What have I been up to lately?

A lil' update for those wondering

Hello all!

In my last post, I lamented the challenge of trying to '“get on” with life in lieu of my most recent diagnosis, and that at times I would try to update my blog here in a more long-form nature than any sort of incidental update I give on other forms of social media. So here’s a few things you may or may not be interested in learning.

This paper towel dispenser and I share a common sentiment as I try to figure out again what “normal life” is meant to look like now.

1. Teaching

As I mentioned previously, I’ve been teaching (actually, I’m just about to wrap up) a course on World Religions. I think, unless my head is in the clouds, that this has been the best iteration yet. I switched to a new primary textbook that at least mostly takes the place of two previous texts, saving my students some cash. But there are still a couple chapters that aren’t quite as good as this text by Prothero which I’ll continue to recommend to folks. This second edition that released last year is even better than the first, in my opinion.

The highlight of the course is always the penultimate week, when students present a little from their research on a New Religious Movement. Though I am asking them to do some typical work in exploring history and “theology” (the combination of whatever beliefs, practices, ecclesiology, etc. that best define how an adherent would live and think in this particular religious nexus), I also ask them to do some measured reflection on points of connection between their faith and the one they’re studying. Importantly, this is not an exercise in something like how they would witness to someone of that faith—I’m not interested in developing missional strategies here. It’s more about where their work has sharpened their own belief in some ways, but also where they have developed more empathy by seeing a new religious movement—many of which get labelled carelessly as “cults” in the vernacular—from both “emic” and “etic” perspectives. Or, as both an insider and an outsider. So the real gold tends to come from encounters students have had with followers of these movements. Open and honest conversations always yield the most fruit when it comes to nonjudgmentally attempting to understand someone who does not live the same sort of life you do.

Meeting with folks on Zoom and in forums is not the same as meeting in-person. I still yearn for that opportunity again one day. I will say, one of the most humorous aspects of the course has been one student who works some Photoshop magic and somehow steals the scene behind me, adding things to it and using it for their own Zoom background. This same student wrote a fantastic essay on Jediism, which, believe it or not, is a real religious movement.

2. Ordination

I was ordained to the priesthood on Trinity Sunday (June 15). It has been a long, strange road toward this final chapter in my Ordination Saga that began…well, basically when I was in university many many years ago.

Me, and another new priest, and a new deacon, standing with a bunch of important people.

This isn’t the place where I’m going to spill my whole ministerial journey for you; maybe in some other post. Suffice it to say that this took a while as I weaved between ministry in another denomination early in my post-university life, to gunning wholeheartedly toward Academia, toward my present, more-balanced dual vocation.

I was also gifted this lovely green priest’s stole by my former parish in Rochester, NY.

3. Return to churchwork

Subsequent to my most recent clear scans, I have been able to resume my part-time ministry at the local university-adjacent parish here in Hamilton. St. Paul’s is an astoundingly generous and lovely group of people, and I’m so pleased to rejoin them, even if it’s only for a few hours a week. We’ve got me on the schedule now to vacillate between assisting, presiding at the table, and preaching. This past Sunday was a homiletical one, and it felt good to get back into the practice of public exposition.

An absurdly beautiful icon of St. Paul, gifted to me by my eponymous parish upon the occasion of my ordination. Paul and I disagree a great deal, which is one of the reasons I like him. It’s better to argue with saints, I think, than just pleading with them constantly.

4. Overall, just figuring out my “new” body

This part has certainly been the most frustrating. And I am now typing this later than I typed the earlier portion of this post, before getting two more vaccines. There is a never-ending cavalcade of needle-pokes as I get my body back to where it was, in some senses, pre-cancer. But I still can’t receive any live vaccines for over a year, so please, for the love of all that is holy, get your measles vaccines checked to see if you need a booster.

You may notice some redness on my cheeks in the above photo. This is definitely the period where my body is just trying to figure out what the hell to do with new life, new cell generation, and everything else. So that, for some reason, includes acne. I haven’t had acne since I was in university, and then it was only on my forehead. Why it’s now appearing on my cheeks, who knows? Is it a side-effect of one of my medications? Is it related to stress? Is it all of my skin regenerating itself after the horrors of chemo? No one knows. Thankfully, before seeing a dermatologist and trying even more medication, I can give the over-the-counter remedies a shot first. I’ll tell ya, skincare science has improved a hell of a lot since the only two real options as a cheap student in university were St. Ives, which involved just basically scrubbing off your epidermis, or Noxzema, which involved desiccating your face like fruit leather. That said, my plunge into the world of Korean skincare many years ago has only yielded fantastic results, so needless to say adding a couple more products to the routine isn’t putting me out too badly. I’m mostly just embarrassed to be a 41-year-old with acne.

The immoglobulin treatments continue: weekly poking myself with four needles that pump a drug into my belly, which is becoming more or less bruised based on how badly I inserted the needles the previous week.

I have worked on integrating more “intentional” exercise into my life again, because the weight gain that arrived once things started healing and before I could really be on my feet much is eating at my mental health. The current heatwave isn’t helping with that plan, but every time I pull a muscle riding my bike accompanying my spouse and child to the park is a reminder that I can get on a bike at all. I bet you thought I was going to complain about that, eh?

My carbon kit bike, with non-matching wheels, which I love.

At any rate, it’s about the best I can do right now besides walking and other less-intense sports, like disc golf. I’m not allowed to swim in public pools still for fear of infections, and running is off the books indefinitely due to worsened bone density from the chemo. Eventually other exercises and diet will help restore this (well…hopefully). But for now, cycling’s the thing. Which is just fine by me.

Oh, and the last thing…I was already well on my way to significant hair loss prior to cancer, but I’ll tell you what. Some of what was hanging on has decided to move from vacation to early retirement. I don’t like what I see in the mirror. I miss my curly locks. There’s a little curl in what has returned, but it’s nowhere near the same. But that’s ok. It’s mostly just part of getting old, in a family of men with less than stellar hairlines. At least I can continue purchasing hats.

Two of my favourite recent acquisitions: 2025 NBA Champ OKC Thunder hat, my basketball team since 2008; and Nottingham Forest, my football team since they jumped up from the Championship to the EPL in 2022. It was a bumpy couple years for Forest, but now we’ve made it into European play for next season!