Back from the Dead.

Not literally.  I just know that it has been quite a while since I posted on this here blog.  About a month to be semi-exact.  In that month, the following things have happened:

1) I have not become a Hebrew scholar.  Although I do think I have a somewhat slightly-less-than-rudimentary knowledge at this point, the language and I still have a bit of a love-hate relationship.  Or, in Hebrew, an "ohev-however you say hate in Hebrew" relationship.  And yes, I did just have to ask Kels to remind me how to say "love".

2) I have probably read more than during any previous one-month stretch in my life, and still don't feel like I belong in graduate school.  The workload can be a little overbearing at times, and most of my classmates don't have a super high-maintenance family to worry about all the time (that was a joke).  I have managed.  Yet I still find myself comparing my own study habits and love (or lack thereof) for spending hours (or days) on end in the library with other students.  At times I don't think I compare favorably.  I really do love learning and reading and writing.  This really is what I want to do.  I just don't think I'm your typical grad-student-on-the-way-to-being-a-professor.  But I'm working on that.

3) I have learned that it takes a significant amount of work to avoid politically-charged discussions around here.  It does seem like everyone has a opinion.  And when I say opinion, I don't mean like, "vanilla ice cream is the best," or "hot weather is more pleasant than cold," or "the NFL owners and players are all complete morons" (okay, that last one isn't opinion, but you get the idea).  I mean like, "this opinion is the most important thing that I could ever possibly believe and I am willing to die for it."  It is truly fascinating.  I certainly have opinions of my own, but I enjoy the role of impartial observer and think that I often learn a lot by just listening.  Maybe once I feel like I'm more qualified I can write a politically-charged post here and get half of our four readers all riled up.  But don't count on it.

4) I confirmed that I love this place.  I had a discussion with a girl in one of my classes the other day, and she told me that she absolutely hates living in Jerusalem.  She had her reasons but I have to admit, I can't sympathize with her in the least.  For someone who is really, really interested in religion, there truly isn't a better place in the world to live.  It feels like we are in the center of everything important, and I like it.  I'm pretty confident that it's going to be a good two years.

5) I love my family.  That's not a thing that happened, just an undeniable truth.  If you have followed Kels' posts, pictures, and videos of our little girl over the past month, this one needs no explanation.


This has been fun, I should try to do this more often.  My parting gift: If you have any free time, I just read this article and thought it was rather thought-provoking.  It partially convinced at least one person; I'll go ahead and avoid a polemic on universalism and Rob Bell's thoughts on heaven and hell.  Shalom, y'all.