The Woodrow Wilson School

The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs is Princeton’s government and international relations department, and it is one of the best in the nation. I had my first class there this past Tuesday – African Development and Policy. Within the first 30 minutes of this 3 hour long seminar I could tell I was going to LOVE this course. We will be studying several facets of development and policy work in Africa – some of it’s history, the progression of economic development theories in Africa, the pros and cons of various governmental and NGO programs that have been enacted in Africa, geographical challenges in this continent, varying governmental situations in Africa, and more. Each week the seminar will address and attack a particular challenge, and then analyze alternative diagnoses and responses.

As much as I am excited I am also somewhat nervous. Most students in the class are in the second year of the M.P.A. or M.P.P. programs (Master’s in Public Affairs and Master’s in Public Policy), which means they have already taken an economics sequence and various other courses in policy and development. Most of the other students either grew up in a foreign country, or have done a fair amount of volunteer and development work in Africa. The professor has spent years working and researching in/on/about Africa. What this all amounts to is that I will be a very humble learner for the semester, soaking in the experiences and knowledge of my professor and my peers. And I am completely grateful for this opportunity – I feel as though this course has breathed new energy and excitement into my learning. My other courses at the seminary are all wonderful, but this course is entirely different and engages my interest in international development in a professional environment that I’ve never experienced before. I am eagerly praying for God’s wisdom and guidance as I learn from the reading material, the people, and the discussions in this course. Perhaps God will use this opportunity to guide my future vocational trajectory.

Professor Brower

All entering students at Princeton Seminary are required to take a year of speech as part of our program. I was somehow lucky enough to land in a section with Professor Brower, who is a wonderful and dear and spunky older man that spent his days on the stages of New York City. He was a professional actor all his life, working in live theater, teaching drama, was featured in a few television shows, and even did a live performance with Frank Sinatra. Professor Brower very quickly won the hearts of my classmates with his 1950's class and charisma, witty banter, diatribes against modern art, and stories of a bygone era.

While other speech classes spent time on newfangled speech techniques, assessed video recordings of their speeches, practiced rolling Rrrr's and whatever else (this was the unfortunate lot of James), my class spent time reading Shakespeare and Auden and Blake and other classic pieces of beautiful prose. And we got to listen to Professor Brower's commentary on all these pieces of art, commentary that brought to life snippets of imagery and emotions and sensations I never would have elicited on my own. His commentary had such a unique humor to it as well - here's a typical Brower line: "Oh, Brower, you say, that's enough rambling about Auden. Well, so what! I'm the teacher, and I know about Auden, so you're going to hear about Auden for a few more minutes. Just relax!"

I stumbled upon a letter Professor Brower sent to everyone in our class towards the end of last year, and it was very inspiring to me in this moment as I seek to begin a new school year filled with vigor and energy and praise. As today was my first day of classes, I realize that I'll miss having Professor Brower once a week. But perhaps if I e-mail him he'll invite me over for tea and to view his art collection. Here is the poem he put in his letter:

In Memory of W. B. Yeats by W. H. Auden

"Follow, poet, Follow Right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice;

With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;

In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise."

To Summer and to Crosswinds

To Summer by William Blake

"O thou who passest thro' our valleys in

Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat

That flames from their large nostrils! thou, O Summer,

Oft pitched'st here thy goldent tent, and oft

Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld

With joy thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair.

Beneath our thickest shades we oft have heard

Thy voice, when noon upon his fervid car

Rode o'er the deep of heaven; beside our springs

Sit down, and in our mossy valleys, on

Some bank beside a river clear, throw thy

Silk draperies off, and rush into the stream:

Our valleys love the Summer in his pride.

Our bards are fam'd who strike the silver wire:

Our youth are bolder than the southern swains:

Our maidens fairer in the sprightly dance:

We lack not songs, nor instruments of joy,

Nor echoes sweet, nor waters clear as heaven,

Nor laurel wreaths against the sultry heat."

This summer was hot, long, humid, fast, exploratory, different, robust, dull, and all sorts of other contradictions. I don't quite know what to make of it yet...it still seems like a vast whirlwind. But the two highlights of the summer were going home, and upon our return going to the Poconos in Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend. Whatever the rest of the summer was, these four days were deliciously slow and enjoyable. Our friends at the Seminary, Becca and Matt Puffer, invited a group of us to stay at Becca's family vacation home - Crosswinds. And it was PERFECT. The home was old and large and charming; there was plenty of space inside to eat and play games and sit by the fire and drink. And there was plenty of porch space outside to lounge on wicker chairs or the porch swing or the hammock. The dock on the lake provided rays of sunshine and a launch pad for swimming, rowing, kayaking, and lounging on the mega station.

Matt and Becca had the weekend planned out so well - they had prepared a food menu for the weekend and had done all the grocery shopping beforehand. So we were well stocked with delicious and fresh food to feast upon. Blake's poem above made me think of this weekend - "with joy thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair." We all had ruddy limbs and flourishing hair after having been lavished by summer's lazy and opulent rays all weekend. It was glorious.



Matt, Adam, James and Matt sternly focused on a game of bocce golf, while Kristine, Becca, me and Alison pose after our rather whistful game of croquet.

James, Alison, and Becca focused on words.






Lounging on the Mega Station!

Musings on the Family

"The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family." - Thomas Jefferson



"As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live." - Pope John Paul II

The older I grow, the more and more I realize that the family is a precious gift from God. Unlike friendships, which have merits of their own, the family is an immediate and timeless bond, a connection rooted in ancient history and also in the generations to come. But the real blessing of a family is not its timelessness, but rather the ways in which its timelessness creates an immanent connection in the present. There is something entirely unique about the family unit in comparison to all other relationships we encounter. One is born into a family and grows and blossoms within this unit; a unit where all members share the same foundational ebbs and flows, the same familial joys and struggles, the same wonders and disappointments. The members of a family most often know the quirks and virtues and vices of one another better than any “outsider,” knowledge that can only be developed from those most personal and reliant interactions that occur within a home.

There are dozens of ways in which a family can develop, and each family has its own story. Some families become worn-down and broken by the difficulties in life. Rather than pulling each other up through the courageous road of commitment, family members become frustrated by one another and pull apart from that precious family unit. Some families become ripped apart by philosophical or religious or social differences. But a complete break-down in the family unit is rare precisely because the family unit is so naturally connected to begin with. God began the story of humanity within the context of a family, and although the family unit has been fraught with sin and disappointment from the start, so also was it the very building blocks in which societies were built. God did not want Adam to live alone, and so it was his gift to the singular “self” that he be joined within the tightly woven relational bonds of a family. The family is a magical and mysterious and beautiful thing, and I am immensely grateful to God for this precious gift of natural relationships.

Taking seriously this gift of family is no easy task, and it requires great responsibility, commitment, compassion, and patience. I must demonstrate these virtues to my family members, and I know they have demonstrated these virtues to me time and again. And if family units are the building blocks of society, then the more accomplished family units are in demonstrating these virtues, the more accomplished societies will be in demonstrating these virtues. Pope John Paul II was spot on when he claimed that as “the family” functions, so functions the nation and the rest of the world. There are so many societal issues that stem from the breakdown of the family unit, and for as many public discussions there are regarding “Democrats” or “Republicans” or “socialists” or “capitalists,” I wish there was as much time or thought targeted towards the stabilizing and pivotal roles that families should play.

All that being said, James and I had a fabulous time being home with our families. And although they aren’t perfect, God has granted us the blessing of wonderful and considerate and gracious and generous family members…people that continue to teach us and to mold us and encourage us as we grow 3000 miles away from home.