Schindler's List

     I watched "Schindler's List" yesterday.  It was a requirement for a class and so I watched it.  It's a three-and-a-half hour movie, but it took me a full 6 hours because of the amount of breaks I needed.  Afterwards, I proceeded to be in a grumpy, sort of depressed mood for the rest of the day.  I've seen my fair share of movies.  This one was too graphic.  Steven Spielberg directed the movie, and he said that he wanted to make some scenes of it "unwatchable".  Right -- well, he succeeded.
     The movie is very important.  Oskar Schindler is a German businessman, member of the Nazi party, and opportunist who uses Jewish people for labour in his government-sponsored factories during WW II in Moravia, a Nazi occupied country.  At the start he is simply hoping to make money, but he ends up saving over a thousand Jews from the Holocaust through employment in his factories.  In the end, his operation is a model of inefficiency in producing arms, and is simply there to protect Jews from extermination.  Even so, he remains a member of the Nazi party to the end, and has to flee when peace breaks out.
     I realized while watching this movie the differing value put on human life by various characters.  In one particularly vivid scene, an SS officer barges in on a Jewish boy washing his car.  The boy trembles as he tries to explain why he can't clean the vehicle fast enough.  The officer comes just short of hitting the boy, and ensures the boy that he will if it isn't cleaned quickly.  In this scene, a car was more important than harm to a human being.
     Where are the examples in Canada of us drastically undervaluing human beings?  We don't have to look far.  There are a lot of "disadvantaged."  People who are different in some way.  Easy targets.  What was so disconcerting in the movie was being drawn as an audience into the world where humans are capable of being evil en masse, as a dominant society.  I think the director was looking for us to dig deep, to feel how hard it would be to stand up to the pressure and fear, but still to shout, "No! I would not be a part of this!"  Just like Schindler courageously rejected the Nazi agenda.  Just like we have opportunity to do in our worlds as well.

Menno Cross (Or How to Turn a Field into a Mudhole in 3 Hours)

     When I think "MennoCross" the first thing that comes to mind is a cartoon image of Menno Simons on a bicycle.  Or Zack Peters cheering people on from the sidelines as they fight up a really muddy hill.  But both of these images are but aspects of Menno Cross.

    I first heard of the event last week, as friends of mine started to try to convince me to get involved.  It was described to me as an intense event that would entail such feats as carrying a bicycle over my head while running up steep slopes.  Could you blame me for avoiding it?
    It's not quite that intense, but it was a major affair, with three different types of racing for the different skill levels and a wide amount of participation.  Menno Cross.  That's right.  We're proud of our heritage!

On Chapel

     I've noticed an interesting trend in the three years I have been a student here.  Perhaps it has something to do with the new Communications department.  Or perhaps it signifies a "wising up" on the part of CMU staff.  What is this change, you ask?
     Chapel is getting better.
     It's true.  The gatherings we have most days between half past eleven and lunch are getting more interesting.  I would venture to say that more effort is being put in.  Consider last Tuesday's chapel, "Sins I committed on my Summer Holidays" by Sue Sorensen, Ph. D.  Sue talked about Dante's Divine Comedy and how it relates to us today, making for a very interesting talk which had very little to do with her chosen title.
     Or, to take another example, consider the Chapel entitled "Friends 101" with David Balzer and Vonda Plett, concerning how to build friendships.  What more useful a topic could they possibly choose?  Between David's half-stifled guffaws and Vonda's sound psychological advice on how to connect with people better, we had time time to talk about the use (and misuse) of mediums like Facebook and texting.  It was a good time.
     Today's chapel is entitled Hot Topics in Psychology: My Brain Made Me Do It.  If you're on campus, you should go.  I'll be there.  Everybody's doing it.

Never An Idle Moment

     Well, I've finally started to catch my breath.  Classes started this past Thursday and suddenly summer camp turned into school.  As I'm expecting to graduate this year, fewer of my classes are electives.  In fact most are what you could call down-to-the-wire requirements.  Hence the science requirement that I'm taking, called "Biology - the Science of Life" AKA "We're Trying Very Hard Not to Be Intimidating".  

Why is this Zebra in the middle of a busy intersection?  Could it possibly have something to do with molecular biology?  

     Just because courses have started doesn't mean that the decisions are ending.  Right now I'm trying to decide whether I want to join CMU Singers or whether I want to simply stay in Men's Chorus.  Besides the science class and journalism, I'm also in History Theory and Methods I (which is going to be great by the way -- very few lectures and lots of discussion) and Modern China by correspondence.  Throw in Ultimate Frisbee, Men's Chorus, and being a youth leader at my church, volunteering at the Blaurock Cafe, hopefully going dancing every week, my student ambassador (this!) job, being on the Publications Committee, and being on the Grad Committee and you basically have my life.  Now that I write it down it does look like a lot.  There.  No CMU Singers for me. 

     This weekend itself has been really packed.  It's the first youth event of the year, and so we all went to Camp Arnes (which is incidentally where the CMU retreat will be in a week).  As youth retreats go, it was good -- really relaxed with lots of water polo and old friends.   It is very important for me to get off campus regularly.

     Getting back to school, I have just realized that I have NO idea where any of my textbooks are.  I bought them on Friday.  They are worth $250.  This is not good!  CMU people are usually pretty good at returning things, but my name wasn't even in these new books.  Urgh!

     Whatever.  I'm refreshed and ready for the week.  Bring it on!

  

And it Begins!

BBQ!

       

     And.. the year has begun!
     This is my last year here, and I'm determined to make it a great one.  There's a lot of energy in the air, and a whole lot of new faces (seriously, we have like 50% turnover in dorm this year).  From the first-years I've already met, it's clear that we have a great group this year.

 

    

     Now, for those who don't want to go WAAAY back to the beginning of this thing, my name is David Klippenstein and I'm a third year student at CMU living in dorm.  I'm majoring in History and Communications, I love ultimate frisbee, meeting new people, acting, and of course history.  

CMU President Gerald Gerbrandt rocks it out at the welcome BBQ.

    
     Speaking of ultimate frisbee, it's happening this year.  Intramurals in first semester (if you're on campus, sign up sometime this week!) and actual team play after Christmas.  It's going to be EPIC.  There's a lot of things happening this year.  The Blaurock Cafe is looking for volunteers, so find a friend and sign up for that.  This year I tried out for soccer and choir.  It's important to be involved!

First Student Council Activity/ PLEASE SIGN UP event of the year!

    The past few days have been great.  There's a lot of old friends here and welcome week means that there's tons of group activities happening (like the community BBQ, walk-a-mile, and a surprisingly entertaining returning student orientation by registrar Wesley Toews and student advisor extraordinaire Adelia Neufeld Wiens).  

     I hope you guys had a great summer.  My summer at Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site has been excellent and intense.  I dressed up and pretended I was from 1851 in the fur trade all day for four months.  Leading tours and talking to thousands of people and having tea parties and bantering with other characters from the 1800's = an excellent summer!  

They WERE this happy back then!

     Get ready.  This is going to be a great year.