college life

Two excerpts from Boston.com. I think the second is rooted in the first.

REASSESSING CHANGE The Brandeis administration has given in to fierce opposition from professors to a plan that would have made deep cuts in some traditional subjects in order tsave money for new priorities. Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe had proposed giving up the teaching of Ancient Greek, closing the linguistics major and a music doctorate program, and cutting back in physics and Near Eastern and Judaic studies. But a faculty panel said the plan would be seen as ''a radical shift away from the Humanities," and had left professors so demoralized that some wanted to leave.

A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE Does college cause brain damage? That's the question addressed in the current issue of Psychology Today, where writer Steven Kotler examines the neurological effects of poor eating habits, heavy drinking, and late-night cramming sessions on campuses. He cites a Stanford University survey that found 80 percent of undergraduates were sleep-deprived, compromising their memories; a Tufts University study that found most students eat too much saturated fat, found to contribute to cognitive decline; and Harvard's College Alcohol Study, which says 44 percent of students are binge drinkers -- a habit that slowed the growth of new brain cells in rat studies. ''It turns out the place we go to get an education may be one of the worst possible environments in which to retain anything we've learned," Kotler writes

The Last Tempation

Remember that you are dust,

And to dust you shall return

In all time of tribulation;

in all time of prosperity;

in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment

Good Lord, deliver us

We sinners do beseech thee to hear us, O Lord God;

and that it may please thee to rule and govern thy holy Church Universal in the right way,

We beseech Thee to hear us, Good Lord

That it may please thee to illumine all bishops, priests, and deacons,

with true knowledge and understanding of thy Word;

and that both by their preaching and living, they may set it forth, and show it accordingly,

We beseech Thee to hear us, Good Lord

Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.

Hebrews 2:17-18

Nobody was ever tempted more painfully than the Lord Jesus. Sometimes we can think that He must have been less tempted than we because He never gave in, so He was stronger. Any weightlifter can tell you what nonsense that is. When He overcame one temptation, another more powerful temptation came along. He had a body. That body had all the normal physical impulses of the human body. It wanted to eat, sleep, and gain strength. It's hard for the more gnostic among us to understand and accept, but his body had a sexual impulse too. The problem, for example, with The Last Temptation of Christ was not that Jesus was tempted to marry Mary Magdalene. It was that he floated around as though he was not subject to the laws of nature. There is no temptation that any of us have ever felt that Jesus did not feel a hundred times more strongly.

I'm sorry the bishops of the Episcopal church can't understand that. May the Lord Christ illumine them.

The Last Tempation

Remember that you are dust,

And to dust you shall return

In all time of tribulation;

in all time of prosperity;

in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment

Good Lord, deliver us

We sinners do beseech thee to hear us, O Lord God;

and that it may please thee to rule and govern thy holy Church Universal in the right way,

We beseech Thee to hear us, Good Lord

That it may please thee to illumine all bishops, priests, and deacons,

with true knowledge and understanding of thy Word;

and that both by their preaching and living, they may set it forth, and show it accordingly,

We beseech Thee to hear us, Good Lord

Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.

Hebrews 2:17-18

Nobody was ever tempted more painfully than the Lord Jesus. Sometimes we can think that He must have been less tempted than we because He never gave in, so He was stronger. Any weightlifter can tell you what nonsense that is. When He overcame one temptation, another more powerful temptation came along. He had a body. That body had all the normal physical impulses of the human body. It wanted to eat, sleep, and gain strength. It's hard for the more gnostic among us to understand and accept, but his body had a sexual impulse too. The problem, for example, with The Last Temptation of Christ was not that Jesus was tempted to marry Mary Magdalene. It was that he floated around as though he was not subject to the laws of nature. There is no temptation that any of us have ever felt that Jesus did not feel a hundred times more strongly.

I'm sorry the bishops of the Episcopal church can't understand that. May the Lord Christ illumine them.