“we fall but our souls are flying”
I AM VERY EXCITED BECAUSE I GOT A LIBRARY RESEARCH GRANT! And not only that, but my roommate got one as well! Go Elena Yamamoto! Wooh!
What are the library research grants, you ask me? Friends of Murray Library offers Messiah students the chance to earn awards of up to $750 to go somewhere and research something near and dear to their hearts every year.
For me, the research relates directly to my senior honors project in English. I’ll be going to Vassar College to view Elizabeth Bishop’s poem manuscripts and travel journals. I want to study her revision practices, particularly the patience she displayed in completing poems. One poem, “The Moose,” took her 20 years to complete. If I can, I want to see how she made decisions about what should be kept, what should be scrapped, and when a poem was complete. I’ve never been to any part of New York that isn’t New York City, so I’m pretty psyched. Yeah adventure!
Elena is going to fly out to LA to see Japanese textiles for her senior honors project as well. She’s studying textiles in the Edo period. Did you know that in the Japanese weaving industry, as an apprentice, you are not even allowed to touch the loom for years? How amazing is that? By the time you got to the actual weaving process, it would seem like such a privilege.
Also, in other news related to fun campus happenings, there was an impromptu rave at exactly 12:12 in Lottie Nelson Dining Hall today. And by “rave,” I mean that someone snuck into the sound system and put on rave music, switched off all the lights, and about three people stood up and started dancing.
Still, massively entertaining. My entire table burst out laughing and didn’t stop for an entire five minutes. I like living in an apartment, but I sort of miss Lottie, just because there’s so much amazing group interaction that takes place there. Against all odds, Lottie Nelson is a cool hangout. Who knew?
Filed under general, humor, housemates, travels, raves, lottie nelson | Comments (2)“the glove compartment is inaccurately named, and everybody knows it”
I may be among the few, but I love rainy days. The gray sky and encroaching fog highlights the contrasting transmutation of leaves from green to gold, crimson, and burning orange. The tree trunks stand dark and austere and still as leaves bend and twitch to rain drops’ dictation.
Also, it is simply entertaining to see students scurrying from building to building, mostly unprepared. Because who stops to look out the window as we’re stumbling from bed to class way too early for good mental health?
“Don’t forget about delight,” says Bruce Cockburn in one of my favorite songs. OK, Bruce. No problem. Not on a day like today when ideal conditions for napping, reading, and hot chocolate exist.
My roommates are pretty much amazing (I think this will be a frequent refrain of my life). Katie was up in the studio all night this week because she had a graphic design project due. So Elena took her a real Italian cappucino to help keep her awake. Pretty much they are very thoughtful people. Living with them is a little more complicated now that we are not in Italy, but it’s good, and I’m glad for whatever time I get to spend with them outside of class craziness.
Like last night. Art majors working on Halloween costumes are the best thing EVER (I say this, of course, without bias). Every year, the Art League (an organization for promoting crazy fun and community for anyone involved in art classes and led by an intrepid and mysterious figure known only as Captain Art Major) holds a Halloween party, usually at Daniel Finch’s house. This year I rue the fact that I will not be able to attend, because the costumes I see are colorful, brilliant, and hysterical. Trust me, photographs will follow. But only once the unveiling has taken place.
Happy Friday. Let its absurdity, its rain, and its delight usher you with a rush into the weekend.
Quotes of the day: “I don’t think he really thought that Jesus loved E-town,”
“D as in dog. . . arf arf!”
– my world views professor
countdown: four before doomsday
Did I hear you ask “Mackenzie, what was living in satellite housing like?” (No. I didn’t. But pretend like you did ask, and then I can reply.) Satellite housing is, essentially, sheer awesomeness bottled up in a single domicile.
Last fall, before I left for Italy (a zillion years ago), I lived in Bertram House, a satellite house located at the back of campus. Five girls proposed a “simple living” community, devoted to using resources wisely, observing the sabbath (ridiculously much harder than it sounds) and offering hospitality to professors and other students (we held many crowded tea-times in our kitchen and always kept couchs available for visitors). Knowing that I had no place to live and was going abroad in the spring, they graciously welcomed me as an additional member of the house (and then we were six).
Why am I thinking about Bertram House this week? Most of my housemates from last fall graduated and are out making their way in the world. One of them, Jess, was recently in town visiting and we got together to eat, reminisce, and laugh hysterically (Jess has the best laugh ever). She recently got accepted full-time into the Christian Peacemaker Teams, and will be living in the West Bank (if all goes well) for the next three years.
And so I was thinking: living in Bertram House changed me a lot. Not quite as much as going to Italy, but definitely change happened. A lot of those changes simply stemmed from knowing my housemates and seeing the way they enacted community. We didn’t talk about community a lot, as such; there was no Messiah-speak about service or education, embracing diversity or dialogue.
It was the most profound experience of community I’ve ever had.
Everyone had crazy class and work schedules, but my housemates carved out time to spend in little acts of service towards one another. For example, when I had weeks of being unable to sleep more than 4 or 5 hours a night, someone would step in and take over my day for doing dishes, so at I could worry about one less thing. Or when Jess’s schedule resulted in her never being at home for meals, we always cooked extra food and set it aside for her. If any house member had a problem, time was made to talk without prevarication over how much work needed to be done. We made our cars available to one another when they were needed. We shared computers as needed. When I did a Photography II project centering on our kitchen, my housemates made themselves available for portraits despite their busy schedules.
We never set out to be a house devoted to off-campus service, either, or embracing diversity, but half the house was involved in off-campus service, including tutoring English as a second language, mentoring at-risk youth in Harrisburg, and working at Bethesda Mission. Bethy and Jess both did work at Center for Champions, and they brought the kids home for dinner and games, practicing hospitality without even using the word to label it as such.
We never discussed intentional dialogue as a way of building good community, but Sunday night, regardless of workload, we all gathered for house tea-time. We decompressed about our week, discussed faith, our jobs, the goodness of peach rings and asian cuisine, crushes, life philosophies, motherly penchants for feeding ridiculous numbers of people, and our future plans.
Jess’s future plans involved Christian Peacemaker Teams. I love (and admire) that she really believes there are concrete things she can do that will change some (I’ll go so far as to call it) evil stuff in this world. In her mind, peace is worth pursuing, and she chooses to act in unusual ways and take unusual risks which promote peace. Catching up with Jess and recognizing again her enormous passion and commitment to her vocation is inspiring, particularly as I’m going into my senior year. It’s time to decide on the things most worth pursuing, and it’s time to start pursuing them. Knowing people like Jess? That’s what makes Messiah College worth it.
Filed under general, the real world, vocation, housemates | Comments (2)