Very well, I will stop complaining since there is a fine line between making discoveries and articulating the actual state of things, and engaging in precisely the kind of self-destruction I have decided to watch out for and not do. I have just remembered something I used to do, before Reeducation: designate time during the … More Muy interesante
“Working here is like working in a coffin or a tomb,” said my colleague. So part of my issue is, wanting to be somewhere more lively. Wanting to do this work but needing to be somewhere more lively to do it. Is that a crime? (My colleagues making six figures are in lively places often, … More And simplifying
…as I was deciding to go on partial leave this semester. 1. The situation, and my health situation, is and has been really bad. I do not recognize this enough but the only explanation for all that keeps happening is that it is bad. Recognizing that is different from joining the culture of complaint, or … More These were the notes I had made
Discipline will not do anything useful with [the problem of self-sabotage and self-hatred]. Just the opposite – it will aggravate the issue. Discipline is a form of masochism, a symptom of self-hate, and you can’t eradicate self-hate with more of the same. And, I suppose, it is because of this that I have such an … More An important comment from Clarissa
Well, if you are on partial leave such that you are only teaching two classes, actually two sections of the same class, and it is one you have given before, and the students in it are at a level appropriate for it; and after that you only have a very few independent study and graduate … More The greatest profession, and so on
I have become faculty advisor for the secular students’ alliance, an important organization because it creates a space in which secular students can be secular. It is not so easy here because they face ostracism from family and friends and some are not in a position to come out of the closet, so they need … More On teaching, and on how one is seen
“Be good to yourself.” This, for me, since Reeducation, is a radical notion. Also, while it may be true that without his Parisian poverty Vallejo would never have come to the perceptions which undergird some of his greatest poems, I disagree that without Reeducation I would not have realized certain things, or achieved certain realizations. … More And more lemmas for the rest of this week.
The things I used to work on are beautiful and fascinating but I never stopped to enjoy them, really, because from time immemorial I had been employing the efficiency model in the interest of getting things done, making deadlines. Other people may have explored as undergraduates or beginning graduate students but my friends and I … More Du plaisir
Incredibly, Friday is the ninth anniversary of the storm. Rising Tide, the bloggers’ conference that grew out of this, is on September 13 this year, which means I may be able to go. Will you be there too? I have to be back in Maringouin by evening, because I like Maringouin now and have something … More Katrina 9
In Reeducation, as we know, my ability to remain objective and maintain a certain level of detachment from things was considered to be a lack of affect … when really it was just a professional skill, as well as an unwillingness to participate in histrionics. Did I need really destructive treatment … a lethal blow … More De l’objectivité
coldhearted scientist وداد 