I'm really tempted to write about this ridiculous Miss California stuff... But I won't. I'm more tempted to write about Dirk's superhuman effort in Game 4 to keep the Mavs alive. But I won't. I'm going to go a bit more personal, as this blog is a border-line diary to help me get my frustrations and triumphs on paper - well, out.
I'm back in a type of study-mode that I haven't experienced since grad school. My evenings have been made up with reading that would make most, if not all of you, yawn. This is happening because, well, I feel, at times, unequipped to probe any deeper in my research (for work). Generally, this doesn't bother me as my boss' interests and my own do not align. But, as I've been responsible for more material (secondary), I find myself grappling with topics with which our undergrads are intimately familiar. Remember, I do history, not religion.
My boss has given me ample opportunities to write papers, which could easily be candidates for publication (assuming they're good). I've always shied away from these because, as I said before, I feel ill-equipped. But I'm learning, slowly, that there are no definitions of "religion" written in stone anywhere. I can write a historical paper about a religious topic and it can still be termed a religion paper. Now, I may be embarking upon an entirely new entity (for me): a paper that examines connections of biblical and mythological characters throughout the history of biblical criticism. A mouthful, eh?
All this is to say that I'm trying, desperately, to feel at home amidst religion people - that is, in my own department. Thankfully, religion covers everything from Buddha to Ratzinger, Minerva to Calvin. The more I think about it, the more I realize that the possibilities in this field are endless. Or maybe my definition of how history is done is too limited.
Whatever the case, I have a pile of books to go through and there's no end in sight. It's daunting, for sure, but I can't wait!
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