This morning marks my sweetheart’s birthday, on which we might (one imagines) devise some indulgence to celebrate; but this year she has had the opportunity to devote more time to her teaching, and today her Moral Theology class meets, so we will wait till the evening to meet at a local Mexican restaurant (actually a good menu — we’ve been before, and it’s not just British localised Mexican-lite) with Abingdon friends.
She’s a remarkable teacher, deeply dedicated to painstakingly detailed preparation, and constantly strategising to engage students with a view toward their deepening their appreciation of the weighty ethical matters that will certainly bear on their ministry (and negotiating the tricky technological and administrative currents of part-time teaching in the twenty-first century). I do love and cherish her, and I think of her every time I meet with pre-wedding couples or lead them through their marriage vows.
The day began, though, with an excellent morning run, a new post-holiday personal best. It felt good all the way through, reminding me of the late Pirates’ announcer Bob Prince whose catchphrase after every victorious game, no matter how precarious, was ‘We had ’em all the way!’ Coffee and fruit, pleasant shower, Morning Prayer, stop back at home to help Margaret with the printer and the catch on the zipper of her boot, public office hours at R&R, and eventually home to finish my Ministry Development Report.