The New Top Chef

On August 20th when my CPE unit went out to lunch to celebrate our graduation, we went to Rat's Restaurant and met the executive chef there. Last night the executive chef from Rat's Restaurant won the 7th season of Top Chef.

So in a year at seminary I have met three celebrities. Shane Claiborne, Gustavo Gutierrez, and Kevin the New Top Chef.

It's been a strange ride.

Pre-Semester

I am back at PTS after a wonderful, restful period at home. Things have not yet started in full gear because my classes don't start until next week, so I'm pre-semester-ing. My internship at Rider has started, and that's going well. I'm doing some fun reading. I'm playing some video games. Watchin' some Gilmore Girls. Doing some paperwork and writing an article for our student published theological journal. (which is due today and hasn't been finished and I don't even know if it will be accepted, but here's hoping!) Planning for the semester.

Classes for fall long term:
Feminist and Womanist Theology
Preaching
Introduction to Christian Worship
Musical Resources for the Congregation

Self-Care

I don't know if I've approached the topic of self-care before in this blog. I've thought about it enough that I've probably written something about it. The truth is that self-care is one of the most important things for students to learn in seminary, and I have yet to meet one student who claims they are good at self-care. That's saying something. It's become an important topic following the New York Times' article about clergy burnout. If you haven't read it, let me sum up. Clergy aren't good at taking care of themselves and often burnout. 50% of all those ordained as Presbyterian ministers will burn out within 5 years. That's a scary thought.

So how do we prevent ourselves from getting burned out?

More vacation time? Weekly Sabbath time? Different job? 30 minutes a day for prayer/mediation? Attending a church different than your own on Sunday evenings? Coffee break with a novel once daily? All of the above?

Yesterday my mom and I went to the movie "Eat, Pray, Love" based on the best-selling book. There are three main settings of the story. The "Eat" part is in Italy where the author learns about the Sweetness of Doing Nothing, a decidedly Italian idea according to the locals. One character declares that Americans don't know how to have a good time or relax.

Is this failure for self-care simply a clergy phenomenon... or is it part of our society?

In our world of climbing unemployment are we afraid to insist on taking care of ourselves out of fear of losing our jobs or out of the idea that we don't know just how to be? Do we know how to be in the sweetness of doing nothing? No TV, no internet, no gameboy. Just be. It's a difficult idea. I know because I can't do it. I try. It reminds me of a prayer I read once. "Dear God, I am trying my best." Then I think of Yoda who said "Do or do not. There is no try." Mixed messages.

So I'm going to try. Or do. Or something. I'm going to try to find this sweetness in doing nothing in order to prevent burnout because this past year and a half has been hard. Non-stop and hard. So what's the harm in just trying some self-care? Or doing.

CPE Done

My CPE experience has ended. If it wasn't obvious from my lack of posting it kept me really busy all summer. Now I'm taking some time off to do some R&R because once my fall semester starts it's ahead full blast. I have a full schedule and three jobs lined up. But I'm not thinking about that for the next couple of weeks.

For now I'm just going to hang back and relax as best I can. I suggest you do the same before summer fades into fall.

Hospital Psalm

Out of the hospital I call to you, Lord.

O Lord, listen to my cry;

Be attentive to me! Answer me!

I look to the Lord,

I await God’s word.

I am more eager for the Lord than the night shift for the morning;

Than the night shift for the morning.

-Based on Psalm 130

Gustavo

A couple weeks ago I had the incredible honor to meet Gustavo Gutiérrez...

He is one of the greatest theological minds of our time and is known as the father of Liberation Theology. He is a professor at Notre Dame and a Dominican priest. His best known work is A Theology of Liberation. Of course I didn't have my copy on me when I found out he would be at my school. But a group of us did get him to take a picture with us!

July

Is it July? Yes. Is it mid-July? Yes. Wow.

Tomorrow summer language begins at PTS. Last year at this time I was moving into my dorm and nervously awaiting that #1 anxiety producing course Biblical Greek. Turns out it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... and it also was as bad as I thought it would be but in different ways. The biggest difference between Greek and CPE is that learning Greek is highly predictable. You have the book. You have the syllabus. You have the professor and teaching assistants. You spend hours writing out paradigms on white boards. But in the hospital every time you enter its doors or turn on your pager you don't know what's going to happen. When the pager goes off anything could be happening. When you enter someone's room you don't know what they're going to say or if they're able to speak.

It's just a very different summer. Last summer I was figuring out how the "seminarian" label fit into me, and now I'm figuring out how the "chaplain" label fits into me while still being a seminarian. Both are growing processes. Not all growth is easy. Some is just confusing. Someone asked me the other day if I was "the E.M." I said yes since those are my initials, but when I entered the room the nurse wanted me to go in the patient said they wanted the Eucharistic Minister. Now that I am not, but I do know how to get the Eucharistic Ministers. An EM was found, the Eucharist was done, and the patient was happy. Is that the right verb? Done? Sorry if it's not.

So the summer is different, and I'm still growing. Both good things.