No, cool as they were, the sea dragons did not offer welding lessons. This is Melissa, back in the frigid north while Andrea basks in the glorious warm fuzzies of a GA vacation. But Monday's high is supposed to be 20 degrees, so she should be consoled that she won't have missed much :). Thankfully I've been too busy this week at school to have to spend too many hours in the deathly silence of her non-presence.
What did I do at school, you may ask (having no idea since you skipped over the above title)? Well, I'll tell you! I WELDED things! WOOOOOOO!!! I feel like I'm in that movie that was mentioned in some random midweek meeting video series in Bible School, which ended up being an answer that Claire got in a trivial pursuit game -- something about a woman welder who was also a ballerina or something (the more I write, the more this sounds like some very strange dream...or a very bad speech. Help me, Claire!). Anyway. yes. We've been making a bunch of quick models in my 3-Dimensional Synthesis class, but now we're moving on to a four-foot sculpture. Apparently the direction I chose in the models will translate best into steel rods and thick wire mesh. Joy. I was quite skeptical at first, but I picked up some short rods from Home Depot (haha... Despot... B&C, you're awesome) and pretended I knew what I was doing in the huge and intimidating Sculpture Room. I rolled them into curves on some steel-roller-machine, and then I got my welding lesson. It was hard... but I persevered. I was comforted by the story my prof. told about a girl who caught on fire and didn't realize it (and was thus confused when her professor started hitting her). hmmm... And it was a little freaky having to stand behind a curtain and wear a pitch-black helmet to avoid blindness. And I kept messing up, and the machine kept jamming, and my professor kept having to fix it (most of the time it wasn't my fault, I was relieved to find). But once it finally started working again it was so comparitively easy that I picked it up pretty fast. I got some sweet beads going, let me tell you (that's a little insider welder language there...). Then I got to actually start welding my sculpture, and now I'm excited. It really works! I can make things out of steel! Now that I'm fully empowered, there's no going back. I have six or so twelve-foot rods just waiting to be bent and welded into submission. I will be holding a drawing for potential buyers of my finished product (No, it won't look like anything except steel rods and wire... but oh, what tremendous forms and activation of space! :).
Okay, that's all I want to write about that.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
The Aquarium!
Okay, so back to the aquarium. Folks, if you ever have a chance to go, I highly recommend it. I had so much fun! But, as you probably gathered from Claire's blog, I recommend going on a slightly less crowded day. Oy vay.
Probably the coolest part of all was the fact that you get to touch various and sundry creatures. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are the creatures I, personally, myself, touched with my own fingers!
This, awed readers, is the shark that I touched. Well, not this one specifically, but this kind. This was my favorite moment of the day. I stroked its side as it swam by, and was pretty awestruck that I'd touched a shark. It felt sand-papery. I think I'm going into marine biology in my next life.
Next I touched a ray. That was pretty cool, but it was kind of gross because it was squishy. I'm not a big fan of squishy things. Unless they are things like marshmallows or jello. But those are squishy in a good way. Rays are squishy in a gross way. But still, I'm glad I had the experience. I mean, how many people get to touch rays? Hm, I guess a lot now. But I'm one of them!
Next on the agenda were the shrimp. I'm not a huge fan of shrimp. They are weird looking, bordering on scary looking. But of course I still wanted to touch one. I discovered that they are very dart-y. As in, they dart away when you touch them. This resulted in a sort of very high pitched "eeep!" from me when it happened. The scientific discoveries go on...
I think the last creature to be greeted by my finger-tip was the star fish. As you can imagine, it felt kind of poke-y. That was pretty cool, but I was kind of distracted at this point by Claire's sudden realization that her watch was not waterproof, but had been quite underwater while she touched the starfish. No worries though, the watch was soon off, dried, and as good as new. Phew.
And then of course there were the other fascinating creatures there, many and many a creature, that were off limits for fingers. Like the pirahnas, for instance, which are deceptively beautiful. I enjoyed the mammal population: the otters, seals, penguins, etc. But the most intriguing find of the day (as Claire mentioned on her blog, and continues to mention on a regular basis off her blog) had to be the leafy sea dragon. Incredible. I had no idea such a thing existed! I thought the tank was just full of vegetation, until one began to move about, and then another and another. WOW! Talk about great camouflage. Here are some pictures, so you can see for yourself:
Amazing, are they not? More evidence for the incredible creative power of God! So, once again, I urge you all to add the GA Aquarium to your lists of things to do someday!
Probably the coolest part of all was the fact that you get to touch various and sundry creatures. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are the creatures I, personally, myself, touched with my own fingers!
This, awed readers, is the shark that I touched. Well, not this one specifically, but this kind. This was my favorite moment of the day. I stroked its side as it swam by, and was pretty awestruck that I'd touched a shark. It felt sand-papery. I think I'm going into marine biology in my next life.
Next I touched a ray. That was pretty cool, but it was kind of gross because it was squishy. I'm not a big fan of squishy things. Unless they are things like marshmallows or jello. But those are squishy in a good way. Rays are squishy in a gross way. But still, I'm glad I had the experience. I mean, how many people get to touch rays? Hm, I guess a lot now. But I'm one of them!
Next on the agenda were the shrimp. I'm not a huge fan of shrimp. They are weird looking, bordering on scary looking. But of course I still wanted to touch one. I discovered that they are very dart-y. As in, they dart away when you touch them. This resulted in a sort of very high pitched "eeep!" from me when it happened. The scientific discoveries go on...
I think the last creature to be greeted by my finger-tip was the star fish. As you can imagine, it felt kind of poke-y. That was pretty cool, but I was kind of distracted at this point by Claire's sudden realization that her watch was not waterproof, but had been quite underwater while she touched the starfish. No worries though, the watch was soon off, dried, and as good as new. Phew.
And then of course there were the other fascinating creatures there, many and many a creature, that were off limits for fingers. Like the pirahnas, for instance, which are deceptively beautiful. I enjoyed the mammal population: the otters, seals, penguins, etc. But the most intriguing find of the day (as Claire mentioned on her blog, and continues to mention on a regular basis off her blog) had to be the leafy sea dragon. Incredible. I had no idea such a thing existed! I thought the tank was just full of vegetation, until one began to move about, and then another and another. WOW! Talk about great camouflage. Here are some pictures, so you can see for yourself:
Amazing, are they not? More evidence for the incredible creative power of God! So, once again, I urge you all to add the GA Aquarium to your lists of things to do someday!
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Gasp!
Wonderful, wonderful day today: GA Aquarium and all. Everyone should go. What incredible fun!
But the real reason for this post is immediate inspiration from the paper I'm grading right now. (Yes, I'm actually being productive.) Penny just came downstairs as I was finishing up a paper, and I was commenting to her that this girl was the queen of run-on sentences. I joked that she averaged one period a paragraph. I thought I was joking until I looked at her closing paragraph and found exactly 2 periods!
So here, my friends, is the prime example of a run-on sentence (the assignment, by the way, was a short historical fiction piece. This story was about working in the mills).
"So with my mother dead I got so mad that without thinking I asked the person in charge to give me better pay or I would quit and before he could answer a few more people came to ask the same question and before I knew it there was a mob around him and me and he yelled, afraid he'd have no workers, "you get a raise of a dollar," and after that I was more happy than ever before because I could support my sister and myself and still have a little more money and with the money I bought a better house that wasn't as polluted."
Whew! And there you have it!
But the real reason for this post is immediate inspiration from the paper I'm grading right now. (Yes, I'm actually being productive.) Penny just came downstairs as I was finishing up a paper, and I was commenting to her that this girl was the queen of run-on sentences. I joked that she averaged one period a paragraph. I thought I was joking until I looked at her closing paragraph and found exactly 2 periods!
So here, my friends, is the prime example of a run-on sentence (the assignment, by the way, was a short historical fiction piece. This story was about working in the mills).
"So with my mother dead I got so mad that without thinking I asked the person in charge to give me better pay or I would quit and before he could answer a few more people came to ask the same question and before I knew it there was a mob around him and me and he yelled, afraid he'd have no workers, "you get a raise of a dollar," and after that I was more happy than ever before because I could support my sister and myself and still have a little more money and with the money I bought a better house that wasn't as polluted."
Whew! And there you have it!
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
The Travel Log of Andrea and Diane's Roadtrip to GA
(some fanciful, some accurate, I'm not bothering to distinguish which is which)
February 18, 2006
5:00pm Mama sees us off, calling out things about coats, and making sure we have them. I tell her I have one in my suitcase. I don't tell her it is a little, dinky, spring jacket.
7:00pm We are booking it from the rental place inside the airport to the car pick-up spot. I am wishing I had more than a little, dinky, spring jacket since the 13 degree winds are causing me to think bitter thoughts about New England - something I rarely do.
8:00pm We have said good bye to Melissa, and are on the road! I squeal about how excited I am.
8:01pm I say again how exciting this is.
8:02pm I once more exclaim about my excitement over taking a road trip to GA.
(Let's cut to the chase here, and just admit that I talked about how excited I was a lot, throughout the whole trip. Diane is a very patient soul.)
8:03 pm I confirm directions with Aunt Laura, and it was a jolly good thing, since I was about to take the wrong road.
9:00pm We've found Rt 95 which we'll take for hours and hours. We're home free!
9:01 pm We break into a rendition of "On the Road Again" - this was repeated often over the course of the trip.
9:02pm Diane begins reading "True Courage," the suspense story we've decided upon to wile away the hours.
9:12pm I am hooked on the story.
10:00pm Lindsay calls! She laments the fact that we'd forgotten to pray for Craig during our birthday party for him that afternoon. Diane calls him, we both put them on speakerphone, and we all pray for him!
11:00pm Diane tries to get a little sleep so she can spell me in a couple of hours.
12:00am I am getting a little bit sleepy, but I sing along to the CD I have in and that keeps me going.
12:04am I see the moon at its waning gibbous stage! I am wide awake now, thinking about how happy I am to be a science teacher and how I know so much more about the moon and its phases than I ever thought I'd know.
12:30am The excitement of the waning gibbous (as incredibly exciting as that is) has worn off and I'm feeling really sleepy.
12:45am I pull off for gas, and Diane takes the wheel.
5:45am Andrea wakes up from a remarkably good sleep, ready to spell Diane, who has just driven the entire "graveyard" shift single-handedly. WOW! Let's have a round of applause for that heroic effort.
6:14am Beautiful sunrise! I am starting to feel alive again, and really happy to be behind the wheel. I enjoy driving our little Chevy Cobalt!
9:00am We start looking for breakfast places. We are in the breakfast buffet mode, and call Mrs. Randall to see if she can look on-line for places along our route. Who needs on-star when you've got Mrs. Randall?! (What good is on-star anyway, if it doesn't provide eatery information?)
9:30 Mrs. Randall informed us that we have just passed the last Shoney's for hours. Sigh. We decide on the Cracker Barrel.
10:00am Diane and I "go to church" by listening to Diane's Statler Brothers CD:)
10:00am We enjoy a FABULOUS breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. I hear many southern accents, feel a bit like a foreigner, and am comforted by the glimpse I catch of a Red Sox hat!
11:00am We are back on the road again (breaking into song once more), with only a few more hours to go.
11:01am At the VERY next exit we see a breakfast buffet! We bellow at the irony of it all, but confess that we are really quite full.
1:00 pm We enter Atlanta. I am driving, Diane is reading our very exciting book. I am getting a little nervous at the sight of about 14 solid lanes of traffic!!!
1:10 pm Still a bit nervous, but realizing that the laws about being in your own lane and stuff apply on this super-highway just as much as they did on the mere shmere 6 lane highways of 95.
1:30 pm We're all through Atlanta! Safely!
2:00pm We arrive at Brad and Claire's!
2:01 pm No one answers the door - we decide Claire must still be at church. We call her. No answer. We wonder how long these Southerners spend in church anyway!
2:02 pm Claire calls us back, and apologizes for not answering the phone. She'd been upstairs and the phone had been downstairs. "So you're still at the parsonage?" Diane asks. "No, I'm at my house," Claire replies. "Well SO ARE WE!" Claire is dumbfounded. She comes rushing down and opens the door to see us standing on her doorstep!
2:03 pm We are happy she's so surprised, because surprises are nice, but we're a little mystified as to the reason she's quite this surprised. Then we find out she wasn't expecting us until tomorrow! The source of this confusion is unclear.
2:04 pm We get a tour of her BEAUTIFUL home! I am full of praise. It really is lovely! I am very happy for them.
2:15 pm We zip two minutes down the road to Penny's house to surprise her!
2:17 pm Sure enough, she is dumbfounded to see us:)
2:18 pm The truth comes out! I had called Penny last night to say we'd started at about 8. She didn't get the message until this morning, and thought we'd left at 8am instead of 8 pm! That would be quite the record-setting trip indeed!
2:20 pm We get a tour of Nate and Penny's BEAUTIFUL house!
2:25 pm I'm nearly overcome with euphoria! Ahhhhhhh vacation and GREAT friends. Who could ask for anything more?
February 18, 2006
5:00pm Mama sees us off, calling out things about coats, and making sure we have them. I tell her I have one in my suitcase. I don't tell her it is a little, dinky, spring jacket.
7:00pm We are booking it from the rental place inside the airport to the car pick-up spot. I am wishing I had more than a little, dinky, spring jacket since the 13 degree winds are causing me to think bitter thoughts about New England - something I rarely do.
8:00pm We have said good bye to Melissa, and are on the road! I squeal about how excited I am.
8:01pm I say again how exciting this is.
8:02pm I once more exclaim about my excitement over taking a road trip to GA.
(Let's cut to the chase here, and just admit that I talked about how excited I was a lot, throughout the whole trip. Diane is a very patient soul.)
8:03 pm I confirm directions with Aunt Laura, and it was a jolly good thing, since I was about to take the wrong road.
9:00pm We've found Rt 95 which we'll take for hours and hours. We're home free!
9:01 pm We break into a rendition of "On the Road Again" - this was repeated often over the course of the trip.
9:02pm Diane begins reading "True Courage," the suspense story we've decided upon to wile away the hours.
9:12pm I am hooked on the story.
10:00pm Lindsay calls! She laments the fact that we'd forgotten to pray for Craig during our birthday party for him that afternoon. Diane calls him, we both put them on speakerphone, and we all pray for him!
11:00pm Diane tries to get a little sleep so she can spell me in a couple of hours.
12:00am I am getting a little bit sleepy, but I sing along to the CD I have in and that keeps me going.
12:04am I see the moon at its waning gibbous stage! I am wide awake now, thinking about how happy I am to be a science teacher and how I know so much more about the moon and its phases than I ever thought I'd know.
12:30am The excitement of the waning gibbous (as incredibly exciting as that is) has worn off and I'm feeling really sleepy.
12:45am I pull off for gas, and Diane takes the wheel.
5:45am Andrea wakes up from a remarkably good sleep, ready to spell Diane, who has just driven the entire "graveyard" shift single-handedly. WOW! Let's have a round of applause for that heroic effort.
6:14am Beautiful sunrise! I am starting to feel alive again, and really happy to be behind the wheel. I enjoy driving our little Chevy Cobalt!
9:00am We start looking for breakfast places. We are in the breakfast buffet mode, and call Mrs. Randall to see if she can look on-line for places along our route. Who needs on-star when you've got Mrs. Randall?! (What good is on-star anyway, if it doesn't provide eatery information?)
9:30 Mrs. Randall informed us that we have just passed the last Shoney's for hours. Sigh. We decide on the Cracker Barrel.
10:00am Diane and I "go to church" by listening to Diane's Statler Brothers CD:)
10:00am We enjoy a FABULOUS breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. I hear many southern accents, feel a bit like a foreigner, and am comforted by the glimpse I catch of a Red Sox hat!
11:00am We are back on the road again (breaking into song once more), with only a few more hours to go.
11:01am At the VERY next exit we see a breakfast buffet! We bellow at the irony of it all, but confess that we are really quite full.
1:00 pm We enter Atlanta. I am driving, Diane is reading our very exciting book. I am getting a little nervous at the sight of about 14 solid lanes of traffic!!!
1:10 pm Still a bit nervous, but realizing that the laws about being in your own lane and stuff apply on this super-highway just as much as they did on the mere shmere 6 lane highways of 95.
1:30 pm We're all through Atlanta! Safely!
2:00pm We arrive at Brad and Claire's!
2:01 pm No one answers the door - we decide Claire must still be at church. We call her. No answer. We wonder how long these Southerners spend in church anyway!
2:02 pm Claire calls us back, and apologizes for not answering the phone. She'd been upstairs and the phone had been downstairs. "So you're still at the parsonage?" Diane asks. "No, I'm at my house," Claire replies. "Well SO ARE WE!" Claire is dumbfounded. She comes rushing down and opens the door to see us standing on her doorstep!
2:03 pm We are happy she's so surprised, because surprises are nice, but we're a little mystified as to the reason she's quite this surprised. Then we find out she wasn't expecting us until tomorrow! The source of this confusion is unclear.
2:04 pm We get a tour of her BEAUTIFUL home! I am full of praise. It really is lovely! I am very happy for them.
2:15 pm We zip two minutes down the road to Penny's house to surprise her!
2:17 pm Sure enough, she is dumbfounded to see us:)
2:18 pm The truth comes out! I had called Penny last night to say we'd started at about 8. She didn't get the message until this morning, and thought we'd left at 8am instead of 8 pm! That would be quite the record-setting trip indeed!
2:20 pm We get a tour of Nate and Penny's BEAUTIFUL house!
2:25 pm I'm nearly overcome with euphoria! Ahhhhhhh vacation and GREAT friends. Who could ask for anything more?
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Results of a New Valentine's Day Pen
This morning a dear student came in with a Valentine's Day pen for me. I was so enamored of it (it was one long plastic tube that became two hearts at the top) that I decided to take notes in Chapel just so I could use it. But instead of the topic of the day, the following list came out of the pen:
Things I love about Teaching:
*the chalk dust that seems to permeate my existence (colored chalk dust, that is!)
*the 15 minutes in the morning in which the students have to be in the room, but classes haven't begun yet - we have such fun chatting about sports, movies, strange experiences, etc
*lesson plans that work out just right, schedule wise (i.e. I really need this to take two days instead of one, and it does)
*students using something from Literature as an inside joke! (this really happens, much to my delight!)
*those opportunities that sometimes arise in which I get to pass along to the student some truth that I treasure
*my grade book
*walking in in the morning and tossing my keys onto my desk
*teaching new vocabulary - even when it is met with skepticism (they didn't believe that "spartan" is used as an adjective all these many years after the Spartan warrior civilization!)
*when students hear something in assembly that reminds them of something I said in class, so they look over and catch my eye
*when students ask me if I like teaching, thus opening the way for much effusive speech-making!
Oh ya, and I also happen to be partial to teaching itself.
Things I love about Teaching:
*the chalk dust that seems to permeate my existence (colored chalk dust, that is!)
*the 15 minutes in the morning in which the students have to be in the room, but classes haven't begun yet - we have such fun chatting about sports, movies, strange experiences, etc
*lesson plans that work out just right, schedule wise (i.e. I really need this to take two days instead of one, and it does)
*students using something from Literature as an inside joke! (this really happens, much to my delight!)
*those opportunities that sometimes arise in which I get to pass along to the student some truth that I treasure
*my grade book
*walking in in the morning and tossing my keys onto my desk
*teaching new vocabulary - even when it is met with skepticism (they didn't believe that "spartan" is used as an adjective all these many years after the Spartan warrior civilization!)
*when students hear something in assembly that reminds them of something I said in class, so they look over and catch my eye
*when students ask me if I like teaching, thus opening the way for much effusive speech-making!
Oh ya, and I also happen to be partial to teaching itself.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Halcyon Carrots and Pavarotti
Hi folks -- it's Melissa, letting you all know I still exist. I don't really know what to write about, but whatever it is needs to be written NOW. I find more and more that my sabbaths can really only last from sundown to sundown -- gone are the halcyon days of fully carefree weekends. (I just finished reading an Elizabeth Goudge book that used the word "halcyon" several times, and I was reminded that it is a good word. Only it was in the context of weather, which I hadn't really seen before, so I had to ask Andrea what it actually meant. She thought it meant happy, as in "the halcyon days of youth," and while "happy weather" is kind of cool, we thought that maybe it just has a general meaning of being kind of favorable. And now I don't feel like actually looking it up.)
Anyway... back to halcyonless weekends... The Sabbath is extra good now that it means so much more. The rest of the week this semester has been pretty crazily packed, since I'm taking five classes instead of the usual four (I don't know what kinds of insane schools some of the rest of you go to, but at mine four or five is normal). Hours and hours of art continue... only now I'm covered with oil paint most of the time instead of charcoal. Cool. So far I've decided that I really like painting, which is good because I have to decide what my concentration is going to be before too long. It's kind of awkward when people ask and I have to say, "um... well, I haven't actually DONE anything to know if I like it or not, but I assume I'll be a painter." I haven't tried printmaking yet, but I could see myself liking that too. It's the closest thing to drawing in some ways (although painting is too somewhat, but that's more like "drawing with mayonnaise," as one prof. put it). I've discovered that I'm drawn to textures, and especially (oddly enough), things that are falling apart: peeling paint, rotting wood, old crumbling brick buildings... I found myself staring longingly at the ceiling at my dad's shop the other day, wanting to draw it. Hm.
In other news, I was able to stun my coworkers at the W.C. (yep, still there, triplenine) by showing them the flaming carrot trick I learned in Bible School from I-forget-who. You know-- the one where you place two pieces of carrot so that they're barely touching and then nuke 'em in the microwave for a few seconds and watch the fireworks! Do try this at home. Rumor has it it works with potatoes too.
Last night we were crashing at the end of long, stressful weeks, and Andrea declared, "I just want to watch TV until I pass out." I thought this highly amusing. Of course we knew it was a joke, until we started watching the Opening Ceremonies later in the evening and it almost came true. Oy... so long, so weird, so boring. But there was always that one more surprise promised us by the freakily un-aging face of Bob Costas, and that one country that nobody's ever heard of that could prove to be the most inspirational of Olympic tales, and that mystery surrounding the figure shrouded in darkness who would eventually light the cauldron of justice. And were we ever rewarded: Liechtenstein and San Marino out in full force, people walzing around a stage dressed as cows, and then....... STEFANIA BALMONDO as the final torchbearer! YES! I KNEW it! Oh well... I suppose the Italians have every right to give the honor to a random Italian cross-country skiier I've never heard of. But Pavarotti singing "Nessun Dorma" was a good surprise, I must say. [I admit I had to ask Andrea what he sang and how to spell it... "Nessun as in 'Nissan'?"] In the words of one American athlete I heard in the background, "You da MAN, Pavarotti!"
Anyway... back to halcyonless weekends... The Sabbath is extra good now that it means so much more. The rest of the week this semester has been pretty crazily packed, since I'm taking five classes instead of the usual four (I don't know what kinds of insane schools some of the rest of you go to, but at mine four or five is normal). Hours and hours of art continue... only now I'm covered with oil paint most of the time instead of charcoal. Cool. So far I've decided that I really like painting, which is good because I have to decide what my concentration is going to be before too long. It's kind of awkward when people ask and I have to say, "um... well, I haven't actually DONE anything to know if I like it or not, but I assume I'll be a painter." I haven't tried printmaking yet, but I could see myself liking that too. It's the closest thing to drawing in some ways (although painting is too somewhat, but that's more like "drawing with mayonnaise," as one prof. put it). I've discovered that I'm drawn to textures, and especially (oddly enough), things that are falling apart: peeling paint, rotting wood, old crumbling brick buildings... I found myself staring longingly at the ceiling at my dad's shop the other day, wanting to draw it. Hm.
In other news, I was able to stun my coworkers at the W.C. (yep, still there, triplenine) by showing them the flaming carrot trick I learned in Bible School from I-forget-who. You know-- the one where you place two pieces of carrot so that they're barely touching and then nuke 'em in the microwave for a few seconds and watch the fireworks! Do try this at home. Rumor has it it works with potatoes too.
Last night we were crashing at the end of long, stressful weeks, and Andrea declared, "I just want to watch TV until I pass out." I thought this highly amusing. Of course we knew it was a joke, until we started watching the Opening Ceremonies later in the evening and it almost came true. Oy... so long, so weird, so boring. But there was always that one more surprise promised us by the freakily un-aging face of Bob Costas, and that one country that nobody's ever heard of that could prove to be the most inspirational of Olympic tales, and that mystery surrounding the figure shrouded in darkness who would eventually light the cauldron of justice. And were we ever rewarded: Liechtenstein and San Marino out in full force, people walzing around a stage dressed as cows, and then....... STEFANIA BALMONDO as the final torchbearer! YES! I KNEW it! Oh well... I suppose the Italians have every right to give the honor to a random Italian cross-country skiier I've never heard of. But Pavarotti singing "Nessun Dorma" was a good surprise, I must say. [I admit I had to ask Andrea what he sang and how to spell it... "Nessun as in 'Nissan'?"] In the words of one American athlete I heard in the background, "You da MAN, Pavarotti!"
Strange Moments of the Day
I was teaching typing today, and one of my students started talking about how he'd recently decided what he believes, theologically. Oh! I said. He expanded upon the subject by explaining that he is a four-point Calivinist. He believes in four of the five tenets. The one he doesn't believe in is limited atonement (which, I think, is the idea that Jesus died only for the elect - not for everyone). Now this wouldn't have been that awkward, except that the other student in typing is definitely a five-point Calivinist. I, not being much of a Calvinist, but hiding that fact very carefully while at school, was rather tongue-tied. I just said that we must be sure to base our beliefs on the Bible, and both seemed satisfied with that. Oh the tightropes I attempt!
Another weird moment came after I e-mailed Craig about seeing Dan Jansen in the opening ceremonies. Jansen was a mutual hero of giant proportions back in the day. Oh the depths and heights we traveled with him! Anyway, he e-mailed back, and said he'd told Kayla the saga, since she didn't know who he was. What?! Was it really that long ago?
That weird moment reminded me of one earlier today, when I asked my 7th and 8th grade class which two countries were separated by the Berlin Wall, and realized they weren't even alive when it came down. In fact, they also asked me what the Cold War was! You mean not everyone in this country shared the childhood fear of being bombed by the Russians? I explained it to them, and we practiced hiding under the desks in case of bombs.
Another weird moment came after I e-mailed Craig about seeing Dan Jansen in the opening ceremonies. Jansen was a mutual hero of giant proportions back in the day. Oh the depths and heights we traveled with him! Anyway, he e-mailed back, and said he'd told Kayla the saga, since she didn't know who he was. What?! Was it really that long ago?
That weird moment reminded me of one earlier today, when I asked my 7th and 8th grade class which two countries were separated by the Berlin Wall, and realized they weren't even alive when it came down. In fact, they also asked me what the Cold War was! You mean not everyone in this country shared the childhood fear of being bombed by the Russians? I explained it to them, and we practiced hiding under the desks in case of bombs.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Inspiration from Greece, Chambers, and Mrs. E Prentiss
Watch out, folks. Heart is full - overflow coming your way...
I just finished reading "Stepping Heavenward" by Mrs. E. Prentiss last night and it was incredible. Amy P had been encouraging me to read it for years, and I finally followed her advice. I am so glad I did. What an inspiring account. Now everyone, don't delay as long as I did! Go out and get a copy and read it! I think you will be amazed, as I was, at the conclusions of the book, after an account that was sometimes almost painful to read: "To love Christ and to know that I love Him - this is all!" And "I have been emptied from vessel to vessel till I have learned that he only is truly happy who has no longer a choice of his own and lies passive in God's hand." What depth there is there.
I have also been reading the Oswald Chambers devotional Bible this year, which has been incredibly rich. From that I have been realizing the importance of being God-aware and God-conscious, instead of self-aware and self-conscious. It is exciting to grow and to realize more of the world around me and more about who I am. But to stop there is to stunt the growth God intends for me. Those things are stepping-stones to the more important - the only important - God-awareness, and who He is.
And then there is Greek Literature. Okay, so we were reading about all these Greek guys, and how they try to thwart their fate and always fail to do so. Fate is supreme. No one can avoid it. The Greek worldview was, in that way, pretty depressing. They were totally trapped by fate.
Then we were reading, in the teachers' devotions time, about Saul and how he was trying to kill David. But instead he was finding failure on every side, for God had willed David to be king. And I started thinking, wait a minute. Is the Christian worldview just as trapped as the Greek one? We can't go outside of the will of God, just like the Greeks couldn't go outside of the fates. Am I supposed to be feeling claustrophobic?!
And then, so quickly, I realized the fundamental difference. We as Christians serve a God of infinite love, goodness, and trustworthiness. His will and His love are one. He is love. We are not trapped in a fate against which we put up a desperate struggle for freedom. We are led to the best and highest freedom by a God who loves us so much that He sent His Son. We are not trapped by a capricious or unconscious fate (I'm not sure which would be worse), but are on our way to our destiny: oneness with a God who is essentially good and loving, and for Whom we were created. What an incredible difference. What a God we serve!
Trust has been my watchword recently. What a security and peace we have in our God. Claustrophobia? No! "Jehovah...brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me." (Ps 18:19)
I just finished reading "Stepping Heavenward" by Mrs. E. Prentiss last night and it was incredible. Amy P had been encouraging me to read it for years, and I finally followed her advice. I am so glad I did. What an inspiring account. Now everyone, don't delay as long as I did! Go out and get a copy and read it! I think you will be amazed, as I was, at the conclusions of the book, after an account that was sometimes almost painful to read: "To love Christ and to know that I love Him - this is all!" And "I have been emptied from vessel to vessel till I have learned that he only is truly happy who has no longer a choice of his own and lies passive in God's hand." What depth there is there.
I have also been reading the Oswald Chambers devotional Bible this year, which has been incredibly rich. From that I have been realizing the importance of being God-aware and God-conscious, instead of self-aware and self-conscious. It is exciting to grow and to realize more of the world around me and more about who I am. But to stop there is to stunt the growth God intends for me. Those things are stepping-stones to the more important - the only important - God-awareness, and who He is.
And then there is Greek Literature. Okay, so we were reading about all these Greek guys, and how they try to thwart their fate and always fail to do so. Fate is supreme. No one can avoid it. The Greek worldview was, in that way, pretty depressing. They were totally trapped by fate.
Then we were reading, in the teachers' devotions time, about Saul and how he was trying to kill David. But instead he was finding failure on every side, for God had willed David to be king. And I started thinking, wait a minute. Is the Christian worldview just as trapped as the Greek one? We can't go outside of the will of God, just like the Greeks couldn't go outside of the fates. Am I supposed to be feeling claustrophobic?!
And then, so quickly, I realized the fundamental difference. We as Christians serve a God of infinite love, goodness, and trustworthiness. His will and His love are one. He is love. We are not trapped in a fate against which we put up a desperate struggle for freedom. We are led to the best and highest freedom by a God who loves us so much that He sent His Son. We are not trapped by a capricious or unconscious fate (I'm not sure which would be worse), but are on our way to our destiny: oneness with a God who is essentially good and loving, and for Whom we were created. What an incredible difference. What a God we serve!
Trust has been my watchword recently. What a security and peace we have in our God. Claustrophobia? No! "Jehovah...brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me." (Ps 18:19)
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