I Have No Idea
I have a PhD itch to scratch and mortality with which to wrangle.
I Have No Idea
I have no idea what is going on today. There’s church, of course, but I was on call overnight and had to go out. I’m tired and would love to have a quiet morning at home. But there’s church and my priest is back from the first part of his sabbatical. It’d be nice to welcome him home. He’s good people.
I’m still thinking about or pondering the whole PhD thing. I’d still like to try again. I’d still like to see if I can accomplish it. I’m not ready yet, but the dream has always been a part of me. Whether I will teach or not is not up to me. The Academic Industrial Complex is not what it was and I am not who I once was. The great likelihood is that I will not be a seminary or college professor. The odds are in nobody’s favor.
So, why do it? This is what I’m pondering. It’s a terrible itch. I still love the academy. I want to produce an academic book. The dream of ethnomusicology or theology or both in some interdisciplinary rumpus still appeals. Georgetown has a program in Religion and Culture that is also appealing. Durham (in England) would be great fun, too.
Then there’s pure musicology. UVA has a program that totally lights me up.
I’m a lost cause, y’all. You should go before it’s too late. LOL
Today’s Franciscan Nugget: MARY CHRISTINE (LILY DORSET GRAY) (1932)
Founder of the Second Order in the U.S.A. Mary Christine: Lily Dorset Gray was the first Poor Clare in the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. After receiving her training with the sisters of St. Anne, she made her vows and took the name in religion of Mary Christine. There was no room for an enclosure at the Order’s first convent, called House of Prayer, in Merrill, Wisconsin. It was not until Mother Mary Christine’s death in 1932 that enclosure was established by her successor, Mother Mary Veronica, in the convent at Mount Sinai, New York.
Collect: Loving God, we thank you for the hidden lives of prayer and contemplation of our Poor Clares, and especially the examples of Mother Mary Christine and Mother Mary Veronica. Give us grace to continue, faithful to the vocation to which you have called us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Life is a dead end. What many want is eternality. “Memory eternal.” But that is not available to us except in God. A PhD will not get you there. Social Media celebrity will not get you there. Not even living The Great American Experiment will get us there. Only God. Only God. Only God.
Tripp:
To scratch the itch to change the world, which the Beatles say we all want to do, I write poetry. If the dissertation thing doesn't work out, write poetry, even though no one wants to read it. It works for me, to think that I am ahead of my time and that someday it will have an impact.
I could care less whether the PhD will get you or anyone else anywhere. The point is this: Does God want you to do it? Are you called to to it.? It sounds to me like you feel that you are called. So test that to tsee if others confirm it. Does a professor you would work under confirm it? Does a university confirm it? Does the world of enthnomusicology need you to do it? Is theere a gap you are meant to fill? Who knows, maybe your writing a PhD thesis will change the culture as the straw that breaks the camel's back, shifting the minds of the supreme leaders who are destroying our land, air, and water. (It's not true that I don't care whether the PhD will get someone anywhere. I place the burdnens of the solutions of the problems of our day on your dissertation. Write it with that passion and imagination and it will be good no matter what impact it has on the world.