Life, Death, Aging

As I cycle through my friends' social media accounts  I find no evidence of mortality, no cognizance of a time when they might get old(er), no understanding of "the passing of things."  Young people think they will be forever young, forever flirtatious, forever attractive.  Older people think they will always be at their best (which, of course, they are at right now). The oldest among us do understand -- but pathetically have no response to the process or the result.

I would like to change that in me. I would like to both understand and acknowledge that life is finite, that health is a gift of great value, that death may be an even bigger gift. We should all be learning to live while we are aging. We should all be conscious enough about life to take nothing for granted. We should all be kind enough to tolerate whatever lapses exist in others, and be mindful of the lapses we cannot see in ourselves. And so it goes.

Writing for Non-Publication

I write for my brain. Not for others.  I write because my brain needs to vent, or to cry, or to harp, or to plead, or to beg for forgiveness, or to end an argument.  I write to fulfill my need to complete a thought -- usually one that has been rumbling around my head for years. Or at least months.

I write to be free -- I write to understand that freedom -- I write for myself, not for others.

Why Interlochen is so "SAD" for Me

I taught there for 9 plus years.  I saw and encouraged a level and degree of talent I could have never encountered elsewhere outside of a Broadway or West End audition.  I created the classes; the curriculum; the audition process; the courses (mainly neatly plagiarized and redefined from other institutions; I put everything I knew or could learn into the building of that program at that time into that school.

And the world blinked and didn't care. People learned or didn't. People lived through it -- hating it or loving it -- and passed by.  People cherished their teachers, or other students, or the beauty of the whole thing. And passed by.

I taught there for 9 plus years. And I experienced terrible pain, wonderful exhilaration, outrageous elements of all the emotions. I stretched myself to teach on the highest possible level; I gave critiques on the most intimate and personal of elements. I gave my students everything I had. I tried to be truthful when other teachers were shamelessly pandering.  I tried to be honest when the outside world itself didn't know how to react. I tried to be "normal" in the face of precocious talent.

But the world passed by. And the students passed by. And only a few understood that what was done for them, and with them, was important and deep. And the world passed by, without comment.

Twitter and Instagram Universe

Am not sure how aware people are about their vulnerability on social media.  Government and private source warnings have gone out recently about hackers using "high speed" software to coalesce
and profile online users of social media.

By coupling this information with previously-available information from computer and software registrations and ownership -- very complete profiles of individuals can be built extremely quickly and confirmed by multiple digital and non-digital sources.  The point to all these warnings is the same: "you are not safe online." "Your information, pictures, captions, tweets, etc. are not safe online!" Your address and phone number(s) can be isolated; your identity uncovered; all the specifics of family, children, status, age, job, education, etc. etc. etc. can be compiled!!!

It is increasingly easy to find information about anyone -- and then find numerous ways to "troll," undermine, create strife for, and otherwise harm the person being profiled!!!! Wise up and don't use social media as a substitute for life.  Meet people in person; flirt in person; make friends (or enemies in person); the virtual and digital world allows anyone, anyone at all, to target you.

Back to Writing

The talk is of "racism!"  As it should be; as it should have been for the past 150 years. We need to open up and be truthful about our hopes, our fears, our tendencies, our proclivities, our sexism, our racism. Who we are is revealed by what we do!

Do you (or I) act like a racist; do we think in racial terms; do we stereotype people or cultures?  Can we admit to ourselves how we think? -- or are we so self-indulgent that we would always "blame others" for our opinions, no matter how misguided or offbeat they might be?

Can you love -- a person of another race? Can you tolerate "someone you don't like" as a human being, without reducing them to some kind of stereotype?

We all need to examine our own thinking -- and reduce our prejudices by excising them from our clear thinking and real experiences. Be a real human being; grow as a human being; learn to love, not just for Jesus' sake, but for your own and the good of all.

Faces of the Past; Faces of the Future

Watching my former students graduate last evening set the stage for the future. They are moving on, or have moved on -- and now conceptualizations about them (as students) must also change.  Now they are colleagues; they are friends; they are fellow-travelers on life's many journeys.

So when we meet them in the street, or at a shop, or in a restaurant -- a whole new way of thinking and reacting should be generated.

Do any students actually grasp this? Do they know their status has changed in the eyes and hearts of those who so carefully worked with them while they were students? Do they get what the real world is about?

I wonder.

Graduation Today

Today I will be attending the "ten thousandth" graduation of my life, at least! And I won't be liking it much.  Graduations have come to mean a kind of "pro forma" passage to a new life --- but it ain't necessarily so.

Lives don't change; jobs don't come flocking to one's email box; life doesn't pin a rose on your forehead. Everything stays the same; and everything also changes. At the point of graduation one has to "get back in the game," move on, get motivated, find the new way, change/change/change ---- now!

Most younger students don't get that. For them the achievement is enough -- it's like running a four-minute mile, or making love without any birth control, or having a really, really fine meal.  It is a moment in time to be enjoyed -- and as end -- rather than as a beginning of a long new process.  And so it goes.