Monday, September 25, 2006

Back to School

Do you remember walking into a new school when you were a kid? Do you remember meeting your "teachers" and finding your way from class to class with no real idea of what you were doing? Do you remember your first lunch at the new school?

Yeah, that was my day.

The climax was lunch. I shyly poked my head into the special ed room and they informed me they do "working lunches"- in other words, my desk isn't with them so move along please. They told me I could eat in the cafeteria with the teachers. I peeked around the cafeteria door, lunch from home swinging in my plastic grocery store sack, and evaluated the situation. 8-10 teachers sitting at the teachers table, with about 100 kids sitting at their tables around them. No extra chairs. No familiar faces.

I fled.

I ate lunch in my awsome but very empty office. Maybe I'll become brave tomorrow. Or maybe I'll just keep saying "hi" to people until eventually I peek around that corner and see a friendly face. Or maybe I'll spend 3 months eating alone in my awesome therapy room.

I can't say it was a "bad" day, but I'm feeling pretty much like the lone unwanted ranger. Note to self: ALWAYS invite the new girl to lunch the first day. Tomorrow's a new day. And I have my own private bathroom in my therapy room (well, connected to the room, not actually IN the room- that would be gross and reason for quiting).

Friday, September 22, 2006

Traveling on a much greater scale...

This guy Matt puts me to shame! I want to BE him, or DATE him, or be in some way associated with him. Sadly, the only thing I can do is LINK to him. So go watch the video. It will amuse.

BTW, I have arrived in Virginia and have passed go (otherwise known as Walmart) and paid somewhere around the tune of $200 without actually buying all that I needed. My fridge has a quart of milk, a nectarine and dinner leftovers in it. But I have a cool chair for the porch that I think I'll actuallly sit in. It's a rocking egg chair. And it's red. Not that it matters, but it's quite attractive and will be brought in every day after I sit on my porch. I'm quite excited about the tiny 3 foot by 9 foot porch- it's my first private porch. Augusta had a porch, but I had to share it and there were wasps. Buzzing, horrible wasps that built nests where I couldn't spray and came and threatened me on the porch. Hopefully, the wasps will succumb to the chill in the air here and LEAVE ME ALONE. The apartment is cute but small. The pool has closed for the winter despite it still reaching the mid-80's-- doesn't seem quite fair. I have a large mall and store district one mile over, but far enough that the mall traffic doesn't route through my neighborhood. I will do the cable dance tomorrow and wait patiently for them to call and tell me they'll be 5,000 hours late but "don't leave the house just in case we can come earlier". I'm really tempted to nix the internet idea-- afterall, I'm writing in my blog on wireless right now. Wonder who's internet I'm hitching a ride on? Wonder if it will keep working? What do you think, should I just cancell that part and save myself $20/month? I'll think about it.

I'm waiting for the febreze to dry on my matress, then I'll make the bed and crawl in for some shut eye. It's been a long day. Goodnight!

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Pope's Speech

I read it. I'm going to have to read it about 20 more times to get it all. I'm still struggling with why this upset the Muslims. The main point seems to be the abandoment of religion in the pursuit of scientific explanations and explorations. The quote in question is not a good reflection of present day moderate muslim faith, I don't believe. It is used as a vessle to carry his next point regarding the relationship between God and logos. Read it. Tell me what you think:

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a moving experience for me to stand and give a lecture at this university podium once again. I think back to those years when, after a pleasant period at the Freisinger Hochschule, I began teaching at the University of Bonn. This was in 1959, in the days of the old university made up of ordinary professors. The various chairs had neither assistants nor secretaries, but in recompense there was much direct contact with students and in particular among the professors themselves.

We would meet before and after lessons in the rooms of the teaching staff. There was a lively exchange with historians, philosophers, philologists and, naturally, between the two theological faculties. Once a semester there was a dies academicus, when professors from every faculty appeared before the students of the entire university, making possible a genuine experience of universitas: the reality that despite our specializations which at times make it difficult to communicate with each other, we made up a whole, working in everything on the basis of a single rationality with its various aspects and sharing responsibility for the right use of reason-- this reality became a lived experience.

The university was also very proud of its two theological faculties. It was clear that, by inquiring about the reasonableness of faith, they too carried out a work which is necessarily part of the whole of the universitas scientiarum, even if not everyone could share the faith which theologians seek to correlate with reason as a whole. This profound sense of coherence within the universe of reason was not troubled, even when it was once reported that a colleague had said there was something odd about our university: it had two faculties devoted to something that did not exist: God. That even in the face of such radical skepticism it is still necessary and reasonable to raise the question of God through the use of reason, and to do so in the context of the tradition of the Christian faith: this, within the university as a whole, was accepted without question.

I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (Münster) of part of the dialogue carried on-- perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara-- by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both. It was probably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than the responses of the learned Persian.

The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Qur'an, and deals especially with the image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship of the three Laws: the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Qur'an. In this lecture I would like to discuss only one point-- itself rather marginal to the dialogue itself-- which, in the context of the issue of faith and reason, I found interesting and which can serve as the starting-point for my reflections on this issue.

In the seventh conversation edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the jihad (holy war). The emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: There is no compulsion in religion. It is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat.

But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur’an, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the “Book” and the “infidels,” he turns to his interlocutor somewhat brusquely with the central question on the relationship between religion and violence in general, in these words:

Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.
The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul.

God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death....
The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: "For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality." Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practice idolatry.

As far as understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we find ourselves faced with a dilemma which nowadays challenges us directly. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true? I believe that here we can see the profound harmony between what is Greek in the best sense of the word and the biblical understanding of faith in God. Modifying the first verse of the Book of Genesis, John began the prologue of his Gospel with the words: In the beginning was the logos. This is the very word used by the emperor: God acts with logos.

Logos means both reason and word-- a reason which is creative and capable of self-communication, precisely as reason. John thus spoke the final word on the biblical concept of God, and in this word all the often toilsome and tortuous threads of biblical faith find their culmination and synthesis. In the beginning was the logos, and the logos is God, says the Evangelist.

The encounter between the Biblical message and Greek thought did not happen by chance. The vision of Saint Paul, who saw the roads to Asia barred and in a dream saw a Macedonian man plead with him: Come over to Macedonia and help us! (cf. Acts 16:6-10)-- this vision can be interpreted as a distillation of the intrinsic necessity of a rapprochement between Biblical faith and Greek inquiry.

In point of fact, this rapprochement had been going on for some time. The mysterious name of God, revealed from the burning bush, a name which separates this God from all other divinities with their many names and declares simply that he is, is already presents a challenge to the notion of myth, to which Socrates's attempt to vanquish and transcend myth stands in close analogy. Within the Old Testament, the process which started at the burning bush came to new maturity at the time of the Exile, when the God of Israel, an Israel now deprived of its land and worship, was proclaimed as the God of heaven and earth and described in a simple formula which echoes the words uttered at the burning bush: I am.

This new understanding of God is accompanied by a kind of enlightenment, which finds stark expression in the mockery of gods who are merely the work of human hands (cf. Ps 115). Thus, despite the bitter conflict with those Hellenistic rulers who sought to accommodate it forcibly to the customs and idolatrous cult of the Greeks, biblical faith, in the Hellenistic period, encountered the best of Greek thought at a deep level, resulting in a mutual enrichment evident especially in the later wisdom literature.

Today we know that the Greek translation of the Old Testament produced at Alexandria-- the Septuagint-- is more than a simple (and in that sense perhaps less than satisfactory) translation of the Hebrew text: it is an independent textual witness and a distinct and important step in the history of revelation, one which brought about this encounter in a way that was decisive for the birth and spread of Christianity. A profound encounter of faith and reason is taking place here, an encounter between genuine enlightenment and religion. From the very heart of Christian faith and, at the same time, the heart of Greek thought now joined to faith, Manuel II was able to say: Not to act “with logos” is contrary to God's nature.

In all honesty, one must observe that in the late Middle Ages we find trends in theology which would sunder this synthesis between the Greek spirit and the Christian spirit. In contrast with the so-called intellectualism of Augustine and Thomas, there arose with Duns Scotus a voluntarism which ultimately led to the claim that we can only know God's voluntas ordinata. Beyond this is the realm of God's freedom, in virtue of which he could have done the opposite of everything he has actually done. This gives rise to positions which clearly approach those of Ibn Hazn and might even lead to the image of a capricious God, who is not even bound to truth and goodness. God's transcendence and otherness are so exalted that our reason, our sense of the true and good, are no longer an authentic mirror of God, whose deepest possibilities remain eternally unattainable and hidden behind his actual decisions.

As opposed to this, the faith of the Church has always insisted that between God and us, between his eternal Creator Spirit and our created reason there exists a real analogy, in which unlikeness remains infinitely greater than likeness, yet not to the point of abolishing analogy and its language (cf. Lateran IV). God does not become more divine when we push him away from us in a sheer, impenetrable voluntarism; rather, the truly divine God is the God who has revealed himself as logos and, as logos, has acted and continues to act lovingly on our behalf. Certainly, love transcends knowledge and is thereby capable of perceiving more than thought alone (cf. Eph 3:19); nonetheless it continues to be love of the God who is logos. Consequently, Christian worship is worship in harmony with the eternal Word and with our reason (cf. Rom 12:1).

This inner rapprochement between Biblical faith and Greek philosophical inquiry was an event of decisive importance not only from the standpoint of the history of religions, but also from that of world history-– it is an event which concerns us even today. Given this convergence, it is not surprising that Christianity, despite its origins and some significant developments in the East, finally took on its historically decisive character in Europe. We can also express this the other way around: this convergence, with the subsequent addition of the Roman heritage, created Europe and remains the foundation of what can rightly be called Europe.

The thesis that the critically purified Greek heritage forms an integral part of Christian faith has been countered by the call for a dehellenization of Christianity-– a call which has more and more dominated theological discussions since the beginning of the modern age. Viewed more closely, three stages can be observed in the program of dehellenization: although interconnected, they are clearly distinct from one another in their motivations and objectives.

Dehellenization first emerges in connection with the fundamental postulates of the Reformation in the 16th century. Looking at the tradition of scholastic theology, the Reformers thought they were confronted with a faith system totally conditioned by philosophy, that is to say an articulation of the faith based on an alien system of thought. As a result, faith no longer appeared as a living historical Word but as one element of an overarching philosophical system. The principle of sola scriptura, on the other hand, sought faith in its pure, primordial form, as originally found in the biblical Word. Metaphysics appeared as a premise derived from another source, from which faith had to be liberated in order to become once more fully itself. When Kant stated that he needed to set thinking aside in order to make room for faith, he carried this program forward with a radicalism that the Reformers could never have foreseen. He thus anchored faith exclusively in practical reason, denying it access to reality as a whole.

The liberal theology of the 19th and 20th centuries ushered in a second stage in the process of dehellenization, with Adolf von Harnack as its outstanding representative. When I was a student, and in the early years of my teaching, this program was highly influential in Catholic theology too. It took as its point of departure Pascal’s distinction between the God of the philosophers and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

In my inaugural lecture at Bonn in 1959, I tried to address the issue. I will not repeat here what I said on that occasion, but I would like to describe at least briefly what was new about this second stage of dehellenization. Harnack’s central idea was to return simply to the man Jesus and to his simple message, underneath the accretions of theology and indeed of hellenization: this simple message was seen as the culmination of the religious development of humanity. Jesus was said to have put an end to worship in favor of morality. In the end he was presented as the father of a humanitarian moral message. The fundamental goal was to bring Christianity back into harmony with modern reason, liberating it, that is to say, from seemingly philosophical and theological elements, such as faith in Christ’s divinity and the triune God.

In this sense, historical-critical exegesis of the New Testament restored to theology its place within the university: theology, for Harnack, is something essentially historical and therefore strictly scientific. What it is able to say critically about Jesus is, so to speak, an expression of practical reason and consequently it can take its rightful place within the university. Behind this thinking lies the modern self-limitation of reason, classically expressed in Kant’s “Critiques”, but in the meantime further radicalized by the impact of the natural sciences. This modern concept of reason is based, to put it briefly, on a synthesis between Platonism (Cartesianism) and empiricism, a synthesis confirmed by the success of technology. On the one hand it presupposes the mathematical structure of matter, its intrinsic rationality, which makes it possible to understand how matter works and use it efficiently: this basic premise is, so to speak, the Platonic element in the modern understanding of nature. On the other hand, there is nature’s capacity to be exploited for our purposes, and here only the possibility of verification or falsification through experimentation can yield ultimate certainty. The weight between the two poles can, depending on the circumstances, shift from one side to the other. As strongly positivistic a thinker as J. Monod has declared himself a convinced Platonist/Cartesian.

This gives rise to two principles which are crucial for the issue we have raised. First, only the kind of certainty resulting from the interplay of mathematical and empirical elements can be considered scientific. Anything that would claim to be science must be measured against this criterion. Hence the human sciences, such as history, psychology, sociology, and philosophy, attempt to conform themselves to this canon of scientificity. A second point, which is important for our reflections, is that by its very nature this method excludes the question of God, making it appear an unscientific or pre-scientific question. Consequently, we are faced with a reduction of the radius of science and reason, one which needs to be questioned.

We shall return to this problem later. In the meantime, it must be observed that from this standpoint any attempt to maintain theology’s claim to be “scientific” would end up reducing Christianity to a mere fragment of its former self. But we must say more: it is man himself who ends up being reduced, for the specifically human questions about our origin and destiny, the questions raised by religion and ethics, then have no place within the purview of collective reason as defined by “science” and must thus be relegated to the realm of the subjective. The subject then decides, on the basis of his experiences, what he considers tenable in matters of religion, and the subjective “conscience” becomes the sole arbiter of what is ethical. In this way, though, ethics and religion lose their power to create a community and become a completely personal matter.

This is a dangerous state of affairs for humanity, as we see from the disturbing pathologies of religion and reason which necessarily erupt when reason is so reduced that questions of religion and ethics no longer concern it. Attempts to construct an ethic from the rules of evolution or from psychology and sociology, end up being simply inadequate.

Before I draw the conclusions to which all this has been leading, I must briefly refer to the third stage of dehellenization, which is now in progress. In the light of our experience with cultural pluralism, it is often said nowadays that the synthesis with Hellenism achieved in the early Church was a preliminary inculturation which ought not to be binding on other cultures. The latter are said to have the right to return to the simple message of the New Testament prior to that inculturation, in order to inculturate it anew in their own particular milieux. This thesis is not only false; it is coarse and lacking in precision. The New Testament was written in Greek and bears the imprint of the Greek spirit, which had already come to maturity as the Old Testament developed. True, there are elements in the evolution of the early Church which do not have to be integrated into all cultures. Nonetheless, the fundamental decisions made about the relationship between faith and the use of human reason are part of the faith itself; they are developments consonant with the nature of faith itself.

And so I come to my conclusion. This attempt, painted with broad strokes, at a critique of modern reason from within has nothing to do with putting the clock back to the time before the Enlightenment and rejecting the insights of the modern age. The positive aspects of modernity are to be acknowledged unreservedly: we are all grateful for the marvelous possibilities that it has opened up for mankind and for the progress in humanity that has been granted to us. The scientific ethos, moreover, is the will to be obedient to the truth, and, as such, it embodies an attitude which reflects one of the basic tenets of Christianity. The intention here is not one of retrenchment or negative criticism, but of broadening our concept of reason and its application.

While we rejoice in the new possibilities open to humanity, we also see the dangers arising from these possibilities and we must ask ourselves how we can overcome them. We will succeed in doing so only if reason and faith come together in a new way, if we overcome the self-imposed limitation of reason to the empirically verifiable, and if we once more disclose its vast horizons. In this sense theology rightly belongs in the university and within the wide-ranging dialogue of sciences, not merely as a historical discipline and one of the human sciences, but precisely as theology, as inquiry into the rationality of faith.

Only thus do we become capable of that genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today. In the Western world it is widely held that only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally valid. Yet the world’s profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions. A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures. At the same time, as I have attempted to show, modern scientific reason with its intrinsically Platonic element bears within itself a question which points beyond itself and beyond the possibilities of its methodology.

Modern scientific reason quite simply has to accept the rational structure of matter and the correspondence between our spirit and the prevailing rational structures of nature as a given, on which its methodology has to be based. Yet the question why this has to be so is a real question, and one which has to be remanded by the natural sciences to other modes and planes of thought: to philosophy and theology.

For philosophy and, albeit in a different way, for theology, listening to the great experiences and insights of the religious traditions of humanity, and those of the Christian faith in particular, is a source of knowledge, and to ignore it would be an unacceptable restriction of our listening and responding. Here I am reminded of something Socrates said to Phaedo. In their earlier conversations, many false philosophical opinions had been raised, and so Socrates says: “It would be easily understandable if someone became so annoyed at all these false notions that for the rest of his life he despised and mocked all talk about being - but in this way he would be deprived of the truth of existence and would suffer a great loss”.

The West has long been endangered by this aversion to the questions which underlie its rationality, and can only suffer great harm thereby. The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur – this is the program with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time. “Not to act reasonably (with logos) is contrary to the nature of God”, said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in response to his Persian interlocutor. It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures. To rediscover it constantly is the great task of the university.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Clemson 27 ; FSU 20

Monday, September 11, 2006

Boot Camp Mom and Dad

I am freaking tired. Dad fell off the roof last Friday so I insisted on doing his work for him this week.

Tonight I mowed the grass for the first time EVER. Yes, I had 2 brothers and THEY were in charge of the grass. I was in charge of vacuuming, folding towels and dusting as a kid. Let me just state that mowing, while it does resemble vacuuming (except with a large sharp power tool), takes a lot of energy. We have a good size yard and a push mower. I'm a bit sore already.

That's AFTER I went exploring, jogged to the local gym, "tried out" the gym for 45 minutes (they endedup NOT letting me join for a month), jogged home and did floor exercises. And mom didn't feed me lunch (boo hoo) cause we were talking so I ate an apple and a handful of almonds. Breakfast was a fruit drink. Dinner was steak, green beans and a salad. Finally, a MEAL! :-)

Apparently, I've entered boot camp. Tomorrow I'm going to paint the eves that dad fell off the roof trying to paint last friday. And mom and I are going to try to remove the oil based paint from the deck where the paint can hit last friday (it's down the wall, on the plants and splashed onto the deck). Should be interesting.

Think I'll head to bed early tonight!

Thursday, September 07, 2006

On the road again...

I'd post a picture, but my wire to hook the camera to the computer is currently in the boxes in my car. The apartment was emptied and cleaned this morning. 10 trips to the car only thanks to my lovely new whatcha-ma-diggie thing that has wheels and collapses when I'm done with it (too tired to deal with tip-of-the-tongue syndrome). I avoided the mess on 495 (they closed it down for an hour during rush hour and shot the whole traffic pattern for the day) by going south and hitting a toll bridge instead. Lovely bridge with a great view. It's a "nice" bridge, meaning it's so darn high that you can park your car and have someone else drive you over the bridge if you are afraid of heights.

Drive was uneventful with the exception of the large piece of truck tire rubber that I hit around richmond. Cars to either side of me and a heavy loaded Matrix-- I cringed and went right over it. Turned the radio off for an hour listening for car-rattle indicating damage. My car seems to have survived the episode.

I ran out of steam outside of Raliegh and made it to Salsbury. Pretty shoddy looking Holiday Inn, but they gave me the room with the jacuzzi and misting action. I'm intrigued. Pays to be a priority member in an empty hotel. :-) We'll see if I get eboli from the jets.

I'm inpatiently awaiting dinner. They said they'd call, but I think I'm gonna have to roam on down. I could cook a steak faster than they are, and I only saw one table seated at their restaurant. *bringgggg* never mind, my order's ready.

Time for a "sensible" dinner, bath, then bed. See the elms group within 48 hours for the shower! Beware the tootsie rolls.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Last Day

24 more hours to go. I'm 1/3 packed, 1/3 of the apartment is cleaned, I have 8 hours left of professional obligation including a presentation to the products committee that's got me in a tizzy, then finish the apartment, then a drive, then a baby shower!!! It's going to be a fun weekend-- I just have to make it there in one piece.

Civista's been fun. Not as fun as USH, but alright. Almost done.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Condolences to the Irwins


Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin died in a freak accident. I've spent countless hours with Crocodile Hunter on in the background while studying for tests, doing projects and cleaning house. It was one of those shows you could look up and notice something really cool going on, but didn't have to watch it start to finish. What a compassionate guy-- my condolences to his wife Terri and his kids Bindi Sue and Bob. He was way too young.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Ahhhh, I still love musicals

"Writing should be easy....like a monkey driving a ski-boat...."

This has to be my new favorite line from a musical [Title of Show]--rather funny musical crapping on the writing process of writing a musical. Had to download it for fun.


Totally unrelated musical--but related topic-- I drove through the rain (thanks ernesto) with a co-worker and one of her patients up to Baltimore Friday night to see "Mama Mia". I highly recommend this musical! My stomach muscles hurt from laughing so hard. Mary had already seen it in Vegas but came to see it again-- said this one was vastly better than the one she saw a few years ago. Better cast. Who knew the songs of ABBA presented in musical form would capture my heart??? While I loved the entire musical, there's only 3 songs I absolutely fell in love with and the singer on the track for "I had a dream" did not do the song as much justice as the young lady singing it in Baltimore. I did download "The loser takes it all" and "Mama Mia" from Itunes.

Awsome set design and fluid scene changes astounded me between songs, and the chorus line of kicking scuba guys made me snort bad merlot (first musical I've ever been to that allows wine in the audience area). By the finale we were on our feet dancing with the music-- most of the audience was on their feet dancing except for a few irritated senior citizens. Sorry seniors-- the music moved me (literally) and you could use the butt boogie too btw.

I love musicals. I heard a quote once that said "musical theater is when someone gets stabbed and instead of dying he sings". *sigh* I love them. I wish everyone would break out in song randomly as they go through life. Wouldn't that be amusing???

Then Sings My Soul...

Not sure how they came up with Prophet Soul from the questions, but I like the the "life long learner and seeker for purpose and meaning" part....

You Are a Prophet Soul

You are a gentle soul, with good intentions toward everyone.
Selfless and kind, you have great faith in people.
Sometimes this faith can lead to disappoinment in the long run.
No matter what, you deal with everything in a calm and balanced way.

You are a good interpreter, very sensitive, intuitive, caring, and gentle.
Concerned about the world, you are good at predicting people's feelings.
A seeker of wisdom, you are a life long learner looking for purpose and meaning.
You are a great thinker and communicator, but not necessarily a doer.

Souls you are most compatible with: Bright Star Soul and Dreaming Soul

Friday, September 01, 2006

That was fun...

External disaster is now all clear.

School bus verses car-- 38 walking wounded and 1 in critical per rumors. I just got done witnessing the smooth response to an external disaster! Controlled chaos is the best description for it. Pretty good for this tiny little hospital!

And I'm supposed to drive through the rain to see a musical up in Baltimore today. Not getting home until after midnight. This is a freaking long day.

At least the cafeteria is now empty of kids-- all the parents have swept them away with bandaids and ice packs. Nicely done-- 3 hours total from rumor, to the actual calling of the code, to set up and now clean up.