A lot can happen in a week. I've been away, actually kind of sequestered in the big metropolis of Lincoln, Illinois at the seminary. Every course I take requires a week of face-to-face time with professors and students. They are all a delight and I love being there but it is getting harder to keep my energy up for day-long classes for four or five days and some evening activities thrown in.

I think I used to have the energy to sustain this sort of schedule for a longer time than a week. If I remember correctly there were mornings in the hills of East Tennessee I would rise early and work in the college kitchen starting at 5:30 AM and then after a day of classes it never seemed like a big deal to stay up until early the next morning "studying," for exams. That worked for four years (Not that my GPA was anything to write home about).

Then there was the graduate assistantship at the next school, assistant to the most insecure, paranoid, wound tightly and needing-only-two-hours-of-sleep a night professor who needed me for more hand holding than paper grading. She was epitome of the Energizer bunny without the soft fuzzy good side.

Then there was Kent State in the 70s, but that story is for another time.

The thing is, at this age, it is difficult to drive five hours and stay in a hotel and go to classes everyday, sometimes beginning at 8 AM and ending at 8 PM although this week was a little easier with classes ending at 5 PM.

And now, to add insult to injury, there is a final paper. There usually is a final paper which is written and mailed electronically after the class. After the last course, for example, we were given two months to submit the paper. This time, we have three weeks. All this during the World Cup in South Africa.

That's what I mean about being sequestered at the seminary. There is a real world out there, a world whose eyes are on Johannesburg that seems to escape the fine folks at Lincoln.

I will attempt to fall back on the methods and madness I learned in East Tennessee. Getting up early, staying up late - but this time I will make every effort to be focused as the deadline creeps closer and closer. But I will make time for watching, along with most of the world, the teams of the world, as they compete in South Africa.

And that's what I think about it.