Intentionality

I've been blessed to be able to pursue a personal life goal for the past ten years, the last three of which I've spent working on a PhD. I am so thankful for this opportunity, and I have received so much more than I had even hoped for in the process. But along the way, my singleminded pursuit has crowded out so many good, even necessary, things that I value but have just let fall to the wayside. My fault, I know. But still, it has happened.

Life events, however, have come together to inspire me. The theme of last week's Christian Scholars Conference was "The Power of Narrative," and Barbara Brown Taylor, one of the plenary speakers, made a statement that really resonated with me. She observed that so many of us choose narratives too small for our lives. We fritter away our time on non-essentials, drifting along, never daring to live a narrative big enough to fit our dreams and goals.

On top of coming face to face with that truth, while at this conference I met several people who are living their lives so intentionally, with such unifying focus. They have decided what is important to them, and they are purposefully making room for those things in their lives, getting rid of the habits that rob them of time or room for human connection and spiritual pursuit, and adding things that bring them contentment and real happiness. There was something about these people. They had a peaceful countenance (an old-fashioned term, I know, but it fits exactly) and a quiet joy I envied.

It's not like this is a new idea for me. I've always had an inner vision of the kind of person I want to be and the kind of life I want to live, but that vision often gets trampled under the tyranny of the urgent. And it's not as if I think my pursuit of a PhD was a "frittering away of my life on non-essentials." It was, and is, a worthy goal and very important to me. But now, as I'm nearing the end of this years-long journey, I want to transfer my energies from this pursuit into creating a life that matters, one that honors my values and makes my outer reality match my inner vision. I want to live a life of Intention. During the next week or two, I want to write about different areas of Intention that I want to pursue. It may not be a daily theme because I'm still thinking this thing through. But I invite you along for the journey.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Travis!

Booking It--15 Children's Books

Here are the rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen children's books you've read/remember being read to you that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

Strawberry Girl

Winnie the Pooh

The Trixie Belden series

The Nancy Drew series

Charlotte's Web

Little House series

Any book by Beverly Cleary

Curious George

The Hundred Dresses

Aesop's Fables

Caddie Woodlawn

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Hatchet

Sarah, Plain and Tall

I don't know the name of it, but it was a Little Golden Book about a pig named George who ate so many doughnuts he exploded.

Sunday Funnies

100 Most Beautiful English Words

I'm not sure that these are the exact ones I'd have chosen, but according to Alphadictionary.com, here are the 100 most beautiful words in the English language. Of course, words like "erstwhile" and "quintessential" are beautiful. But "fluke"? I love the word, but I'd classify it as funny rather than beautiful.

Thanks to Ian for bringing this site to my attention.

Aestivate--Ailurophile--Assemblage--Becoming--Beleaguer--Billet-doux--Brood--Bucolic

Bungalow--Chatoyant--Comely--Conflate--Cynosure--Dalliance--Demesne--Demure

Denouement--Desuetude--Desultory--Diaphanous--Dissemble--Dulcet--Ebullient

Effervescent--Efflorescence--Elision--Elixir--Eloquence--Embrocation--Emollient

Ephemeral--Epiphany--Erstwhile--Esculent--Ethereal--Evanescent--Evocative--Fetching

Felicitous--Fluke--Forbearance--Fugacious--Furtive--Gambol--Glamour--Gossamer

Halcyon--Imbrication--Imbroglio--Imbue--Incipient--Ineffable--Ingenue--Inglenook

Insouciance--Inure--Lagniappe--Lagoon--Languor--Lassitude--Leisure--Lilt--Lissome

Lithe--Luxuriant--Mellifluous--Moiety--Mondegreen--Murmur--Nemesis--Niveous

Odalisque--Offing--Onomatopoeia--Opulent--Palimpsest--Panacea--Panoply--Pastiche

Peccadillo--Penumbra--Petrichor--Plethora--Propinquity--Pyrrhic--Quintessential

Ratatouille--Redolent--Riparian--Ripple--Scintilla--Sempiternal--Seraglio--Serendipity

Surreptitious--Sumptuous--Sussurous--Symbiosis--Talisman--Tintinnabulation

Umbrageous--Umbrella--Untoward--Vestige--Viridescent--Waft--Wherewithal

Bondurant Hall

Just one of the reasons I love Ole Miss's campus.

Christian Scholars Conference 2009

Lipscomb University is pleased to host the 29th annual Christian Scholars’ Conference, June 25-27, 2009, under the theme, “The Power of Narrative.” Plenary speakers Billy Collins (US Poet Laureate, 2001-2003), Marilynne Robinson (Pulitzer Prize Winner, 2005), Hubert G. Locke, and Barbara Brown Taylor will stimulate dialogue on the intersection of faith, academics, and narrative's captivating quality. Paper and Panel sessions highlight the conference, bringing together fellow academics for collaboration and dialogue. We invite you to participate!

The multiple track conference features 71 paper and panel sessions, each of 90 minutes duration, with 245 scholarly presentations within six time slots. Sessions are composed as “Generative” or “Peer-Reviewed.”

Our conference’s mission is to: “To create and nurture an intellectual and Christian community that joins individuals and institutions to stimulate networks of scholarly dialogue and collaboration.”

The Hurrieder I Go, The Behinder I Get

This past week has been jam-packed with way too much to do. Necessary things. Things I simply cannot ignore. I'm leaving today for the CSC in Nashville, and this is all the stuff I had to get done in the last week:

1. Write the paper that I'm presenting at the CSC

2. Read Gilead because Marilynne Robinson will be a plenary speaker

3. Make minor corrections to my dissertation, proofread the Works Cited page (again), and get the finished version back to my director

4. Prepare to teach a class on "Images of Women in Literature," which I taught on Friday afternoon

5. Prepare for Honors Symposium.

6. Re-read Frankenstein before I teach it at Honors Symposium.

7. Shop for and prepare a nice Father's Day meal

8. Start teaching Honors Symposium on Monday

9. Download and fill out a bunch of graduation-related paperwork, drive to Ole Miss and run around campus, handing in one form here, picking something up there, taking it to another office on the other side of campus, paying fees, etc., and jumping through all necessary hoops prior to the defense, then driving home (same day)

10. Submit an essay for a critical edition of Mansfield Park

11. Pack for the CSC

That doesn't even count things like laundry. Boy, I'm tired.

Just Compensation

Today, after I do Good Morning Honors Symposium with Dr. Garner, I'm headed to Ole Miss. I've got paperwork to turn in and fees to pay at various offices around campus. Then, I'll turn right around and drive back to get ready to go to Nashville on Wednesday.

But, surprising at it may seem, I'm looking forward to the trip for two reasons. One is that I'll get to have one of my favorite Mediterranean Pizzas from Newk's for a late lunch. I can't tell you how much I've missed those. I'm seriously thinking of taking a cooler, buying several to bring home, and freezing them for future consumption.

And the other reason is that I'll get to listen to a book on tape during the trip. A totally escapist crime fiction novel with no redeeming literary value at all. One of the best things about the two years of driving back and forth from Searcy to Oxford was all the books on tape I enjoyed while driving.

It doesn't take much to make me happy.

Booking It--What Now?

What book are you reading right now? And, even though you don't know the end, would you recommend it?

Right now, I'm reading Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. I've had it for a while and just never gotten around to it, but since Robinson's one of the keynote speakers at the CSC this week, I thought it'd be a good thing to have read it before I go. Now, I'm sorry I hadn't gotten to it sooner. It's simply beautiful. I have a feeling this novel will have a place near the top of my all-time-favorites list.

If you’re a grown man when you read this – it is my intention for this letter that you will read it then – I’ll have been gone a long time. I’ll know most of what there is to know about being dead, but I’ll probably keep it to myself. That seems to be the way of things.

Sunday Funnies