I am happy to report that yesterday went well. I had so many jitters and worries, but one of the nice things about being older is that I recognize my anxiety, and I know how to keep moving forward, in spite of it. And yes, I do realize that I'm lucky to have that kind of anxiety and not the crippling kind of anxiety.
I got to seminary campus yesterday after a morning commute that isn't exactly hard (stop and go traffic followed by traffic at full speed and lots of merging here and there). I parked the car, got organized for the morning expedition, and walked to the Metro station that's a mile away in Tenleytown. I've been enjoying these neighborhood walks in the morning, and this was no different.
Two years ago when I took the Metro places, it was very deserted. Not yesterday. I did manage to get a seat, and it was an easy trip to downtown DC. I was an hour and a half early, and I thought I might get a coffee, but the coffee places I saw didn't really have a place to sit, so I kept going.
I ended up walking around the Mall, which was delightful. I do wish the museums opened earlier, but I enjoyed exploring the outdoor attractions. The Hirshhorn Museum has a sculpture garden that is under construction, but some of the sculptures are now outside around the museum.
The gardens around the National Museum of the American Indian were even more of a delight. Each section of the garden represents a different habitat (except for polar or desert) of the American Indian. I loved these sculptures, created when the museum was first built.
The artist created these sculptures with the idea that the natural elements would interact with them and transform them. Now they are home to birds and small creatures.
Finally I made my way to the Museum of African American History. Faithful readers of this blog know that I went to this museum two years ago, and I'm glad that I did. Yesterday I didn't have as much time, but I did go up to see the art, and then I did a quick walk through the lower history levels.
I caught a ride back to seminary with a fellow student who also had an afternoon class, and we got back in time for the lunch that was offered by the seminary.
My afternoon class is called Parables and Parallels, which is a class in Biblical storytelling. Yesterday was the day for our first offerings. I had chosen Luke 8: 43-48, the story of the bleeding woman who touches the fringe of Jesus' cloak and is healed. I chose that text back in early September and while my mind returned to it, I didn't really work on it. On Sunday, I thought that it was time to get serious, since we were going to present it on Wednesday. There were moments where I thought I would never get it pulled together.
Happily, my teacher is not the kind of person who is looking at the original text and seeing how many words we missed. We had the latitude to make judicious changes. We had the opportunity to be dramatic in so many ways.
We all did a great job, at least from my point of view as a fellow student. It was both familiar to me, yet completely different. It's not at all like a sermon, and vaguely similar to various drama projects, yet different. We're supposed to engage with the audience, which is different from most drama projects.
I felt a weariness as the afternoon went on, so it was nice to end up at the house of my sister and brother-in-law for supper. Then I went home and went almost immediately to bed.
And now, day four of the intensive--let me take a shower and get ready for the day.
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