Congratulations if you visited this site before anything was written in this post and you saw a messed up version of the title...my finger slipped while writing it and it was posted well before it ought to have been. If you did happen to see this page in that state, I'm impressed by your happenstantial timeliness is checking for updates. I don't know if happenstantial is a word or not, and if it is, if I spell it correctly...but if it's not a word, it might be the "not a word" I use the most, not including things with "ness" and "ish" attached, because I am a firm believer that while they may not be "accepted" in our lexicon, they are, indeed, real forms of each and every word, whether it is acknowledged by everyone or not....
Communism, I do believe, is a more Christian way to organize a government than neo-conservatism, because last I checked, Jesus would rather everyone share all their stuff than go to war, mercilessly deny basic human rights, and call the impoverished "lazy." I am on the borderline of calling that incontrovertible Biblical truth, but I won't for now, because "more" and "less" are far too subjective....and I used "more" to start that little principled rant.
I love Earl Grey tea....about a year ago, maybe a little more than that, I couldn't stand it...I'm not sure what happened, but I'm quite the fan now...it's especially good if it's a blend with a good bit of lemon flavor somehow included.
Yes, I just flipped from controversial political positing to talking about tea.
But tea and communism have a lot to do with each other, actually. I'm not going to go into that, but think about it, especially if you take into account the little-known but very real communist under-growth of the early Indian government following Britain's dispossession of the country.
It's been a strange week for a lot of reasons. I'm feeling (I think) far too optimistic about my funding situation right now...I haven't seen any real progress this week...like, at all. Well, kind of technically, but nothing "countable" yet...and yet, I'm feeling okay about it all. I sincerely hope that's a sign that God is granting me peace about it all and not a totally false sense of security. I think it's better to err on the side of optimism about it no matter what's going on... God is going to provide, no matter what...and as long as I keep up my end, doing the work to give people and opportunity to give, He will be faithful. I may never "hold up my end" perfectly, but I do what I can, and I get better at it, as time goes on...and this is just the beginning of a long journey, because no matter how long I'm on staff with InterVarsity, it will probably be a long time before I'm done with the missionary life for good...Indeed, I will either retire from "the field" to retire for good, or retire to pastor a church or something....but that's a long way away, with only the potential couple years I might spend in seminary as a reprieve from this all..... Thinking about it long-term like that makes it seem not so bad...I'm at 19% of my first year's budget, but that's 19% from relationships I'm still building, still establishing...networking that could and will expand over the years. It should be higher...but it will grow, I am sure, in time. Certainly, s more and more of my friends graduate and go on to lucrative careers, I could probably flip from poorly funded to over-funded quickly....there's really no such thing as "over-funding" though, because overages either go to other staff that need the help or go into an "escrow" account for potentially not-so-good fundraising days. Well, that's how InterVarsity works...I have no idea what it will be like when and if I'm ever not with InterVarsity....either way, it's not a prospective life I'm all that worried about right now. I do wish I could be on campus right now though...I'm sure god is doing great things that I'm not a part of yet...but I know it will come in time.
I decided yesterday that "liminal day" is a better day for Wednesday than "hump day." If you follow me on twitter (which I kind of doubt...but it's www.twitter.com/dulacian), you already know that. It just makes sense...it's between the two sides of the week, and at colleges, it's the party day before the weekend arrives...I was never much for Wooster Wednesdays, but in any event, there is a certain liminality to that whole concept. Actually, I think we've always thought of Wednesday as liminal but we've rarely said it, as a culture. Well, I'm saying it. Not that it really matters....it's just the nickname for a day of the week.
Today marks six months since I turned in my I.S....#28. I remember that day super, super, super well. Aside from turning in my I.S., it was also the day before I left for Spring Break, which I did 3 days early to visit Hillsdale before returning for the Urban Plunge...the second best of my three plunge experiences....it was great, but nothing could ever top that first year. But I digress...it's incredible, unbelievable, astounding, that it's already been six months. For as long as I.S. haunts the experience of a Wooster student (nearly 4 years...) it's hard to believe that I haven't had to worry about it for so long already. I must admit, I don't think about it much anymore, aside from when I'm watching a Coen Brother movie...which isn't often, and I even sold all but three of them earlier this summer. I.S. is a good experience that can, at least, as it did for me, be pretty empty by the time it's over. It feels like an accomplishment, and indeed it is, but what good does a 100 page analysis of 7 Coen Brother films do for the world? Very little. Indeed, it does very little for the world of Coen Brother analysis...which, ultimately, I left unengaged to the point of costing me Honors. I don't care though...really, when it comes to the last 3 years of my academic life, I didn't care about anything expect enjoying myself and passing...which I did easily on all counts. You really do get derivative returns from effort when it comes to education. I learned a lot, mostly how to think about things from multiple angles and how to love people a whole lot more while in college...but only part of that had anything to do with classes...the college experience, while perhaps engaged in to become academically distinguished, is ultimately more valuable in the life experience that goes alongside it.... If one could take all of my classes at Wooster without living anywhere but their own home, eating all their own meals in that home, not only would I feel like I have a better education, but I think it would be fundamentally different. Classes are part of college, but just a part....and it's not even about the social things you miss (although those do matter)...it's about the new world every single college student is forced to navigate....together. Certainly there is academic value in classes, and commuting does make sense for many people...but there is a lot to be gained from not commuting, and there is a lot to be gained, indeed, just from the action of choosing not to commute, or not to live off campus. So...that's what I.S. means to me, six months since; I think many of the lessons I learned in I.S. had less to do with research, writing, and film, and much more to do with endurance, spiritual sustenance, and my own ability to work through pressure, stress, and things I just don't want to do sometimes.
A lot happened that day that wasn't I.S. too.....I went to Streetsboro to help Mark Hayward find a car (didn't work out...)...I was a total (but unintentional) jerk to my roommate because I spent three hours talking to someone when I thought it was going to "end anytime now" half an hour in, and I enjoyed a sense of relief I might never feel again...but I'm okay with that for the time being....and Eric Chen visited Wooster. That's pretty cool.
-Zack
"Just like the sun, but more like the moon"
-Mae
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