So, many years ago, my partner Gary spent a couple of years running a hospital as a medical missionary in Africa. He took a lot of pictures. They are in a big box. I refuse to sort them, because they go like this:
Picture of African kids singing, picture of bunnies, picture of a sunset, picture of a festering cancer growing out the side of someone's head, picture of a papaya tree. Picture of a nurse holding the hand of a patient. Closeup shot of a bad case of warts in a region not usually featured in the compound W commercial.
When doctors see a particularly "interesting case" ("interesting" is ancient medical latin for "uh-oh"), they take pictures. They do that so they can have records to use to teach one another and improve on their skills, which is a habit I am willing to accept in the medical profession. So long as the medical profession doesn't go leaving bits of "self-improvement" photos in the slideshow collection entitled "life as a missionary in Africa--to show to church ladies". I'm just saying. We all have family doctors, and we're all glad they're engaging in ongoing education. Just not at the church ladies' tea.
It's different for ministerial development, of course, which is not gross at all. That said, after 2000 pages of reading about post-modern trends in the pedagogy of eschatological discernment, perhaps the brain tumour pictures start looking appealing. The general anaesthesia does, a bit, too. Sometimes, I feel that I do an awful lot of high level eschatological-ing for someone who will someday have a job preaching to people in such a way that they will not require PhDs. Or, hopefully, pillows and blankets.
As the preaching prof put it "it's better not to fall asleep while preaching. I saw it once. There really is no recovering from that." Personally, I have a pretty low threshold for getting bored, and so I have to craft sermons carefully so that halfway through I don't find my mind wandering and end up accidentally reading the words "pigeon rat" off of my sermon script. Out loud, instead of in my head like I'm supposed to. (I have trouble with forgetting to pause when I preach. So at certain points when dramatic effect is needed, I say certain words in my head. As in "And in the moments in life when we must reach for what runs deepest (pigeon rat), we turn to post modern eschatological…" Oh look, I am too bored with that sentence to finish it.
Which is why I blog. To do a little less learning about the theories of finding meaning in life and a little more actually finding meaning. It grounds me. And keeps me awake. Which is good, because I actually do need to learn the theory stuff. It's important.
So, here's the thing. As I am investing more time in my training, more and more I want to talk shop. Such as in the recent post that was a memo in response to a paper published by the president of theUUA, an entry that was exactly as witty and blog-y as it sounds from it's description.
I considered renaming this blog to accommodate my growing need to get all discern-ey and pedagogical, but as all of you point out, there's really no point. There's no combining. Like hemorroid photos and cucumber tea sandwiches. Renaming will not accomodate both blogs. A rose by any other name would still be boring if it was not actually a rose but a memo debating the finer points of rose gardening. Also, inviting colleagues to come read about denominational structure on the hummingbird blog is a little uncomfortable. There is always the off chance that they'd like what they read, want to know more, and scroll down a bit... which would take them right to a series of posts about troll boogers and trying to convince my minister that she should be the other half of my menacing crime duo.
It is time to sort the pictures of the cute African babies from the pictures of the festering internal organs. There are definitely two blogs in my brain. At least. Also, a monkey, a rabbi, and a terrible punch line. And a gremlin with a cheeky sense of humour.
Enter new blog.
It's like a choose your own adventure. Those wishing to continue as guinea pigs in my efforts to write about life in a way that is meaningful and also fun, settle in. No more memos, I promise. But if, perchance you think memos about eschatology and denominational development are the cat's meow, far be it from me to dissuade you. I really like them too. So feel free to journey on over to www.sacredlego.com, for "theology that moves, plays, and ends in 'go' ". On the rare occasion that something works for both blogs, I'll post it in both blogs.
In summary: Funny, hummingbird blog. Not funny, sacred lego blog. Double posting when applicable.
Although, no double posting for this particular entry. This one only goes here. Even though "Funny, hummingbird blog. Not funny, sacred lego blog." is kind of a good tagline for a new blog on postmodern trends in the pedagogy of eschatological discernment, don't you think?
But if I published this entry on the new blog, fellow students would say "perhaps you don't really understand what is meant by postmodern trends on the pedagogy of eschatological discernment".
Boy, would they be right.
I want to read both blogs!
Posted by: Sara | 02/17/2012 at 02:49 AM