A is for Academia

The following conversations took place on Sunday, as I helped my husband revise his term paper.

Trust, Justice, and the American Way

Me: Take out this comma.

Husband (with sudden vehemence): I like the Oxford comma!

Me (startled): Oh. Okay. Well, are your professors okay with it? If they don’t mind then leave it in.

Husband: Well I’ve never been corrected before.

Me (with gathering courage): Fine. Use the Oxford comma. If you want to be un-American.

UPDATE: Today I am pleased to reassure you all that my husband is patriotic, after all. In researching for this post, I discovered that I was gravely misinformed about the Oxford comma!!! (It's because I'm a communications professional.) It turns out Americans love the Oxford comma. In fact, it's the non-Oxford Brits who disdain the Oxford comma, and journalism/communications professionals everywhere.

Well, the point is the Oxford comma is a big deal, people. Everyone is talking about it. It has a Wikipedia page, a recent NPR article, and even a song.

Isn't she lovely?

Me: I think what you're saying is, the fact that these societies created female icons didn't mean that they started to respect women.

Husband: Yes.

Me: The men still treated the women any way they wanted, but they sort of justified it by making these glorified female images, to give the impression that they respected women.

Husband: Yes.

Me: So the men could say, "See? We love women!... That's why we... make them scrub the floor naked."

Husband: ...more or less.

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My friend Alysha is a seminary student, and this semester she studied ancient Greek. (Learning ancient Greek is just like learning any other language, with lots of flashcards, only a billion times harder.) Alysha is seriously awesome, but we are pretty sure she is not so awesome that she will grow up to be a missionary to ancient Greeks. Which is why we ended up emailing back and forth about this survey she had to take. (Alysha's comments are blue, mine are red.)

In relation to this class, I made significant progress in:

1) Critical thinking  Before, I sucked at thinking. Now I am awesome!!!

7) Cultivating sensitivities and skills needed for cross-cultural relationships Uhhh.... what? Now I realize I used to be racist against ancient Greeks. 

10) Enriching my creative capacities Really? Since when do they care about this?

11) Reflecting theologically on the implications of this course for my practice of ministry This would make more sense for almost any other class I've taken

12) Integrating the study of scripture, theology, and ethics at a personal level  Verb conjugation is like an out of body experience.

13) Shaping my personal values, standards, or disciplines Yes. I now value biblical Greek less, because it is annoying 

14) Functioning well in interpersonal relationships Im gr8t @ txt ancients

15) Responding to emotional, spiritual, or interpersonal problems I know exactly what you're going through. You know what helped me? This textbook of ancient Greek.

16) Responding to organizational, community, and societal problems Teach ancient Greek in schools!!!!!