The first thing I should say is that I'm exhausted, and I'd much rather just go to sleep. Yes, local time is only 8:59 p.m. but sleep has been hard to come by. I snatched maybe three hours on the plane, and took a half-hour nap this afternoon... By my count, that makes 3.5 hours of sleep in the last 31. I normally sleep 8 / 24, so...
However, I know from other experiences that if I don't make some attempt to capture my experiences in writing now, I won't do it... and my memory will be much less apt to keep it all in proper order.
Some of the travel details are pretty meaningless: I watched Black Swan on the plane and found it less terrifying than I thought I would; we sat on the tarmac for what seemed like an eternity but we had an 81 mph tailwind and still made it earlier than our eta; there was nothing to distinguish England from America for the first 45 minutes we were here (well, the first 45 minutes out of customs, anyway) until we saw a British flag. Otherwise, we pretty much could have still been in New England (haha).
What I have already appreciated most about being on this trip is the chance it has given me to engage my classmates in long and meaningful conversations. I have such a terribly frenetic pace to my time actually at the Divinity school, pilgrimage has - as it is supposed to - really allowed me to slow down. I spent the bus ride from school to JFK talking with my friend Matt about church, evangelism, and biblical preaching. I got to catch up with my friend Emily on the plane, hearing all about her new relationship and catching her up about what my wife and I might be doing in the next few years (short answer: we don't really know). I spent the bus ride from Heathrow to Canterbury talking with Otis about theosis and salvation, the Episcopal Church in America's lack of narrative for its vision / mission, and trying to give an account for why I have remained in the Episcopal program, which was much harder to do in words than I would have guessed. I got to tell my friend Megan all about the future plans my wife and I - as already established - might or might not have. And that over pints of cider!
Even more than that, though, I think has been the time around meals. I have gotten to participate in the small talk of my class, the rambling conversations where complaints and points of view and idiosyncrasies come to the fore. More than anything else I miss those kinds of conversations because of my frenetic pace, the small grist for the mill of community. I'm there for the big events, but I miss out on the perspectives plural of my classmates because I'm not around while they are processing them on a day-to-day basis. I'm always rushing off to my own events. It's not a pattern I like, neither one I can necessarily change; but I'm aware of it in a fresh way, and it's nice to pause from it this week. I think it may become my unofficial goal for the week to speak meaningfully to each of my classmates about what they have meant to me over the last three years. However, that might also take the form of letters at graduation (as it did in high school).
Canterbury is beautiful, and hopefully I will post some pictures in the next few days. I'll just need to buy a camera and a plug adaptor so I can plug my computer in! Ah, the joys of traveling :-)
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