Just Keep Swimming Archives
“White Savior Barbie,” Not me!
Posted on October 25, 2019 Leave a Comment
I really love my seminary, the McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University. Faculty and staff there are committed to issues of justice and spiritual growth. It is also a place where only about 45% of the students are white. I want to support a place like that and more important, learn from the variety of […]
Giving Account of Oneself
Posted on January 14, 2014 1 Comment
All my brainiac friends don’t get excited. This ain’t about Judith Butler. There is one part of being a professor that I actually don’t mind: the annual review process. I also enjoyed (!) the Tenure & Promotion process a few years ago, which is very similar, just a little bit higher stakes. Am I a […]
On Writing, Part 2: The Sabbatical Begins
Posted on January 14, 2014 1 Comment
A sabbatical is a powerful thing. At my university, they aren’t actually called sabbaticals; They are “Enhanced Faculty Leave.” They are competitive, awarded based on a research proposal. At universities that honor the writing processes of its faculty, sabbaticals are given about once every six or seven years. Sabbaticals, not Enhanced Faculty Leave. Why can’t […]
Recovering from Fundamentalism, Part 1
Posted on January 12, 2014 Leave a Comment
One of my friends is, like me, a recovering fundamentalist Christian. She suggested that I might get to the root of my issues, whether about relationships, teaching, or writing–whatever–by forgiving myself. It took a recovering fundamentalist to recognize that and present it in that way. The closest I ever got thinking about forgiveness was when […]
On Writing, Part 1: Friends and Me
Posted on January 10, 2014 1 Comment
I have lately begun surrounding myself with friends who are either Sagittarius or who have backgrounds in a counseling or therapy profession, or both. I did not start out to purposefully do this, but once I noticed that I seemed to be collecting these kinds of people for friends, I kept keeping track. Now, It is […]
Elvis and Me
Posted on January 8, 2014 1 Comment
Today, January 8, is Elvis’s birthday. He would have been 79 years old, which seems astonishing to me. So on this day, I will offer some random thoughts about Elvis and me. Because of those various threads that run through one’s life from age to age, stage to stage, place to place, Elvis runs through […]
Getting Happy
Posted on August 2, 2012 Leave a Comment
Somebody I used to know once told me she thought happiness was overrated. I’ve thought about that statement for going on a dozen years now, and I think she was wrong. Well, I think she was talking about pleasure, about following one’s desire, about gratification–and all of these are different from happiness. Not only is […]
Alabama the ("Your word here")
Posted on March 5, 2012 Leave a Comment
Since I decided that my next project would be a place study on my Country South by storying my great-grandmother Jeffreys’ life, I’ve been doing a lot of reading about Alabama, my state. One book, Dixie’s Forgotten People, by Alabama native and Auburn professor (I can forgive him for that) Wayne Flint, is what I […]
The Oldest (Writing) Trick in the World
Posted on January 17, 2012 Leave a Comment
I would bet money that the “oldest (writing assignment) trick in the world” was invented by a high school boy. The kind that ends up a radio show morning dj who, along with one or two other sidekicks–including a woman who is usually the brunt of the sexual joking–fills the a.m. work traffic airwaves with […]
