Fight Song
What a weekend! So much to write, so little time. The Emmanuel retreat was Friday night. After it ended Saturday morning, we drove over to Gatlinburg, stayed in a hotel overnight, and then went to the Knoxville Zoo today. We packed a lot in – especially for the kids – but it was a memorable weekend, to say the least. I’m sure I’ll post more about it over the next few days as I keep remembering different things.
To kick things off, I’ll talk about the “ice-breaker” at the retreat on Friday night. We divided into groups of 10 and were given an assignment: write the lyrics to a song that describes our ESR experience so far and perform it in front of the rest of the group. We were to use Rocky Top as the tune.
There were, of course, a few requirements that had to be included. Choreography and creativity earned points. These are the words we had to include: Seminary; exegesis; Appalachia (pronounced Apple-at-cha); the name of everyone in the group; at least one obscure ESR reference (including, but not limited to Dr. Wetzel, John Wasem, Jason Bembry, Maximus the Confessor, Aunt B’s restaurant, etc.); and complete group participation in the performance.
So – our group won with our little ditty. Here are the lyrics we came up with. Sorry if it’s crude. You can’t rhyme much with seminary…
Intro
Are you ready to rock?
Verse 1
What’s the deal with exegesis,
let’s keep the original, please.
Kip got dysentery while at seminary
eating down at Aunt B’s.
Verse 2
With Matt and Christy, John and Jennifer
Phil and B.J., too
Seth and Brian with Jason Bembry
singing this song for you
Chorus
ESR, you’ll always be
App-a-lachia to me
Good ol’ Holy Hill (Wooo!)
Holy Hill, Tennessee
Holy Hill, Tennessee
Outro
Thank you, Junaluska, we love you!
Go Emus!
BJ then did a stage dive directly onto Dr. Bembry. I managed to get my arms around both, saving them from immanent disaster. Hopefully, Dr. Bembry will remember that when I have him for Hebrew next year.
I was told the stage dive and Christy’s conversion of a piece of cardboard into a washboard were the game-winners for us.
What did we win for such lyrical beauty? The highly coveted Emmanuel Emus t-shirt. Of course, there are only Smalls left. There’s a reason Smalls are left – they don’t fit anyone. It’s the thrill of victory that matters, not the trophy, right?
I’m sure we’ll be singing this fight song for years to come during the intramural games at Milligan.
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Pronunciation Guide
We made sure to pronounce exegesis as “extra-Jesus”
Hence, the next line.
All those years…
You see, Matt, all those years of high school band and music theory has paid off! I wonder, would you have gotten more points for some face paint? Rock n’ Roll!
Re: All those years…
Ah yes, my parents’ tax dollars at work. Momma will be proud.
I wish I’d thought of face paint!
Re: All those years…
You’d think that after all those years of marching and playing at the same time, I’d be able to clap and sing at the same time, too.
Of course, I can’t! What’s up with that? All of those years of music training and I can’t do a simple task like sing and clap on the beat!
I can walk and chew gum at the same time, though. That counts for something, doesn’t it?