...I spent so long typing this that I may have to skip fencing to prep for the algebra test.
Thanks to all the people who commented on my last entry- I actually didn't read the comments until after I had handed in my question, but I am pleased to learn I wasn't totally off-track. I ended up going with this:
The Old Testament God is different from many other gods we’ve read about (such as Zeus, for example) because he was not generated and has no family. For what reasons or motivations would he ever have a child, either a wholly divine one or one created partially from humans? Why would a detached creator god start personally generating?
If it was for some purpose (as it seems to be in the New Testament), why can a part-human, or even wholly human, child do what God's chosen people and prophets cannot? Why does God's connection with humans, the Kingdom of Heaven, require everyone's children, including his?
It's still kind of messy but at least I have a word I can repeat over and over again. I dunno. I'm not going to think about it again until closer to my oral date.
I missed the singing half of long music today because in all the brouhaha yesterday (and also the oral-question stress, and the not-getting-enough-sleep-over parent's weekend, and the having-absolutely-no-confidence-in-greek-class thing) I forgot that today was Wednesday. I set my alarm last night thinking, "ah, I have music tomorrow, music is at 10:20, so I can set my alarm for 8:50, hit snooze a few times, eat breakfast in my room, and do some last-minute music prep before class" and did so, until I realized at about 10:00 am today that, hey, today is Wednesday and class started an hour ago. So I ran down to Mellon and caught Mr. Kalkavage halfway between the conversation room and our music room, since the singing part of long music had just finished, and apologized profusely and probably started tearing up because he'd recently bitched out the class for having so many absences (admittedly, he was mostly looking at Mr. Sietel when he said that, as Mr. Sietel has been attending 3 or 4 classes per week- to put that in perspective, we have 11 classes each week). Mr. Kalkavage told me not to worry, and that he had something to say that would make me feel better; turns out he really liked my music paper, and thought it was excellent, and wants me to print him out another copy so he can pass it around when the music tutors have their archon meeting. :D So I don't think he hates me forever.
Also I failed rather spectacularly in Language today, as I was sort of volunteered into translating, which means reading the greek aloud. I am terrible at this. It takes me forever to sound out words because I have to remember what sound each letter makes, and sometimes I can't remember that, like in the case of "the little squiggly ones". (I am quoting myself.) In this case, it was a zeta. I can't remember this, especially when I'm put on the spot. So I have to stop, and ask the class what "the little squiggly one" is. Way to sound competent, Kelly. And I translate by going through the greek and looking for the little words I know, and then I hit the lexicon and flip through my flashcards/paradigm charts, and it takes me 3 hours and is incredibly disconnected, because I just parse in whatever order I feel like, and not as a whole. So often the first time I look at the sentence as a whole is after I've parsed everything, and I don't know grammar anyway, so it's just stringing words together in whatever order seems halfway sensical. I have no sense of the rhythm of the actual language or anything.
Mr. Monteiro actually took me aside after class and asked if I ever wanted to practice reading the greek aloud or translate with him, since it was clear I didn't have confidence in my ability even though I obviously tried really hard, and working with someone else might help, both with confidence and with actual learning. I accepted, and we're going to work together around 8 this evening. I'm a little nervous because I'm INCREDIBLY slow with greek, and I'm afraid he's going to inadvertantly end up translating everything and then I'll feel guilty, but I've never actually translated in a group precisely because I've been afraid of that happening, so maybe it won't and I'm just worrying too much.
Blaaaagh. As soon as I feel like I'm on top of some part of my schoolwork, I worry about staying there, or improving in some other part- I can't rest on my laurels, because then I'll lose everything. And I always feel like I should be trying harder and spending more time on things, but I can't do that for everything at the same time, or I'll explode.
The Old Testament God is different from many other gods we’ve read about (such as Zeus, for example) because he was not generated and has no family. For what reasons or motivations would he ever have a child, either a wholly divine one or one created partially from humans? Why would a detached creator god start personally generating?
If it was for some purpose (as it seems to be in the New Testament), why can a part-human, or even wholly human, child do what God's chosen people and prophets cannot? Why does God's connection with humans, the Kingdom of Heaven, require everyone's children, including his?
It's still kind of messy but at least I have a word I can repeat over and over again. I dunno. I'm not going to think about it again until closer to my oral date.
I missed the singing half of long music today because in all the brouhaha yesterday (and also the oral-question stress, and the not-getting-enough-sleep-over parent's weekend, and the having-absolutely-no-confidence-in-greek-class thing) I forgot that today was Wednesday. I set my alarm last night thinking, "ah, I have music tomorrow, music is at 10:20, so I can set my alarm for 8:50, hit snooze a few times, eat breakfast in my room, and do some last-minute music prep before class" and did so, until I realized at about 10:00 am today that, hey, today is Wednesday and class started an hour ago. So I ran down to Mellon and caught Mr. Kalkavage halfway between the conversation room and our music room, since the singing part of long music had just finished, and apologized profusely and probably started tearing up because he'd recently bitched out the class for having so many absences (admittedly, he was mostly looking at Mr. Sietel when he said that, as Mr. Sietel has been attending 3 or 4 classes per week- to put that in perspective, we have 11 classes each week). Mr. Kalkavage told me not to worry, and that he had something to say that would make me feel better; turns out he really liked my music paper, and thought it was excellent, and wants me to print him out another copy so he can pass it around when the music tutors have their archon meeting. :D So I don't think he hates me forever.
Also I failed rather spectacularly in Language today, as I was sort of volunteered into translating, which means reading the greek aloud. I am terrible at this. It takes me forever to sound out words because I have to remember what sound each letter makes, and sometimes I can't remember that, like in the case of "the little squiggly ones". (I am quoting myself.) In this case, it was a zeta. I can't remember this, especially when I'm put on the spot. So I have to stop, and ask the class what "the little squiggly one" is. Way to sound competent, Kelly. And I translate by going through the greek and looking for the little words I know, and then I hit the lexicon and flip through my flashcards/paradigm charts, and it takes me 3 hours and is incredibly disconnected, because I just parse in whatever order I feel like, and not as a whole. So often the first time I look at the sentence as a whole is after I've parsed everything, and I don't know grammar anyway, so it's just stringing words together in whatever order seems halfway sensical. I have no sense of the rhythm of the actual language or anything.
Mr. Monteiro actually took me aside after class and asked if I ever wanted to practice reading the greek aloud or translate with him, since it was clear I didn't have confidence in my ability even though I obviously tried really hard, and working with someone else might help, both with confidence and with actual learning. I accepted, and we're going to work together around 8 this evening. I'm a little nervous because I'm INCREDIBLY slow with greek, and I'm afraid he's going to inadvertantly end up translating everything and then I'll feel guilty, but I've never actually translated in a group precisely because I've been afraid of that happening, so maybe it won't and I'm just worrying too much.
Blaaaagh. As soon as I feel like I'm on top of some part of my schoolwork, I worry about staying there, or improving in some other part- I can't rest on my laurels, because then I'll lose everything. And I always feel like I should be trying harder and spending more time on things, but I can't do that for everything at the same time, or I'll explode.