Sinead, Jose and I made it to the top of Bare Mountain yesterday.
The ambience of late summer persists with dry warmth and undulating green. Up close, however, there is evidence of the inexorable approach of fall.
Did the season enable our choice of topics? Our talk was by turns thoughtful, mixed with various griefs and life challenges, and amusing, rippled by laughter. The last time I was up here we also spoke of what one might call the spiritual.
Saila gets more kudos: her dissertation research is Research News of the Week in Helsinki!
One aspect of her research into mobile phone use discovered a "paradox between reachability and disturbance" in which,
“Being in peace seems to be connected to the Finnish concept of humanity and social relationships. Text messages are particularly handy for Finns, as you don’t have to reply right away even though you are reachable,” she says.
Do you want to see what Finnish looks like?
The weekend passed quickly, wedged between hectic work weeks for all of us. Yet the picnic at Alec's gravesite flowed leisurely. The steady stream of arrivals began at one pm and continued until the release an hour-and-a-half later.
The mood was at turns festive, contemplative, sad, and peaceful. The day itself was beautiful. Uncle Dick, all the way from Port Angeles, WA, offered some remarks. Many in the crowd were probably unaware that his daughter, our cousin Saundra, died of leukemia when she was twenty. (Her memory is celebrated annually by the Peninsula Tennis Club.)
Uncle Dick shared some thoughts with us from an article by Mark A. Lorenson, You Can Not Lose the Ones You Love, which challenges the "conventional wisdom" that "we miss the ones we love" (47). Applying the philosophy that "we, through our current beliefs, are actually creating our experience of 'missing'" (48), Lorenson proposes a reframing which Uncle Dick exhorted us all to try:
I love you and feel your presence.
In all ways, from everyone gathered and those whose thoughts were with us, a fitting tribute.
We ate breakfast at Deb and Bill's Cafe in Belton, Missouri. Under surveillance. One neighbor got a map to show us where Carrollton is - Austin is performing there with marching band today. Another neighbor congratulated Rich for finding a way to interrupt her life story. Christi (not one to mess up her schoolwork with doodles) recounted her stress-releasing strategy of making tic marks for each time the chatty nitwit (bless her heart) annoys her in class. Dad selected from "The Lighter Side" portion of the menu - until he learned he could have both corned beef hash and hashbrowns.
We're wearing bracelets in honor of Alec's life, celebrating being together on his account.
I have a feeling Alec would have enjoyed the two-seater.
We had in time in College Writing (first year writing) on Thursday to do a round of check-ins, "What's best about this class, What's worst about this class, and something random." I had not thought about participating (duh) and felt as on-the-spot as some of the students may have when it came to the end and - as a few students insisted - my turn. Alec and this trip to Kansas City was high on my mind, but I was thinking to myself, "No, that's too personal; telling them might compromise the teacher/student boundary." The students are interacting well, there was teasing and a fair number of comments and teasing about some of the things people shared. A minute or two before my turn, two of the boys had an exchange and one of them said, "Oh Snap."
That was my sign to let them know.
Ok, so there were many red marks on my proposal, but *I*never got suspended - for two days! - because I wanted to play with/against the rules of organized sports! (In first form, no less - a freshman in high school!) Nor did the girls not speak to me for three months at college because I Contra-created meanings against the grain! (Well, actually, they excommunicated me for ever but that's a whole 'nother story.)
:-)
My roommates and I celebrated the first day of classes in stereotypical graduate student fashion. I knew there was a reason I try to avoid "the usual!" With these two, however, the entertainment was extraordinary: superimpose the antics of county fair humor and you get the picture.
Meanwhile, I don't yet know my students reaction to having me as a teacher. I always assume that inside themselves, at least some of them are having an autonomic, gut-level surge of electrical zing, which - if visualized - might make them look something like this chicken.
This semester began with a bang: teaching two classes in one afternoon. Within hours they've begun to blur in my mind: both are writing, although at different levels (freshfolk, juniors) with particular curriculums (general academic writing, writing for the discipline of Communication), but the foundational goals of each involve building critical thinking skills and developing rhetorical voice.
I wish I had the text of the lyrics that accompanied Humphrey Dumpty during the excellent marionette show, as he recited the lessons he learned from his Uncle's terrible mishap with a wall.
Somehow, the carnivalesque nature of the County Fair was a perfect prelude to the start of this semester.
Reunions with old friends and meeting new ones abound.
Last night, I had tears streaming down my cheeks during a good portion of Talk To Me, particularly through the civil rights movement portion of this film depicting Petey Greene's life as an entertainer. Not only does Don Cheadle bring Greene's uncompromising assertiveness to life, Director Kasi Lemmons does a great job with the tension of differential ambitions between Greene and his Manager, Dewey Hughes (outstandingly acted by Chiwetel Ejiofor).
After a quick debrief, Natalia split the scene. Jose, Sinead and I were joined by John at Amherst Coffee. What a talk we had! Movie culture, memories of the sixties in the US, life in Malawi and Mozambique, and interpreting. Sinead had seen me working at the Graduate Commencement last spring - which included a protest against Andrew Card.
Prior to the movie, Jose and I ate while Jin (the Muscle-Bound-Tough-Guy) exercised his qi.
Our conversation covered Tae Kwon Do, Ta'i Chi, and the cultural politics of marriage.
I was reminded of my role as "community redneck," because the previous evening a crew of Ever-Smiling Evil Indians regaled me with various responses to the typical American questions about arranged marriages. "He had two camels" is one answer to the decision-making process of the women/parents involved. We were eating at The Crazy Noodle, perhaps that inspired the round of sheer silliness? Next thing I knew there was a reprise of "we ride our elephants to school, they have their own parking lot," compete at "camel polo," and enjoy torturing valets with parking their mounts. You know they were getting to me because I became the "community ratkiller" in my notes (they give contracts to cats to kill the rats infesting every apartment) - perhaps a Freudian slip of my tendency to shine light into dark places? ;-) Is there really a sacred bull called Shambo? Maybe it was the Shiraz. Then Ambarish slipped, mentioning tunneling.
Quantum particles can penetrate into regions that are forbidden classically, leading to the phenomenon of tunneling.
We lost Ameya at this point - or did he lose us, kindof like the ball in soccer?! - and Supriya took off to find carryout containers. :-) by now, it's been ages since the Ever-Smiling Evil Indian admired my tennis shoes: "they're cool, with a hint of menace."
hehehe
Life follows language!
Ambarish added a cultural element while explaining arranged vs love marriages to a new friend a week or so ago, using me as his example: "We know there will be compromises. If I want to be friends with Steph, for instance, I know I'm going to have to make some compromises."
Laughter all around. :-)
