The Week Of Great Chemistry Upheaval has come and gone. It was really only one day, not the whole week - I only almost cried once and actually cried once, and then it was over. As Papa said: Get through it and then shrug it off. It won't happen again - not exactly this way - and that's a comfort. There's something about being undone that makes God a whole lot closer. I found that coming out of Spring Break - even driving somewhere, I had to think about the goodness and sovereignty of God to keep myself from sulking or sobbing.
One nice result of the Great Chemistry Upheaval is I have sort of given up setting any sort of stock in my abilities. I'm still trying and doing all the work I can, but there's not the sense of 'I can still do this!' that really makes it nasty. And it was funny - the root of the soreness here is that I am working hard, and I've only been working harder and harder as time gets on with no results for my work. Crying over chemistry turned out to be convicting because similar to my fruitless work for good chemistry scores is my fruitless work for good Holiness scores. It seems rather pathetic to cry over something so insignificant in comparison when the big, horrible falling-shorts so rarely give me pain.
Apart from the Great Chemistry Upheaval, things are going rather well. Chemistry is actually chugging along rather nicely. I left out a theta by sheer stupidity on a Greek quiz this last week and cost myself several marks. I'm still tempted to self-flagellate over that. (I knew it was right...) We got to read the cheerful story of Xerxes and the Helmsman from Herodotus today: basically, they get caught in a storm on the ship and the helmsman says that if Xerxes wants to save himself, all the Persian soldiers traveling with Xerxes have to jump overboard to lighten the ship. So Xerxes gives a grandiose "now is your chance to prove your love for me!" speech and all the marines go in the drink. Upon reaching land Xerxes puts a crown of gold on the helmsman's head for saving his king's life and then chops the newly-crowned head off for the loss of his soldiers.
Pssh. Persians are such persnickety things. But I suppose at least his head got to wear a crown when it was on the platter...
Dance - I've hurt my silly right foot. It's been a little lame ever since spring break - hard to put all my weight on it by itself - and then today during the plethora of rocks in Garden of Daisies it sort of crumbled and I sat down (more of a sitting than a fall) and felt very pathetic indeed. It doesn't hurt like a sprain or a break; it's just bad. Mehh.
Tomorrow: calling around for summer stuff, finishing up taxes, and homework homework homework.
I'm preparing a Bible Study on John 11 for Sunday. It's been lovely, especially this week when I've needed Perspective. What's one pathetic exam score to Christ, the Resurrection and the Life?
Now: work. I'm off.
Persians are *extremely* amusing to read about, as I recall. Wasn't it a Persian who commanded the ocean to stop putting waves up on the shore because he didn't like it? Egyptians are pretty good craic, too. Until our intense Honors professor decided to quiz us on ALL the names--! I think I got a 2/10 on that one. Ugh.
I don't know if this is the one you're thinking about, but last semester we read about Xerxes and how he built a bridge over the Hellespont. A storm came and blew it down. He got so mad he had a bunch of his men beat the water with three hundred blows ("THAT'll teach it!"). Then he cut off all his overseers' heads and appointed new overseers to rebuild it. Yeah, Persians are fun stuff.