Sandra McColl Johansen Hometown: Chicago, IL Current Home: Whitefish Bay, WI Major: English, Speech Additional Education: MA, English Lang. & Lit., U of Mich; MA, Speech Communication & Theatre, East Michigan University Email: sjmjohans@gmail.com Today’s to-do list tells much of my current story: 1) write opening prayer for Pastoral Care Team, 2) review notes from Aging and Spirituality symposium, 3) text Marc & Kate (our son and daughter-in-law teaching at UA in Tucson), 4) phone mother in Florida, 5) serve breakfast to Sara’s chihuahuas, 6) email church business manager about repair costs of a broken chalice, 7) update Kjell’s (husband ’64) calendar to include two movies for a Lenten group. Most significant is the spiritual renewal I’ve been experiencing since I turned 60, more or less. That also translates into my current routine. Since September 2016, I’ve committed to a four-year Education for Ministry program developed by University of the South-Sewanee. This year, I’m studying the Hebrew Bible—takes ten to twelve hours of preparation for a two hour class! That was not my study-for-class ratio at Concordia. Funny story: Sara, our 32-year-old daughter (marketing exec)—still wondering about her parents’ switch from the ELCA church of her youth to the Episcopal church down the street—quipped while she watched my intense study of Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, “Well, are we going to be Jewish next?” No, not exactly. With the rich tradition of Lutheran grace and the mystery of the Episcopal liturgy, we have found our spiritual home. Perhaps my quest for greater spiritual meaning reached a critical mass when I was teaching students with special needs in the Wisconsin zip code noted for the highest rate of poverty in the state. I remember typing a science fiction story as fast as my student was creating it, only to recall assigning his classmates the task of writing sympathy letters to his family the following week. By means of an intricately planned revenge attack by a gang, this thirteen-year-old child was bludgeoned to death at a bus shelter. Teaching in Milwaukee Public Schools was the last stop before I reached the official destination of retirement. Job-tracking backwards from there, I worked as a commercial real-estate manager, book editor at Alverno College, administrative manager for graduate student services at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, assistant professor of English and Communication at Concordia University-Ann Arbor, high school English teacher in Allen Park, Michigan, and first of all—teacher at Moorhead High School. At this juncture of my journey, I am amazed at the insight of Robert Frost, “The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected;” and I am still overwhelmed by the lyrics of John Ylvisaker, “I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry.”
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