the basics and other basics

In IL (Intro to Lit) today, we went back to basics asking about motive, impulse, life and death, winners and losers, science and the speculative.

Always tough subjects, especially when we’re talking, hypothetically, of course, about “impressions” one makes about people who walk into class late or otherwise break rules or do something that draws attention from cultural norms. Then, of course, someone walks into class late and the word LOSER is written up on the board and everyone laughs, and then things must be explained and you hope for a strong sense of humor. Lucky, the class is loaded with it.

We talked some about the “blueblack” cold of Robert Hayden, such an important cold. The quality of cold and experience, waking up in it. The shape of human experience as expressed in language.

We’ll continue with this. To ask questions like, “Where does fire come from?” and “Why are we warring again?” Those words from McCarthy are recalled: “. . . and the night will not end.”

on religion

Carlos Fuentes in his novel The Campaign writes that God doesn’t need the Church but the Church needs God.

The universe is a big place. It’s so big and mysterious that the human mind perceives just a tad of it, a mere slice. String Theory claims that our senses only experience a few of its surface dimensions, four of them. Our eyes are trained to see colors and sizes so everything becomes color and size. I see what seems large but proportionally what is it? I’ve always liked those small to large video takes, where we see from space and swoop down to the eye of a frog. Proportion. But it’s not just about proportion. Medieval mystics, such as Hadewijch, who wrote about and gave advise on how to live, had their own way of getting close to the mysteries of the world and explaining them.

When I read about Michael Sheridan’s letter in Colorado Springs concerning Catholic politicians and their votes, I have to snicker (recalling Fuentes) at its cynicism, but it’s a snicker that bugs me, because such an action at this time and in this place seems to me small-minded, foolish, mean, and dismissive of a great tradition of human thinkers and dismissive, ultimately, of human proportion. The universe demands big thoughts, big eyes, big leaps, big telescopes, and small gestures that matter because they’re a piece of that thing which in its whole, even in some of its parts, is too grand and wonderous to understand. Consider the size of a nebula or the power of a black hole or the intricacies of a string. Compared to these hate and ignorance are about as insignificant as it gets.

Prayer in its many forms is a small thing, but it’s still a way of speaking to the Nebula and to those places where the lamps are born.

on gifts

Hm. Someone left a Lara and Reyes CD under my door. I suspect Beverly. Thank you.

I have received many gifts this semester: CDs, sweaters, and more. Thanks to all of you, Susan, Neha, now Beverly.

on paths

Wanderlust examines the path here:

An older generation that once succumbed to a frustrated life of duty, repsonsibility, and expectations went on to create children who, a few decades down the road, mirrored their parents. A lawyer’s son is doomed to be a lawyer. I’ve seen the minds of countless children brainwashed by their parents. The windows in their rooms have been boarded and nailed shut, their phone lines disconnected, their T.V. privileges snatched away from them at the beginning of the school year, and the playground declared out of bounds. The Spartan remake begins as early as grade 6 to ward off evil distractions from their life’s goal. The parents goal. It took my brother twelve years to convince my father that he didn’t want to study to be an accountant for the rest of his life.

How can a person break away from a never ending cycle if s/he was born into it? How can a generation or a society be expected to bring about significant progress or change, it the majority of the population is made up of frustrated individuals who, at the end of the day, choose to take the “safe” road home? How is the pull of gold so strong that it causes people to unwittingly and unknowingly hand themselves over as slaves in exchange for a handful of coins? I have tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to wrap my mind around this concept. There has to be more to life than social acceptance and money.

I wonder if it’s profitable to ask the question: why must there be “more than” social acceptance and money. Social acceptance can be rewarding, can it not, and very deep, since part of the social involves relationships, friendships, and enemies? Can we claim that this is a problem with confusing, or often confusing, work with life or working with living. Don’t we often learn that what we’re born into is often just fine unless, of course, that space has been destructive of others and destruictive of ideas?

Wally and gas

Narrative to character tie-in. It is Wally who wonders about sunpower. Why? Because he has an “I’m being chased” personality. All his life. Had he been turning his head all this time because of an impression of foot-falls at his back? Maybe. Or maybe it’s something else. It’s not an “I’m being chased” it’s a “chase me” thing.

He turns to find out, “Am I being followed?” If not, why not? If not, “How to cause? And when I’m caught, then what?”

He knows he’s covered lots of ground in multiple dimensions. At Machu Picchu, he encountered a past and a present and a future and each must be “chased,” “known.” He carries all of these on his old back, even as he falls.

There’s lots of ground to cover. South to North and across the country. His daughter, Wanda, will follow, get close, loose him again, entering and exiting figures, symbols, birds, coiled snakes.

on crises

People talk about energy crises. There is no energy crises. Thereis, however, a real creativity crises. Does XP need a damned desktop cleanup wizard? Nope.

XP needs sun and wind power.

For sunpower all we need is a good editor.

on gas prices

So about that sticker shock at the pump. I’m actually hoping gas goes up another two dollars.

What drives innovation?

on the polls

This from CBS:

Mr. Bush’s overall job approval rating has continued to decline. Forty-one percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 52 percent disapprove  the lowest overall job rating of his presidency. Two weeks ago, 44 percent approved. A year ago, two-thirds did.

Sixty-one percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Mr. Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, while just 34 percent approve.

No, what bothers me is that the numbers in support are even that high. Those in support of current policy and strategy should be down to 5 people.