The Naming of Things

This morning was kind of a disappointment.

I woke up (late) to go to liturgy for Theophany. I walked down to St. Giles' hall, where the parish meets, and there was no one there. It turns out that the service today was at Fr. Stephen's home chapel in Headington. Even if I knew where that was, it would take me an hour to an hour and a half to get there by the time I mapped out a route. So I came back and had some breakfast, which is disappointing, because Theophany is one of my FAVOURITE feasts. Getting accustomed to the rhythm of life in a different parish is harder than I thought. I missed Communion on Sunday because I was waiting for the other lady who sings tenor to come back, and then go, but by the time she came back, Fr. Stephen was walking back into the altar, and I was still stuck next to the radiator. I will get the hang of it! I will!

There has not been much exciting news to share of late, just studying. I have two essays due on Monday. The first is for my Development of Christian Doctrine tutorial, and it is about whether or not it is plausible that St. Onesimus collected the first Pauline corpus in the beginning of the 2nd century. The second is for my John Donne tutorial, and it is about how, in the Songs and Sonets, the subjects of Donne's poems--his lover(s)--get eclipsed by the high and lofty language of his poems. I've also sussed out (that's British slang for "checked out") some lectures, and have settled on the ones I will go to. One is about the Standardization and History of the English Language, which is really fascinating. There is a patristics graduate colloquium series that I am attending, and a lecture series on literary critical theory, and another on reading modernist poetry.

During that last lecture, about modernist poetry, I thought for about twenty minutes that I was in lecture with Dan Radcliffe (a.k.a. Harry Potter), but a better look at his face disappointingly revealed that it was not actually him.

The other night, I found a book on one of the bookshelves at my house entitled "Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments," written by one Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (of "Shalom in the Home" fame). I thought, this is a funny premise for a book. So I opened it. It was hilarious. Probably some of the worst dating advice I have ever heard. There was a particularly interesting section on protecting your date, and the course of action you should consider if the two of you are approached by a mugger. Don't use your date as a human shield. Don't offer her as a hostage. Don't hire your friend to play a mugger so that you can fight him off and look really cool. I mean, it's all true. But these aren't the kinds of dating tips that produce lasting relationships. So tonight, we are having a gathering of SCIO students, so that we can all hear the wisdom of Rabbi Shmuley.

I need to go study at the library. I use the lower reading room at the Radcliffe Camera most often - that's where all the English and Theology books are. It's awesome, but it's also ridiculously cold in there. I can only manage about three hours at a time. Okay. Off to the library.