Neologisms

I have handed in a draft of my thesis, and can now turn my hand again to other adventurous ideas. Reflections coming out of the thesis proper will show up at my other blog. But the adventure of writing? Well, I guess that belongs here.

Or more specifically, today, the adventure of words. I’ve written a passel of words over the past 6 months. Too many for a thesis, actually. I’m sure my next adventure there, before it gets approved, will be the process of editing down.

One fun aspect of typing, editing, proof-reading, and otherwise being buried in words, is the joy of unexpected ideas that pop up through typos. Or in some cases, just through over-thinking things.

So, here’s a short list of neologisms – words that ought to be:

Threatise: a document proposing, justifying, and explaining the ways and means of intimidation (physical or emotional). See The Prince by Machiavelli.

Comcluding: when your Comcast contract runs out; or, if you close your Comcast contract early.

Oboeligatto: well, what would you call  the melody played by a double reed instrument  accompanying a different tune? (see BWV 5/4, or read my thesis when it comes out)

 

Bilbliography: the list of resources consulted for an article, chapter, or book about a beloved hobbit.

  JRRT's drawing, taken from Wikipedia via Google images

Quirkly: adv., in a rapid but unsual manner; or, in an unusually rapid manner.

There’s another that only great exercise of self-control, and the fear of the PC police keeps me from posting. But that raises a whole other question about the adventures of the recesses of the human mind.

One Year Out

Sunday was one year to the day.

Yesterday was one year to the date.

Today begins . . . well, “the first day of the rest of my life,” I guess!

Reflections

Crazy: This enterprise was crazy from the outset. What sane person leaves a comfortable income from an enviable job to go he knows not where? That is crazy.

Busy: People have finally stopped using the word “retired” about me. I have been up to my neck in reading, studying, writing, and teaching.

Poor: That none of this reading, studying, writing, and teaching amounts to any significant income brings me back to my first point. (see “crazy,” above)

Aimless: Though I can see a number of ways this year might take me, I still have no real clarity about the next thing. A  journey without a destination is aimless.

Nostalgic: I miss a great many things about “the life that late I led.”* Some may be gone, to live in delightful memory. I hope not all are gone.

Confidence

Vocation: I still have a clear understanding of what I am supposed to be doing.

Provision: It isn’t exactly the widow’s jar of oil, but somehow our resources continue to sustain us. That “somehow”? Umm, that’s a good and gracious God.

Marriage: I know this, and anyone who knows both of us knows it – my Karen is amazing. She has gladly followed, and often led, through the morass of this year.

Enthusiasm: I love getting at my work each day. My thesis jazzes me. Teaching is a kick, even at adjunct wages.

Thesis: This work will end, and I will be proud of it, and whether or not it is a direct link to my next job is, in a sense, irrelevant.

Friends: We are reminded that we do nothing alone. I’m thankful for friends in my life: for chats over coffee, for lingering weekends in the country, for young student friends who have read chapters in progress, for long-time colleagues who have helped me network. We are blessed.

The Love of God: My Karen and I have had a some loss and disappointment this year. Our life is not a fairy tale, nor is it a romantic “starving artist in the garret” opera. But it is firmly in God’s good hands, and while we claim to understand less and less, we find more and more that we can – that we have to – rely on a loving savior who “ever lives to intercede for us.”

Thanks

I am thankful to live this adventure among friends and family who are able to put a different spin on our life these days. My “crazy” looks to other people like “faith,” and that helps me remember how all this got started. My “busy” is enviable to those who feel stuck in a rut. Our “poor” may be uncomfortable and limiting to us, but we are in our own house without fear of the wolf at the door. My “aimless” is an opportunity to trust, to pursue, and to connect with people all around the world. And “nostalgia” is the sentimental feeling that accompanies the excellent memories of good work done with great people.

So, day one of a new year . . . Onward. Excelsior!

* I am fully aware that this phrase is from “Kiss Me Kate” and refers to quite a different life than the one I have led.You’ll pardon me not posting a video – I apparently do still have some self-control. Still, if you can’t help yourself, go here to listen!

And there's the summer

My Karen and I had a long weekend away recently. The summer divided into before and after my mother-in-law's death and home-going,* with some common features on both sides of the calendar. One shared feature is Karen's work on/at/in her parents' home. That was, to be sure, a part of our long weekend away recently. But it is not all the weekend was about.

We were given the full run of my brother-in-law's family lake home. A beautiful place to read and study (for me, on Friday) and to relax in (for us, evenings, Saturday afternoon, and most of the day Sunday). I got in two Branch County bike rides - routes that I enjoy making up when I get to our home county with a bike. We took a long, leisurely kayak trip around the lake's perimeter. We ate well, outdoors as much as possible. We slept like we were . . . well, on vacation!

Saturday morning I helped Karen at Grandpa's house. Her work there, and her patience with it, amazes me. Pitching in now and then helps me see how much she is accomplishing - and earns me a little credit, too! After Saturday lunch, Karen took the rest of the weekend off. (The Old Testament Sabbath laws put it this way, "deny yourself and do no work." Knocking off work really is a self-denial for my girl.) I had the pleasure of meeting again with the committee of high school classmates to de-brief the very successful reunion we had in July. Then it was supper, and rest, until we left for home.

Since then, I have inched my way to my thousand-mile cycling mark. I'm usually there by Memorial Day. This year, I was just glad to get there before Labor Day. I hope that before the Fall turns nasty, I will be done with my thesis, and will celebrate with a few long days of riding. An overnight bike camping trip would be nice. Cycling here in the late summer has been colored with thoughts and memories of my Minnesota cycling buddy, Steve Thompson. More on him in a separate post. Suffice it here to say, an overnight on the bike would be one way of celebrating his friendship and one of his significant contributions to my life.

Today as I write, I have made my first edit at a very messy first draft of the third chapter of my MA thesis. That chapter is also the product of the second half of my summer. I'm later than I want to be with it, but . . . on we go!


* For Christians, physical death is a welcome passage from our sojourn/pilgrimage on earth, to our true home in heaven. That has often been misinterpreted (by Christians and Christian-watchers) as from a material existence to a disembodied pure soul state. But the Bible is clear about the very physical reality of a heavenly home, a new heaven and a new earth in which the redeemed will have bodies, and get to keep busy with whatever we will do to worship God in God's very presence. So, "home-going" is not just a euphemism.

Four Feel-good Family Days

What a weekend! Four-day weekends, ideally, should be fun and satisfying. This month needed a long weekend that was both. Never mind that everything about it was, so to speak, imposed on us. The "impositions" were good, and good for us.

After my mother-in-law's funeral on July 15, my Karen was home for two nights and the day in between, then back over to help our her father. Then home for two nights before heading to Portland (OR) for her annual software users conference. Thanks to the "adventure" of self-imposed penury, and the exigencies of thesis-writing, I had to miss this year's tagalong. Karen was home for one night before we again returned to Michigan - for our four day weekend.

Thursday - we arrived at my father-in-law's house and helped out with a variety of chores through the afternoon. I drew the outdoors straw, and on this beautiful day set to watering plants and weeding the entryway. Nice work, especially considering the basement option. But we both did end up in the basement, organizing and clearing things. I prefer my physical activity to be fitness related, but theologically, genetically, and practically, I know that labors in the ground and for others are actually closer to the "Maker's mark" on our lives. Satisfying work.

Thursday night we slept for nine hours - unheard of - followed by Friday morning's bike ride, with temperatures in the low 60s and full-on sun. The moderately aggressive solo pace made for an invigorating 90 minutes . . . all the time I could give the great outdoors on a day that had to include some serious thesis reading. Karen put in a long day at her dad's place, and that evening we were taken to dinner by Karen's brother.

In the evening, her two nieces arrived to kick off that family's family week at the lake. Four adult children, 9 grandchildren, bikes, boats, etc. We got out of there in time Saturday morning for their festivities to begin!

My family had its own festivities: the reunion of my mother's side of the family, to celebrate 100 years of family history on the property my maternal grandparents bought in 1913. My oldest sister lives there now, with both Freeman and King cousins nearby. The Freemans ruled the weekend, coming from as far away as California and Alabama. We had two days of catching up, learning more family history than any one of us already knew, and of course eating! Karen and I camped Saturday night at the private lake behind the old farmstead . . . our first tenting together in something like 8-10 years.

Driving back into Chicago on any summer Sunday is always its own adventure, but even that went well, as we talked away and anticipated a couple of weeks at home - our own bed, our own gardens to take care of, our routines, my thesis. The four-day weekend was a perfect transition out of a month we would not - for the most part - want to repeat. Here's to the adventure that August will be!

what a month

In the past four weeks, I have:
* sent off chapter two of my thesis, to be read by friends
* ground nearly to a halt on my reading for chapter three
* preached
* attended my high school class reunion (40th!)
* been invited to teach some music courses this fall
* become more and more immersed in two Bach cantatas, for my thesis
* walked with my Karen's family through her mother's death
* had only three bike rides, and a handful of 5-mile runs

 But . . .
* I am digging the reading I have done. Chapter three is my technical chapter, and I am finding all I need to do it well.
* The reunion was a blast. Partly because, as one of my old chums said, I'm not half the man I was 40 years ago. (I was rather . . . plump . . . in school.) But mostly because, you know, people!

We're actually a pretty good looking bunch. Especially when you consider that we are as old or older now than our parents were when we graduated from high school! (That's me, the stiff one on the far right. In front of and behind me are two of our teachers.)

* My mother-in-law had a significant impact on many lives, and we have the certain hope that she is in heaven.

* I am strangely content with my cycling miles. While I would normally be above 2,000 by late July (and haven't yet reached 800), I enjoy any time I get out, and have held my own and felt great with my Saturday morning peeps. (Who, in all likelihood, are cutting me some slack with our road pace.)

* My Karen.

That's almost four decades

This summer I will attend a reunion of my high school class of 1973. Yes, this is the 40th anniversary of our graduation. Some people who will be there I haven't seen for 30 years (the last reunion I attended); others not for 40. I am curious, and eager.

But there's another anniversary that I haven't missed, for almost four decades. The first year anniversary was complicated by a music composition class and a tennis shoe shopping trip that went badly. The most recent one was celebrated by a week away on a beautiful lake in northern Michigan. Yes, I'm talking about our wedding anniversary.

This year, our 38th, like the previous two came during a week at a friend's home on Torch Lake. Years ago, when our children were all still at home, we had the privilege of spending a week there together. Two years ago we got "on the list" again, and our friends have been kind to keep us in the loop each summer. It's a great place to get away to, not too far but far enough to feel one has got away, close enough to the things we'd like to do but remote enough to not have good access to phone service. Pretty ideal!

Oh, and to top it off - excellent country roads for cycling!

(The Cherry Capital Cycling Club has an excellent regional map.)

Days pretty much consist of being woken by the sun, having a leisurely start reading before breakfast together (we almost never eat breakfast together unless we have company or are on vacation), then deciding what we'll do. For me, it is usually a binary but complicated decision: read, or ride? I manage to do both. For my Karen it is easier: read until she has to set her hand to some project. Our children will see the fruit of their Mom's project. My class reunion will see the fruit of mine - a scanner-to-slideshow affair. Evenings above the 45th Parallel are long and leisurely.

While it all seems rather sedate (we don't even take the boat out) it suits us perfectly. Asparagus is fresh from a local farmer; strawberries are in season; antiquing is accessible; Charlevoix is just up the road; Traverse City down. But it's a notch on the timeline of our marriage. Which is itself an adventure. Thirty-eight years is not long enough to be married, so I hope this adventure is just getting started!

A Sunday Ride

For three decades I have worked Sundays. For sixteen summers, as I drove out of my neighborhood at 7am on the way to church, I have often seen a cycling group heading west down Geneva Rd. Golly, that looked like fun, and I have to confess it made me a little jealous. Oh, to have a free Sunday morning, and a group to ride with.

(Never mind that nearly every Saturday for almost a decade of summers, I have had an excellent group ride with friends. Sunday is another day, and I wasn't riding!)

Then there are the organized rides. Like marathons, always on Sundays. Kind of rules out participation when one works Sundays.

So as this last weekend rolled around, and my Saturday morning guys were deciding to do an organized ride on Sunday, my Karen said, "Well, of course you should go. Who knows how many free Sundays you'll have with your next job?" OK, then! I was in.

The Udder Century has been running for 30 years. It is sponsored by the McHenry County Bike Club, in northern Illinois. The route goes by a lot of farms. The event is very well organized, lots of cheerful volunteers, and there had to be a couple thousand riders involved. Being farm country, in the Midwest, there were lots of loops providing options for distances: 32, 50, 62 (a "metric century"), 75, and 100 mile rides were on offer. The Saturday gang opted for the 75 mile route at a casual pace.

It was overcast, in the mid-50s, with a fair W/NW wind. Good group riding conditions, and surprisingly (to me) we did keep a fairly casual pace throughout. Also surprisingly, the 75-mile route turned out to be 80 miles. It was a kind terrain, except for that one big bump about a mile before the end. Ouch.

Here is the route. The metrics (speed, heart rate) are Jon B's.

So, 80 of my 330 total miles, on one ride. By this time of the year, I'm usually on my second thousand seasonal miles. But this year has to be different, and I'm glad to get out when I can. And on this occasion, especially glad to ride with friends, finish well, and enjoy a rare Sunday getaway on a bike!

Monday night ride

Monday nights, an excellent bike club, ABD, sets out on a delightful "recovery ride." It is a recovery in the sense that many of the riders are likely to have raced over the weekend. Probably on Sunday. The ride is supposed to be moderately paced (16-18mph). It usually has a dozen riders, more or less.

I have missed this ride all season. Various reasons, most of them academic. Literally, academic. This week I finally felt my way clear to consider it. And when my Karen asked me if I was planning on it, that settled it. Karen is a big fan of me getting out on my bike. I mean that it in the best possible way, for all the right reasons. And she has a way of asking if I'm going to ride that really means she hopes I will. This is the woman who bought me my two good bikes.

Monday was hot here, and it still was at 6:20 when we rolled out for our 6:15 ride. But it wasn't long before the wind, the lowering sun, and the long stretches of shade on the roads turned this into the ideal evening ride. Golly, I've missed it. There were only 6 of us riding, which no matter how nice people are - and they almost all always are - it is more fun with a dozen or more. I've been out when we've numbered two dozen, and that's a blast.

The ride snakes through parts of Winfield, West Chicago, Wayne, and Bartlett in a big loop at the end of a long string. (Think of a balloon.) For me, with my ride to and from the start point, it is a round 24 miles, just under 90 minutes, usually averaging just over 16mph.

And now, "I'm back!" My miles are pitifully low this season. This 24 mile ride amounts to about 20% of my total miles. Do the math. By this date I'm usually approaching my annual goal of 1000 by the end of May. Well, that ain't gonna happen, probably not even by July 4. And that's OK. But this ride? Yes, see you again next Monday.

Weekend Breaks

Last week I began writing my thesis. After the first day, with its hard-won 80 words - yes, that is eighty words - I assumed most days would be more productive, but I wondered how many words a day I need on average to complete what I think will be a 40,000 word thesis. If I have 75 weekdays this summer, that amounts to roughly 600 words a day, Monday through Friday.

If I rode my bike 20 miles a day, on the other hand, that would be 1500 miles. Pretty doable. (In fact, if I could just get out of bed early enough, there's no reason I couldn't do both the riding and the writing!)

But the weekends belong to my Karen. Thankfully this one was sunny, warm, and productive. The yard looks great, the fence staining job is complete, the house is clean. Took at Prairie Path ride with son Pat, enjoyed a visit with Pat and his girl, got to a Pentecost Sunday service, and I got in a visit with my sister Bonnie and most of her family. I read Dorothy Sayers' The Zeal of Thy House. I'm ready to get back to the study, and see how many words are in me this week.

And thinking that that road bike sure looks lonely.

Surrounded by Books

There is no adventure like it . . . a book can take you anywhere.

These days many of mine call me to my basement study, but they take me to 18th century Germany.

Just because I said I would, here are a  couple of pictures from my study. This is my thesis space:

That's my space. To the right, below the calendar is where by thesis books have been collecting. For fun, I wanted to see how tall an order this thesis is. Unfortunately I had already returned 3 of the books that I've used.

Those 2 slim volumes on top are the musical scores of cantatas I'll be studying for the thesis.


The fun is just beginning . . .

My 3 Rs

It's April, and I just got in from my first group ride of the season. Being a full-time student, I've found, has not left a lot of time for some of the more ambitious exercise I enjoy. That, I believe, is about to change. Thanks to the 3 "Rs" that will shape my summer:

Reading
Riding
Running

READING This week I received approval to write a thesis for the M.A. in Historical Theology. Already my stack of books for that work is impressive. I'll have to post it before some go back to the library.

RIDING Cycling is my body's love language. So, many people have assumed that my academic hiatus (my self-funded sabbatical, my season of unemployment) has meant lots of riding. Not so! But now that my semester is winding down (two more days of classes; one essay due; one independent study paper due; one final exam) I can see where the bike fits back into my life.

RUNNING I started running four years ago, made a little splash in a local 5k event that I admire so much (the only organized 5k I've run; and I commend it!), and completed two marathons. Well, technically one marathon in two successive years. For two years my "running calendar" has been empty; I've casually kept up the exercise but intentionally kept down the distance. But now I am registered for my first event in two years, which is also my first trail run.

Why these 3 Rs? Well, for the 3 Ws, of course!

Reading is the prelude to Writing. Over the next four months I'll be working on my thesis. If you are a glutton for punishment, or just want to feel superior about the way you live your life, you can track that at my other blog: Te decet hymnus. I love to write, and a thesis (I didn't know it would be this thesis) is why I returned to grad school in the first place.

Running is the means of my Weight control. Especially in these rather full days of reading and writing, a 30-minute run is an easy, quick break, and a much more effective calorie burn than cycling. I've had to watch my weight all my adult life (and should have earlier!) so it's nice to have something I enjoy that has such a direct impact on that.

But Riding is the key to my Well-being. I experienced it again this morning. After weeks of being off the bike - I took it off the trainer, put it in the garage, then got busy with other things - I felt what I feel every year: "This is where I belong." It's uncanny, really. You may know the line from "Chariot's of Fire," where Eric Liddel tells his father, "When I run, I feel the pleasure of God." Well, I won't claim to feel the pleasure of God, but I do feel that he built me for this particular pleasure. Man, I love to be on a bike!

In fact, it is not far-fetched to say that Riding will be the carrot for my Writing this summer, the reward I give myself for hitting certain daily goals. If I see you on the roads, think twice before asking me about my thesis . . . unless we're on a really long ride.

Five

Last Sunday, March 3, marked 5 months of my self-funded sabbatical. I last wrote about it here. Interesting, but not surprising - the two months' lacuna corresponds to the first half of another semester of graduate study. So, anyway, 5 months of Sundays away from the work that I do reasonably well, that has shaped my adult life, and that I hope, Deo volente, to return to in some capacity.

Surprises
* It's harder to take time for exercise than I thought it would be.
* I spend less time making music here at home than I want to.
* I dream about footnotes and formatting.
* Study and writing really can feel like work.

Delights
* Evenings with Karen. Like, every evening with my Karen.
(I should admit, this may be a delight that is not shared. One night during our 2004 sabbatical, Karen said to me,
"you need a hobby."
"I already have a hobby - you!"
"You need another hobby.")
* Sunday mornings in church together. We drive together, sit together, leave together.
* Study. This really is a delight. And it is a privilege. Yes, it can feel like work (see above), but just like the work of my vocation - I may complain about it, but I wouldn't want to do without it.

Annoyances
* So many books, so little time.
* Finding myself so out of my element in a high-achieving graduate program.
* 24-hour days. Seriously, even 28 hours a day would help. 32 would be ideal.

Discoveries
* I really miss making music. I miss conducting a choir. I miss the chancel choir at College Church.
* My opinions about the Pietists keeps changing. I can't either dismiss nor embrace these people, who factor pretty importantly into my thesis. Why do they have to be so . . . human, ergo complicated?
* It's both easier and harder than I thought it would be to work at home. It's amazing how many times the phone rings - and how often the calls are not welcome. (i.e., they are not personal calls; if you are a friend trying to reach us, please do!)

Convictions
* I am more convinced about my vocation: planning and leading gathered worship.
* I am less convinced about the viability of the noun "evangelical," and while my theological commitments are the same I wonder about carrying that tag except as an adjective.
* Whatever is next, it will be with wonder and joy, and Karen and I will be surprised and delighted by it.

But now it is spring break, and our delight will be enhanced by a trip to San Francisco (courtesy one of our parting gifts from College Church) where we now have two grown children. Adventures await!