Life is good....

Got sick Sunday night, had a slight headache and stuffy head Monday morning, and completely crashed Monday afternoon with a fever and headache and all kinds of good stuff...but I got 9 hours of sleep last night and am feeling much better; not 100% yet, but MUCH better. My fellow students are wonderful in their compassion and caring (and my roomie is stupendous, both as a person generally and because he got me a cup full of fruit this morning so I could sleep in but still eat).

Professor Donnelly took our 3-person PHC ROTC group down the National Defense University yesterday morning; he was giving a lecture on homeschooling to people (mostly colonel or their equivalents) attending the NDU College of Industry-Education track. After the lecture, which was largely an informative one with demographic and academic statistics, we cadets were introduced, and a Q&A session ensued. We were asked such questions as how we might deal with people more "experienced" in the world than ourselves when we eventually became second lieutenants, and whether we ever wish we could have gone to public school, and whether or not it's hard for us to relate to our peers. Overall, it was a fun experience, and I look forward to doing it next year.

Classes are going well; finished my first Physics exam today, on which I scored well, and have been doing well in my other classes, too: have done a recitation and 1/5 Commonplaces for Brit Lit, 3/4 outlines for Lit Crit and am working on my first paper for it, 1/2 Short papers for Shakespeare, and am constantly working on Physics homework.

So far I'm most enjoying Literary Theory and Criticism--it has the most difficult reading of all my classes, but is the most provocative of deep thought and theorization on the nature of art, and especially of Christian art. It is interesting to see what both Christians and non-Christians have had to say about it over the millenia--we've gone from Plato to Heidegger over the last month and a half, and each reading opens up a new idea. I'm writing my paper on Nietzsche's argument that Christians cannot be artists and vice versa. I believe it can be answered only with a profoundly Christian and especially theocentric view of art. It will be fun, and I'll post it to the Lit Crit blog when I finish it.

Speaking of which, for those interested, I finally posted the last section of the Drama paper to my Lit Crit blog, discussing history as a tragicomedy and how this is biblically, philosophically, and aesthetically satisfying.

A Soldier's Valentine

(No, I don't have a valentine. No, I'm not looking for one, either. But I've come a long way in that I'll admit that this bears thinking about... :-))

Why do we fight? For glory? For fame? For family? For home? Why do we not throw away our lives in a glorious death in battle against overwhelming odds, indelibly etching our name in the annals of history? Because we fight not for ourselves, but for our home and family and for that person who awaits our return with eager eyes…so let us fight hard and fight well, and if our lives are lost, let them be lost dearly, but let us remember why we fight and wherein lies our glory.

"The heroic serves the pastoral." ~Dr. Hake

"Pretty Fair Maid In The Garden"
From Fiddler's Green
(Traditional, Arrangement Tim O'Brien)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR5zX4nryBc

Pretty fair maid was in her garden,
When a stranger came a-riding by;
He came up to the gate and called her,
Said,"Pretty fair maid, would you be my bride?"

She said,"I've a true love who's in the army,
And he's been gone for seven long years;
And if he's gone for seven years longer,
I'll still be waiting for him here."

"Perhaps he's on some watercourse drowning,
Perhaps he's on some battlefield slain,
Perhaps he's to a fair girl married,
And you may never see him again."

"Well if he's drowned, I hope he's happy,
Or if he's on some battlefield slain;
And if he's to some fair girl married,
I'll love the girl that married him."

He took his hand out of his pocket,
And on his finger he wore a golden ring;
And when she saw that band a-shining,
A brand new song her heart did sing.

And then he threw his arms all around her,
Kisses gave her one, two, three--
Said,"I'm your true and loving soldier
That's come back home to marry thee."

Pretty fair maid was in her garden
When a stranger came a-riding by;
He came up to the gate and called her,
Said "Pretty fair maid, would you be my bride?"

2 Timothy 2:11-13

It is a true saying, "For if we be dead together with Him; we also shall live together with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign together with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we believe not, yet abideth He faithful: He cannot deny Himself."