the next chapter

What is it about me and life transitions? For those of you who don't know, this August I'm undertaking another. I was blessed with several great options for next year, but I'll be heading off to Princeton, NJ to start the Mdiv program at Princeton Theological Seminary. It seems like I'm always doing this - leaving friends, church, job, and what currently feels like home. This one will be especially hard since I'll be leaving Marianne for a year. Of course, I have marriage to look forward to at the end of the year. That helps! I'm reminded of Jesus' parables about waiting patiently, but expectantly for the bridegroom. Maybe this coming year will give me new insight into waiting for Christ's return. Marantha Lord Jesus! (and maranatha marriage!)

But as I look ahead to this fall, I'm filled with excitement and trepidation. I can't wait to get back to the academic environment, but I worry about the adjustment. I haven't written an academic paper in a long time. I have all sorts of questions about money, classes, transportation, classmates, but I'm trying to let them go. If I've learned anything from all the transitions I've gone through before, it's that God will be wherever I go. We're pretty sure this next step is God's will, and even if it's not he'll find a way to redeem it. As Neal Plantinga has said, "God is in the salvaging business." Maybe one of these days I'll finally settle down (I hope!).

two thoughts on american culture

1. Last night Marianne and I once again enjoyed the privilege of hanging out with our friends Patricia and Daniel. I use that verb "hang out" on purpose, because of a question Patty had for us. She was wondering if English had a verb that meant to get together with people without having any set agenda or plans. The only thing we could come up with was "hang out," a relatively new addition to English and a usage that is still considered slang by some (Merriam Webster, for one). Using it to mean literally hanging something out (as in your shingle) is somewhat older, but I couldn't get details on the origins of the usage I'm talking about (how I wish I had the OED!). Anyway, I bring this up because in Portuguese there's a wonderful verb - combinar (I think that's the spelling). It's used for this sort of unplanned spending of time together, as well as situations were we might say things agree with each other. One of my favorite examples that Daniel mentioned was coordinating colors, as in "that blue and this brown really combinar." I will now refer to any colors that go well together with the verb "hang out." (i.e. The color of that new couch really hangs out with the carpet.) I wonder if it's fair to draw broader cultural conclusions from this linguistic oddity. Perhaps we from the Anglo-American tradition don't like to spend time together without a secondary agenda, be it drinking coffee or beer, sharing a meal, or something else. Are we too task-oriented as a culture? Does the rise of "hang out" in recent decades mean we're changing culturally? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

2. Two recent reads have brought an interesting cultural quirk to my attention. I love sports, as most of you know, and I picked up a book called Soccerhead: An Accidental Journey into the Heart of the American Game from the library on a whim (actually thanks to an Amazon.com recommendation). Jim Haner, the author and a writer for the Baltimore Sun, volunteers to coach his son's soccer team not really knowing anything about the game. The book is his story of getting sucked into a sub-culture he didn't even know existed. Besides some funny parallels to my own father's devoted coaching of my soccer teams (he was WAY more prepares than Haner, by the way), I especially enjoyed Haner's digressions into the history of Soccer in America. Like many I thought it reached its peak in the 70s with Pele and the North American Soccer League. I didn't know that there had been club soccer for a hundred years before that, and quite competitive clubs at that. In the first three decades of the 20th century clubs like Glasgow Rangers and Inter Milan took trips to America to play against teams from Northern New Jersey and New England, primarily. These were highly ethnic teams sponsored by the textile mills and factories where the players "worked." There was also a strong club tradition in St. Louis backed by the Roman Catholic church, of all institutions! In his discussion of what happened to these clubs Haner pointed to the rise of baseball and the desire for immigrants to adapt to their new country and culture. Immigrant fathers wanted their sons to fit in and be successful Americans, so they encouraged them to play "American" sports. I've also been reading Steven Jay Gould's Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville for fun (I picked it up at the library's bag of used books for $3 sale). In his introductory essay he describes his own childhood in Queens in the 40s and playing stickball. His Hungarian grandparents encouraged this for the very same reasons - to help a Hungarian Jew fit in with all the American kids. Of course, any kid in New York in the 40s and 50s would be crazy not to love baseball. One city had three of the greatest teams of all time, not to mention so many legendary players I couldn't begin to list them all here. I wonder if this type of thing happens with immigrant populations now? Are young immigrant kids playing football or basketball to fit in? Just something to think about.

on justice and war

Yesterday I was reading The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis, and I ran across the following passage. I think it has some relevance to our current military situation, especially the fine distinction between a country’s just cause and the cause of justice itself.

Patriotism has, then, many faces. Those who would reject it entirely do not seem to have considered what will certainly step – has already begun to step – into its place. For a long time yet, or perhaps forever, nations will live in danger. Rulers must somehow nerve their subjects to defend them or at least to prepare for their defence. Where the sentiment of patriotism has been destroyed this can be done only by presenting every international conflict in a purely ethical light. If people will spend neither sweat nor blood for “their country” they must be made to feel that they are spending them for justice, or civilisation, or humility. This is a step down, not up. Patriotic sentiment did not of course need to disregard ethics. Good men needed to be convinced that their country’s just cause was just; but it was still their country’s cause, not the cause of justice as such. The difference seems to me important. I may without self-righteousness or hypocrisy think it just to defend my house against a burglar; but if I start pretending that I blacked his eye purely on moral grounds – wholly different to the fact that the house in question was mine – I become insufferable. The pretence that when England’s cause is just we are on England’s side – as some neutral Don Quixote might be – for that reason alone, is equally spurious. And nonsense draws evil after it. If our country’s cause is the cause of God, wars must be wars of annihilation. A false transcendence is given to things which are very much of this world.

cleveland fun

A few weeks ago Mar and I got together with a few friends for dinner (from L to R: Patricia, Daniel, Barb, Trevor, Marianne, me, Emily). After a long winter spring seems to be budding here, as is our social calendar. It's nice to get out some more, barbecue a bit (veggie burgers - yummmmmm), and enjoy spending time with the good friends we have here.

As for those of you who might want to comment on the fact that this blog has basically been in hibernation for the better part of a year, you are very observant. I make no promises about this being a rejuvenation of any kind. I'm alive and doing well. Who knows if the blog will be as well.