anon

this is the first of what will be an ongoing blogersation, especially with and among my fellow travelers involved in the faith as a way of life project (www.yale.edu/faith/initiatives/fwl.html). we're a bunch of fools for christ, convened by miroslav volf, and meeting twice a year in new haven to see if we can figure out how to make our faith really matter in our lives, in our faith communities, and in the slices of culture we swim through.

i'm going to post often and encourage lively responses critical and constructive. thus, i've titled this first post anon, my favorite learning for today. i was echating back and forth this morning with marly youmans, one of the members of our reflection pool (we call it the 'national working group'). marly signs all her emails anon and i thought: "what is that?" so i asked her, and herewith is her response. btw, check out her powerful prose and poetry at http://www.marlyyoumans.com.

"Anon . . . Well, it's a rather old-fashioned word but my habitual sign-off. It means "soon" or "at a later (but not too much later) time." In older works, as in Shakespeare, it often means something even more immediate like "I'm coming in an instant" or "yes, in just a minute." It's a farewell that's not an end, and I guess I like it for that friendly reason. It's surprising how many people have commented on it. I've even noticed a few people anon-ing me in return. Perhaps it will come back into common use!
And so, anon-- Marly"