A Placid Sea of Contradictions

For the first time today, I was struck by the odd situation in which I find myself. It is clear that I am in a scholarly setting, replete with world class thinkers who regularly wax eloquent about topics ranging from what Paul meant by the de in a single verse of Romans to what Arius ate for breakfast on the morning of his condemnation to what Rahner was thinking at Vatican II. I have a professor who regularly slips in and out of foreign languages and I'm not sure he knows he's doing it. Just today I walked out of a class dizzied by the amount of information that had just been poured into me, wondering if I would ever be able to assimilate it all, but thanking God that I am in such an environment that allows me the opportunity. And then I am passed by a kid in a Hollister shirt with an upside down Abercrombie visor, and an Ipod turned up so loud I can hear every word to "Funky Cold Medina."

Surrounding this hallowed center of academia is your typical college campus. You have your philosophers sitting on the steps, your pseudo hippy strumming a guitar, your smokers around the back, girls dressed to the nines next to girls who just rolled out of bed, dudes playing frisbee to impress them all, the activist who's giving everyone an earfull, the ROTC candidates in Desert Storm Camouflage, the guy handing out fliers to the volleyball game to which no one will go, and on and on and on. I mean, its like I'm watching an episode of Dawson's Creek Season Five. I swear I heard "Semi Charmed Kind of Life" playing in the background.

As contradictory as it may seem, the setting just feels right. It is good to be back on a college campus again. Because despite all the ridiculousness, learning does happen, minds are shaped and lives are transformed. Though I'm often reminded that I didn't attend one of those "one-word" schools (Duke, Harvard, Princeton) and I frequently get double takes when I say I graduated from Iowa State University, I'm thankful for the experience - it profoundly shaped me. It took me from a frightened boy to a young man ready to impact the world, or at least my small part of it. Following that were four incredible years at Asbury Theological Seminary, another gem that doesn't get much recognition. It wouldn't be too much to say that I saw God there, even if it was just glimpses. And I certainly saw an authentic display of the People of God. Somehow I suspect that Marquette will be the perfect blend of both. And who knows? I might see God even in the kid in the Hollister shirt.

Will Tone Loc ever die?