Category Archives: Dissertation

Okay, I lied.

Posted on 20 May 2009 | 2 comments

I can’t keep from writing here. I mean this is where I sort out my ideas, and think about the things that mean the most to me: God and grace, literature, friends and family, beer, food, and exercise.

I have been thinking for the past few weeks, while I have been on my little writing hiatus and only posting links, that I needed to figure out what my mission is. Yeah, I know, I am thirty-five and just trying to do that. Seriously, Jesus was only 33 when his earthly mission ended and the spiritual one took over, but I think that is the point. We are supposed to marry our earthly and spiritual missions. For us, because of what Jesus did on the cross and who he was in this world, they go hand in hand. Together. He didn’t live a secular life and spiritual life, so why should we?

My work here, is proof of my spirituality. It is proof of where my heart lies. My heart lies with Jesus, so my life should look like it. My life should evidence his grace.

Yesterday I started a bodily cleansing. I am purging processed foods, sugars, and extra caffeine from my diet. I am making a conscious effort to walk or ride my bike everywhere. I am trying not to take the bus. I am doing this because I realize that my body is not healthy and it needs to be.

Today, I began a spiritual purge. I started a plan to read the whole Bible in one year, which will be a first. I think I have read all of it, but never straight through and never in one year. I think this plan will work because it skips around throughout the text, so I won’t get bogged down in Isaiah or Jeremiah. I am also trying to focus intently on maintaining my commitment to thinking positively.

I am a woman of cyclic intention, so I hope that I can sustain this new lifestyle. With God’s grace, I know I can. Changing my dissertation topic seems helpful.

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Posted in Dissertation, Grace, Religion, School, Writing

Reading. Baking. Flying. Grace.

Posted on 22 April 2009 | 1 comment

Tonight is our annual graduate student creative writing reading, Penscape. Wow! That is a mouthful. Anyway. I am reading along with nine or ten of my colleagues. It will be good. It has to be good. Each of us were asked to read for ten to twelve minutes. I am reading three flash nonfiction pieces, a letter, and a poem. Sort of a mixed bag. I hope people read somethings we all haven’t already read or heard. I always hate it when that happens. You workshop with people and then you get to hear all those same pieces again. I mean, it is pretty cool to see how they revised, but it isn’t cool if it is the same piece you already read.

Two nights ago I spent about four hours baking. One of my professor’s kids is severely allergic to everything. By everything I mean eggs, dairy, and nuts, so I had fun making many snacks that she could partake in. We are also having punch. You know that Hawaiian Punch, Ginger Ale, Sherbet fiasco that they serve at every gathering everywhere until people are old enough to drink beer. That’s the punch! I think there will be some coffee too.

I think the baking runs in the genes, because my mom is baking her fool head off this afternoon. One of her friends asked her to make cookies to use as the favors for her wedding. My mom is making 150 chocolate chip cookies and 150 peanut butter cookies. Right now.

Tomorrow we leave to go to Minneapolis for Andy and Claire’s wedding. Not only do I get to leave Muncie for a few days, I get to spend it with people I don’t see very frequently. I don’t like to fly. I will never fly on United again. It is official: they are charging fat people more for their seats.

I am working on some new writing. Trying to write an essay about grace is hard. Really. Hard. I am going to ask people to post their most grace-filled moments as responses on a special post here. Maybe I will tell them they can send them by email, too. But I want this essay to reflect all types of faiths and non-faiths and the way they exhibit grace. I know what grace should look like in a Christian ethic. I wonder what it looks like in the secular world for people who don’t share my beliefs. I mean I know some stories, but I hope that people will share theirs.

Also, my dissertation has taken on new form. I hope to write about the preaching woman, the food-serving woman, and the way they both implement a certain morality or ethic of grace and redemption in slave-narratives. Every time I articulate my ideas they become more concrete. which makes me happy. Now to press on and find the “so-what” in that, Lauren.

Flexibility. Ah.

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Posted in Beer, CNF, Dissertation, Feminism, Food, Grace, Literature, Reading, Religion, School, Writing