You know you're in big trouble when, while checking you out with your 18 books for the semester, the bookstore manager, a Div. school alum, looks at you and says, "This is too much." And he wasn't talking about the cost. I smiled at him, but he looked at me very seriously and said, "No really, this is too much. You shouldn't take more than two of these particular classes at the same time." Uh-oh.
So, the Berkeley grid outlines semester by semester requirements and/or recommendations, and four of my classes I selected right of the grid - Old Testament, Church history, history of worship, and patristics (Christian theology up to 451CE). That's already a lot of reading (15 books, to be precise). On top of that, I added biblical Hebrew, not that I'm ever required to take it but because I really want to learn to read scriptural texts in the original languages. I am told that the language courses, whether Hebrew, Greek or some other obscure language, add exponentially to study time. It takes a lot of time to learn a whole language over the course of a year! So the deal I made with myself is this - try it out for a couple of weeks, and if it's too much, drop the Hebrew.
Ah, but there's the rub. Have I gotten beyond the tendency to drive myself to succeed at whatever I attempt, regardless of my health, sanity and well-being? This will be the first big test. Deep down, I really want to enjoy this experience, not constantly fret over the workload. I'll let you know how this pact with myself works out.
I'm on my way to the deans' picnic followed by opening convocation. Tomorrow starts with morning Eucharist and then my first class (which just so happens to be...Hebrew!). I don't think there's any turning back now. Carpe diem!
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