Books, Books, Books!

I’m coming to the end of my second week here at SFTS and so now I have a sense of the rhythm of the program.
What’s clear to me is the importance of pacing.
Classroom time for me happens mostly in the mornings and so it would seem as if there’s lots of free time. Nothing could be further from the truth. Without constant application it would be very easy to fall behind – a fatal problem considering the workload! I find that much of the rest of the day, and a good part of the weekends, are taken up with extensive reading and the preparation of papers.
In addition, I am working hard on developing a reading list for my dissertation and fine-tuning the proposal itself.
All this is new-old. It’s been over 30 years since I’ve done any formal academic program like this, and I had forgotten what it was like! At the same time there is so much new material now available that it offers a cornucopia of possibilities!
As I mentioned last time, I went to St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, last Sunday. While it was a quite remarkable experience it was also not the sort of thing I would want to share in every Sunday! The Bridge (AKA Golden Gate) was fun on the way though!
I find myself wanting to be somewhere else. This is not a bad thing – it does act as a reminder that home is not here. Being back on Whidbey, or in Maine, both have a strong draw for me. At the same time it is clear to me that what I am doing is important and will be beneficial, not just for me but for all of us.