Mohr or Less

I should have grabbed some pictures for today but didn’t have time to think about it until it was too late.

Today was a good day (well, most of it was).

Attended the first faculty/staff chapel at work where my boss introduced me to all 200+ faculty and staff members. He was even kind enough to mention a plug for RFW which caused several faculty members to stop and ask me afterwards about it. Thought that was cool. Sang lots of hymns and said lots of prayers. Ironically enough, I remember at our last church service at Atlee hearing how many think Christians are pushy and quick-to-correct type individuals. I’m not saying Atlee said that; but what was mentioned was that this seems to be the general consensus; strictly an observation, I guess.

I could understand where they’re coming from, being raised as a Lutheran and now working at an Episcopalian school. However, I enjoy working at a place which allows me to explore my spirituality and even encourages it. They’re not getting on me because I’m not attending an Episcopal church. Hell (I said “hell”!), I don’t believe they’d get on me even if I were an atheist. However, if you think about it, even an atheist has a form of religion they practice, don’t they? The religion of not practicing a religion nor having any spiritual beliefs? I guess that’s another debate.

All in all, I felt a little uncomfortable at the first chapel service simply because it reminded me of the church I attended when I was growing up. I remember being surrounding by, what I thought back then, stuffy old people that, I think again, believe if one wasn’t saying “thou” every other word, then obviously you don’t know anything about Christianity and you’re not good enough for our church (I think that’s what our pastor at Atlee was alluding to). It was a very comfortable church, IMHO, and I never really felt accepted there.

Not the case here at St. Catherine’s. Even though I felt a little uncomfortable, I think it was just because it was more “formal” than what I’m used to but that’s just me. Nothing wrong with that, of course. I believe that God loves us all no matter how we worship. I realize that my colleagues and coworkers worship God a little differently than me (hell, perhaps some of them feel the same way I do, even!) and that’s certainly okay! It’ll just take some getting used to for me.

Then, we attended a gathering in the Lower School where we listened to Laura’s (our new Head of School) vision for the future of the school. Very inspirational. I especially enjoy how she realizes and points out that she’s one of the “newbies” as well (as am I and about 25 or 30 others!) but that she also acknowledges that there are quite a few here that have been teaching and/or working here for 25 or 30+ years. I hope to have that kind of job security here!

Went back to the office to find out (this was the “not a such good” part of the day) several of our female faculty members’ purses stolen from our workspace. (Technology had to give up three workspaces for additional faculty members. Progress, I guess.)  What was really disconcerting about this was that we think it was an inside job.  It’s a true shame that we simply cannot trust our peers, especially in a “safe” academic K-12 environment.

Worked on imaging a bunch of Macs in the afternoon then went home and took the kids to the playground while Sha coached the volleyball team.  Then we dropped the kids off at the school’s gym where they had about 25 babysitters watching 40 kids.  I thought that was the coolest thing in that the school had the foresight to realize that faculty and staff who are parents may like to have their kids babysat while it gives them a chance to bond with their colleagues.  Sure worked for us! 

Ended the day on a good note.  Looking forward to tomorrow!

Filed under: Thoughts, Work Stuff by kory