Space Enough, and Time

Songs When Together

Posted on October 12, 2020 by awtraughber

So it’s an hour before midnight, and we’re headed back to the classroom tomorrow. We’ll have 4x as many students on campus as we did just prior to break, so it’s a new version of uncharted territory. I’m thinking about music to play as people gather . . . music that will comfort but that will also not lead to singing. Alas, U2 just released another cleaned-up concert rendition of a classic whose title fits the current moment even if the rest of the song doesn’t. Here’s “Stay (Far Away, So Close!).”

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Like Yesterday, but with Better Resolution

Posted on October 9, 2020 by awtraughber

Looks like U2 will be dropping more goodies between now and the 20th anniversary re-release of All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Here’s a cleaned up clip of the band performing “Beautiful Day” from Boston in 2001. The heart-shaped stage was a sight to behold, and the band used it well. You get just a glimpse of that here.

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“Of Love and Thunder Deep”

Posted on October 7, 2020 by awtraughber

From a recent chapel at Baylor University:

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Resuming the Race

Posted on October 6, 2020 by awtraughber

After twenty-two months since filming completed, the newest season of The Amazing Race is almost ready to air. Good grief! But better late than never. After having a number of two-cycles-a-season years and being moved to one-cycle-a-season, the show’s 32nd entry was postponed two times because of Covid. Because sometimes fresh and new TV can still be two years old.

But no complaining. It will be nice to see the world again, a world that will likely feel “long gone.” But maybe again, one day. Here are the two promos for the first episode, which drops next Wednesday.

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The Problem with Perfect

Posted on October 5, 2020 by awtraughber

There’s this moment in every season of Big Brother where they have a “double-eviction” night. They basically run two weeks of game play in one evening. From an audience perspective, it’s intense. From a player’s perspective? I can’t imagine.

We normally have two weeks for our breaks. It’s one of the benefits of a modified year-round school year. Because of Covid and our need for more professional development, we’ve had to rearrange the schedule some, which means only one week (and one day) of fall break. I’m grateful for whatever we can get. But there’s also this sense of trying to pack two weeks into one. Granted, I don’t do well with vacations-sans-travel anyway, so I’m still trying to figure out how to parse out the time while also wrapping one cycle of things up and revving up another.

+ + + + + + +

Here’s a recent Frazz that’s a nice mix of things, including an attempt at making patience look like the rapid-response solution. Patience is often a fun thing to bring into the comics, as it’s something that just a few panels of story don’t have much room for.

Frazz Quick to Answer (image from gocomics.com)

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Reconsiderations

Posted on October 3, 2020 by awtraughber

One of the things that a longer break can allow for is a certain amount of reflection and reconsideration. That’s something needed for Our Current Moment, I think. So much of the last six months has been about trying to stay afloat, maintaining as much a sense of normal as possible. And that has definitely been a worthy challenge. Part of the tension of Our Current Moment, though, is whether or not anything like “getting back to normal” will ever actually happen. What residual things will outlast the solutions of the moment? And what opportunities are being presented to us through our experiences and (hopefully) gained wisdom? That works on a number of levels: personal, spiritual, physical, vocational, you name it. The challenge, then, is to make the time and find the people and the framework to engage in such necessary conversations. I think that’s part of why I read what I read: reading is a way for me to engage the thoughts of others when I can’t necessarily find that engagement elsewhere. It’s good to have the window of a week to reflect, to reconsider, and to move forward. I hope to make something of it.

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Walking into the Break

Posted on October 2, 2020 by awtraughber

Playing this one going into the break. It’s a remastered version of “Walk On” in celebration of the 20th anniversary re-release of All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Definitely makes you feel old. And while it’s one of my favorites, it’s not my favorite cut of the song. True: a product of its time. Also true: the band could sometimes catch lightning in a bottle in a way that other musicians could only dream to.

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Almost Break

Posted on October 1, 2020 by awtraughber

We’re less than 24 hours away from fall break. One more set of classes, one last round of grading, some slides to put together for when we return. And that’s about it. For the most part. In general.

Because of the way that we rolled out the school year, we’re down to one week of fall break instead of two (we’ll get some time back at the end of the year). But we’re also returning to full concurrent learning, which we’ve been preparing for but haven’t moved to fully yet. So there will definitely be some prep-time involved, which will be good for helping the second quarter move smoothly.

But I’m excited to have a few days away, too. I’ve got a short stack of novels to read, a couple of theology books to finish, and hopefully some writing to do. And sleep. Some good sleep. And since we’ve started to exit the most recent lockdown, some of my formerly-regular spots have opened back up, which will be nice. Maybe I’ll even catch a movie (sans popcorn and soda).

It’s been a good quarter . . . it’s feels almost impossible to think that it’s over. Time runs funny with online learning. So there will definitely be some reflection on my part to figure out what things can look like moving forward.

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Being Bodies

Posted on September 30, 2020 by awtraughber

A couple of days ago I mentioned listening to sermons and talks while getting some grading done. Here’s another one that I listened to recently by Ephraim Radner. In many ways, he’s quite different from some of the other writers/pastors/teachers that I follow, but that’s a good thing. It definitely stretches me to think more holistically. This is a challenging talk about being bodies.

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Learning while Grading

Posted on September 28, 2020 by awtraughber

It’s the end of the quarter, which means grades are almost due. It’s nice to listen to sermon and interviews while taking care of things. One that I listened to today was this recent interview with James K. A. Smith through the Trinity Forum. Always Augustine, but always so much more, too.