February 6, 2000 ~ Transition

I dreamed last night of two different things. The first was moving out. I had at least two different dreams of Morgan and I moving out from this cozy little room. The second was moving in. I had two different dreams about moving in to new places. One was some type of apartment complex, and the other was a small rental house in Oregon.

What does this theme mean? Could it be connected to the idea of major change? Of a transition? Morgan sent an email to his parents last night, proposing the idea of us getting married. He has been very hesitant to approach the subject with them. He felt that since they made a mistake in marriage when they were young, they would worry about him planning on marriage so soon, after having only known me in "real" life for a bit over a year. We were in love for so long before that though! Just because we were on opposite sides of the country does not mean we could not know each other intimately. To know someone through spirit alone is more special in many ways anyway.

Anyway, I suspected the idea would not be too hard for his parents to take, so I was not surprised when his dad and step-mother wrote back with encouragement and blessings. We are now just waiting to see what his mom will say. He wanted to make sure his parents wouldn't forbid it before we went any further in telling people what's up with us.

So, transition. We still feel exactly the same as we did before. We have known we are adults, and we have known that we have a life commitment with one another. It is the circumstances, the environment we live in, and the opinions and impressions of those around us, which are in transition. We are "officially" passing over that line. It is exciting.

A "Campus Crusade for Christ" group got started up on campus, and I went to a meeting. It wasn't for me, though. According to their "Statement of Faith," I am not a "true" Christian. I felt very out of place. The group was very... structured. Campus Crusade makes it very clear that all members are supposed to believe in their (very specific and exclusive) testament of faith. A lot of people were interested in some type of discussion/prayer group on campus, but not in a "You MUST Believe This or You Are Going to HELL" group. So anyway, they managed to make most of the "interested" people on campus either offended or pissed off.

Jeanne Matthews Sommer is the religion professor here, and just happens to be an ordained Presbyterian Minister. She gathered all of us (alternative/liberal Christians) up and proposed a different option. She is calling it "Intentional" Christianity. Basically, Intentional Christianity is an effort to lead an examined, introspective, thoughtful life with the perspectives of Jesus' teachings. (I think). We are going to meet for the first time tonight. I am rather excited about it. I have wanted to have some sort of safe environment to talk about spirituality for a long time, where people won't tell me I am going to Hell for thinking a woman should be allowed to speak about spiritual matters. Or daring to think that one should live by spirit rather than by the book. Unfortunately, the South--Bible Belt--is lacking in such places. I shall soon see how this works out.

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