Conversation in Miss. Deep South

I'm in Jackson State University, a historically Black college in Jackson, Mississippi. E'rbai is Black. The TV in the commuter lounge is on channel BET. It's like, 'Yep we Black.'

I like it. It's nice to see everybody be comfortable being who they are. Unless they won't let little white boys drink from the water fountain. Then there'd need to be some de-segregation.

There's a crowd of students playing Yu-Gi-Oh cards with their girlfriends watching. LOL. YES! Nerdiness transcends racial barriers. Nerdoloteriat of the world, unite!

Don't park your car right here. No, for real we ain't playin.

Met some nice Christian college students at Mississippi College in Clinton, MS yesterday. It's just two shakes of a lamb's tail west of Jackson.

Small community, e'rbai knowed each other like it were high school. Guys and girls seemed to be friendly without being flirtatious, touchy without being lewd, and fun without being excluding. I think it was the Purity Pledge at work. The screwball antics were pretty fun to watch: air thick with hormones and young people intermingling at every opportunity without an anti-climatic conclusion.

I left the library at midnight and a guy handing out glazed donuts offered me one as I passed by. All that 'anti-American' writing had got me quite hungry, so naturally I thought, 'Oooh'. I was invited into their circle and the first question posed to me blew my cover. My major? Well actually, I have an interesting story to tell you instead.

Now, if it were an elitist college culture like I'd experienced on the East Coast, people would be talking about themselves. I would have some peers feigning insignificance, some one-upping with their own stories, a one or two looking up with wonder, and a handful of engaged people asking questions so they could have their own story of how they met this crazy weirdo to impress their friends. Superficial self-promotion.

I was surprised how interested and responsive an audience I received. These Christians were genuinely fascinated, imagining the journey and wanting to know what it was like. I had been skeptical when a residence director at LeTourneau University in Longview, TX told me his students would love to meet me, but maybe he was right. Both schools seemed to be predominantly White from small religious communities.

Fresh faces joined and were briefed by my donut benefactor, who had heard me deliver my script enough times by then to list the dates and locations off the top of his head. After we eventually disentangled ourselves, I ended chilling in their dorm room. It was a popular hangout for the freshmen. Then finally just me, my benefactor and his roommate, the freshman president were shooting the breeze.

Every Christian at some point will get to talking about God to the unbeliever, because it is their duty and Jesus-led desire to spread the kingdom of Heaven to all of God's loved children. What followed was a Socratic Seminar in which I alternately received education on their beliefs, and teased out points of contention which I feel every believer should grapple with.

This was the kind of deep, probing questioning and thinking that I love using my brain for, and my teachers were earnest in addressing the challenges I presented them. I hope I helped them individually arrive at some satisfactorily convincing arguments to my questions that they can personally believe, even though I had the opposite conviction.

I would love students like them if I end up working as a teacher some day. There's rarely anybody who would sit down and really allow themselves to bare their philosophical guts to scrutiny, analysis, coaching, growth.

It's a scary thing to expose the inner workings of your mind, to see what you truly think and believe. Psychological self-awareness is hard work. It can be unsettling to come across inconsistencies, uncertainties, and fallacies - which we all have, that test the validity of our perceived reality.

We retired at 4 am. They were beat sleepy, but were gracious hosts. When I communicated my intentions, they got up eagerly and packed me snacks and walked me to the door. I accepted their prayers and blessings, understanding their good intentions and letting their exhortation for the kingdom of Heaven aside. I'm still damned to Hell but this will be a nice memory to take there with me. = )