Thankful: An Ordinarily Absurd Thursday

When I walk out of my office on Thursday afternoons, I usually see something like this: 

This photo is actually a smaller-than-usual meeting of the Thursday Club, a group of students and faculty who meet each week to share poetry we have written or discovered.

Thursday Club is, like many things that happen at a small liberal-arts college, unnecessary. Superfluous. Frivolous.  Financially unprofitable.

Some might see meetings such as this as decadent, or, more charitably, as a luxury enjoyed by privileged people who aren't burdened with more important work to do. That "more important work" could be anything from wage earning to evangelism to feeding the hungry. Such an attitude, however, would miss the point of Thursday Club, and of the countless other absurdly beautiful things that happen at a place such as this.

Because of course we are burdened--with deadlines, with family sorrows, with global anxieties. We have work to do--academic, professional, domestic, missional. We have bills and tests, dependents and superiors, vocations and commissions.

And yet, we remind each other that the study of truth, beauty, and goodness is, in the final sense, not decadent at all. Reading a poem in the cool November air and the bright November sun, we learn to believe the consolation the archangel Michael gives Adam when announcing mankind's exile from Paradise. In Book 11 of Milton's Paradise Lost, Michael assures Adam that

"...this pre-eminence [in Eden] thou hast lost, brought down
To dwell on even ground now with thy sons:
Yet doubt not but in valley and in plain
God is, as here, and will be found alike
Present, and of his presence many a sign
Still following thee, still compassing thee round
With goodness and paternal love..."

I am thankful to work and live in a place where, on an ordinary Thursday, my friend Steve reads an ancient poem--the Old English "Dream of the Rood"--while his student Will plays an Anglo-Saxon lyre they built together. It might seem absurd--it might seem a scandal--but it is very good, and I give thanks for it today.

Tea and Silence

Having collected words for nearly thirty years, I rarely find myself at a loss. Yet I sat down this morning to write a few cheery paragraphs about life in Alabama, and an hour later I am still baffled. I'd like to write about my doors (home and office) and the new joy of people knocking on them; I'd like to write about the wisdom and gentleness of my colleagues; I'd like to write about my students with their brilliant works and plans and poems; I'd like to write about the bittersweet search for a church.....but all my sentences tumble into each other, images confused with tears that won't reveal whether they are grateful, homesick, hopeful or some tincture of all three. 

I have only one recourse when words fail: to put the kettle on, to pray "O Comforter, within me as I drink my tea...," and then to listen. To listen instead of describing, to watch instead of analyzing, to wait instead of working. 

The words will come back, for we trust one another. In the meantime, I'll just invite you in and share some tea with you:

Dr. Bear's Home-brewed Chai:

Makes 1/2 gallon 

4 1/2 cups water

4 cups organic whole milk 

10 teaspoons loose-leaf black tea (or 10 black tea bags)

1 stick whole cinnamon

3-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped

10 whole cloves

1/4 teaspoons ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon orange zest, plus the orange

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

In a saucepan, bring the water to a rolling boil. Add the tea, spices, orange zest, and whole oranges.  Stir, remove from heat and let steep  20 minutes. Strain out the spices and tea and return the mixture to a low simmer. Add the brown sugar, honey and vanilla extract. Stir until sugar and honey are dissolved. If you wish to serve the chai warm, reduce heat, add the milk and stir until warm (be careful not to let the milk boil). If you wish to serve the chai chilled, let the concentrate cool before adding the milk, then serve over ice.