I'm up to 8,000 words on my dissertation and am almost done with the section on early Christianity in Ephesus. Next I'll do the section on paganism, and then comes the hardest part where I try to make sense of it all and say some new and interesting about it.
I had my second meeting with my new supervisor today. We met in the Theology Faculty Library and it was enjoyable and helpful. She seems pleased with my progress and interested in the things I've been discovering in my research. She also gave me some good suggestions on additional sources to check out.
Part of our discussions were about a scholar who makes claims about Mary in Ephesus that seem to have no basis and which I plan to refute in my paper, and Jane made the interesting suggestion that I ought to contact him first. She said this is the polite thing to do and it will also give me an opportunity to ask him what reasons he has for his arguments and maybe learn something new. I had never thought of this!
And related to my studies of ancient devotion to the Virgin Mary, Jane also told me a very funny story about when she visited the Shrine of Mary at Montserrat in Spain a few years ago. As she was making her way down the narrow corridor and steep steps that lead to the revered image of the Madonna (pictured at right), her two-year old daughter promptly filled her diaper with a very loud noise and very overpowering smell. Since it was impossible to turn back, Jane continued on and attempted unsuccessfully to act nonchalant. She received many glares from the Catholics for whom this is the pinnacle of their pilgrimage. And when they actually reached the statue of Mary, who holds a globe in her outstretched hand, Jane's daughter shouted gleefully, "Look, he has a ball!" Then there were actually gasps of horror. But Jane thought Mary wouldn't have minded, since she was a mother, too. It really cracked me up.
In addition to being way fun and making us money, I'm noticing more and more how much I learn from working on my websites. They even help me sometimes in school. Yesterday I was working on a new photo gallery of Corinth, Greece, and that actually became relevant in a discussion today about the practice of leaving ex-votos (thank offerings, often in the form of the healed body part) at shrines, both Christian and pagan. And because I had done an article and photo gallery for Montserrat, I could picture Jane's funny scene exactly even though I've never been there. Fun stuff!
Nothing much else to report around here. Just plugging away on the paper and on the websites and planning our upcoming trip. Not sure what we'll do this weekend but if the weather's nice we might go see something. Hope all is well with everybody out there.
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