Easter Meditations (on Superheroes)

Somehow, getting all my work done in advance never means having extra free time. It’s one of those great mysteries of life, like the fact that delegating work is more work that just doing it yourself. Someone should (if no one has) write the saga of an epic quest where the hero sets out to find ‘where does the time go.’ In any case.

This week was busy partly because I was attempting to do as little as possible on Easter weekend. It worked to some extent; I didn’t do (much of) anything on Easter. I also took a break on Thursday night and went to see Batman v Superman with a friend. I wasn’t expecting DC to come up with something fun for the whole family, but I was expecting it to leave me with interesting fodder for philosophy, and I wasn’t disappointed. The movie itself had its moments, too.

What are a few of the thoughts it stirred? For one, I am considering the idea that sci-fi/superhero stories are our modern-day version of mythology, our fairy tales and myths. It seems to me that the most important aspects of fantasy stories are 1) that they take place in a superworld, where amazing things (though not anything) can happen, and 2) that they clarify the world for us: they bring good and evil to the surface and make the fight between them clear. And that’s what superheroes are.

I also noticed that all the parts I liked most in the movie – and in Man of Steel, which I re-watched afterwards – were ripped directly from the Easter story. I was entirely distracted from the plot by the Christ imagery at the climax of Batman v Superman, although I can’t go into more detail without spoilers. But I don’t mean the obvious visual parallels; I mean the more subtle plot parallels. You’ll have to watch the movie to figure out what I’m talking about.

I went to church on Easter Sunday morning with friends, after which we stopped for breakfast, and then headed home for a day of meditation and prayer. I’d been fasting for Easter weekend, so I thoroughly enjoyed the Easter candy my mom sent back with me. We’ve had fairly good weather the past few days, although it’s gray and rainy now, so I also returned to the lake and walked around for a couple of hours on Saturday. It was a good weekend.

In Arabic, we’re studying the relative effectiveness of violent and non-violent resistance to injustice. We haven’t come to a conclusion, perhaps because most of our time is taken up with midterm presentations on various topics. The election cycle is a popular subject-matter; if you came into our class, you would hear a bunch of hesitant Arabic phrases punctuated with words we don’t know: “republican primary,” “indictment,” “progressive,” “private sector,” and etc.

In atheism, we’re reading Nietzsche. I realized I didn’t know that much about his view before; he consciously says seemingly-contradictory things, and his writing has been used to argue for so many different things that it’s hard to tell what he actually said, especially because he was trying to avoid stating anything absolutely. I actually agree with him on a lot, but we come to different conclusions. This seems to happen to me a lot.

In ROTC, we’re doing our semester evaluations, which means I’m very busy, but I’ve had an opportunity to get perspective on the year. Once again I realize how much ROTC can teach me about leadership; it offers a rare chance for significant responsibility and people-management that I haven’t really had anywhere else except JROTC. I’ve also started thinking about my next set of resolutions (my New Year’s resolutions were designed to be modified after this semester).

I think one thing I need to work on is joy – not in the general happy sense, or in C. S. Lewis’s very particular sense, but in the normal Christian sense. Christ is risen. More than that, existence is good at its core, made by a good God. The story ends in happily ever after, whatever happens in the middle. Good wins over evil, and joy wins over loss and brokenness. I need to start acting that out.

One of the main complains with DC superhero movies is that they’re ‘joyless.’ The good guys don’t beat the bad guys and then everyone goes home; there’s a cost, not just physically, but spiritually. You don’t come out without scars. They’re not wrong; if you step back and look at the real world, none of us comes out untouched. But that’s the promise of Easter – that there is coming a Joy so great it can overwhelm even this.

Pictures:

No one ever seems to take pictures of the back door of Annenberg. It's pretty impressive.

At the movie theater:

 Easter candy (what was left of it by Easter)!

 This is where I have my atheism class; the building's something like 7 floors; it's bigger than it looks.

 On one wall: E Pluribus Unum

 On the other: Veritas pro Christo et Ecclesiae - Truth for Christ and Church. Now our motto's just 'Veritas'. Times do change.

 This is the view of my dorm from out of my door. It's usually pretty empty; there's nothing to do in the hallway.

 It's stopped raining; it's now sunny and clear and 43 degrees.

Back Home

Well, here I am, back from Spring Break and ready to start up again. I’ve been all the way to Texas and back, seen my parents and grandparents, celebrated Palm Sunday, evaluated the first half of the semester, and planned a little for the future. Now it’s time to jump back into the present.

I left Harvard last Friday after a very busy week and came home for Spring Break for the first time in my college career. I had a direct flight, which was very nice and allowed me to catch up on some independent study on the way. I caught up on a lot of reading over the break, although it wasn’t the calmest in the world.

My parents and grandparents (and dog) were very happy to see me, and I got to see quite a bit of them over the week. Texas was having warm days and stormy nights – my favorite weather – and I remembered what warm really meant. I had a few chances to see people; we had people over on Tuesday night, and I went to church on Sunday and sang in the choir and saw as many friends as I could.

We had a short family trip later in the week; we drove to Austen to see my grandmother, then stayed in a hotel Wednesday night and went hiking at Enchanted Rock on Thursday, since I’d never been before. We went in the morning, when it was still relatively cool, and it didn’t take us that long. It’s not a long, winding path; it’s just a huge mound of granite that you get up any way you can. Once we’d hiked the main trail to the top, we spent an hour or two hiking around other places, trying to get away from the crowds and partially succeeding.

We took the scenic route home through the hill country. There were lots of bluebonnets in bloom, but none with room to stop by the side of the road, so I don’t have pictures. While looking for a place to eat lunch, we discovered a Texas Ranger monument/museum-in-progress by an old army fort that had been partially excavated and reconstructed. In the US, it’s exciting if you find something almost 200 years old. It was well-maintained, interesting, and informative, but its primary virtue was being empty of people and fairly spread out (and not charging for parking).

That was the interesting part of the week; most of the rest was spent with the two presentations I’m doing today and tomorrow. One is a semester project and the other is a midterm presentation, so they required a fair amount of work and a lot of editing, but I finished them in plenty of time. And of course, there’s always ROTC to do, but things are calming down a bit with everyone on break.

The week may not have been a break from work per se, but it was a break from winter and college life and tunnel vision. A few long conversations with my parents helped me regain perspective on the semester thus far and begin to vaguely shape future plans. And of course, there was the evaluation of my New Year’s resolutions to do.

I’m very glad I went to the conference at Notre Dame earlier this semester, but it threw me off a good bit resolution-wise, in combination with a sudden influx of work to be done. As I careened down tracks toward midterms, I veered a little off-track, but I’ve had some time to recover and reevaluate, and I’m firmly back on course now, chugging steadily along. I was a little leery of getting up at five again after suspending my schedule for break, but it was much easier than I expected.

I’ve also noticed an interesting divide in my resolutions. I’ve sorted them into three categories: internal (my ordering of my own thoughts/mindset), external (my ordering of my appearance/actions), and interpersonal (self-explanatory). I’ve found that the part I enjoy most about my resolutions, the part that gives me energy, is the internal section: bible study, independent study, and etc. The external I’m more neutral toward, and when I get tired, I start to slack on exercise, eating well, and the rest. And the interpersonal is the one that requires a lot of energy, the one where I’m not always sure what I’m doing. I’m definitely an introvert. Still, it’s going well, and I think I designed a good balance even without fully realizing the different effects of these divisions.

In any case, leaving aside the last half of the semester, Holy Week is the perfect time to refocus on what’s important. Except, of course, for all the work that keeps piling up. Snow is also piling up, though, which resulted in ROTC being cancelled this morning, so I had a slight reprieve. It’s been so warm, though, that the snow was melting even before I set out for my first class.

I faintly remember those fond days of long ago when having trees dump clumps of snow on your head was something I only knew about from Bambi. Especially with Palm Sunday and Purim, I miss study abroad in Jerusalem and get very nostalgic. But that’s no reason to mope around in the present; one day, after all, this will be the good old days, and I wouldn’t want to miss it while it’s here.

After all, that wistful magic that lies over my reminiscences isn’t really about the past, at least not primarily, any more than the rosy future dreams I pondered over break are primarily about the future. The magic that lies over my memories and ambitions is merely the mantle of a higher glory cast about either side of me, turning me in towards that source of joy who must be sought in the present. 

Pictures:

From Enchanted Rock:

Texas flora:

 Fort Martin Scott (with my Alamo shirt):

 More hiking at Enchanted Rock:

 We were all a little tired by the end.

 Doesn't it just look hot?

I only managed one fleeting picture of the bluebonnets.

 Miss you, Texas!

Hello, Cambridge!

 

Midterm Mayhem

                You’ve caught me in the smack middle of midterms; I finished my third one less than half-an-hour ago, and I have one more to go. It’s already been a long week, but I leave on Friday for my first Spring Break in Texas (if you’ll recall, my freshman year I was on tour with a cappella in Taiwan, and last year I was in Jerusalem).

                My schedule is still under control; I haven’t needed to cut into my sleep schedule or my morning routine to get things done. The reason for that, though, is that I didn’t have a Sabbath; I spent all weekend going to various ROTC events (more details later) and getting work done. Going a second week without a Sabbath has taken a toll; I can’t get as much out of my morning routine when I’m tired, and I often end up grabbing an extra half-hour of sleep instead of exercising. Still, I’m past the halfway point.

                Whatever else the season may have brought, the weather has been stellar: it’s usually above freezing, and we haven’t had snow in several weeks. Everybody kind of missed February without the ever-growing piles of gray packed snow to mark its passage, but we’re not complaining. I still get quite a bit of use out of my winter clothing.

                Speaking of clothing (kind of), my Navy dress uniform has seen quite a bit of use in the past couple of weeks. Last week I wore it for the leadership conference, and this week I pulled it back out for the Tri-Service Ball. It was my first time attending this particular ROTC event, but it was probably one of the more enjoyable balls I’ve been to. The longer you’re in ROTC, the more people you know, and the more comfortable mandatory social events become. In addition, the afternoon before the ball, they sent out a few of the positions for next year’s Midshipman Staff, so there was plenty of fodder for conversation.

                The ball was on Friday night; on Saturday night, I took my platoon out for dinner (I was reimbursed). Social chairing isn’t really my forte, but while it wasn’t a rousing success, I thought it went well; it gave us a chance to interact in a more informal atmosphere and allowed me to talk to some of the freshman face-to-face, which I haven’t had much of a chance to do before this. Everyone has a lot of work around this time of semester, but we’re in pretty good spirits.

                I spent the rest of my Saturday writing an essay for my take-home history midterm. I’ve gotten so used to philosophy essays that I balk at the need to actually include a bunch of facts in a paper. If you’re arguing that there’s moral wrong in the world, you can just say ‘sally shouldn’t torture her cat for fun;’ you don’t have to refer to a specific Sally in the year 1941 who did just that, and include your primary source. So it took a while, but I think (hope) the result was satisfactory.

                The Ethics of Atheism midterm I just finished involved an essay on textual criticism, which was a little closer to my preferred writing style, but still involved looking up a ton of quotes in a timed exam. Usually I finish my exams early, but this time the professor extended the time allotment, and I and almost everyone else took the 15-minute extension. It’s hard to make a complicated argument and pull supporting quotes from several hundred pages of text in an hour’s time.

                In any case, it’s almost over, and Spring Break starts on Friday after my ROTC class. I’m looking forward to spending time with my parents and discussing a lot of issues that have been swirling around in my head since I saw them last face-to-face. And of course I’m looking forward to seeing many of you as well. I won’t be posting next week, but I’ll be back the week after with reflections on the break, heading back, and my progress with my New Year’s resolutions thus far. Until then, all the best!

The Cafe in the Science Center (at which we can use a limited amount of our Board money from Harvard) had Arabic food this week!

Of course, as an American, there's nothing like ice cream and apple pie.

 You can see the grass; it's bizarre.

 After the Tri-Service Ball:

 Harvard was sweet enough to hang these on everyone's door - just what I wanted to come home to after a long day (read sarcastically).

 About to head out again - no need for my heavy coat a lot of the time.

 I don't think I really appreciated trees until I watched the Hobbit appendices and learned how extraordinarily hard it is to create a realistic digital one.

 Most of my platoon (I'm behind the camera):

 Happy Spring Break!

Busy, Busy, Dreadfully Busy*

Well, in a matter of a couple of weeks, that relatively uneventful time I was having earlier in the semester seems like a fond dream. Everything is busy now; it’s crunch time in all sectors. I’m pulling back on Cru this week, thankfully, but I’m so busy being a Midshipman Platoon Commander that I’ve almost forgotten that I’m a college student; hopefully I’ll have time to remember before I take my four midterms next week (every class but Arabic and German).

I spent Thursday through Sunday at a Naval Leadership Conference in Notre Dame. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a good and helpful experience. There were lots of good speakers, mostly flag officers, who restored my faith in the military bureaucracy. If you get past all the bluster and red tape and general hassle, the military includes individuals of incredibly strong character and competence, and it’s taught me a lot already.

Actually, I think ROTC and Harvard form a very good educational combination: each balances out the other’s vices. The military prioritizes tradition and uniformity, and thus conformity, and expects you to get the job done and follow the rules, whether you’re having a bad day or like it or not. There’s no deciding whether or not to show up on time; there’s no experimenting with new hair colors; there’s no excuses and no complaints about hurt feelings. Academia, on the other hand, prizes critical thought, diversity, and innovation. They expect you to question what’s going on and form your own opinions, and in college especially, personal development is mission accomplishment. They both have their strengths and their weaknesses, but I think they serve as nice counter-weights in my life.

The conference was run very smoothly by the Notre Dame Midshipmen; I was very impressed by the logistics, and that doesn’t usually happen. It was colder and snowier than Boston, but we were well-equipped to deal with it, so it wasn’t a big hassle. On Sunday we headed back to Boston and stopped at the USO in the airport, where we ran across two Command Master Chiefs who gave us some advice. This punctuated the strong sense of the military/veteran community that I’d been noticing all weekend, and reinforced my reasons for joining the Navy in the first place.

I’ve needed that reinforcement. For the past few days I’ve gone to bed wound up and immersed in ROTC and woken up the same way – not great for getting rest. This week in particular I’m swamped with work and meetings, none of which can be delegated. Every hour or so there’s a new email with something major that needs to be done in the next few days, and all of this in the middle of midterm season.

Still, things are going fine, if a little strained. My routine is slightly disrupted, but the routine itself is a barrier against my life balance in general, so as long as it isn’t dismantled entirely, I’m still doing fine; I just have to batter down and pick up the pace a little bit until Spring Break gives me some breathing room (pardon the mixed metaphors; I don’t have time to phrase this better). Some good things have happened as well: for one, I ordered my class ring yesterday. I’ll let you know more when it comes in, in about two months or so. In addition, we’ve been having gorgeous winter weather, and it’s a pleasure to walk outside.

It’s strange to realize how close we are to spring break. This is the first week I’ve been free to follow my laid-out weekly routine (or it would be, if I didn’t have so much work I had to modify it), but we’re almost halfway through the semester. I’ll talk a little more about this next week, but I think my resolutions are still intact, if a little battered. I’m slightly busier than I’d like to be on a regular basis, and I still haven’t caught up on sleep from the weekend, but I’m not overly worried. It’ll all get done; somehow, it always does.

Next week I’ll be posting on Wednesday, due to busyness, so I’ll let you know how midterms/the first half of the semester went. Good luck with your to-do list, whatever it entails, until next week!

*Shout-out to anyone who recognized these song lyrics. They're from the VeggieTales version of the Good Samaritan.

Pictures:

At the airport at 4:30 am, with three hours of sleep:

 Indiana:

 The Grotto (y'all probably know more about these places than I do):

 Touchdown Jesus:

 There were two of us in this room for the weekend.

 The first morning I woke up early and walked around outside. The rest of the mornings I woke up early and stayed in bed doing homework. It was cold!

 I may or may not have pretended for a few seconds that I was in Narnia.

 Preparing for the speakers:

 Our room on the last day:

 Back at the airport:

 One of the CMCs was kind enough to provide us with these...