In what is clearly an act of procrastination, the author reflects on the end-of-semester weariness and what it all amounts to in a world that continues to suffer.

“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“I, and perhaps you too, came to Union in pursuit of finding my Self. When people asked me why I decided to attend Union, I always replied, ‘An existential crisis.’”

The luxury condo building in the middle of Union Seminary, affectionately known as the “tower,” is slowly opening up to residents. Black studies scholars help us make sense of such a display of capitalism and contradiction.

I reflected on feeling unsettled upon returning to campus, and why that’s maybe a good thing.

How can the Union community better support workers like Charles and ensure that all who pass through Union’s doors are impacted for the better?

One night this semester I was in class, and we were discussing the process of sorting out things we have to do, get to do, want to do, and don’t have to do. It was insightful, and felt very mature in that peculiarly “pastoral” way that many of us here in seminary are aiming for. And a quote came to my mind that felt very apt. Not thinking much about the source, I started to type it into the chat box of our zoom lecture-- something along the lines of “I might not have everything that I want, but I’m grateful for all the things I don’t have that I don’t want.” It then occurred to me that that quote, I was pretty sure, came from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. I laughed at myself, and threw that citation into my message.

“We do not know the reason Union extended its hand to Brother West, but given the institution's silence on the issue of Palestine it is my conclusion that it has more to do with West’s fame and academic prowess than his fervent support for Palestine. Yet, despite these covetous intentions, West’s presence at UTS embodies a prophetic call to action.“

“As a half-white, half-Asian daughter of immigrants, I am familiar with these limits. My mixed racial ethnicity has often left me without words to describe my contradictory existence. My parents’ conservative politics leaves me unsure where to place myself within a progressive party that is meant to support family stories like our own. I am unable to comfortably locate myself and my family in the mainstream narratives about immigrant communities and race.”

“I am coming to a realization similar to one that Dr. Martin Luther King had in the last years of his life: ending poverty in America is one of the foremost civil rights issues of our time. Why hasn’t this “dream” of ending poverty been realized? What has gotten in our way of realizing it?”