Hello and welcome back! I'm writing
this from the sound studio in Southern Pines, where Laura is
recording with Danny Infantino, now the proud father of a beautiful
newborn son. It's been a busy week, to say the least. Where did we leave off? Oh yes, Sunday night.
Monday morning was complicated by the start of the Classical Conversations school year, which is just on the cusp of resuming. The warehouse and office have been flooded with more work than before, and a few of the students who work at the warehouse went straight there that morning, leaving earlier than the rest of us who were going to class. While they worked, Leigh wrangled the rest of us through another math-filled morning.
On any given day, our class goes something like this. We start off the day with one of Euclid's geometric propositions, working it out and proving it for ourselves. After that, she usually shows us some mathematical tricks and tips, running us through some exercises to warm up our brains for what comes next: the SAT. We drop the discussion for twenty or twenty-five minutes of beautifully absolute test questions, taken in silence at our desks. After the clock runs down, we briefly check our answers, and Leigh explains how we reach those which we missed. As she satisfies our questions, some of the Fellows work on a second test, exercising their minds still further. By the time we finish, the morning is mostly gone, and we spend the final hour exploring new concepts of calculus, trigonometry, or physics.
Thus Monday morning came and went. We ate lunch and gathered around the piano for choir. Caleb introduced us to a new song: Sing Choirs of New Jerusalem, which we took to immediately. It's not an easy or simple piece, so when we left an hour later, none of us knew it perfectly. We were excited, however, singing and whistling, working on our parts with no intention of stopping. I heard people humming its harmony for days. We gathered after work that night to watch some astronomy videos and prepare for the guest lecturer coming that weekend.
Tuesday felt earlier than other days as we prepared for class. Coming into the Fellowship, I had expected math to be the more challenging of the two main subjects, but so far, music has been the most difficult. This was another full day of music, and between our discussions, debates, and lectures, we found ourselves drained by lunch-time. We found relief in the healing rays of the noonday sun, laying like lizards on the back porch. Soon enough, Caleb called us back in for our more practical music session. We tuned our instruments and listened to his assignment. He told us that we would be working in pairs to develop a unique melody based on a classic chord progression. The simple act of playing music together made up for the heated discussions of the morning, and we left refreshed and in high spirits. Immediately after work, I cracked my Bible to study the Psalm I was going to present the next morning. In the early evening, Tobin arrived to meet with some of us, and my music group still to meet to discuss our end-of-semester presentation. Shortly before midnight, as my housemates and I prepared for the next day, we agreed that the days here are simply too short.
Wednesday brought a new tradition: "Formal Friday— But On Wednesday Because We Have A Guest Coming This Weekend And We Don't Want To Make Him Feel Uncomfortable." (Simplified to FFBOWBWHAGCTWAWDWTMHFU.) Class went quickly by that day, and we soon had our SATs graded and put away. Leigh had something much more exciting to talk about: Italy. She had a list of opportunities for us to go home and consider. Lunch came early, and we spent it in the sun and on computers, deciding between Pisa and Venice, opera and cooking, caves and cliffs. Afterwards, we left for work while the music counsel met, weaving their secrets and spinning our fates.
Thursday was a fairly standard day with math in the morning and more music in the afternoon. As the weekend approached, people started getting more adventurous, forgoing studies in favor of excitement. Some of us just needed a change of pace, and before I knew what was happening, I found myself running errands at Walmart with a bunch of other guys. When we got home, we learned that our guest speaker, Dr. DeYoung, had arrived. Huzzah!
So Friday morning was fantastic. We woke up an hour later than normal with sunlight streaming uncharacteristically through the blinds. With no rush, we leisurely made our way to the house, arriving before morning devotions to meet Dr. DeYoung. Instead of having a student present a Psalm, Leigh invited pastor Skogen to lead us. He spoke clearly, laying out the biblical view on God's divine will and how it applies to our lives. We listened raptly, drinking it in. While the Socratic method of learning through questions and discussion is certainly effective, we enjoyed listening to someone teach plainly from the authority of scripture.
Afterwards, we went to the classroom, where Caleb introduced our guest to us formally. The doctor told us his students called him "Prof", and we were welcome to do the same. We expected him to start on astronomy right away, but Caleb led us in music discussion for the first hour. While we talked, DeYoung sat by, quietly observing. When he finally stood to present, he already had an idea of who we were. (By the end of his stay, he understood most of us; the man is quick and clever.) We had a great time with him over the next two hours as he gave us a crash course on astronomy. As he talked about measuring stars, plotting their movements, and way Halley's Comet slingshots around the sun, we saw the connections to the math concepts we'd been studying. An hour into the class, he sent us outside with rulers and notecards to measure the diameter of the sun. He had barely started explaining it before most of us were delightedly whispering about the elegance of the beautifully simple formula. We took our measurements and returned for more enthralling conversation.
We did something different for lunch. Splitting the main table into quarters, we made little groups and prepared for the "Pig Fest". This is a mode of dinner conversation in which a small group takes one topic and discusses it in detail, over dinner, for a quarter of an hour, at which point they stop, choose another topic, and continue. D. DeYoung sat with the first table, we all dug into our pizza, and Leigh read the first student-generated question. We discussed everything from airport security to the nuances of salvation over that hour. After it was up, Leigh dismissed everyone for twenty minutes, but many of us wanted to talk to Dr. DeYoung, and we surrounded him until Leigh called us in to class. We did math and astronomy for another few hours, and we ended in time to enjoy a few hours of sun before dinner. Most of us went swimming, though a few of us studied or played ping-pong. We met back at the house for supper together and with that done, we had another hour of class, built a fire by the lake and sat around it, telling stories and continuing to ask questions of DeYoung. Sadly, it was too cloudy to see anything, but DeYoung went out on the motorboat with Leigh and a few of the students anyway, finding a few gaps in the clouds to see the sky through. We left tired but satisfied. Unfortunately, the weekend mindset had ambushed us, and though we had to rise the next morning, some of us ignored our bodies' signals and decided to stay up late instead.
Saturday came too early. We rose at the same time as before and drove to the house. The pastor led our devotions again, and after a rousing rendition of Sing Choirs of New Jerusalem, we moved on to astronomy. This time he had all day, and he used it well. He finished his astronomy lecture by having us measure the position of the sun in its annual course at noon, and after lunch, he presented a comparison of theistic evolution and creationism before moving on to our questions. We took one more break for the afternoon, everyone heading his or her own way. It was a lovely day. We went out on the lake, wakeboarding and tubing, or we just laid in the sun, taking turns reading out loud. After supper, we met one last time, dragging class out as long as we could. When he finally closed, we stood and clapped. We were hoping he could come stargazing with us, but once again, the night was too cloudy.
On Sunday morning, most of us tried to get a little extra sleep. A diminished and heavy-lidded group trickled in to church that day. We heard Pastor Skogen preach again, and followed familiar threads through his sermon which he had laid down while he was leading us. When he talks, people listen, and we woke up. Afterwards, we said our final goodbyes to our new-found friend and left, though he was staying at Leigh's for a few more hours. Anna Harvey left to visit an old friend who had just returned from England, and many of the Fellows went with her. Tobin gave me a lift home, and we discussed the merits of togas as his wife laughed at us from the back seat. That afternoon was practically the first time any of us had free time over the weekend, so we found ourselves in town, stocking up for the next week. At the same time, Gracsyn was driving DeYoung back to the airport. That night found all of us watching Lord of the Rings at Leigh's house, our host curled up in a mound of cushions in the center of the room. One by one, people drifted off to bed. When the movie ended, we sat motionless for minutes as the credits rolled. Nobody wanted to stop the music or end the night. That was when we realized something fantastic. We were about to hit the peak of the Perseid meteor shower— and the sky was crystal clear. We quickly packed up and left for the villas, now energetic with the prospect of a longer night. The Perseids enticed some of the fellows who wouldn't normally go stargazing to come along, and we drove to the dam, where the sky is darker and the trees don't obscure. We stayed too long, but it was worth it.
The next morning started painfully. It was a normal Monday with math and choir, but that coupled with all of our sleepless weekend antics, plus the couch-filled classroom, (the music room's furniture had to be temporarily displaced for a while) made for a very drowsy experience. Leigh, however, kept us engaged with math games, the SAT, and another discussion about Italy. We had no trouble staying awake for choir. Afterwards, we all went our separate ways for work, and only met again that evening. Actually, it was a pretty eventful evening, with an introduction to Italian at Leigh's, a bunch of good discussions with the other Fellows, (Seth in particular) and with Tobin arriving to lead some of us in a few hours of nerdy gaming.
Classical Conversations started today, on Tuesday. While Caleb taught us in music, Leigh taught at the local community. It was a good day. The discussions were friendly and we had a great time. We started playing music on the speakers between sessions, and the dancing which it naturally brought left us all laughing and vitalized. Caleb surprised us by giving us the afternoon off from class, and so we ate lunch and returned home and to work, where I am now! We had a great time over the weekend, even if we didn't get all the sleep we wanted. There's another astronomer coming this week, and we're all very excited. I'll be getting back to my work now, but I hope you have and have had a great day so far.
Au revoir,
Barnabas
Monday morning was complicated by the start of the Classical Conversations school year, which is just on the cusp of resuming. The warehouse and office have been flooded with more work than before, and a few of the students who work at the warehouse went straight there that morning, leaving earlier than the rest of us who were going to class. While they worked, Leigh wrangled the rest of us through another math-filled morning.
On any given day, our class goes something like this. We start off the day with one of Euclid's geometric propositions, working it out and proving it for ourselves. After that, she usually shows us some mathematical tricks and tips, running us through some exercises to warm up our brains for what comes next: the SAT. We drop the discussion for twenty or twenty-five minutes of beautifully absolute test questions, taken in silence at our desks. After the clock runs down, we briefly check our answers, and Leigh explains how we reach those which we missed. As she satisfies our questions, some of the Fellows work on a second test, exercising their minds still further. By the time we finish, the morning is mostly gone, and we spend the final hour exploring new concepts of calculus, trigonometry, or physics.
Thus Monday morning came and went. We ate lunch and gathered around the piano for choir. Caleb introduced us to a new song: Sing Choirs of New Jerusalem, which we took to immediately. It's not an easy or simple piece, so when we left an hour later, none of us knew it perfectly. We were excited, however, singing and whistling, working on our parts with no intention of stopping. I heard people humming its harmony for days. We gathered after work that night to watch some astronomy videos and prepare for the guest lecturer coming that weekend.
Tuesday felt earlier than other days as we prepared for class. Coming into the Fellowship, I had expected math to be the more challenging of the two main subjects, but so far, music has been the most difficult. This was another full day of music, and between our discussions, debates, and lectures, we found ourselves drained by lunch-time. We found relief in the healing rays of the noonday sun, laying like lizards on the back porch. Soon enough, Caleb called us back in for our more practical music session. We tuned our instruments and listened to his assignment. He told us that we would be working in pairs to develop a unique melody based on a classic chord progression. The simple act of playing music together made up for the heated discussions of the morning, and we left refreshed and in high spirits. Immediately after work, I cracked my Bible to study the Psalm I was going to present the next morning. In the early evening, Tobin arrived to meet with some of us, and my music group still to meet to discuss our end-of-semester presentation. Shortly before midnight, as my housemates and I prepared for the next day, we agreed that the days here are simply too short.
Wednesday brought a new tradition: "Formal Friday— But On Wednesday Because We Have A Guest Coming This Weekend And We Don't Want To Make Him Feel Uncomfortable." (Simplified to FFBOWBWHAGCTWAWDWTMHFU.) Class went quickly by that day, and we soon had our SATs graded and put away. Leigh had something much more exciting to talk about: Italy. She had a list of opportunities for us to go home and consider. Lunch came early, and we spent it in the sun and on computers, deciding between Pisa and Venice, opera and cooking, caves and cliffs. Afterwards, we left for work while the music counsel met, weaving their secrets and spinning our fates.
Thursday was a fairly standard day with math in the morning and more music in the afternoon. As the weekend approached, people started getting more adventurous, forgoing studies in favor of excitement. Some of us just needed a change of pace, and before I knew what was happening, I found myself running errands at Walmart with a bunch of other guys. When we got home, we learned that our guest speaker, Dr. DeYoung, had arrived. Huzzah!
So Friday morning was fantastic. We woke up an hour later than normal with sunlight streaming uncharacteristically through the blinds. With no rush, we leisurely made our way to the house, arriving before morning devotions to meet Dr. DeYoung. Instead of having a student present a Psalm, Leigh invited pastor Skogen to lead us. He spoke clearly, laying out the biblical view on God's divine will and how it applies to our lives. We listened raptly, drinking it in. While the Socratic method of learning through questions and discussion is certainly effective, we enjoyed listening to someone teach plainly from the authority of scripture.
Afterwards, we went to the classroom, where Caleb introduced our guest to us formally. The doctor told us his students called him "Prof", and we were welcome to do the same. We expected him to start on astronomy right away, but Caleb led us in music discussion for the first hour. While we talked, DeYoung sat by, quietly observing. When he finally stood to present, he already had an idea of who we were. (By the end of his stay, he understood most of us; the man is quick and clever.) We had a great time with him over the next two hours as he gave us a crash course on astronomy. As he talked about measuring stars, plotting their movements, and way Halley's Comet slingshots around the sun, we saw the connections to the math concepts we'd been studying. An hour into the class, he sent us outside with rulers and notecards to measure the diameter of the sun. He had barely started explaining it before most of us were delightedly whispering about the elegance of the beautifully simple formula. We took our measurements and returned for more enthralling conversation.
We did something different for lunch. Splitting the main table into quarters, we made little groups and prepared for the "Pig Fest". This is a mode of dinner conversation in which a small group takes one topic and discusses it in detail, over dinner, for a quarter of an hour, at which point they stop, choose another topic, and continue. D. DeYoung sat with the first table, we all dug into our pizza, and Leigh read the first student-generated question. We discussed everything from airport security to the nuances of salvation over that hour. After it was up, Leigh dismissed everyone for twenty minutes, but many of us wanted to talk to Dr. DeYoung, and we surrounded him until Leigh called us in to class. We did math and astronomy for another few hours, and we ended in time to enjoy a few hours of sun before dinner. Most of us went swimming, though a few of us studied or played ping-pong. We met back at the house for supper together and with that done, we had another hour of class, built a fire by the lake and sat around it, telling stories and continuing to ask questions of DeYoung. Sadly, it was too cloudy to see anything, but DeYoung went out on the motorboat with Leigh and a few of the students anyway, finding a few gaps in the clouds to see the sky through. We left tired but satisfied. Unfortunately, the weekend mindset had ambushed us, and though we had to rise the next morning, some of us ignored our bodies' signals and decided to stay up late instead.
Saturday came too early. We rose at the same time as before and drove to the house. The pastor led our devotions again, and after a rousing rendition of Sing Choirs of New Jerusalem, we moved on to astronomy. This time he had all day, and he used it well. He finished his astronomy lecture by having us measure the position of the sun in its annual course at noon, and after lunch, he presented a comparison of theistic evolution and creationism before moving on to our questions. We took one more break for the afternoon, everyone heading his or her own way. It was a lovely day. We went out on the lake, wakeboarding and tubing, or we just laid in the sun, taking turns reading out loud. After supper, we met one last time, dragging class out as long as we could. When he finally closed, we stood and clapped. We were hoping he could come stargazing with us, but once again, the night was too cloudy.
On Sunday morning, most of us tried to get a little extra sleep. A diminished and heavy-lidded group trickled in to church that day. We heard Pastor Skogen preach again, and followed familiar threads through his sermon which he had laid down while he was leading us. When he talks, people listen, and we woke up. Afterwards, we said our final goodbyes to our new-found friend and left, though he was staying at Leigh's for a few more hours. Anna Harvey left to visit an old friend who had just returned from England, and many of the Fellows went with her. Tobin gave me a lift home, and we discussed the merits of togas as his wife laughed at us from the back seat. That afternoon was practically the first time any of us had free time over the weekend, so we found ourselves in town, stocking up for the next week. At the same time, Gracsyn was driving DeYoung back to the airport. That night found all of us watching Lord of the Rings at Leigh's house, our host curled up in a mound of cushions in the center of the room. One by one, people drifted off to bed. When the movie ended, we sat motionless for minutes as the credits rolled. Nobody wanted to stop the music or end the night. That was when we realized something fantastic. We were about to hit the peak of the Perseid meteor shower— and the sky was crystal clear. We quickly packed up and left for the villas, now energetic with the prospect of a longer night. The Perseids enticed some of the fellows who wouldn't normally go stargazing to come along, and we drove to the dam, where the sky is darker and the trees don't obscure. We stayed too long, but it was worth it.
The next morning started painfully. It was a normal Monday with math and choir, but that coupled with all of our sleepless weekend antics, plus the couch-filled classroom, (the music room's furniture had to be temporarily displaced for a while) made for a very drowsy experience. Leigh, however, kept us engaged with math games, the SAT, and another discussion about Italy. We had no trouble staying awake for choir. Afterwards, we all went our separate ways for work, and only met again that evening. Actually, it was a pretty eventful evening, with an introduction to Italian at Leigh's, a bunch of good discussions with the other Fellows, (Seth in particular) and with Tobin arriving to lead some of us in a few hours of nerdy gaming.
Classical Conversations started today, on Tuesday. While Caleb taught us in music, Leigh taught at the local community. It was a good day. The discussions were friendly and we had a great time. We started playing music on the speakers between sessions, and the dancing which it naturally brought left us all laughing and vitalized. Caleb surprised us by giving us the afternoon off from class, and so we ate lunch and returned home and to work, where I am now! We had a great time over the weekend, even if we didn't get all the sleep we wanted. There's another astronomer coming this week, and we're all very excited. I'll be getting back to my work now, but I hope you have and have had a great day so far.
Au revoir,
Barnabas
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