TRACES

Today I poured through old email messages attempting to find an attachment of a paper I wrote. I wasn't quite expecting to find so many memories. An "acceptance" letter from Duke Religion Department with the addendum that we won't fund ya asshole, evites to parties, well-wishes upon the birth of Johanna, church business from my summer internships, old interlibrary loan reminder, and at the very beginning a note from Doug about our impending nuptial. I also found old discussions about Christian community: Doug's tortured letter to Naj and Anne, News of Mike and Heather's trip to Chicago, John's lobbying to have all the community kids named after him, and his excitment with Johanna and Jonathan, and most recently notes from Ben and Angela about when to expect the delivery truck. As a budding historian I don't know what sense I would make of my own records. The facts are there: marriage, birth of children, intimate friends. There is also a considerable academic history: the theology of disability, bio-medical ethics, law and the new testament, sin and sanity in Aquinas and 19th century America, and most recently Foucault and the tangles of what he calls biopolitics, and cultural history. But, I wonder if I could ever reconstruct a life from this material. A life that looks anything like the day-to-day of Durham or Toronto. Anyway, as I continue to think of myself as my own historian I will keep you posted.