11.25.2008

In Order To What

John Dewey, in Experience and Education said that what we gain in education that is fundamentally important for the future is enduring attitudes i.e. likes and dislikes.He says that our learning is so compartmentalized and cut off from experience and the whole of things that we end up forgetting it because we've not learned how it connects to anything else. So we are without references that point us to re-using what we once learned. The thing that is generally lasting is attitude formation. He says, "The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning." He refutes the idea that education is for preparation for the future. I wish someone would have told that to the guy who sighed and did the crazy gesture when I told him my post-graduation plans (or lack thereof). Dewey says that the best thing we can do is suck as much knowledge and experience and whatever-it-offers out of each present moment. That act in itself will prepare us to continue doing the same good work in the future.  

11.24.2008

Weekend Update

This weekend was good and wild. I'm continually entertained with Mitch's antics when he comes up here. It was great to see him. We saw so many people together, too. I went to a couple of the DBU homecoming events. I'm betting these are my last ones to go to. Too bad they were also my first. The Rogers and Hammerstein performance on Friday night was enjoyable, except for the fact that the concession stand was open  (in the Burg) and they were selling odiferous popcorn, which really cheapened the nice event (the "Homecoming Gala"). Sunday was a blur with good familiar faces, drinks, laughs, and good conversation between intellectual friends. Saw a jazz band at the Winedale toward midnight. Amazing. I love Dallas. Praying about my future and trying to scope out a place to live and friends to live with. Good to know: can always rent a room in Professor X's extra rooms. 

11.22.2008

Women

Two stereotypes of women continually come up:

1) a woman is good and strong and supports her husband via the old "behind every good man there's a good woman"

or

2) women are fickle and superficial. they aren't too be taken too seriously. they're pretty (or not) so just put up with them.


Here's two things that I dislike: extremism and over-generalizing. This problem has do with generalizing. Women are different. They might have been created in a certain way by God, but we aren't all the same. We aren't all strong and we aren't all fickle. We aren't always whatever we are. I do not feel like men are always lumped into one idea,  neither should we be.


What do you think?

11.20.2008

A Senior

Most people are more excited about my graduation than I am. In the uncoming month of May, if all goes well, I will graduate. What does this mean for me? What does it signify that I have done? Who am I now that I am soon to tuck this accomplishment into my belt? What have I learned?

Surely a change has taken place which cannot be denied. I have fallen in love. Yes, I have fallen in love with Bach, violin concertos, and Eric Whitacre, not to mention Sigur Ros, Leslie Feist, and folk music. I have come to know and adore Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Heidegger, and Rousseau. Inquiries into metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, political philosophy, educational philosophy, ontology, cosmology, technological philosophy, and logic have all wooed me with their sweet questions and promises of something good and true and beautiful. I've become even more enamored with a shutter clicking, a coffee pot dripping, a pot steaming, and a pan sizzling. I love poetry more now that I've received letters from Whitman,Wallace Stevens, Sylvia Plath, Ben Johnson, Baudelaire, John Donne,  Octavio Paz, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and the Beats. 

Somehow, I've found a sense of place. A sense of belonging. I have nestled in the city of lights and grounded myself in the country of bluebonnets. I've seen my poetry sing itself through microphones in Austin and Dallas and around rooms filled with poets, poets, poets. The kneelers at my church are a welcome platform from which I petition and pray. A community has risen up around me in every direction. No matter where I go I'll either see a friendly face or make a new acquaintance, for I've fallen in love with meeting new people and asking them questions. 

Questions are indeed how I orient myself now. The best way to start the day is with questions. Lord, what would you have me do today? What shall I wear? What shall I do first? What is that? Why does this happen? What should I read? How shall I love? It is with questions about philosophy and education that I have spied what I hope to make my life's work. 

perhaps some more words later. class is over. haha, yes i wrote this in class. yes i know that considering the topic of the post that might be ironic. eh. i guess i've also learned that real learning happens outside of the classroom.


11.19.2008

Leaves & Straw Wrappers

guitarra picking notes notes
yellow orange brown
leaves gently float float
in a terrific tiny tornado
down on the street street
the leaves they dance
to the music, to the beat beat.

my mind's always a stir stir
the calendar disorganizes
life past and future's a blur blur
the present's a whisper, a ghost
a fading note of clarity

let me be a leaf
on the breeze breeze
and feel my dreams
in these these small hands
God! let me fly away!
and really be alright right here

right here, Lord... Lord, here.

11.11.2008

Love Poems by An Old Woman

Your Eyes Are Everywhere

gently falling leaf 
has fun all 
the way
down
lovely lilting voice
drops & rasps
with age
bones sink
hair diminishes
My love,
 your eyes were once 
green like clover,
and I saw them 
every day
in the grass
in the forest
and I sensed them
every day
like mint leaves
cilantro, limes
and I valued them
every day
over jade jewels
over time, money.
faded, now squinting
yet still, my heart, I love them
softly gazing on
liveliness poured out rightly
and color poured out
into the eyes of a son.

The Virtue of Forgetting

Desparate, I strive for
The virtue of forgetting
As my hair turns white
And my arms are cold
For all day I dream 
And still all night I remember
Green leaves and kisses
Continuously they play like films
Or like children on a well door
Or children in a graveyard
Like we did in the forest
But let me please forget
Let that be my stripes
That excitement and love
are naught
and my daily grays
and made bright whites.
That I may not know,
No, to not know. Forget. 


*constructive criticism welcome this time!

11.04.2008

BIOLOGY + SARA

Steam!!!!

Man. So I really felt like I was on top of this Biology Unit. I made great outlines (with pictures) of both chapters. I went to every class and took notes. I printed out the powerpoints from class and filled in the lines beside each slide with information from 1) my notes and 2) my outline. Now, twenty minutes after handing it in I feel terrible. The only thing I feel victorious about is that I did not cry! What a dork am I!!!!

This morning my alarm went off at 5:30 and I was at Starbucks in my blue button up (Obama-Biden 2008!!!) and all Pretty Tuesday-ed up by 6:05. They graciously gave me a free coffee for having voted (last Tues.).  I stayed there studying until 7:30. I was in my seat at a quarter till. An hour later I walked out of the lecture hall and banged my notebook against my head

BIOLOGY + SARA = TRUE LOVE NEVER EVER 

video from Starbucks to follow later. Now-- class.