St. Louis Musings

I am living in St. Louis, Missouri this summer and interning at Scott Air Force Base for the Army JAG Corps. The job is good; I really like it. I mean, it’s challenging and rewarding and all of that stuff. I have been doing a ton of legal research and writing which requires the use of words like “therefore” and “thus” and “furthermore.” Those words are fun to use. I especially like using the phrase “[i]n conclusion” because it means that I’m almost done with my analysis.

The whole “living in St. Louis for the summer” thing has made me aware that wherever you go, there will be strange people capable of very strange things. There are also boring people; very boring people. It kind of makes me depressed knowing that people are just people no matter where you go. Maybe I’m wrong though, and maybe in some part of the world there is a culture full of totally manic people. Maybe they get excited all of the time for no particular reason other than that they are alive; and they laugh and then they cry because they have so much joy. I doubt these people really exist though. Only in books and movies can people really be manic for an extended period of time.

The area I am living in this summer is called Tower Grove. It’s a section of St. Louis that has gone through an urban renewal process over the past decade to become what it is today. It’s relatively cheap to live, very ethnically diverse, and most of the restaurants are Eastern influenced. I went to a coffee shop a couple of weeks ago to read a book, but soon had to leave because a man kept hitting on me. I mean, it wasn’t even subtle, it was ridiculous. It was the first time in my life that I understood why certain women don’t like to be hit on. Solidarity, ladies.

I’ve been going to a pretty cool church called The Journey. I can’t quite figure the church out, which may be the reason that I keep going back. Like, in the bulletin today, there was a Johnny Cash quote. And at first, I was like, what the eff man, you can’t quote Johnny Cash in a church bulletin! But after I thought about it for a while, I couldn’t really think of a reason why Johnny Cash shouldn’t be quoted. I mean, what if the quote spoke Truth (the capital T kind)? And how is what Johnny Cash had to say about God any different than what Joe Shmoe Preacher has to say about God? Whether it’s Johnny Cash or Joe Shmoe, they are both conveying the little bit that they know about God. (Cue the story of the blind men and the elephant.) So, I decided that I’m cool with the Johnny Cash quote. The message today at church was on the apocalypse and all of that crap. The conclusion to the sermon was basically, “Yeah, we don’t really have any idea about how this apocalypse thing is going to happen, but we just know that it will at some point.” Alright, thanks for the insight. I should probably care more about that sort of thing, but I don’t. But anyway, don’t let today’s sermon or the Johnny Cash quote put you off about The Journey because you would probably like it if you went. It really is a pretty cool church.

I’ve got four more weeks in St. Louis. I’m really looking forward to them.