Rhetorical Romps

I am taking four classes - Children's Ministry, Daniel, Matthew, and my Hebrew class. I am enjoying them all almost equally in their own contexts, and will likely have different ideas to report at various times. Having taken Hebrew before, I am surprised how many things I still remember, and the resulting space in my mind allows me to delve into it in ways that I could not before. I don't enjoy languages when I'm at the surface level and worrying about memorization-- that's like being versed in musical theory but never having had one's hair raised by a song; or naming every part of the human body, compared to knowing loving touch. It disappoints me that I can't have more immersion, and that further study of it, and other languages, will be up to me when I can find time... possibly after my program. 

I have found it interesting to encounter various direct rebuttals to things I had once "learned" about various New Age and occult claims about the Hebrew letters and language carrying some sort of divinatory secret codes. It's disappointing, really, how easy it is to make things up in the absence of full knowledge, and then mislead genuine seekers. It seems to me that a lot of "spiritual systems" fall into this category; suggesting some sort of "hidden meaning" where common sense would do.

I've recently changed my specialization to something broader, simply to accommodate more exegetical classes, but further language study is not a requirement unless I changed degrees entirely, which would be ill-advised at this time. However, I had the misfortune of someone putting into my head last year (or was it a couple years ago, now?) that I should consider continued study into the post-graduate level. I confess that this had never been an inkling of an aspiration for me, since my generation is the first to step out of trades and unskilled labour, and go to university, period. However, a tentative plan of mine, if this would somehow be financially feasible, would be to work for approximately five years in some sort of ministry, then begin further study on a part-time basis thereafter. Yes, by then I'll be in my early fifties when I've finished, but it is the journey I want, regardless of when I get there. I feel like it would keep things fresh for me, because I don't like feeling like I'm not exploring something. Standard parish ministry could be a death sentence for me without some sort of supplementation, even if it is just writing, for a time. 

Realistically I can't predict the future, and there may be something even more interesting and/or fulfilling in store for me, but I hope that there would at least be a cat in there somewhere, too... The cuddle-deficit I continue to work up in the meantime may mean that I will need two. In the meantime, my after-graduation reading-list is unlikely to get shorter, regardless.