It’s about 12:20am here in 22H, also known as “22 hotness” according to my roomies. From 10pm until 1:45am I am screaming for productivity but still keep catching myself checking e-mail or facebook.
Going to bed before 1am has been a Herculean (no, nonexistent) achievement for me up here lately. We have 4 book report-type assignments and 3 real articles due at midnight Friday night. Feels almost like undergrad again, except that here I might actually sleep for a few minutes.
I’ve been posting some pictures on facebook, but I think these links should work whether or not you have facebook.
Memorial Day Album
WJI New York Album
I really love the city. Not always in a completely virtuous, compassionate way. Maybe I just like it. I like the big tall buildings and the views and subways, even though I’ve blown hours up here learning them the hard way, once ending up in the wrong borough.
I like having a balcony looking out into a place that never stops. I’m not thrilled that the only star I see…actually isn’t a star, it’s probably a planet. Nevermind.
But other things make up for not having stars. Going to the top of the Rockefeller Center or sitting on big rocks in Brooklyn beside the river with friends across from the Manhattan skyline…
Or wandering dozens of Manhattan blocks just to see what is there while listening to Jerram Barrs talk about Francis Schaeffer (free seminary class lectures online from Covenant Seminary!)…
Or jogging to see the sunset and to read the Psalms from the pier at 42nd street on Manhattan’s west coast…
Or melting in front of a construction site the size of 4 city blocks where thousands died and where two massive buildings once stood.
An art therapy project on display nearby shows crayon drawings of burning towers with inside jokes and simple I-miss-you’s written in children’s handwriting.
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I love church up here, too. But I suppose I am doing the same thing that I did back home—going to a PCA church on occasion and focusing involvement in a church planted by Heritage Bible Church.
In the mornings I go to Redeemer Presbyterian, pastored by Tim Keller, and in the evenings I go to Williamsburg Church, pastored by Robert Elkin.
I’ve had a great time with Rob and the group at the Sunday services and at the Memorial Day cookout followed by ultimate Frisbee, grueling ultimate Frisbee.
Brannon came up to visit and introduced me to a small part of the live music indie scene, seeing shows by Steven Delopoulos and Kelly McRae.
Brannan, a Messianic Jew named Dalci, and I spent the later part of Memorial Day together on a rooftop, in Kashkaval restaurant for super expensive appetizers, and then to the top of the Rockefeller Center, where his is a security guard.
More again soon. Sad to be leaving Saturday.
Listening to Covenant Seminary lectures on Francis and Edith Schaeffer by Jerram Barrs (http://www.covenantseminary.edu/worldwide/en/CC578/CC578.asp), cleaning the apartment, and cutting up a semi-sweet pineapple.
A few of us visited the Museum of Modern Art last night to top off one of the busiest days up here. I like to think of myself as someone who appreciates art to some degree, but I was an extra wimpy art critic compared to the hardcore ones all around me there at the MOMA.
I think Jackson Pollock was my favorite, but Monet, Balla, and Rothko amazed me also. I’ll need to learn more to really appreciate Picasso, though.
Several of the artists were communicating by their art that God does not exist,
but it was actually a really worshipful experience, seeing beauty and praising Him for it.
Dan Perjovschi intriqued me with his political marker-like drawings (see http://www.perjovschi.ro/projects-85-dan-perjovschi-moma.html). It’s anti-war and anti-capitalism, but not cliché. I appreciated his critique of materialism the most, especially one picture of a man turning away a homeless person, telling him his house was full. Behind him his house was full of cars, tv’s, toys, a pool, etc.
Another interesting drawing was simply a massive “ME,” with a very small “you” underneath the “E.”
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We visited a mosque yesterday, after having spent the morning learning about the Islam in today’s world. Our guide was taking classes at the Baptistchurch-turned-synagogue-turned-mosque. He had grown up as a Catholic, converting to Sufi Islam after completing a religious studies degree at a public university in America. His expression of Islam is much more peaceful than the stereotype, and he was a gracious host.
We attended a service, and the message was translated into English. The text taught, “Do not turn away from the pardon” The Imam taught the assembly always to forgive, and never to seek revenge for self, but “only for Allah.”
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I’m enjoying my time here a lot. I had absolutely no reason to stay up until 1:30am last night, but I ended up having a great time talking to one of my roommates and praying together. Then I fell asleep on the futon with my face on my journal, waking up noticing my face feeling weird at 6:45am. I had just fallen out of stomache-like balloon in the sky that my friend Adam Choi had trapped me in because I was chasing him down in a field for stealing my car in the city. Thankfully, he got distracted swatting moths and so I was able to escape. I wish I remembered my dreams more often.
Enjoying sitting here in the living room of our apartment here in NYC. About to work on some of my assignments for the World Journalism Institute, which I'm attending here until the beginning of June.
3 couches in the room, a tv that hasn't been on since I've been here, a great view down the Avenue of the Americas from our balcony. So a nice set up.
Read with some of the other students today in Bryant Park, then came back for a typical (but very good) meal with single people--spaghetti.
Lots of good discussion. Several of our Christian colleges were paid a visit by Soul Force, so we talked through how our schools handled it. Also several interesting questions from the other students about my dear alma mater.
I think it will end up being a good time of Christian fellowship, and not just school. Maybe it will be the college dorm experience I never really had.
I took a long walk last night so I could learn more of the city on my own, so I went maybe 15 blocks or so, putting on my New York face and ear buds to act like I had somewhere I needed to go, of course.
Some observations from my walk last night,
by the numbers...
5 Starbucks stores
4 McDonald's
3 Subways
1 couple making out
1 embarrassing game of footsies
2 Café Europa stores
2 otherwise normal men talking to themselves
2 Ann Taylor Loft stores
It’s been a great time here. Nacey Pearcey is teaching the first 3 days of class, going from 9-4 with a break for lunch, unless we have a special speaker for lunch. I’m liking Pearcey better and better. Her book was pretty good (Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity), but hearing her explain her ideas in person makes it much better.
We’ve been covering a lot of ground, so I won’t really be telling a large percentage of it if and when I actually blog. But today we talked through the historical developments that led to the strong anti-intellectual thread in evangelicalism, and also the feminization of evangelicalism in the wake of the Great Awakenings and especially after the Industrial Revolution, when a much larger percentage of men left the home business or farm to work away from their families all day. It was some fascinating stuff, and I am not completely sure so far what the implications are.
Some other books we’re reading for the course—
The Heart of Evangelism by Jerram Barrs
--A great book by a Schaeffer-ite, an excellent treatment of the subject. It was an easy read, and yet still covered a lot of ground. I’d highly recommend it.
White Muslim: From LA to New York…to Jihad? By Brendan Bernhard
--A good read so far. It chronicles the conversion of Charles Vincent, a white American from California. He converted shortly after September 11, 2001. And he is not alone in turning to Islam. Some have called post-9/11 conversions to Islam as “the other effect” of the attacks.
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
--Haven’t started yet
Politics by Hendrik Hertzberg
--Excellent writer from the political left. He is a great communicator, and I have been especially drawn to his essays on capital punishment. He will be one of the lunch-time speakers next week.
Well, back to reading, or maybe writing an essay.
Looking forward to going to Williamsburg Church (williamsburgchurch.com) in Brooklyn and Redeemer Presbyterian this Sunday!!