Failing to Write
The bottom line, though, is that I failed at this assignment.
Alissa Goudswaard Anderson (’10) lives with her husband Josh in New York City, where she is earning her Master of Divinity at General Theological Seminary. Alissa enjoys private kitchen dance parties, big Midwestern thunderstorms, and perusing other peoples’ bookshelves. For more, find her online at www.episcotheque.wordpress.com or tweet her @episcotheque.
by Alissa Anderson | Jul 5, 2017 | 0 comments
The bottom line, though, is that I failed at this assignment.
by Alissa Anderson | Jun 5, 2017 | 0 comments
I wonder, sometimes, if you feel forgotten. After all, I did not become an English professor, as I once thought I might.
by Alissa Anderson | May 5, 2017 | 0 comments
When I hear someone say they don’t really pray, or that prayer is boring—both lines I have used—my first instinct is to question how they pray.
by Alissa Anderson | Apr 5, 2017 | 0 comments
I would even go so far as to say that tidying, a good spring cleaning that freshens any staleness that has settled in over a long winter, can be a spiritual practice.
by Alissa Anderson | Mar 5, 2017 | 1 comment
…while remembering that we are dust is meant to be striking and a bit uncomfortable, I’m confident that no one wants to remember being “butt dust.”
by Alissa Anderson | Feb 5, 2017 | 0 comments
I went to Denmark. For my first trip to Scandinavia. In January.
by Alissa Anderson | Jan 5, 2017 | 0 comments
Drink water. Preferably every day. Make your bed…at least once a week.
by Alissa Anderson | Dec 5, 2016 | 0 comments
I have used my extensive knowledge of the genre to rank them in order based on the covers and (occasionally) cover copy.
by Alissa Anderson | Nov 5, 2016 | 0 comments
I will be at church at midnight on Christmas, because that’s my job now. I’ve surrounded myself with tradition and ritual, and I feel right at home.
by Alissa Anderson | Oct 5, 2016 | 0 comments
It is up to the reader to decide which story is true—or if not to determine truth, at least to decide which is the story they will believe.
by Alissa Anderson | Sep 5, 2016 | 0 comments
1. Look up the passages you’ll be preaching on and read them.
by Alissa Anderson | Aug 5, 2016 | 0 comments
Do you suffer from English Major Guilt? While I am in recovery, this pernicious disease will still raise its head from time to time.
by Alissa Anderson | Jul 5, 2016 | 3 comments
People know that collar = priest. Seeing a twenty-something woman in a collar is something of an anomaly.
by Alissa Anderson | Jun 5, 2016 | 0 comments
I think Jesus would watch Christian Mingle The Movie with me, and would snort and groan and make snarky commentary in all the right places.
by Alissa Anderson | May 5, 2016 | 0 comments
I know several people who met online and then made up a meet cute to tell friends and family. There’s less of a stigma around meeting online today, but it’s still not considered especially romantic.
by Alissa Anderson | Apr 5, 2016 | 0 comments
I got the syllabus, and I saw something new: forty percent of my final grade in the class is “social media impact.”
by Alissa Anderson | Mar 5, 2016 | 0 comments
There was definitely no dancing, underage drinking, etc. And the truth is, even if the setting was different, I’m more Rory and Paris than Madeleine and Louise. Pizza and The Power of Myth sounds way better than staying out late dancing and drinking… or whatever it is people do on spring break.
by Alissa Anderson | Feb 5, 2016 | 0 comments
You do not get anything frozen, because your refrigerator sits under your counter, and the “freezer” area of it does not actually freeze anything.
by Alissa Anderson | Jan 5, 2016 | 0 comments
Yup, definitely melting my brain. Totally worth it, though—and my cold is almost gone! It’s like they say: television really is the best medicine.
by Alissa Anderson | Dec 5, 2015 | 0 comments
“I think Advent is my favorite season, but by the time I’ve finished all of the work and grading, Christmas is here and I never really got to enjoy it.”
by Alissa Anderson | Nov 5, 2015 | 0 comments
Somehow, though, moving to a place like NYC made me realize, perhaps for the first time, just how much there is to love about Middle America.
by Alissa Anderson | Oct 5, 2015 | 0 comments
Before New York, having an umbrella blow inside out was a fluke, something astonishing that might happen in really bad weather. Mainly something that happened in cartoons or Mary Poppins.
by Alissa Anderson | Sep 5, 2015 | 0 comments
Even though I said last semester that I was going to cut all my extracurriculars to make time for some of my own projects, I didn’t actually manage to quit anything
by Alissa Anderson | Aug 5, 2015 | 0 comments
I think that is because our true home is with God, and we will never feel completely at home until we are with God. This is “heaven” to me—the ultimate homecoming.
by Alissa Anderson | Jul 5, 2015 | 0 comments
Part of the problem for me, I realized, was that I don’t listen for God’s voice verbally. I don’t expect to have a conversation with God in this way.
by Alissa Anderson | Jun 5, 2015 | 0 comments
No human is purely hero or purely villain, and I think most of us would agree that the very best stories reflect this complexity, this beautiful mess.
by Alissa Anderson | May 5, 2015 | 1 comment
I think what fascinates me about windows is the same thing that’s always drawn me to books—all the stories and worlds that are playing out in addition to my own.
by Alissa Anderson | Apr 5, 2015 | 0 comments
The whole idea of resurrection is something of a mossy mystery—thinking about what it means for the Christian faith and, especially, what it means for how we live today.
by Alissa Anderson | Mar 5, 2015 | 0 comments
The one group I did join pretty quickly was the Guild of Chimers, which is possibly the lowest-commitment group on campus.
by Alissa Anderson | Feb 5, 2015 | 0 comments
I’m three days into the semester, and I’m dreading the day my academic load catches up with me and I can’t sit down and enjoy some crime at the end of the day.