What Am I Up To Here?

I don't really know....I'm sure people get sick of all the new bloggers' postings, rambling on and on about their lack of direction...blah blah...

What do I want to talk about here? Well, first off, if you want to start conversing, it's always fun to be told that I can't be something. You'll see in my profile that while I'm obviously not simply the composite of my various commitments/hobbies/identifications, I do have what might be called a slightly-fractured identity. I'm afraid that some of those postmoderny paloompas might be on to something there. But it's always fun to be told that I can't be A and B, not because I like getting into fights with people, but because it gives me a chance to explain and tell the story of how I am A and B. How I'm a committed Catholic Christian in academia. How I'm a gay man with a partner yet still work at my parish every Sunday. How I can enjoy the aesthetic subtleties of the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum (where I was yesterday as a bit of break from my work) as well as the more subtle artistic merit of particularly trashy, capitalist/Orientalist reality television. But I'd much rather tell my story than get into an argument (and either of those is to be preferred to simple contradiction), and I think I have some interesting stories to tell sometimes.

In many ways, I think of this as a possibility of preaching without having canonical rights to a pulpit (a reworking of St. Francis: "Preach always; when necessary, use blogs....). That may sometimes include the readings of the day from the Catholic lectionary or the Liturgy of the Hours (morning and evening prayer), but might also include Augustine-like commentary on whatever texts, written, narrative, or otherwise, where I think I might have some insight into where God is at work in the world, screwing up our plans again to remind us about Her. So...caveat lector, and enjoy the ride.