Day 4

My day started out with breakfast with a friend, and then it was up to the cities for errands. I decided a few days ago, after Thursday Night, that I wanted to buy my own Bible. Now, of course, I have any number of Bibles on my shelves at home, but what I realized (it was kind of a surprise...) is that I've never actually bought my own English Bible (other than the textbook Bible they made us buy for first year religion class, but that doesn't count): all the Bibles I've purchased have been foreign language Bibles, and all the English Bibles I own have been gifts. I wanted something lightweight that would be easier to read laying down, as well as then easier to carry to class and Thursday Night, than my bulky study Bible. I also wanted something with fancy silver or gold edging :) Northwestern Bookstore had a great selection, and I found the one I wanted, matching all my requirements.

While driving to the cities I happened to switch radio stations from KTIS to The Refuge (which I do often depending on who has a "better" song playing at the time) just in time to hear them thanking their daily sponsor: Dan Cummings. Whoa! I know him! We've worked with him and his company at Minnehaha for several years now.

My next great surprise came when I got home and saw how much snow there was! Minneapolis had about 2-3 feet of snow, which is a lot more than Northfield had gotten. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm quite happy not having all that down here, but it was quite the shocker walking through the narrow winding sidewalk path amidst two giant walls of whiteness.

Checking my email brought me one semi-surprise slash I-can't-believe-it's-happened-again: someone from the Thursday Night alias had forwarded an urban legend about NASA trying to prove true the Bible story about the sun standing still. People never, ever bother to check their sources, or think about what they're sending when they click "forward", and this frustrates me to no end. Normally I send back a little Jeremy-gram saying (usually respectfully), "you're wrong, here's the Snopes article that proves you're wrong". But, second surprise! This time I didn't have to! Someone else not only had emailed back the alias saying the original legend was untrue, but also provided the Snopes link that discussed it! Yay! Someone else is with me in the battle against urban legends!

I made it back to Olaf safe and sound, and in plenty of time to go to a poetry event this afternoon. Did I mention? I planned to go to a poetry reading today. Don't get too excited, here was my thought process: two weeks ago there was a poet, Saul Williams, who came to read in the Pause. I didn't go, but from what I'm told, he was very good, and the event very moving and worthwhile. Crumb. I probably would have gone, too, but it was Ash Wednesday that day, and Emmaus's service was at the same time. In any case, if he ever comes back, I've done been highly encouraged to go see him next time. Now, I didn't want to miss out one something awesome like that again, so I said that the next time a poet, any poet, comes to campus, I'll go listen.

Then I saw an event pop up on FaceBook called "Poetry Reading", and two of my friends (one of my best and one of my brand new) marked themselves as 'planning to attend', so I thought I'd be safe in tagging along. I assumed it was another similar event, that some famous, or even not so famous, poet was going to come, make an appearance, and read something. And it was only scheduled for an hour, that's pretty safe sounding. Great, I'm ready, poem-ize me.

What I did not anticipate is that the "Poetry Reading" was actually a group of 8 senior girls sitting in a circle reading choice selections from their favorite books of poems. Surprise! So there I am, the only boy, the only junior in the group, and even worse I have no favorite poems [we could put a period here, but I'll continue] along with me to read. I covered by saying something like, "I'm just here to be cultured", but still, I'm sure they were amused by my anomalous presence. Thank goodness I came with Amy; I think being there with one of my best friends gave me at least a semblance of legitimacy, especially when given the fact that my other friend who I was expecting / hoping to see there, wasn't.

This is the point in this short essay for which I really need a segue, but have none.

I spent some time today thinking about Lent. A lot of people give up sweets and candies for Lent, I've never done anything before. This year, though, I have come to the conclusion that maybe I am actually giving up something. Lent is forty days, this experiment (if I can make it last) will be 30, but still, the essence is there: this Lent, maybe, for once, I decided to give something up and give it to God instead: Control.