This feels like the summer of the PG-rated movie for me. Shrek. Fantastic Four. Now Evan Almighty.

Let me say this about the movie: it's not the funniest movie out there. It's not Steve Carrell at his best. The animals are a little frustrating to watch. The humor is kind of juvenile. But it's not a bad movie, really. In fact, for one of the few times ever, the "point" of the movie might just be enough to redeem it.

I can see why religious groups have been courted with this movie. God is loving. It's about the environment and taking care of the animals and such. Not the point of the Noah story, but I'll not belabor that. Two things that I liked about the movie, though:

First, the "turning point" scene was really well done. Yes, God says the good stuff. And he says it very well. I guess it kind of plays into my whole "community is important thing," really. Watch what you pray for. And don't forsake the people you love, even if they're a little batty.

The second thing, and this is a negative-turned-positive, is that it got me to thinking about the nature of religious language and revelation. When Evan "becomes" Noah, he becomes something of a cookie-cutter prophet who speaks in short sayings that sound trite even though they are totally biblical (note: I am not calling the Bible trite). It just didn't work here. In conversation after the movie, I really enjoyed getting to think through the nature of what we have written in the Bible and how much I take for granted what it says and how it's said and how the Spirit helps us "flesh it out." Not sure if that makes sense. It's funny. Last week at church, Seng said something about living the life of a prophet. That doesn't mean we don robe and beard and play John the Baptist "literally." It's not about eating locusts and wearing a leather belt. It's about more and less. And it's not about the loss of personality but the infusion of the Spirit with that personality.

And that's Evan Almighty and what I think about it and after it.

Went to my final grad party tonight. There's one more that I've been invited to, but I'll be unable to make it because of a previous commitment. It was a nice event. Got to see some co-workers. Got to see some kids and catch up with them for a while.

At some point, I hope to answer Robin's question from a post a week or two ago about my tone when it comes to these things, this sense I have that something's ended/ending. Regardless, tonight was a bit like a formal final after-shock for the year. From this point on, my seeing these graduates will either be by accident or will be personal and intentional. There are some kids that I will probably end up keeping up with. I'll see at least four of them in summer-lunches later in the summer for non-grad party reasons. I guess I'll miss them for random reasons: talking video games, television, music, books in a way I don't always get to. That kind of thing.

A couple of quotes from The Road, which I have 80 more pages of which to read:

No list of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes. So, he whispered to the sleeping boy. I have you.

And one that echoes King's Dark Tower a bit:

Tell us where the world went.

Someone, please tell us, indeed.

Wrapped up the first week of summer school today. Ran some quick errands after school and been at home ever since. Time warps on Friday night, it seems, I've been laying around doing nothing except trying not to take a nap (so I'll actually sleep all night). I really don't want to watch a rerun of Reunited: The Real World Las Vegas. It's either that or what looks like the final episode of Stargate, in which all of the characters seem to be trapped for 20 years in a space station or something. Haven't watched that show since like season two. I'd put something brainless on the DVD player, but I'm not sure I'm ready to invest in that even.

I suppose I could try to grade papers, he said to himself with sarcasm.

I've gotten a little further along The Road in the last couple of days. I've enjoyed it quite a bit more than I thought I would. Hope to finish it in the next day or two, then move on to some more "slummy" Doctor Who novel before tackling The Kite Runner.

Or I could read student essays.

Tomorrow is the last of my short series of grad parties. Granted, it seems like "it never ends." Saw a graduate last night, even. Still, it's a last "formal" thing, which will be nice.

It's nine o'clock now. Maybe I will crack a book before heading to bed. I'm seriously looking forward to sleeping in (or at least my own personal version of it).

It will be very nice to "lay me down to sleep" here in a bit. It's been quite the involved day. Taught two classes. Spent some time with friends talking. Had a class meeting. Had a student council dinner meeting. Led prayer meeting. Ran by Wal-Mart. Now I'm home and writing this as a way of winding down.

This first week of summer school has gone by pretty well. I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would. The pace is much better than the last couple of years for me. This has been a year of amazing comfort like that, I think. I'm connecting with some of the younger kids more than I thought I would, which is strange. For the first time in a while I'm teaching kids that I did not teach in middle school. Interesting.

I have hopes that the next two weeks will go smoothly and remain uneventful.

At the same time, tomorrow is another day. Instead of two meetings, I have an afternoon of hotel visits for next year's banquet. Good times. And I've got to get back on The Road before the end of the month. And I need to clean the apartment. And I need to get some laps in over the next couple of days. And it would be nice to actually get on top of summer school. Too much reliance on early-morning preparation.

Tomorrow is the longest day of the year, I suppose. I'm glad for the promise of the slow change. I like my mornings to be nice and dark longer.

Thought I'd share one of the first lines from McCarthy's The Road that earned an underline or a checkmark. Good stuff:

He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.

The first day of summer school went pretty well.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy the writing of Charles Wright: "I seem to have come to the end of something, but don't know what."

I broke a promise-made-to-myself today. Thankfully, this promise had no connection with last week's promise-made-to-myself that was broken as well.

I waited way too long to get my act together for school today. Really need to work on that.

Driving H-3 at sunset is a beautiful thing. The mountains and the clouds and even the concrete are amazing.

Last night at church: "Let your life say something- be an expression of truth."

I still love cranberry-grape juice. Good stuff.

David Tennant might be my favorite Doctor, but Christopher Eccleston wasn't that bad. He was quite good, really.

The Road has more good lines than I thought it would.

I was sad this morning when I found the classroom I would be using wasn't as technologically savvy as the rest of the rooms.

Pork chops are good.

Back to the pool today. First time in three days, I think. Back to the 36.

Graduates are everywhere. . . even at Wal-Mart.

I did something this past week that I haven't done in an awful long time. . . if ever. I read a piece of "commercialized fiction." It felt a bit like "slumming it" in a literary kind of way. Go ahead, call me a literary elitist.

Ever since I moved to Hawaii, I've found myself reading books that are pretty much literary in nature. Books that start and stop, telling a complete story, between its own covers. Sure, there's The Dark Tower series and the work of Jasper Fforde, but those are still writer-centric. Commercialized fiction, to me, usually involves television shows or entertainment properties that can carry a separate book series written by any of a number of authors.

This week, I read Justin Roberts' The Resurrection Casket. It's a nice little hardback that follows the adventures of the Tenth Doctor and Rose during the second season of the new Doctor Who series. Yeah. Because watching the series is not enough. The book, honestly, was a little difficult getting into. I mean, you know it's pretty much a throw-away story: it will never be referenced in the TV series, it will never have a sequel. In the end, though, I enjoyed it. I think I sometimes take my reading too seriously, so this ended up being a nice change. Plus, it also gave me some time to put off starting my next piece of fiction, Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I meant to read it when it first came out and Stephen King spoke so kindly of it. For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to buy the hardback. So now I'm reading the paperback, having effectively removed the "Oprah's Book Club" sticker from the cover. Wish I could slap one on there that said "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize." Ah well.