Oklahoma

I feel GREAT! I'm home after what feels like endless weeks, but in actuality has only been six days. I'm so content with my life at this moment I could burst...

I plan to do a number of posts about what I've learned on this trip, but first, here are some of my favorite quotes and photos:

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From a middle school student paper, carefully saved by my dad:

"Mr. Chase is such a weird old man. UGH! I don't want to be old!" My father's response to this writer: "If you don't plan to be old, you have mighty few options."

Photos of my dad:
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From S., an awesome and clever professor at Oklahoma Baptist University and wife of an old friend:

Me: "It's really disappointing when students don't take you up on extra credit assignments, but they have their own agency. They can make their own choices."

S: "My students can't make their own choices. Most of them are Calvinists."

[If you don't get it, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination]

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Quote on S.'s office wall, from a modern edition of the Bible: "Those who are wise will be revealed by their speech, but the stupid will be beaten with sticks".

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Also from S.: "I have actually had a student take several days of medical absence due to injuries sustained from dragging a bathtub behind a car."

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Phyllis, on Oklahomans in general: "Football is our religion. Weather is our hobby."

Photos of Phyllis and her daughter Gina:
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Dorothy, describing the struggles of the small Unitarian Pagan group she just inherited: "We're from Oklahoma, where all the streets run in planned sections from north to south and east to west. OF COURSE we can find north. We just can't remember what it's associated with or what to do with it."

Assorted pictures from my trip:
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