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Wednesdays are currently long days. First, to the office for some meetings and a nice three hours' respite from the pollen. We had our manuscript meeting (with lunch) and discussed our papers and plans to write grants. For lunch we had wraps, which I hadn't had before, although since mine was very burrito-like (Southwest chicken), perhaps it's a matter of semantics. Later we finished our poster for Prague: a description of our study participants at baseline and the first peek at the follow-up data. Next I drove to campus, where I renewed some library books and then met for an hour with Paul Y.; we worked on our paper and enjoyed some conversation. I then drove home and collected D. for Kindermusik, after which we three hurriedly ate mac & cheese and then I walked up the hill for the artifacts class.
It's an interesting exercise in cross-cultural dialogue. Most of the students are parishioners at St. Jude's, the church where it's held, and today when we were discussing a bit of the Babylonian Talmud (a collection of argued opinions and interpretations of religious law by various learned rabbis), one of the students asked how these issues are resolved into dogma. There was surprise when the rabbi explained that Judaism doesn't have dogma, only some general underlying commonly accepted principles. The only Jew ever excommunicated was Spinoza.
Later we discussed intentionality -- for example, a ritual may be done with full intention to be connected with the sacred, or it may be done in a perfunctory fashion because the person is distracted. I was interested to learn that new Catholic priests undergo some rite of passage called "habitual intention," to make sure that rituals they may perform while somewhat distracted are still valid.
Speaking of distraction, I don't know if it was spring fever, "dead week" of winter term, or the bus strike that would account for it, but people sure were driving oddly today. Twice I had to hit the brakes. It's very much spring, though -- everywhere smells of daphne (when I'm not too congested), and daffodils bloom in profusion. A young woman crossing Agate wore a t-shirt in the most striking shade of green, which I very much hope could become in fashion (so I can have it too).
Midday clouds, like a painter's whimsy:
It's an interesting exercise in cross-cultural dialogue. Most of the students are parishioners at St. Jude's, the church where it's held, and today when we were discussing a bit of the Babylonian Talmud (a collection of argued opinions and interpretations of religious law by various learned rabbis), one of the students asked how these issues are resolved into dogma. There was surprise when the rabbi explained that Judaism doesn't have dogma, only some general underlying commonly accepted principles. The only Jew ever excommunicated was Spinoza.
Later we discussed intentionality -- for example, a ritual may be done with full intention to be connected with the sacred, or it may be done in a perfunctory fashion because the person is distracted. I was interested to learn that new Catholic priests undergo some rite of passage called "habitual intention," to make sure that rituals they may perform while somewhat distracted are still valid.
Speaking of distraction, I don't know if it was spring fever, "dead week" of winter term, or the bus strike that would account for it, but people sure were driving oddly today. Twice I had to hit the brakes. It's very much spring, though -- everywhere smells of daphne (when I'm not too congested), and daffodils bloom in profusion. A young woman crossing Agate wore a t-shirt in the most striking shade of green, which I very much hope could become in fashion (so I can have it too).
Midday clouds, like a painter's whimsy: