Confessions of an Errant Mind

Sarah and I took in the first movie we'd seen in a few months over the holiday in Barrington (Thanks, Grandpa and Grandma, for babysitting!) We're both suspense fans, so we chose the Good Shepherd dispite its lukewarm reviews. Sarah actually liked it quite a bit, but me not so much. There's so little emotional warmth in this film, it's hard to sustain two and a half hours of real interest. It reminds me somewhat of The Bourne Supremacy, another Matt Damon film. Interesting storylines and overall idea, but just not something I enjoyed all that much. One review of the film mentioned that this would make a better HBO series than a film, and I can definitely see that point as well. Several characters, most notably Angelina Jolie's, could have used more substantive development.

In the end, this is a movie about fathers and sons, as well as about loyalty and betrayal. The latter, we come to believe, is ultimately unavoidable in a real world. I know nothing about the world of secret intelligence, but this struck me as a much more realistic view into that world than any James Bond film. And the special effects here were much fewer, for those for whom that matters. Overall, worth seeing, perhaps, but not nearly as good as something like The Departed earlier this year, which aimed lower in terms of ambition, but was much more suspenseful and rewarding as a film.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 09:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of my favorite radio shows, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me..., recently had a short item about Barack Obama. For those unfamiliar with the show, it's a weekly news quiz that has a fair amount of humor thrown in. Kind of like a cross between the Daily Show and Jeopardy. In any case, the item was about Obama's still recent trip to New Hampshire and the reception he received there. It was so enthusiastic, the references to Jesus were easy to make--he "healed a few lepers in between rallies." At the end of the segment, they played a few bars from Andrew Lloyd Weber's Jesus Christ Superstar.

Now I'm more or less an Obama supporter. I like his rhetoric and the way he uses faith to supplement (but not ordain) his political views. I think he's an intelligent guy with a lot of charisma and visionary power. But it is interesting how the country has taken to him in the last few months. He's drawn hugely enthusiastic crowds in both Iowa and New Hampshire, and this is for someone who's said he's just thinking about running. It puts me in mind of a phrase from the Gospels, how the people were like "sheep without a shepherd." People are clearly hungry for a savior.

The problem is that at some point, we'll all realize that Barack Obama is in fact a human being, not divine. He'll have to come up with actual policies, not just bipartisan rhetoric. Given his record so far, I'm not sure those will be anything worth writing home about--his real achievements have been in tone and style, not in policy. Whether or not he runs, the real phenomena here, I think, is not Obama himself, but the reaction to him. People definitely are hungry for what they believe Obama to be, a leader who can heal divides and provide a certain and hopeful future.

Unfortunately, I don't have a whole lot of faith in any political leader's ability to deliver such a vision. Jesus certainly didn't run for office. I can't imagine him putting up with the beauracracy. But I'm not sure what to make of the hunger for this person--is it a hopeful sign that people want something better than what we currently have? Or just an indicator that people hope for a leader who can do what they are unwilling or unable to do amongst themselves? I lean pessimistically toward the latter option--we put a lot of trust in the image of celebrities, in sports, entertainment, or politics. In the end, though, I believe more and more that any change we make must come from the grassroots, from the community around us. It's a much more difficult and confusing task, but the only one that can make a real change.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Two moments from the end of the semester that illustrate why my job is sometimes frustrating:

Students had portfolios due at 4 PM on Friday. I got to work on that day to find an email from a student sent at 10 PM the previous evening. It said (in short) "What's this portfolio thing about again? I forgot. Can you email me back tonight--I have practice until 3 tomorrow." Unfortunately, I and several other instructors do not read our email while watching Letterman. This also comes after a week of in-class review of this assignment.

The second item comes from a portfolio itself. While talking about the ways that he improved at revising, one student wrote (again a more or less): "I did a really good job of revising my essays this semester. As you can see from the draft and final I included, I made many good changes. For example, I added a title to my final draft. This made it easier to tell what it was about. I also made a lot of other good changes to this paper." Now, we do a lot of talk about what makes for substantive revision in my class, and adding a title is definitely NOT included.

Luckily, these examples are the exception, not the rule. But it's still rather frustrating at times--though strangely humorous as well.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 09:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm reading Waiting for the Light, an advent reader, this season. Here's a passage that stuck out to me today. It's by William Willamon.

It's tough to be on the receiving end of love, God's or anybody else's. It requires that we see our lives not as our possessions, but as gifts. "Nothing is more repugnant to capable, reasonable people than grace," wrote John Wesley a long time ago....This is often the way God loves us: with gifts we thought we didn't need, which transform us into people we don't necessarily want to be. With our advanced degrees, armies, government programs, material comforts, and self-fulfillment techniques, we assume that religion is about giving a little of our power in order to confirm to ourselvs that we are indeed as self-sufficient as we claim. Then this stranger comes to us, blesses us with a gift, and calls us to see ourselves as we are--empty handed recipients of a gracious God who, rather than leave us to our own devices, gave us a baby.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 07:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Many weeks ago, I posted a picture of a twinkie experiment my class and I did. I kept two twinkies--one wrapped and one unwrapped, in my office. Since we had our last class today, I brought the two twinkies in for my class to observe. The wrapped one was basically unchanged. The unwrapped one had dried out within about a week of unwrapping it. Other than that, it remained unchanged. No sign of mold or decay whatsoever, which is amazing when you consider the cream filling.

I was showing them to my second class when someone actually volunteered to eat a piece of the open one. I didn't have a legal disclaimer to sign, I cut a slice off for them anyway. He liked it. So did students in two of my other classes. I tried a slice myself and it wasn't bad. Kind of like a nilla wafer with a marshmallow. Still, the fact that all that sugar and starch can sit out in the open for three months without any problem is a little scary.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 07:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)