I have finally reached the homestretch of my research portion of the independent study. As the final two weeks of my summer intensive come to a close, I would like to share with you the information that this blog will continue. It will change, however, in content and may not have a blog post every weekday. The content will always be about John Wesley, but it may be more focused on the show in general and the process that it will be undertaking in the fall. Anyway, you followers are expecting to read something new, well here is what I learned today.

For today’s blog I have been reading many different letters written by John Wesley. More importantly, in today’s reading the focus was on John Wesley’s family. John wrote to his father, mother, and eldest brother Samuel. In these letters he is rather professional as if he is talking to a colleague instead of a family member. John gets into very educated discussions that often get heated in the way that one would with a rival scholar. It is as if John Wesley used his family to hone his argumentative skills that he uses later in life. He gets into arguments about different theologies depending on which parent he is talking to. The conversations with his older brother are interesting because they both went to the same university, but what I find interesting is how he feels about his education.

In one of his conversations with his mother he comments on his education and his ability to use it in the future. John Wesley writes “One advantage, at least, my degree has given me: I am now at liberty, and shall be in a great measure for some time, to choose my own employment. And as I believe I know my own deficiencies best, and which of them are most necessary to be supplied, I hope my time will turn to somewhat better account than when it was not so much in my own disposal.” John saw his education as a gateway to a better life, but as he got older he saw that his education was to be the piece of his life that gave him a bit of power in changing the thoughts of society. He was not always liked, as my previous blog posts suggested, but understood that his education allowed him to be in powerful positions.

I am not sure if the letters will be good for the show, mostly because I don’t think people want to watch someone write a letter to someone. I do feel that they will help in the writing process of the show. By reading his letter conversations between John and his family, I will be able to write a more true dialogue between family members. I now know that as John got older, he began to see family as colleagues and not family members. I am interested to see how the dynamic is portrayed on stage, but I guess that will all depend on the lines I write for the show. Stay tuned to see what happens with the show.