happy st. patrick’s day! since i’m irish, and since there was no ‘protestant/roman catholic’ separation back in patrick’s day, i celebrate the holiday by being mindful of the way my heritage has shaped me > my poetry, my music, my flights of fantasy, and my spirituality all come from my celtic (and particularly my irish) roots. for a long time my gran hid the fact that we were as much irish as english from us, for she felt ashamed of being irish! imagine that! how horridly sad to be ashamed of your own lineage, especially one as rich as that… we are of the hughes clan from donegal…
we are on break from school, which will end tomorrow > monday it’s back to the grind! i don’t see how it’s break, however, since i have a midterm to write, a midterm to study for, a paper that is past due, and 10 proverbs to memorize…
i had thought that i was done with all of the judgement that accompanies performance reviews in the secular world… i hated them so so so much, since they usually seemed more a way to justify denying you a raise than giving you one. at the beginning of my tenure (at any of the jobs i held) my performance was always judged to be ‘exemplary’, with corresponding pay raises etc. after a while, however, it seemed that i would hit the top of the scale they wanted to pay for my position, but instead of telling me that, they would say that i failed to perform adequately in some relatively minor (and usually indisputable) fashion, and hold my salary constant for a year or more.
now, this past tuesday, i had my Middler Evaluation, which is a gigantic milestone in our Process. it involves meeting with your academic advisor and answering questions about your spiritual maturity, your personal piety, your demonstrated (not just professed) commitment to peace and social justice, your ability to lead worship, your leadership potential (as demonstrated by your interactions with peers), your academic ability, your ability to keep to deadlines, plus your ability to integrate all of this into your life. once your advisor draws up your report, (s)he then submits it for ratification at a faculty meeting and everyone has a go at it. then what they decide on goes back to your diocese. this can have a profound effect on your candidacy, which is the next designation in our ordination track.
right now i am a postulant. i have my candidacy interviews in mid-May, and part of those interviews will be based on what is said during my middler eval. so this is more important than a performance review since that would be just my pay > this is for my even being allowed to continue towards ordination.
i think it went well. but how do you prove your commitment to peace and social justice? you could join ten million groups but that could be just for show… so what i pointed to was this blog, and how we talk about inclusion and fairness and justice on here…
but it was weird to have my advisor log on to read this…
