not government.

Oh happy election day!

And Now For Something Completely Different

“The Haunted Palace” by Edgar Allen Poe

In the greenest of our valleys
By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace -
Radiant palace - reared its head.
In the monarch Thought's dominion -
It stood there!
Never seraph spread a pinion
Over fabric half so fair!

Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
On its roof did float and flow,
(This - all this - was in the olden
Time long ago,)
And every gentle air that dallied,
In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
A winged odor went away.


Wanderers in that happy valley,
Through two luminous windows, saw
Spirits moving musically,
To a lute's well-tuned law,
Round about a throne where, sitting
(Porphyrogene!)
In state his glory well befitting,
The ruler of the realm was seen.


And all with pearl and ruby glowing
Was the fair palace-door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,
And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.


But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch's high estate.
(Ah, let us mourn! - for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him desolate!)
And round about his home, the glory
That blushed and bloomed
Is but dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.


And travellers now, within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms, that move fantastically
To a discordant melody,
While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever
And laugh - but smile no more.


This is going to be a quirky post, so firstly, this month's poems are going to be spooky and ghoulish in themes, motifs and/ or subject matter. I hope you enjoy them!

Secondly, I must admit how thoroughly ashamed I am of myself for missing the anniversary of Monty Python’s Flying Circus' premier on October 5, 1969.


Here is one of my favorite Monty Python sketches, "The Philosophers' World Cup" - Germany v. Greece, to make amends:



"If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas. And if I can persuade you to laugh at the particular point I make, by laughing at it you acknowledge its truth." –John Cleese


Thirdly, this morning I took Heidi to the vet and while she was in the back getting her nails clipped, I went to find a sink to dump out my coffee because it tasted like soap. As I walked out of the lobby's bathroom, I hear, "Julie! Julie, come here! Julie, now!" You can imagine how perplexed I was, and turned around to face the voice. The voice belonged to a nurse and she was talking to a 3-legged dog, whose name is also Julie. My name is awesome.

Have a great day! As they say in the best children's film ever, Adventure is out there!

And She Lived To Tell The Tale...

Today is Heather's first day of job orientation! For those unawares, Heather was my roommate from the first day of freshman year of college in McIntyre (where our room was fondly called "the Cave of Wonders") to the last minutes of senior year, after we had graduated and couldn't quite believe we were actually leaving our beloved KKG 11.

Bear's going to be a teacher at a charter school back in her hometown out West, teaching three sections of Biology and one section of the Fine Arts. I am so excited for her! I supported her through a Biology-English double major and minor in Art History; she was there for my American Studies major and minor in overcommitments; together, we shared Kappa.

Here's a re-cap of four fabulously fun years:

Freshman year before the Garden Party!

 

Sophomore year: We fly like paper, get high like planes.

Junior year: the Infamous Pickle Picture at Zingermann's.

Later that day: at the Gap, waiting for Heather's sisters to finish trying clothes on; this was before a mannequin fell on me.

Senior year: welcome to KKG 11!

The last home football game and one of my favorite pictures of us.

This is only a snippet of her wonderfulness. She is kind, gracious, witty and coffee-nated. She's also a kindred spirit, a fellow soul who know me so completely, it's as if we've always known each other. If you know Heather, do send her a note. :) I know she'd love it!

W.H. Auden, eat your heart out!

Today is my Aunt Tracey's funeral. Obviously, I wrote a poem.

"The Rain"

It is raining the day of my Aunt’s funeral.
I am, of course, not there--
still North of the family and their grieving
incapable of holding hands and wiping tears
hugging my little siblings and supporting my Father
as he gives the eulogy of the woman who knew right
and wasn’t intimidated by wrong; a mother of two, aunt of too many,
who always made time for her family, especially when she wasn’t well,
and here I am, still at school, no time to think about leaving,
no more time to cry while my heart still mourns,
but instead relish in the rain: people are running
from building to building and all I think
is how she can no longer feel the rain hit her face
or get cold, or smile, or walk, or skip,
and so I do all of these as I move through the rain,
my funeral procession of one,
the still living.

Also, I like this song, especially today. And "Laughing With," but I think I already posted that once. And "What Wonderous Love is This?/ Oh my soul, oh my soul" but I've never found a version on YouTube that I really like.



Senior BBQ today! I need to figure out what I am going to will to the baby Kappas. Formal was really fun, I'll post pictures later. Dealing with the Forum and the thesis today, and taking a little time to go to a friend's show.

Planting another Dogwood

Delta Pi Nu planted their annual Dogwood tree in honor of Dr. Birzer, who was the program's leader from 2004 to December 2009. Matt asked me give a mini-speech about him, so here it is:

“Ballad of the Midwesterner”

Over Easter Break, I went home to discover my room had been taken over and looted by my five siblings. My book shelves were half-empty and little plastic soldiers were stationed around and on my furniture, with numerous forts made of wooden blocks barricading against the Legos advancing by the hundreds. My desk had even been taken by my littlest sister.

My walls were the only part of my room left untouched. They are painted yellow and are mostly decorated with Impressionists’ prints and photographs. On the wall closest to my door, next to a picture of my senior year lacrosse team, is a letter on Hillsdale stationary. The writer congratulated me on my admittance to the college and expressed excitement for my interest in the American Studies program, going on to explain the major and saying he looked forward to meeting me. It was signed Bradley J. Birzer.

I’m not delusional enough to think that letter was written specifically for me, but it still made an impression. It confirmed my prayers that Hillsdale College, a school I should have not even considered, let alone attended, was where God wanted me to go.

I did not meet Dr. Birzer until my sophomore year or get to know him until I was a junior, but as a senior, I am blessed to enjoy a fruitful fellowship with such a brilliant and godly man and teacher. My life has been changed by Dr. Birzer. I do not say this lightly, nor do I say it about many people. Most people impress something upon me, but few challenge and have thus shaped the way I understand the world and my place in it.

I belong to the last class of American Studies majors to have Dr. Birzer preside over the program. Most of my classes with Dr. Birzer have been upper-level history classes. His strength is his very person: his passion to explain history, not just tell it, with a true depth and continuity of the material resonating through his warm voice. His ability to connect history to the present day and teach his students about events, places and people always left a lasting impression. I have loved every research paper topic I’ve written for him and I find I enjoy writing long IDs in blue book exams, if only to prove my worthiness to be his student. But in true Dr. Birzer-fashion, my academic humbling comes in the form of Birzer trivia, the kind I know I will later be answering as penance for sins.

Dr. Birzer does not just teach through his words, as beautiful and well-phrased as they often are. Dr. and Mrs. Birzer’s willingness to have the Dogwood Society over to their house for various gatherings and to involve the majors with their children helped create camaraderie between students not formerly friends, as well as giving all of us an example of what it means to be a man and woman, a husband and a wife, parents, citizens, Christians and humans.

The definition of what it mean to be human was an open question my second-semester junior year in Dr. Birzer’s American Order and Disorder class, the class that ultimately tied all my learning together. To be human is to suffer, to love, to pray, to surrender and to fight, to laugh out loud, to protect and cherish, to learn, to die, to do good unto others, to comfort, to contribute and to carry one’s cross. Dr. Birzer defined self-sacrifice through Willa Cather, faith within A Canticle for Leibowitz, Christendom in Dawson, honor and duty by Chesterton, meaning from Voegelin and the Incarnation with the help of Eliot.

In my studies at Hillsdale, the Incarnation is the reason why we can “rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, [and] persevere in prayer” (Romans 12:12). It is only through Christ that we can know what it means to be human, the acknowledgement of the Logos as a basis for human dignity, and the fullness and power of Christ in the history of man. I understand this because of Dr. Birzer, and it is because I understand this that I am a better person than when I got that letter four years ago.

Thus I will end my thank you to Dr. Birzer by reading the end of “Letter to My Children,” the forward of Whittaker Chamber’s book Witness. Dr. Birzer’s greatest contribution to me is his witness to God as a fallen human being. He helped lead this little platoon through our college experiences, and at the end of it, we are not sad because we know that “We shall not cease from exploration/ And the end of all our exploring/ Will be to arrive where we started/ And know the place for the first time” ("Little Gidding," Eliot).

If Dr. Birzer has taught us anything, it is that we Dogwoodians—indeed all at Hillsdale College—have a responsibility to our fellow Americans to stand as witnesses for the truth, whether in the public arena or within our own communities. The danger of ideologies, as shown in Chambers and Russell Kirk’s writings, is the replacement of faith in God with faith in Man. We still see this today. We are always at a turning point in history: the question is, which way will we turn?

"My children, when you were little, we used sometimes to go for walks in our pine woods. In the open fields, you would run along by yourselves. But you used instinctively to give me your hands as we entered those woods, where it was darker, lonelier, and in the stillness our voices sounded loud and frightening. In this book I am again giving you my hands. I am leading you, not through cool pine woods, but up and up a narrow defile between bare and steep rocks from which in shadow things uncoil and slither away. It will be dark. But, in the end, if I have led you aright, you will make out three crosses, from two of which hang thieves. I will have brought you to Golgotha-the place of skulls. This is the meaning of the journey. Before you understand, I may not be there, my hands may have slipped from yours. It will not matter. For when you understand what you see, you will no longer be children. You will know that life is pain, that each of us hangs always upon the cross of himself. And when you know that this is true of every man, woman and child on earth, you will be wise."

This week is Senior Week for Kappa. I am so excited! Little was doing arts and crafts in Koon... I walked in on her and then was banished to go out the back door. Currently working on my Flannery O'Connor paper due tomorrow. I'm analyzing "You Can't Be Any Poorer Than Dead" and "Judgment Day." The Tower Light will be released Tuesday and the Forum will (hopefully!) go to press Tuesday or Wednesday. Formal is on Friday and thesis WILL be finalized by then. Defense next Wednesday, and two more papers due the Tuesday before... YAY COLLEGE!!!

It's Always a Perfect Day for Bananafish

The first issue of The Hillsdale Forum is came out last week, but I've been so busy, I hadn't thought to post my article. I wrote an article on gays in the military and how it is not the same thing or concept as the same-sex marriage debate but have decided to hold it over for the next issue or keep it for the talk I am giving in March or April to the Fairfield Society.

Instead, I wrote up a piece on J.D. Salinger's recent demise after reading too many half-baked articles about the man and his works. I'll spare you my recent qualms with The New Yorker et al., but I am pleased with the final product and am thus sharing with the class. And a very happy March 1st. Let the madness begin!

"Cornish, NH Revisited: Reflecting on the death of a misunderstood American misanthrope"

By Julie Robison, Editor in Chief

There are two kinds of people: those who love J. D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” and those who fling the book against the wall.

I first heard of Salinger in junior high when my teacher mentioned “Catcher” as a book we shouldn’t read until we were older. That summer, I found it in the local bookstore while on vacation in northern Michigan. I bought it, read it, and loved it. In high school, I read “Nine Stories,” a collection of superb short stories, half of which involve the Glass family (who are as dysfunctional as the Caulfields, only better developed). From there I devoured “Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters,” “Seymour, an Introduction,” “Franny and Zooey” and any other writing I could find by or about him.

J.D. Salinger died on January 27, 2010. It should not have been surprising, considering the man was 91 years old. Out came the Salingerites, spewing their adoration into reflective essays and obituaries. Most of the time, they completely missed the point of his stories; the writers seemed to like the feelings Salinger's stories aroused in them more than liking his actual words, dismissing or misinterpreting at their own discretion. If I am mistaken in this assessment, then Salinger was the beginning of the teen angst genre. And I refuse to call J.D. Salinger the inspiration for Meg Cabot novels or the Twilight series.

America has long been infatuated with Salinger, a recluse with the inability to bullshit. Salinger didn’t want the limelight; he wanted to write. Those who looked for Salinger were oftentimes justly disappointed that their disrespect for his privacy did not reap a fruitful chance meeting with the esteemed writer.

Furthermore, Salinger’s writing was not merely whining about shallow situations, feelings or “phonies.” His major themes draw upon the differences between being a child and being an adult. He explored American culture: the loss of innocence and a pressure to grow-up faster; an inability to handle trauma or suffering; religion and spirituality.

Adam Gopnik’s assertion in The New Yorker that “writing, real writing, is done not from some seat of fussy moral judgment but with the eye and ear and heart” is a prime example of missing the point: Salinger’s stories do make moral judgments. His stories allude to moral codes, and while "judging" today has negative connotations, that does not diminish its presence in his plots. Whether the reader wants to see it or not is another issue.

Seymour Glass, for instance, had a nice life, but killed himself while on vacation with his beautiful wife. Holden Caulfield did not leave his prep school and then slum around New York City as a mere act of rebellion: he’s having a nervous breakdown. Teddy voluntarily submits to death; Franny is having a religious awakening and her boyfriend only cares about having sex; Esme spells out words because her little brother can’t handle the fact that the war has made them orphans. Failure to recognize the seriousness of his characters’ conditions is a failure to understand the essence of Salinger.

Salinger produced literature. He did not provide psychiatric help or analysis for hundreds of thousands of teenagers. It is an oversimplification to say Salinger’s works were only a reflection of a post-WW II America, but it would be a literary fallacy to say “Catcher” is mediocre pulp fiction not worth reading. The key is to read beyond “Catcher,” into his short stories and novellas, to better understand the moral void in American youth he was attempting to address.

If Salinger is only to be remembered for one book, then “The Catcher in the Rye” is theoretically not a bad choice. His death is a reminder of his significance to America (although the irony of paying public tribute to such a private person should not be overlooked) and his merit goes beyond his writing: he compelled generations of people to read and think, if only to wonder where the ducks at Central Park go during the winter.

And the fattest Tuesday to you as well

My Fat Tuesday has not been particularly fattening, but it has been good.

I've decided on title for my C/L Debate class midterm paper (regarding whether or not morality can be legislated): "The Problem with Papists." Isn't that great? The best part is that I won't be putting my name on the paper, just my assigned number, so the teacher's won't be biased since they both know I am, in fact, quite Roman Catholic. I like playing Devil's Advocate, though. I think it helps me strengthen my own arguments.

I just finished editing the Forum, lay-out should be completed within the day, and we'll be going to press! This is going to be a really stellar issue.

I turned in an essay for a school contest (we had to enter under a pseudonym; I picked Adam Fenwick-Symes, the main character of Waugh's Vile Bodies) and a paper for my Issues and Themes journalism class this morning. I am now starting the aforementioned midterm paper since I am no longer meeting with my thesis director till next week, upon which I should start producing pages.

Library till dinner, then back to the library, then Dr. Lasseter's house before class at 9, then more library...the current sentiment is as follows:

Matt: I hope Siegel gives us beer tonight for Fat Tuesday
Julie: Me too. That would be bueno
Matt: BEST CLASS EVER

HAPPY FAT TUESDAY!!

Ducklings and Big Apples

This weekend was my first weekend actually in Hillsdale and I loved it! Half the house was gone too, for some reason, but lots of good people were around. Amanda, Heather and I watched sisters play in a futsal tournament on Saturday, which was excellent. (Sarah played so well, Rach! Definitely feeling it, though.) I played in that same tournament my sophomore year; we also went to the championships, but lost. (They had a similar schedule to my team's in which they played the last slot and then had to play back-to-back without a rest against a team they already beat. No score comparison or anything, just a final death routine.) Still, it was good soccer.

Not a particularly social weekend, but I did have reading to finish (although reading is never final, more postponed) and a thesis to work on. I had a great Thursday, though: I hung out with a few close friends at the Sandlot Thursday night, including beer tasting with the boys and having a jolly time with the whole group.

I also babysat my adviser's kids Thursday night (most of whom can be seen above; the picture is from Halloween junior year). Of everyone I've met in this little town, I think I am going to miss them the most. Prof. S was my teacher before he was my adviser. I've know his family since the end of my freshman year, so I've watched the kids grow up and get personalities. I call them my little ducklings, the name coming from a game we played my sophomore year. I think we only played it once, but it certainly left an impression. I think it was one of the few non-contact games we've played while babysitting too, now that I come to think of it! :)

Gretchen asked me where I was going to be after graduation, and I said Chicago or Washington, D.C. most likely. Then they all shouted they wanted me in Chicago and Mrs. S said they were going to pray me there (I suppose instead of willing me there), because it's closer and they can come visit. I got really excited at the prospect of them visiting me after college and then remembered I still have a little over three (three?!) months left of college. I go to NYC this weekend for CN fellowship stuff, so I will pray God makes my future according to His will a little more clearer. At the very least, I shall get to see a few old CN friends and go to a city I've never been to before.

Song of the week, introduced to me by Heather, my rooms:


Another reason why Rich Mullins is awesome: "A lot of the stuff which I thought was so different between Protestants and Catholics [was] not, but at the end of going through an RCIA [Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults] course, I also realized that there are some real and significant differences. I'm not sure which side of the issues I come down on. My openness to Catholicism was very scary to me because, when you grow up in a church where they don't even put up a cross, many things were foreign to me. I went to an older Protestant gentleman that I've respected for years and years, and I asked him, "When does faithfulness to Jesus call us to lay aside our biases and when does it call us to stand beside them?" His answer to me was that it is not about being Catholic or Protestant. It is about being faithful to Jesus. The issue is not about which church you go to, it is about following Jesus where He leads you."

Going to NYC will tally into my third weekend not being in Hillsdale in the past 5 weeks. I'll be excited to spend more time in this little snowbank post-New York. At the very least, my thesis demands as such. HF articles are due tomorrow.

Merry Christmas from The Hillsdale Forum!

The Hillsdale Forum staff, from left to right: Nate, Julie Anna, Anna (back), Maria, Calvin (back), Catharine, Matt (back), Anna, Catherine (back) and Jim. We were missing Emilia, Kate, Sam, Catherine and Katy. We're adding in 3 new staff members next year, which is quite exciting, and we also have my friend Will takes pictures. It's a good little platoon.
My greeting to the staff at our final meeting of the year this afternoon. I gave out staff awards and discussed plans for how the paper is going to run next semester, and we ended surprisingly early for a staff meeting.

The "Joyeux Noel" was actually left on the board from my Frost exam this morning, but I think that is the prettiest way to say and write "Merry Christmas," so I left it and simply added the "Love, The Hillsdale Forum." :) The HF is coming out tomorrow, finally! I'm excited to see it around campus. I have two pieces in this issue: one on homosexual marriage and one on CCA etiquette.

Home in four days. Mom sent us an e-mail saying she got nominated for an award at The Christ Hospital (where she is the 4-West Oncology Nurse Specialist) and when I talked to Dad yesterday, he told me that Mom actually won 2009 Employee of the Year award at TCH! One of Mom's superiors called Dad and asked if he could go to the luncheon. It is happening tomorrow. He and Kato are going to be there. Mom is going to be so surprised!

Today I took my Frost exam. I wasn't very nervous at all, because I had prepared for the essays and picked out which poems I would use for each. I feel like you can't plan what you're going to write, though, you just have to write. Either you've been studying hard all semester or you've been floundering. My roommate would not wholly agree with me on this point, but a majority of my upper-level American Studies classes have midterms and exams like that--you can't think about it, you just have to write, or you're going to run out of time. She's a double Biology-English major (and Art History minor, talk about a renaissance woman!), and always knows what she is talking about, but she approaches exams differently than I do. We've never taken a class together before this semester and it has been interesting seeing the differences in our studying.

By the end of two hours, I had filled an entire blue book with two quite beautiful, coherent essays filled with parts of Frost poems and outside literary references, as well as discussions of the redemptive imagination, Emersonian self-reliance, poems lodged in the American consciousness as momentary stays against confusion, the necessity of being versed in country things (or rather, the reasons why the phoebes won't cry), the pietas found in stopping by the woods on a snowy evening and other things one can write about freely in Robert Frost English exams. It was extremely gratifying finishing the final sentence and walking to the front of the classroom to Dr. Willson, knowing I did a superb job. I love that feeling. I'm sure I was grinning like a fool.

Tonight is dedicated to finishing my last research paper of the semester, due tomorrow. When it is completed, I will be done with 3/5 of my classes for this semester. That will be a satisfying feeling indeed.

In addendum: Rachel, you will have a full thesis update...soon. Not this week. Maybe not even next week. Lots of books and articles being read, though, and I'm keeping it in this sweet plastic file folder box that Matt calls my "home-schooler debater box" because apparently they're really big in the debate circuit (as well as being an awesome place to store large amounts of research). I don't think he meant it as a compliment, but I was not home-schooled nor was I ever in debate, so that doesn't bother me as much as I'm sure it should.

Blizzard Aftermath

Up the hill! A glimpse of the quad from outside Lane. There was a huge snowball fight up there last night, when the snow was really great packing consistency. Now it's more rainy snow. If you look carefully, you can see the salt scattered like birdseed. People were around and hurrying to class, but they were passing me on the right and therefore not pictured. I snapped this right before my Frost seminar.

Front of Kappa this morning! The snow is at least half of what it was last night. Not pictured: now lopsided snowman built by three KKGs last night.

Editing Hf pages tonight, going to press tomorrow! Finally!

Currently looking for good F. O'Connor letter to share with epistolary seminar--we have our last meeting today! Matt wanted to eat lunch at Saga today, but Dr. Wenzel is buying our lunch from Oakley's (a really good local sandwich shop, which I like despite my overall unfondness for sandwiches), so I had to take a rain-check. I'm finishing up my personal letters now; I'm mailing eight today! To keep my mind working this weekend even when I was starting to get burned out, I would write a letter to a friend. I love writing letters, even brief ones, to drop people a line and friendly "hello."

Lacking sleep, but doing well. I think my body and mind are simply resigned to this week being over-worked. In Frost, we got a handout and when I passed it to Heather, she said "You taint these by your cheerfulness." I know she was teasing me, but I think it's rude when people take out their bad sleeping habits on other people by being crabby. When I do get crabby, I prefer avoiding people and sleeping, running, reading or praying off my irritability. I believe it's important to keep a genuinely happy exterior--you may make someone else's day better, which is more satisfying than being like Melville's Ishmael, bringing up the rear of funeral processions and methodically knocking people's hats off when I'm having a "damp, drizzly November in my soul."

I'm particularly enjoying "Christmas Carols Radio" on Pandora, but am feeling nostalgic for home of late and therefore have been intermittently listening to the Clancy Brothers as well. Nothing like Irish ballads to lift the spirits! I hope my wake is just as fun as Tim Finnegan's--no crying now; wakes are for remembering the good times and funerals for praying for the soul. Tears should be saved for scraped knees and broken hearts, not death. Death should be laughed at, since people don't really die, whether or not you believe in a Christian afterlife. A good reading of Dante's three-volumes of the Divine Comedy gives one a nice perspective on that topic.



The Gospel reading today is from Matthew. Quite appropriate, I think:
"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." -MT 11:28-30

Happy Wednesday! Snow flurries are picking up again.

BFFs, Chicago-style

My best friend this weekend! Ours is a fickle friendship, but I let her live on my desk and she's always there when I need her.

I'm thinking about making cookies this weekend as well for a study break since exam season is coming up and 'tis the season to get stressed! I'm leaning towards chocolate chip. I'll definitely be sending some to Bianca in NC and maybe a few other far-away friends as well as feeding the Hillsdale masses. Or I could make them for the Hillsdale Forum Christmas party next Friday afternoon!! Yay!!

If all goes well this weekend, my Robert Frost and James Otis papers and presentation (for Frost) will be done come Monday.

My poem selection of the day: "The Sound of Trees" by Robert Frost

I wonder about the trees.
Why do we wish to bear
Forever the noise of these
More than another noise
So close to our dwelling place?
We suffer them by the day
Till we lose all measure of pace,
And fixity in our joys,
And acquire a listening air.
They are that that talks of going
But never gets away;
And that talks no less for knowing,
As it grows wiser and older,
That now it means to stay.
My feet tug at the floor
And my head sways to my shoulder
Sometimes when I watch trees sway,
From the window or the door.
I shall set forth for somewhere,
I shall make the reckless choice
Some day when they are in voice
And tossing so as to scare
The white clouds over them on.
I shall have less to say,
But I shall be gone.

In other news, both Texas and D.C. have snow but not Michigan. I'm not upset or sad at all about it since, after Christmas break, the campus will resume its re-enactment of Narnia before the White Witch was killed--completely covered in blankets of snow, harsh winds and ice covering the trees and sidewalks alike. On the plus side, I look forward to awesome sledding!

Update: Four snowflakes spotted! We'll be looking for the fifth in the next hour...

It's a good weekend for Charger football!

Hillsdale College Chargers played in their FIRST D2 play-off game today (since joining the NCAA in 1992) and WON in overtime!! Next weekend, they'll be at Grand Valley State for the second round. Grand Valley was number one in GLIAC for a really long time (I want to say 20+ years, but I could be wrong) until Hillsdale's team beat them this year, Homecoming weekend, which you can rest assure caused quite a skadoo. So, next Saturday, you can guess where I will be.

My friend Will took pictures of the team since he's traveling with them; if you'd like to see a few pre-game pictures, here they are. I'm sure he'll upload game ones later.

In other Julie football news, Cincinnati Bearcats are still #5 in the Big east, Bengals play the Steelers tomorrow...

My day had been relatively low-key: wrote a review of the SAI concert, edited articles, took a walk with Vivy over to the graveyard (the weather continues absolutely gorgeous--I was in shorts, my fleece and sandals today), and doing various little things. The HF is going to press this weekend, so I'm keeping tabs on layout. I'm currently working on an my AQ article. I shall stop soon to type up more of my James Otis research paper. Battle of the Bands is tonight, which should be a lot of fun. I don't feel like going right now, but I know I'll need to take a break eventually.

I'm feeling rawther contemplative. This is very much a pray without ceasing, trusting in Him time of my life. I realize life should be so in general, and I like to think it is, but right now it is especially so. This was today's "commentary of the day" from the Daily Gospel (which e-mails me the first, second, psalm and Gospel readings every day). I think it's just beautiful and fits my mood as well:

Commentary of the day :

Saint José Maria Escriva de Balaguer (1902-1975), priest, founder
Sermon of 26/03/67 in 'Es Cristo que pasa'

"Pray at all times"

"Pray at all times" commands the apostle Paul (1Th 5,17). Calling to mind this precept, Clement of Alexandria writes: "We have been commanded to praise and honor the Word, which we know to be our Savior and King, and through him the Father, not on certain select days as others do, but continually our whole lives long and in every possible way."

Amidst our daily occupations, at times when we overcome our egoistical tendencies, when we experience the joy of friendship towards others: at all such times Christians must discover God. Through Christ and in the Holy Spirit, Christians gain intimacy with God the Father and run along the way as they seek that kingdom which, although it is not of this world (Jn 18,36), is prepared for in this world and begins in this world.

We need to go regularly to Christ in the Word and the Bread, in the Eucharist and prayer. And stay with him frequently as one stays with a friend, a real, living being – as Christ is, being risen... Christ, the risen Christ is our companion, our Friend. A companion who is only to be seen in the semi-darkness but whose reality fills our lives and makes us want his company permanently. "The Spirit and the Bride say: Come! Let the hearer say: Come! Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water... The one who gives this testimony says: Yes, I am coming soon! Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" (Rv 22,17.20).

And, finally:
"A lady does not just order a salad at a restaurant when she is on a date if she really wants a hamburger. She realizes the men who would not want her because she has an appetite are not worth the trouble."
-How to be a Lady

Ha! So great. Happy Saturday!

Two-Paper Thursday

1) Robert Frost poem analysis
2) review of Pauline Maier's American Scripture book

The Hillsdale Forum will be released tomorrow. Homecoming this weekend. Get excited.

Devotion

The heart can think of no devotion
Greater than being shore to ocean-
Holding the curve of one position,
Counting an endless repetition.
--Robert Frost

That being said, I need to get back to my studies! (But first I'll update :) for "devoted" readers like Rach.) Today I'm analyzing and writing a paper on Frost's "Accidentally on Purpose," which is due Friday. I'm focusing on showing how the world has become a diminished thing and the redemption of man.

I picked "Accidentally on Purpose" over "Bereft," which I also really like. I was tempted to start two papers and then decide which one I like better, but I
A) do not have time for that (I'm also writing a paper for Birzer for Friday) and
B) the former is longer than the latter; therefore more to write on/ a longer paper is more plausible.

On the topic of devotion, I'm going to avoid being quaint, but I think it is a virtue undermined in today's culture. Even the word devotion seems to rankle; it admits a commitment to another besides yourself, and can be percieved as having a subservient attitude in which one's slavish actions in the name of another undermines that person's free will and true intentions. Blindly following anything suggests one does not think and if one does not think, one cannot have knowledge, which leads to a true (not contorted by popular opinion) understanding of the world, humanity and, ultimately, God.

On the other hand, devotion can be a very beautiful thing. A devotion to one's family and friends for instance; being willing to do everything within your power to keep them joyful in existence. A devotion to God, of course, is not blind adoration but another opportunity to serve and glorify Him. Husbands and wives must be devoted to themselves in their sacramental bonds of marriage. Without devotion, people fall into their self-serving and self-pleasing attitude where they put themselves first, which is not necessarily a bad thing, unless they are the only person they are serving.

Independence and being your own person (virtues in America) is completely complementary to remaining devoted to things that truly matter (usually within the realms of family, church and community). This, of course, brings up the Gospels and Jesus' message of denying thyself and taking up one's cross to follow Him. This is also plausible and can exist , but it gives people a different kind of freedom--a freedom from one's passions and instincts and a heart for Christ alone. This, of course, is a topic for another day.

I got my Mencken paper back. My teacher wrote "A--Well done; I suspected this would be strong after hearing your comments in class. As usual, keep doing your best to tighten and simplify where you can." He mostly check marked different paragraphs that he liked (but surprisingly not at my favorite sentence, which I thought he would like as well). There were two sentences on the second page he specifically marked out as needing further simplification and adjustment.

It was a strong paper, but I like getting slightly-negative feedback. I like knowing I'm doing well but am still on the cusp of my true writing potential. Will I ever get there? Who knows. Nevertheless, I am still seeking and striving in my prose (and will continue to, until I am no longer, my hand clutching a final draft! ha!), finding the good word and not yielding to writing lethargy (to paraphrase Tennyson). I'm devoted (to use the buzz word of the post) to my writing, improve with every article and paper, so I think I might just be a writer yet!

In other news, please pray for a classmate of mine who lost her father last week and another classmate who just proposed to him girlfriend a few days ago. Both are major life events that need the Lord's guidance and grace. Also for Emilia and me; the Forum's going to press TONIGHT. (We'll release on Friday so as to not steal the Collegian's thunder.) It's busy, to say the least, and it's my baby. The amount of work that goes into these issues is phenomenal and I like seeing the fruits of the staff's labor (and mine) well-recieved; even if people do not agree with the content, they can't deny we've got great style.

Happy Tuesday, y'all!

Song of the day is "Piazza, New York Catcher" by Belle and Sebastian

Today needs to be productive, so I shall be brief. Art History was marvelous. I'm really enjoying learning about the Greek art and architecture right now. It's fascinating to learn the frieze of the Parthenon, for example, was actually painted garishly and brightly colored, which has since the paint has since been worn away by the elements, leaving only the placid white of the marble. I'm printing off the slides right now to start studying. The first test crept up on me unexpectedly and I shan't be pulling another all-nighter to study for it. No bueno.

Robert Frost class continues to be my favorite. Dr. Sundahl was teasing me again today, but I served it back to him, which made him laugh and give me a "touche." Frost was very influenced by the classics and transcendentalists. It's fascinating reading about his life outside class, being immersed in what influenced him/ what was happening around him in the world that he felt the need to "take the road not taken" in class and then his actual poetry and prose. I feel like I could write a book, the thoughts are whooshing through me, my pen not able to keep up with my hand's motions and intent.

In other news, I have Joey tomorrow for an entire day of being my helper and I have nothing to do with him. I'm tempted to have him make photocopies for my research paper. We're also baking cookies and I'll have him deliver those. My only other plan is to have him paint the square at the end of the walk to the house blue because he said he can paint things solid colors well and that needs to be done.

The background is that I bought Joey during Derby Days at the Servant for a Day auction, which I know sounds completely degrading, but he really is the sweetest kid and the only EX I would have even considered bidding on, ever. I think it takes nerves to get up there and offer yourself up to the public, and that type of bravado should be rewarded. At least in Joey; I don't wholly believe so in a few of his brothers. Anyways, ideas of what to do with him would be readily welcomed. He can't write my two papers for me, so I think we're at a bypass.

Off to prayer in the fishbowl, then the library till Founding to read and write. This week is all ora et labora (prayer and work). Lots of prayer, lots of work!

Happy Monday!

"The dogma is the drama—not beautiful phrases, nor comforting sentiments, nor vague aspirations to loving kindness and uplift, nor the promise of something nice after death — but the terrifying assertion that the same God who made the world lived in the world and passed through the grave and gate of death. Show that to a heathen, and they may not believe it; but at least they may realize that here is something that a man might be glad to believe."
--Dorothy L. Sayers, from "Creed or Chaos"

Friday (in a nutshell)

Today:
1. rainy
2. found my glasses
3. Hillsdale Forum

more later!

Kickin' off October with the Smarty Pants Award

Today was Fall Convocation. It was weird marching behind the teachers. I did KKG proud by wearing my black pencil skirt and heels, with an emphasis on the heels because I am notoriously known in the house for my dislike of heels; the entire house could be wearing black heels and I would still opt for my wonderful black Italian leather loafers. It's not a dislike, really, because I love wearing them; I just prefer to not as means of protesting the ridiculous notion many Kappas hold dear of wearing them during the winter, when the campus is covered in ice because Hillsdale has yet to learn that salt is a good investment, not a luxury item.

In baller news, KAPPA KAPPA GAMMA WON THE SCHOLARSHIP CUP!! I am incredibly excited by this, as one may tell. This is the third time we've won it, I believe, while I've been in the house, so I am absolutely heartened by this.

In the happiest of news, I got my computer back yesterday!! It's been a month since I dropped it off at ITS. Appropriately, when I put in my ipod before carrying it back across campus back to Kappa, I pressed play and Coldplay's "Fix You" started playing. My ipod has a funny sense of humor.

I wanted to take a nap after lugging Ned (I've decided to name my computer that right now; congrats, first people to know!) home, but I played tennis with Joy instead. It was a rusty game, but really fun. We also discussed things that matter while playing, like if the government should pay for abortions under its public health option and the Supreme Court debating gun laws. I'm sore now in my right forearm and left hand.

After tennis was dinner, and then, to finally make myself even more useless studying-wise, I went to the Hillsdale County Fair with Marisa, Heather and Kate. I've never gone before (minus going to the Demolition Derby with Brian and Colin freshman year) and I feel like it's something one should do before graduating college. It is, after all, "The Most Popular Fair on Earth." (Yes, my friends, Earth.) I had so much fun. I especially loved seeing all the animals; it reminded me of two summers ago when I covered Jr. Fair for the News Journal (my two favorite fair pieces I wrote for WNJ that summer were "Gobbling Tales of Showmanship" and "Confessions of a City Slicker"). I saw lots of college kids there, including my friend Will, who was taking pictures. Here's a sweet one from the swings.

Today is good. Tomorrow is Friday, which is even better. I am no longer going home this weekend, which is disappointing on one hand (I really miss my family) but good on the other (write papers/ write and edit articles/ research thesis/ socialize/sleep). I am determined to finish up Pauline Maier's "American Scripture" book today for Birzer's Founding by tomorrow.

Dr. Freeh is giving a talk on "The Resurrection of the Body-- Judgement, Heaven, Hell and Purgatory" at 8 in Lane tonight. It should be excellent. The reading is Luke 10: 27-38 and CCC 988-1060 (starts at 988, may have to push "next" to proceed on a few). Considering the topic, however, I feel like we should be reading Dante too! I'm missing Victor Davis Hanson's talk because of it, but he agreed to a little Q&A with the Forum for this up and coming issue, so I am stoked about that. This really is going to be a great next issue.

In other news, my glasses are missing. I think this might cause problems in the future.