September 4, 2008
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Pagan
the internet has been unusually slow lately. which means no myspace, no facebook, no xanga, and maybe hotmail. if i am lucky.
i love potatoes.
with barbaque sauce.
which is what i am eating for dinner.i made granola today. from Mom’s recipe. it tastes delicious! i even lit the stove and the oven all by myself (no automatic-turn-the-knob kinda things here). i feel so domestic when i cook.
which is probably why i don’t do it very often.
and eat leftover potatoes and bbq sause instead.more homework from college–an alagory from Plato’s Republic, no less.
so i had to translate the text into English, write my responce in English, translate it into Portuguese, have my friend correct it in Portuguese, and then finally, copy out a final responce (in Brasil, you don’t have to type anything. handwritten lined paper is normal).i had a good week teaching, with lots of adventures with Max the whiteboard marker and Donna the eraser. we have a big test next week, so that scared the kids into studying. i have found that the older the student, the more i like them. maybe it is the maturity level. maybe i am messed up.
Since we changed the program around, in the afternoons i teach Geography. with ALL the grades–first through ninth. but this week i rediscovered the magic to working with first and second grade–wave around a couple merits before class, and tell them you are watching their every move to see WHO will get the merits. bribery. in all it’s glory. i gladly succumb. and then proptly forgot to give the merits at the end of class. but they forgot too and all was happy.
i get along much better with one of my 4th graders now that i know he was diagnosed with bi-polar something…i forgot the name. but we’ve worked out a system together.
So we are doing a special theme on the Industrial Revolution. Emily came up with the brilliant idea to watch “Newsies.” oh…that girl is amazing. we have also come to that glorious time of the year when we have to start planning the christmas play/production. any ideas anyone? i wanted to do “the Best Christmas Pagent Ever” which, goes down with “The Little Prince” as top Re-reading books, but…it is alittle too complex.
oh, i read Shel Silverstine’s “The Giving Tree” and “The Missing Piece” for my adult English classes…they love it. see? Brasilians have great common sense.
i read “Pagan Christianity” by Viola and Barna…
had conflicting emotions.
apparently, that is normal.
i battled with myself.
i enjoyed the church history.
i cringe at critical things. whether i need them or not.
i loved the parts talking about organic churches. some parts inspired me.
and in the end…
i am not leaving my church.
but i am glad i read it.“There is perhaps nothing worse than reaching the top of the ladder and discovering that you’re on the wrong wall.” –Joseph Campbell
“A true radical must be a man of roots. In words that i have used elsewhere, “The revolutionary can be an “outsider” to the structure he would see collapse: indeed, he must set himself outside of it. But the rdical goes to the roots of his own tradition. He must love it: he must weep over Jerusalem, even if he has to pronounce its doom.” John A.T.Robinson
so change. change will come. and that is that. walk in the light you have today. that is what God asks us to do.
September 7 is Brasil’s independence day. i am trying to learn the national anthem. my word that thing is a gazillion verses! When they print out the anthem, they don’t even add all the verses. they don’t ever fit. the children laugh at me when i sing during flag raising. uh huh. i was asking about the meaning of the words and one word the kids kept giggling when i said it. apparently, it is something formal like “embracing freedom in your bosom.” i dunno. “bosom” makes me giggle too.
