“Can we still imagine a Christian community that could form erotic characters in opposition to the state? That community would have to recal the extraordinary power of an englobing rhetoric that can begin in childhood and continue, through every stage of life, into promises for life beyond. It would then need to remember that its rituals are more than the belated ratification or affirmation of civic identities. The basic Christian rites, baptism and Eucharist, actualize strange possibilities for gendered desire, as they establish unusual relations with the bodies and “identities” of Jesus Christ. But the imagined community would have to acknowledge first of all that churches have not yet learned to talk about sexuality. They have relied for more than a century on hasty borrowings and nervous negations. They have mostly ceded their old power for forming characters around sex and gender. They have reduced the theology of gendered desire to a belated pidgin. ” (And with that, the tediousness of reading this book becomes totally worth it.)
What to do now?
In the post-graduation world I spend a lot of time frantically trying to relax.
Sometimes I’m more successful than others. For a week I entertained family. It was exhausting.
Now I get the chance to sit and read whatever I want. And more than that, I can read however I want. In the academy the aim is to critique everything in hopes that something new will emerge. It might be useful sometimes, but it’s also frustrating because you can never just “read” something. You always have to be looking for the gap or the whole or the mistaken logic.
But no longer for me! I have been liberated! I have been freed from the burden of trying to criticize folks who are way smarter than I am.
And so I read Mark Jordan’s new book without questioning, rather soaking up his use of narrative and language and the immense work he put into to producing the sophisticated narrative of the churches language regarding homosexuality.
It feels good to be free.
It’s kind of a crazy feeling. After all of those posts about assignments to finish, and work to do, now I have this piece of paper that says that for the last 3 years I have turned in all the right papers and sermons and assignments, have passed all the right classes, and have paid the right tuition.
And now…
I have a masters degree. (Taken with instagram)
As I embark on by post graduate reading, I picked up a copy of selected poems by Pablo Neruda. As I read through it, it’s all pretty good. Which I guess is a kind of stuck up thing to say. I mean, the guy is a pretty well known poet.
It also leaves me feeling a little snooty. Probably because I’m pretty sure Ted, in How I Met Your Mother, celebrates Neruda in an episode, and the show uses it as a way to build up his character, which is, well, kind of pretentious. Like that guy in college who does all the artsy stuff.
Anyways, I’m not going to let that discourage me. I’m posting this poem because it jumped out at me. I wonder at times if the first poem in a book will always do that, as if the first words read in a poetry book sound better the first time, before the poet gets a chance to reuse the themes and language again. Maybe all the poems in each volume are really about the same exact thing, and so the poet chooses the broadest poem to place first.
Or maybe I just really like this poem, and by chance it was placed first in this volume. I’m probably putting way too much thought into this.
(Taken with instagram)
This is the coolest picture ever taken.
“A bear spotted wandering around Williams Village this morning has been safely tranquilized by wildlife officials.”
And sometimes there’s a photo on the internet that everyone must see right now.
via CU Independent
Now that I have free time, I get to read what I want to read.
First on the line: Recruiting Young Love by Mark Jordon, who visited Vanderbilt earlier this spring.
The book is about the language of sexuality in the church, how it has been produced over time and how it functions. I’m definitely excited for it!
Oh, and did I mention that I am reading it for fun? Because I can do that now!
Finals update
In a few hours, I will turn in my last paper ever.
In honor of the occasion, I am waiting until the last possible minute to work on it. Like, how I was supposed to write it yesterday, and instead took a nap in the study room; then went out for beer with friends.
But alas, I will finish today, if only because it is actually due tonight.
And then I will be paper-less for the near future.
I say “near future” because I have had a rather high number of individuals pushing me towards PhD work.
But that doesn’t matter now. I am so close to finally not being a student. For the first time in 21 years (or so).
To the real world, with all of its realities and bills, to its weekends off and work stoppage every night, to its responsibility and expectation!
Bring it on world!
Into the iPad generation…
First post on a new iPad. Thanks to @brandydaniels for the sale. Now I can be one of those hip pastors who preach from their hi-tech device. Only not.
The last Week
Ok, this morning is the last time I will wake up knowing that when I go to bed I will not have any more major papers left to write. It’s that weird feeling when you realize that when you get out of bed, the next time you will be allowed to get back into bed will be when you finish the work you have to do. And depending on how much you get done during the day, you may not be able to sleep again until early the next morning. Is there an allnighter in my near future? Only time will tell.
On another note, in 1 week I will take my last final. Assuming I graduate, I will be done with school, and for the first time in my life, I will not be a student.
That’s going to be weird.
For this week, let the work begin!
This is a mule disguised as a library. He brings books and literacy to children in remote Venezuelan villages. Mules like him are called Bibiliomulas and they are perfect.
Furiously Googling flights to Caracas.
