Home Again

Jon and I rolled out of our wisconsin bed at a dim 5am this morning. It was time to head home. I don't really want to get to my reflections so I'll say this and then post some photos. I think this happened after our first MidWest pilgrimage last summer, and definitely when I walked around our townhome-like apartment today I realized how big it is. We decided the ceilings must be higher than in my parents' house because I feel short now. And I feel like we have tons of room. Now for the photos:

The Ideal Finals Week

In fourth grade we did a smell experiment in class. My mom was there helping and there were different scents sealed in glass tubes. We would smell them and then identify the smells. I'm sure we were learning some noble things, but one of the scents scarred my memory of smell. I can't remember what the smell was, but whenever it come wafting into my nostril I'm instantly revolted. That one very minor incident of scent has been imprinted in my mind.

The concept of finals week has earned similar treatment in my mind. My freshman year at Drake I must have had this magical finals week experience because at the end of every semester since I get giddy at the thought of finals. Part of it is pure nerd, I enjoy taking tests. In my mind I envision the professor announcing a challenge and it is my duty to prove my superior skill. You never know how much you've crammed into your brain until you actually have to reproduce it on the paper. I like being the first done. I'm coming to the point where I don't necessarily even care how I do.

More than the joy of tests (hint of sarcasm because I don't always enjoy them) is this image I have in my mind of what finals week looks like. You definitely watch a lot of movies. And just hang out because there's no work due next week. Once you are done, you are done and can relax. The funny part is, I don't think I've ever had my ideal finals week since the first archetypal one. I realized that people are really busy, really stressed and then they leave to go home. In seminary I had the hard reality of have class during finals week without a dead day in sight. I've had many a finals week that simply sucked. Yet, I still look forward to them.

This week I've got three tests and one presentation and now I'm halfway through. When the curtain falls on my presentation of the gnesio-lutherans and the philippists, I will be done. And then Jon and I are escaping Portland for the promised land of the MidWest. I hope you've bought your tickets and reserved your spot for our MidWest Pilgrimage 2007. See you soon.

Announcing (rather tardily)

Oliver ____ Anderson
7lbs. 2 oz.
19.5 inches long
Born April 17, 2007 at 4:55pm

I don't have a picture because I live far away from my new nephew. I have heard from his mom that he has blond eyebrows and light brown hair. I have heard from my sister that when he wrinkles his nose he looks like an old man. I have not heard much else, and don't want to bother my brother and sister-in-law for more details. We'll be seeing them in a few weeks, though. The MidWest Pilgrimage 2007 will take place from May 10-21. If you have not booked your stop on the tour, please do so now, unless you live in the Midwest and are not interested in seeing Jon and me. I hope that is not the case, because I'm excited to see you. Oh, I forgot to mention this part about my new nephew, he is as far as I know currently without a middle name. Any suggestions?

If I had time...

If I wasn't morally obligated to get to my school work and research I would love to tell you about one of my classes and take time to rant a little. One of my professors proposed that the church is simply a "sidebar" to the history of God's work. Will the ethnic Jews please raise your hands? I kept making vomiting noises in my head. If the Church is a sidebar, then Christ is severly diminished in his significance. Is that easy to swallow?

But I didn't come here to rant, but to rejoice. My nephew is due to enter this world very soon. My brother called last night to tell me they were in the hospital getting ready to have their baby boy. I'm telling everyone so I thought I'd tell you. I'm more than excited as this is the first grandchild on my family's side and I love the idea of my brother becoming a dad. Hopefully I'll have an official birth announcement soon. My brother and I were joking about how he was praying his son would be born on his birthday (April 18th) and my Dad was praying he'd be born on Earth Day (April 22nd?). We decided my Dad loses, but Eric may win. Either way, here comes Oliver into the Anderson Family.

John Perkins

Here are some quotes I'll fish out from my notes on John Perkins message today at Multnomah on "Relocation."

*Christianity is fueled by individualism, selfishness and greed. We represent Jesus as individuals instead of being a community, a body, a family.

*There is no basis for the class structure in the Church. God doesn't accomodate for that bigotry. We have to go back to the Scriptures. I don't think Blacks and Whites will be reconciled by drinking enough coffee together.

*The church is structured to meet our needs and not the needs of others. The American church is structured to separate whites and blacks. We need to be intentional. The people need more than our money or our old clothes. They need the Incarnation of God and the Holy Spirit.

*It's going to take the poor to reach the middle class.

Don't tell my books I'm here talking to you.

That last one was a little melodramatic I suppose. I have been listening to Joanna Newsom in my defense. No, my semester isn't over but I do have the chance to breathe a bit. I've been working on a crux interpretum paper (the name sounds fancy, it's latin for "I don't know what the hell I'm talking about") and then had an essay exam in reformation theology. I actually thought for a couple seconds while taking the test that I was going to cry, or run out, or panic. I calmed myself down and wrote about Calvin's influence on Geneva, a comparison of the ministries of Luther and Zwingli, and then the various understandings of grace in the late middle ages and early reformation (um, Erasmus picked up on Aquinas who thought he had Aristotle and Augustine all wrapped up?). We'll see how that went. In the midst of all this work I've had much to write about and thoughts on which I'd like your opinion. I'll start with something non-school related.

Ever since, let's say high school, I've naturally eeked my way into leadership positions. And add to the stack I'm officially promoted at work and begin training next week. Throughout all these positions and organizations I kept looking for a role model or authority over me. Even when I write I get scared initially and retreat to how things are done traditionally. And right now I'm leading with a definite sense that I'm not being led. And though I love the ability to dream up a vision and delegate responsibility and work with a group of people to colaborate on one project, I feel like there is a false assumption being made. That is, those who lead are (I don't want to use the word autonomous) without the need for authority or correction. Simply, they don't need what they do for others. I want to be led (and not in the way I was told I would in pre-marital counseling, yuck)by someone other than myself and my own vision for what my life is. I don't want to make the broad statment that leaders need leading most, but in the least, I wouldn't mind it.

I'm trying to think through heirarchy a bit right now. It's place in the church and in gender roles. I think we are set up on this earth in a certain way and need to pay a little reverence that maybe someone else has a better idea of what is going on. I hope so. I have to give a presentation next week that gives words to women being silent in the church. It's complicated, I'll say. Can we first commit to the idea that we won't solve this problem in a paper?

Sorry for the inconvenience. The blog you are reading will be updated at the end of the semester when the writer has her life back.