partsofspeaking

Today's weather was fit for the mood the economy has put everyone in. Not cold but dark clouds. I went for my walk at Camp Jordan (a two-mile trail around the recreational fields in East Ridge, TN) and was reminded that each day is filled with wonders. The pond near the arena still had some ice on it (odd when it was 59 degrees outside). Because no one was fishing, the area was flush with birds. Canadian Geese (watch your step), white ducks and mallards, seagulls (yes, seagulls hundreds of miles inland--they come up the barges on the Tennessee River. We have them all over the place). But one caught my eye was a long-legged, slate gray-blue, graceful, elusive heron. I stalked him, and got within twenty feet, but he escaped me and my ineffectual camera phone, only to fly to the other side of the pond. He wasn't about to let this intrusive human keep him from his dinner. According to Wikipedia, he and his kind are not in danger of extinction, and cover the United States. G...

It's supposed to be 5 degrees in North Georgia tonight. I am staying in bed and reading tomorrow. I am pleased that three colleagues in the last week, people with advanced degrees in English, praised my book. Of course, I'd like praise to translate into book sales. But I'll take the praise from people who know good writing. Speaking of good writing, John Rawls ' tome, A Theory of Justice , does not qualify. He could have written it in a fifth of the pages. Snore. At least I understood it. And his section on civil disobedience is interesting, because he distinguishes c.d. from "conscientious refusal." Christians in Acts 3 were not doing civil disobedience in the real sense. I currently am teaching six classes, a triple overload, and running T&L Center, teaching SBS , doing a Beth Moore study (a subject for another post); trying to keep up with three elderly people and a husband, stay healthy, and read a bunch of books. I don't have time to wri...

At 7:20 or so, in pouring rain, we left Dalton State College campus in four cars. There were 15 of us—nine females, six males, whose names took me a little time to learn. Terah, Laura, Savannah, Tina, Brittany, Beth, Kelly, Kyle, Justin, Jesse, David, Tyson, and Bill (the campus minister). And I—more than two times older than the oldest student, older than their mothers. I was driving the school minivan with five girls. The rain stopped by the time we were on the other side of Chattanooga and did not return until south of Birmingham, and then only for a few minutes. We traveled to Birmingham as expected, but Bill’s GPS detoured us through Mobile, putting maybe an extra hour on the trip. We remedied that on the way back, taking I-59 the whole way. We stopped at an uninspiring town called Enterprise for a fast food lunch. The Burger King had no soap in the women’s restroom (never a good sign) and when one of our guys spilled his drink, the management was not worried about mopping...

I just got back this evening from a five day trip doing "disaster relief" with a group of Baptist Collegiate Ministries students from all over Georgia. We were in Lakeshore and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Quite an experience. I will blog about it tomorrow. I drove 530 miles today and am understandably tired.