Robert Penn Warren is the man!!

• Who had I, Amantha Starr, been before that moment? I had been defined by the world around me...But now all had fled away from me, in the deserts of distance, and I was, therefore, nothing.

• The previous words come from Robert Penn Warren's Band of Angels. They are spoken by a young woman who has been removed from all she knows...all that has meaning for her...all that has defined her. These words struck me as rather profound for some reason. It made me wonder whether I am likely to define Alan Bancroft by talking about the world around me. I'd like to think that I would be able to say something about myself without talking about my schooling, my hometown, my family, or whatever it is I'm involved with at the time, but that might be kind of tough. I mean, isn't who we are tied to the world around us, as well as the people around us? Anyway, I continue to be impressed by Warren's ability to capture humanity in ways that just make sense.
• I'd like to go on record as saying that cell phones suck when you live in a wooded neighborhood and in a house that has lead paint. I've had to sign up for landline service so I don't drop a ton of calls as I'm talking to churches. It was either that, or conduct all of my business in my car. Lame.
• The fall semester has begun here at Columbia Theological Seminary. My first class was Pastoral Care and Theological Anthropology. Quite a mouthful. It looks to be a good class. It's a fun/jovial group at least. We watched Wit today. This is the third time I've seen it for a seminary class. It raises great issues about death, dying, and how we live our lives before we face death. This time I was particularly struck with the huge difference between studying/thinking about something abstractly, and actually encountering/experiencing the reality. I'm not sure yet how to make sense of that...it seems like a balance needs to be struck between the two. I should hope that I can still be an effective pastor, and provide good pastoral guidance to people, even if I haven't experienced exactly what they are experiencing at any given time. I hope so.