Ordinary Days: Anna, #5

Question everything;

   hold on to what is good!

    (First Thessalonians 5:21)

 

Dear Anna, 

It was fun going through your Connecticut College seminar options with you. I like the one on “Latin language and the culture of Ancient Rome.” Especially since you chose Connecticut so you could study Latin. But all those seminars like “Myths that Made America,” where “Students will examine the ways in which myths naturalize power structures and hierarchies in society that include, exclude, and keep certain people ‘down’”—sounds like a good dose of CRT. It has become the ethos of the academia since my time.

Critical Race Theory, as I understand it, is a legitimate academic pursuit. Critical means questioning things. That’s good. The Bible tells us to “question everything.” We go to college to develop our critical thinking. Race—Racism persist in-spite-of Civil Rights Laws and our best efforts to eradicate it. Why is that so? Theory—-In seeking answers to our questions, we come up with possible explanations for why racism persists.  

The theory is that racism persist because it is deeply imbedded in our nation’s history, founding documents, and laws. In short, irredeemable racism finds its way into all our social structures, even church. To validate the theory requires the complete retelling of our nation’s history (as in the 1619 project), and the dismantling of our political and social structures so that we can reconstruct non-racist institutions.

Meanwhile, such a theory causes us to 1) condemn our present institutions that spring from our founding documents: The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution, as irredeemably racist and thus to be dismantled; and 2) tell victims of racism that their plight, within our present social structure, is hopeless. I think we can tell a sober history of our nation and at the same time honor our founders and our founding documents. The Bible does that, for example, when it tells the story King David: “You have shed too much blood.” (1Chron 28:3)

Danielle Allen, in her book Our Declaration; gives us good reason to honor our founding document. She is an African American classical scholar at Harvard; who believes The Declaration is a wonder worthy of being called “Our Declaration.” Thank you for reading it with me. We’ll discuss with the book between us; and then, off to college you go.

Much Love,

Papa

Ordinary Days: Anna, #4

Runners race to

   compete for the prize.

   (First Corinthians 9:24)

 

Dear Anna,

What a joy it was for Grammy and me to watch you compete in the U.S.A. Water Polo Junior Olympics. And, what a venue: Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center. I felt smarter just being on campus. I’m so happy you will continue your water polo competition at Connecticut College. Great colleges honor sport competition. You can’t exercise the mind apart from the body. That is why we believe in a bodily resurrection. Without our bodies we are not us.

Jesus teaches us to “Love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength.”  “Heart” and “soul” speak of something interior while “mind” and “strength” speak of our exterior endeavors. Jesus affirms that we are mind and body. When you play to win the prize; you put all your strength into it. College, at its best, develops strength of both mind and body.

Maybe best of all, by playing water polo you learn to be a part of a team where you experience that unique comradery of striving together to win the prize. Chance are, some of your team mates will become friends for life. When you are as old as I, you will sit around and talk about the elation of winning and the pain of losing. That too is sports’ great lesson—how to win and how to lose. We win as team and we lose as a team. In winning we acknowledge the part others played; and, when we lose, we honor the other team and show up for practice the next day to see if we can’t do better next time. That’s life.

Love, Papa

Ordinary Days: Anna, #3

God formed Leviathan

   to rollick in the sea.

   (Psalm 104:26)

 

Dear Anna,

Grammy and I are at the Kinser Cabin, or as it says over the front door, “Kinser Kabin.”  I don’t know if you have ever been here. Your mom has, year after year when she was younger than you. Back then, Gary and Janice Kinser and their three girls, about the same age as our three children, invited us to join them most every August to rollick about on The Lake. Your mom can tell you stories.

But today, it’s just Janice Kinser, Gary died near three years ago. We sit around, tell stories of when our children were young, and brag about our grandchildren. The Kinser Kabin is up the road about four blocks from the west shore of Lake Tahoe. If you go upstairs and look out the window of the kids’ front bedroom, you can see a sliver of The Lake between the trees. When we see the water from a distance, we long all the more to get into the water—to rollick about as Leviathan of old. To actually get into the water, you walk down the hill those four blocks onto a private beach with its private peer. We’ve been told, the “private” part includes us; at, least that’s how we go about it and no one has put a stop to it.

Today, we are leery of walking down to the peer because you have to walk back up hill four blocks and we are quite sure Papa won’t make it back up. So we will settle for that little sliver of blue water we can see from that second story kids’ bedroom window; and, reminisce about the times we spent with our families rollicking about in the The Lake.

Maybe the closest our grandchildren have come to such a place is that big old beach house in Mission Beach—big enough to fit all sixteen of us. There we watched our grandchildren grow up together year after year. You were something of a loner at first—retreating into your books. But, by and by, you engaged more and more. You still have your books, but these latter years, you boogie board with your cousins, and surf board with your cousins, and play volleyball with your cousins, and together, we enjoyed all sorts of watery jollifications. The Tahoe magic of your mom and your aunt and uncle has made its way to Mission Beach. Grammy and Papa are blessed to watch such magic have its way with you.

Love Grammy & Papa

 

Ordinary Days: Anna, #2

O Lord,

   grant me success.

   (Genesis 24:12)

 

Dear Anna,

Your journey to Connecticut College on the Thames River in New London, CT.; caused me to think some about Eliezer’s journey back to the old country to find a wife for Isaac—the son of The Promise. Along the way, he prays that God will grant him success. It is the first recorded prayer in the Bible: “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham…”

Your journey to New London most likely will set the course for your own life of Promise. What does God have in store for you? Grammy and Papa are praying for good things—that “the angel of our Lord will go before you, and cause your journey to prosper!” (Gn 24)

Much Love, Grammy and Papa

Ordinary Days: Anna, #1

 Let us reason together,

   says the Lord.

   (Isaiah 1:18)

 

Dear Anna,

In twenty days, you head off to New London, Connecticut, to begin your college days. It is your turn. Abby led going off to Texas State University in San Marcos and now continues her Physician Assistant program at Alabama. Then came her younger sister Priscilla who finished her first year at Baylor. And now you—off to Connecticut College. That’s over 3,000 miles away—about as far away as you can get without crossing the Atlantic.

Each has their own journey: Abby medical, Priscilla computer science, and now you and your love for history and political science—for Latin and the classics. Along with your deep passion for justice and equality. I remember, a long time ago, when you were in Junior High, and you found out that, in our church, women could not serve as elders; you cried, “That’s not right!” Your mom called me over to talk. And, we talked. We’ve always been free to talk, haven’t we? Let’s never lose that, okay? Even when you are a long way from home.

Love,

Papa

Eastertide 4th Week: First Year

Do you have what it takes

   to complete it? (Luke 14:28)

Dear Priscilla,

Finals week and then you come home. Your first year at Baylor University completed. Congratulation. I hear tell you are planning to come and see us. Can’t wait to see your face.

One more year, and you’ll be an upperclassman; or, is that “upperclasswoman.” Will your next year wiz by like this last? As the Apostle John wrote to one of his churches—he called her “The Chosen Lady.” The church is always a lady—the Bride of Christ. Let’s see, where were we? Oh, yes, as John wrote to his Chosen Lady: “I hope to see you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.” (2Jn v12)

Eastertide 4th Week: Orientation.

The Lord created medicines

   out of the earth. (Sirach 38:4)

Dear Abby, 

Orientation for your near three years of studies in the Physician’s Assistant Program at the University of South Alabama begins in a few days. So, you moved from San Marcos, TX some ten hours east along Interstate Ten to Mobile, AL, where you move into a home of your very own—some three blocks from the university, I’m told. What is it like to be a homeowner?

We will be interested in your Orientation and your classes for the semester. I’ve had a lot of interaction with Physician’s Assistants lately. They are the ones I communicate with. The PAs tell me when I can take the bandages off my head, and the stitches out of my scalp, and activate my stimulator. I tell them, “My granddaughter is studying to be a PA.” They light up.

A few years back, we did a road trip with the Sjodahls along Interstate Ten from New Orleans to Tallahassee, FL. We passed right through Mobile, but it meant nothing to me then. But now, it’s a special place.