Like the rest of my creative efforts...This journal has been cast to the wayside for the better part of a year. While I doubt that anyone is really thirsting for Joel-content (raw or refined), it seems that I've been remiss in telling people what the haps are. My apologies, but I can't say that it's been a white-knuckle thrill ride (except in a few cases on the Dan Ryan at rush hour).As you might have gathered from my last Journal Entry (stardate something something point three), I have spent this academic year at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. It's been an interesting time, though not necessarily academically. Learning to live in an apartment in a city has probably been the greater challenge and the one that gives me a greater sense of accomplishment. I can't help but hear the words of Chuck Palahniuk as I scope out IKEA or Crate&Barrel for things that make me feel cool, and I've found that desire has little to do with execution in cooking. I might want the chicken and rice to be delicious, but...I've considered hiring a Chinaman to help. The coursework itself varies. I suppose I was expecting classes that feel like the next logical step after my senior seminars, but this has typically not been the case. The difference between a seminary and a major divinity school, as I've learned, is akin to the difference between minor and major league baseball. I'm still getting paid to play baseball, and there are certainly interesting people to meet, but the level of intensity isn't the same as in the majors. Have I learned a lot? Yes, and probably about things in which I wouldn't normally have found particularly interesting. But the focus of a seminary is on training clergy and church leadership, and these are the ends to which most attention is paid. Academics are certainly a part of that--Lutheranism does claim a tradition of educated clergy--but in terms of lecture content and general class focus, a purely academic approach it isn't. This has become more apparent as I've actually ponied up and bi-registered for a University of Chicago Divinity School class. It has been challenging and engaging and for the most part, my classmates seem like me in that they're nerds for this stuff. It is an interesting juxtaposition, and it probably has implications for what I want to do after this--as in, where I would like to continue studying if I decide to continue studying--unless I decide to pay no heed to Tyler Durden and promptly sell out for a better apartment with nicer things. On an unrelated note, why does iTunes see fit to have every fifth song of its shuffle be Michael Jackson? He represents half of one percent of my library, and here he is again with one of his non-Thriller efforts. What the hell? |
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