Second Day (Tuesday)

I forgot to mention my class last night, Screenplay writing. It looks very promising, apparently everyone in the class will have written half of a legitimate screenplay by the end of the semester. Having taken both fiction and poetry creative writing classes, this will be pushing me in a more challenging and (hopefully) structured direction. We learned about the formula that is used for writing plays and movies, I was pretty surprised to hear how the skeleton and planned out (almost every single one!) movies are.

Today, at 12:50 I had my Literature of War class. I originally signed up for this class because I am interested in war and because I miss taking english classes. I figured out that this will be my ninth english class, about four classes over the minimum required for a minor and one thesis away from an extra major. Unfortunately Willamette University would not recognize them for either since they don't fit their recipe. I don't mind so much; I've enjoyed learning to read, understand and write reasonably well. That's good enough for me. It turns out the class is going to be on the Vietnam war and our books will involve different perspectives on the conflict. The essay and homework load seems to be fairly easy and the books (thought there are 7 of them) should be pretty easy reads. Overall I feel pretty good about the class. Unfortunately I didn't learn anything since we haven't really begun getting into any of the material.

What have I learned today then? Well, I'd like to start with something that caught my eye while I was using the restroom, and that I'd like to remember. I'm currently reading Follow Me to Freedom by John Perkins and Shane Claiborne.




The book is written in the form of dialogue (and I highly recommend it). The bit I'll be quoting is Shane speaking, and then Shane quoting another guy (let me know if you want to borrow mine after I'm done).

Shane writes:

Not only are we to be in touch with the pain and brokeness of others, but we also have to face our own brokenness. It is through the cracks that the light comes in. It is knowing our wounds that helps prepare us to lead. THat's why God prefers the weak over the strong and uses the foolish to confound the weak. For this reason, He can make something beautiful of a mess. The best leaders have battles scars. Jesus Himself was a wounded healer. And it is our wounds that empower us to healers of others. The best domestic abuse counselors are women who have been in domestic abuse. THe best teachers in recovery are addicts themselves. And the most powerful voices for grace are those who have experienced tremendous violence and still been able to forgive.
Henri Nouwen cointed the term "wounded healer." He put it like this:

Compassion grows with the inner recognition that your neighbor shares your humanity with you. This partnership cuts through walls which might have kept you separate. Across all barriers of land and language, wealth and poverty, knowledge and ignorance, we are one, created from the same dust, subject to the same laws, and destined for the same end. With this compassion you can say, "In the face of the oppressed I recognize my own face and in the hands of the oppressor I recognize my own hand. Their flesh is my flesh, their blood is my blood, their pain is my pain, their smile is my smile. Their ability to torture is in me, too; their capacity to forgive I find also in myself. There is nothing in me that does not belong to them too; nothing in them that does not belong to me. In my heart, I know their yearning for love, and doen to my entrails I can feel their cruelty. In another's eyes I see my plea for forgiveness, and in the hardened from I see my refusal. When someone murders, I know that I too could have done that, and when someone gives birth, I know that I am capable of that as well. In the depths of my being, I meet my fellow humans with whom I share love and have life and death."

These words of truth gave me great hope and convicted me too. Too often I partake (or...instigate) in the condemnation, ridiculing and scoffing of people I do not understand or who I disagree with (too put it lightly). I didn't just realize this about myself, it's actually something I've tried to tone down and figure out how to approach differently...over the past year or so. But I know I need to work on it more...as words have so much power and my harsh judgement is harsh hypocrisy. At the same time, I know that what is wrong needs to be denounced and rejected. The difficult trick is finding how to be firm and still maintain that cool, aloof attitude of compassion. These two paragraphs helped with the knowledge that the pain I've been through can be used for good (it's not new, but reminders are always so uplifting).

Today in Massachusetts, Scott Brown won a seat for the Senate. A major reason why he won is because there was so much anger against the current Health Care bill. As a Republican, Brown would be a crucial vote in blocking the bill from passing the Senate. Government healthcare plan or no government healthcare plan I like what John Perkins writes about responding to the pains and longings of the people around us:

Not long ago, I stood outside the Family Health Care Clinic in Mendenhall, Mississippi—about 35 miles southeast of Jackson. We had purchased the building and integrated it more than 30 years ago, and Dennis Adams—a brilliant, kind brother in Christ from New York—has been the resident doctor there for the past 30 years. In the 1960s and early 1970s, there was a longing in the hearts of the people to have good health care. As leaders, we listened and found a way to answer that longing—together. That longing is still being answered today with the clinic.
That's the good news! Good news is the answer to people's longing. What are your longings? What are your greatest pains? What do your followers long for? Beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. How can our longing become good news? And remember, all our longings can only be met in Jesus and His Church—His people in the Body of Christ.

The beautiful feet part--I think that is what I long to do:

I do not long merely for the truth, for example, of whether Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by government agents, but I long for the public forgiveness of these individuals or departments and their reconciliation with his family, friends and community. I long for a mass outpouring of education, compassion, physical and financial assistance, and active support by members of the Church for the sick, the elderly, the chronically ill and dying because it is righteous and pleasing to God.

Isaiah 52:7

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."