I took my third exam this past Tuesday.  The other two left me with a stabbing sense of panic because I had so much more to write.  This one left me with a dull sense of resignation, because I had nothing more to say with a full four minutes left.  I spell checked.  I fiddled with the margins.  Interestingly, I was the only one taking an exam, so I was alone in the library conference room.  The proctor kept leaving for long chunks of time.  There was nothing stopping me from going out into the library, finding the books on which I was being tested, and copying whole sections verbatim.  Arguably the great eye of the Almighty was watching as I took my Spirituality exam and would know and disapprove of my dishonesty.  But not the proctor.

So right now the tally of the exams currently stand at:  one passed, one still sort-of-passed (haven’t heard back about my rewrite, or as I like to call it, “the ramblings of a crazy"), and one I am confident that I will have to sit for again.

In honor of the last one, I made up a little game where I try to answer my exam questions in 20 words or less.  I get extra points if I can do it in less than 10. (Authors’ names count as one word, because they are open form compound nouns.) I can’t type the whole of my exam questions here, because each of them are a paragraph long and I don’t remember most of each.  But I’ll give you the gist of it.

1.  What is spirituality?  Name two key issues in the field with reference to three authors on your bibliography, as well as supporting your own view.

Sandra Schneiders, William Principe, Phillip Sheldrake and I agree “Spirituality” is about people living with regard to a faith in an “ultimate value.”

2.  You have been asked to design a program of spiritual formation for adolescent girls.  What would be in such a program?

Tell them they are beautiful and that God loves them.

3.  Why is writing a spiritual practice?

Because it helps clods like me.

Ooh, that last one I got in six words!  That first answer is way too long and needs work.  Those names are what get you.

Trust me.  I am [by some miracle, on some distant day, hopefully going to be] a doctor.