Back to my old school…

‘And I’m never going back, to my old…schoooooolll!’   Old People Points to anyone who can name the song that comes from without having to click the link.  The song’s in my head this morning because today, I am in a sense going back to my old school.  I’m going to the Clergy Consultation – a gathering of ministers from my denomination in my state.  I haven’t been there the past two years and even today I’m just going for the day instead of the three days it lasts – well, two and a half spread over a three-day span, but either way, it’s a luxury I can’t quite afford at this point in my bivocational life.  But today, I’m going up.  I’ll meet some new colleagues who’ve come in since I dropped off the scopes.  And I’ll reconnect with some colleagues who knew me in what T.S. Eliot calls “the old dispensation”.

That phrase comes from the Journey of the Magi:  “…but no longer at ease, here in the old dispensation…”  Eliot spoke in the voice of one of the magi who went to find Jesus, found him, then went home.  Home hadn’t changed, but he had, and that made all the sad difference.  I’ve changed plenty since the early days of Clergy Consultation, when I was younger and greener and knew much more than I do now.  Wonder if I’ll be at ease in the old dispensation, or whether it’s changed at all?

~ by Mad God Woman on February 7, 2012.