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

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