Now this is a lesson that I have learned before and I am sure I will be taught it again. I realized this week that there are only so many hours in a day and that my body requires a few of them for sleep. You might think that is lesson that I learned but no, I knew that. What I learned is the number of hours of sleep my body requires to function.
But I didn't stop there. I continued to see how many days in a row I could sleep below the minimum required hours and still function.
This week was a very, very, very, very long week. This week, the 11th week of the fall term was Hell Week. In a short 5 day period, I had 4 papers due. I had 2 papers due for Old Testament, 1 paper due for History of Christianity and 1 paper due for Anglican Studies. And I struggled to write them.
Part of my struggle was the topics I was writing about. After all who wouldn't want to write a paper with the following theses:
1. In order to understand the difference in Pelagius and Augustine’s teaching, one must understand the different cultures in which they taught.
2. The revelations given to Sarah and Hagar are not consistent with the status they hold within their culture because a messenger of God speaks directly to the inferior woman, Hagar.
3. Missions of the Anglican Church within the Asian Pacific region
4. Reflect upon the 27th Chapter of Jeremiah (no he wasn't a bullfrog)
The other issue is that I beat myself up for is my writing. I'm always saying that I don't write as well as everyone else. I really worry about my papers and what I write. So it is always nice to hand a paper in and not to worry about it again for a few weeks until I get it back with the comments.
I have found a third year student who is willing to read my paper and correct grammar, critique my arguments and check to ensure that I have documented the paper properly. Jessica is an incredible writer and I am blessed to have her proof my papers.
But again I digress, back to this week. (Jessica also fixes that in my papers)
I learned another valuable lesson this week.
When I try and write a paper on any subject, I need to know everything there is to know about the subject before I am able to write the paper. Thanks to my History of Christianity professor for pointing that out to me. On Monday afternoon, I went into his office in a moment of sheer panic. The thesis statement for his paper that I had come up with wasn't possible for me to do. I was up against a brick wall. I explained everything I had read and come up with and he just looked at me and said tweak your thesis to this and as they say the rest is history. My paper was difficult to write but I have learned an incredible amount of information, both about the subject but also about how I operate.
I learned another valuable lesson this week.
I am a theo-geek! There are 2 major academic groups for theology, The American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society for Biblical Literature (SBL). They are having a joint meeting in San Francisco this weekend and I am attending some of the lectures. There must be 1000 lectures over 4 days so you can be totally immersed in any topic you choose.
This evening, I heard N.T. Wright, John Dominic Crossan, Amy-Jill Levine and Bart Ehrman speak about Assessing the Impact of Two Centuries of Critical Biblical Scholarship. If you haven't heard of any of these people, google them. It was incredible. They are witty, light hearted yet serious and thoroughly enjoy speaking on the subject. I am so glad I was able to go.
The other meeting I went to tonight was an interesting one. I went because a good friend of mine was on the panel and I wanted to support him. It was the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus. Let me tell you, I now know what it is like to be a minority. I was the only straight person in the room. I learned more about the issues facing the LGBT community within the seminary environment as well as in the greater church. One person spoke about how they had to change their focus in their degree program because of their sexuality. How is it that in this day and age, we cannot accept people for who they are not by who they love. I am glad I went because I will need to understand these issues once I am in parish ministry. I hope that I will be able to support people as they struggle with issues of sexuality and also be able to not marginalize them as society sometimes does.
Tomorrow is another day of seminars and then perusing the exhibit hall where there are over 150 different vendors selling their wares. I can't wait to see what new books are coming out. I'm sure you are all sitting on the edge of our seats getting all excited aren't you.
Jay
Oh and I almost the answer to the amount of sleep is 3.5 hours a night minimum and no longer than 4 nights in a row. After that both my class notes and my papers start to be incoherent.
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