Ash Wednesday

I'm intrigued by an article I just ran into in the New York Times about the Catholic Church returning to the practice of offering indulgences. They don't sell them any more (the practice that so offended Luther), but you can still obtain an indulgence (a break from the penalities for sin) for someone who is already dead. Theologically, it doesn't fit my notion of grace. But as a historian who used to teach western civ, I find it interesting to find in the present a practice that I tried to explain to my students as an odd bit of history.

I like what Barbara Crafton writes about Lent today:

Another Lent begins in austere weariness, ready for a season of spareness,
a little more quiet. Forty plainer days are just what we need. It is seven on
the morning here; our first liturgy is at eight. Remember that you are dust, we
will say repeatedly today. Remember that you are tired, that you need to slow
down, that you need to think. Remember that what you say and do has eternal
significance, so you'd best consider it closely before you say or do it.
Remember what you long ago forgot. Remember that it is never too late to begin
again to make it right, and that we don't have to make it right all by
ourselves.

I got a very dark mark for Ash Wednesday at the 7 am service today, unlike last year when no one noticed. The first person to comment on it was a used textbook buyer who said "That's right, it's Ash Wednesday."

making sense

I went to the funeral for the member of my church who was shot by her husband and someone said to me that a friend told her: "You are trying to make sense of this and it isn't possible to make any sense." A cousin of mine was walking his dog when a tree fell on him last Friday. He is badly injured but is going to live. Tragedy doesn't get any more random than that. But I'm not willing just to say there is no meaning.

darkness

A woman in my church, who was a youth leader for my son, was shot and killed Friday night by her husband. The church is trying to help her 23 year old son set up to be able to get custody of his 7 year old brother.

The news from my daughter's school is that a student wandered away from an off-campus sleepaway party off last night and was found drowned in a pond this morning. The girl was a junior day student.

I ordered a wheelchair today (a lightweight folding transport chair). The immediate need is for my husband's aunt, but we went ahead and bought it because my husband will eventually need it.

Too much pain in the world.

a race schedule

I'm talking with a coach and I need to come up with a race schedule.

• Apr. 25 Langley Pond International
• May 16 Clemson Sprint
• June 13 Clemson Open Water Swim meet--2k?
• June 27 Go Tri Sports Greenville?
• Aug. 16 Greenville Sprint
• Oct. 4 South Carolina Half
• Nov. 7 Beach to Battleship full

I just looked up bike events and the local ones I usually do in the spring conflict with triathlons.

negative perceptions

I saw a revised general education proposal yesterday and it had increased the requirement for Global Challenges courses to a minimum of 6 hours, which provides more opportunities for Science and Technology in Society folks. It got a less negative reception than last week, but about all that is coming clear is that it will take longer to make decisions. That does mean that next fall the general education requirements should be almost unchanged from what they are now. But the next problem is perceptions. One department head says he isn't going to replace a person who teaches STS courses who is departing because STS is on the way out. Which means we are going to have a major problem providing enough seats for freshmen next year.