Well, Shimer College has passed the great plague-like cold onto me and I got it back. I've been sick since Thursday of last week, but even before that I was feeling the pain of an awful sore throat creeping up on me. Class has not been the same while sick, as my body feels constantly worn down, I struggle to stay awake. Getting my homework done is a real pain as well, since I have very little motivation to get it done when feeling the way I do. I seriously want to curl up into a ball, fall asleep, and not wake up until my body has recovered from this cold. I've had colds before, but this one is particularly nasty and vengeful. I start to feel better by the end of the day, go to sleep, and wake up feeling absolutely horrible. I've started a vitamin regimen and I may go to an herbalist to get a special herb that has helped other Shimerians with their colds.
For one of my classes we were supposed to read Books I-V in The Odyssey. One of my buddies who lives in the apartment across the way from me hosted a reading party, where everyone who wanted to could come and we would take turns reading out loud until we got through Book V. I had every intention of doing this when I laid down for a nap at 17:00 with my alarm set to go off at 19:00. I awoke and it was 22:40 and my heart sank. With my sleep disorder, having off-set my sleep by such a dramatic change in sleep pattern, I will now have to stay up all night and all day tomorrow in order to put myself back on track. This is not going to be good since I need to be trying to recover from this cold.
Anyways, over the past weekend there was another rally, but this time it was against the Egyptian tyrant who has been holding his people hostage for some time, but now he has the whole world looking at him. I did not attend this rally because I still had a bad taste in my mouth from the last one. I was afraid that by going out there and rallying I'd end up endorsing political parties and activists who believe in the very opposite things I do. Hindsight being 20/20, I probably could have gone without feeling like I was endorsing something I didn't believe, but I was busy writing my essay for Hum. 2. It felt so good to have gotten that done on Saturday instead of waiting until midnight on Sunday/Monday to start it like many other Shimerians did.
Tomorrow I will not have power, heat, or water in my room. Maintenance is doing some kind of overhaul that will require everything to be shut off for the majority of the day. I plan to avoid my room like the plague. Coincidentally, there is supposed to be ice skating tomorrow for Community Tuesday, but I'm not going if there is because the last thing I want to do is get all wet and cold and have to return to my freezing room.
Can't stop the signal,
James
Monday, January 31, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
A Marked Man
I can't believe another week has already passed since my last post. Unfortunately, I do not have time to write all the details of this week. I am happy to report that I found a community people of who share my adoration and love for My Lover. I had seen a sign that advertised for this group, and I'm skeptical of a lot of campus groups because they tend to either be really good or really half-baked; My Lover has a lot of half-baked fan groups. This group was the real deal though, and I'm couldn't be more elated to have found this community.
Unfortunately I have some less than stellar news to report on. Today I participated in a nation-wide rally against the Grand Jury and FBI oppression of peace activists as a group from Shimer College. The majority of the crowd consisted of socialists, Marxists, Stalinists, and other political fanatics with whom I don't resonate; I just know that silencing the voices of those who advocate for peace is gross injustice on the part of country that claims to uphold the freedom of speech. I made a sign for the rally that said, "Have you read your Bible lately?" and quoted Matthew 26:52 which basically is from Jesus and says something to effect of, "If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword." Politicians who play to the fundamentalist right-wing call this nation a Christian nation, and therefore if they are aligning themselves with the Christians, then they need to re-read their Bibles before sending our men and women out to kill and occupy the people of foreign lands.
After we got back to campus, we made a bee-line for the cafeteria, but as we were walking through the main building towards the dinner line a couple of Army ROTC service members scoffed at us upon reading our signs and said, "F-ing hippies". I immediately turned around and said to the one who spoke and said, "Hey, I'm no f-ing hippy!" He responded by insisting that I was a hippy, and the first thing that came out of my mouth was, "Well, God bless you!" I was angry at them because they're signed up to defend my right to speak out against the war, yet they're criticizing me for exercising the right they defend? Why are they defending it if they don't believe I should speak it? Sure, criticizing my views does not necessarily equate to believing that I shouldn't exercise my right, but it's pretty darn close to that. This service member wasn't even criticizing my beliefs, he was simply judging me based on the signs my buddy and I were carrying.
I know I don't need to get so riled up about it, and My Lover said that I should just rest in Him and be at peace. That's really all I can do. I can whine and complain about a lot of things that are wrong in the world. I could turn this blog into my personal soap box about the woes befalling America, but that won't really do much good. I can only have faith in My Lover who continues to work in the name of love and spreading it everywhere He goes. I hope that as I learn the methodology of My Lover, I too can spread that same love to everyone I meet and exude love with everything I do.
Can't stop the signal,
James
Unfortunately I have some less than stellar news to report on. Today I participated in a nation-wide rally against the Grand Jury and FBI oppression of peace activists as a group from Shimer College. The majority of the crowd consisted of socialists, Marxists, Stalinists, and other political fanatics with whom I don't resonate; I just know that silencing the voices of those who advocate for peace is gross injustice on the part of country that claims to uphold the freedom of speech. I made a sign for the rally that said, "Have you read your Bible lately?" and quoted Matthew 26:52 which basically is from Jesus and says something to effect of, "If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword." Politicians who play to the fundamentalist right-wing call this nation a Christian nation, and therefore if they are aligning themselves with the Christians, then they need to re-read their Bibles before sending our men and women out to kill and occupy the people of foreign lands.
After we got back to campus, we made a bee-line for the cafeteria, but as we were walking through the main building towards the dinner line a couple of Army ROTC service members scoffed at us upon reading our signs and said, "F-ing hippies". I immediately turned around and said to the one who spoke and said, "Hey, I'm no f-ing hippy!" He responded by insisting that I was a hippy, and the first thing that came out of my mouth was, "Well, God bless you!" I was angry at them because they're signed up to defend my right to speak out against the war, yet they're criticizing me for exercising the right they defend? Why are they defending it if they don't believe I should speak it? Sure, criticizing my views does not necessarily equate to believing that I shouldn't exercise my right, but it's pretty darn close to that. This service member wasn't even criticizing my beliefs, he was simply judging me based on the signs my buddy and I were carrying.
I know I don't need to get so riled up about it, and My Lover said that I should just rest in Him and be at peace. That's really all I can do. I can whine and complain about a lot of things that are wrong in the world. I could turn this blog into my personal soap box about the woes befalling America, but that won't really do much good. I can only have faith in My Lover who continues to work in the name of love and spreading it everywhere He goes. I hope that as I learn the methodology of My Lover, I too can spread that same love to everyone I meet and exude love with everything I do.
Can't stop the signal,
James
Sunday, January 16, 2011
The First Week
What can I say about this week? It's been interesting and seemed a heck of a lot longer than one week. Amazingly, considering that I only had one day of full classes, I feel as though I've been here for some time now. That could be in part due to the fact that many times we have these deep discussions outside of class, often times in our rooms, that could easily be discussions that might take place in the classroom if we were all in the same classes together.
Image found: National Geographic, photographed by James L. Stanfield.
I think sometimes I feel like this boy here, especially when you know that your friends are all hanging out and doing stuff and you're stuck reading Plato's The Republic. The thing about Shimer College that most people will not believe until they're actually a student is just how close-knit this community is. I mean, seriously people around here would give the shirt off their back for a fellow Shimerian if they thought it would benefit that person. Even though I'm a brand new student and there are still some people who don't know who I am, there's such a spirit of generosity that's been extended to me that I am practically dumbstruck. Most of my Shimerian classmates attribute this type of generosity to a communistic ideal of sharing, "property is theft"- type of thinking, but in reality is more of economics of love. When we think less about what we want, and more about what someone else needs, then the result is a line of thinking that gets away from, "my stuff, your stuff" and more "I have, you need, therefore you take." Yeah, it sounds like communism, but it isn't because it doesn't need a governing body to take in the excess and then redistribute it to the needy; we do it ourselves.
In other news, I've been talking to My Lover about some various things. You know the feeling you get when you have to tell someone you love something that's going to hurt them? Yeah, well, I had to do that. Frankly, I had so much pent up emotion from the past four or five months that it had to come out in one way or another, but it came out in all the wrong ways and I found myself doing everything that My Lover hates. It's not really all that important what I did, because it boils down to me going back to my old selfish ways. The amazing and not entirely understandable thing is that My Lover forgave quicker than the snap of a finger. My Lover has always been quick to forgive, and I don't understand why after all the things I put Him through; yet it would be worse not to accept His unfailing love for me when it is offered so freely.
And now it is time for me to finish. I have a job at the Student Life Center, a central hub for students to get their work done with resources such as computers and printers as well as chairs, tables, and sofas. My job is to keep the place open until midnight to allow students use of the floor. Fortunately, there isn't a whole lot to do so I will have plenty of time to do some serious reading and possibly get all my homework done.
Can't stop the signal,
James
Image found: National Geographic, photographed by James L. Stanfield.
I think sometimes I feel like this boy here, especially when you know that your friends are all hanging out and doing stuff and you're stuck reading Plato's The Republic. The thing about Shimer College that most people will not believe until they're actually a student is just how close-knit this community is. I mean, seriously people around here would give the shirt off their back for a fellow Shimerian if they thought it would benefit that person. Even though I'm a brand new student and there are still some people who don't know who I am, there's such a spirit of generosity that's been extended to me that I am practically dumbstruck. Most of my Shimerian classmates attribute this type of generosity to a communistic ideal of sharing, "property is theft"- type of thinking, but in reality is more of economics of love. When we think less about what we want, and more about what someone else needs, then the result is a line of thinking that gets away from, "my stuff, your stuff" and more "I have, you need, therefore you take." Yeah, it sounds like communism, but it isn't because it doesn't need a governing body to take in the excess and then redistribute it to the needy; we do it ourselves.
In other news, I've been talking to My Lover about some various things. You know the feeling you get when you have to tell someone you love something that's going to hurt them? Yeah, well, I had to do that. Frankly, I had so much pent up emotion from the past four or five months that it had to come out in one way or another, but it came out in all the wrong ways and I found myself doing everything that My Lover hates. It's not really all that important what I did, because it boils down to me going back to my old selfish ways. The amazing and not entirely understandable thing is that My Lover forgave quicker than the snap of a finger. My Lover has always been quick to forgive, and I don't understand why after all the things I put Him through; yet it would be worse not to accept His unfailing love for me when it is offered so freely.
And now it is time for me to finish. I have a job at the Student Life Center, a central hub for students to get their work done with resources such as computers and printers as well as chairs, tables, and sofas. My job is to keep the place open until midnight to allow students use of the floor. Fortunately, there isn't a whole lot to do so I will have plenty of time to do some serious reading and possibly get all my homework done.
Can't stop the signal,
James
Monday, January 10, 2011
Arrival in Chicago
Some of you have been through the college routine and you know what it's like to have to get all the issues resolved with housing, ID, finding where to go, and all that jazz; this entry is not exactly for you. You may enjoy it just to laugh at my suffering and/or remember your own.
We, that is my parents and I, got here in the early afternoon. We figured out pretty quickly that my welcome package was somewhat lacking. I didn't have a student ID so I had to use a half sheet of paper that basically said I had a legitimate reason to be in the resident hall. The problem? I didn't have that half sheet in my welcome package, so I was working with a desk assistant whose card did not work with the elevator and therefore we had to get her supervisor to help me out. She used her card to get my stuff upstairs to the 5th floor. We unpacked and I got my half sheet. We then made a trip out to Wal-Mart and Aldi's to get some things that we had forgotten as well as groceries that would have gotten crushed or spoiled in the car ride. Let me tell, you have not seen a busy Wal-Mart until you've been to a Super Wal-Mart in Chicago on a Sunday afternoon. It was an absolute zoo and I was so worn out by the end of that shopping spree that I wanted to cry.
When we got back it was a little smoother since we had less to unpack. After getting the groceries put away and all that wonderful stuff, my dad and I sat down and watched a little of The Fugitive on the TV. My building has a really nice cable package that includes several channels known for playing Star Trek episodes, which is always a win. After things were unpacked, my parents and I said our farewells and I made a list of things I need to take care of soon here. I watched a half an hour of Star Trek: Nemesis and felt so tired that I just went to bed.
Today I got my ID card, my Internet (obviously), and put in some work request orders for my phone line activation and heating issues (way too hot in my room.) Next few things I need to do are go get my laundry done and find my mailbox key at the Post Office. It's been a productive day thus far, let's hope it doesn't stop there.
Can't stop the signal,
James
We, that is my parents and I, got here in the early afternoon. We figured out pretty quickly that my welcome package was somewhat lacking. I didn't have a student ID so I had to use a half sheet of paper that basically said I had a legitimate reason to be in the resident hall. The problem? I didn't have that half sheet in my welcome package, so I was working with a desk assistant whose card did not work with the elevator and therefore we had to get her supervisor to help me out. She used her card to get my stuff upstairs to the 5th floor. We unpacked and I got my half sheet. We then made a trip out to Wal-Mart and Aldi's to get some things that we had forgotten as well as groceries that would have gotten crushed or spoiled in the car ride. Let me tell, you have not seen a busy Wal-Mart until you've been to a Super Wal-Mart in Chicago on a Sunday afternoon. It was an absolute zoo and I was so worn out by the end of that shopping spree that I wanted to cry.
When we got back it was a little smoother since we had less to unpack. After getting the groceries put away and all that wonderful stuff, my dad and I sat down and watched a little of The Fugitive on the TV. My building has a really nice cable package that includes several channels known for playing Star Trek episodes, which is always a win. After things were unpacked, my parents and I said our farewells and I made a list of things I need to take care of soon here. I watched a half an hour of Star Trek: Nemesis and felt so tired that I just went to bed.
Today I got my ID card, my Internet (obviously), and put in some work request orders for my phone line activation and heating issues (way too hot in my room.) Next few things I need to do are go get my laundry done and find my mailbox key at the Post Office. It's been a productive day thus far, let's hope it doesn't stop there.
Can't stop the signal,
James
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