Beargrass Creek

I got out on Saturday for a walk along Beargrass Creek in Cherokee Park. It was a nice day, although a little cool. I was hoping to see a little Spring weather and surprise the trees and plants as they were waking up for the year. But everything was still naked brown. Spring comes late here it seems.

Just down the trail I was looking upstream and noticed a couple of ducks washing themselves in the shallow water near the bank of the creek. I swapped lenses on the camera and started clicking away. They really refused to cooperate with me though. Most of the time they had their heads under water or (somehow) tucked into their bodies. I had the polarizing filter on the lens, but I must’ve not been using it correctly, because every photo came out really dark. For all that, I got a couple of okay shots. Here’s one (I increased the saturation to make the blue stand out):

After that I went walking down the creek. It was really muddy from all the recent rains we’ve had. I took about 130 pictures, but most of them were not very good. That’s always frustrating. I’m just really thankful I didn’t have to pay to develop bad pictures. However, I was able to salvage some of them by cropping them into detail shots. So instead of reducing the size of the images for upload, I just grabbed a small piece of each one. Here’s one of my favorites:

Here’s one that actually came out as a whole picture (larger size; super-size):

Spring will probably arrive when I’m out of town on break.
That will be okay, I guess.

Pause

Well, my self-imposed week of not writing is over. I enjoyed the time of trying to listen and be quiet. But it really was a “trying”. Many days I failed to really listen. I noticed the distractions more. I learned that the noise in my life isn’t only audible… it’s also visual and written down. It’s a pathology of trying to pay attention to too many things at once. And of not knowing how to make sense of all of them. And of not knowing what to say about them.

I don’t think anything amazingly big happened this week, although I’m not going to say that definitively. Apparently small things (like conversations) can, in time, have enormous implications. Anything is possible.

The pause in writing has also given me some time to think about what I want to say here. I’ve had thoughts swirling all week and they have defied any attempt at order. I’ve tried at least twice to sit down and write them all out, but each time it’s been nothing but gibberish. I think it’s a problem of identity. I’m trying to figure out the point of this medium we call the blog. If I could put it in the metaphor of the journey, I don’t know if I want to write about the road I’m taking or the destination I’m trying to get to. It seems that I want to write about the destination, but I can’t figure out what it is yet. So I end up writing about the road, but I don’t have any context for the discussion. See, I told you—gibberish. Gibberish and overanalyzing. It’s my spiritual gift.

Friends of mine have started and abandoned blogs because they could never really figure all this out. I’m hoping that won’t happen with me. I see it as a valuable tool. I’m mainly just trying to decide how best to use it. So, I’m still working all that out. Maybe sometime soon it will both make sense to me and I will be able to explain it. Until then…

Monday	-	Photo Day
Tuesday	-	Next update for War & Peace
Wednesday	-	Abstract v. Representational Art

Then I’m leaving town for my Spring Break. (We call them Spring “Reading Days” here.) I’m going home for a couple of days. Then I’m planning on a short camping trip before coming back and getting caught up. I’m looking forward to seeing family and friends and having a real time of quiet… away from computers and phones and books.

And Just Try To Listen

Did you ever have the feeling that some big thing were about to happen?

I can’t describe it exactly. There is the sense that there is something right in front of your eyes, but it’s just slightly out of focus… you can’t make it out. Or an unnatural quietness in your ears, ready for a voice that hasn’t spoken yet. A tenseness in the air. An expectation.

I’ve had this growing sense all day today. Maybe I’m imagining it; it’s entirely possible. Too much caffeine…? It sounds way too mystical, doesn’t it? Or does it? I’m not sure. I have this strong desire for silence and quiet and listening. Slowness. Prayer. Thought.

So I’m going to take a week or so off from writing and just try to listen. Maybe I’ll find the words and whatever will come into focus.

Book Reviews

It’s been a busy week at school. I turned my first writing assignment in this week: a book review. I may post it here in the future, once I find out how well I did. But it was probably the most rewarding thing I’ve done so far this semester. I struggled with it, though. It has been a long time since I had to write anything for a grade. But the struggling was good. Because I actually had to think about the author’s argument and goals and method, well, I got way more out of the book than I would have otherwise. Normally I read something and and say to myself, “I really need to think more about that.” But then I never do. Writing a review makes me wrestle with it.

My teacher gave us a helpful format for doing the book review. It involves asking only three questions:

1. What is the author’s goal for writing?
2. How does the author try to achieve that goal?
3. Does the author succeed in achieving that goal?

That’s it. But that produces some really fruitful thoughts. The first question helps me to keep the big picture in mind as I read. The second question not only helps me to come up with a summary of the material, it also helps me to consider the method the author is using to reach his goal. Is it just laying out information? Or using examples? Is he arguing from experience? How much does he cite other authors? How does he use the Bible in his arguments? Etc., etc. I can’t explain why this is so helpful, but it opened up a new view of reading for me. The final question forces me to do some critical thinking and come to some conclusions. I have to decide if the method was helpful or correct. And I have to decide if the argument was a convincing one.

Children’s Stories and Narrative Arcs

Before I left my job in Atlanta to start at seminary, one of my co-workers told me a strategy her brother had used while at school to help him deal with the complexities of theological education: he read Winnie the Pooh. I think that’s outstanding. So, in my own way I’m starting to copy him. I’ve been visiting the library near my house and going into the children’s section and checking out Roald Dahl books. I’m not embarrassed. I’m already reading his short stories for adults. So it kind of fits with what I was already doing. It’s nice though. I missed all these books when I was growing up. I saw Willy Wonka, of course, but I never knew the book it was based upon. The simplicity and straightforwardness of the children’s story helps me just to decompress from the weightyness of all the other reading. Next up: James and the Giant Peach.

Has anyone out there read Dahl? What is your favorite book by him?

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In hermeneutics class this past week we’ve been talking about interpreting narrative portions of Scripture. One of the things we’ve talked about is just being able to see Bible stories as stories. They follow the basic rules for stories that are encapsulated in this illustration:

I find this incredibly interesting, not just in understanding the Bible, but also in other stories I’m reading. I’ve never really read stories with this kind of thing in mind before. I think I might begin practicing on the Dahl stories as a kind of game. Maybe it will be fun.

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(On another note, I haven’t given up reading War & Peace yet. I’m still plodding along. I expect to have another section completed by next week.)

Sojourn

I’ve now been in Louisville just a little over two months. I’m pretty well settled in here at the apartment, but I admit that I do still get a little lost in the city. I know the places where I have to go–the grocery story, the library, the coffee shops–but beyond these I’m not too knowledgeable. I’m going to have to get out one day and just drive around for a while. That’s really the only way to learn.

I’ve been visiting the same church here in town for the last month. It’s called Sojourn Community Church. It’s located right downtown in the heart of the city in an old elementary school building. (The building also houses an art gallery and music venue.) It’s a much larger church than I anticipated attending when I came to Louisville, but I’ve really enjoyed the teaching and the worship. There is a strong emphasis on small group community, and I’m looking forward to getting involved. There is also a strong emphasis on urban renewal projects in the city, which I’m also looking forward to joining. The next step is to attend six weeks of Gospel Classes that start in April.

That’s pretty much it for now. I’m trying to come up with a list of new places I’d like to visit in the coming weeks. Spring break is coming up, so I’m hoping to do some camping at some point. I really need to get out into the woods and do some walking.

I Had a Plan

Once again, I had a plan for this post that I’ve been forced to change. This time it’s not a sinus infection (as annoyingly persistent as that has been), but mid-term exams. I failed to take that into account when I launched my new writing goals. So, instead of writing the post I intended, I’m busy studying Hebrew verb conjugations. The mid-terms have actually come at the exact perfect moment for me. The material we’ve been covering in the last two weeks has been a bit hard for me to get into my brain. If you imagine these early lessons as a foundation to a building, these last few have been a bit shaky. The mid-term has given me some motivation to go back and shore them up a bit.

I haven’t taken Greek yet. I’m going to wait a bit before I tackle that one. But I do already have the textbook for it, and I really like the way the author talks about learning new things.

The fog. You are now entering the fog. You will have read this chapter and think you understand it—and perhaps you do—but it will seem foggy. That is okay. That’s what we call “the fog.” If this gets discouraging, just look two chapters back and you should understand that chapter clearly. And in two more chapters, this chapter will be clear, assuming of course you keep studying.¹

The mid-term is doing the heroic thing for me: it’s keeping me studying.
So I praise God for it.

That leads me to another thing I found this week in regards to studying. I wish I had printed it off or bookmarked it, but now I can’t remember where I saw it and I can’t find it again. It was an article that said the best way to learn something is by taking tests. Just plain studying has very little value. But the activity of taking a test over some material forces us to learn it. I’m trying that now by making practice tests for myself in Hebrew. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

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On one other note: I think I’m going to have to adjust my writing schedule from what I posted last Sunday. I inadvertantly scheduled myself to write the most on the days I have the most school work to do. I’m not exactly sure what the final schedule will be, but for this coming week I’m planning on this:

Monday	-	Photography
Tuesday	-	Travel / Louisville Stuff
Wednesday	-	Books
Thursday	-	School
Friday	-	Music
Saturday	-	Art

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1. William D. Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek: Grammar (Zondervan Publishing House: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1993), 40.