Hurricane Watching and Other Types of Observations

It's the part of the week and the part of the term when I feel a bit squeezed.  Let me record some bits and pieces.

--Because we now have Disney Plus, we watched Frozen Tuesday night.  It's a cultural artifact that I almost completely missed, aside from a few songs.  I wanted it to be more progressive, but wow, there are some problematic aspects:  Disney princess culture really has not evolved.  And lots of men putting hands on young women whether they say yes or not.  Hmmm.

--We watched Hamilton on Sunday and Frozen Tuesday night, and I had songs from both soundtracks going in my head all night as Tuesday moved into Wednesday. 

--I went to the public library Tuesday, and I thought about how delightful it must be to work in my local public library.  The staff always seems pleasant, and as I said to my spouse, people who hate books don't come to this public library.  The branch always has kids there who are so enthusiastic about books and reading.

--The last thing I need is one more possible career path as I age, but I did think that if my other career/job/money making possibilities don't work out, I'd be delighted to work in that library.  I don't want to get an MLS degree, but maybe they hire less credentialed staff for less pay.

--I have been making my own greeting cards, with sketches on old sketchbook pages (a spiral notebook that has been too bashed in to be a good sketchbook). 

I have taken to enclosing a fabric heart or a fabric angel into the cards--an extra stamp, and I hope extra delight.

I got an assortment of colored envelopes which delights me. Such simple joys, and I'm so happy that simple joys still bring me such delight.

--Knowing the delight that different colors brings me, I also got some colored index cards, and when my students come for conferences, I give the a midterm grade report on a colored index card.  The colors are random, except for the orange ones when work is missing.  It's a good system so far.

--I don't always know for sure that conferences are a good use of time, but some of my students who are missing work did seem to snap to immediate attention at that orange index card.  We'll see if it results in work being done.

--I am keeping my eye on Hurricane Helene.  I am so glad that we no longer own a house in a flood zone.  I am a bit concerned about weather conditions when I travel to Williamsburg on Friday.

--It has been raining, with intense bursts, for 12 hours now, and that's not even Helene.  If you came here hoping for some spiritual insights that come with storm prep, head over to this post on my theology blog.

--And speaking of rain, let me get ready to head down the mountain.  From 7-8:30, we have light rain forecast.  Spartanburg Methodist College has moved to remote operations on Friday, and today I have lots and lots of conferences scheduled.  If I had classes scheduled, I'd move them to online today too, but this many conferences would be impossible to reschedule.  It's easier to just go in.

--Many public schools are not in person for the rest of the week, so maybe the traffic won't be too bad. 

Seeing "Hamilton" on TV

I don't have much writing time this morning, in that typical Monday way not a crisis kind of way, but I did want to note that I watched Hamilton yesterday.  I have wanted to see this show for years, but the timing was wrong or the money was wrong.

I watched the show on Disney Plus, which I realize is different than seeing it live.  It does have the advantage of being able to see all the expressive faces of the performer, an aspect that I imagine is lost in a live theatre, at least for the tickets that I can afford.

I also imagine that the lyrics might have been difficult to decipher in a live theatre.  One person nearby coughs, and everyone around that person has lost a chunk of lyrics.  I thought I might have problems, but I didn't, except for one rapid fire sequence.

I don't always like musicals where everything is sung.  I prefer the now old-fashioned kind of musical, where people burst into song periodically.  I also worried about the rap aspect, since that's not a musical form that's as familiar to me as other types of music.  I didn't have any problems.

It was a mesmerizing show, an interesting take on the U.S. Revolution, the fight for independence from England.  I loved that King George III was a character, and so funny.  There were so many moments of humor all along that I didn't expect.  It was such rich content, and I expect I'll be thinking about it for days and weeks to come.

I'd still like to see it live.  But it's wonderful to have this opportunity.  It makes me wonder if there are other Broadway shows that got this kind of transition to film.  I hope we get more, because not everyone lives in the path of those Broadway touring companies.

In the meantime, I may watch it again.

Seventh Covid Shot, with Flu Shot and Disney Plus

When I got home from work yesterday, my spouse and I went over to the Ingle's pharmacy (for those of you who are far away, Ingles is our local grocery store; we get our shots there because we get fuel points which gives us a tank of gas at a much reduced price).  Finally the new Covid shots are here, and we were ready.  As always, I try to get the shot on a Friday, when I don't have to travel/teach/preach the next day, just in case I have an adverse reaction.

So far, my left arm is sore, and that's it.  I got a flu shot in my right arm, and it's hardly sore at all.  I did some searching of the blog, and I don't think I noted a flu shot last year.  I think I got my flu shot and Covid shot at separate times, because we had Covid in September.  I think I got my 2023 flu shot near Halloween last year, and then my Covid shot in late December, which I did write a blog post about.

I am so grateful for this protection--it's not perfect, but I have hopes that between these shots and my habits of avoiding masses of people, my chances of avoiding disease are much better and having a less severe version if I do get it goes up.

We came home and got Disney Plus set up.  At some point this week-end, I need to watch the filmed version of Hamilton for my Monday seminary class, and Disney Plus is the only way to get it.  It's very affordable:  $1.99 a month for the first three months, and $9.99 after that.  I could also add a few dollars and get Hulu bundled into it--more viewing options.  But for now, we just went with the version of Disney Plus that comes with ads.

When I was thinking about this, I thought that I wouldn't find much to see on Disney Plus.  But then we discovered the 34 seasons of The Simpsons.  We haven't seen the last few years,  since we don't have much access to regular network TV--the antenna doesn't work well up here in the mountains.

So, we'll see how much we use the service.  We have a Roku stick, which first seemed to offer an abundance of riches.  As we've watched through the past two years, it's clear that much of the content is old and not updated, which is fine.  It's been fun seeing old shows that we've loved--and it's been interesting to see how those old shows that are still ongoing don't have the later seasons.

In some ways, I don't care.  I don't watch much TV.  But it's also irritating.  To find anything to watch, one must look through hundreds of channels.  We've used the My Favorites way of organizing, but by now, we've seen just about everything on those channels which are on a long-running loop.

So, as I said, it will be interesting to see if our viewing habits change.  There are movies and shows that aren't available on Amazon or Roku, our habitual streaming/viewing sources.  It will be good to have more options.

And I'm really looking forward to finally seeing Hamilton!

Field Work Report

As I've been outside with my students, I've been thinking about my own experience with writing.  We didn't go outside to observe nature, and my college campus would have been perfect for that.  My English 101 class was more like a literature class; we did a deep exploration of three short stories.  I never wrote the kind of papers I'm trying to avoid having my Spartanburg Methodist College students write:  the umpteenth billion "why pot should be legalized" kind of paper.

Until seminary, I didn't have classes that used creative writing approaches to help me learn to write or to see another perspective.  I'm thinking of the class I took 2 years ago, where we spent an hour in the courtyard with a sketchbook, a pencil, and our eyes (for more, see this blog post).  During my walk yesterday, I thought about a similar experiment with my students, but I decided to wait for a bit to plan.

I had picked up a variety of beautiful leaves, which I still wanted to use:

I picked them up because I didn't want students wandering campus yanking leaves off of the trees.  I thought we would sketch when I was picking them up.

I had them describe the leaves in words, and today, I'll try it again with the two afternoon classes.  In a few weeks, I'll pick up leaves again and have them sketch.  Still to be determined:  sketch with colored pencils or plain?

Some small part of me wonders if it's fair of me to force my students to have this closer experience with nature--just because I think it's important, why should I foist that on my students?  But the larger part of me knows that it's an important experience, and they're not likely to get it in their other classes.  I am astonished as I walk on campus; I am often the only one walking who is not staring at a phone.  I get to class, and everyone is looking at their phones.

Yesterday my students were outside doing a close observation of a tree, and while some of them were doing their best not to look at a tree, many of them were nose to bark with the trunk or staring up into the canopy of leaves.  Some of them are writing blissful accounts of how happy they are to have a favorite tree, and I do realize that some of them may be writing that way figuring it's what I want them to say.  Most, however, seem sincere.

I gave them a worksheet to fill out as they observed the tree, and some of them used factual language, while others had a more poetic approach.  Maybe they would have had a poetic approach even without the work we did in class.  But it's been fun to watch them experiment with language, even if they didn't realize they were experimenting with language.

I know that I am lucky to have this kind of latitude in planning my courses.  I know that I am lucky to be at a campus that is beautiful and safe.  I know that I am lucky to have escaped (mostly) the enchantments of the smart phone.  I know that I am lucky.

Creativity in the English Department

This has been a week of great creativity in our English department at Spartanburg Methodist College.  I've rounded the corner and come across students putting together presentations with a variety of art supplies collected by the teacher and left out in the public space of the office suite.  I've seen a different colleague sorting the costumes in the collective box that we keep in a cabinet.  I've led my own students through a poetry writing exercise so that they could attempt to write both factually and poetically about the tree they have been observing.

In the morning, I made this Facebook post:  "In my English 101 class this morning, we were using techniques that I have used in Poetry Writing classes to create language to describe a tree more evocatively. My students had never heard the song 'Poor Wayfaring Stranger,' so I sang the first verse for them, avoiding the refrain which goes higher than my vocal range. I was able to sing decently and remember all but one word. My students clapped, and we went on to create an evocative scene of a tree on campus, missing all the students who had graduated, a tree who can't go home the way that we all can."

In the morning, I thought, if you had told 25 year old me that I would sing in front of a room of students, I would have said you were crazy.  I'm not sure how I've gotten this brave, although perhaps it's a trajectory that makes sense.  In my younger years, I'd teach by way of zaniness and stand up comedy and saying outrageous things to provoke class discussion--singing Appalachian folk music isn't that far from what I did as a younger teacher.

In the afternoon, as I walked by my colleague sorting costumes, I thought about my younger self who was in a community college English department with colleagues that were horrified at my ideas about how to teach Literature.  Have students learn about poetry by writing poetry?  The horror!  Have an assignment like MacBeth's wife writing a letter to the editor?  Where is the serious literary analysis?  I was part of a group of younger colleagues who wanted to do things differently, and we had pleasant arguments about what those different methods should be.  

I am older now, and I see a variety of ways to teach writing, and some will work for some students, and some will not.  We go through the semester not knowing for sure, and we won't know, most of us, if our successful attempts to teach writing will stick with the students.  

I am grateful to be in a department that explores new ways of teaching, including using AI, so that students know what that tool can and cannot do.  I am grateful to be one of many using creative techniques to teach writing and literature.

Forgetting Hildegarde, Dreaming of a Breviary Project

As I've been puttering this morning, I thought, I should write a poem with the title "Hildegarde of Bingen Forgets Her Feast Day."  The poem could go in several possible directions:  she forgets because she is busy, she forgets because it no longer matters, she forgets because she has dementia.

I didn't quite forget her feast day, but I did remember later than I'd like.  The poem could have any saint for that matter, except that I don't usually forget the feast days of other important female saints:  Brigid and Julian and Lucia.  Of course, this short list makes me think that I probably forget many a feast day.

I also found myself thinking that I'd like to create a breviary (perhaps the wrong word, but I like it) of a collection of feast days that are meaningful to me and other sorts of remembrances.  I'd like it to include prayer and visual art.  Poems would be a wonderful addition.  I'd like it to be organized by calendar day, so I could open it in the morning, and the date would be on the top of the page.

I probably have more of a head start on this project than I know--I've written 16 years of blog posts.  By now, having to search the blog is cumbersome.  A separate book with a spine that I could consult each day would be beautiful.  I think others would like it too.  And if it already exists, that's OK.  The world seems to be open to multiple versions of devotional books.

If I want the book to contain my art, that's where I'm short.  And reproducing art would/could be much more expensive, which might be important to realize from the publishing side.

I don't have time to think about this possibility too much this term.  But I did want to capture it for later.  I had the idea just 10 minutes ago when rinsing out my oatmeal bowl, and it's really tugging at me.

Tropical Storm Shreds

We have tropical storm shreds over us here in the mountains of North Carolina.  Let me make a few weather related observations and then turn my attention to seminary writing.

--These storm remnants are not the scary kind.  The rain patters gently, and occasionally, we get a swirl of wind. 

--I will not be walking this morning.  It's been windy and rainy all night, and even if I wait until the last possible minute to walk this morning, it will still be dark.  The risk of slick leaves is just too great.  The key factor is the dark--it's hard to avoid slick leaves on black pavement, even with a flashlight.

--This morning, I made this Facebook post:  "Yesterday as I was getting ready to leave Spartanburg Methodist College, we talked about the tropical storm remnants that we expected to arrive within the hour. My department chair asked if it was cloudy yet, and I said, "Yes, but not the scary kind of clouds." My chair said, "It's not Edgar Allen Poe scary out there yet, is that what you're saying?" It was exactly what I was saying, and I had that "I am among my people" moment that is increasingly rare these days."

--Lots of people are mystified about the absence of big tropical storms in the last month. Some people are declaring hurricane season over. But we're far from the end of hurricane season. I am glad to be safe in the mountains.

--I have tended to think of hurricanes as being summer storms, but when I look at the history of big storms, more of them come in September or October than in June, July, and August.

Abandoned Lines and Poetry Puttering

I woke up this morning thinking that I should write a poem.  I remembered having some ideas for a poem.  I didn't remember what they were.  I decided to look through my abandoned lines document (which I wrote about in this blog post) and see if anything inspired me.

Once I got set up, I decided to go through old rough drafts and cut and paste lines into the abandoned lines document.  I have wondered if I should do this process, this cutting and pasting, as I write, but so far I haven't.

I don't really go through old rough drafts that often.  I was surprised to find some polished poems hiding in that rough draft file.  I started a new file so that I don't have to dig through the rough draft file each time I want to polish a poem.  I fought off the why should I even bother blues--and I put that line in the abandoned lines document.

As I was cutting and pasting, I remembered the poem I had planned to write.  Back in early August, we had a professional development day, and one of our options was a stop the bleed workshop, where we learned how to tie a tourniquet and/or bandage a wound.  I thought back to my Girl Scout days where we learned how to tie a tourniquet using only our bandannas and sticks found in the yard--while being severely cautioned that this technique was a last ditch effort only because it would lead to a lost limb.  One of my colleagues remembers being taught to cauterize a wound with a lighter--not a technique recommended by the workshop leaders. Ah, the joys of growing up in the 70's!

I'm still puzzling over the possibilities of that poem.  But here's an unexpected joy.  As I was sorting, cutting, pasting, writing, I came up with a new poem, about living in seminary housing, seeing people cross the parking lot, hearing singing through the walls at night.  It's not finished, but I have enough that I'll remember what I was doing when I come back to it.

I'm getting a lot of writing done these days, but I have to be intentional to get poetry writing done.  I'd like to do more poetry writing.  It's good to remember that puttering can lead to poems.

Pumpkin Sketching Season Commences

It's pumpkin sketching season again! I've been creating notecards to mail out to people who need some encouragement, but I don't always have an image at the ready.  I want them to be quick sketches, not the more detailed sketches that I do as my daily practice.  And, of course, I want them to bring a smile.  So, this week, it's been pumpkins:

The above is a sketch with my better markers, which offer more color choices.  About a year ago, I bought a $12 set of markers, which are much brighter and less blendable, even though they came with a blending marker.  Here's a sketch which used the above as inspiration:

Here they are in the same shot:

It's also pumpkin spice season, and I've gotten tired of opening lots of jars of spices to make my oatmeal special.  So, last week, I created a pie spice blend of my own, suitable for pumpkin pies, apple pies, oatmeal, or anything that needs the warmth of these spices.

I thought I might spend the whole week-end making autumnal creations in the kitchen, but I also wanted to see what my newly created sourdough starter would do with the help of some yeast.  We made amazing bread on Saturday.  I didn't get around to making pumpkin cinnamon rolls or pumpkin bread or something with a caramel frosting or any other treats.

It's been a good week-end so far, full of sermon writing, seminary writing, sketching, and baking, along with a trip to the library and the farmer's market.  The days have been warm, the nights mild enough to sleep with the window open.

The autumnal equinox approaches, and these days will soon be gone.  I will miss them.

Goats at Camp

 I knew the goats were coming; I could see a shelter for them, a shelter I first thought was part of a very early nativity scene.

Yesterday morning, I first saw them.  They scrambled up the small hill to investigate me, when I stopped to see if they had arrived.  

I kept walking so that I wouldn't disrupt their morning schedule.

I was expecting goats, but I thought it would be 2 or 3.  There are 11 goats.

Why have goats at camp?  They are here in the hopes that they will eat all the ivy that is strangling the trees and the undergrowth.

I could have stood and watched them all day--so in the late afternoon, I suggested to my spouse that we go back to visit.  We stood as the drizzle turned to rain, and again, the goats were so enchanting that we didn't want to leave.

Adopting a Tree in a Composition Class

I spent some time last night composing the assignment for Essay 2 for my English 101 classes at Spartanburg Methodist College.  Essay 2 has evolved beyond the "adopt a tree" approach that I first had in mind.  It's become an exploration of several different modes.  It will be a collection of several smaller pieces of writing, a bit more involved, but that's O.K. because they have some unstructured time during the week and a half of conferences that comes before Fall Break, which is Oct. 3-4.

They have written directions to the tree and tested them.  They have read two pieces of writing (an article in The Washington Post, which I hope is a gift article link,  about why everyone should have a favorite tree, and this piece with the same thesis, but a different approach) and by the end of the end of the week, they will analyze which piece is more effective, using at least one quote from each source.

They, too, will do something creative; here's the assignment:  

"Include a creative approach to your tree. Maybe you’d like to write song lyrics to the tune of 'Wayfaring Stranger' and record yourself singing it and accompanying yourself on the mandolin. Maybe you’d like to create an infographic.

But you don’t have to be that ambitious. You could take a picture. You could make a cartoon or a sketch. You could collect some leaves, make a bouquet, and include a picture."

They will write a description of the tree, two descriptions, one a factual one, and the other more poetic.  And then, they will write a meta-analysis essay, with this basic task:  "Write a short, multiparagraph essay of 500-750 words that reflects on your experiences so far. You might consider the following questions, or you might have a different direction that compels you. What have you learned as you attempted to do different kinds of writing? What have you learned as you observed the natural world? How have these experiences been different from other experiences you’ve had as a student, as a writer, as an observer of your surroundings?"

As I wrote, I did wonder if it was too big an assignment.  But we've been working on it in small pieces, and they will have some extra time to work on it, before the due date of Oct. 2.

I love that they are getting some experience with different types of writing, and I love the idea that they are doing a bit of learning about research instead of a more traditional research essay.  My hope is that this project is less able to be plagiarized, less able to be written by AI.

As we've gone along, I've reminded them that what we are doing is about much more than a tree.  I've reminded them of how these various skills could be useful in other kinds of writing.  Will they remember?  Who can tell?

But for most of them, this experience of deep observation is not like anything they've ever done before, and that aspect feels most important to me.  The writing that they are doing is much richer than the writing that I often get in the 101 classes I've taught, yet another paper on a social issue that doesn't say anything new, at least not to me, and probably not to them.  What we have been doing in the last few weeks is much less pre-digested, and that is feeding my soul.

Here is the final assignment, as it is now:

Dr. Berkey-Abbott

ENGL-101 Essay Two Assignment

Fall 2024

 

We have spent several weeks exploring not just our physical surroundings, but also different modes and types of writing.  Now we will pull those pieces together.  You’ve already done much of the work in our in-class writings, but you will still need to do a bit more.  Instead of class for the weeks of September 23-27 and September 30-October 2, we will meet for ten minute conferences in my office.  When we are not meeting for our conference, please use the time that you would have spent in class working on this Essay Two project.

 Please note that this Essay has several components.  Please use the following section titles into your document and then follow the instructions for each section and put your writing into the appropriate sections (there’s a document in the course shell in Brightspace, if you want to cut and paste instead of type):

Description of Your Tree

Directions to Your Tree

 Using Outside Sources (a mini-research experience)

 Infographic, Art, Visual, Creative

 Reflection:  Your Experience So Far

 -----------------------------------

 

Directions for the Writing that You Should Put in Each Section:

 

Description of Your Tree

--Write one paragraph that describes your tree factually.

--Write one paragraph that describes your tree with vivid and/or poetic language. 

 

Directions to Your Tree

--Write a set of directions that would get a person from the classroom to your tree (these can be the directions that you created for the in class assignment or you can create something new).  You may only use words—no photos.  Label this section “Directions.”

--Write a paragraph or two that tells what you learned about writing directions from this process.  Label this section “Reflection.”

Consideration of Outside Sources

During the week of September 9-13, we considered two pieces of writing with the same thesis statement, that everyone should have a favorite tree.  You can find those articles in the course shell in Brightspace.

 For this part of Essay Two, tell which writer was more successful.  Discuss at least two reasons.  Make sure to organize your thoughts into 2-5 paragraphs.  Please use at least one direct quote from each author. 

Infographic, Art, Visual, Creative 

Include a creative approach to your tree.  Maybe you’d like to write song lyrics to the tune of “Wayfaring Stranger” and record yourself singing it and accompanying yourself on the mandolin.  Maybe you’d like to create an infographic.

 But you don’t have to be that ambitious.  You could take a picture.  You could make a cartoon or a sketch.  You could collect some leaves, make a bouquet, and include a picture.

Reflection:  Your Experience So Far

Write a short, multiparagraph essay of 500-750 words that reflects on your experiences so far.  You might consider the following questions, or you might have a different direction that compels you. What have you learned as you attempted to do different kinds of writing?  What have you learned as you observed the natural world?  How have these experiences been different from other experiences you’ve had as a student, as a writer, as an observer of your surroundings? 

Remember to use standard essay format, which means you’ll need to think about how to create a compelling introduction that ends in a thesis statement and a conclusion that answers the questions “So what?  What is the significance of what you’re saying?”  You’ll need to have at least two main supporting points with lots of specific details and examples. 

 

Teaching Now, Teaching Then

My department chair is coming to my 9 a.m. class this morning to observe me.  In some ways, it's a routine observation.  But I am always a bit anxious before an observation; I want it to go well, and even when I know that the chair is supportive, I want to perform well.

Happily, it's a class that's still mostly positive, and it's a 50 minute class, so it should be fine.  

I didn't realize that the observation would be on September 11 when I first requested this day as my first choice to be observed.  I'm not superstitious, and I usually don't mention these kinds of historical events when I'm teaching.  It's very strange for me that most (all?) of my students weren't born on September 11, 2001.

This year, when I've reflected back as this day approaches, I remember walking to my car at the University of Miami, after classes had been cancelled and the U of Miami president, Donna Shalala, had presided over a university meeting.  I walked across campus to the distant parking lot, and I saw two of my students.  One of them saw me and said through her tears,  "We're going to have a war, aren't we?"

I tried to comfort her, assuring her that we'd probably do some air attacks and then we'd move along until the next crisis.  Now I look back and think about how naive I was as we stood on the cusp of the longest war, so far, in U.S. history.

At the time I marveled at the fact that I was now the adult consoling the student, where not so long ago, I'd have been the student worrying about the world going up in flames.  One of the strange parts of undergraduate teaching is realizing how much I have aged, as one does, even though the students I'm teaching remain the same age, wave after wave of late adolescents coming through my first and second year college English classrooms.

The students in my 9:00 class are still excited about being in college, still intrigued by the idea of learning to be better writers.  I realize what a gift their attitude is.  I realize how lucky I am to be able to continue in this profession, even as history unfolds and shatters so many lives and careers.

Baptizing Two Babies on One Sunday

 I feel like the sermon that I delivered on Sunday was one of my most powerful yet:  well written and delivered without having to consult my manuscript too frequently, delivered with the right amount of intensity.

But most people who were there on Sunday will be more likely to remember it as the Sunday that we had two baptisms:

I, too, am likely to remember the baptisms more than the sermon.  I did ask each mother if they wanted to have their babies baptized on the same day.  They assured me that they did.

It's a small community, both the church and the town, so it makes sense to me.  When I invited family members who wanted a better view to come take some of the front row seats, half the church moved forward.  I was a little worried about the logistics of having everyone in the baptismal party close to the font, but it worked out.

The first time I did a baptism at this church, back in November, I poured the water on the baby who was sitting up against his parent's chest, which is not the best position if one wants to keep water off the baby's face.  This time, I gave directions about how to hold the baby close to the font.  I don't think I will ever be the person who holds a baby while I'm baptizing the baby.

The babies were good natured, and so was everyone who moved forward.  The picture taking wasn't intrusive, but these days, I'm not likely to find picture taking intrusive.  I understand the desire to capture these moments.  I understand how quickly they will be gone, the little babies all grown up.

The mom above posted a picture of her own baptism.

Note that the baptismal banner is still the same one.  So is the dress worn by the mom at her baptism--now both of her children have worn it as their baptisms.

When I took this position as a Synod Authorized Minister, I expected to feel awe each week at the consecrating of the bread and wine, which I do.  But baptizing babies has been an unexpected joy.  There's a feeling of being part of a sacrament that is both in and out of time, a sense of connection to centuries of past Christians, and a sense that the Heavens might open up, and we might hear a voice declaring us to be loved and chosen.  

And if we listen, we will hear that voice, both during baptisms and communion, and in many other ways, throughout all of our days.

September, Season of Mists and Gnome Cuteness

In the mountains of North Carolina, September is a very different month from any I've ever experienced.  I've lived in the U.S. Southeast all my life, from Alabama to Virginia, college and grad school in South Carolina, and almost a quarter of a century in Hollywood, FL, far, far southeast.  I have always longed for autumn, perhaps because I remember wonderful autumns from my youth in Charlottesville, VA and Knoxville, TN, with hay rides and pumpkins and blazing leaves, all the autumnal elements that I love.

Even in Montgomery, Alabama, I remember the smell of the furnace coming on for the first time.  We'd have a chilly night in late September, and my dad would be the first one out of bed to make sure the house was warm for the rest of us.

For much of my adult life, in coastal South Carolina and coastal Florida, September has meant hurricanes.  Even the ones that had greater impact elsewhere had disruption and upheaval where I lived.  Some of it was my fault, my needing to pay attention just in case.  And when there weren't hurricanes, there was unrelenting heat and humidity.  September has not been lovely in coastal regions.

In the mountains, at least this year, I'm having a wonderful September.  I got out of the car yesterday and thought, someone is grilling something wonderful.  And then I realized I was smelling woodsmoke, even though it's not very cold yet.

From a distance, the trees still look green.

But up close, I see much more yellow, gold and brown.  

I hope it doesn't mean that we won't have more beautiful leaves, but I'm still new enough here that I'm happy for any leaves that change color, as opposed to the palm fronds that used to fall and damage my car.

These days, most of my walks take place in the pre-dawn dark, through roads at this church camp that houses my small neighborhood, with just a few streetlights.  The other morning, I watched the mist curling with literal curves I could see in the air, and I thought of Keats' poem "To Autumn," its first line "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness."  I've tried to capture that mist in a photo, but so far, with limited success.

The days are warm and dry and gorgeous.  The nights are increasingly quiet.  In late July, the crickets and cicadas sang until 3 a.m.  Last night I opened the window around midnight and was struck by the quiet compared to summer.

I think back to that Keats poem, which I've called the perfect autumn poem.  Yet when I teach it, my students are unmoved and perhaps baffled.  I tell them I'm going to read it and something autumnal is missing--can they tell me what's missing?  Hint:  it's falling leaves.  Not only can't they give me the answer, they can't fathom what's actually in the poem.

The other morning, as I walked and delighted in the fog rolling in on little cat feet (different poet, I know), I thought about fall and wondered if it's possible to write a poem that says something new about fall.  Until recently, I thought it wasn't.  But maybe now, in our time of climate change, maybe so.

This year, I'm not the person to write that poem.  I'm still wonderstruck by all the traditional autumn elements that are all around me.  I've made several batches of pumpkin bread, and this week-end, I think I'll make pumpkin cinnamon rolls.  I will stop by an apple orchard soon.  And I've added the gnomes to the pumpkin patch I'm creating by our mailbox:

This Saturday, I hope to add more pumpkins when I go to the farmer's market.  Let me close with a close up of those gnomes made out of yarn.

Now let me lace up my walking shoes and go out into the autumn morn (to use Keatsian diction).

Crafts for Christmas 2024

Yesterday was the perfect day, the kind of day that makes me wish I could have another one just like it.  I spent most of the day at the Crafts for Christmas retreat.  I got my sermon written before I headed over to the retreat, which meant I could enjoy it completely.

It's a participant run retreat, and it works beautifully.  Everyone brings a craft to share, along with supplies so that everyone can make the craft for themselves.  Some crafts are limited in terms of how many each person can make, but many aren't.  Each table has a finished example of the craft and plenty of supplies.  It's a delight.

I wasn't going to make a gnome out of yarn, but they were so cute, that I decided to give it a try.  The hat looked weird to me, so I made a different hat, and then I created something else out of the failed hat.

The craft I brought was fabric arts, with supplies for people to make a heart, an Christmas present, and/or an angel.  

They could be ornaments or you could put one in an envelope and mail it for the cost of 2 stamps.

I really liked that we could use materials from other stations.  I was hoping that my friends would bring buttons, and they didn't let me down.

I wasn't going to make some of the crafts, like the above trivet with wine corks, but then I gave it a try and liked it, especially as I experimented with some of the writing and images on the cork.

I made some cards, but didn't get pictures of them.  I had the opportunity to make ornaments like the one above and/or napkin rings, but decided not to.  That's my only objection with this retreat.  I don't have that many gift-giving obligations these days, and I live in a small house with not much room for more stuff.  So I focused on stuff that I can give away.  The gnomes will live in the pumpkin patch I'm creating for the front driveway.  I need more pumpkins.  Will I wish I had more gnomes, like this whole family of gnomes that we created?  If so, I'll know how to do it.

I didn't get pictures of the cooking that we did.  Everyone brings food, which means we had an abundance of food.  And there's no way to capture fully in words the joy of a day of working together on separate projects, interspersed with great conversation and the fellowship of food.

I have known about this retreat for years, but for years I lived in South Florida, and I couldn't come for a variety of reasons.  It seemed like such a long drive for such a short retreat, and it was.  Still, I feel regret for the years that I didn't get to experience this.

Let me shake off regrets and just enjoy that I can do these kinds of retreats and get togethers now.  Better late than never.

Happy Birthday, Queen Elizabeth I

Today is Queen Elizabeth I's birthday, which made me want to create a card for a friend of mine who loves Queen Elizabeth.  No time to shop for a card--but I did have time to make a quick sketch:

She looks rather ghastly, but then again, most of the portraits that I've seen of her show her as a rather ghastly visage.

I thought about what I had written for a weekly writing about her for Church HistoryII.  My writing time is short this morning, so here's what I wrote in February of 2023:

This week, I am thinking about all the ways of governing a country (and governing a Reformation):

--Hearing that so many French Huguenots survived King Louis XIV because they fled or were forced out—that fact made wonder why a country decides to burn so many “heretics” at the stake, as England did, and why some countries evict people (like the Jews from Spain) and some countries seems to manage to have a more flexible live and let live approach (although I realize that most countries did not manage to create a live and let live approach for very long, even if they were successful for a certain time period). I realize the reasons may be very complicated: control by fear/terror of the remaining population, not wanting to lose valuable people as they flee, royal connections to other countries that might temper the tendency to terror or inflame it. And of course, some of these rulers, like Mary Tudor, believe they are doing the Lord’s work by purifying the country (and yes, I do realize her motives may have been more mixed).

--Thinking of different approaches to heretics made me think of Elizabeth I and how I have admired her for so many years now. When I was very young, I read a biography of her: the kind that was marketed for elementary grades, a whole biography series on a shelf in the library, with orange binding, and I worked my way through the whole series. I remember how much the biographer praised her for how smart she was not to get married, to keep her suitors waiting and hoping, how she avoided wars with other countries this way. It may have been a gross oversimplification, but I do remember thinking, she got to be a queen and rule all by herself, which is better than any other option she had. Why on earth would you want to be married when you could be the queen? And yes, I am married, but I’m married to a philosopher who delights in these kinds of questions, so it’s not a slight against my spouse or even against marriage, so much as it’s an insight into my way of thinking about patriarchy and leadership.

--I am also thinking about another lesson in how to rule a country that I learned as an English major in college. We were taught that Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans failed because they were a joyless bunch, and when they cancelled Christmas, that was the last straw: bring back the king! Happily, Charles II had been safe in Europe, waiting for just this change in sentiment. Again, an oversimplification, but as is the way with many oversimplifications, a bit of truth.

--Lessons learned if ever I am a ruler: don’t cancel Christmas or the holidays/events that are relatively harmless, good for the economy, and bring people joy. Don’t commit to one suitor (or in contemporary terms, one ally), so that everyone remains on their best behavior. And be aware that just because I think I’m doing the Lord’s work, I may not be, so don’t institute reigns of terror. I say this with a bit of humor, but also with the realization that we’d have a better world if more leaders governed this way.

Oozing Boxes and Good Books

And here we are, at the end of a week.  A Monday holiday always gets me off schedule, and I'm a bit surprised to find we are at Friday.  Let me capture a few details from the week.

--I have now been in conversation with Amazon for almost 24 hours.  I opened the door yesterday to find a box oozing dish soap on my porch.  I was supposed to return the damaged item.  I wrote to say, "Really?  Return this soggy box that's oozing a gelatinous substance?"  I was asked to give them a picture.  

I did.  They said they'd have an answer in 6 hours.  They did not.  I am now in "conversation" with yet another representative.

--That "representative" disconnected us.  Another chat, and problem may be solved:

Let me write about happier things:

--I am reading Isabel Wilkerson's Caste:  The Origin of Our Discontents for a seminary class.  It is SO good.  Our professor has given us a few extra days to write about it, and I'm glad.

--It's interesting to me how enjoyable I'm finding most of my writing for seminary and how much it helps me learn.  I'm thinking about how to adapt these different types of reading/writing/processing assignments for the classes that I teach.

--When I get home today, I head over to the main part of camp for Crafts for Christmas.  It will be good to be with friends, most of whom I first met at Create in Me retreats.

I didn't get a walk in yesterday because of this Amazon mess.  Let me head out to get a walk in this morning.

Different Approaches to Storytelling

I've spent the last several mornings watching the videos for my seminary class on Biblical Storytelling.  Some of the material reminded me of some of the activities that my Florida church did when we had more children and experimented with interactive services.  It wouldn't take much to adapt these techniques for any church or group.  I'm thinking of adapting them for my Intro to Lit class, and I feel lucky to be at a school where I could.

We had a few puppets which we often used, often with costumes, but just as often not paying attention to what the puppet wore:

I don't know that I ever met a child who wasn't rivetted by a puppet.

But even if your church doesn't have puppets, which can be expensive to buy, or doesn't want to make puppets, you could have fun acting out the story.  We had a box of costumes/old clothes, but this picture shows that even if you don't have such a box, you can make do with whatever you have on hand--like paper towels:

In my Biblical storytelling class, we'll need to be able to get 75% word accuracy without consulting the text, but we certainly didn't do that in my Florida church.  The cool thing about approaching the Biblical text as skit is that one person can read, while the others act.  And no rehearsing is necessary.

This class has made me think about the Intro to Lit class that I'll be teaching next term.  It's been tough to get the students to come to class having read the text.  I'm going to ponder whether or not some of these techniques could be adapted to the college classroom.  Stay tuned!

Reading Notes, Teaching Notes

Let me record a few teacher thoughts, in this morning where I look at the clock and see that my blogging time has almost disappeared.  But that's OK--I had offline journaling time, and poem composition time, and seminary writing time.

--One of my seminary classes has us do reading notes, which can be in any form we like.  We could annotate the text and upload our notes.  We could write summaries.  It can be anything, so long as we demonstrate we've read the text.  I am creating a Word Doc for each text and in that doc, I am writing the kinds of notes I'd make in the margins, and when the text will let me, I cut and paste the text that I would underline.  I enjoy this much more than I think that I will, if the text is good.  And it does force me to engage with the text in a way that I might not otherwise.  For example, I skim less.

--I'd like for my college classes to do this, but I shudder to think at how much they would want me to explain what I'm looking for.

--I did come across this website, which explains TQE, a process for having high school students engage with a text.  It seems very doable, and I will try it.

--In fact, maybe I'll try it on the day that my chair comes to observe me--even if it doesn't work, she'll be O.K. with that.  She'll like the small group work that I have planned.

--Would I be thinking this way if my chair didn't want me to choose an observation time?  Yes, but I might be less methodical.

--I am thinking about doing a whole different set of classroom activities for my English 100 class that meets Thursday afternoons.  I've been trying to keep the 3 sections doing the same thing each week, but next week, we'll diverge.  This Thursday class is the one that is most likely to careen into sullenness and eye rolling.  Let me try to nip this in the bud.  I will modify the tree module that I'm doing in English 101 right now.  It will get the students out of the classroom and engaging in new ways.

--My first thought when I thought about having one class be on its own schedule was to wonder how I will keep track.  But I'm having trouble now.  The Tuesday-Thursday class meets for 75 minutes, and they are so restless, ready to be done and to leave after about 20 minutes of class time.  Let me put them on a completely different schedule and see what happens.  I may save myself lots of time in not having to make notes about who has done what.

Report from Labor Day Week-end

This has been a good week-end, and not just because I had yesterday off.  Let me capture some of the elements that made it special before they slip away into the mists of September memory:

--I enjoyed working on seminary classes.  They are going to be even better than I expected, and I was expecting them to be wonderful.  This morning, I watched some of the videos from my Biblical Storytelling class, and I thought, my drama nerd heart is very happy at the thought of this class.

--I had some good sewing time.  I worked on my quilt top, which always brings me joy, and in the spirit of full disclosure, is also bringing me some frustration as it gets bigger and bigger.  The frustration comes from needing longer and longer strips, so I'm no longer piecing together very small scraps.  But I've always found it soothing to sew in straight lines, so overall, I'm still happy with this project.  Here it is, stretched out across our queen sized bed, with burgundy comforter and pillows visible at the top.

--I also had fun constructing some projects for the upcoming Crafts for Christmas week-end.  I was trying to make an angel out of circles, and it took me several attempts before getting something close to what I had in mind:

My friend was making these angels out of paper and flat bead faces to put into Christmas cards.  

When I saw hers, I wondered if I could create something similar in cloth.  Now I'm pretty sure that I can.

--On Saturday, we had brunch with a variety of second cousins and their children and grandchildren.  What a treat!

--I was very pleased with how my sermon went on Sunday, and several people told me they liked it, people who don't always say that.  Hurrah!  You can read that sermon here.  

--I had wonderful walks, full of mists and fall colors.  

A new season is underway!

New Moon on Monday, Which Is Also Labor Day

It is Monday, a Monday with a new moon, which sent me to YouTube, where I watched the video for Duran Duran's "New Moon on Monday."  I had never seen this video, which isn't surprising.  I was in undergraduate school, and the communal TV in the lounge barely got network stations; it did not have cable.

The video is oddly compelling, a little film with soldiers that could be East German or Soviet, violence going on in the background, espionage in the foreground, a horse-drawn wagon of explosives in an inner city of cobblestoned streets, a motorcycle speeding across countryside.  It feels like a cultural artifact from a different age, which of course, it is.

It is Labor Day Monday, which feels like a treat.  I'm happy not to be racing through my Monday schedule, which would have me heading down the mountain to Spartanburg Methodist College to teach my 9 a.m. Composition class and then doing my hour at the Writing Center before an office hour and then two more classes.

It is September 2, which means our new health insurance through my job has gone into effect--which means I need to cancel our insurance that I got through the Affordable Care Act.  It means filling out paperwork, which means I need to budget a bit more time than I had thought.  Happily, I will have time later.  Let me get some seminary work done first.

At some point, I will switch to listening/watching the videos I need to for seminary classes this week, but this morning, I am listening to Jennifer Egan's interview with the New York Times podcast show about books.  She's talking in great detail about how she composed A Visit to the Goon Squad.  If I ever teach a creative writing class about fiction and/or short stories, I want to remember this podcast.  She gives great insight about how she arranged the short stories, about the different types of narration (first person, second person, that intriguing experiment with PowerPoint), about the other writing she's done.

It also reminds me of how I wanted to create a book of linked short stories, and I did.  It's not nearly as masterful as Egan's.  It also makes me want to write more fiction, but that's not the semester I can have this term.  If I'm lucky, I can do some poetry writing.

In past years, I would have had a massive poetry mailing created the old-fashioned way, with paper, stamps, and envelopes.  That tells you how long ago it was.  Part of me wants to do a bit of submitting today, but let me not get distracted.  I have seminary work to do.