Kennedy at Seminary

Friday, March 31, 2006

What my post said before it got deleted

I just wrote a very long post and the Internet froze up and I lost the post. I had many insightful things to say, trust me. Now I have to go to dinner before playing in a basketball tournament in less than an hour. Briefly, the post said my intramural softball team is 2-1, I think more churches should have young adult groups, and we read poetry today in C.S. Lewis class. I had all of this written out in detail, but now it's gone and I don't have time to rewrite it all at the moment. Tough cookies. I'll try again later, I guess.

25 days till Call Day.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

White stuff, be gone!


Where I'm from, IT DOESN'T SNOW THE FIRST WEEK OF SPRING! However, here in St. Louis, it does. Arrrrrg.

My favorite class is "The Gospel and C.S. Lewis." Right now, we're reading some of the Narnia books. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; and The Silver Chair, to be exact. Our professor, "Rev" Rossow, is a genius in my opinion. He's incredibly insightful. Also, he does something that many sem profs don't do well. He encourages creative thinking and makes you feel that your comments are valuable, whether you say something interesting or not. Often professors play a game called "I'm Going to Ask You a Question, But I Already Have the Correct Answer in My Mind, and What I Really Want to Do Is See If You Can Guess the Correct Answer I'm Thinking Of." It's refreshing to have a class that does not feed information but instead encourages creative thinking. I guess that's the nature of a literature class compared to a class strictly on theology, in which, frankly, there are right and wrong answers.

Snow, I'd like you to know, is associated with evil in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When Aslan, the Christ-lion, comes, winter goes away. Cold is evil.

By the way, the snow means our intramural softball game today is cancelled. That's why I have unbudgeted time to be verbose on the blog.

Have you given up anything for Lent? I forgot to think of something to give up. Someone, who didn't like people trying to please God by giving up something for Lent, once told me she was sacrificing her Wednesday evenings for Lent. In other words, she was attending Lent church services. I don't see anything wrong with giving up something for Lent. Self-discipline and personal reflection are healthy. Trying to earn brownie points with God is not healthy, but that's not the spirit of Lent.

On Sunday, I ran six miles for the third time in my life. (The other times were last spring and three weeks ago.) It was after church. I had just finished my Taco Bell gut bomb for lunch. I was comfortable in the recliner reading a book for Ethnic Ministries class. Then, breaking the silence, my buddy Josh LaFeve comes bouncing down the stairs. "Kennedy! Wanna go for a jog?" And, after some deliberation, but ultimately powerless to resist the Frenchman's offer, I said OK. Surprisingly, the Taco Bell didn't effect the run or my life afterward.

35 days until Call Day. (Call Day is when I find out where I'll be spending my year-long internship, or "vicarage," as we call it in the Lutheran Church.)

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Fish

Big drama this week. I bought a Betta fish. It's the first fish I've owned since winning some goldfish at a carnival in kindergarten. All I remember about those fish was "FLUSH."

Thursday, I went to Wal-Mart and bought a tank with filter ($10), flat marbles for decoration ($2), fish food ($2), and the fish (priceless - no, really it was $4). I named the fish Shamoo. I set aside homework and other responsibilities to assemble the tank and get the fish in there. I was very excited.

The next morning, I woke up and saw Shamoo lying on his side on the bottom, struggling for breath. After class, he was dead.

I think the problem was I tossed him into tap water without purifying the water. So, as soon as classes ended that day, I rushed back to Wal-Mart and bought another Betta, along with water-purifying tablets. My new Betta is bigger and can beat up anyone else's Betta. (It's amazing how many people immediately want to challenge my Betta to a fight with their Betta. But, I've been told, this new Betta would win. He's intimidating.) He's a brilliant red with blue here and there. His name is Toro because he's red like a Chicago Bull. I'm very much enjoying watching him swim in the tank. He's active. And he has lived for 24 hours in my room! A new personal record!