Some Explanation

Right after I posted my last journal comic, I thought about the top one, and I figured I ought to offer a bit of an explanation. This is a blog, afterall, so thoughts I have about important things like community ought to matter. As I was at the UT game, I sat in a section of season ticketholders, since dad has season tickets now (that he got from a friend of my grandparents). I guess the people there had held the same seats for a number of seasons in a row, because they all seemed to know each other. One guy was showing people pictures of his newborn kid, and they spent some time in between plays discussing what happened to them during the off season. At the end they all told each other "see each other next Saturday!"

The thing that struck me as significant was that they were real friendships that didn't exist outside of the football game. They saw each other on home gamedays, but not other times. I just finished reading The Search To Belong and I really resonated with that book when he said that Christians should strive to have healthy relationships publically, socially, personally, AND intimately. I sometimes feel like the church (and the seminary community also) wants me to be BFF's with everyone. I don't want that! Why can't I have a healthy, meaningful PUBLIC relationship with someone? Why can't I just see someone at class and say hey to them and ask them about homework without having to involve them with the rest of my life? I understand that community is a big deal, but community doesn't mean that I have to have the goal of being close personal friends with everybody! The season ticketholder section at the UT game had a great community going, but their interaction was very limited! I have close personal friends, and I have intimate relationships, but not everybody is invited to have those with me. I'm perfectly content with having social and public relationships with everybody else.
In short, I want to have a healthy classroom community this semester, but I will resist any pressure to make it extend beyond that, unless I feel that it's coming naturally in the relationship.