Hi we’re back after 18 hours of travel time, airline food, an expensive taxi ride home and are jet-lag free so far. I’ve dusted some of the more obvious things and we’ve unpacked everything but I still have to find places for all our stuff. The Randalls stopped by and brought us muffins so we can eat breakfast tomorrow and Kerry, Bryce’s sister, called. It’s good to be back.
I’ve been thinkng of a number of things lately - feel free to enter the conversation …
–I wonder about motherhood - if it’s possible to have children and for both Bryce and me to work. I really want to teach. There’s also practical implications: if I am a prof, we would get tuition exchange for our kids’ college education; I’m not sure exactly how it works but it means you don’t have to pay tuition if your child goes to a university on the approved list of colleges in the States. But if I didn’t work, this obviously wouldn’t be the case. At the conference I went to last week, Christianity and Literature, I spoke with a prof from Calvin College whose husband is a pastor and who have three kids together and they make it work, which is pretty encouraging. Anyway, it’s just something I’ve been thinking about and definitely not planning for - so don’t go getting any ideas. Here’s an interesting article on the subject.
–I am convinced of the centrality of the gospel and of trying to live my life from the position of a Reformed worldview, which of course is difficult and I’m not always so successful at it. But I guess this failing is consistent with a Reformed worldview because it is a living out of the depravity of human nature! That was a tangent. I am just often worried (perhaps that’s too strong a word) that as evangelicals we sometimes don’t make Jesus centre stage in our worship or our personal lives. I hope to always grow more in the knowledge and grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ - only then I think will I (or anyone else) be effective.
–Along with the centrality of Christ is that I get depressed that as Christians we don’t live like Jesus is the centre of everything. We don’t believe or live out the whole meaning of our lives: “to glorify God and enjoy him forever”. Tell me stories how you try to do this daily. I know I fail at it too. 
–I’ve decided I need to think about why literature matters beyond the classroom and why teaching matters and why being a Christian matters to my understanding of literature and teaching because this will fuel the grueling daily research and give it meaning when it looks too detail-ridden to be applicable.
–I’ve also decided I need to start writing poetry again. This has been reawakened on a few fronts: the first is the Christianity and Lit conference and hearing profs read their stuff and realising one can be a teacher, literary critic and poet all together and needn’t compartmentalise one’s academic foci; the second is some of Manders’ thoughts on needing to write poetry (check out her entry on 11 Jan) to prevent losing one’s soul. (Hopefully she’ll come to study for a term in Scotland so we can chat about these things). Even if my poetry sucks, it’s alright; I think it’ll be a good exercise regardless of ‘literary merit’.
–Any one have any good ideas about how we get ourselves and others to get one’s mind un-entrenched from the ‘daily grind’ to consider larger questions of how? and why?
–I wonder why I always make lists and why I prefer dashes to numbered or lettered lists. Odd.
P.S. There’s some good food for thought on biblical theology here.
P.P.S. We finally changed the recommendations.