Monday, January 09, 2006
Back on Track
That deserved a paragraph all to itself. All in all, they were not as horrid as the mind made them out to be. Intellectually, I understood that going in to them, but experientially, it is a hard feeling to overcome. We'll find out sometime in February how we did, so there's nothing to be done about them until then, and hopefully, nothing to be done about them after then either.
I had my first day of Field Ed at St. Luke's today and that went well. I sat in my office and worked on some things. I made a business phone call from my phone. It was all quite official. And the best part was, it all began at lunch. I asked my boss on Sunday when she wanted me to come in on Monday morning, and her reply was that she did not so much believe in Monday mornings, why didn't we start by meeting for lunch. There was no argument from my corner. Then, in the late afternoon, I had my first session of Use of the Voice, which is a singing and chanting class. It didn't go too bad today, but we did have to do some solo singing (just monotone today) and that was a bit scary. Never, in my whole life, have I ever sung solo in front of people. I had an opportunity on the stage once, but my director took my singing part away from me; I may still not be over that. So, I guess this class will be good for me in the long run. It's rather terrifying to me, but luckily, I have a great professor who I trust a lot, so that's a definite bonus. I'm not sure it would be possible for me without that trust.
Let's see, what else has been going on? I read another book, this one called Gilead, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Marilynne Robinson. It was recommended to me by a friend of my Mother's and a few days after the recommendation, she brought her newly finished copy by for me to borrow. Written in the first person, it tells the story of the Rev. John Ames, a preacher (of ambiguous denomination, but whom I am inclined to believe is Episcopal) late in years. He had a second marriage late in life that resulted in a son whom the Reverend is afraid he will never really know. So, as he is slowly dying of old age, he writes a letter to his son, and that letter comprises the tale. I think I'll make it mandatory reading for all parishioners, just for the myraid correct insights it gives into the clerical life - the parts you don't see. My boss said it was also a pretty good theology of Atonement, and I can definitely see that as well. I was also pleased by it because I definitely had it pegged as going one place and it didn't go there at all. Either way would have been a fine story and fine writing, but I am always slightly miffed at myself when I correctly guess where a story is going. I like the surprise. I like being told the story. Read a short story by Flannery O'Connor after that and am tonight picking up Anita Diamant's The Red Tent, having loved every minute of Frederick Buechner's The Son of Laughter a while back.
-R
6 Comments:
"doesn't so much believe in Monday mornings"... Ha! I knew I liked her!
By 
Susie/Nueva Cantora, at
10:25 PM
Umm — Ryan — didn’t you forget to mention something?
...and Duke beat Wake.
-R
May God bless everyone standing near you in Use of the Voice...
:-)
Sherriff
By 
, at
2:13 PM
Ryan
This may be too far down to read but...
1st, Gilead - awesome book!
2nd, I too took Use of the Voice. I am a horrible singer. I took it because I knew it was a challenge for me. It was a great class for me. After I sang Evening Song (as you will) SO many classmates and faculty came in to congratulate me. They knew what a stretch this was for me. It was really a higlight of my time at Seabury. And Bob Finster was so GOOD to me in that class.
Nope, not to far down to read at all...Thanks for the encouragement, David. My field ed supervisor asked me when I was signed up to do Evensong and when I told her she made a note of it in her calendar, so that's pretty nice too.
As to the question from St. Michael's -
I thought a couple of the GOE questions were well written and fairly asked. The Ethics set was one of the better ones - it said in the wake of the recent natural disasters (hurricanes and tsunami) the practice of "absolute triage" had come to the fore of many ethical discussions. Absolute triage can be defined as the practice of giving medical attention to those who have the highest chances for survival while knowing that making other, more seriously injured persons wait will likely result in their death. You had to justify this practice from a utilitarian standpoint first (easy), and then from a Christian standpoint (not so easy).
-R
