'The Sleeping Lazy Ass has Awoken': 3oA is dead, long live 3oA

The Death & Resurrection of Third Order Areopagus

As-Salāmu-Alaykum my friends and comrades, brothers and sisters,



for those of you who have browsed, read, suffered and responded to the posts on this blog [3oA] over the last 3 years or so, I just wanted to thank you all for your support. i know there's quite few readers out there, many who don't leave comments [for good reason, i must seem like a sociopath... hehe]



3oA started when I was at uni doing research into the philosophy of economics, sitting there by myself smashing book after book into my head. For fear of my mind turning in on itself, i started blogging as a way of mental excretion: "dumping" thoughts and ideas out of my head and off my chest.



much has happened since those days. i've been working as a geography/commerce/legal studies/biblical studies teacher for nearly 3 years now, as well as being presently halfway through a Master of Education in Christian ed (via the National Institute for Christian Ed, or as Borat would say, "iiiis NICE...") sponsored by my benevolent employer. [ps- that person on the right with the mankini is Borat Sagdiev, NOT me! honestly!]









despite all these blessings, my head is no less in danger of being full of poop, in fact more so, a symptom of my mental state rather than my surrounds... hehe




Since around April, through the inspiration of NICE, the intellectual provocations of my bosses Bill Rusin (@work) and Melinda (@home), the encouragement of my 'details-nazi' comandante and former GTA heavy-hitter Elizabeth Riley, and many good friends (like Andy Morris, who ruined my complacent life by giving me a Stanley Hauerwas book just when I started resting comfortably on my 'know-it-all-ness'), I have been reading, thinking and researching on the issue of 'The Cultural Politics of Religion' - a sexy way of asking "what is the relationship between religion and our culture?". In particular, what role do Christians have in the politics of our culture, and conversely, what role does our cultural context play in how Christians think of their Christianity.







This has sent me on a road back to the books, to research and to that ceaseless voice in my head that says "you know not what you do..."


In 2009, I am hoping for a year of teaching AND formal study/research. This may well see me stalking the lecture halls and libraries of tertiary institutions again... this time older and less mature.


Because of this new direction, I have decided to give this blog a bit of an "inward turn". As of this week, 3oA will journal and chart my personal life, inner thoughts, and escapades with my wonderful and intellectually superior wife.



Gone will be the "brain faeces", those endless esoteric and difficult to understand posts that were a form of therapy for me.



Instead, i hope to post glimpses of the life we are living, the context of what we do.




If you are a masochistic sucker for punishment and pain (like Jenni Syme, who despite having to do her HSC persists in sacrificing herself by reading my rants), or are a supporter of my study in some way, i have started another blog for my research - libera-nos-a-malo.blogspot.com - which will contain the more thinksy posts, politically incorrect quotes, and updates on my new academic growth pains.



I just want to thank all of you again for the past three years, for indulging me.




Keep fighting the good fight my dearly beloved, run the race, for as a young black preacher once taught us, "We Shall Overcome".

I covet your prayers and support on this scary and exciting prospect.

With love, Remy Low



And to kick us off on our new regime, here is a picture of our kitten - Satie.

(we picked her up when she was around 4 weeks old, someone had dumped her in a box)