2018.10.28: A Long Day

Today, Sunday, seems really long. Perhaps it is because it is daylight savings in Sweden. So, with a “fall back” there is an extra hour, which really became an extra hour of sleep. If I was sleeping why does this day seem so long? Oh, perhaps the sunset just after 4:00 makes for a long evening.

I worked almost all of yesterday, as I have a new course prep for a hermeneutics course. So, there is lots of reading and laying out a strategy to put the reading into themes. I’m eager for the course, as I’m fascinated by the content and there are 4 good students in this first graduate-level course I’m teaching. However, I’m also humbled with tackling this course with some of the most challenging concepts, including:

• What is hermeneutics? (My beginning definition is the philosophy of interpretation with analysis of the various agendas and meta-critique of the discipline of Biblical studies, but then there’s more.)
• What is truth? (Engaging the philosophical and theological theories–including correspondence versus coherence theories.)
• Where is the source of meaning in the text? (Author, text, reader or a combination?)

There is a 5th student who was enrolled, but I discovered that he doesn’t meet the prerequisite for the course–completing a bachelor’s thesis (with at least a mark of 55%, which seems low to me). However, I saw that he has 13 courses unfinished (yes, we don’t give failing grades, as students can come and finish later). While perhaps half of these are pastoral training courses (non-academic in the Swedish system), there is over 1 full year of work that is unfinished in only a 3-year bachelor’s program! So, with the rektor, I’m saying that he needs to finish some of his undergraduate courses before he continues with more graduate courses! Yes, I’m stymied that there is no computerized check on the prerequisites.

Last week was a good week with the student presentations at the end of Intro to the Old Testament. One student even gave me flowers the next day!

On Thursday, I went with one student to her doctor’s appointment. She has some congenital issues that need care. She has been a Swedish conversation partner, so I know that she gets stressed about seeing new doctors. When I heard of her rising stress for an upcoming appointment that was scheduled for a morning without obligations for me, I offered to go with her.

While I was a companion on the journey, I am far from the ideal companion. I’m not a health professional who could help with understanding–even if I could understand the Swedish. I really don’t understand medical and anatomical Swedish, so I couldn’t take notes for her to reflect on later. But she had someone along who cared, and my offer to go reduced 2 weeks of anticipatory stress for her.

Because I put in a long day yesterday, I am taking a good Sabbath today. Sleeping in (thanks to the daylight savings time change), morning worship (though I didn’t track the preacher’s Swedish well), a bit of exercise at the gym, and some brain candy on YouTube. So, lately, my video watching has been a Japanese master furniture maker. The episodes are about 13 minutes and go from raw wood to beautiful furniture.

Here’s a link to making a kigumi table.

I know that it provides a kind of life balance for me to do my own creative work. I’ve collected the supplies for some “linoleum” cutting. I listen to lectures on YouTube (where I don’t have to watch anything) and carve my block of rubber. I did some printing tonight of a mono-chrome design I worked up this weekend. My one Hebrew-reading reader on this blog might be able to make out the message which is translated, “His steadfast love endures forever,” (appearing twice). Thus, the representation of an infinity symbol with the eye of God radiating glory. This is the Hebrew refrain that appears 26 times in Psalm 136.  The Hebrew word חֶ֫סֶד (ḥesed) is my favorite Hebrew word overflowing with meaning of God’s covenantal love and inherently connected with God’s unfailing promises.

Last spring, I worked on a two-block print, but I hadn’t printed it until tonight. I tried to have the blue with some gradation from lighter to darker–using all the ink colors I bought in Stockholm. Getting the registration to be reasonable is a bit of a challenge with only placement by hand. This one was the best one.

Time for more brain candy before bed, and if I can muster some will power, work through a bit of Swedish. (I discovered that in the English-Swedish/Swedish-English dictionary there are 19 pages (!!!) of words that begin with the prefix för-! Ugh! It is hard to keep similar words straight in my little head.

With blessings,

Beth