Mid-Winter Convochaos

It's mid-winter people, and time for the Luther Seminary Homecoming...um, I mean...Convocation. Really, it seems to be a wonderful event. Clergy and alumni from the area and around the country return to Minnesota during the most miserable time of the year. This year's speakers are the wonderful Walter Brueggemann and Terry Fretheim. In addition, Luther Seminary faculty lead daily workshops (which sound pretty fantastic) and this year brought author Greg Mortenson to speak one evening. There are reunions of old friends, lingering conversations, shared meals, corporate worship, the chance to digest all the keynote speakers say, and seemingly hundreds of Norwegian sweaters.

As a student working part-time and committed to class in the afternoons, my experience of Convocation has been primarily chaos. My participation as a student has been by struggling to find parking spaces, followed by the involuntary watering of eyes (it is REALLY cold) in walking from my parking spot, the desperation of finding a seat in the cafeteria (it felt a little bit like middle school), and the unfortunate discovery of cars being towed around campus because of a "winter emergency." All these contribute to this sense of chaos around a big and popular event for those visiting.

I did have a nice bowl of soup and a lovely chat with a Pastor Duane during lunch. I think Convocation, sadly, will be a much more enjoyable event once I've graduated.