as I hopped in the van, waved good-bye to my children, and went out on this, my Divorciversary, to attend a lecture given by Bart Ehrman, the author of …well, a veritable smorgasbord of books that I (an agnostic, living with Fundamentalists) will not be able to add to my personal library for quite some time. (It ain’t polite to disrespect The Mom and her Belief System, yanno.)
The trip to WFU’s Wait Chapel was agonizing for me. Thanks to the above-mentioned rain, there were two separate accidents on Business 40. It took me 20 minutes to drive from the Linville Road exit to the 40/158 merge; It usually takes me that long to drive to Salem. I looked at the van’s clock, looked at my watch and ultimately decided that I should go straight to WFU, rather than stopping at Salem and joining the caravan.
And there, the fun REALLY began. What was a gentle kiss of cool water in Kernersville became an icy torrent as I drove in circles muttering words that would make a trucker blush, staring in vain at signs, looking for something clearly marked VISITOR PARKING. (For the record, their Staff Parking Only lots are incredibly well-marked. The rest? Not so much.) I pulled into a parking place on the main drag, then worried that my van would be towed and pulled out again. After making the complete circle around Wait Chapel, looking for a “YO BLIND WOMAN! PARK HERE!!!” sign and failing miserably, I went back to my original plan– Park on the main drag, it should be VERY obvious that I’m not a traditional student, or a WFU student, and LET the campus police ticket me because I am NOT moving this van again.
Taking a deep breath, I opened the van door, bracing myself against the wind and water now being whipped around me and the trees. Fortunately, it was close to lecture time, so I followed the sea of umbrellas and well-wrapped gentry.
Have I mentioned before my absolute hatred of heavy coats? and that I despise having to keep up with an umbrella? Because I do, and didn’t wear or carry either.
An engaging speaker, Dr. Ehrman first addressed his (seemingly unlikely) involvement in the Gospel of Judas as a project, as well as the provenance of the manuscript itself. He then spoke about the Gospel of Judas, its place within the historical timeline, and did a fairly decent job of explaining what the Gospel of Judas is, and what it isn’t.
Were it not for the fact that I was frazzled and exhausted by the time the lecture started, I would’ve wished for more. There was a Q&A session at the end, and I am STILL kicking myself for not asking if there is a later edition of the Gospel of Judas; and if so, is there any proof of scribe interpolation. I also didn’t stick around for the book-signing and general glad-handing.
And then….I walked out the door to be greeted by an icy downpour. My profound gratitude to the gentleman who pulled his wife to the side so I could stride quickly past as she ambled under her umbrella. I had parked behind the Chapel, and my hair and clothes were soaked through by the time I got TO the van and got it unlocked.
And that, my friends, is how I celebrated My Divorciversary.
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