glimmers
On Sunday evening, for the second lecture of her half of the course, Mary unpacked Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Much like Sam, her lectures are chock-full of content, but unlike his, they have a personal, empathetic, pastoral quality that seems to resonate a bit more with the makeup of the class, even if they’re somewhat lighter on actual information. That’s perfectly OK, of course; they’re just different approaches to the material, both appropriate in their own ways.
During the Q&A session, I commented how encouraging it was that although Ecclesiastes in particular doesn’t offer any firm resolution to the questions it poses and existential issues it raises, we have language, a vocabulary we can use to contend with the questions. In other words, at least we’re able to shake our fist at the universe and by extension, the universe’s Maker; if life were truly random, we wouldn’t be able to do that, everything would be senseless on a fundamental level.
A few questions later, and I don’t remember exactly what it was in reference to, Mary brought up the idea that the present is the period of time (as opposed the past or the future) that most closely resembles eternity, in the sense that God inhabits an eternal present. That being the case, it follows that there’s much value in living in the present, being mindful of the moment, and everything that entails. It excited me that she brought up the concept, since it’s essentially lifted, word-for-word, C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. I hung around after class to share my excitement that she had employed the framework, but she was deep in conversation with a couple other attendees, so after loitering for a minute or so, I skipped out—only to have her flag me down, since I had sent her an email with a question about the Psalms the previous Monday and she wanted to apologize for not getting back to me. I was perfectly fine with it, of course, but it gave me a chance to discuss the book reference, and talk about other Christian authors with a similar gift for analogy. She mentioned Tim Keller and N.T. Wright, and I name dropped Ross Douthat by way of contrast. Among other things. It was good to have a one-on-one conversation, albeit brief, outside of class, and I’m looking forward to her reply to my email. And that’s all there is to say about that.