The Musical Priest

Hey all, I'm now writing this from Sunny Denver! All is well here, though our schedule is pretty well packed and it's hard to find time to update my site. So, if worse comes to worse, I'll try to do weekly updates, though I can't promise to hold to it! Things are going well here so far. I'll give all my impressions of "Jesuit Summer Camp" in a more extended post. More later!

Oh! I knew I'd forgotten something. After our trip to Cedar Point, we had two days of house jobs. My job was to check all the lightbulbs in the house (we have many lightbulbs, to this I attest) and, much to my shock and awe, the "EXIT" lights that illumine the way to safety in the event of a fire. Not having any 15-watt bulbs and realizing that 15-watts would NEVER lead anyone to safety, I replaced them with 40-watt bulbs (if I'd had 120-watt bulbs available, I'd have used them). Not only are the lights beacons of safety, coaxing the smoke-engulfed refugee from the fire to safety, they also enable us to land small jets - say, a Cessna - on the novitiate. I love light!

Hey Folks! After our "Province Days" at John Carroll University this weekend, I now have several days to spend in Cleveland. I'm heading off to my *favorite* brewery - the Great Lakes Brewing Company - in fifteen minutes. My old friend Jeff P. will be joining me (pray that he joins the Jesuits, too!!) and I can just taste the yeasty goodness of Dortmunder Gold. If Dortmunder had been chosen by Jesus instead of wine, I think there'd be more people attending the Eucharist. Yes, it is *that* good. On Thursday we'll be heading to Chicago, and on Friday to Omaha, and on Saturday we'll wind our way to Denver. We'll be in Denver until the middle of July, so there's no telling whether I'll be able to post much of anything during that time. I expect I shall be able to keep everyone updated, but there'll be no promises. Oh, let me say something of Province Days. I had a WONDERFUL time getting to meet a lot of Jesuits from the Detroit Province, particular...

I'm pretty well used to the vicissitudes of a hectic life. Before I joined the Jesuits, I was pretty well accustomed to a schedule of teaching, learning, working, and playing that left a number of people wondering how I managed not to lose my head over it all (hehe, they never realized that I did actually become wholly unhinged). Much of the constancy and order that I seemed to maintain was due, in large part, to what I conceived of as a stable self-identity, a sense of "who I am" that defied finesse or outside influence. How wrong I was. Since August, I have done things I never would have dreamed of doing: going to the gym, jogging, shaving my head bald (I valued each and every precious hair, particularly as they are geting fewer and thinner), playing ultimate frisbee, and then yesterday I did the most amazing thing: I rode a roller coaster. I hate heights, ironic for someone whose lifestyle led him to fly most weekends. But I really hate the vertiginous feeling of looki...