An Ancient Text and A Modern Cowboy

I am a bit of a weird hybrid. I teach the grammar and syntax of Ancient Greek, and specifically the ‘common’ dialect by which the New Testament was written—that marvel of literary and spiritual significance. But the teaching part is only my winter gig.

In the summertime I work chasing cattle and driving tractors on my family’s 4th generation homeplace. It is a great life, although living in two worlds can be challenging. For one, there never seems to be any vacation time. I simply have to see it as ‘change is as good as a rest’. In the wintertime my brain aches from wrestling with subjective genitives, while my back aches in the summertime from flanking frisky calves.

I’m planning to be in Alberta year-round starting this summer. It is a welcome return home–to the mountains, to the people, and to worldview that prevails in one of the few bastions of Western Civilization left.

When I get my horse to the summer pasture, one of the first things I plan to do is read the Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, by campfire light. It might seem sappy, but there is nothing like enjoying the beauties of the Creation in Alberta while reading a classic of the West.