Risk Taking

In a couple of hours I have decided to give up afternoon Tiffin, which is as close as we ever get to pudding, it's tea time as far as the time goes and there is tea, though the keralans prefer coffee and when they add sugar hot wet and sweet as the seventies saying goes, and for what, there is a bible study from 3.30 to 5.30 pm weekends the banner says in the multi-media auditorium hall which the library says is the one in the admin section and admin say is in the library. The Director Fr Davis seemed puzzled that I'd want to attend a Bible study but no harm. Well it passes the time. There is only so much East Syriac a man can absorb even one classically trained and with and elephantine thirst for East Syriac. And the course runs till February. And I figure I can just read the Bible and not do the background reading. And cryptically if there were a widow who did pastries or culculs well if she was French Indian well signs of the times as they say.

Oh and I think I can relax about not fitting in. The Tamil Arputmam well his name means miracle in Tamil he was one of my supporters on the poor thing. Turns out not only is he a liberation theologian but most of the others aren't. They tend to dismiss him as well maybe in Tamil Nadu. There are enough minorities here not to mention the pentecostal preacher. The one who tickled the feminist lecturer (a minor kerfuffle over Jepthah's daughter pericope, that old chestnut). I think in all this crossfire I should be able to walk across the battlefields for the next two years unscathed.

I received a powerful sign not to take the spirituality and counselling MA. A second year told me the work he was doing, I mean faffing, apart from find your own counsellees and counsel on weekends, prepare annual seminar, after term three no more teaching the last six month term is just prepare thesis and hand in practical counselling workbook stuff. Sod that for a game of soldiers. The Diploma sounds fine. One year of bonding with the nuns and priests. Not too much scientific stuff. A week retreat. And first I can do that Diploma in Oriental Canon Law. I am confident I can start that this November. Ten units plus a seminar. And one of the units can be Syriac coz my Latin though probably not as subtle as the tutor's is better than any of his students are going to get in their three year course.

Oh last ting before I drift back to the Temple of Wisdom in the garden of earthly delights (that's it's full title though garden of earthly delights is stretching the translation of Dharmaram). The father whose Malayalam name means bridegroom Manavalan I think, gave a sermon on how people think they will get the jobs they deserve once they graduate, and maybe they should all concentrate on how they can best serve. It has that sense about the place. It makes it fun, always fun to be among the privileged. But I liked his style. Hurts coz it's true. Ah well my sacrifice is to give up Tiffin, I am still too Romanized, but it worked for us in the West for a thousand years. Oh found a current journal on Therese of Lisieux. Coz it's the hundreth anniversary of St Jehanne D'Arc they have that photo of her dressed up as Jehanne in the play like what she wrote. I must try and have that scanned or photocopied.