please excuse the title. due to the lack of river valley alumni in montreal (one, actually) harry has been lacking in the lame jokes department.... hurhurhur

i really do enjoy taking the architecture history course. while being reminded of age of empires and trebuchets chukonus priests ballistas big daddys and all that, learning about greeks, romans, and constantinopole does prompt a few "so this is what it was like with paul" at the same time.

so during the research for my paper i came upon this:
"Emperors tried to minimize contact between army and civilians, perhaps for fear that city life would soften soldiers. Thus the army had developed its own societal system apart from the rest of the population."
which led me to think about
"no one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs- he wants to please his commanding officer"
(and be glad that saf gave bookouts and night outs, but wonder if that was the cause of nasi lemak's escape, but that's another matter)

and i can't help but think wow. God must have put a lot of faith in us when he lets us undisciplined, untrained soldiers live in the city. the balance between reaching out, not being softened, and hardening yourself is mind boggling. which kinda goes back to explain why God chose to do it this way, doesn't it.