tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125853042024-03-07T09:00:33.920-05:00Journals of a Transient InsectTravelin' Bug. That's me. Movin' around in life and such, changing shape and taking names. Post-Michigan, Pre-Martian days in Droughtland.anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06768693069991736677noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-83395293523431866282016-11-01T20:25:00.005-04:002016-11-01T20:25:57.284-04:00Samantha Bee Peabody highlight tape #62Wow, you guys! <br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OauLuWXD_RI" width="560"></iframe>
So good!anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06768693069991736677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-22034747652952477402016-11-01T18:27:00.004-04:002016-11-01T18:27:45.357-04:00THIS IS NOT A DRILL.A few white and/or guy friends have asked me recently how they
can help fight racism/misogyny. Here are several *time-sensitive*
requests:<br />
<br />
1. if you know anyone who is planning to vote for Trump
"as a joke," please explain to them why that is a TERRIBLE idea.
Example from less than a cosmic second ago: Brexit.<br />
<br />
2. if you
know anyone who is planning to vote for Trump because they believe his
message is (a) true or (b) valid, please explain to them who is
controlling and p<span class="text_exposed_show">uppet-ing him and (more
importantly) his followers. please explain to them the explicit
connections between increased domestic militarization and dictators'
rises to power in at least 5 recent examples besides Nazi Germany,
because most people don't remember anything from high school and the
word "Nazi" has become a generalized acceptable slang for "person I am
against."</span><br />
<br />
<div class="text_exposed_show">
3. Please then ask them to repeat steps 1 and 2.<br />
<br />
4. If you cannot convince them, please remind them everyone is allowed
no more and no less than 1 vote. There are seriously people who are
"voting twice" because they are afraid their Trump vote didn't count the
first time, NO JOKE.<br />
<br />
In sum: THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THE FUTURE THANKS YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO PEACE.</div>
anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06768693069991736677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-15217766980031573822015-05-02T23:47:00.002-04:002015-05-03T00:00:30.210-04:00This one's a bonus.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiriPGomNv-gOiQoxSzw3-DaEk40momKDyl9y4oj3oRWcdhyU9r_tL0Sx8PX4ZmEPUNlfG_4ciyHhutQpxuQ9dEeH357-ePrEKEMS3iQnhGTn8M_58_0YGrm1x7p7KcHM5I98Kc/s1600/36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiriPGomNv-gOiQoxSzw3-DaEk40momKDyl9y4oj3oRWcdhyU9r_tL0Sx8PX4ZmEPUNlfG_4ciyHhutQpxuQ9dEeH357-ePrEKEMS3iQnhGTn8M_58_0YGrm1x7p7KcHM5I98Kc/s1600/36.jpg" height="172" width="320" /></a></div>
Will I look like this in 2024? Would you trust this face to be your president?<br />
<br />
Lorde, I hope not. Please don't make me be president of the united states of america.<br />
<br />anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06768693069991736677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-69862341287890122232011-04-08T19:58:00.003-04:002011-04-08T20:07:02.584-04:00A pair of poems (new).i think i'd like to check myself out from the library<br />'cause i never return my books.<br />so, if i have a barcode and a beep and a due date,<br />i can return myself whenever i want, and<br />i can renew myself infinitely,<br />and if someone else wants to get a hold of me,<br />they can just recall me online, and poof,<br />i'll be delivered to their door,<br />or held at the circulation desk of their choosing.<br /><br />but if i don't turn myself back in when<br />someone else recalls me,<br />i'll have to pay a fine--the cost of replacement.<br />and then where would i be?<br />i'd have to figure out<br />how much money i'm worth<br />to someone else<br />for the purpose of<br />redistributing the knowledge<br />i have to offer<br />forever,<br />or until my pages fall out and<br />my spine is broken<br />and i can't (be) rebound anymore.<br /><br />and how much money could that possibly be?<br />more than i can afford, i'm sure.<br />and if i could afford to replace myself,<br />i could by a me of my own,<br />and i wouldn't need to check myself out from the library at all.<br />but i might want to anyway.<br /><br />and, plus, at the library, they have perfect temperature control,<br />to keep mold from growing inside me<br />(i'm allergic to mold),<br />and if there's a new edition of me, they can replace the circulating me<br />with a fresh new introduction and cover,<br />at no cost to the me who borrows.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">-+-</div><br /><br />what if i'm a serial, with new issues every season,<br />and the skin i shed isn't dead at all,<br />but crumpled-up content for the cover art?<br />can i read my back issues? does Ulrich's index me?<br />i hope i show progression of thought.<br />and that i have good underwriting.<br />and cpoy-editng.anandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06768693069991736677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-87244715176054111572009-05-27T13:27:00.002-04:002009-05-27T13:30:13.417-04:00Jane Fonda on privilege"Why was it that I had not paid more attention and taken action sooner? It wasn't that I was lazy or lacked curiosity. I think it had to do with giving up comfort--and I don't mean material comfort. I mean the comfort that ignorance provides. Once you connect with the painful truth of something, you then <span style="font-style: italic;">own</span> that pain and must take responsibility for it through action. Of course, there are people who <span style="font-style: italic;">see</span> and then choose to turn away, but then one becomes an accomplice." (<span style="font-style: italic;">My Life So Far</span>, p. 197)anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-16396501627640242012009-05-21T17:33:00.003-04:002009-05-21T17:42:41.199-04:00Trans/librarian, Part II was reading an article for the collection evaluation I'm doing as part of my internship this summer, and it gave me a lot of food for thought and helped me flesh out the points below, which have been nagging at me for some time. It's mostly just notes to myself to use in the future, but I thought you might find it interesting to read.<br /><br />This is the article that I reference: Moss, Eleanor. (2008). An inductive evaluation of a public library GLBT collection. <i>Collection Building</i>, 24(4): 149-156.<br /><br />At one point, the author is talking about ex-gay/anti-gay literature, she makes the point that based on the perspective of users their collection is targeted at ("community relevance"),<br /><blockquote>"As one of the leaders of Exodus Ministries, and a poster child of the Ex-Gay Movement, Paulk’s book is considered anti-gay, even psychologically and spiritually damaging, by most of the GLBT community. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Using a definition of community relevance, one could even make the argument that Love Won Out is not a GLBT book.</span>"<br /></blockquote>Still, she kept the book in her sample, because a) it has the subject headings, and b) it's still in high demand at the library she studied, so it's relevant, if distasteful. I think that this "relevant, if distasteful" concept is going to be key for the work I do with the trans stuff in my internship, and I should expand on it in whatever write-up comes out of this research, since as a research institution,<span style="font-style: italic;"> anything</span> is valid fodder for study, especially (humanities) analysis. Ah, I see-- so the question arises of how to "keep" psych/social scientists/medical practitioners from using "bad"/non-trans-affirming materials to inform their new research/practice. It's an information literacy issue--being able to make an informed decision about what info is "good" for a particular purpose, and it's complicated by the fact that the balancing voices that would add depth to the pool are <strong>trans people's voices</strong> themselves, <strong>especially</strong> in the psych/ss/medical fields.<br /><br />So non-trans researchers/practitioners in these fields look for information, find non-trans-affirming/trans-controlling stuff, and this becomes their basis for interacting with/caring for/working with trans people, and since they've read voices of authority that included zero-to-very-few trans authors, it reifies the notion that "non-trans must be better sources of information about trans people than trans people are themselves." Which is why I can't bring myself to be a "neutral" librarian about this issue, because <span style="font-weight: bold;">this particular cycle of knowledge production, consumption, and use causes harm</span> (to be clear: harm is certainly not the only produced effect, but it is significant). Still, the answer can't be through censorship, but rather through information literacy education (i.e., giving users context). But how to do that when researchers/practitioners in the psych/ss/medical fields are already imbued with superiority and entitlement? At the root: how to make them respect and value trans people?<br /><br />No answers yet. What do you think?anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-82351401626008287782009-05-13T15:02:00.003-04:002009-05-13T15:19:17.815-04:00Why it bothers me when you say "lame"."that's dumb."<br />"that's so stupid."<br />"LAME."<br />"that's gay."<br />"that's retarded."<br />"i'm such a spaz."<br />"that's ghetto."<br /><br />This post is not about semantics, censorship, or "political correctness". It's about understanding the power of your words, and being intentional about them.<br /><br />Even though I've gotten used to it, I still flinch every time someone uses "gay" as a pejorative, using those three letters as a sociolinguistic bridge to connect a complex social & sexual identity & experience with a much simpler concept: "bad".<br /><br />By re-purposing "gay" like that, people reassign the meaning of the word, co-opting a signifier someone else's identity. By misusing it so often and without regard to context, they dilute its significance. It becomes a cheaper word, less valuable and less meaningful.<br /><br />To me, it may be a mere annoyance at times, a frustration at others, or the last straw on a really bad day. What I'm saying is: when people use a term that has special significance in my life in a negative way, it does me harm, even if only a little.<br /><br />And I like to operate in a harm-reduction paradigm. If we can make the world a little less bad, a little more good & safe & loving, then why shouldn't we?<br /><br />Convenience: that's the answer I get most often when I call people out on saying "lame". It's convenient to say "lame" to express non-functionality, interpreted broadly. So "lame" becomes a blanket expression for all minor discontent.<br /><br />My problem with that is: a) "lame" is a word that has special significance to people with disabilities*, b) your repurposing it therefore does harm, and c) being imprecise in your language compromises your own integrity**.<br /><br />And of all the daily choices we make without thinking, from how much water to use in the shower to where to get our food to where to go to school to what job to take to what religion to follow, this is one of the most manageable, actionable. It is only a small task to choose to be intentional with our language and respect the power that our words have to hurt or help other people and ourselves.<br /><br />So, I am asking you to take this small action: when you find yourself about to slip and re-purpose a word that is not yours, reconsider. What is the real message you want to express? It's probably as simple as "I don't like that." And if it's more complex, take the time to allow yourself the freedom to express complexity! It makes life richer for everyone.<br /><br />---<br />* regardless of whether a person's specific experience has anything to do with mobility, because it's a signifier. see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy">metonymy</a>.<br /><br />** um, this is a rather involved point may seem like a stretch but is deeply related, while perhaps more tangential to the specific point I'm making here. See "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Agreements">The Four Agreements</a>", for example.anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-87240613345589387372009-04-19T17:15:00.015-04:002009-04-21T12:54:17.462-04:00Trouble on the i-land.<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">"Connecting People, Information, and Technology in More Useful Ways"- motto of the University of Michigan School of Information</span><br /></div><br />You know, there's a lot of tension right now at SI (and in the information field at large) between the library/archives sides of the field and the Human Computer Interaction/Social Computing sides (i.e., those going from people to technology, and those going from technology to people). More precisely, <b>the tension is a product of differing philosophies in heretofore discrete fields of study.</b><br /><br />It's a pretty exciting time to be in the field-- we're really at the cutting edge of the nascent discipline, defining what Information Science is, isn't, and could be. <b>So it's natural that tensions run high: trailblazing is a high-stakes game precisely because not everybody makes it. At least, that's the paradigm Americans have to view it in.</b> And I think that this drive for competition can make people feel defensive and insecure about their positions in both SI (micro) and the field (macro). Which is totally counterproductive! We're supposed to be <i>learning from each other</i>, not unzipping to measure every thirty seconds. And I am addressing <b>both</b> sides of the field right now.<br /><br />However, I cannot overemphasize that we are not on an equal playing field. By overwhelming majorities, the P->T people are coming from women-dominated fields like librarianship and teaching. By overwhelming majorities, the T->P people are coming are coming from men-dominated fields like computer science and economics. <b>This means that the balance of power is not equal</b>, because of the social histories of these fields. The academy is by no means exempt from social systems privilege and oppression that permeate every aspect of life in these United States.<br /><br />1. First and foremost, there's a vast difference in the amount of money coming into the fields. To be entirely reductionist and permit a false dichotomy for the sake of a good punchline, it's that computer scientists can get Uncle Sam to buy them supercomputers; librarians can get Uncle Pat and Aunt Barbara to chip in at the library bake sale.<br /><br />Okay, but <b>why</b> is there a money differential? This is actually two answers-- why the dude-side has a lot of money, and why the lady-side has little money. <b>It's a total fallacy to set it up as though each side has ever been vying for the same pot of money</b> (except at the very highest levels of socio-economic decision making).<br /><br /><b>A.</b> So, first, the fellas have such a ridiculous amount of money because of World War II and the Cold War. You know the story: "gotta get that Enigma code cracked (mo' money)! Gotta defend liberty and Anglo Saxon global hegemon(e)y (mo' money)! Oh no-- Sputnik (mo' money)??! Gotta beat those dirty Ruskis (mo' money)! Gotta intervene in Asian and Latin American countries to defend capitalism and American global hegemon(e)y (mo' money)! blah blah blah". You know the rest.<br /><br />Does this mean that all science researchers, engineers, and computer scientists, are individually responsible for the perpetuation of an organized system of global neoimperialist neoliberal war and destruction? <b>NO.<br /><br /></b>Does this invalidate the decades of hard work by dedicated people in these fields? <b>NO.</b><br /><br />And have these fields benefited from such a system? <b>YES.<br /><br />B. </b>And second, the lady fields have so much less money because service work is socially devalued as flim-flam feminine fluff. That is, it's the same old circular logic that service work is women's work and women's work can't possibly have social utility outside the domestic sphere because, well, women do it and they belong at home! So in a culture and nation steered by (hegemonically straight, white, rich, able-bodied, capitalist, American) men, the productivity of non-material work remains under-recognized and underestimated, and its efforts remain under-funded.<br /><br />[To be sure, there have always been leading men in the lady-fields as well (i.e., Melvil Dewey, Francis Bellamy) but this raises another issue that I really don't have time to go into here.]<br /><br />2. Jump down a few granular steps of analysis, to the interpersonal level. (Hegemonic) male privilege means that dudes get to talk more, talk louder, talk over other people, and their voices are validated by default (intelligent until proven otherwise). On the flip side, ladies are expected to go along ("be agreeable"), talk more quietly (lest she be accused of bitchery), yield the floor (lest she be pushy), and make every argument twice as convincing (unintelligent until proven otherwise). This is Oppression Theory 101, people. And this is going on in classrooms, faculty meetings, budget decisions, tenure/hiring decisions, et cetera, every day.<br /><br />So this is why the gendered difference matters in the <b>context</b> of the criticial conversations about the field.<br /><br />As for their <b>content</b>, and this is what really burns up my biscuits, it's the pervasive perspective that I get from a lot of T->P folks: that they're magically discovering the driving engine that can change the world, and<p></p> <ul><li>a. it's because they've finally realized that delivering a <i>service</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> as opposed to strictly a </span><i>product</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> means you have to understand a particular set of needs among your target user group, and that</span></li><li>b. your user group is defined by a specific set of demographics, which influence their particular needs, uses, and behaviors, and</li><li>c. matching your service to a user group's needs will make a win/win situation and you will still make money, as long as the user group has some to give.</li></ul><br /><br />And pardon me, but FLIM-FLAM FEMININE FLUFFY THINKERS HAVE BEEN DOING THIS PROFESSIONALLY FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS. In the fields you were ignoring! So you didn't just make all this stuff up all by your lonesome self! You're not being post-modern, you're just getting some lady-balance in your dude-brain!<br /><br />Now, I am quite sure that the folks on the other side who resent the library side of the field see it quite differently (and I'm also sure that many people in the LIS side will disagree strongly with me).<br /><br />One impression I get is that resentment stems from an adolescent rebellion—the developing T->P side trying to make its own place out of reach of Librarianship's maternal apron strings. But this is speculation based on only one conversation with one person (and I know Freud is so out of style). So, clearly, I need more information. I want to know why there's so much library denigration at the individual level!<br /><br />So, at long last, we have come to the point of this bit of writing: I am calling for comprehensive open dialogue amongst everybody underneath the Information umbrella! And intentional opportunities for information/perspective sharing! And an open, judgment- and risk-free forum in which to collectively define the scope and future of the field we all care s much about! Theoretically, this is what is happening in <i>JASIST</i>, <i>First Monday</i>, etc. But that's not enough! That doesn't make the conversation widely shareable, <i>especially</i> outside of universities!<br /><br />So how can we continue to blaze a trail without anybody getting tossed off wagon train?<br /><br />Some preliminary recommendations:<p></p> <ol><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">Macro: A standing conference that rotates locations at different schools/other sites, and which has major emphases in theoretical, pedagogical, <i>and</i> practical applications.</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">Mid: In i-Schools (and L-Schools!), a structured convocation and integration of people on all sides of the field. This is what they try to do in 501, but we don't have a solid theoretical orientation in our fields yet; we need a follow-up. This could be another required class, for example (but, y'know, another <i>good</i> one).</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">Mid: In i-Schools, L-Schools, and non-academic information workplaces: privilege-awareness/oppression theory as a focus and underpinning of methodology (academic or otherwise) </p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">Micro: In i-Schools, sit next to someone you don't have classes with at lunch! Strike up a conversation with all those other weirdos—that's actually about what we're learning and practicing, not just personal/non-professional topics of conversation.</p> </li></ol> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">That would be a start! </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">What do <i>you </i>think? Tell me—I want to know.</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />--<br /><span>[disclaimer</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">: </span><span>I'm focusing particularly on gender right now, but there are clearly equally important avenues along axes of class, ability, and race that need to be addressed.]<br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /><b:if cond="data:post.url"><br /><br />click to share on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http://travelinbug.blogspot.com/2009/04/connecting-people-information-and.html">facebook</a>.</b:if>anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-11207962149777953362009-03-30T09:16:00.003-04:002009-03-30T09:22:35.089-04:00A peek into my long-term plansI tend to forget to keep people outside of school in the loop on my career plans, or, what I'm actually going to do with my life. I just came across this bit that I wrote in an application essay to be a teaching assistant for next fall, and I think it's a nice bite-size encapsulation of why I'm here and what I'm doing. I thought I'd share it with you.<br /><br /><blockquote>Intentions, information, and action: these three elements are all necessary in any effort toward social justice and sustainable change. In my experiences as a community organizer, educator, and activist, I have found this to be true time and again. Too often, well intentioned people take action on an issue of injustice, but lack the necessary type or degree of information to ensure success. In some cases, the gap between success and failure is a matter of misunderstanding the social or historical context around the issue; in others, a lack of access to the best available data. In either case, the gap between success and failure is also a gap between mapping one's intentions to "make things better" onto appropriate action to enact change. To bridge these gaps, we need better information.<br /><br />It is with this understanding that I am pursuing a degree in Library and Information Services, as well as a Certificate in LGBTQ Studies. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Librarianship lines every path toward social justice: encouraging critical thinking and information literacy, supporting individuals' and communities' desires and needs to absorb information about their lives, fostering a positive environment for learning, promoting creativity and problem solving skills, and on and on.<br /></span></blockquote><br />It goes on from there to talk about connections to teaching and why I'd be a good GSI (graduate student instructor), but that bit up there is the real kernel of my opus magnum. You'll get to hear more about the practical side of it soon, when I write up the proposal for my thesis research. Stay tuned!anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-85770580546911769682009-03-26T14:49:00.005-04:002009-03-26T14:58:31.529-04:00Loving Ann Arbor, in spite of itself?I got a really insightful and spot-on question from a prospective SI student, and I thought I'd share the question and my response.<br /><br /><blockquote>"I went to undergrad at a liberal arts college... where the demographics of the school and town are similar. I am concerned about being a minority student in super rich super white Ann Arbor.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Is race/class a ham-stringing issue in Ann Arbor?</span>"</blockquote>And here's what I wrote back:<br /><blockquote><br />That is a fantastic question. The short answer is this: rumors of Ann Arbor's "political correctness"* have been highly exaggerated.<br /><br />And I mean this from two perspectives:<br /><br />1. There are a ton of cool/radical people of color, anti-racist white people, and anti-classist people of all types in town; and<br />2. Racism/classism are definitely present, but they're not as hidden as one might imagine they are--IMO, just like everywhere else.<br /><br />There are people who misuse and abuse the concept of "diversity", and there are also a vast number of people who engage and celebrate diversity. AA gets a lot of criticism from people on the right for being too progressive (DP benefits, affirmative action stuff) and from people on the left for being too white-liberal. Here are some thoughts on that:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">While AA isn't a large city, it's a highly decentralized one</span>. So it can be hard for people new to the town/school to find a niche, /especially/ if they're coming in as anything besides a freshman. <span style="font-weight: bold;">There are FANTASTIC student affairs</span>/student development programs to help freshmen/undergrads adjust to being grown & sexy and learn about social justice and oppression and privilege and intersectionality and all that good stuff. But of course, not everyone gets tracked in that way, so there's a fair amount of resistance that a body might encounter in class or something like that. Still, there is a <span style="font-weight: bold;">strong social justice awareness</span> and infrastructure within the division of student affairs, and among the student services staff in most schools and programs (especially at SI).<br /><br /><span>And then on the grad level, people come from all over the world with all different perspectives-- it's one of the risks of having such highly ranked programs. Pretty much every grad program we have is a top-10 (or top 25 at worst). <span style="font-weight: bold;">In a lot of ways, the "leaders and best" moniker really rings true. And, of course (again), this means that we get a bunch of different perspectives</span>, including libertarians and straight-up conservatives and super-right-wing people. We have a super highly ranked business school, which means more conservative people concentrated there, but we also have a very well regarded programs in American Culture (which includes various ethnic studies), Women's Studies, Social Work (#1 consistently for as long as I can remember), and things like that, so we get a lot of freaking awesome/radical/activist/s</span>ocially aware change-making type folks.<br /><div class="text"><br />Overall, I think Ann Arbor is an awesome place to live. And I'm saying this as an anarchist trans POC from a rural background. I did my undergrad here, and loved it enough to come back for grad school after living in LA.<br /><br />I'll be honest: we need more people of color in SI-- and in librarianship in general, and positions of public leadership, and everywhere else.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> So while I think there are definitely challenges to living in AA as a person of color with a class consciousness, I don't think they're *unique* to this town, and it's a lot better in that regard than most places I've lived. </span>Ann Arbor is not really as rich or as white as it may seem on paper. And, in my opinion, the only way to shape it more towards a thorough social justice orientation is to <span style="font-weight: bold;">bring more people in to build educational capacity and raise the level of critical consciousness & discourse</span>.<br /><br />So, wow, that was a lot! You can tell it's something I think about a lot. :)<br /><br />Let me know what you think--I'd love to continue this conversation. Also, I think I'd like to post this letter on my blog, because a lot of people share your concerns--is that cool?<br /><br />x!<br />Anand<br /><br />*I'm using PC in the co-opted sense, not the original meaning.</div></blockquote>I was really glad to get the question, because it made me think critically and reflectively about what frustrates me about being here, but what keeps bringing me back as well.anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-74554038500982926352009-03-13T09:24:00.003-04:002009-03-13T10:03:50.978-04:00Lost in Translation, part 1<blockquote>When Shri Rama asked Valmiki as to where should he reside as he had abandoned Ayodhya, Valmiki specified about 14 types of residences which were fit for him to reside and these 14 residences covered all the ways and paths of devotion.<br /><br />Valmiki said:-<br /><br />1) <span style="font-weight: bold;">you should reside along with Sita and Lakshman where people are not tired of listening to your biographical narrative. </span>[<a href="http://www.urday.com/valmiki.html">source</a>]</blockquote><br />I think it's safe to say that literal translations are pretty useless in the realm of spirituality/religion/mysticism/anything that's not literal in the first place.<br /><br />I was actually just saying this to Andrew the other night, when I was trying to find the full Holi story online so I could tell it to him without missing important details and then having to jump around in the narrative to patch things together.<br /><br />I've noticed that English tellings of Hindu stories tend to tell either <span style="font-weight: bold;">only</span> the literal (see: <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shades/ganesh/theorigins.htm">1</a>), and therefore miss the spiritual, or <span style="font-weight: bold;">only</span> the spiritual, but in a really colonial reductionist/positivist way, and therefore miss the point of its being a story. The former mistakes the model for the phenomenon, as Priya would say (though in this case I might suggest that, more precisely, it's mistaking the <a href="http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_M.html#metaphor_anchor">vehicle for the tenor</a>). The latter disabuses the notion that the tenor and vehicle have anything to do with each other--it's inconceivable that a cup might be the best way to hold water for drinking, because the focus is on drinking the water.<br /><br />I'm a big fan of the way Hinduism has been recorded. A word is a symbol that represents the meaning of an abstract concept in order to communicate it outside the self; similarly, a story encapsulates and communicates a more complex concept or idea, or set of them in relation to each other.<br /><br />And if they hadn't specifically intended to communicate Hinduism that way--subliming conceptions of divinity, life, everything, and universal connectedness into the plot and characters in a story--those old yogis would have just written out some commandments and essays and been done with it.anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-91350569679656525772009-01-28T12:02:00.002-05:002009-01-28T12:05:12.007-05:00Dude, You Guys, Hey.Information literacy is super important. From the BBC:<br /><br /><blockquote>A top doctor has admitted her part in hoodwinking a leading medical journal after inventing a medical condition called "cello scrotum".<br /><br />Elaine Murphy - now Baroness Murphy - dreamt up the painful complaint in the 1970s, sending a report to the British Medical Journal.<br /><br />She came clean when the hoax resurfaced in the 2008 Christmas edition [<span style="font-weight: bold;">when another researcher cited the condition in their own paper</span>].<br /><br />A BMJ spokesman said the inclusion and subsequent debunking of "cello scrotum" had "added to the gaiety of life". </blockquote>Full article <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7853564.stm">here</a>.anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-8709911593574585922009-01-15T08:00:00.000-05:002015-05-02T23:55:59.345-04:00grumpy morning weather postgrumpgrumpgrump<span style="font-weight: bold;">-2.1F</span>grumpgrump<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />-16windchill</span>grump<span style="font-weight: bold;">highof+5</span>grumpgrump<br />
grumpgrump<span style="font-weight: bold;">andsomehowit'sstillgoingtosnow</span>grump<br />
grumpgrump<br />
<br />
i hope the bus isn't running late.<br />
<br />
*sigh* on the plus side, maybe i can avoid top surgery altogether this way. my chest bubbles could just freeze all the way off!<br />
<br />
grump. if you listen carefully, that's exact noise the snow makes under my shoes when the weather is like this-- just before squeak and too dry for crunch. the snow says, "grumpgrumpgrumpgrump".<br />
<br />
i bet you could make a<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose%E2%80%93Einstein_condensate"> Bose-Einstein condensate</a> in my mailbox right now.anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-14280224064521429622008-12-04T17:15:00.003-05:002008-12-04T17:17:03.365-05:00Professional Practice in Libraries, or, Did that patron just hear me fart?You know, I think I'll just let the title speak for itself.<br /><br />Happy finals!anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-90177835701341468222008-11-05T01:03:00.004-05:002008-11-05T01:16:41.185-05:00Parade On, Weather Be DamnedThe point is that I got home around 1 AM, and directly picked up L. Finch. I cuddled him close, and I said, "Listen, Kitty. I'm so glad you get to grow up in a world where George Bush is not the president, and where neocons philosophy doesn't rule policy. I don't care that CNN and MSNBC and all those other crap media keep making him an 'exceptional' example of Blackness and underscoring multicultural racism and saying that racism is now over because of one individual triumph. I don't care that other people like him for different reasons than I do. Because this man truly represents a dramatic shift in American (and therefore global) approaches to governance, politics, and real health. And, as someone once told me,<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">Don't tell me not to live, just sit and putter</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Don't tell me not to fly, I simply got to</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">If someone takes a spill, it's me and not you</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I'll march my band out, I'll beat my drum</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">And if I'm fanned out, your turn at bat, sir</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">At least I didn't fake it, hat, sir</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I guess I didn't make it</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">But whether I'm the rose of sheer perfection</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">A freckle on the nose of life's complexion</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Cinderella or the shine apple of its eye</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I gotta fly once, I gotta try once,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Only can die once, right, sir?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Ooh, life is juicy, juicy and you see,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I gotta have my bite, sir.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Get ready for me love, 'cause I'm a "comer"</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I simply gotta march, my heart's a drummer</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Don't bring around the cloud to rain on my parade!</span>" (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funny_Girl_%28film%29">link</a>)<br /></blockquote><br />Well most of that I said and some of it I meant to say. I really did sing it to him, though.<br /><br />People, we have a community organizer moving into the White House. This is huge. This is just as significant as his Blackness in making history.-89044444444444444444444444443oixze<br /><br />(that last part was a contribution from Finch)<br /><br />xoxanand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-40672522067201069672008-10-18T21:45:00.003-04:002008-10-18T22:01:39.025-04:00Look for the helpers"When I was a child and would see scary things on the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find peoplep who are helping.'" -Fred Rogers, /You Are Special/ (1994), p. 104<br /><br />I've been reflecting on that for the last few days. It's a matter of zooming out your lens on reality. Where you see only pain, zoom out. There are helpers out of frame. They may not be fixers, but they are trying to make it better. They are still positive energy pouring on the hurt*. And having a more complete picture will help you remember humanity even in the face of atrocity.<br /><br />*<span style="font-size:85%;">because of these darn kids and their new slang, i need to clarify that i mean "positive energy is flowing on top of negative energy", and not "positive energy is causing harm". darn kids muddling up the language... :)<br /><br />[edit: omg cosmic alignment-- i just navigated to the family communications, inc, webpage, and they had that quote playing in a photo collage of him in a flash animation on the front page! omg!]<br /></span>anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-12269064554170551872008-10-12T11:02:00.003-04:002008-10-12T11:26:47.952-04:00AutumnWhen the temperature drops and the air turns sharp and clear, I know that winter is hiding in an alley around the corner, smoking moist-air-cigarettes with Slush and Gray. For a week or two, I appreciate the beauty around me as the last bits of green happiness before the 6-month winter settles in and I never want to go outside because my eyelashes will freeze together.<br /><br />And then, all of a sudden, Ann Arbor is aflame with a blazing vibrancy of colors unique to anywhere in the universe. It's a fire that warms the cooling days, gorgeous to look at. But more importantly, it's one big Mardi Gras parade of life, love, and color before the somber Lent of winter comes in. Autumn is a celebration of life, a reminder that all things pass, but our existence flows in cycles, and so there's no need for despair at death. Life will come again. Without death, the renewal, the joie de vivre, of spring would be meaningless. <br /><br />But death is winter, and winter is not here yet. Here is Autumn, and Autumn is glory days. Autumn is love and reflection and beauty immeasurable. Autumn is a 100th birthday party-- we know the end is coming sooner rather than later, but still we rejoice in life.<br /><br />There's a reason a phoenix bursts into flame before dying, instead of withering away to dust. When time is of the essence, style must be, too.anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-68984623879232178452008-09-26T15:37:00.002-04:002008-09-26T15:55:21.440-04:00PalienationI feel genuinely bad for Sarah Palin. Have you seen the Katie Couric interview?<br /><br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-06356748119263508 visible ontop" href="http://www.cbs.com/thunder/swf/rcpHolderCbs.swf?partner=userembed&vert=News&autoPlayVid=false&releaseURL=http://release.theplatform.com/content.select?pid=TaI1gdyHuii_YH_LiRsF6qR0wv7wQXIa"></a><embed src="http://www.cbs.com/thunder/swf/rcpHolderCbs.swf?partner=userembed&vert=News&autoPlayVid=false&releaseURL=http://release.theplatform.com/content.select?pid=TaI1gdyHuii_YH_LiRsF6qR0wv7wQXIa" name="cbsPlayer" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width="506" height="494"></embed><br /><br />She is clearly in over her head, and she knows it. The bravado she rode in on at the RNC has long since faded, and now she's got another whole month to perform without the benefit of pyrotechnics. McCain was incredibly short-sighted and plain ol' sexist in choosing Palin as his running mate. He gives no intimation of actually trusting Palin, or respecting her as a professional. He bought her to show off to the boys-- young, sexy, ignorant, ambitious, and smart (if not savvy). The McCain campaign flaunts her like the first lady Cindy McCain doesn't appear to be playing.<br /><br />And not being a feminist herself, Palin doesn't have the guts to call out the bullshit. They're tokenizing her, brandishing her femininity like the social phallus McCain lacks. They expect her to dance not like an organ grinder's monkey, which is what we're used to in the VP slot, but like a stripper sharing and baring her feminine wiles to garner cheers and cash for men in the back office who don't care that she's also getting catcalls and bottles whipped at her.<br /><br />Watching that interview with Katie Couric, I saw desperation, as if she wanted to stop the interview and yell, "What do you /want/ from me? I am clearly not qualified for this! My personal and family life is a mess! I never wanted this! If I fuck this up, my career is OVER, and I don't have the skill set to win!" McCain has led her out like a pig to the slaughter, lipstick and all.<br /><br />I hope she grows a pair and writes an expose memoir in a few years that details the horror of this campaign and analyzes it in a feminist framework. I also hope this is a turning point for her and that she shaves her head and becomes a radical militant lesbian separatist. It's what America needs, now more than ever.anand jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10702301147714928669noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-12301432066661785162008-09-06T08:23:00.007-04:002008-09-21T23:54:31.072-04:00Dreams are weird, and I am a homo<p>I had a nightmare about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Brice">Fanny Brice</a> this morning. It was based on a scene from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funny_Lady">Funny Lady</a> that I caught on TV last week in which Babs-as-Brice sabotages a synchronized swimming rehearsal by dressing as a grown-up-child and bumping into people and literally knocking the prima swimmerina off her pedestal. She does it not out of mean spirit, but a desire for attention and love; no one gets hurt, but I'm sure they're pissed off a little.</p> <p >Okay so in my dream, I had to get from GodKnowsWhere to Ann Arbor in time to start classes on Monday, and I was supposed to fly but I hadn't packed anything yet. So then I was going to drive, but I wouldn't be able to get here on time, but I was excited to see states that I'd missed. I remember the trip would have involved driving through northern Texas and Missouri, but not where I was starting or why.</p> <p >So then somehow I'm on a big diving platform and Fanny (played by Barbara) is there with some other statuesque white women. She seems desperate to get back in the spotlight, even though she's already in the show-- she wants more. So she's been surreptitiously plotting to injure the other headlining swimmer so they can't perform. There's an area off-stage serving as a long-term infirmary for women who've been injured, and the implication is that they're more like race horses than human athletes—if you get hurt, your career is over, no matter the severity of the injury in the waking world. All injuries are terminal in this world. One woman lying on a cot told me it was her shoulder (a strain, I believe); she'd gotten hurt 3 times, and now she'll never get back in the water, because she was dying.</p> <p >[By this time in the dream I'm one of the background swimmers, and I know the routines and all.]</p> <p>So Fanny is really being ruthless here. Even a minor injury can ruin a life, and here she is actually <i>trying</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> to hurt someone. Such is her desperation! I find out that she's already taken one woman out of the running, and she is in the infirmary, "healing", but essentially being bitter and waiting to die.</span></p> <p>On the diving platform, stacks of ballet insoles are sewn in everyone's starting points. Some have more than others some in different foot positions. We start each routine by jumping off our insole-spots into the water. The stage managing people work very meticulously to make sure that each swimmer's insole-spot is the right height for their starting dive; some have 45, some 65, and generally the less important you are to the show, the fewer you have in your stack. If there's any error, the results could be deadly, as our dives are calculated to incredible precision.</p> <p>Fanny removes a few insoles from the stack of the prima swimmerina and hides them in the garbage (not unlike Matthew Broderick in /Election/ with the ballots, but more carefully). We're ready to start the show. The prima swimmerina takes off her silver chenille robe and walks over to the platform. She's a total priss and looks down on Fanny, whom she considers to be a washed up has-been, but she doesn't deserve to die.</p> <p>The music starts, we're all in place, and dive we do. Only somehow, it was MY insole-stack that failed, and my back is paralyzed the instant I hit the water. People scream and move out of the way, and somehow I get to the infirmary. In the dream world, now I'm both myself, the innocent bystander, and the prima swimmerina, the intended target. </p> <p>In the chaos, we find the body of a tall man in a trenchcoat, apparently mugged and killed on his way to the show. And this is the deepest irony—he's one Fanny wanted to perform for, the one from whom she sought love and attention so desperately. She's distraught at the pain she's caused, which has now all been in vain.<br /></p> <p>And now I'M GONNA DIE and how I am I going to be able to drive to Michigan if I'm DEAD? And then there was something about Surya and then I woke up to /<a href="http://www.onthemedia.org/">On the Media</a>/, which was equally terrifying because they were talking about all the protesters who got arrested and tear-gassed at the RNC, and I was reminded that we live in a police state and the apocalypse is upon us, but we're too busy fiddling with our ipods to notice.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-37542979072754658172008-07-31T23:40:00.008-04:002008-08-01T00:02:33.664-04:00poem of the moment #4I knew you<br />before we both knew ourselves.<br />before your wounds had healed,<br />when your blood, true and strong,<br />flowed from your veins just as<br />thickly as it now pumps to the surface of your skin.<br />we were both more honest then.<br />tossed dignity aside,<br />too overwhelmed by love and life and<br />hormones<br />to conceal our soft bellies (fat with mother's milk).<br /><br />and yet still we hid<br />from<br />sneering peers<br />strangers' gropes<br />fathers' arms<br />from<br />loving ourselves.<br /><br />Then, then, I knew you.<br />And loved you for reflecting me,<br />whom i could not.<br />and for, within, the You i saw.<br /><br />Loved you for the moth, wet and curled, wrapped within the<br />delicate protection<br />of<br />concentrated resolve.<br /><br />I see you've got a wing out now, and a leg or two.<br /><br /><br /><br />Good.<br /><br />Me too.<br /><br />So I'll know You, too, when we both emerge,<br />triumphant in birth and ready<br />to flutter,<br />and<br />depart.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-82574985580250223992008-07-30T17:16:00.006-04:002008-07-30T18:21:20.754-04:00Love and Universal Everythingness, the blog!<span style="font-style: italic;">The following essay/reflection/treatise/thingy operates by taking as given that Human Civilization is FUBAR. Please suspend your investment in Modern Culture accordingly for the duration of the trip and keep hands, feet, and tentacles inside the ozone layer at all times.</span><br /><br />We humans spend and awful lot of time and energy trying to ascribe meaning to our lives. We build massive (phallic) structures, wage wars, create religions, interpret dreams, make incredible art and music, exercise control over our children, and on and on. There are deeply important forces of creation as well as destruction at play.<br /><br />Some humans have spent years and lifetimes, generations and centuries trying to pinpoint our position in the Grand Scheme of Things, taking time for deep reflection, tormenting the spirit and mind, reaching enlightenment of some kind or another. Others have refused to take off their social blinders and look at the world outside of social constructs.<br /><br />In the end, though, none of any of that matters. This is not to say I agree with nihilists or libertarians; I choose to infer from my existence as a fraction of a speck in the Universe <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> that my life is insignificant and therefore worthless, but rather that my very existence is indeed significant just because <span style="font-weight: bold;">I am</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">we are</span>.<br /><br />I exist! Out of the [LITERALLY!] infinite possibilities of the Universe, I, me, myself, happened to come about. How amazing! Light energy has slowed down at just the right frequencies to allow distinguishable matter, and that matter vibrates at the exact perfect frequency as to form atoms and molecules and amino acids and nucleic acids and large, complex protein structures that compose my anatomy and there is <span style="font-weight: bold;">electricity</span> in a glob of glucose that I call my brain, and that gives me a consciousness. And <span style="font-weight: bold;">every nanojoule</span> of this energy that constitutes ME was present when our proto-sun exploded and turned into a star, expelling matter and energy hundreds of lightyears in every direction.<br /><br />What more do I need to consider myself significant, my life meaningful? How can something so fundamental be controversial?<br /><br />Here's the problem (and the beginning of my speculation/theorizing/philosophy/argument). Lots of other humans faced this question and decided they couldn't deal with their<br />infinite natures. So we have spent thousands of years trying to separate ourselves from nature.* Making tools, weapons; controlling fire; trading, devising monetary schemes; ascribing power. It's all a diversion from the universal truth that we Exist.<br /><br />People looked past "we Exist", and asked, "so what?"<br />They said, "A rock exists. So what? A rock! A boring, plain old rock. A rock is of no use except to throw or build. Surely I'm more important than a rock."<br />They said, "A tree exists. A tree! A tall, beautiful tree. A tree provides food and shelter, and I can kill it to make things. But it can't do anything to defend itself! So surely I must be more important than a tree, because I can control it."<br />They said, "Bugs and worms and jellyfish exist. So what? If they can exist, it can't be all that special. I can control them, too, so I must be more important. <span style="font-style: italic;">There must be more to life than living.</span>"<br /><br />And as they worked their way up the hierarchy of life that they were building as it occurred to them, suddenly, oh shit, they were looking at other humans. How many thousands of volumes of literature have been devoted to ranking humanity, ascribing value to difference, subjugating enormous classes of people, creating categories that, try as we might, still can't quite encompass everyone. How many wars? Genocides?<br /><br />The entire global social order is premised on the basic <span style="font-weight: bold;">flawed</span> assumption that human life, life on earth, earth itself is ultimately powerless and insignificant.** It's one hell of an inferiority complex, magnified over generations, infected globally through processes of war and colonialism and other forms of cultural exchange.<br /><br />Now, of course people will try to tell me, "But it's not all bad! We're just trying to live up to our potential, given the amazing gift of life that we do appreciate! We've done things like Science and Art and Progress! We've fixed Things!"<br /><br />The crux of the argument, the real heart of it, is in how we conflate self-worth with power. As a consequence of that action, that judgment, we turn our gaze outward, away from our infinite selves, and onto false idols of social, cultural, and institutional Meaning.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">We, humans, will never be able to build enough, create enough, destroy enough to give ourselves the satisfaction we desire. </span>We're trying to play God, imitate nature, not participate in it. If, instead of trying to <span style="font-weight: bold;">create</span> meaning, significance, control, we resign ourselves to accept that in the Grand Scheme of Things, we have no control, and neither does anybody else, we will start to get back on the right track.<br /><br />Because right now we are living in a nightmare that we as a species have created. To love ourselves just as we are right now in this moment is antithetical and deeply subversive to social entente, and that is fundamentally <span style="font-weight: bold;">fucked up</span>.***<br /><br />So please, run around naked in the woods. Or hell, run around naked at your office! It'll be a move in the right direction.<br /><br />*By "nature", I mean to say "untampered physical, geographical, and physiological ecology".<br />**NB: I'm not saying everyone in the world believes this now or always has, I'm saying social power and function <span style="font-weight: bold;">today</span> are inextricable from it.<br />***This sentence alone deserves an explanation that would fill several volumes. It applies to consumer citizenship most obviously, but to many other aspects of life as well.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />This essay comes out of a burgeoning tradition of philosophy known as Love and Universal Everythingness (which I have made up), which is not a religion but a path to enlightenment, and which, as I read and think more, I will probably discover has really been Vipassana and/or Hinduism all along.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-84061931931382387432008-07-17T15:14:00.006-04:002008-07-17T15:25:12.692-04:00Poem of the moment #3Folding laundry and suddenly<br />a small doesn't seem quite so.<br />a shirt filled out, no longer draped loose on<br />soft shoulders, thin ribs.<br />chinks in the armor i put up to pretend i'm the same,<br />that i could have been happy before,<br />that it's No Big Deal, i can Handle it;<br />my excessive artificing foiled by a skin of cotton<br />spilling volumes of what lies beneath.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-74927880580997889922008-06-23T12:01:00.003-04:002008-06-23T12:04:48.863-04:00poem of the moment #2I should tell you that I love you more.<br />It's silly, this game of invisible strings.<br />Of course I love you! It's what I was made for,<br />how we operate.<br />How silly, alien, to be afraid of that,<br />our most obvious connection!<br />Silly. Shake my head and laugh in<br />admiration<br />of my own absurdity.<br />I love you. Of course.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-1580776428035212062008-06-05T15:11:00.005-04:002008-06-05T15:17:04.205-04:00Thought of the Day<blockquote>"Making everyone else wrong is easy; understanding difference as complimentary rather than oppositional seems to be a much more difficult project." -Jamison Green</blockquote>taken from the article "Part of the Package" in the Journal <span style="font-style: italic;">Men and Masculinities,</span>January 2005.<br /><br />This is something I could go on about for days, and I have (in my own head). But I hadn't been able to articulate it so cleanly as Green does here. I encourage you to stop and reflect on it in the context of your own lives, and in the context of mine.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12585304.post-76623222126836289582008-06-04T15:14:00.007-04:002008-06-04T15:22:14.649-04:00Poem of the moment #1By the way,<br />you<br />owe me six dollars.<br />Which I only remember<br />because<br />I was mad at you<br />because<br />I was mad at me<br />because<br />I was insecure<br />and<br />I was afraid you wouldn't love me.<br /><br />Which you probably didn't.<br />But neither did I.<br />So keep the six.<br />I'll count it penance for sinning<br />against myself.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0