Gnosce Te Ipse

I want to title this 1.0, as in the beginning of a series, but with school rolling...I hate to do that and abandon it. I'll write what I can here and hopefully more will come later. My brother has been telling me to read MC for a while now, saying, 'dude, it's where you're at.' Okay, cool. I loved Lewis as a young reader, Narnia , the Space Trilogy (though I didn't manage Hideous Strength until I was an adult) Till We Have Faces (a novel I've taught now twice in college myth courses); think I read Screwtape . And as an adult, I was impressed with Surprised by Joy and have long liked, since college, The Pilgrim's Regress . But I don't think I ever read MC , though some of the ideas I've heard other places in Lewis. And by now, I was looking forward to EFM, to Von Rad's commentary on Genesis, waiting for time to read Wright and Plantinga. Looking, I confess, for greater faith. Not that I don't have faith, personal and sacramental;...

I love blog. The posts I received to my concerns about teaching below were thoughtful and I'm still reflecting on them. I don't get many comments up here per post, but the ones I get are always good. Many thanks. School is slamming me. Slamming. So I haven't had time to do much of anything else. I still want to do things to personalize the look of this blog, but again, when I can. Like Christmas. Look for snowflakes and Santas. But the minds and hearts that blog has opened me to are exquisite: most are in the margin (excuse the Trek lingo). If you are new here, check them out; they cover a genuine range. I just wanted to say thanks to all who have supported me over the last year plus. Troy

Well, I finally added a counter to my site; unfortunately, I wanted it to be invisible but that costs money. Also, though it's not supposed to count my own visits to my sites it is, including every refresh. Worse, it only shows 45 hits (I've been updating the page a little). Imagine someone strolling in and saying, 'jeez, this guy has been blogging for nearly 18 mos. and he's only been visited 45 times.' Actually, none of that really matters. I'm just curious how much my page is even read. It looks like poop, I know. And I used to write web code pretty often; I just don't have or take the time to change the look here. No pictures either. Just long, narrow posts. But how I love to do the writing; love it and wish I had more time to do even more of it. Anyway, sincere love to my friends up here. Hit me. t

Geez. First week of school is complete anxious chaos. Am. Lit. (first half) for the first time and I'm only one reading ahead of the students; Honors Comp. for the first time (though I have taught some of the texts before, and read almost all, for some it's been years); a new basic grammar class (hot on the schedule heels of Honors); and Freshman Composition, online for the first time. My usual online Advanced Comp. classes are back next semester; for now I'm creating this online class as I go, typing out lectures that I've been doing in the classroom for years. Actually, that's not such a bad experience, but I should have done it over the summer. Instead, I taught summer school for the first time since I was hired full-time. Bites. Gnaw and bites. I guess things could be worse. But here's the rub: I love to feel competent, look competent, even in the eyes of 18 year old kids. Especially, maybe, the smart ones who tend to be more demanding, whose approv...

Steph is back, Mikey is back (with a deeper voice, more height, longer hair, and a genuine teenage look, amazing) and school starts for me Monday. Since I'm teaching almost all new classes, two new courses online, the first half of American lit for the first time, an Honors comp (for which I ordered things like Bacon's essays and Plato's Symposium and Faust, Part One) I have lots of prep work ahead. I only hope all this doesn't cut into my blog time too much. I have a hard time getting free online time as it is! Since I've begun going to church again I haven't really 'shared my faith' except perhaps here. Maintaining the skeptic's attitude and often, struggling with many questions about my faith (some fair, some driven or at least exacerbated by anxiety) I haven't been out knocking on doors. And so it was odd that two days ago, having lunch with the first friend I made at my college, this is what ended up happening. My friend B has a doctorat...

Hey all, Santa Cruz was awesome. I got through my first two days of sailing instruction (three more weekends to go) quite handily. And on the real ocean. The second day our little boat was deeply heeled in steady wind, bouncing off two and three foot swell. Try that in SF Bay. There's plenty of wind, but not the wave action. I loved it. The water in Santa Cruz, unlike the Bay, is also blue, gorgeous, rich, full blue. It's a wilder, more natural place. It's farther, yes, but worth the drive some weekends a year. Plus, I'm very proud of my accomplishment. In fact, one of the women on the boat was very afraid and was taking the class to get over her fear. It was great to see that. I was only a little afraid once or twice, like when the instructor took the tiller from me because I was doing something stupid; mostly I just had wild, wild fun. And everyone was very nice to me. Jamie, the guy who fixes the boats (what else do you call that?) took me the second nigh...

On the bright side: I do my first weekend of sailing classes this weekend in Santa Cruz and I'm very excited; S is out of town and it seems like a good way to spend my time. On the dark side, I'm sitting here with Dr. Phil on, S asleep on the couch getting over a cold. His show is about a place called Colorado City, a town completely run by polygamists, 'fundamentalist' mormons, long disowned by the mainstream LDS. I read Under the Banner of Heaven a couple years ago, and I've heard these stories before. A reality quite apart from The Scarlet Tent . And I can't help but think of Jesus' comment in Mark (and also in Matthew and Luke): "And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. Does this fit Colorado City? A town where 15 year old girls are forced to marry fifty year old men and share them with other wives, in the name of r...