Obviously

I've been back from YTI for a while now, and have obviously avoided posting much about it.  So here goes:

I could list all of the things that  I did -- like studying American Religious Radicalism,  going all over the place to 'churches' that I will never set foot in again so long as I live,  playing Ultimate Frisbee on the Quad,  planning worship services in Cannon chapel,  listening to Dr. Robert Franklin lecture,  watching everything from Fight Club to Paradise Now to Dr. Strangelove, discussing the Palestine/Israel conflict, discussing sexism and gender roles. . . I could go on forever -- and yet the breadth and the depth of what I experienced in my month at Emory would not even begin to be portrayed.

One of the challenging things about coming 'back' from YTI has been the fact that it cannot be explained.  It's something that one has to have experienced in order to understand.

The closest I can come in explaining what I experienced is to say that for 4 weeks I had the joy of living life in the world of my dreams. 

It's tough to be in the real world now; having lived this summer the possibility of what life can be,   I ache for that possibility to become all of the world's reality.

There is so much more to say, I can't even write anymore right now.  I'm tempted to just click the delete button as I've done so many times before because this short post only gives YTI 1/10000000000000  of a drop of justice.  But, something is better than nothing and maybe God will fill in the gaps.

I'll try again soon.

Comments

[kevin]

living in the world of your dreams...sounds pretty cool. I need a weekend, or week of that. my travel schedule has picked up a bit, but I am trying to read as I go. slowly, oh so slowly, working my way through "The Inner Life" by Thomas a Kempis and "New Seeds of Contemplation" by Thomas Merton. I see you are reading "A Circle of Quiet". I have wanted to read it. Let me know what you think. Also Buechner sounds very interesting. I-Tunes has a new 6 song Live Session by the Weepies you might be interested in. I downloaded 8 songs from Deb Talans solo collection. "Comfort" and "Forgiven" sound like they might be very good. (I haven't heard the whole songs yet - saving that for the ride home tomorrow).

[Lucia]

How come you wrote "churches" in quotes?

[natalie]

hey lucia -- because some of the "churches" we went to (i.e. shrine of the black madonna) didn't strike me as true churches because their existance is based around condemning others...

[A.Lin]

I was part of YTI's first class way back in 1993. For a solid year after that summer, I longed for the same kind of experience that I found at YTI--and I never found that kind of community again. Divinity school came close, but never did I approach theology with the innocence and openness of that YTI summer.

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