Sept. 2001: At 1:30 am, with our belongings securely stowed in our dorm, Jackson and I sat in a smoky Waffle House in Nicholasville, KY, dining on some much needed bacon and pancakes. It had been one hell of a day. We'd traveled over 650 miles to reach the place we would call home for the next several years of our lives, and a true sense of accomplishment resonated between the two of us. Excitement toward the possibilities that lay ahead overshadowed the grueling misadventures of the day.
Although we didn't realize it at the time, our somewhat auspicious adventures on that September day in 2001 would affect us in profound and unforeseen ways in the future. For instance, the maniacal blue tarp, which had single handedly stripped me of all hope, sanity, and manhood that day, would play a recurring role as tormentor throughout our time in Larabee-Morris Hall. No matter how many times we vacuumed and cleaned, tiny shreds of that god-forsaken tarp inevitably turned up in some nook and cranny of our domicile (perhaps it's most conniving feat was somehow turning up in Jackson's loofah). Even seemingly insignificant characters we encountered that day would play major roles in the future. The less than cordial girl on the phone? She turned out to be not so less than cordial after all. (She cordially married Jackson three years later).
For me, that day would mark the beginning of a series of very difficult lessons in my life; the first stages of a painful re-shaping of my understanding of God, myself and the world. It began the stripping away of many immature disillusionments, one of which being that God provides smooth sailing to those who obediently go to seminary, another being that those who are obedient necessarily go to seminary in the first place...
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5 comments:
Great conclusion - particularly loved the last line. Take that D.S.! How true indeed.
You know what else we would learn in seminary? That the electromagnetic ab worker, no matter how inviting the idea of building abds through tiny shocks, doesn't work for crap. Although I did somehow manage to get some abs somewhere - even found a piece of blue tarp between them just the other day.
I alway thought that your path to seminary was one you thought you "should" take, rather than one you were confident you wanted to take. But, who am I to question your decision? I changed my major three times in one day.
Regarding that blue tarp: It is a beautiful example of entropy and, therefore, useful despite the inconvenience it caused.
Craig-do you know that Jackson actually saves the blue tarp scraps in the hopes to "put them to good use"?
I think I saw him flossing his teeth with one yesterday. He's living in the past man! Gotta let it go!
I'm actually constructing a noose in case it might be needy someday.
Julie--this is not surprising to me. Has Jackson ever shown you his infamous "third grade toe nail clippings" collection? Disturbing. Very disturbing.
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