Interviews

Things are going well, just busy trying to meet my self-imposed deadline for a very rough draft of my dissertation (this Friday) and finishing things up for a paper (due the 14th).

I was rejected by one of the two positions I applied for and have not heard from the other. I just found out that I will be interviewed on Wednesday for a position that I thought I had been rejected for. I'm thankful for the opportunity but also numb--even if I get a job offer if my dissertation isn't done in time then it won't matter as all the jobs I applied for require a phd in hand.

The mission of the historian

In order to relax before the San Diego conference I did what historians did, I studied history. Specifically I was looking at the history of the Eugenics movement and was reading through tha great journalist G.K. Chesterton's "Eugenics and Other Evils." It is really Chesterton at his best, attacking Eugenics a set of ideas that was humanity at its worst in that it declared war upon the weak. In the second to last chapter Chesterton had this to say, and it struck me as how much it is like what I understand my role as a Christian historian to be:

"Ours is not the sort of protest, at least, that promises anything even to the demagogue, let alone the sycophant. Those we serve will never rule, and those we pity will never rise. Parliament will never be surrounded by a mob of submerged grandmothers brandishing pawn-tickets. There is no trade union of defective children. It is not very probable that modern government will be overturned by a few poor dingy devils who are sent to prison by mistake, or rather by ordinary accident. Surely it is not for those magnificent Socialists, or those great reformers and reconstructors of Capitalism, sweeping onward to their scientific triumphs and caring for none of these things, to murmur at our vain indignation. At least if it is vain it is the less venal; and in so far as it is hopeless it is also thankless. They have their great campaigns and cosmopolitan systems for the regimentation of millions, and the records of science and progress. They need not be angry with us, who plead for those who will never read our words or reward our effort, even with gratitude. They need surely have no worse mood towards us than mystification, seeing that in recalling these small things of broken hearts or homes, we are but recording what cannot be recorded; trivial tragedies that will fade faster and faster in the flux of time, cries that fail in a furious and infinite wind, wild words of despair that are written only upon running water; unless, indeed, as some so stubbornly and strangely say, they are somewhere cut deep into a rock, in the red granite of the wrath of God.

Sledding

While I was in San Diego dad drug David around on a sled.

Made it back

I made it back from San Diego. I was very fortunate as I almost didn't make it there on time because of the snow. My two interviews went well now I just need to wait. I should hear back from them in two to three weeks. Thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts!

Happy New Year and Prayer Request

I've been really busy with the holidays, my dissertation, and preparing for my job interviews at the conference. I still have more to do so this will be a really short entry. I'll interview on January 8th (Friday) and January 9th at 9:00am and 9:30am San Diego time respectively. Please keep me in your prayers and that God will put me where he needs me.

I hope and pray everyone has a wonderful New Year!