Looking Back

I just spent a little time looking back at some of the 200+ essays on my blog. Some remained like bright stars while others seemed dated and unrecalled. Some were angry rants and some reflective observation. Some were tales of events in the real world and some were more, well, otherworldly. I read through quite a few of them and found a few typos and grammar issues that were unintended, while others had some intentional misspellings and free form grammar used for some purpose. Some were about family, some about strangers and some about friends.
I was pleased that I could see no mean-spirited rants or innuendo-filled snide shots at anyone.
A friend told me something her husband once told her that seems present in many of the things I write. He mused that he figured we are all born with a quantity of patience, and as we get older we use it up. At some point we are pretty much out of it, and we begin to take on the world. That’s me. Where once I would have just gotten pissed off at something and moved on, now I am more likely to confront and openly express my own point of view.
For example, I was never abused by a Priest as a youngster, but that whole thing still upsets me, and when new insults arise, I check my “patience bucket” and find it low. So I react, more for the point than with hope of influencing change. For example, the Vatican has just released revised canon law that makes pedophilia and ordaining women to the priesthood equally “grave defects” and orders instant excommunication for both. What a load of crap. But there it is. So I will write and talk about it for awhile without hope of bringing sanity here, but to inform maybe a few readers who will in turn inform a few others.
When I started this enterprise I didn’t think I had much to say. Wrong. What I didn’t know was that I was nearly out of patience. Very dangerous for someone who has strong opinions and time on his hands.

Image: Used with permission of the artist, Marc Archambault: http://papershine.com/archives/category/daily-icon/
News source:http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/836880--revised-vatican-law-labels-sex-abuse-female-priests-as-crimes

You Never Forget

That’s what they say: Once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget. Correcto!! Over the weekend a friend gave us two nice bikes. Boss Cruisers. Six speeds of thigh-tiring work.
This morning I took my test ride. You should understand that in the old days, read that when I was 14 or 15, a 20 mile ride, up and down hill on my heavy one speed Columbia, was no big deal. Later when I got my brother’s 3-speed, it was even easier. So anyway, this morning off I went, down the driveway, dogs barking and hackles up, out on the road (down hill) and flying. Whee! Suddenly I remembered a hiking truism: When the trail goes down, it will go up just as far. Same with bikes it turns out. The bottom of the hill came fast, downshift, peddle like mad to go up, panting, thighs burning, slow down, turn around, fly down, and then up into the driveway. Crikey!!! Semi out of breath, thighs belong to someone else, dogs snarling at me and the bike. What fun.
I can easily walk 5 miles, and we do walk 3.5 miles every Saturday and Sunday on the same road that just defeated me in, what, 1000 feet?
They say you never forget HOW to ride a bike and that is right, but your legs sure as hell forget how to peddle up hill for a mile, or even 100 feet. The next ride will be the St. Marks trail. Nice and flat. I figure a couple of trips on that will begin to get things back in shape. In the mean time I will try the 1000 foot challenge every day this week and maybe even later today. I’ll keep the cell phone on in case I have to call 911.

Image: http://www.students.stedwards.edu/mstewar4/mountainbiken.jpg

Shattered.

During a rainstorm, the pot holding a blooming Huernia zebrine fell off the plant stand and shattered. So did the plant, which is quite fragile. No worries this time, though. The plant shards will root easily and resurrect as about 10 “lifesaver plants”.
As I looked at the pot and plant, though, I thought of the fragility of things around us, including our and others lives. One misstep and everything shatters. A friend last year was doing everything right and got hit head on by a log truck in the wrong lane. Shattered. He recovered, but struggled for many months. The pot and plant make a perfect metaphor for much that is around us every day. I have written before about drinking the best wine first, and not waiting for the last possible moment in retirement to do “that traveling we have planned for decades”. Things are too fragile to trust to the future. The economy, the wierding of global climate, the scarcity of water in many places, the scarcity of food in many places, the decline of fish stocks in the ocean, the oil spill in the Gulf all illustrate the transitory nature of things around us.
So, don’t wait for the “shattering”. Go for it now if you can. The good news is that with a little planning you probably can begin to get caught up on the list of things to do/see/accomplish. The bad news is that if something happens, you won’t recover as easily as the plant. If you have a good bottle of wine, open it and enjoy. If you don’t, go out and get one. If you don’t drink, do something else, but for heaven’s sake do something before you can’t.

Education Defined

July 27, 2009 I wrote an essay that included some thoughts on education. I am revisiting some of that, and expanding ------
Sally and I have a morning and evening ritual. We “prebrief” with coffee in the AM and “debrief” with a glass of wine in the PM. I recommend this method to everyone. Keeps communications open and fills us both in on the day.
So anyway, this morning I was telling her about a new adjunct at my old Uni. This guy is somewhere in the Midwest, and teaches a bio course online. I think online science courses are OK if your goal is factual content, but nearly worthless if you are trying to build lab skills. And there is the issue of “community” to consider. You sit in class with someone you find interesting and after class go for a coffee of coke or something and get to know them. Maybe even a couple of people. An on line community is at best a shadow of that model. And if the class isn’t synchronous students may never relate to each other in real time at all. I think this is a problem, and requires a redefinition of “college education”.
To me, a college education should include lots of chances to meet people who are the same as you and who are different from you. A chance for free ranging conversations that help to sharpen your own thought process (much as writing does for me) and a chance to meet new people and be exposed to new ideas. If a college education is sitting at a computer somewhere doing papers and looking up stuff on the internet and listening to Elluminate and or Softchalk lessons, or just doing seat work we should admit up front that the kind of “college education” represented by that kind of experience is different. Maybe not undesirable for everyone, but certainly different.
Ask any of my former students who have been on one or more of the numerous field trips I lead if they would rather have a virtual tour of a steep head, and for most of them the answer will not be just "no" but HELL NO".
Humans spent a million years or more learning the skills that would carry them through life in small groups, or one-on-one and face to face. That method was used essentially until the 1980s when computer labs for all began to be built. Enter the internet, and BANG! - distance e-education. I don’t think that kind of education is all crap. I just think it is crap for some things and crap for some people.
Put another way one might hear: “Hell boy, you ain’t educated. You can’t skin a deer, track a fox or make your own ‘shine. What the hell good can you do anyway? You can’t find your way around the mountains, survive the winter on your own, find water, shoot or any other damn thing that is important. Book learning ain’t gonna cut it here.” I made up that conversation, but do you see the point? Different kinds of education for different situations. The rush to on-line college is leaving behind some very valuable lessons. Fight back. Demand face-to-face classes.

The F-bomb

Thank you George Carlin for the 7 dirty words you can’t say on television (or radio) (1). His comedy bit defined for all of us the bleeped words now so familiar. Yesterday the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) lost a court case that challenged the rules as vague and unequally applied, and claimed that because the rules related to the magnificent 7 are arbitrarily applied, a chilling effect (legal term for inhibiting free speech) on broadcast media is apparent (2).
About time, too. I grew up with the F word. F this and F that and where is the F-ing thing. It is all over the media, rules or not, and all over literature. No, not in Harper Lee’s book, but keep looking and you will find it well represented. This morning, Morning Edition (NPR radio) had a sound bite from someone who stated unequivocally that the F word is obscene and offensive. I don’t agree.
But if you do agree, then why do you say “fricken” this or “fricken” that? Or maybe “F” this or “F” that? We all know you mean the f-bomb, so why not say it out loud? If the word “fuck” is obscene or offensive, then “fricken”, which stands in for it is equally obscene and offensive. If you would not agree that fricken is offensive, then you acknowledge that fuck isn’t either. The use of “fricken” or some other f-substitute is just a sidestep, but the intent is to conjure up the real F word.
Years ago, I mean many years ago, when I was about 10 or 12, I got in trouble for saying “Jesus Christ! “ about something. Not long after, I heard an older boy shout “Judas Priest!”, meaning “Jesus Christ!” I tried that at home and got only a mild response, and quickly leaned a lesson: If you say what you mean and mean what you say you can get into trouble, but if you allude to what you mean and obfuscate slightly, you skate by. Now THAT I think is obscene and offensive. When I hear you say “frick it” and we both know you mean “fuck it” I find that offensive.
On closing let me recommend a little ditty by Kevin Bloody Wilson that illustrates the point in song. It is about the “C” word, but equally relevant. Warning: He uses both the “C” word AND the “F” word, so if you offend easily, you better not click on the link. Have a fricken flippin friggin wonderful day.
Kevin Bloody Wilson singing “You can’t say C*** in Canada”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBWAjn2a3rA

1.WARNING: The 7 words are used often in this video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Nrp7cj_tM
2. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/07/13/128490248/fcc-indecency-rules-unconstitutional-appeals-court
Image: mybiggestcomplaint.com/.../2007/08/f-bomb.jpg

Dead Possum

NPR again. A small essay I cannot find that included the idea that communication between spouses is sometimes less than direct. The example was a wife telling her husband that "There is a dead gopher in the yard". This really asks or tells the husband to go outside and get rid of the dead animal.

How often have we all made those kind of observations that said one thing but carried much more implied content? Things like " Its really hot in here, isn't it?" or "The car is making a funny noise again" or " Wow, the grass sure grows fast this time of year, doesn't it?". All have deeper content and probably are said to prompt some action.

Now the question is why bother to hide a request or order in a seemingly innocent observation? I would like to think the reason is a natural tendency in good relationships to be less bossy and confrontational and more cooperative. Rather than saying "Get your fat ass up off the couch and bury the dead gopher that is in the yard", saying "There is a dead gopher in the yard" gives some room for the couch potato to be sort of self motivated. Good strategy for getting along.

So now in our family we have the "dead possum" (lots of them around and few gophers) question. Someone says "The grass is getting long, isn't it?" and the partner asks "Dead possum?" meaning do you want me to cut it, or is that just an observation? This opens the dialogue to further discussion which results in the grass getting cut eventually. Much more civilized than the alternative, don't you think?

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/turtlemom_nancy/4321862269/

A Tale of Unlikely Friends

Owl and Tortoise met one morning at a pond, each there for a drink. Owl said he had been thinking about all the ways he and Tortoise were different. "I can fly and am very fast while you walk very slowly. I eat animals while you eat fruit and mushrooms. I have feathers while you have a hard shell, and I can hunt at night while you hunt in the daylight. Given the differences I think it is amazing that we are friends.” Tortoise thought a moment and said “I too have been thinking about our friendship and the ways we are the same: we both have few enemies, I because of my shell that protects me and you because you are a top predator. We both live long lives, though I am much older than you, and are considered wise by our animal friends, and we are both spirit guides for men. Given the similarities. our friendship was inevitable, don’t you think? And you know, Owl, that we are distant relatives, don’t you? We both are egg layers, and descended from ancient dinosaurs.”
Owl thought about what Tortoise had said and replied “You are right! I see now that the differences are really trivial while our similarities are important and deep. I know now which one of us is the wiser, too and clearly it is you.”
Tortoise thought about what Owl said and replied “No Owl, we are both wise, but in different ways. I am not the wiser, and the proof is that you are willing to see another’s viewpoint and learn from it. Only a wise and humble soul can recognize wisdom in others, and accept that others can be equally wise. I think our friendship is based on respect for each other, and respect for the world around us. Thank you for being my friend, Owl. I value that greatly.”
Then, as the sun rose above the horizon, Owl flew up to his tree, and Tortoise walked off to find breakfast, both content in their friendship, and both with a renewed feeling of respect.
Image: khazarsgathering2012.com/Images/galapagos-tor...

(For another tale of the same unlikely friends, go to this website khazarsgathering2012.com/pomseeds2.html and scroll down to the story. I do not endorse the philosophy of the site, but find it very interesting. Indeed, the story of the owl and tortoise there is very good.)

Leaving the Chaos Laboratory

For many of us, our office is a sanctuary and fortress, and a place to gather. Work? Sometimes that too. But if you are an academic and all your office is used for is work, you are missing the whole point. Every particle of junk in my office has a story, or could tell one if pushed. For the last 25 years my office, although 3 different rooms, held the bits and pieces of me in my academic life. Old tests and papers, old grade books, textbooks, novels, slides, dried specimens, flags of students countries, tea towels from places I visited, artwork (mine and others) and much more. If one listens carefully the echoes of laughter, crying, and quiet discourse can be heard.
When I retired “Emeritus” a benefit was keeping an office as long as the space wasn’t needed for new faculty. It was more than an office then. It was a lifeline to the past, a past that simply wouldn’t let go. I am still working on campus 2 years later, and the office is little used. Others have a greater need, so I will move into a smaller shared space and yield the “Chaos Laboratory” to another. Here is what I hope the next occupant will experience in the old Chaos Laboratory:
Fun with colleagues and students
Creative time to innovate teaching ideas
Serious discussions about everything in the world, not just the narrow academic view of the new occupant
Quiet moments of contemplation
Serious sessions with students, helping them to clarify their life goals, and listening to their stories and problems
Student’s children climbing into a willing lap when they come with their parents to talk.
A door always open
A mind always open to new ideas and paradigms
Above all, listening.
I wish the new occupant of my old digs the best, and hope their tenure is as long, fun and fulfilling as mine has been. As for me, I have a new project. Somewhere on campus there is a space waiting to become the next “Chaos Laboratory”. I am hoping that when I finish boxing up the accumulata of the years, I will uncover some forgotten gem.

Maybe a Higgs Boson.

Image 1 drewfrancis.wordpress.com/2008/10/

Finding your inner fish!!!

My students of yore (that is a lot of students) will recall the discussions we had on Evolution. (Hisss. Did he actually say “Evolution” out loud? ) Yes by jiminy, I did. Evolution is settled science. No arguments at all over “If” or “maybe” or “possibly” or “speculative”. No, now the refinements of how, where and when come into play. Denying evolution is like denying sunrise. Even a blind person can feel the sun rise. Even a rock reacts to the sunrise.
So you guys remember the Tiktaalik right? And then we discussed the importance of the structures found in that animal that resulted in the evolution of quadrupeds that include us and everything else with 4 limbs. Here is a book to read that delves into the connections in more detail and makes connections that I could not. Why you ask? This guy knows more about Tiktaalik than anyone. He found it and has studied it since.
The next time you are quoting Search, or arguing with some ignorant soul denying evolution, just end it by telling the cretin to “get in touch with your inner fish, and watch out for hemorrhoids. (Theory is the vessels around the anus of a fish, our ancestor, were not evolved to be sat upon or vertical for long periods of time: therefore they swell and hurt.)
I love my inner fish. Don’t you wish everyone did? You can have fun looking for your inner yeast, too.
(And by the way, there is no point in arguing with anyone about the truth of Evolution Theory unless you like to argue about things like "there is no sun" or " air is really gasoline" or some other such nonsense. There is nothing to argue about. Truth is truth, and evolution is the truth. Period, or as my English family would say "Full Stop". )
NPR source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127937070&sc=nl&cc=nh-20100705
Image and book review: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/feb/10/shopping.scienceandnature

July 5th: Time for Reflection

The battle of Carthage 238ce was won decisively by Rome (1). In the film “The Gladiator”, a mock battle staged in the coliseum had a different result: the rebels won. That was fiction. Our rebellion is fact, and we won against a massively superior force: the British Empire.
The reasons for rebellion are usually complex, and sound bites and simple statements like “we fought for our freedom” or “we fought because they taxed us unfairly” don’t touch the long mix of reasons. The Americans did fight for their freedom, and were taxed unfairly, and were badly treated in trade, and were enslaved on the seas, and, well, the list goes on. But fight we did, and win we did. Over the years, the Constitution, that document that neocons and other conservative types insist should be interpreted only as the Founder wrote, has been amended many times. Tweaked. Interpreted both by vote (the amendments) and by precedent (court decisions). The Constitution has proved to be an invaluable guide to the more than 200 years of governance for America. It was written on paper, not stone.
I heard one of the Senators during the Kagan hearings say that Americans have never had less freedom than now, and he believed it continues to erode. He implied, as best I can remember, that some Supreme Court decisions had helped the slide into servitude.
If this is true, then what can we do about it? Buy more guns? Vote Libertarian (2)? Form militias and fight the government? No doubt both major political parties have curtailed some liberties. The Republicans want to take away a woman’s rights of personal body decisions (abortion), selectively remove habeas corpus (slippery slope?), listen to all your phone conservations without a court order and give mega corporations status as persons for 2nd amendment rights of free speech. This from the party that wants more freedoms and less government control. The Democrats want more regulation of financial giants, oil companies, air and water quality and healthcare, and want less freedom to purchase certain kinds of guns.
Both parties claim to be for more freedoms while at the same time curtailing freedoms in many areas. The battle cry of the year may be “throw the bums out!” The incumbents from both parties have gotten us here over the last 75 years or so. Time to start over? Maybe so, but it ain’t gonna happen, as is often heard in the South.
See, I think our guys (Democrats) are doing a better job than the other guys (Republicans) and the other guys think the same about us. So I won’t throw out bums of my party but would love to see some Republicans bite the dust. They feel the same way, and would love to see the Democrats bite the dust while their numbers grow. Oh yeah, and all the while Rome BURNS.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carthage_(238)
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_Party_(United_States)
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/froodmat/16722536/in/photostream/