Lesser Feasts

Fall colors on campus  I reluctantly made the decision to stay in DC this weekend instead of going back home. Even with a direct flight and (so far) no hitches or delays of any consequence, commuting is tiring. I also knew I would need the whole weekend for work, so I didn't even let my DC friends know I would be around. (If any of you are reading this, I promise I'll do better next time.) It was a good week. I think feeling settled, even if only for a few extra days, helped a lot. I've started working with a new trainer, who is fond of words like "shredded" and "ripped" and would be scary if he weren't also a sweetheart. I attended the Eighth Annual Costan Lecture in Early Christianity on Wednesday, followed by a dinner with a dozen or so colleagues--"only non-toxic people," explained the New Testament scholar to my right. To my left was the speaker, the brilliant and engaging James F. Keenan, S.J. He knew my name but couldn't quite re

17 October 2022, being the Eve of St Luke the Evangelist Mid-afternoon flight back to DC (verging on late-afternoon flight thanks to a half-hour delay for a tire change). Tucked inside the notebook in which I drafted this post—much as Thomas Aquinas drafted his blogposts longhand, except that my handwriting is legible—is a schedule for the week to come. There are probably five people in the world who can read this, and I feel quite certain that none of them will see this post. It's a week between writing assignments in Intro, and prep should be minimal, since I'm teaching Anselm's On the Fall of the Devil . (If my students can trip me up on On the Fall of the Devil , I need to find another line of work.) So I've made up a chart to help me make the best use of my time. One column is marked "Appointments," the other "Tasks." Anything with a definite time goes under "Appointments." This includes class, office hours, and the usual routine stuff