Come in! Come in!

"If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a Hope-er, a Pray-er, a Magic Bean buyer; if you're a pretender, come sit by my fire. For we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!" -- Shel Silverstein

Friday, January 18, 2008

Dedication

So, I'm coming down the home stretch. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel called this doctoral project and it's not another train coming in the opposite direction.

I've got about 5 more pages to write - a summary statement, really - and then the bibliography, title page and appendix. Then this succa is tout finis! Woo hoo! Someone cue James Brown: I feel good!

I want to thank so many of you who have held me in prayer. Don't stop now. I've got one more 8 hour day, a final revision in March (no doubt), and a defense in April before the fat lady sings at graduation in May and I do my 'happy-happy-joy-joy dance' down the aisle of The Academy.

The following is from my title page. It will give you some sense of the intensity of this project and this work.



COMING OUT CHRISTIAN: A MODEL OF FOUR FOUNDATIONAL QUESTIONS FROM THE SPIRITUAL LIVES OF LGBT PEOPLE TO CLARIFY CHRISTIAN IDENTITY AND DEEPEN SPIRITUAL MATURITY

Who do men say that I am? Jesus of Nazareth 


Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. Oscar Wilde


Finally, I suspect that it is by entering that deep place inside us where our secrets are kept that we come perhaps closer that we do anywhere else to the One who, whether we realize it or not, is of all our secrets the most telling and the most precious we have to tell. Frederick Buechner


...I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
Rainer Maria Rilke


This work is dedicated to all of my teachers and professors of pastoral care and counseling who helped me formulate these questions and develop this model of Christian identity and spirituality – all of the brave gay men, lesbian women, bisexual and transgender people (and their children) who died in the early years of the pandemic of AIDS and its parallel epidemic ‘AFRAIDS’ which led to the real cause of their death:
Bureaucratic Red Tape.

If ‘all we need is love’ they would be alive today. 

Their names are legion, but I wish to remember especially (because I can never forget):

D.J. Jimmy Mac (the first but far from the only)
Mark Clarke - The Rev’d Dennis Dellamalva
Gary Lambert – Bill Urban
Joe Horan – Bob Meili
Lisa Tisti – Anasthasia Tisti
Jay Schaeffer – Dennis O’Keefe
The Rev’d Bill Lowry – The Rev’d Bernie Healy
Avon Johnson – Bertha “Birdie” Thompson
‘Just call me Madam’ James Ramp – Paul Risi
‘Tall Paul’ Wallace – Bob Applegate, 
and the amazing, the unforgettable, 
‘The Large and Lovely Ms. Beula Lamont’, who said, 
“We’re all born naked, honey, everything after that is all drag.”


May they rest in peace and rise in glory. 

12 comments:

Phyllis Amenda said...

I'm also finishing the last chapter of my diss. Best of luck.

Phyllis
Binghamton, NY

the Reverend boy said...

This looks awesome. I would love to read the rest of it when it's finished.

the cajun said...

Sister, dear,

May I have permission to post this on my site? I would rather link, but you have no permalink.

There have been many others I would loved to have linked to, but...

Elizabeth Kaeton said...

What's a permalink? Is it bad for my hair?

This SUCKA IS DONE. Well, except for the Appendix, but that can always be removed (hardy har).

I'm a little punch drunk (no, really?) but I'm doing okay. Going to have a supper break and come back to this in an hour.

God is good. All the time.

susankay said...

Dear (the rev'd) Elizabeth Kaeton -- saw your post over at the MadPriest's and hurried over to say: Congratulations!! And enjoy the ice cream and bourbon

susankay said...

And, ma'am -- how do we get a copy of the wondrous document (after the appendix is finished, of course)

PseudoPiskie said...

Punch drunk? Hmmm. Bourbon slush punch? Yum.

Hope you don't have to make too many changes. Advisors can be really nasty for no apparent reason other than they seem to need to feel like they have control. Keeping the prayers going.

Elizabeth Kaeton said...

Well, here's the deal, my darlings. It goes into the post at 9 AM tomorrow. There will, no doubt, be at least one re-write in March. I defend in April and graduate in May. The thing then gets bound and copyrighted and THEN I can tell you all about it.

Well, maybe. There's some talk of a wee bookie. I'll have to let you know. I'll try to sneak out some snippets of it from time to time.

Right now, I'm just too exhausted to care. I just want to go to bed, wake up in the morning and get this succkah into the mail and be done with it.

The clan is gathering for "Little Christmas" on Sunday. Mackie arrives at 11 tomorrow and then it's off to "American Girl" to pick up her present. There's presents to wrap and a chicken piccata to make when everyone arrives at 1 PM.

Oh, and I haven't finished my sermon for Sunday.

Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.

Is it time yet for my ice cream?

Kirkepiscatoid said...

Well, since I'm still sort of struggling with the last vestiges of my cold, I'm going to fix a hot toddy with Jim Beam Black and toast your finished product!

Meanwhile if you need a laugh....

http://kirkepiscatoid.blogspot.com/2008/01/if-clergy-paperwork-were-like-heath.html

johnieb said...

It's always time for ice cream. It sounds like a fascinating study: what school and degree? (Did I miss that part? Oooo.)

David@Montreal said...

Congratulations dear Elizabeth+
Just reading the dedication brought back so many memories, of a path we've both walked in service
'if love was all we need' indeed!
No question of publication- only one of time and finding the right house!
love and prayers
David@Montreal

the cajun said...

My dear Punchy (or is that punchie?) never mind...you didn't give me permission to paste your post on my site.

Bits of snow falling here tonight and I am about to indulge (again) in the sapphire stuff under the counter.

Unwind my dear and congrats. I can't wait to lift one with you and hear the tale.