Update

Joe and I got married on June 27, took a nice trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota and are now back in Manhattan doing the things that need to be done. These include, but are not limited to:

• Finishing my dissertation
• Selling the house
• Packing to move to Tuscaloosa
• Writing lots of thank-you notes

Basically, we are in non-stop heads down mode for the next three and a half weeks. Wish us luck! Prayers are also welcome, we'll do the same for you. 

For some reason I have not been able to get Dido's Lament out of my head for weeks now. It is the single most profound piece of music that I have ever heard and I am haunted by it. 

Last weekend, Joe and I were rewatching "Band of Brothers" for the umpteenth time. I love this series, it makes me proud to be an American and it makes me proud that my father fought for the world's freedom in World War II. It is so difficult to watch...on more than one occasion I have turned away from this episode because it is so unbelievably painful. However, on this viewing I was able to handle Nixon's return to the work camp. Although I had seen this before, it was only this past week that I realized that Dido's Lament was playing. 

I am a Jew. Remotely, ethnically and not in religious practice. My great-great grandparents left Dresden as Jews and arrived in Osawatomie, Kansas as Lutherans, minus one syllable to their last name. I do not judge them. The rest of my family tree is full of bog-standard evangelical Protestants with the occasional Catholic thrown in and some Quakers present for good measure (probably diluted by the 2nd Great Awakening). I am an Episcopalian by choice and with much enthusiasm.

I cannot possibly make an easy transition from my feelings about what happened to Easy Company at Landsburg to the horrific event in my hometown of Wichita yesterday. Please view the first video for context and the second for detail. 

Remember me, and do not forget my death. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUdr4OOOJCo&feature=PlayList&p=E82B1D3D5F2411D1&index=5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnzXbx97_UI

OK, so I really should blog more.

Sometimes I do blog, but it gets done very very late at night when my thoughts are not completely coherent. We shall endeavor to improve.

There is still much going on and I often feel like I'm in a spin loop: my brain is issuing so many instructions to itself that things just don't get processed well. So I'll grade myself on the three largest stressors in life right now.

Dissertation 3

Wedding 8.5

House prep 4

 If I lump in moving to Alabama concerns with preparing the house to sell, I'd probably have to raise that grade to a 6. Still, nothing is all that impressive. Must focus. Must make lists. Must pray. Must work out more regularly. Must limit self to one beer on Tuesdays. This is all very doable, it's just a matter of resource application.

Hey, but at least I got a blog entry done before April completely escaped!!

Je suis employed

So I went and got myself a job. Assistant professor. University of Alabama. Yes, I am moving myself and my precious boy-person and going to a town where I once spent 24 hrs, 8 of them in drug-induced sleep. 

Dorothy is leaving Kansas. Well, it's not like I haven't done this before. It isn't like that time I moved to Africa or anything like that, it's just Alabama. 

OK, this still means I need to: 

Propose my dissertation - setting up this meeting has proven more difficult than writing the paper.

Finish said dissertation and defend it, hopefully in time for graduation

Get married - oops, I should probably let Fr. Tom know he needs a new stewardship chair, too.

Sell a house - very dreaded action 

Buy a house - now this I can almost look forward to doing

Figure out what to do with the K-State season football tickets

Stay tuned. It might even get interesting. 

So I haven't been blogging regularly

All I have to do between now and June 27th is:

 - Propose a research project

 - Write a dissertation

 - Find a job

 - Sell a house

 - Plan a wedding

 - Execute said plan

 - Buy a house

 - Get married

I should really stop whining and get to work. 

Jesus wept, and so did Jimmy Chitwood

I find it shocking that any parent, administrator or even student from an allegedly Christian school would not intervene in this situation. 

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=903780

DALLAS -- A Texas high school girls basketball team on the winning end of a 100-0 game has a case of blowout remorse.

Now officials from The Covenant School say they are trying to do the right thing by seeking a forfeit and apologizing for the margin of victory.

Samantha Peloza grabs a rebound in practice a week after their 100-0 win.

"It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened," Kyle Queal, the head of the school, said in a statement, adding the forfeit was requested because "a victory without honor is a great loss."

The private Christian school defeated Dallas Academy last week. Covenant was up 59-0 at halftime.

A parent who attended the game told The Associated Press that Covenant continued to make 3-pointers -- even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points.

"I think the bad judgment was in the full-court press and the 3-point shots," said Renee Peloza, whose daughter plays for Dallas Academy. "At some point, they should have backed off."

Dallas Academy coach Jeremy Civello told The Dallas Morning News that the game turned into a "layup drill," with the opposing team's guards waiting to steal the ball and drive to the basket. Covenant scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and "finally eased up when they got to 100 with about four minutes left," he said.

Dallas Academy has eight girls on its varsity team and about 20 girls in its high school. It is winless over the last four seasons. The academy boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with "learning differences," such as short attention spans or dyslexia.

There is no mercy rule in girls basketball that shortens the game or permits the clock to continue running when scores become lopsided. There is, however, "a golden rule" that should have applied in this contest, said Edd Burleson, the director of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools. Both schools are members of this association, which oversees private school athletics in Texas.

"On a personal note, I told the coach of the losing team how much I admire their girls for continuing to compete against all odds," Burleson said. "They showed much more character than the coach that allowed that score to get out of hand. It's up to the coach to control the outcome."

In the statement on the Covenant Web site, Queal said the game "does not reflect a Christ-like and honorable approach to competition. We humbly apologize for our actions and seek the forgiveness of Dallas Academy, TAPPS and our community."

Covenant coach Micah Grimes did not immediately respond to a message left by The Associated Press on Thursday.

Queal said school officials met with Dallas Academy officials to apologize and praised "each member of the Dallas Academy Varsity Girls Basketball team for their strength, composure and fortitude in a game in which they clearly emerged the winner."

Civello said he appreciated the gesture and has accepted the apology "with no ill feelings."

At a shootaround Thursday, several Dallas Academy players said they were frustrated during the game but felt it was a learning opportunity. They also said they are excited about some of the attention they are receiving from the loss, including an invitation from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to see an NBA game from his suite.

"Even if you are losing, you might as well keep playing," said Shelby Hyatt, a freshman on the team. "Keep trying, and it's going to be OK."

Peloza said the coach and other parents praised the Dallas Academy girls afterward for limiting Covenant to 12 points in the fourth quarter. She added that neither her daughter nor her teammates seemed to dwell on the loss.

"Somewhere during that game they got caught up in the moment," Peloza said of the Covenant players, fans and coaches. "Our girls just moved on. That's the happy part of the story." 

Inauguration Day and Luke 12:48b

I'm a Republican. I love this party that was founded in Wisconsin and got Abraham Lincoln into the White House. I like Ike. I'm inordinately fond of John Danforth, and I wish I could vote for women like Olympia Snow and Susan Collins like my friend Lisa does. I was even a John McCain supporter from the 2000 campaign until this year's Republican convention. 

Unfortunately there is a lot that I don't like about my party, most of which one can see in the past eight years. And yes, I voted for that asshat. Once. (Sorry, my fellow Americans.) I think that Karl Rove is the devil. I think that Rush Limbaugh does more to promote liberal causes in this country than anyone else. I mean really, whose mind does he think he is going to change? Oh, yeah, and don't even get me started on the most recent vice-Presidential candidate of my party. {shudder}

I'm also a Christian. I try to take the words of Matthew 25: 31-46 very seriously, although I fall short as a matter of course throughout my daily life. My favorite bit of Scripture is this: And from everyone who has been given much shall much be required. It's not even a whole verse, it is just the middle section  of a verse from the parable of the faithful steward, Luke's version. 

I have been given much, I have been blessed in very many ways. I think that my primary role on this Earth is stewardship. Stewardship of this planet, my friends and family, my intelligence and abilities , my worldly goods, my fingers and toes and my relationships (an area where I am specially blessed). 

But back to the inauguration.... This country has been in a horrible place for the past several years, and I can't pinpoint when it started. It somehow became fashionable for politicians to expend their resources not as stewards of this country and its bounty, but as greedy little gremlins acting selfishly. I realize that this is not unique in the course of American history, but dammit, this is my history, those are my taxes and this is my country!

I fervently hope and pray that Barack Obama can bring about change. I want a country where people care about each other more than themselves. I want elected official who understand the concepts of Common Good and Enlightened Self-Interest. I want a country where the Christians are Christians in the sense that they mission on Matthew 25: 31-48 and Luke 12:48b, not on creating a theocracy where people are excluded because they are gay or lesbian, or because they value the availability of health care for women. 

So I'm pretty excited about today. I'm going to go work out in a few minutes, and I've got a trustee's meeting at noon, but I think I'm going to hunker down for most of the rest of the day and watch the government of the greatest nation on Earth peaceably change hands. May God bless us all.