The Adventures of Miss Canada in St. Louis: Wearing a Short Skirt in the Show Me State
Greetings from the land of the theological conference! My flights went well, and I was greeted by a marvelously affable driver from South Carolina, so my accent metre went off the chart from the beginning. While being driven to Eden Theological Seminary (which, despite its name and charm, is not heaven on earth) I took pleasure in the Missouri license plates which reminded me that Missouri is the "Show-Me State". Is it just me, or does that motto conjure up images of strippers and peep shows? And currently I am showing more leg (in public at least) than I have all year, what with the short skirt and all.
It's been a bit overwhelming so far -- the schedule is very busy and I'm somewhat tired (although I slept well last night). Also, I haven't really connnected with anyone here, probably due to some introversion and apathy towards meeting new people on my part. Also probably because there are only three Canadians here, and all the unconscious Americanisms weary me (overhead bit of conversation at breakfast: "It was a big deal for me to realize that Jesus wasn't an American!") However, due to some questions I asked, Melissa, the director of the conference has dubbed me "Miss Canada". I don't mind too much though -- I find myself being fiercely patriotic here, and have accepted my role by putting a Canadian flag keychain on my obligatory FTE (Fund for Theological Education -- the folks putting on this shindig) totebag.
As for the theology itself, I'm happy to find that most of these people are not scary -- in fact they share much of my theology. To give you two quick illustrations: one speaker mentioned the complementariness (?) of beer and theological discussions, and my roundtable leader last night was a single, black, female pastor from Georgia. The ability of women to lead in ministry is assumed, and people are generally liberal, pacifist, and not very fundamentalist in their beliefs. Which is nice.
Nice -- I think that's a good description for my experience so far. Not at all bad, but somewhat uninspiring. When I was at the NSLC conference in December, I was excited and interested and engaged. I'm doing fine here -- learning things that are consistent with my beliefs, having interesting discussions --- but nothing is making me sit up and really take notice.
posted by bento at 2:27 PM
2 Comments:
Ah - the joy of being a Canadian at a conference of Americans, I remember it well. At Princeton last May, a girl from Arkansas actually asked, in a southern accent beyond all belief - "So, y'all got yerself a dictatorship up there or what?"
She then proceeded to tell us that she found it incredibly rude when people just assumed that all she did was date her cousins and eat watermelon because she's from Arkansas because people have so many misconceptions about people from her state.
So I told her I didn't know that they grew watermelon in Arkansas. She then asked me if I'd ever seen an igloo and whether I'd noticed all the Mexicans in the kitchen.
And you know what, out of all the Americans I met at that conference, she's the only one I really remember. Ahh.....Americans.
4:33 PM
I haven't run into any ignorant Americans yet -- there was one awesome guy last night who actually told me that he and his friends not only like the Canadian National Anthem better, but actually sing it in random places.
But there's three more days of this conference, so who knows what I'll find.
6:09 AM
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