I thought this year might be different than last, as it relates to being better at writing here, but when you’re reading and writing LOTS in graduate school, somehow the brain power that it takes to do all that seems to bring on brain drain. But today, the second day of April, I’m no longer going to use that excuse not to write a little something creative.
This semester has already been a very full one! On top of that, this little college town is beginning to grow on me, and much to my own personal surprise I too feel my heart beginning to thaw like the days as we get one day closer to true Spring. And then there’s this crazy crew of undergrads that fondly call me “Auntie B”, and even in writing that, I get a little teary-eyed thinking of saying good-bye to them; amongst everyone else I’ll say that to.
Even as I sit here in my favorite local coffee shop (two days in a row at My Half of the Sky, #yourpurchasematters), there’s a conversation going on among three generations of men focused on people living out the gospel; while a couple women to my left talk through life and life choices. The sense of collaboration that is created in the realm of academia, IT REALLY DOES EXIST here, and it is heavy in the air. Just less than hour ago, my friend Mike who dropped me here after class, we began a conversation of “sojourner” and neighbor and how we appropriately view this with the lens of the scripture without neglecting its context within that day’s politics as well as today’s. Often in these moments, I find myself thinking I can’t believe I’m having this conversation or remembering that moment in National Treasure when Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) reads the line from the Declaration of Independence, and then he goes onto say “people just don’t talk that way anymore.” I begin to ask, “WHY NOT”?! Don’t worry, I’m not going to do what he did, but let’s contemplate that question together.
Why is that we’ve stopped having conversation? In looking at the definition, “a talk, especially an informal one, between two or more people, in which news and ideas are exchanged”, we see a different definition than maybe we’re used to. As I shared in my INTENTIONAL post, in January I finished the Turquoise Table, by Kristen Schell, and her constant challenge to engage your neighbors and neighborhood in conversation is still fresh in my mind; and truthfully I feel like it’s appropriate here. The sharing of ideas, and true collaboration wasn’t just unique to our country’s forefathers, but this can also been seen in some of our faith-fathers as well; so, it would make sense we would heed the call to collaborate and conversate the practices of our modern age. I definitely don’t have a wish to “do it myself” anymore, despite my childhood anthem. And I leave it there…let’s get out there and conversate about living this life well. “Being present & listening is the foundation of Hospitality.” – Kristen Schell
Take offs & landings 