Do not feed the Amateur Philosophers

January 12, 2008

I’m currently on lunch from a seminar on basic literacy education. It’s a program that the county does to teach potential community volunteers for literacy outreach. It’s spanned over two Saturdays and this could be entirely condensed into a four hour session. I get a certification for this (woo?), but I feel a bit like I’m detention.

I promise never to have altruistic thoughts ever again! I promise to never to have altruistic thoughts ever again! I promise to never… 

[I never actually have been in detention. Hmm.]

In order to better relate to our students, our instructor handed out a passage from a graduate text book. Essentially, it was about truth vs. lie (a book for linguistics to better understand formal logic), but written in such dense, typical grad lingo, that everyone shook their heads. One woman said, “This isn’t really saying anything.”

Yep, some authors like to write so that they can show they’re so literate that they form mazes for their readers. A little against the idea of conveying meaning…but that is a whole other can of worms.

[Not that I do that. *cough*]

Of course we had one girl who needed to impress others with her verbosity. She tossed her curly hair and stated, “Now when talking about truth functionally…”, and lured in the instructor. They have at it until I leaned my head onto the table with a thump, where then the instructor comes out of her philosophical stupor and shakes her frazzled hair. 

“This doesn’t matter!” she screeched.

And this is why you don’t feed the budding philosophers.


The Past is Dead

January 12, 2008

The cycle keeps repeating itself. Five years ago, I watched someone in a white T-shirt walk away from me. Today, I watched the same person walk away from me in a white sweatshirt. It’s sad that as far as I’ve come, I’m still chasing  the same ghost.

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Contemplative Wednesday

January 9, 2008

Verse 71

Academia confuses knowledge with knowing
Most everyone applauds the memorization of the 10,000 trivia
Beware! These schooled addictions are not just myths -
They are a form of mental illness

Any fragment of the mind,
divorced from heart, spirit, human community,
and from the primal reality of the universe,
is an abomination of the Great Integrity

Let us prepare for the Great Integrity
by cleansing ourselves of all these cobwebs
of cluttered fragments that paralyze the mind
In this way we will function as our own holistic physicians

- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, translated by Raplh Alan Dale


Hair of Ages

January 6, 2008

Arg.My hair aspires to be more than it is. More often than not I do absolutely nothing with it, so my hair usually skips the chain of command and does what it wants. Sometimes I walk into the bathroom in the morning, screech to a stop against the linoleum, and admire the work my hair did overnight.  Shapely textured and correctly folded over a daring part, I can’t help but appreciate the effort. Then my hair sighs softly to itself as I step into the shower and pull it back into the librarian hawtness look. My hair and its efforts does sometimes get a reprieve because I’m lazy and it’s the weekend, and god, who again am I trying to impress?

As I sit here, waiting for the dye to adhere to my head, let me take an embarrassing trip back in time to see where I’ve been.

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Oops, Contemplative Thursday

January 3, 2008

“It surprises most people because I’m outgoing and friendly and, in fact, very far from shy, but I prefer one person and one conversation at a time. I fought this for years, always trying to be someone else. I made myself go to parties; I tried to fix what I thought was “wrong” with me. It didn’t help that other people would press, “But you’re so good with people,” as if being introverted meant living on the dark side.

I’ve learned to spot my like-minded peers, though. We’re the folks walking toward a festive house saying, “How long do we have to stay?” Or we’re the ones in the center of the room assessing others’ interactions, and slowly backing toward the door. Introverts crave meaning, so party chitchat feels like sandpaper to our psyche.

Here’s what introverts are not: We’re not afraid, and we’re not shy. Introversion has little to do with fear or reticence. We’re just focused, and we prefer one-on-one because we like to listen and we want to follow an idea all the way through to another interesting idea. That’s why small talk annoys us. So does pretending to be happy or excited or anything that we’re not.”

-Diane Cameron, Happy Introvert Day


I was waiting for the garish makeup…

January 1, 2008

…and it’s totally back. Once the legwarmers and asymmetrical haircuts made a comeback, I knew neon tights and broad swatches of unflattering eye makeup wouldn’t be far behind. Now this I can handle. Makeup that takes in those with no artistic ability? Sign me up; I’ve been doing this for years.

Oh, and the song is also most excellent.


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