Labor Day Weekend gives all teachers, even those of us at STC, an extra day off. That means that more "work at home" can be done (and I have a lot of it). More cleaning, yardwork and other kinds of "catch up" work can be attempted --- and it must be, and soon.
Labor Day also signals the beginning of the end of the "hot" season in Savannah. Too bad. I will miss the "summer dresses" I always enjoy seeing; I will miss the parade of bare legs; I will most miss the bodies bared to the heat.
But the Fall in Savannah is glorious: warm, sunny, mostly calm, and always easy-going. Hopefully no stray hurricanes will come our way and we will all do well in our calm and yet focused lifestyle.
Happy Labor Day to all to us who labor --- for too-little money, for too long, for too-little respect and leisure. Happy Labor Day!
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Cancer
The husband of a close collegial friend at STC recently underwent an operation for colon cancer. Cancer does not strike the same chord of fear in people that it once did, but it should. Doctors and the medical community are trying to convince all of us that survival rates are up, the view of cancer should change to "living with cancer," and that cancer is a survivable event. Since all that medical talk is "change of tone" rather than
"change of substantial fact" I prefer to accept cancer for what it is -- a life-threatening disease that cannot, at this point, be cured by medical science.
Cancers can be arrested for a time; they can be slowed to the level of no discernible growth -- but they cannot be cured. Inevitably they grow again -- or they are metastasized to some other area of the body. Cancer is not the devil -- but it is not a benign sickness.
There are so many different kinds of cancer that it is unthinkable to imagine that somehow you need not worry about it. Cancer, in many ways subtle and general, changes the order of things in everyone who is touched by the disease.
"change of substantial fact" I prefer to accept cancer for what it is -- a life-threatening disease that cannot, at this point, be cured by medical science.
Cancers can be arrested for a time; they can be slowed to the level of no discernible growth -- but they cannot be cured. Inevitably they grow again -- or they are metastasized to some other area of the body. Cancer is not the devil -- but it is not a benign sickness.
There are so many different kinds of cancer that it is unthinkable to imagine that somehow you need not worry about it. Cancer, in many ways subtle and general, changes the order of things in everyone who is touched by the disease.
Fame's Not the Game
At Lafayette College, we used to have a joke about the idea "I Know Famous People." Anyone who did a lot of name-dropping was guilty of this kind of "crime" and should be forever damned by having to wear a "hole-y" tee shirt with that phrase: "I Know Famous People" emblazoned across the front.
I don't know a lot of famous people -- I must admit. Many of my students have easily eclipsed my fame in just about everything I do/did. And that was all expected. I am an observer/teacher/learner by trade and take great delight in that process. Fame is a kind of useless concept anyway. What does "fame" mean? When that movie/television show came out, many people compared it to the Interlochen experience --- talented people who are carefully auditioned, trained well, connected with the right kind of mentoring, and then who succeed marvelously, Just like on "Fame." Interlochen did create fame for many -- but more importantly, gave them a chance to share their talents. It's all about talent; not about fame.
I don't know a lot of famous people -- I must admit. Many of my students have easily eclipsed my fame in just about everything I do/did. And that was all expected. I am an observer/teacher/learner by trade and take great delight in that process. Fame is a kind of useless concept anyway. What does "fame" mean? When that movie/television show came out, many people compared it to the Interlochen experience --- talented people who are carefully auditioned, trained well, connected with the right kind of mentoring, and then who succeed marvelously, Just like on "Fame." Interlochen did create fame for many -- but more importantly, gave them a chance to share their talents. It's all about talent; not about fame.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Thinking of Bertina (Tina)
I try not to think of Tina too much -- though it seems to happen every day. I feel a tremendous sense of loss when I do. This Gemini woman is so incredible when she is positive, and open, and real, and unafraid. And then she slides back into her fears and becomes just hateful, and "impossible."
I am a pretty typical male -- who has had a charmed and lucky life personally: good parents, and nice education, some obstacles/but nothing too bad; just a positive and focused life. Like many others I have had and will always have doubts: about myself, my beliefs, my future. That is just being human.
Bertina seems to allow no doubts; she trusts in nothing that is not absolute. I have faith that there is an absolute -- a "greater than myself," God -- but I am not sure of His/Her relationship to me as a person, or to mankind in particular. Bertina has been "saved" from many things in her life: an impossibly tough childhood, a unique family, her own escape into addiction, and other things to precious and intimate to mention. Being "saved" marks her as a one who doesn't have too much tolerance for those of us who don't understand that concept. I don't think I need to be "saved." The Biblical story of the "great fall" in the Garden of Eden makes little sense to me in the light of what I believe about human beings: we have free will, we will make mistakes, we are not perfect. None of those things make humans inherently bad -- and I refuse to believe we are such. We were created to be good; we are good.
Bertina has extraordinary promise as a human being; she undercuts this promise with her own spite, her own anger, her own longing for disappointment and failure. The love in her is nonetheless beautiful and deep -- but hopefully not wasted. I wish her all the happiness and fulfillment she can handle.
I am a pretty typical male -- who has had a charmed and lucky life personally: good parents, and nice education, some obstacles/but nothing too bad; just a positive and focused life. Like many others I have had and will always have doubts: about myself, my beliefs, my future. That is just being human.
Bertina seems to allow no doubts; she trusts in nothing that is not absolute. I have faith that there is an absolute -- a "greater than myself," God -- but I am not sure of His/Her relationship to me as a person, or to mankind in particular. Bertina has been "saved" from many things in her life: an impossibly tough childhood, a unique family, her own escape into addiction, and other things to precious and intimate to mention. Being "saved" marks her as a one who doesn't have too much tolerance for those of us who don't understand that concept. I don't think I need to be "saved." The Biblical story of the "great fall" in the Garden of Eden makes little sense to me in the light of what I believe about human beings: we have free will, we will make mistakes, we are not perfect. None of those things make humans inherently bad -- and I refuse to believe we are such. We were created to be good; we are good.
Bertina has extraordinary promise as a human being; she undercuts this promise with her own spite, her own anger, her own longing for disappointment and failure. The love in her is nonetheless beautiful and deep -- but hopefully not wasted. I wish her all the happiness and fulfillment she can handle.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
On the Brink
So many elements in the world are "on the brink!" We are on the brink of entering the war in Syria by adding US/UN airpower to the fight; we are on the brink of shutting down the government because a few maniacal right wing Republicans don't like Obamacare (or are racist, or both); we are on the brink of closing down the government and curtailing all services because of fiscal bullying on the anti-debt-ceiling caucus; we are on the brink of hurting the education of a number of STC students because we are convinced that we can force students to "learn faster" by giving them two Math or two English courses at the same time, by the same teacher, in the same classroom.
We are on the brink of moral turpitude as we pretend that our polarization is morally based -- as opposed to selfishly based. We are on the brink of climate disaster as the deniers rally their stupidity and pretend there are no climate changes going on in the world -- until their hats float gently off their heads.
Life isn't always on the brink -- but it seems as if it is. And then change puts us firmly on another brink.
We are on the brink of moral turpitude as we pretend that our polarization is morally based -- as opposed to selfishly based. We are on the brink of climate disaster as the deniers rally their stupidity and pretend there are no climate changes going on in the world -- until their hats float gently off their heads.
Life isn't always on the brink -- but it seems as if it is. And then change puts us firmly on another brink.
Monday, August 26, 2013
An Affinity for Brains
Attracted to talent; attracted to brains; attracted to energy; attracted to compassion! I have always been blown away by people who actually accomplish things and do so without compromising themselves.
These successful people do not "blame others" when they sometimes fail; when their efforts don't succeed. They do not "curse the wind" for bringing them ill will or bad luck. They make their own luck and eventually succeed because they are steadfast in their abilities, their hard work, and their focus.
My wonderful surrogate daughter Tosha is now engaged in a "great and scary project," testing whether that woman (or any woman), so educated and so talented, can long resist. She has met -- on a battlefield of that project -- an older, more cynical and savvy man -- who is inclined to use her for his own purposes. Can she get past these very human obstacles and still succeed in producing and directing (and perhaps even acting) according to her own principles. Or will she be used, for good or ill, to glorify and substantiate the "legacy" of another -- the older, the wiser, the more cynical, the more desperate. May the gods of theatre keep her talent intact, her reasoning sure, and her heart (as always) in the right place.
These successful people do not "blame others" when they sometimes fail; when their efforts don't succeed. They do not "curse the wind" for bringing them ill will or bad luck. They make their own luck and eventually succeed because they are steadfast in their abilities, their hard work, and their focus.
My wonderful surrogate daughter Tosha is now engaged in a "great and scary project," testing whether that woman (or any woman), so educated and so talented, can long resist. She has met -- on a battlefield of that project -- an older, more cynical and savvy man -- who is inclined to use her for his own purposes. Can she get past these very human obstacles and still succeed in producing and directing (and perhaps even acting) according to her own principles. Or will she be used, for good or ill, to glorify and substantiate the "legacy" of another -- the older, the wiser, the more cynical, the more desperate. May the gods of theatre keep her talent intact, her reasoning sure, and her heart (as always) in the right place.
Confusion, Confusion, Confusion
This registration and set-up period for classes has been the most confused, last-minute, and under-prepared-for semester in all my time at STC. I am not sure why -- new administrators, changing practices, new courses, many more students? Whatever the reason I have become more and more aware of the students' inabilities to cope with the bureaucracy attempting to do the impossible -- to reform itself
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