Category Archives: Reflections

To Storytelling

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I have been fortunate to have surrounded myself with people of good taste throughout my life; as such, I have gained knowledge of many things to which I would not have otherwise been exposed. One rather prosaic example is TV shows either from the past or that I have just not seen.

As a boy and teen, I would summer visiting my grandmother on the Jersey Shore. Gram was a bit past her days of swimming in the ocean, but had a membership to a wonderful beach club where I would pass the time riding the waves, working on my stroke, and yes, visiting the snack bar. In addition to this idyllic play, I’d spend the evenings in the crisp chill of her apartment studying my haftorah, playing with my cousins or watching TV.

As in most markets, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune were both on back to back. Although she claimed to be in for Jeopardy, we always seemed to settle into attention when the wheel began to spin.

Another classic was Hawaii 5-0 which pitted Steve McGarrett against various nefarious characters hanging about our most lovely of states. The arch-villain, the one to whom even the venerable McGarrett was impotent, was always referred to by Gram with reverence and hushed voice… “Wo-Fat!”

It was in among this almost maniacal reverence where I came to see the importance of plot, predicability and character. In this most American of mediums was to be found justice, growth, and perhaps even fortune. And as we read, did crossword puzzles and otherwise multitasked, it felt for a minute that we were wiser and that we had learned.

Meow Mix

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Over the past few years I’ve made some dramatic choices in my life. I guess the most dramatic was joining the Peace Corps and venturing half way around the world for 2 1/2 years. Those times were tough but rewarding, and I don’t regret them at all. However, after I was finished with the Peace Corps I could have either gone right to law school or taken some time off. I decided to do the latter, and although I had originally wanted to do a cross-country road trip, I ended up taking a VISTA position in Maine. Thinking about that decision now, with just a few months left, I think I made a mistake.

I had hoped that Maine would be a rustic welcoming place, but instead I found it cold and suspicious. I imagine that part of the difficulty I experienced here was the fact that I was transitioning; we are warned by the Peace Corps that re-adjustment is a difficult process. But I can’t help but feel that I’ve wasted precious time here, and frankly that feeling just sucks. I have come to realize that I need to be in an environment that is more conducive to socialization. I’m not a giant party animal but I like to have things to do and a good group of friends to do them with (who doesn’t?) Unfortunately, as an outsider, I’ve had a really hard time establishing that here.

This lack has led me to question myself and since I tend to be my harshest critic, it’s kinda a depressing cycle. I have had my moments of expanding beyond my comfort zone, but things just haven’t clicked on a satisfactory level. Though there have been some great moments and people, these have been fragmented and too far in between. I yearn to belong somewhere and no longer be transient, but I haven’t found that place yet, and so continue to search, always looking out for what may lie just around the corner.

Sweet Music

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Sitting on my porch (it was warm today!) and contemplating a placid sunset over an urban tableaux, I got a chuckle thinking about the time I made my American History class a music class. Don’t get me wrong, I used multimedia in my courses to the extent I could over there but this one class was special. They were 11th graders in a highly advanced hard science/bilingual English profile (track) and were just an odd bunch. A mix of oddballs, stoners, very smart and very clever kids who had clearly come to a compact of how they would conduct themselves as a class, they were my most difficult during my first year at the Hungarian school.

At one point that year I cursed at them in the class, which got me a small reprobation among the staff but marked the beginning of a general change in attitude. Since this happened when they were 10th graders, the following year I was to teach them American History, which, by the way, was my favorite course that I taught over there, if the most difficult. So, they were a great class and we did American History.

I wanted to get up to the Reagan revolution but didn’t make it that far, so we were going to have to end amidst the counterculture. We had watched “Berkeley in the 60’s” and sniggered a bit at some of the antics, but overall it was much appreciated. I figured we’d go out in a bang, and it seemed that a big group sing along would be the perfect way to do so.

As was the difficulty with teaching such a course, it was tough to select just the right few songs. The play list was: Buffalo Springfield – “For What It’s Worth,” Janis Joplin – “Me and Bobby McGee,” Jefferson Airplane – “White Rabbit,” and closing out the set, two from Peter, Paul and Mary – “This Land is Your Land” and “Puff the Magic Dragon.” I cleared out my new language lab and set it up as best as I could as amphitheatre so we could sit without desks (something that is rarely done within Romanian schools.) Our resident guitarists had a hard time keeping up, but we got into some full fledged singing.

I think that’s part of what they find amusing about us Americans; the passion with which we approach certain things in life are not valued as a priority in their traditional culture. So as we sang about that magic dragon, the one who is known by all of a certain tradition, I felt as if we had come far and benefited one another. To sing with gusto is to live.

Boot

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Do you ever find that a swift kick in the ass is sometimes absolutely necessary? Well that’s what I got this week at work. And you know what? I deserved it. I had set out some very interesting projects for the office and not followed through with what I had said I would do. I’m not sure what it was that got me into a rut of low productivity, but really it doesn’t even matter; I’m here to do a job and I need to do that job to the best of my abilities. Once I was able to realize that their criticisms were not personal I worked on re-adjusting my attitude. I’d like to thank those people who helped me understand what was going on and what I had to do. This all said, I feel great. Today we went for a free lunch at the brand new dining hall at Bates – wow! It’s a stunning space and will give other NESCACs a run for their money. Next week I’m giving a presentation on the Peace Corps at the Lewiston Public Library and the following week I’ll be participating in a student leadership conference in Augusta. I feel a renewed sense of importance about what I’m doing and I also feel good about myself – who I am and what I can offer.

My Second Thoughts

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As my previous post (not the psychedelic strobe candle light picture of my Mac) may have imparted, I feel a bit like an outside observer in much of what is going on. When I had this miniature epiphany, I tied it back to how perhaps I’ve always operated, and the re-enforcement of such behaviors by my Peace Corps experience.

As a foreigner in a highly unfamiliar culture, one stands out without much effort and must therefore first become an active analyst before developing any level of understanding about trust and boundaries; since these two attributes constitute much of what defines culture, one must be open to learning them in a method which is likely neither verbal nor written.

Back now in a familiar environment, this angst is channeled into the political process. People often forget that being a good rhetorician does not necessarily equate with being the most loquacious. In this regard, McCain will seem like a wise elder when compared to Bush, which will be in his favor. However, when it comes to inspirational, perhaps transformational rhetoric, Obama is without a doubt the leader of the pack and therefore my choice for President. Don’t worry though, it’s not only the rhetoric I dig, but also the message; Obama has become more Populist recently and seems to have successfully picked up the mantle of Edwards supporters.

Back to what I was saying before that sneak endorsement.

The more I’ve become aware of how deeply the democratic process has been subverted in this country, the more hopeful I am that its exposition and remedy will come in all due haste. No doubt the process has begun, but its accession to the new hegemony will be challenged ruthlessly. The paring of bold Kennedy-era vision with Millennial technology provides a potentially explosive fruit. Key to this is universal domestic high speed broadband access to an open internet (tax funded.)

I think my generation has moved beyond the outside observer status and joined the process via a diverse range of means. In many, if not most cases, the desire of one generation to change the policies wrought by the previous is universal. This fantastic power, does, however, have an often crippling downside, the tendency towards factionalization. If such pitfalls can be consciously avoided, the great power of coalescion can be applied to gravely important matters.

These are shockingly seminal times.