the home stretch, the final leg, the long haul, and all other sports-related euphemisms for a scholar's week of hell

**If you're just here for the pics, keep scrolling down.

It has been an embarrassingly long time since I have written, and even now, I shouldn't be. A housemate estimated, much to her fellow housemates' chagrin, that we only have between 6900-9700 essay words left to write by this coming Thursday at 12 p.m. Plus, it's the last week the students in this program will see one another, so picture-taking, affectionate-hugging , and celebratory pub-hopping i s more on our mental agenda than anything else. There is a group of six visiting Oslo, Norway this weekend by 15-pound plane tickets, and though I was invited, my inner, anxious scholar got the best of me. So this weekend I'll be tackling Karl Barth's doctrine of election, as well as a 15-pager on "The Development of a Christocentric Doctrine of Creation and Approach to Popular Culture at Calvin College." (Also, known as "Ripping Calvin's Theological Program Into Shreds.") Woot. Woot.

It is not that I didn't love Calvin's Reformed theology while it lasted, and still don't admire parts of it. My involvement with the Student Activities Office, one of the college's hotbeds for insightful theo-cultural exposition, was one of the most formative elements of my time at Calvin. I was a cultural discerner. I read Neil Plantinga's primer on the Calvin Project, "Engaging God's World," several times outside of DCM. Calvin spoke to me and my need for God-centered reflection on some of my deepest enjoyments of life: music, film, community, etc. Plus, I loved the people involved, and still do.

But something about its program turned stale during my senior year, while I was working in the Student Activities Office and still very involved in its mission. I think there had been doubts percolating regarding the theological robustness of the office's mission for awhile. Here are a handful of questions that continued to come back, much to my annoyance:

1. How do we determine whether a piece of art embodies God's "truth"? Truth in the sense of theological propositions, truth in the sense of existential observations, truth in the sense of "people really act like this in real life?," truth in the sense of "this can be proven scientifically"? etc.

2. How do we separate our strong emotional bonds to art when attempting to discern the Holy Spirit? Is the only way to find out whether God is "speaking through" a song dependent on the chills we get while listening to it? Is experience the only way to understand this? If so, then cultural discernment is profoundly charismatic. I don't think most CD kids are ready to come to terms with that.

3. When does our appreciation or strong emotional bond to a piece of art become idolatrous? (Either idolatrous in the sense of worshipping the piece of song or the artist.)

4. Can movies really help "save one's soul"? (As the book title goes...)

5. Are we just using God's name to justify the cultural predilections of the times, of the Indie Kingdom? Is God more prone to show up in the music of The Books than of Garth Brooks?

6. Is the SAO's newest project, the Fashion Advisory Board, theologically justifiable on the basis of fashion potentially being used for "individual self-expression?" Such a value seems terribly culturally situated in the last 200 years, as a product of America's glorification of The Material and Person As Commodity. (Using bought items to reflect your personhood.) Since when has individual self-expression become a fruit of the Spirit?

7. Oh yeah...where does Christ fit into all of this? Is His role in the cosmos really to redeem our culture? (This is more a criticism of Calvin College than of the Student Activities Office in particular.) If so, then Christ seems to be subservient to creation, as if renewed creation and not Christ is the consummation of the story of humanity. Did Christ come to make our albums better sounding and our films more mesmerizing and our organic soap more organic and fruity-smelling? (I'm being facetious, but it's 1 in the morning and I'm cranky that I'm not in Oslo.)

So I have the next week to finally face up to these questions and attempt to answer them in about 4000 words.

Meanwhile, the students in SCIO just had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day celebration in lieu of being home with our families, and though it wasn't the same, it was a close runner-up. The staff members and their young families joined us, and it was so refreshing to be around children for once this whole term. The day kicked off with an American football game in the park, followed by a Holiday Music Concert by some of the staff members on various stringed instruments. Then turkey, a surprise slide show, a dessert competition, and a viewing of " Elf" and "The Muppets Family Christmas," not to be confused with "The Muppets Christmas Carol."

(Ok, "The Muppets Family Christmas" was a TV special featuring Fozzie the Bear's holiday surprise visit to his mother's. She however, is not expecting his arrival and is about to leave for two weeks of surfing in the Bahamas. Pretty soon, the Sesame Street Gang arrives and the Swedish Chef tries to cook Big Bird for the Christmas Turkey (!) All is well when Miss Piggy miraculously makes it to the farmhouse despite a blizzard, and Kermit discovers that the Fraggles are living in the basement! Simply splendid.)

Here are some of the best pics from the day:

Grandma and Grandpa, really excited about the day.

some of the Crick House girls.

sometimes you just gotta dance...to the California Raisins' Christmas album.

roommate Amy Seymour and I.

Fellow Cricker Ryan Pendell and I.

Fellow Crick girls Katy Harclerode and Julie Ooms, relaxing for once.

cello Christmas concert by staff member Simon and his wife. (not at the piano, that's Joanna.)

Skylar and Simon's daughter Natasha, being silly.

I promise that this is a joke, Mom.