mountainmelody

Don't look now, but Jesus is coming back in 1843. You heard it here first, folks.

Two inches of snow are on the ground at my house--the first white Christmas in almost 100 years. But I'm not there!

Baptists of the eighteenth century viewed Christmas as "worldly and popish."

Alabama was the first US state to officially recognize Christmas as a holiday. It did so in 1819.

This year I'm looking for my first white Christmas!!!

...by reading this book and watching this video.

“Birmingham with her congestion of wealth devoted to selfish and worldly purposes presents a situation that should appeal to the heart of every true Christian.”

"In another generation I believe that liquor ill have disappeared not merely from our politics, but from our memories."

Women’s gifts to charity:
$3,204.45
7 pairs shoes
1 bed
1 suit furniture
1 sewing machine
63 chickens
1 quilt

Watch out, world. I've been back in the archives again, digging up crazy old stuff like this. Okay, so this isn't technically part of my research project, but it's just too good not to share!

Don't laugh...it's real snow.

Some day I would like to go to a Christmas market in Europe. Beautiful....but freezing cold, I'm afraid. Nice to visit but not to stay!

How fat is America?

". . . The past has such magical power. The beauty of its motionless and silent pictures is like the enchanted purity of late autumn, when the leaves, though one breath would make them fall, still glow against the sky in golden glory."

~Bertrand Russell

"I wonder if followers of Christ 150 years from now will look back at Christians in America today and ask, 'How could they live in such big houses? How could they drive such nice cars and wear such nice clothes? How could they live in such affluence while thousands of children were dying because they didn't have food and water? How could they go on with their lives as though the billions of poor didn't even exist?"

~David Platt

"Tell about the South. What's it like there. What do they do there. Why do they live there. Why do they live at all . . ."
~William Faulkner

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold,
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

--Robert Frost

Not enough students signed up for my class, so it was canceled. I'll try again next semester.

Too bad! Maybe next time I'll put up posters that say "Take Me for BP!"

I'm having so much fun preparing for the class I'm teaching! I really love learning. Let's hope the students at least don't hate it!

Okay, people. Now that I'm old, I have to acknowledge something that I have learned and finally admitted:

My mother was right.

Here's just a sampling of the good advice that she gave me, and that I eventually decided to take:

• Don't put elastic in the dryer.
• Take your vitamins.
• Don't carry something by its power cord.
• Floss your teeth.
• Clip your fingernails over a garbage can.
• Always give people the benefit of the doubt.

So, all you young whippersnappers out there...listen to your mothers. :)

I'm in Atlanta with thousands of religion scholars. Yay....I think?

Here's a similar view today.

Check out the growth of the tree in the upper left corner, among other things.

When I teach a class, I am never going to do anything to make any of my students feel like this.

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." ~Maya Angelou

Southern landscapes

96% of people in Birmingham describe themselves as Christians--the second highest of any US metropolitan area.

Birmingham has the highest rate of church attendance of any US city: 67%.

64% of people in Birmingham believe strongly in evangelism--the most of any US city.

more

My blog seems to be getting boring. Facebook and Twitter are more fun, and I do a lot more there. So I changed my blog template, so you can at least have something new to look at. :)

more

God, you have given us enough to meet our needs
and those of our neighbors.
We confess that we value accumulation more than sharing,
and that we blame those who lack for their need,
never recognizing that you wish to provide for them through us.
Forgive us our overflowing storehouses
and unhealthy appetites.

Hmm, I'm still here...nothing too exciting. I've been working and studying for the class I will be teaching. This is MUCH better than studying stuff for my dissertation. You can talk to me in person for my reflections on that experience (if you catch me in the right mood).

Anyway, now I'm the professor...strange!

living in a church

Today 45% of Americans ages 25 to 34 are married.

In the 1960s, more than 80% of Americans ages 25 to 34 were married.

my choir

On my trip, I somehow lost my watch. The funny side of this was using my phone for an alarm. It was stuck on New York time, so I had to set it to wake me up at like 1:30 AM every day!

I'll have to buy a new watch, but that won't be very expensive.

I also broke my glasses, unfortunately. I had put them in the pouch in the back of the seat in front of me on the plane when I was trying to rest. I shifted my foot the wrong way, and POP--there went the glasses frame.

That mistake is either going to cost me $3 in super glue (unlikely to work), or $350+ in an eye exam and new glasses (more likely).

This turned out to be quite the expensive trip!

PRG-JFK-ATL-BHM
approximate travel time: 22 hours
time difference: 7 hours

High temperature in Prague: 68 degrees F (20 C)
High temperature in Birmingham: 95 degrees F (35 C)

what I'm not doing
thinking about my dissertation
stressing about my dissertation
studying my dissertation
being upset about my dissertation
thinking about all the $$ and 100,000 Delta miles I spent to come to Prague (okay, well, maybe I'm doing this one a little bit)

what I'm doing
whatever I want to do!!

WHEW. I did it!!

I can't say how glad I am that that's over--and glad it had a happy ending!

Friday, Sep 17
6 PM local time (or perhaps a little earlier)
11 AM Alabama time (or earlier)

This feels like the Olympics: you practice for years, but have only one brief chance. The pressure is intense, and everyone is watching you. Except, of course, in the Olympics you know your routine. Here, you are at the mercy of whatever questions they ask you.

Is this really the best way to determine your academic knowledge? When I am in charge of the world, things will be different. :)

stress

Last night I was trying to sleep when a roach jumped onto my pillow. That's about how my life is going these days.

I know this sounds ridiculous, but for the past month or so I have sometimes been very tired again...fortunately, not most of the time.

eat chalk
sleep on a bed of nails
get stuck inside an elevator
eat brussel sprouts and celery for a week
walk in the snow barefoot
have a root canal

For the third time in the past year, I am busy studying my dissertation stuff and probably won't be on here much.

Maybe at some point in the future I can finally move on to other projects. Until then, I don't really have much to say about it.

good:
Alaska
invited to teach a class at Samford

very, very bad:
required to go defend my dissertation again

Just the view flying in to Alaska was amazing. It's going to be a great week!

waiting :(

Aand I'm back to those tired, draggy feelings and sleeping for ridiculous numbers of hours when I get the chance. Awesome.

In Hawaii you can go to school barefoot, and go to funerals wearing shorts.

I came back...sigh.

photos

Hawaii = amazing!!

I got upgraded to a faster flight to Hawaii and a FIRST-CLASS SEAT all the way! Try not to be too jealous! ;)

strange signs from abroad

A week from today I'll be on the way to HAWAII!!!

This weekend I visited Graceland for the first time. I had never been before, even though for the first six years of my life I lived less than a mile away. We went by that house too:



I'm not just dying to go see more Elvis memorabilia, but it was worth seeing once for sure!

Here are a couple of landmarks in Durham, North Carolina, where I visited last weekend.I'm kind of surprised they let them keep these up today! Vulcan they're not.

Here's a picture of my friend's kitten during my visit, just hanging out.

503 pages
1,458 footnotes
1,619 paragraphs
147,928 words (including footnotes, bibliography, etc)

I'll just say here that I sent it in. Now I need the examiners (ahem) to recognize its amazing, world-changing brilliance and approve it. :)

dissertation = torture

It's been awhile since I've been to Europe, and sadly, I'm never able to stay for too long. It must be rubbing off on me, though.

Today I was helping paint a local ministry center. I remembered that we were painting rooms on the second floor. But I couldn't remember if that was the floor directly above the bottom floor, or the floor above that!

I think my dissertation has fried my brain!

The third well is in the yard between my house and my neighbor's house. It's so covered up with weeds in the summer that it's hard to see, but maybe you can get a glimpse of it:

I have to say that I'm grateful for faucets that pour out water on demand!

National Sacred Harp Singing Convention
First Christian Church
Birmingham, Alabama
June 17-19

Everyone should come! It's a Southern tradition you really have to experience for yourself.

I enjoy reading books about Southern folklife, like this one about Decoration Day. We never had Decoration Day where I grew up in the city, but they definitely observe it here in rural Alabama!

I'm sure there's more I could say on this topic, but that's all for now. Anyone have any good Decoration Day stories or memories?

random but interesting photo essay on Mississippi tornado shelters

Okay...I've decided that Facebook and even Twitter are way more interesting than blogging these days. You can keep up with me there.

What a horrible thing is debt!
It is so binding, so grinding, so blinding!
It is so wearing, so tearing, so ensnaring, so despairing!
It is so harassing and so embarrassing!
It is so stressing, so distressing!
It is so pressing, so oppressing and so depressing!
We worry, fuss and fume and fret
And lie awake in grim regret,
When we’re in debt, when we’re in debt!

-1942 magazine

I analyzed this image in today's presentation.

And now back to that small paper that I'm endlessly revising...

busy...back later.

I think a woman's place is in the home. And she should stay there after she gets home from work.

-1976 magazine

Alabama church signs

The conference went really well. Now back to work: my job by day and my dissertation by night. Sigh...it's a fun life I live these days, people.

Here are some images from the presentation I'll give tomorrow. Could be fun! :)

Now I'm at a religious studies meeting in Atlanta. The fun never ends!

Dear well-intentioned friends, church members, coworkers, etc.:

It is difficult to have dozens of conversations a day about a topic that is extremely discouraging to me. I need you to distract me with different, fun subjects!

I'll give you a brief update when I see you, if you want, but let's talk about something else for now!

Come hear me sing spirituals at the Alys Stephens Center tomorrow night at 7 PM!

What about social equality? That is the devil's bugaboo. Social equality comes from the debasement of both races. In the saloon and brothel there is social equality. But when we can lift them above such places of sin and shame, we eliminate all danger of social equality. Except where all moral standards and ideals are obliterated, social equality in the South is impossible.

--1915 magazine

Society needs woman's interpretation of life in every department of it. The world needs the contribution woman can make to its welfare, and this contribution can never be given in full measure so long as the notion prevails that her thoughts, her feels and her actions are of real worth only when they have been strained through a masculine percolator.

--1925 magazine

And now for a solid week of dissertation torture...

Wish me luck.

Curse of the Good Girl: "...the pressure to be liked by everyone, generous to a fault and flawless at everything you do. Good Girls are taught to be modest and teeth gnashingly friendly. They are not so good at self-advocacy, saying no, putting themselves out there, and dealing with constructive criticism."

Today's woman anticipates mail by rockets, supersonic diswashers, plastic plumbing, paper clothes, and typewriters that will write as she talks.

-1964 book

Well, if I have to keep slogging through all these old magazines for my dissertation, might as well share some of the fun stuff. Here's a quote from 1949:

Perhaps no single influence in a home has within it more help or harm for children than does the radio. There is a wide disagreement as to the type of programs children should hear. The radio industry is trying to improve the kind of programs it sends out for children. Educators, publishers, program directors and parents all must work together toward this end. Parents certainly should be as careful of their child’s radio listening as they are of their books, movies and associates. If a child stays glued to the radio too much, a parent might examine the lack of satisfactions that child realizes in his home life.

Interesting how things change so much over the years, but aren't always really that different!

I don't really want to talk about my dissertation, besides to say that it's one of the most frustrating experiences I have had in my life.

I'll let you know if I ever finish it.

Thanks for understanding.

Not sure what's wrong with me this year--getting old, perhaps?

Yesterday I slipped and fell again...this time on some loose gravel. Seriously, I feel like an old lady even talking about this.

I ripped up my knee pretty good and have a humongous, swollen bruise on one side of my hand. Ouch!

Maybe I need to be more careful!

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

waiting

waiting





waiting


sigh.

I've gotten about $35 in Amazon gift cards so far: http://www.swagbucks.com/

Easter Sunday

(slightly strange but mostly cool video)

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!