Forever and Ever, Amen

I listen to Randy Travis while reading the Symposium by Plato.

And I am very proud of that.

It represents two seemingly opposed parts of my identity.

You see, it occurred to me last week when I was preparing for class, the odd pairing academia is with the outside world. So many things at this level of education deal with abstraction and morality and ways of knowing, whereas so many things in the outside world deal with paying bills, feeding your children, and not going crazy while doing so.

This distinction has become increasingly apparent to me as I have grown older, and as I approach graduation. Some of the experiences I have had in the last several years (working at Pine Ridge, working in Kentucky, working around the Mennonites) have opened up my eyes to the fact that there are a whole other host of "issues" that are equally as important as those issues which colleges find paramount to a "good education."

I have felt this rub for quite a long time, too. Being the son of a highly educated pastor in an severely under-educated post-industrial slump of a town, I know the character of people who are enmeshed in a system that is not as nice and tidy as the orderly nature of a college. Now, I am not attempting to patronize anyone, nor am I attempting to even praise--not all people who live "close to the ground" deserve veneration.

But what I am saying is that, as I continue my studies, I will always remember that there is an outside world, and the rules out there don't exactly work like they do in academia.

I will continue to listen to Randy Travis while I read Plato.

Forever and ever, amen.