It's I.S. Monday. Thanks to last Monday I've been thinking about Wooster a lot lately. Heck, thanks to a movie I watched Saturday night, I've been thinking about my I.S. a lot lately even. (A Serious Man. It's like they read my I.S. and don't want to prove me wrong or something....). Today, thanks to a conversation that was pretty "Wooster-centric" that I had last week, I even kind of changed a students life with a story.
But that's not surprising. It should be the least surprising part to any of the previous paragraph. Wooster changes lives right? That's what Loren Pope said at least, in his book.
I can't argue with him. Who I am today, I am because of Wooster, perhaps more than anything else.
Check it:
I wouldn't be the Christian I am today without WCF. I don't even know if I'd still be a Christian. Maybe I would. Maybe, if I went to OSU and got involved in InterVarsity, my life wouldn't be THAT different. But who knows? I went to Wooster, and that's where I found out how to follow Jesus with my life and not just my words.
I wouldn't have ever met Alexandra. "But you met her at home!" you could argue. But I met her through a connection I made at a church I went to because I went to a church...in Wooster.
I wouldn't be moving to Cleveland. I wouldn't love Cleveland.
I wouldn't value everyone as a human. I wouldn't try to love everyone. I wouldn't look for the good in everything, if there' any to be found.
I wouldn't feel like someday, I could write a book. Why do I feel this way? Because, to some extent...I already have. It's 100 pages long and it's called "The Dude Abides: Exploring Post-Modernism Through the Films of Joel and Ethan Coen by the Decentering of Modernist Aestheticism in Le Politique Des Auteurs".
But all of that is just a list of things that immediately come to mind. There's more...much more. I'm more well adjusted to life. I'm probably smarter. I'm sure, really, I don't know all of the ways Wooster changed me, for better or for worse. Most of the time, I can't actually convince myself there was any "worse."
There's just a connection; an ever-present, overwhelming sense of communality and unity. "I Did It!" and so did you...even though I don't know your name or understand your topic or agree with your thesis of your thesis. You did it. I did it. We did it.
I miss Wooster a lot. Hillsdale is not Wooster, not by a longshot. I get told, far too often, that my education wasn't as good because it wasn't "Hillsdale." If that's true, then I'd rather have a worse education, because I wouldn't trade what I did have for those four years for anything in all the world, or for everything I am and have now because of them.
But I.S. Monday, then graduation, they're a starting line. Upward and onward, to somewhere and something...it's why we went at all, it's why we wrote at all, and it's where we're headed.
Today is about, primarily, the class of 2011. But to every single Wooster alum from years prior, it's our day too.
How quickly two years have gone...
-Zack
#27, class of 2009
Monday, March 28, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Getting there
I'll be getting married in about 8 months and 2 hoursish. I don't know how or when that will fully sink in (maybe in about 8 months and 1 year....)
But!
We have an apartment, officially...We're going to start moving Alexandra in on May 2nd....my move in date is over 6 months after that. But it's a step...and we're getting there, to the fullness we'll eventually embrace.
But even so, in between, there is so much to look forward to right now...in 45 minutes, Wooster plays in their first ever national championship game. I'm grateful for streaming live video today. I like when my teams at least get to the championship round...at least they get a shot and "could have beens" aren't applicable....in that vein, I've got high hopes for Ohio State's basketball team right now too...
But I'm also disappointed, very much so, in Ohio State's football team right now. I don't care how they do...I just hope the rules-breaking ends...
Today though, is festive...
Go Scots!
-Zack
"Don't say it's over, cause that's the worst news I could hear"
-The Avett Brothers
But!
We have an apartment, officially...We're going to start moving Alexandra in on May 2nd....my move in date is over 6 months after that. But it's a step...and we're getting there, to the fullness we'll eventually embrace.
But even so, in between, there is so much to look forward to right now...in 45 minutes, Wooster plays in their first ever national championship game. I'm grateful for streaming live video today. I like when my teams at least get to the championship round...at least they get a shot and "could have beens" aren't applicable....in that vein, I've got high hopes for Ohio State's basketball team right now too...
But I'm also disappointed, very much so, in Ohio State's football team right now. I don't care how they do...I just hope the rules-breaking ends...
Today though, is festive...
Go Scots!
-Zack
"Don't say it's over, cause that's the worst news I could hear"
-The Avett Brothers
Friday, March 11, 2011
I'm journeying into Cleveland this weekend, to look at apartments, hopefully picking one where we'll live, after we're married. It's a step, kind of a dream, and a step toward a dream.
It's fitting, then, that this is also the weekend of the Cleveland Urban Plunge. If it weren't for that InterVarsity urban experience (3 year veteran as a student myself), we wouldn't be moving to Cleveland at all, I don't think...or at least it played a big role, on my end, to not just being okay with it because that's where Alexandra's job is going to be, but actually being uncontrollably excited about it.
Already, God has been faithfully bringing in new funds to help jumpstart the ministry at Cleveland State. He is faithful.
-Zack
"cause I need freedom now, and I need to know how to live my life like it's meant to be"
-Mumford and Sons
It's fitting, then, that this is also the weekend of the Cleveland Urban Plunge. If it weren't for that InterVarsity urban experience (3 year veteran as a student myself), we wouldn't be moving to Cleveland at all, I don't think...or at least it played a big role, on my end, to not just being okay with it because that's where Alexandra's job is going to be, but actually being uncontrollably excited about it.
Already, God has been faithfully bringing in new funds to help jumpstart the ministry at Cleveland State. He is faithful.
-Zack
"cause I need freedom now, and I need to know how to live my life like it's meant to be"
-Mumford and Sons
Friday, March 4, 2011
Some things, they just don't make sense
According to the majority of Americans who voted in November (If I'm supposed to believe that democracy works...), it's better for less than 1 percent of them to have 3 percent less taxes to pay on their hundreds of millions, but it's not right for teachers to negotiate for higher wages on top of their less-than-$50,000.
In fact, if teachers get to negotiate, surely, our economy will crumble...and yet, allowing a millions of dollars to come into the national treasury would be a wrongful infringement on the select-few's rights.
For one, that's not democracy. There are a lot more teachers than multi-millionaires in this country.
Further, Democracy, as the ruling party would proclaim, means letting the majority do what they want because they're the majority.
But what if the majority is wrong?
I don't know how to say they weren't, last November.
Capitalism and Democracy don't even jive with each other when it comes to worker's rights...Labor is the majority.
I could rail, and will continue to later, hard against the masochistic tendencies of the electorate, but what's the use?
The Kingdom of God is the only perfect society, and Jesus wouldn't have come if you could simply regulate its rule into existence. It's just so painful, that so man fellow-participants, or, should-be-participants in God's Kingdom align themselves with political policies that crush the equality and welfare of the disenfranchised. Greed and stepping over and on top of the less powerful are the name of the game in our "free-market democracy." If Jesus was for that, we're reading different Bibles.
" Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." -James 1:27
-Zack
In fact, if teachers get to negotiate, surely, our economy will crumble...and yet, allowing a millions of dollars to come into the national treasury would be a wrongful infringement on the select-few's rights.
For one, that's not democracy. There are a lot more teachers than multi-millionaires in this country.
Further, Democracy, as the ruling party would proclaim, means letting the majority do what they want because they're the majority.
But what if the majority is wrong?
I don't know how to say they weren't, last November.
Capitalism and Democracy don't even jive with each other when it comes to worker's rights...Labor is the majority.
I could rail, and will continue to later, hard against the masochistic tendencies of the electorate, but what's the use?
The Kingdom of God is the only perfect society, and Jesus wouldn't have come if you could simply regulate its rule into existence. It's just so painful, that so man fellow-participants, or, should-be-participants in God's Kingdom align themselves with political policies that crush the equality and welfare of the disenfranchised. Greed and stepping over and on top of the less powerful are the name of the game in our "free-market democracy." If Jesus was for that, we're reading different Bibles.
" Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." -James 1:27
-Zack
"You could still be who you wish you is; it ain't happened yet and that's what a tuition is"
-Kanye West
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The Middle
The future starts today. Though I think of those who read this as a sort of ambiguous cloud, I recognize that I actually know most of you in person and the bulk of our relationship is completely offline. I prefer that, so that's not at all shocking to me. But even so, I feel like I make things unofficially official by writing about them on here. It's like a place to make announcements but it's off the beaten path of the information superhighway so that it's not like a facebook status or even a tweet (depending on who you are or how you roll, your own signposts, depending where they land, will differ....a celebrity's twitter is his or her most public form, probably followed by his or her blog, then facebook, provided he or she has all of those). So this is a bit of a cop-out, but I felt like I had to make it known so I could really get down to brass-tacks:
Today, I'm officially making real steps toward my future on staff in Cleveland. In a conversation with my supervisor, he suggested I step away a bit from duties at Hillsdale so I could concentrate on fundraising toward Cleveland. That doesn't mean a huge change...a few less hours on campus really. But it means I'm starting to craft the resources, make the contact, communicate the mission, for a new place.
But I'm very much in the middle; in between the here and now and the future.
The here an now is keeping on with the ministry through the beginning of Octoberish. The future is planting and building a ministry at Cleveland State.
The result is a task-list mixed with supporting and developing, as I can, what's here, and developing the support base for Cleveland. The other result is a bag of mixed emotions, even more mixed.
Here's a concatenation of a rundown:
-leaving Hillsdale (+) this is a hard place to work and students often seem to wish I wasn't around
-leaving Hillsdale (+) there is literally 0 financial support to be gained in the larger community. Alumni distrust InterVarsity and the town of Hillsdale is impoverished.
-Leaving Hillsdale (+) Capitalism is next to godliness here, and I believe, in reality, capitalism is the #1 reason American Christianity is growing more and more impotent, and we increase our embrace of the unbiblical and idolatrous ideology it truly is.
-leaving Hillsdale (-) There are some brilliant students here and working with them has been a joy
-leaving Hillsdale (-) I'll have poured 2+ years into this place and I'm leaving it for something unestablished
-leaving Hillsdale (-) I'm walking away from a ministry on the verge of exploding (in a good way) that didn't even exist when I got to campus..it's like sending Warren Buffet to college, if you're Warren Buffet's parents.
-Going to Cleveland (+) it's my favorite city in the world and living there, being there, breathing, eating, working there feels like something I was created to do.
-Going to Cleveland (+) I have friends there! Alexandra has a job there! Only an hour from Wooster!
-Going to Cleveland (+) I know people who care about Cleveland! I can fundraise all over the state I come from by working in the for which everyone has some kind of sympathetic city!
-Going to Cleveland (-) Chapter Plant! From 300 to 0. Yikes.
-Going to Cleveland (-) New church, new house, new routines, new...life. New things bring stress.
-2011 (+) New wife New life New beginning...can't count out the value of a fresh start and the excitement of getting to spend the rest of my life with the most incredible person I've ever met...
I don't know if those are balanced or what....It's a bit more complex than that, as shades of negative and positive seep in on every attribute. It does not matter though...I'm not trying to make a decision...this is a multi-faceted reality that I'm mostly very excited to embrace.
Today, is the beginning.
I don't know if what I do at Cleveland State will transform the city, but I pray it does. I pray that even one student I work with will decide to start working in the city for the Kingdom of God...one is better than none, and from one, is two so much? It's a snowball, but right now, it's barely a flake....
-Zack
"I’ma part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people."
Today, I'm officially making real steps toward my future on staff in Cleveland. In a conversation with my supervisor, he suggested I step away a bit from duties at Hillsdale so I could concentrate on fundraising toward Cleveland. That doesn't mean a huge change...a few less hours on campus really. But it means I'm starting to craft the resources, make the contact, communicate the mission, for a new place.
But I'm very much in the middle; in between the here and now and the future.
The here an now is keeping on with the ministry through the beginning of Octoberish. The future is planting and building a ministry at Cleveland State.
The result is a task-list mixed with supporting and developing, as I can, what's here, and developing the support base for Cleveland. The other result is a bag of mixed emotions, even more mixed.
Here's a concatenation of a rundown:
-leaving Hillsdale (+) this is a hard place to work and students often seem to wish I wasn't around
-leaving Hillsdale (+) there is literally 0 financial support to be gained in the larger community. Alumni distrust InterVarsity and the town of Hillsdale is impoverished.
-Leaving Hillsdale (+) Capitalism is next to godliness here, and I believe, in reality, capitalism is the #1 reason American Christianity is growing more and more impotent, and we increase our embrace of the unbiblical and idolatrous ideology it truly is.
-leaving Hillsdale (-) There are some brilliant students here and working with them has been a joy
-leaving Hillsdale (-) I'll have poured 2+ years into this place and I'm leaving it for something unestablished
-leaving Hillsdale (-) I'm walking away from a ministry on the verge of exploding (in a good way) that didn't even exist when I got to campus..it's like sending Warren Buffet to college, if you're Warren Buffet's parents.
-Going to Cleveland (+) it's my favorite city in the world and living there, being there, breathing, eating, working there feels like something I was created to do.
-Going to Cleveland (+) I have friends there! Alexandra has a job there! Only an hour from Wooster!
-Going to Cleveland (+) I know people who care about Cleveland! I can fundraise all over the state I come from by working in the for which everyone has some kind of sympathetic city!
-Going to Cleveland (-) Chapter Plant! From 300 to 0. Yikes.
-Going to Cleveland (-) New church, new house, new routines, new...life. New things bring stress.
-2011 (+) New wife New life New beginning...can't count out the value of a fresh start and the excitement of getting to spend the rest of my life with the most incredible person I've ever met...
I don't know if those are balanced or what....It's a bit more complex than that, as shades of negative and positive seep in on every attribute. It does not matter though...I'm not trying to make a decision...this is a multi-faceted reality that I'm mostly very excited to embrace.
Today, is the beginning.
I don't know if what I do at Cleveland State will transform the city, but I pray it does. I pray that even one student I work with will decide to start working in the city for the Kingdom of God...one is better than none, and from one, is two so much? It's a snowball, but right now, it's barely a flake....
-Zack
"I’ma part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people."
-Lupe Fiasco
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