Toddlers and Scholars

Right now Lisa and I are both on campus, while Rosa is at home watching the boys sleep. Lisa is working on stats in a computer lab on the south side of campus; I’m in my library carrel trying to finish a chapter to send with my application for a Miller Center Fellowship. I need to send the chapter off today with my vita, proposal, bibliography, and sample editorial. The chapter is titled “Revolt against the Technocracy: The Young Evangelicals and the New Left.” Here are the section titles through the chapter: “Big Business,” “Technology,” “Imperialism and the American Military,” “Rome Has Begun to Burn,” “An Evangelical New Left?” “From Polite Protest to Contentious Tactics,” and “Moral Language.”

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I fulfilled my obligations as a collegial and active departmental participant. I went to the meet and greet with the East Asian candidate. Then I went to a Colloquium on Religion and American History (CORAH) where talked about Catholic nuns under trial for violating currency laws in Nazi Germany. Then later this afternoon I will go the job talk of the same candidate. Now if I could only get some real work done . . .

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Does anyone out there listen to Dave Ramsey on the radio? What do you think of him? Our small group had a discussion about him last evening.

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Today’s Dissertation Photo of the Day is of a baptism in a pool on Sproul Plaza on the UC-Berkeley campus. The Christian World Liberation Front, which features prominently in my dissertation, protested the Vietnam War. But they were also very evangelistically minded, often performing baptisms in front of hundreds of people in the center of campus.

We took Andrew to the surgeon again this morning. His second abscess is getting worse, though the surgeon isn’t ready to knife him yet. He thinks that the abscess still might get better or drain naturally.

It was a very exciting drive to the hospital. We got 6 inches of snow in the span of just a couple of hours this morning–this on top of probably 6 inches we had before. The roads were treacherous. Lisa took some photos on the way.

On the way back home, we dropped off Lisa for class at Notre Dame. You can barely see the golden dome in the next photo.

Jonathan and Andrew playing with their new toy this morning.

We’ve had about a foot of snow in the last 2 days. It’s cold, windy, slippery, and generally nasty outside. I suppose it is sort of pretty, and I’ll post some fluffy-snow pictures tomorrow, but for now here are some shots of what Notre Dame looks like in the summer–which everyone in northern Indiana is wishing for right now.

-Lisa

I got a particularly biting email from the history department chair today. I’m sad to report that I wasn’t one of the two “professionals” in our department.

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> This morning, exactly two of you showed up to meet with the candidate. This

> is simply unacceptable, unprofessional behavior.
> It gives candidates, whom we are trying to woo, a terrible impression
> of our graduate program. It also makes it imposible for the faculty
> to take seriously the graduate-student report on the candidates. I
> realize that some of you had other obligations, such as TAing — but
> not most of you. The next meeting with grad students is at 10:45 on
> Wednesday in 203A O’Shag. I expect a substantial turnout.

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These photos were taken almost exactly a year ago. Lisa was pregnant, just two months away from delivering Andrew and Jonathan. We were at the Wheaton College Archives, where we were doing research for my dissertation.

I don’t know how old kids are before you can tell whether they’re right handed or left handed. I’m pretty sure that’s a ways off for us yet, but if I had to guess, I’d guess that Jonathan, at least, is right handed. I think this because at mealtimes Jonathan’s whole right arm seems to be a mess—more often than the left.

Also, I’ve noticed something interestin g about their speech patterns. Both are making babbling sounds (i.e. “ma ma ma” and “ba ba”) quite a bit. Andrew tends to do it when he’s happy and relaxed. Jonathan rarely does it when he’s happy, but nearly always when he’s upset or tired. I’m not sure if this means anything, but it’s kind of interesting.

We enjoyed having more guests at our house this afternoon. David’s uncle Kevin, his wife Lydia and their family came for lunch along with his Grandpa Miller who preached at a small conservative Mennonite church in Goshen this morning.

–Lisa