No, the title of this blog doesn't mean anything. That is, I'm not going to write about trains - or best friends. It's just the title of a song off a great Waterboys album. It popped up on my iPod while I was driving back from Houghton yesterday and I thought it would double as a good title for a blog post.
If you're looking for my post about Sarah and her departure for college, that's the previous post. Otherwise, here's something about the trip. (As I listen to my new favorite band, Frontier Ruckus, whose recent recording Deadmalls and Nightfalls, is pretty good.)
Sarah and I left yesterday a little after 5 AM. We had good conversation. I was hoping she would be able to sleep, having stayed up late the night before, packing - but she couldn't, and I understand that. So there was great talk - and a lot of what we did was just listened to her iPod, and various songs led into conversation and memories. Both of us would place The Rural Alberta Advantage (Hometowns) in our top 5 records of all time - so we listened to that. And Josh Rouse. And a Pretenders song that I recently referenced in a sermon ("Nobody's perfect; not even a perfect stranger...."). Etc., etc. She played me a U2 song that was helpful to her over a period of time in her Junior year. And the music was a springboard.
With a half-hour to go before reaching campus, we switched to Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakav -- Sheherazade, and the Russian Easter Overture. We think that that was one of the pieces of music that helped with her interview for the East Meets West program. At the very least, it was part of the conversation, early on in that interview, and was good for calming her nerves in that pivotal conversation.
So we arrived on campus, and I have to say that I just felt good! We went to the building where we always used to go, Admissions. They said, "Great to see you, but we're done with you now. Find your RA at the dorm."
And there to unload the van were a couple of professors, the dean of the chapel, and a few students from the sports team. A great welcome. Not the kind of "servanthood" that I remember from another "Christian" college where I landed on my 18th birthday about 30 years ago. I had expected about an hour of trudging up and down steps, box at a time, elbowing and being elbowed by others. Not at all. Orderly, friendly, efficient, and kind. Good stuff.
I like Sarah's roommate, and her RA. She'll do well. I left, sad but more happy than sad -- glad for where God has placed her. This is a college with strong academics (top 4% of colleges in the country, according to Forbes; upper echelon by Princeton Review and US News), and with a Christian worldview that I love.
Didn't want to be a hovering parent. After lunch (from the vegan food station, though the cheeseburgers two islands down looked good) and a trip to the bookstore, Sarah came back to the van for what I had missed, retrieved her headphones, and we had a brief farewell - and that was it.
If everything else in my world goes to hell - church plant implodes, house burns down, we all get cancer or smashed by a stray airplane, the groundhog in our back yard mutates into a fire-breathing dragon and annihilates us, I forget to use the spell-checker, or whatever - I feel good and grateful about Sarah's start on the world.
Then it was the six hours back home to a different life. And now I'll say goodbye so I can help David Jr. get his stuff moved into the vacated room. If you've just started reading through this blog - it won't always be about Sarah and Houghton. That's just the week I started blogging, so that's what you're getting. No apologies - just FYI.
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