It FINALLY gets nice in Philly - the Boy and I walked along the river for two hours yesterday - and now we get to spend the next two days indoors as part of an utterly pointless "teambuilding" exercise with our intern supervisors.  All the classes above ours hated it and I'm sure we will too.  Just another part of the useless hoop-jumping that is this process.

Last night was Kevin's funeral, and another lesson from CPE came back to me... ( Read more... )

The time has come,
For closing books and long last looks must end,
And as I leave,
I know that I am leaving my best friend,
A friend who taught me right from wrong,
And weak from strong,
That's a lot to learn,
What can I give you in return?

If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start,
But I would rather you let me give my heart,
To Sir, with Love

about my own arrogance.  Last day at field ed.  The place I complained about all year.  I thought since I wasn't there very often, and when I was I wasn't out in front, that no one knew who I was or would miss me when I left.

Instead, I got so many nice comments from people, telling me how much they liked having me there, what an impression I made, how they thought I would make a good pastor because of this or that they saw in me.   And the staff and pastors gave me a ridiculously large contribution to my education, so much I'm not even telling anyone what it is (although it may leak out because next year's field ed student saw it).  And then my supervisor said all this nice stuff.   I guess you just never know the impression you're making.  This was a big, big wake up call to me.

And, the choir anthem at 11:00 was the arrangement of the 23rd Psalm that is the theme from Vicar of Dibley.   I firmly believe Someone was trying to tell me something.

I had a good reminder tonight why I'm doing this from a great professor I really respect.  It's hard to keep it in mind sometimes with all the phony intellectual posturing that goes on around here.  Wil, you da woman. 

In other news: dieting SUCKS. 

One of the most highly regarded figures in broadcast journalism, former "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw will receive an honorary degree and deliver the main address at the College of William & Mary's Commencement Exercises on May 17, 2009. Read more.

Although not a journalism school, my alma mater makes sure, at least once a decade, to have a news dude speak at commencement.   When I graduated in 1987, we had Roger Mudd.  In 1994, it was George Will.    But of course, the best year was 2004.

Oh and one other thing:  "Tuhr-tle."