Happy New Year

Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,
labuntur anni...

-Horace, Odes 2.14

Happy New Year from all of us here at the Sacred and the Profane. (Well, I guess that's just me.) I find myself back at school on the eve of what promises to be an interesting Winter Study, my last at Williams. As of this morning, I am taking a class called Aikido and Ethics, for which I had previously signed up but didn't get into; I got an email today informing me that a spot had opened up, so I took it as a sign. I still hope to sit in on J.R.R. Tolkien, Middle Earth, and Modern Medievalism which is what I had been registered for. The latter is of course a bit more up my alley, but the Aikido class looked like a good opportunity to try something I'd probably never otherwise do, so I'm glad I got the chance to take it after all. We'll see how it works out.

Of course, this adds up to a somewhat busier schedule than I had anticipated. I'm also hoping to teach two courses in the "Free University" offered this month: "Introduction to Gregorian Chant" (co-taught with a professor in the PoliSci department) and "Is Latin Dead?", a quick (and hopefully entertaining) intro to the basics of the Latin language for anyone curious enough to sign up. I tried to offer the chant class last year and got a good number of signups, but unfortunately lost my voice for the entire month (I could talk, but not sing) and had to call the class off. I'm hoping for better luck this time.

Then, of course, there are the traditional Winter Study pastimes of sledding (and snow bocce, the most fun you'll ever have with a dining hall tray) and watching movies. Williams Catholic is also fielding (rinking?) a broomball team at my instigation, making our debut on the ice tomorrow night. After tossing out names from "The Ice Crusades" and "The Spanish Inquisition" (nobody expects them) to "Corporal Mortification" and "The Council of Trent" we settled on "The Papal Bulls". Yes, my principal motive in forming a team was to come up with as many wildly inappopriate names as possible. But the broomball part should be fun too.

And so it begins! Further updates as events warrant.