Fun and Frustration

Today, my cell phone went off in chapel.
Right at the end, as the officiating student was sending us off, there was the happy, loud noise of bird calls. The professors and students near me all looked up into the rafters, as did I....
Oops. I clapped my hand over my hip pocket and scooted out of the chapel.

It was my daughter. I had forgotten to set my cell phone to vibrate.
Thank goodness I had chosen the bird song over the neighing horse or the "One! Two! Three! Four!" (followed by loud music), for my ring tone.
All the people were grinning as they filed quietly out of the chapel and passed me in the hall.
I was looking sheepish with my little flip-phone mashed to my ear.
Hey, I've only had it a week.

My Christian Doctrine teacher is a blast. Very self-effacing. He's always got chalk on his hands and on his back. He leans on the blackboard and leaves a clean spot.
I enjoy his teaching style.
I got my first essay back and got a 10 out of 12. Not bad! The prof didn't notice any of the things I thought were flaws. He seemed to think I did just fine. A very nice start for me after 20 years out of the saddle.

One of the second-year MDiv students called a lunch meeting to support the first years. She had struggled and felt very alone her first year and wanted to be sure that that didn't happen to us.
The second years all seem young compared to our class. Most of the first years are easily over 40. The second years appear to be all under 30. So there is some difference in how intimidated we may be of the professors. But I was really glad for the opportunity to get to know the class ahead of us a little better. There are about 4 of us and six of them(?). It's hard to keep everybody sorted out, because there are so many different programs and levels.

My Old Testament course is deeply frustrating. The content is all about who wrote the Old Testament and when and all the latest theories. Maybe I should care, but I don't. I DON"T CARE!
The discussion is about the dual versions of the stories and all the inconsistencies---mostly stuff I've heard before, and any discussion of why the Bible might be written this way seems so . . . misguided!
I know that's very ethno-centric of me, but I can't help it. I see a similar frustration in the Greek orthodox student, though his spin is different from mine.
When I opened my mouth to say that maybe the creation story was a parable describing our personal spiritual awakening, the comment dropped dead. The professor just blinked, and went on with her lecture.
I don't care whether anybody sees things how I see them except that its so lonely and frustrating to have my view be SO different. I don't think my view is the truest and rightest, but it IS my view, and to have nobody in the class "get it" leaves me wanting to chew my leg off. The lectures drive me nuts. I am bursting to speak, but my remarks mostly go over like I spoke in swahili. Very frustrating.

However, one classmate who is in Greek with me, has heard my "Well, I was taught that there is a universal duality in nature that comes from God. It shows up as a sort of male/female split, like the right-brain, emotive, fluid, love-oriented, non-linear side of us, and the left-brain, intellectual, compartmentalizing, truth-oriented, linear side of us. The Bible is written to reflect and answer these apects of our dual nature, so "bread" and "wine" are reflecting the good and the truth, and the different accounts of creation are doing the same thing...."

Today, in Old Testament, SHE pointed out this possibility.... It was great. It is so cool when somebody else considers these things that I have believed for so long. It seems so self evident to me. Yet it isn't in this class. I was writhing in agony as the OT professor was saying, "I have no idea why the Bible has so many contradictions and inconsistencies. Who could possibly know why the people are said to have lived for so many hundreds of years? I believe it is symbolic rather than literal but . . . ."

Aaagh.....

This professor is notorious for getting off track and not covering the material, so I'm loathe to interupt in order to give my opinion. It's not my class. I'm not the teacher.
"I'm not the teacher. I'm not the teacher. I'm not the teacher."
As I'm stuffing my head into my backpack to muffle the sound of my head banging....

Good night.