Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

CAT is by far one of my favorite plays and movies. My favorite line in all of movie-dom is from CAT.

So, low-and-behold, I’m reading Essence magazine a little bit ago and came across an article that says that CAT is coming to Broadway starting March 6. James Earl Jones is going to play Big Daddy. Phylicia Rashad will play Big Momma. Anika Noni Rose (of Dreamgirls fame) will play Maggie the Cat. And Terrance Howard will be playing Brick.

Seeing as though I’m planning a trip to NYC to see certain people for their birthday in early May, I think I’ll just have to add a trip to the theatre to my agenda my visit. And just like when I saw The Color Purple, I can’t think of a better way for a single girl to spend an evening in NYC.

Aunt Jemima Don’t Live Here Anymore aka The Upside of Anger

Today has been a very heavy day. I knew it would be; our discussion was going to be on James Cone’s writings in Theology 101 class.

I know some of you probably remember that a few years ago I thought that the place for me to be was Howard Divinity School. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that it didn’t work out with Howard, but today was one day that I wish I had been in a majority-black environment.

To talk about violence, nonviolence and reconciliation with a group of Quakers was..informative to say the least. To be the only pepper-amongst-salt in the room makes it a different experience entirely. It had been my intention to stay quiet, but after hearing some particular things that were making me angry, I had to chime in. My quote was “I can’t assuage your guilt…I just can’t……aunt Jemima doesn’t live here anymore. I have my own issues, I can’t deal with yours too.”

I’m still decompressing from that, and don’t know how long it will take. I do take solace in the fact that my Canadian classmate was the one person I knew understood what I said and what I meant. If anybody else in the class did, they didn’t let me know; and that’s ok.

So there really is an upside to anger. I do feel better having said what I said, although I’m not sure if I said it the right way. I’ll find that out in the days to come.

A New Appreciation of Emerson

For US Church History today we had to read the Divinity School Address.

I must admit that I have never been an Emerson fan. I’ve always thought of him as a little too pompous for my taste. This time, though, reading the Address took on a different meaning.

I got it.

How many of us don’t have some complaint about the church that, if we had the chance, we would talk about in front of a crowd(especially a crowd of fellow religionists)? How would we sound? What would we say was missing? And what would we propose to correct it?

It was also interesting reading it in a Quaker setting. As contemporary Quakers and U/U/UUs have much in common, it was very fun to talk about “my people”.

That said……I will still never be an Emerson fan. But after class today, I have a much greater appreciation for him and his place in the Unitarian symphony.

Headcoverings

No friends, this is not about my love of synthetic hair.

A few posts back I talked about how we’re talking about Paul and his views on women in my New Testament class. In 1 Cor 11 Paul says that women who prophesy in the assembly must wear a head-covering.

Orthodox Jewish women cover their head. 

In institutionalized Islam women are required to cover their heads.

All this makes me think about the significance of covering my head. I have plenty of scarves, not to mention wigs, that could cover my head and I think look good on me. How much would it take for me to cover my head? What would this symbolize? How would other UUs react to someone who covers their head all the time?

I’m just starting to working this out in my mind so bear with me as I post on this every once in a while.

Books On CD Anyone?

Continuing my string of non-school related posts I am looking for recommendations on books on CD.

Here’s the situation…..I’m planning on taking a long-ish train trip at the end of the semester. Since I’m going to be on said train for 20+ hours each way, I would like to have a couple of books on CD to listen to on my trip that can alternate with my music CDs.

I would like to have at least 2 books and I would like one of those books to be 12+ hours long. I will consider shorter books, just means I have to buy more of them.

So…..recommendations anyone?

p.s.- on a side note, if anyone knows of some really good recent jazz CDs that are worth listening to, I’m all ears.

The Color Purple

I got to see The Color Purple on Broadway on Feb. 14, 2006, a couple of months after its opening. I was on my trip to see R., and decided that this would be a good way for a single girl to spend Valentine’s Day in NYC.

Sitting 4th-row-center was a wonderful experience. You felt a part of the story. The actors were so close you could almost touch them. One could see all the members of the orchestra. It was a beautiful night.

Anyway…the Broadway production ends its run tomorrow. I feel so blessed to have seen it early in its run. If you didn’t get to see if on Broadway, maybe you can see the traveling show. I highly recommend it.

More On Friendship

In my last post I talked about missing my friend.

I’ve been thinking about friends a lot lately; mainly because I left so many of them behind in St. Louis. And I must confess that I haven’t been the best friend lately. Between moving and starting classes, I haven’t been in contact with any of my friends the way I should be.

I have decided that that will change in the next couple of weeks. Cards and letters and emails shall be going out to those who should have been contacted long before now. Hopefully it will show people that even when out of contact, they are still in my thoughts.

You Gotta Have Friends

I have a friend. Imagine that. Even more astonishing is that I miss my friend. I miss her more right now than I thought I would. This has been an interesting month-and-a-half in my life and while I can talk about what’s going on with other friends of mine, it’s not the same as talking to her. She pestered me until I got myself into this, so she should have to listen to me talk about how much reading I’m doing and how all my papers are due at the same time.

But more importantly, I miss talking to her about the little things. Like the crush I have (which she would think is great). Living in Richmond. How much I miss being around my mother. My plans for a trip to see her at the end of the semester. The little things.

So…..I miss my friend. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to talk to her.

Western Unitarian Conference It Is

My US Church History professor gave her opinion that it would be more in line with what she envisions for my research paper if I do it on the Western Unitarian Conference instead of the split between the Congregationalists and the Unitarians. So now I have to find the primary sources. Who knows, it might involve a trip to Chicago to see what Meadville has in their possession.

What Is Plagiarism?

This is not a political post, merely a question.

In this brohaha over Barack Obama and Deval Patrick using the same lines in speeches the following question has come to mind: what is plagiarism?

I’m asking this because Earlham has a well thought out explanation of what plagiarism is and I’m wondering if speech fits into it? Would what Obama and Patrick are “accused” of doing be considered plagiarism in any academic environment?