Life: back at it

Last updated on: January 28, 2007 at 5:35 am by Justin Whitaker

Life: back at it 2007-01-28T05:35:00-07:00 Justin Whitaker

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’m back at it: teaching again, taking classes again, trying to figure out what it’s all about (again). The ‘break’ (December 16-January 21) turned out to be no break at all with grading for my autumn class and then jumping into Philosophy of Religion (a course mainly on Biblical hermeneutics, i.e. reading it as a book where God is a character, not a fuzzy thing/being ‘out there’ somewhere).

Everything for my intro to Buddhism course did go well; I checked course assessments and they were generally very positive and encouraging. I worked on that essay, “Teaching from a Buddhist Perspective” for a few days and nights but have yet to finish it… and it’s well past the due date by now. But I’ll see what I can get done on it this week and if I can still get it in (perhaps to be published in a book this year).

What kept me so busy was the Phil of Religion course: reading selections of Paul’s Epistles, much of Genesis and bits of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, along with the full Gospel of Mark and most of the parables of Jesus. We also read Dante’s Inferno and a wonderful translation of the Book of Job by Stephen Mitchell. The material was largely new to me (oddly enough), so it took some time to absorb. I was also amazed by the professor’s re-reading of the Old Testament as a series of life lessons, like Aesop’s Fables with more character development. They were stories about people and a God who were learning from mistakes, and the disasters that befell those who didn’t.

The professor led us toward the conclusion that the God of the Bible is not a moral God (in any way we might think of morality today). So we could either follow him one way or we could learn from those Biblical stories and others to hone our own moral sense. With a good moral sense we can see others, those we may have blindly believed must be good such as our parents or political leaders or gods, from a more realistic vantage point, seeing that they too are flawed, perhaps seriously. At least that’s what I got from it.

Now I’m catching my breath after the first week of the new semester, feeling literally thrown into the Tibetan Buddhism (which I am teaching). I think there’s an old saying… something like “prepare prepare prepare” that I could apply now. I already feel like I have a terrible amount of catching up to do, some of which I did today, some I’ll do tomorrow, some more on Monday and Tuesday…

But it is fun. I have just over 30 students, almost all of whom are there purely out of interest (a couple maybe need it for an Asian Studies minor). But the size is a bit awkward. It is too small to lecture to (for me at least) but still a bit large for a discussion that draws everyone in. Thursday was the first day I tried to get people talking, and in retrospect it went well enough. We’re still in those introductory days, feeling out people’s levels of interest and understanding. The odd thing is that about a third of the students had my Intro class last fall, so they know a tremendous amount of background stuff already, whereas the rest either know a varied amount from personal explorations or are brand new to it all. So… we’ll see.

I think it’s about time to start an “Ana countdown”, as it is now just 47 days (6 weeks and 5 days) before we each land at Gatwick airport in London. After 155 days apart this doesn’t seem so bad, even pretty exciting.

Hopefully this will be the last extended period we’ll have to spend apart… but anywho… we’re surviving – both too busy much of the time to ruminate on it, both eager to call when we can and happy to hear from the other, both sending new photos now and then to remind the other just how beautiful we are! (just her really).

Ok… back to work with a big smile. (who could look at that smile there and not help but smile?)

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 26, 2007

Buddhism: Tibet through tears

Next Post

February 2, 2007 Philosophy: Kant on Happiness

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Academia Activism American Buddhism Art Book review Buddhism Buddhism Today Buddhist Ethics Burma/Myanmar China Christianity Commodification Environment Gender Happiness Health Humor India Interfaith Islam Japanese Buddhism Kant Media / News Meditation mindfulness Photography Poetry Politics quicktakes Running Teaching Technology Thailand Theism/Atheism Theravada Tibet Tibetan Buddhism Travels Uncategorized Unitarian Universalism video Western Philosophy Zen

Select a Month June 2021 January 2021 November 2020 August 2020 July 2020 March 2020 January 2020 October 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 November 2004 September 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz