My nine day holiday ended, mercifully, and back to work I am. While it is relatively quiet, storm clouds hover around the academic horizon. Will the copy center one day open again? Will I be completely prepared to teach study skills without handouts, without the use of overhead projection systems, without a textbook. I don't know.
I have to say the more interesting parts of life are recorded in my journal. Transferring the scribbles to here is not something I look forward to doing, if that is, I ever do it. But if I had to summarize what I did, which wasn't much, I could be brief, leaving out the theological discussions that raged in my head and landed on paper.
I read the eight magazines I brought with me. I'm disappointed I read them so fast, but hey, it's too hot to walk around outside.
I watched a lot of television, movies I've seen ad nauseum over and over, but I watch them because they were interesting the first and second time. Which movies? Ah...A Mel Gibson movie, an Adam Sandler flick, on it goes.
After sunset I left my oversized grotto for walks, usually to a supermarket. I did walk all the way to the other border crossing, past the new Al-Massa Hotel, which like the one in Al-Ain, is dry. Nothing interesting in the two hour walk, this city is a collection of auto repair shops and barbers and that's it. There isn't even an Indian restaurant here. Yawn!
And I started reading "The Word" by Irving Wallace. It came out 41 years ago and it is frighteningly good. What would be the biggest story ever? What one story does the press wish it could cover?
In the book, the Second Coming would be the biggest story ever, yet we know, don't we, that it doesn't work that way. It will happen in a blink of an eye. Pat Robertson won't be there, CNN or BBC won't be on hand. It'll just happen. And that'll be it.
Wallace says Jesus's followers all expected him to return in their lifetime. Funny to think 2000 years have passed since, and who expects anything to happen now? Is it the translation or a faith with expected hope, that something would actually happen in our lifetime? St. Francis didn't expect it to happen when he was alive. Mother Teresa didn't expect it to happen in her lifetime. Ask an evangelical though, and they think it's going to happen in their lifetime, but generation after passing generation proves them wrong.
The saints knew nothing was going to happen and it is a waste of time to think of such matters. And yet, I do. Lord have mercy of my scrawny neck. I'd like a beer but it sure is going to be difficult getting one around here. Imagine no beer in this town. Don't think too hard, it's true. I wonder if the Saudis own the place. yawn
I read the eight magazines I brought with me. I'm disappointed I read them so fast, but hey, it's too hot to walk around outside.
I watched a lot of television, movies I've seen ad nauseum over and over, but I watch them because they were interesting the first and second time. Which movies? Ah...A Mel Gibson movie, an Adam Sandler flick, on it goes.
After sunset I left my oversized grotto for walks, usually to a supermarket. I did walk all the way to the other border crossing, past the new Al-Massa Hotel, which like the one in Al-Ain, is dry. Nothing interesting in the two hour walk, this city is a collection of auto repair shops and barbers and that's it. There isn't even an Indian restaurant here. Yawn!
And I started reading "The Word" by Irving Wallace. It came out 41 years ago and it is frighteningly good. What would be the biggest story ever? What one story does the press wish it could cover?
In the book, the Second Coming would be the biggest story ever, yet we know, don't we, that it doesn't work that way. It will happen in a blink of an eye. Pat Robertson won't be there, CNN or BBC won't be on hand. It'll just happen. And that'll be it.
Wallace says Jesus's followers all expected him to return in their lifetime. Funny to think 2000 years have passed since, and who expects anything to happen now? Is it the translation or a faith with expected hope, that something would actually happen in our lifetime? St. Francis didn't expect it to happen when he was alive. Mother Teresa didn't expect it to happen in her lifetime. Ask an evangelical though, and they think it's going to happen in their lifetime, but generation after passing generation proves them wrong.
The saints knew nothing was going to happen and it is a waste of time to think of such matters. And yet, I do. Lord have mercy of my scrawny neck. I'd like a beer but it sure is going to be difficult getting one around here. Imagine no beer in this town. Don't think too hard, it's true. I wonder if the Saudis own the place. yawn
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