On Wasting Time, or rather, Alternative Activities
I'm a sucker for procrastination. I'll do anything to delay productivity. Friends' blogs, strangers' blogs, reading the paper, painting toenails... at least I'm past the stage of computer card games. Tonight, instead of doing other useful work, I was prompted by a recent conversation to reread my undergraduate papers. I learned a number of things:1. I underestimated the criticisms of my professors. They actually knew what they were talking about! When you're in the middle of the semesters, the massive amounts of red ink scribbles only frustrate and minimize what you thought was hard work. Now that a few years have past, those notes make sense. Humbling to say the least... to discover that you really had no idea about anything.
2. Writing papers at 5 am wasn't a good idea then and looking back, it still wasn't a good idea. Coherency decreases as the number of hours awake increase.
3. There are a few exceptions to the rule. Who knew I was such a thinker? HA! Or maybe THOSE were the ones written in the wee hours...
4. I was blessed to have some fantastic professors. Reading the notes they made impressed me. I didn't agree with their theology then and I still don't, but I appreciate their challenges to me, especially my philosophical/religious papers. Looking back, they really were challenging me to think, I just didn't recognize it as well.
5. I was blessed twice. Even though I attended a secular school, don't ask me about how to deal with intolerant professors because I didn't know any. I'd forgotten how many papers I wrote relating to Christianity. Exclusive psalmody, on Brahms's [lack of] Christian faith and theology, C.S. Lewis and suffering, preachers and politics in Nigeria... the list goes on.
Thanks, professors! You've made Butler a great school.
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