{"id":32893,"date":"2023-09-05T14:44:48","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T21:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=32893"},"modified":"2023-09-05T14:44:48","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T21:44:48","slug":"oxford-people-places-and-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/oxford-people-places-and-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford: People, Places and Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The adage <em>if walls could talk<\/em> comes to mind when I consider the upcoming doctoral advance to the celebrated city of Oxford, England. In preparation for the trip, I reviewed Paul Sullivan\u2019s quippy book <em>The Secret History of Oxford<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\"><strong>[1]<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>and lost myself in Youtube videos about this historic city. As a writer, intellect, and lover of all things secretive and poetic, I can think of no better place to explore than Oxford. From its mysterious beginnings and fabled history to its modern-day reputation for advanced education, there is so much on my <em>want-to-see <\/em>list for this visit. However, I\u2019ve learned a great deal over the past two years about traveling as a <em>student<\/em> rather than a <em>tourist<\/em>, so it is through that lens that I highlight the following objectives of my upcoming visit.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Engaging with the People <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><em>The Culture Map<\/em> by Erin Meyer has become my go-to book in grounding myself for any experience with a new culture. To fully immerse myself among the people of Oxford and learn from them, I investigate how their culture differs from my own using the key categories Meyer explores. Here is a summary of what I found:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The US and UK are both on the low-context end of the scale when it comes to communication, but there is still a significant difference. In the US, good communication is precise, simple, and clear. Repetition is appreciated for clarity. The UK falls closer to the center of the scale with communication being more high context, sophisticated, nuanced and layered.<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a><\/li>\n<li>When it comes to evaluating a person, place or experience, the UK again falls in a similar place as the US right in the middle of direct negative feedback versus indirect negative feedback. <a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> However, the UK is more indirect, according to Meyer. For example, when the British say, \u201cWith all due respect\u2026\u201d they may really mean \u201cI think you are wrong.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a><\/li>\n<li>And perhaps the most important difference for me to keep in mind (given that I tend to be emotionally expressive), is that when it comes to confrontation and emotional expressiveness, the UK is more emotionally <em>unexpressive<\/em> and tends to avoid confrontation more than the US.<a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One of my goals in Oxford is engage with the people there in a positive way, so keeping these cultural differences in mind is important.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Engaging My Imagination<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I do not believe in coincidences, but the fact that many of my favorite authors hail from the streets and colleges of Oxford is serendipity at its finest. Seeing the lamppost, walkway and doorframe that may have inspired C.S. Lewis\u2019s Narnia and visiting the pub where my favorite Inklings C.S. Lewis, J.R. R. Tolkien and Owen Barfield debated and shared the genesis of their imaginary worlds has me waiting for these experiences in utter delight.<a href=\"#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref6\">[6]<\/a> Not to mention that the literal door handle on the deanery\u2019s door at Christ\u2019s Church was made for the real life Alice (daughter of the dean) for whom Lewis Carol, then the librarian at Christ\u2019s Church, wrote Alice and Wonderland.<a href=\"#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref7\">[7]<\/a>\u00a0 The consciousness of imagination is real to me and I plan to have my notebook readily available to glean any tidbits of creative ideas that want to come my way as I explore the landscape of my favorite authors.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Engaging The Holy Spirit <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The final quest I have for visiting Oxford is to spend some retreat time alone with God\u2014particularly reflecting on what He is calling me toward after I complete my doctoral degree. In preparation for this time away, I\u2019ve been reading <em>Invitation to Retreat <\/em>by Ruth Haley Barton. It has changed my mindset about time away and how to spend alone time with God away from the toils of daily life. Barton explains it this way:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cMany of us are wasting our life\u2019s energy fighting for things that aren\u2019t that important in the whole scheme of things. There are times when the quiet of retreat is the only way we will be able to discern well what battle we should be engaging and how. As it turns out, the invitation to pull back and put some distance between ourselves and the battle line is the first and, in some ways, most significant invitation to retreat.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn8\" name=\"_ftnref8\">[8]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>My prayer for the retreat of Oxford is an openness to receive wisdom from God about my next steps and to discover the battle He has prepared for me to fight.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Paul Sullivan, <em>The Secret History of Oxford<\/em>, Reprint edition (The History Press, 2013).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Erin Meyer, \u201cThe Culture Map: Breaking through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business\u201d (New York: PublicAffairs, 2014), 39.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> Meyer, 69.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\">[4]<\/a> Meyer, 67.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> Meyer, 204.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" name=\"_ftn6\">[6]<\/a> <em>The Secrets of Oxford\u2019s Streets | And What Lies Beneath the University<\/em>, 2023, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Jck5VOnNL0s.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" name=\"_ftn7\">[7]<\/a> <em>Christ Church: A Tour<\/em>, 2021, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0jTbl-S0Q4s.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref8\" name=\"_ftn8\">[8]<\/a> \u201cInvitation to Retreat: The Gift and Necessity of Time Away with God (Transforming Resources): Barton, Ruth Haley: 9780830846467: Amazon.Com: Books,\u201d 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The adage if walls could talk comes to mind when I consider the upcoming doctoral advance to the celebrated city of Oxford, England. In preparation for the trip, I reviewed Paul Sullivan\u2019s quippy book The Secret History of Oxford[1] and lost myself in Youtube videos about this historic city. As a writer, intellect, and lover [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2799],"class_list":["post-32893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-oxford-sullivan","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32894,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32893\/revisions\/32894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}