When upperclassmen at ETBU found out a new student had Dr. Vaughan, their one statement was, invariably, "Watch his eyes. He never blinks." With this information in hand, how could we do anything other than look at his eyes? It turned out to be true. He never blinked. About once every minute or so he would deliberately close his eyes, but never anything close to an involuntary movement. Rumor was that Dr. Vaughan was in the Korean conflict and suffered from shell-shock. As is the case with most in his generation, he made comments about the generalities of being in the military, but never brought up specifics.
What wasn't a rumor was his well-known love for his students. John Vaughan grew up an orphan in the Buckner Baptist Children's home system, and had no immediate family outside his two brothers. (An interesting tidbit about his time at Buckner is that one of his "sisters" at the Children's home was Lulu Roman of Hee-Haw fame.)
Because of this, he students were his family. If your birthday fell within the semester of the course you had with him, you would receive in class recognition and a card that included a gift certificate for no-small-change. (Mine was $30 to Pizza Hut.)
Dr. Vaughan's hangout was the Dairy Queen over on Hwy. 59, until it closed down, at which point he transferred his coffee cup to the Whataburger on 80. He was a late nighter who often would walk in well past midnight to interrupt students studying for an exam, usually one he was to give the next day. He would sit with them and immediately begin to talk about baseball. He loved the game and was an encyclopedia of baseball history and statistics. We loved listening to him, even if we weren't that interested, because he was hilarious. His humor was the kind that you needed to pay attention because he would dryly drop a joke in the middle of innocuous statements, and you needed to be on your toes in order to notice it. He would then make the statement that he needed to go, he had to get some sleep so he could deliver a "killer exam" the next day. These encounters rarely lasted for more than a few moments, but they always left the students with a smile before they returned to their studies.
Dr. Vaughan retired from ETBU in 2002 and passed away two days ago. He was 72 years old. Raise your glasses to professors who love students as much and more than they love their subject.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Stop the Presses...
Today I ran an errand over at the Waco Tribune Herald offices. I met a reporter in the hallway of the news room to give her a book for a story about an event going on at the store next week. When we finished chatting I got to go inside to say hello to one of my former coworkers, and present Trib writer, Emily. I ended up lingering for a while and visiting with Chad, a friend from UBC who is a sportswriter, and Wendy, who I know from the infamous Waco's Hottest Bachelor story.
It felt like standing in the middle of a more sedate Daily Planet, and it seemed to be my place. I have loved ready newspapers since I was a kid. There's something about local papers that make you feel you're in the middle of a history book, and the characters are those who you could possibly rub shoulders with on any given day. Stories develop and you're in on the scoop.
Who knows, maybe a career change is in order...
It felt like standing in the middle of a more sedate Daily Planet, and it seemed to be my place. I have loved ready newspapers since I was a kid. There's something about local papers that make you feel you're in the middle of a history book, and the characters are those who you could possibly rub shoulders with on any given day. Stories develop and you're in on the scoop.
Who knows, maybe a career change is in order...
No Anymore, hey yay a yay a yeahhh...
Here's what I've learned lately about "telling it like it is": It has to be a natural part of your personality to want to reveal the truth as you see it, regardless of what others may think, and you have to have done it for a very long time. If these conditions are not in place, as they have not been for me, then the second you reveal what you really think, you come across as just-plain-mean.
Some people in work or social situations can just pull off truth-telling better than others. When they do it, it makes them strong, independent, intelligent. When others, like me, do it, it makes them over-emotional, immature, resistant to change.
I suppose when you hold your tongue for the better part of your life, once you decide to not be silent, to not be quiet anymore, it's more than just the situation at hand you are railing against. It's years of bottled up opinions being unleashed on one or two people. When this happens, you don't get promotions at work, and you always feel on the outside in other contexts, because people decide you are not being the nice guy anymore, and they don't want to have such volatility swirling around them. The decision then becomes, do you retreat back to keeping your thoughts to yourself, or do you just try to become more practiced at speaking your mind. That is the question.
Some people in work or social situations can just pull off truth-telling better than others. When they do it, it makes them strong, independent, intelligent. When others, like me, do it, it makes them over-emotional, immature, resistant to change.
I suppose when you hold your tongue for the better part of your life, once you decide to not be silent, to not be quiet anymore, it's more than just the situation at hand you are railing against. It's years of bottled up opinions being unleashed on one or two people. When this happens, you don't get promotions at work, and you always feel on the outside in other contexts, because people decide you are not being the nice guy anymore, and they don't want to have such volatility swirling around them. The decision then becomes, do you retreat back to keeping your thoughts to yourself, or do you just try to become more practiced at speaking your mind. That is the question.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Are you as excited about November 2 as I am?...
The Kite Runner has staying power. From the moment I read the last page until now, the story has lingered around my psyche and haunted my comfortable sense of cheap-redemption. If you haven't read it, do so now. The movie comes out on November 2.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Let's Converse...
Brian McLaren spoke at church this morning. If you've read my blog since the beginning, you've no doubt sensed that this guy's writings have been pretty influential on my life. He's put my mind and beliefs on new playing fields and has given words to those deep feelings many of us have in our gut that things just aren't right, but that they can be.
The previous paragraph was one of those pleasant disclaimers I give before offering a critique. The next paragraph will be one of those critiques I give after the pleasant disclaimer. You know how the game works.
He basically, without actually using the "E" word, walked us through the history of the Emergent, (or emergent, depending on your fancy,) conversation. He made distinctions between Renewal, which is just repackaging the same old answers to the same old questions in new, more hip terminology, Reformation, which provides new answers to old questions, and Revolution, which asks a whole new set of questions altogether. Of course, if you've ever heard a preacher, you know the third one is always the best. In stating some of the "new questions" that many people began to ask in the mid-90's, he mentioned several good ones. But then he brought this question up-- "Why are so many Christians pro war, anti poor, and anti environment?"
The phrasing of that question disappoints me, in that it's tone is completely antithetical to McLaren's other writings. A New Kind of Christian suggested an alternative to the old way of describing things as left or right, conservative or liberal, and encouraged us to move away from the demonizing rhetoric often used to discredit those with differing beliefs. If I found myself in a circle of God's Politics totin', Social Justice screamin', Environment saving Christians, and the subject of abortion came up, how do you think I would be treated if I referred to those who believe abortion should be a legal option as "pro abortion," or "anti life?" Surely I would get the "I don't believe in abortion either" speech then the "But there is more to 'life' issues than abortion" speech, then somewhere along the way I would be encouraged to be a little more sensitive in how I refer to those that differ from me. Yet how is this any different than calling those who believe war is an option "pro war?" Of course I believe there is room for discussions on Just War and pacifism and how they relate to following Christ, and even how they relate to our position with the state, but I don't believe there is room in a so called "generous" movement for the name calling McLaren resorted to in that "question." In fact, it wasn't a "new" question at all, but rather an accusation.
And on the idea of the "anti poor" statement, McLaren is on shaky ground here. If he wants to accuse Republican political policies as being negligent of the marginalized, minorities, and poverty stricken, that is one thing. (And it's one thing I might could start believing very soon.) But his "question" was directed to Christians, and presumably conservative Christians, not to the Republican establishment that used Christians to get elected. Legion are the amount of evangelical churches that take care of the poor. Perhaps they do it purely out of soul-saving hopes, but a full belly on a previously hungry child is just as full with the food given by soul winners as by the government, (which could, at times, be adequately described as soul takers.)
My fear is that McLaren has cast his lot too much with Jim Wallis, who in my mind is nothing more than Pat Robertson or James Dobson, just with a different political agenda. It's hard to preach a distrust of the Religious Right's proximity to power when guys like Wallis are whispering in the ears of Hillary and Obama, the two people who will very likely be in the White House in a little over a year. None of this takes away from McLaren's influence on my life, and he has still written some damn good stuff. But my numb-minded, critique free infatuation with him is over.
Let's just see if there is still room in the conversation for people like me...
The previous paragraph was one of those pleasant disclaimers I give before offering a critique. The next paragraph will be one of those critiques I give after the pleasant disclaimer. You know how the game works.
He basically, without actually using the "E" word, walked us through the history of the Emergent, (or emergent, depending on your fancy,) conversation. He made distinctions between Renewal, which is just repackaging the same old answers to the same old questions in new, more hip terminology, Reformation, which provides new answers to old questions, and Revolution, which asks a whole new set of questions altogether. Of course, if you've ever heard a preacher, you know the third one is always the best. In stating some of the "new questions" that many people began to ask in the mid-90's, he mentioned several good ones. But then he brought this question up-- "Why are so many Christians pro war, anti poor, and anti environment?"
The phrasing of that question disappoints me, in that it's tone is completely antithetical to McLaren's other writings. A New Kind of Christian suggested an alternative to the old way of describing things as left or right, conservative or liberal, and encouraged us to move away from the demonizing rhetoric often used to discredit those with differing beliefs. If I found myself in a circle of God's Politics totin', Social Justice screamin', Environment saving Christians, and the subject of abortion came up, how do you think I would be treated if I referred to those who believe abortion should be a legal option as "pro abortion," or "anti life?" Surely I would get the "I don't believe in abortion either" speech then the "But there is more to 'life' issues than abortion" speech, then somewhere along the way I would be encouraged to be a little more sensitive in how I refer to those that differ from me. Yet how is this any different than calling those who believe war is an option "pro war?" Of course I believe there is room for discussions on Just War and pacifism and how they relate to following Christ, and even how they relate to our position with the state, but I don't believe there is room in a so called "generous" movement for the name calling McLaren resorted to in that "question." In fact, it wasn't a "new" question at all, but rather an accusation.
And on the idea of the "anti poor" statement, McLaren is on shaky ground here. If he wants to accuse Republican political policies as being negligent of the marginalized, minorities, and poverty stricken, that is one thing. (And it's one thing I might could start believing very soon.) But his "question" was directed to Christians, and presumably conservative Christians, not to the Republican establishment that used Christians to get elected. Legion are the amount of evangelical churches that take care of the poor. Perhaps they do it purely out of soul-saving hopes, but a full belly on a previously hungry child is just as full with the food given by soul winners as by the government, (which could, at times, be adequately described as soul takers.)
My fear is that McLaren has cast his lot too much with Jim Wallis, who in my mind is nothing more than Pat Robertson or James Dobson, just with a different political agenda. It's hard to preach a distrust of the Religious Right's proximity to power when guys like Wallis are whispering in the ears of Hillary and Obama, the two people who will very likely be in the White House in a little over a year. None of this takes away from McLaren's influence on my life, and he has still written some damn good stuff. But my numb-minded, critique free infatuation with him is over.
Let's just see if there is still room in the conversation for people like me...
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Friends as Home...
I've written a lot over the past few years about home. From the little town I grew up in, to my ever flowering love for this famous-for-being-a-little-crazy City of Waco, all the way to a certain building over on Dutton Avenue. Something about the idea of home swirls around my head and seems to be the carrot I'm always reaching out for, trying to grasp just a sliver.
There is another home for me and it is not a place, but rather a sense of belonging with an amorphous, roaming band of people who feel as much like family to me sometimes as do those who share my DNA. There's around ten to a dozen of us, depending on who is not talking to whom at a particular time of our lives, and, as far as my involvement is concerned, our roots can be traced back to the year when I, for no apparent reason, decided to leave a possible career in politics to return to ETBU to work for a few pennies an hour. On the surface it seemed like a decision that served no good purpose other than to return me to my comfort zone. But if you are a person who believes God at least nudges us at times in certain directions, as I have slowly (and somewhat reluctantly) come to believe, then you could actually say it was one of the most significant and God-present decisions I've ever made.
We are all over the world, from Bangkok to Seattle, Newton to Waco, Dallas to the Netherlands. One of our lot tends to be nowhere and everywhere all at the same time. We are Reformed, Arminian, Republican, Democrat, Megachurch, Progressive-Church, Country Church, Emergent, agnostic, drinkers, abstainers, cussers and non. When we gather we ask who has heard from the others. The irony is that our distance seems to be the glue that holds us together. Our memories of each other are fond and great affection, almost EMBARRASING affection, is expressed by each member toward the other.
Today a few of us were together. There was Jason, Robert, Mark, along with spouses, friends, family and others. These are not people I share everyday life with, but they are people I share strong memories with. Our past is the trajectory that keeps us moving.
This morning I met Jason for breakfast. Later I had conversation with Mark and those hilarious glances Robert and I give each other to signal when we are both thinking the same (usually inappropriate) thing. These were actions and they were feelings but, above all else, the air surrounding us and the dirt underneath us and the time pushing us forward to yet another temporary exit where we await the next entrance was, for me, Home.
There is another home for me and it is not a place, but rather a sense of belonging with an amorphous, roaming band of people who feel as much like family to me sometimes as do those who share my DNA. There's around ten to a dozen of us, depending on who is not talking to whom at a particular time of our lives, and, as far as my involvement is concerned, our roots can be traced back to the year when I, for no apparent reason, decided to leave a possible career in politics to return to ETBU to work for a few pennies an hour. On the surface it seemed like a decision that served no good purpose other than to return me to my comfort zone. But if you are a person who believes God at least nudges us at times in certain directions, as I have slowly (and somewhat reluctantly) come to believe, then you could actually say it was one of the most significant and God-present decisions I've ever made.
We are all over the world, from Bangkok to Seattle, Newton to Waco, Dallas to the Netherlands. One of our lot tends to be nowhere and everywhere all at the same time. We are Reformed, Arminian, Republican, Democrat, Megachurch, Progressive-Church, Country Church, Emergent, agnostic, drinkers, abstainers, cussers and non. When we gather we ask who has heard from the others. The irony is that our distance seems to be the glue that holds us together. Our memories of each other are fond and great affection, almost EMBARRASING affection, is expressed by each member toward the other.
Today a few of us were together. There was Jason, Robert, Mark, along with spouses, friends, family and others. These are not people I share everyday life with, but they are people I share strong memories with. Our past is the trajectory that keeps us moving.
This morning I met Jason for breakfast. Later I had conversation with Mark and those hilarious glances Robert and I give each other to signal when we are both thinking the same (usually inappropriate) thing. These were actions and they were feelings but, above all else, the air surrounding us and the dirt underneath us and the time pushing us forward to yet another temporary exit where we await the next entrance was, for me, Home.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Finally...
I have connectivity! After a couple of days frustrated that the house had wireless but my computer was not cooperating, one of the new roommates, Rock and Roll Hero Brian Patterson, helped me get set up. So I am now ready to resume regular blogging.
It's been an interesting, and interestingly complicated and busy, few days. Truth is, I'm exhausted physically and emotionally. Things are good and I've got to wear shades, all that jazz, but man, I could use a vacation.
Tomorrow I'm heading to Dallas for a welcome home party for the Edwardses, and am really looking forward to seeing them and Robert. Sunday, McLaren is speaking at church, I have my fantasy football draft, and have commited myself to having all my stuff out of the old house by then. After all that, I'm hoping to find some sense of normalcy, whatever that means.
And time. Here's something cool. My friend Jonathan Reynolds has demanded that I have the first draft of a book to him by Christmas, or he'll no longer be my friend. Losing friends is the worse, so here I go, trying to do the book thing again. Let's see where that takes me.
Anyway, good to be back full time in cyber-world. Hope to see you soon...
It's been an interesting, and interestingly complicated and busy, few days. Truth is, I'm exhausted physically and emotionally. Things are good and I've got to wear shades, all that jazz, but man, I could use a vacation.
Tomorrow I'm heading to Dallas for a welcome home party for the Edwardses, and am really looking forward to seeing them and Robert. Sunday, McLaren is speaking at church, I have my fantasy football draft, and have commited myself to having all my stuff out of the old house by then. After all that, I'm hoping to find some sense of normalcy, whatever that means.
And time. Here's something cool. My friend Jonathan Reynolds has demanded that I have the first draft of a book to him by Christmas, or he'll no longer be my friend. Losing friends is the worse, so here I go, trying to do the book thing again. Let's see where that takes me.
Anyway, good to be back full time in cyber-world. Hope to see you soon...
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