My Fruit

Last night was full of a lot of driving, and very little sleep. I went down to NWC with my mom and Mariah to see a play. It's a play I wasn't too sure of, seeing as I disliked both the book and the movie. My brother had done the sound design for The Grapes of Wrath, which was adapted by Frank Galati (I have to admit the writing was very good for the play).

I was utterly impressed with the show. I loved it, and I wish I could see it again. I'm a little sad I couldn't make it to other things I had as choices for the night, but it was good seeing my brother and hearing his great work for the show. Plus, I remembered reading Tracey's blog about her labor scene, and while she was giving birth during the storm I had to hold back some laughter.

We didn't get back to Frost until just after 1:00 in the morning, and I had to work at 9. It took me a while to get out of bed because this cold of mine is getting horrible, but I was only 15 minutes late to work. I made up for by staying until 5:15, so I got the whole 8 hours in.

After work there was a run-through of the play before our dress rehearsal tomorrow. I'm still a little skeptical about the show, but tonight made me a little more confident. It'll all come down to remembering lines.

As for the title of this post, I kind of got to thinking tonight about The Grapes of Wrath. I instantly thought of Galatians 5:22 (Fruit of the Spirit). There wasn't anything too specific or deep that I was thinking about; just that I feel like all of the things listed in that verse are things people hold near and dear in relationships. Coincidence? Not likely. Godincidence? Definitely.

I want to include the Director's Statement from the play last night because it's really good. It's kind of long, but well worth it.


"Three provocative statements to consider as we enter together into tonight's production:

1. Christ-figures appear in various forms of literature. Writers as diverse as C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia), Ernest Hemingway (The Old Man in the Sea), Bernard Malumud (The Natural), and John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath) imbue their protagonists with Christ-like qualities, often leading us to see familiar aspects of the Gospel story with fresh eyes. In his apologetic writing, Lewis argues that the appearance and reappearance of Christ-figures in myth and literature testifies to the inherent truth of the Gospel in our daily lives; Christ keeps showing up, often where we least expect. This said, we must acknowledge a key difference between Christ-figures and Christ. Jesus was not literally a Lion, an old fisherman, a baseball player, or a fallen-away Pentecostal preacher from Oklahoma. The fact that these characters exhibit some of Christ's defining characteristics only serves to remind us of the essence of the Gospel story and how we are all, at our core, image-bearers.

2. As a culture, we do a poor job of ministering to our social and economic outcasts. This production forces us to remember this sad fact, and begs the question "Who are the 'Okies' of today and how are we serving them?"

3. Our American expressions of Christianity reveal annoying tendencies that emphasize the indiviual over the corporate. Sometimes we allow our individualistic culture to define the Gospel exclusively as a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ." This stops short of an equallyl pressing biblical call to live in community, ceaselessly serving the "least of these" our brothers and sisters. This seperation is false. Christ's directive to the apostle Peter's individualistic affirmation that he loved Jesus was to direct him to feed and care for community (John 21:15). As stewards of the creation, God calls us to live and sustain our individual faith through community. At its best, The Grapes of Wrath reveals to us our corporate body and our social responsibility."

-- Robert Hubbard

My Mind

Feel like each section of your brain is being pulled in a different direction all at the same time? I know what you mean. That's exactly what's going on right now. Mostly it's because I have so much junk to get done before the end of the quarter on Thursday (since I don't take finals on Friday). An art project and two late assignments, challenge gov't terms (32 of them) and studying up on a current events quiz, studying for an AP bio test on membrane structure (still need to read the chapter) and do two late assignments, and fix the devos that I wrote so there's one available for the reunion on Sunday.

It's crazy. Life is crazy.

I also need to remember to ask for a whole week of work off so I can make it to all the rehearsals leading up to the opening night of our play. I'm really hoping my boss allows it seeing as we have three new people working there who could fill those days. My concern is that she won't let me do it, even though she never has the schedule ready that soon so it shouldn't be too much trouble.

I'm just confused. I don't know where to start, but I know I have to start now. Goodnight!

Excitement!

I'm posting in an e-mail again because I don't have enough time to read everyone's blogs tonight (sorry!), and I know I would end up doing it if I went to Blogger. I just wanted to post something quick because I'm very excited about tomorrow. I'll be in Mankato for One-Act Competition, and it's going to be a great time. We leave at 7:45, but we won't go on until 3:45 (lametastic). If you want to check it out, the whole thing starts at 10:00 am at Fitzgerald Middle School (about 5 blocks up the hill from Riverfront I believe).

The other thing I'm excited about is today's Knowledge Bowl meet. I knew a lot of folks from the NRHEG teams (Cody, Trevor, Andrew...), and it was a huge meet. Out of 69 teams, the Blue Earth teams were 8th, 28th, and 32nd. Not too shabby. My team was the 32nd one, but we did the best out of our 3 teams on the written round (43) and we our best verbal round was in the last round (14). There were 23 rooms, and we went from room 5 to 11 to 13 (twice). It was a good day though.

For those of you going to Roch tomorrow for TEC, have a great time! I'm still really disappointed that I'm missing my first Agape since I went through, but I'll survive. It'll just get me excited for TEC 67 in the good ol' town of B.E.!

Good gracious....

I'm not having the best week ever, no matter what VH1 says. Our last comp essay is supposed to be fairly easy because it's a college essay with a lot of choices for topics. Lo and behold, I can't get anything done on it. I've changed my topic at least three or four times, and I'm working on changing it again right now.

One Act is going pretty well. We have a few things to fine tune, but we should be ready for the competition on Saturday. We're also performing it Thursday morning for some of the people at school. Something's wrong with my throat right now, so I have no idea what's going to happen in the next few days. I can talk and all without having a raspy voice or anything, but it's really sore and such. It feels like it did after yelling at the TEC 65 talent show. It's crazy.

Friday is my first day off, but we all know what happens when you hope for a relaxed weekend: BUSYNESS! Friday brings about Knowledge Bowl (69 teams from 23 schools) in Blue Earth. I'm guessing my team won't do very well yet again, which is disappointing. One of our B.E. teams will do pretty well. Saturday, as I said, is One Act. I won't be able to make it to Agape for the first time since I went through TEC. I honestly think that's my biggest disappointment, even if we don't do well at One Act competition. Sunday might actually be a day of rest for me. Thankfully, I won't have any homework since it's the end of the semester this week.

I'm pretty stressed right now, but I'm trying my best to just shrug it off and try to stay positive about these last few days. Comp is my only big concern, and I just have to finish a rough draft (which should've been done today); it's all smooth sailing as soon as I have the rough draft done.