Most of our chapel speakers and almost all preachers I’ve heard share something that irritates me to pieces – the urge to overuse various inflections and volume in their talks. In Monday’s 10am chapel, the speaker went from outrageously loud to practically inaudible and back to eardrum-shattering again, several times in the spam of ten minutes. His excellent point about Christian persecution was completely overshadowed by his ever-changing tone of voice. It is one thing to vary your voice to keep the attention of the audience; it is another thing entirely to spoil your message by being overly-enthusiastic with your volume shifts.
The parking on my college campus is terrible. This week is the annual lectureship, which means that even more people than usual are attempting to lodge their vehicle each morning. Considering the fact that parking is a perpetual issue without several hundred visitors, believe me when I say that the problem has escalated – although not nearly as much as when Spring Sing rolls around each April. We really ought to suck it up and build a huge, ugly, practical parking garage. Lipscomb has fewer students, yet their parking garage is always full, put to good use. We could certainly use one. Of course, that would mean spending money on something that’s not pretty… and considering the amount of money donated for something as glamorous as the Heritage lobby, I do not forsee anything practical popping up in the near future. Speaking of the Heritage…
When I walk through the hallowed halls of our beloved Heritage Hotel, I am often reminded of certain words of our Savior:
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Now, I am fully aware that the new lobby was paid for by a private donor – probably one of the older alum who only comes once or twice a year and therefore would only use the facilities for which (s)he paid. However, students who live and are educated on this campus daily do not use the Heritage in any way, shape, or form. Therefore, this was more or less and pointless, money-wasting endeavor that is unused and unappreciated by the student body. On top of that, the rooms in the hotel are still in poor condition and smell funny. As pretty as the lobby may be, you can’t sleep there – well, I suppose you could, but Security would more than likely remove you before you hit a REM cycle. (And has anyone else noticed that the tile on the bathroom floors is so expensive and fancy that it’s reflective? If you happen to look down mid-nature’s-call and there is a person in the stall beside you, smile and wave, because you can surely see each other!)
My point is this: there are a few buildings on campus, used daily, that are in less-than-stellar condition. There have been numerous ceiling leaks over the last month, and consequently numerous hallways strewn with strategically-placed buckets to catch the drips. The Benson, I fear, will never cease to smell of mold and mildew, especially on rainy days. And there are too many other repairs to list here. If only the rich alumni would realize that their funds could be donated to much worthier, far more necessary causes on this campus… we shall see.
