Deadlines and Dorm Rooms: That Time Again

Well, it’s another week at Harvard. My philosophy instructor just emailed me that I need to completely redo my term paper plan, so that’s going to be fun, but everything will work out. Weekly assignments are being phased out; final projects and papers are coming into vogue; people are showing up to class later and later. It’s that time again. Still, life is fairly calm.

The word of the week in German is unhaltbarkeit, un(not)-halt(hold)-bar(able)-keit(the quality of), also known as untenability. It seems very apt for the season of quasi-senioritis that comes upon us all at the end of each semester, when it’s a little too early to worry about finals but too late to worry about anything else. A week from now, I’ll be on a plane home for Thanksgiving break; I’m looking forward to being back.

I’ve already completed one of my final projects. Last Thursday I presented in Arabic on whether governments should pay ISIS for hostages. I used my usual method of writing everything down (like most people, I write much more eloquently than I speak, no matter what language I’m using) and then memorizing it the night before, which meant the presentation was less than fluent but the grammar and vocabulary were high-register. I’m not sure how it went, but people seemed to understand what I was saying, so that’s a good sign.

I did actually go into Boston this weekend, if only for a couple of hours. I attended Citywide, a worship event held by the Boston branch of Cru, at Park Street Church. The talk was on dealing with suffering and evil in the world and whether a loving God was justified in punishing evil. The general consensus was that he was. Then we all went home and heard about Paris and Beirut.

On Saturday I woke up earlier than I wanted to in order to pass out programs at the Harvard football game. It was very windy and freezing cold, and after an hour of standing outside I wasn’t up for going to the game anymore, although I’d planned to. Instead, a friend and I grabbed a snack at a coffee-shop and then headed back to Harvard to chat. We ended up talking for about two hours; it didn’t get much schoolwork done, but I’m glad we did it anyway. I also had lunch and dinner with friends on Sunday. It was a very social weekend, but not a very productive one in terms of school. Still, with a two-day week coming up, there’s not that much to be done short-term. And it’s that time of semester.

We did have a bit of excitement on Monday, if you haven’t heard. There was an ‘unconfirmed bomb threat’ – I’m not sure if the bomb or the threat was unconfirmed – for the same four buildings as my freshman year. I wasn’t in one of the buildings this time, but people in class were uncomfortable enough to be unable to think, so we ended class early. If it had been a week ago or time for midterms, perhaps it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but people are more keyed up now.

On the other hand, since it wasn’t finals, having the buildings closed was much less inconvenient. It wasn’t snowing, I didn’t get locked out of my dorm, I didn’t have finals to worry about, I had my stuff, and I wasn’t caught as off-guard as last time. Still, it was a little nerve-racking. It took quite a while before all the buildings were reopened and classes could resume, but life eventually went on as usual. They still haven’t caught the perpetrator.

One last thought before I go. In my music class we’re studying the Rite of Spring*, perhaps the most famous piece of music of the twentieth century. The music is meant to sound primitive, primordial, and dissonant, the idea being partly to show the primeval chaos before the complicated artifice of civilization came along. And yet, if you take a look at the rather overwhelming score, it takes a brilliant composer and an awful lot of work (and over twice the normal number of orchestra rehearsals before the first performance) to make something that sounds unplanned and unordered. Perhaps the world is not so naturally chaotic and dissonant as Stravinsky would have us believe.

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo4sf2wT0wU

This is the complete ballet. For general information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rite_of_Spring

Pictures:

Some belated additions from last week:

To continue with my 'Harvard through the Seasons' photo series...

This is Park Street Church before Citywide (Don't worry; this was taken fairly early, but there were plenty of people there by the time it started.)

I saw three people take pictures of this platform while waiting for our train back to Cambridge; apparently it's very photogenic. You can decide for yourself.