Saturday, October 24, 2009
That’s right folks. Today is the annual Syrup Sopping Day in Loachapoka, AL. Just a hop, skip, and a jump over from Auburn. The festivities are entertaining to say the least and the people watching . . . simply AMAZING. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend stopping by. There’s also a wonderful pumpkin patch on the way where you can pick up your halloween pumpkin, or if you are so inclined, you can pick up a couple and make a fresh pumpkin pie. Yummy.
(p.s. I’ll try to take a picture of the sign this year to see if they bothered fixing the typo. I REALLY hope they didn’t.)
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
When I was a kid I was really into creepy crawly things. Snakes, spiders, worms, fish, frogs, whole nine yards. I used to LOVE dissecting things, especially in science class. Figuring out how creatures worked, what their hearts looked like, where their guts were. . . all of it really. I’m not sure when I shifted to not enjoying these things so much. Even in college, a big part of life involved figuring out the genetic silk structure of this guy:
I think what changed things for me was when I went through a pretty sheltered vegetarian phase for a few years and began to get pretty squeamish about dead things, and even more squeamish about eating them. Most of my guy friends would be happy to know that I’m back to meats now, not wholeheartedly by any stretch of the imagination, but the occasional chicken doesn’t bother me anymore. Especially if I know where it came from. I’m definitely not to the point where I crave a steak or anything, but I do crave Chick-fil-a every now and again. ANYWAY, all of that was to say that I found an earthworm in my house tonight. I’m not sure how it got there, but I think it may have come in on my shoe?? When I went to pick him up, he spazzed (as they are known to do), and at first I was timid. But then I just went for it and scooped him up–and it took me backwards. Back to my childhood. Back to enjoying the creepy crawly things . . . and I smiled at the thought of showing my son the creepy crawly things of the earth. The slithering, slimy messy things that make living interesting and mysterious all at the same time.
Every semester I make my students read Thomas Friedman’s book The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Every semester they moan and groan and complain that it’s too dense, too long, and too complicated for them to understand. But I make them read it anyway. And every now and then, I catch moments where I can see that they get it. They understand.
They see that the world is a big giant place that is full of people–moving, shaking, living, breathing people. And that we’re all connected in this giant globalized web of relationships. What I do matters; what they do matters. It’s an exciting time that we live in. It can also be scary. With all of our connections, sometimes we risk losing our identities, our olive trees. One of my students recently wrote:
“The olive tree is something we sing, kill, die, and write poetry for, it is what roots us.”
I don’t think I could say it any better than she did. She gets it.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
I’ve found that I really thrive if I have deadlines and goals as the background structure of my life. Sometimes these goals are reasonable. . .like have coffee with a friend today or write as section of my dissertation this week. Other times my over-ambitiousness gets the best of me and I do stupid things. For example, my goal for today is to do this and not die.
Heading to Chicago today for FUN and NOT for work. It will be good to get out of town for a pure and true vacation. Also, I’m still looking for stuff to do/people to see. Any takers? (Pssst. Aneel, John, & Turnbaugh. . .that means YOU!)
Thursday, October 15, 2009
I found this when I was cleaning out my old files. It still makes me laugh. I LOVE my family!
Also, remember friendster and myspace? Yeah, me neither.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Awake every day
I work, run, write, teach, and try
to be more human.
Discovering who
I’m made to be in this life,
what I’m meant to do.
My thoughts sometimes race
emotions well inside me
insecurities.
And then I relax
simply breathing and loving
learning to let go.
