Survived my 15th set of finals! Am now back in sunny Socal, where I believe it was a sunny 75 degrees today. Standing outside after church, my black pants sucked in all this heat, and I thought I was going to faint it was so hot. There's something wrong with this picture...

How did the rest of y'all fare? Are you glad to be home for Christmas?

My new most favorite picture, probably taken in 1982 or so. My cousin Michael, Joy, cousin Amy, and me. Check out that carpet! (Thanks to my Aunt Jen for sending this to me.)

Law Like Love
W.H. Auden

Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,
Law is the one
All gardeners obey
To-morrow, yesterday, to-day.

Law is the wisdom of the old,
The impotent grandfathers feebly scold;
The grandchildren put out a treble tongue,
Law is the senses of the young.

Law, says the priest with a priestly look,
Expounding to an unpriestly people,
Law is the words in my priestly book,
Law is my pulpit and my steeple.

Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,
Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I've told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law.

Yet law-abiding scholars write:
Law is neither wrong nor right,
Law is only crimes
Punished by places and by times,
Law is the clothes men wear
Anytime, anywhere,
Law is Good morning and Good night.

Others say, Law is our Fate;
Others say, Law is our State;
Others say, others say
Law is no more,
Law has gone away.

And always the loud angry crowd,
Very angry and very loud,
Law is We,
And always the soft idiot softly Me.

If we, dear, know we know no more
Than they about the Law,
If I no more than you
Know what we should and should not do
Except that all agree
Gladly or miserably
That the Law is
And that all know this
If therefore thinking it absurd
To identify Law with some other word,
Unlike so many men
I cannot say Law is again,

No more than they can we suppress
The universal wish to guess
Or slip out of our own position
Into an unconcerned condition.
Although I can at least confine
Your vanity and mine
To stating timidly
A timid similarity,
We shall boast anyway:
Like love I say.

Like love we don't know where or why,
Like love we can't compel or fly,
Like love we often weep,
Like love we seldom keep.

I'm sincerely afraid that I may not pass one or more of my classes this quarter. While I haven't been lazy (in fact, at many points during the quarter, I felt as if I were more diligent than ever), the sinking feeling that there is too much information to learn in too short of a time remains.

And although the fact that I've survived finals 14 times (14!!!) in the course of my academic career should provide some comfort - it doesn't. And when I get stressed, I seem to waste even more time than I ordinarily do (by cleaning, eating, reading fiction, playing lame computer or online games, or posting on this blog.) Pray for me.

It's time to dig in and do battle.

NO way! Nah-uh. Check this out.