12.07.2006
11.02.2006
Pablo Neruda: Residence on Earth
There Is No Oblivion (Sonata)
If you ask me where I have been
I must say "It so happens."
I must speak of the ground darkened by the stones,
of the river that enduring is destroyed:
I know only the things that the birds lose,
the sea left behind, or my sister weeping.
Why so many regions, why does a day
join a day? Why does a black night
gather in the mouth? Why dead people?
If you ask me where I come from, I have to converse with
broken things,
with utensils bitter to excess,
with great beasts frequently rotted
and with my anguished heart.
Those that have crossed paths are not memories
nor is the yellowish dove that sleeps in oblivion,
they are tearful faces
fingers at the throat,
and what falls down from the leaves:
the darkness of a day gone by,
of a day nourished with our sad blood.
Here are violets, swallows,
everything that pleases us and that appears
in the sweet long-trained cards
around which stroll time and sweetness.
But let us not penetrate beyond those teeth,
let us not bite the shells that silence gathers,
because I do not know what to answer:
there are so many dead,
so many sea walls that the red sun split,
and so many heads that beat against the ships,
and so many hands that have cradled kisses,
and so many things that I want to forget.
If you ask me where I have been
I must say "It so happens."
I must speak of the ground darkened by the stones,
of the river that enduring is destroyed:
I know only the things that the birds lose,
the sea left behind, or my sister weeping.
Why so many regions, why does a day
join a day? Why does a black night
gather in the mouth? Why dead people?
If you ask me where I come from, I have to converse with
broken things,
with utensils bitter to excess,
with great beasts frequently rotted
and with my anguished heart.
Those that have crossed paths are not memories
nor is the yellowish dove that sleeps in oblivion,
they are tearful faces
fingers at the throat,
and what falls down from the leaves:
the darkness of a day gone by,
of a day nourished with our sad blood.
Here are violets, swallows,
everything that pleases us and that appears
in the sweet long-trained cards
around which stroll time and sweetness.
But let us not penetrate beyond those teeth,
let us not bite the shells that silence gathers,
because I do not know what to answer:
there are so many dead,
so many sea walls that the red sun split,
and so many heads that beat against the ships,
and so many hands that have cradled kisses,
and so many things that I want to forget.
10.12.2006
The More Things Seem to Change, the More they Stay the Same
"Why is it necessary to develop creative and critical thinking skills in a society that primarily values a service based economy?”
10.09.2006
The Clash's Logical Syllogism - 80's music in Review
Premise 1: As soon as the shareef was chauffeured outta there
Premise 2: The jet pilots tuned to the cockpit radio blare
Premise 3: As soon as the shareef was outta their hair
Premise 4: The jet pilots wailed
Premise 5: The shareef don't like it
Therefore, rock the casbah
Premise 2: The jet pilots tuned to the cockpit radio blare
Premise 3: As soon as the shareef was outta their hair
Premise 4: The jet pilots wailed
Premise 5: The shareef don't like it
Therefore, rock the casbah
10.05.2006
Pillars of our Society
Values play an enormous role in the society we live in. Strong values are not simply ideas that direct you in the voting booth, but rather are passions that empower daily actions. Probably the greatest value we already teach in school is that of diversity. Nothing is more important than to have a firm, governing understanding of the value of how different things in the world are. Without diversity, we as human beings would be unable to differentiate between each other (or anything for that matter). Without this fixation, a collapse in the hierarchical structure of our society might occur. It is with this value at heart that I recommend we do a better job of differentiating between the more powerful and more latent values that are a part of our culture.
First, students should be equipped with an understanding that desire is paramount. It is through desire that all consumption (the driving force of our economy and consequently our livelihoods) is channeled. Even the youngest of students already can identify this feeling inside themselves and, therefore, should be allowed the linguistic access to reflect and analyze it. Schools are already teaching this lesson through the practice of on campus vending, but this is simply not enough. In the same way that natural resources are unlimited, students can be taught that there is no need to limit their personal desires. We all can desire as much as we want and the fulfillment of our “wants” will lead to our inevitable happiness.
The second value that needs to be addressed more in schools is that of self-centrism. As individuals focused primarily on themselves, our students can be better prepared to learn how society in the United States functions. Most students do not yet have cars, and because of this, are not acutely aware of how the automobile (as well as many other consumer goods) can quarantine individuals and set them apart from others. Students should be taught that collaborative interaction with others is something to be done only at work (or school) and that every person is allowed their own “piece of the pie.” How can they eventually take their place alone in the “winners circle” if they use the help of others? We must teach them that it is through our individuality that we come together as a strong, unified, diverse nation.
Finally, profit is our society's most indispensable value. Students need to be taught about what profit really is so that, eventually, they can business owners in the capitalist economy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with charging consumers more for a product than it is worth. Congruently, there is nothing wrong with paying laborers slightly less than they deserve. Don’t trouble students with the apparent contradictions between the other, lesser values of honesty and integrity. They must come to understand that the business owners of our society are actually doing the consumers a favor. It is because of the business owners that we can have the desires that lead to happiness and eventually enjoy that happiness all to ourselves. Consumers are obliged to pay a little more.
With those three values (desire, self-centrism, and profit) at the center of our values curriculum, our students will be completely prepared to enter into our society and we, as teachers, will have done our jobs.
First, students should be equipped with an understanding that desire is paramount. It is through desire that all consumption (the driving force of our economy and consequently our livelihoods) is channeled. Even the youngest of students already can identify this feeling inside themselves and, therefore, should be allowed the linguistic access to reflect and analyze it. Schools are already teaching this lesson through the practice of on campus vending, but this is simply not enough. In the same way that natural resources are unlimited, students can be taught that there is no need to limit their personal desires. We all can desire as much as we want and the fulfillment of our “wants” will lead to our inevitable happiness.
The second value that needs to be addressed more in schools is that of self-centrism. As individuals focused primarily on themselves, our students can be better prepared to learn how society in the United States functions. Most students do not yet have cars, and because of this, are not acutely aware of how the automobile (as well as many other consumer goods) can quarantine individuals and set them apart from others. Students should be taught that collaborative interaction with others is something to be done only at work (or school) and that every person is allowed their own “piece of the pie.” How can they eventually take their place alone in the “winners circle” if they use the help of others? We must teach them that it is through our individuality that we come together as a strong, unified, diverse nation.
Finally, profit is our society's most indispensable value. Students need to be taught about what profit really is so that, eventually, they can business owners in the capitalist economy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with charging consumers more for a product than it is worth. Congruently, there is nothing wrong with paying laborers slightly less than they deserve. Don’t trouble students with the apparent contradictions between the other, lesser values of honesty and integrity. They must come to understand that the business owners of our society are actually doing the consumers a favor. It is because of the business owners that we can have the desires that lead to happiness and eventually enjoy that happiness all to ourselves. Consumers are obliged to pay a little more.
With those three values (desire, self-centrism, and profit) at the center of our values curriculum, our students will be completely prepared to enter into our society and we, as teachers, will have done our jobs.
9.30.2006
li-young lee
Arise, Go Down
It wasn't the bright hem of the Lord's skirts
that brushed my face and I opened my eyes
to see from a cleft in rock His backside;
it's a wasp perched on my left cheek. I keep
my eyes closed and stand perfectly still
in the garden till it leaves me alone,
not to contemplate how this century
ends and the next begins with no one
I know having see God, but to wonder
why I get through most days unscathed, though I
live in a time when it might be otherwise,
and I grow more fatherless each day.
For years now I have come to conclusions
without my father's help, discovering
on my own what I know, what I don't know,
and seeing how one cancels the other.
I've become a scholar of cancellations.
Here, I stand among my father's roses
and see that what punctures outnumbers what
consoles, the cruel and the tender never
make peace, though one climbs, though one descends
petal by petal to the hidden ground
no one owns, I see that which is taken
away by violence or persuasion.
The rose announces on earth the kingdom
of gravity. A bird cancels it.
My eyelids cancel the bird. Anything
might cancel my eyes: distance, time, war.
my father said, Never take you both eyes
off of the world, before he rocked me.
All night we waited for the knock
that would have signalled, All clear, come now;
it would have meant escape; it never came.
I didn't make the world I leave you with,
he said, and then, being poor, he left me
only this world, in which there is always
a family waiting in terror
before they're rended, this world wherein a man
might arise, go down, and walk along a path
and pause and bow to roses, roses
his father raised, and admire them, for one moment
unable, thank God, to see in each and
every flower the world cancelling itself.
It wasn't the bright hem of the Lord's skirts
that brushed my face and I opened my eyes
to see from a cleft in rock His backside;
it's a wasp perched on my left cheek. I keep
my eyes closed and stand perfectly still
in the garden till it leaves me alone,
not to contemplate how this century
ends and the next begins with no one
I know having see God, but to wonder
why I get through most days unscathed, though I
live in a time when it might be otherwise,
and I grow more fatherless each day.
For years now I have come to conclusions
without my father's help, discovering
on my own what I know, what I don't know,
and seeing how one cancels the other.
I've become a scholar of cancellations.
Here, I stand among my father's roses
and see that what punctures outnumbers what
consoles, the cruel and the tender never
make peace, though one climbs, though one descends
petal by petal to the hidden ground
no one owns, I see that which is taken
away by violence or persuasion.
The rose announces on earth the kingdom
of gravity. A bird cancels it.
My eyelids cancel the bird. Anything
might cancel my eyes: distance, time, war.
my father said, Never take you both eyes
off of the world, before he rocked me.
All night we waited for the knock
that would have signalled, All clear, come now;
it would have meant escape; it never came.
I didn't make the world I leave you with,
he said, and then, being poor, he left me
only this world, in which there is always
a family waiting in terror
before they're rended, this world wherein a man
might arise, go down, and walk along a path
and pause and bow to roses, roses
his father raised, and admire them, for one moment
unable, thank God, to see in each and
every flower the world cancelling itself.
9.23.2006
9.20.2006
Whoops...
Dr. B,
I am the student in your class who argued in support of deficit theory of understanding minority achievement during the discussion tonight. I would like to clarify that it was not my intention to support the value judgments that are commonly and mistakenly made by proponents of this theory. I believe these judgments are motivated by racist views rather than scientific evidence. The point I was trying to make is that genetic differences are present and should not be disregarded because of their presumed usefulness as a tool in culturally bigoted argumentation. Indeed, those who are in power throughout history have never needed science to justify their claims to power. I realize that this is not a science class and we don’t have the resources or time to examine every issue too deeply.
I would like you to know that I have a deep respect for the differences that exist in the cultures and peoples of our community. I believe it is through description, and the understanding which follows, that the courage to value difference comes. We can not pretend to be the same when we are not. For that, I am thankful, because it is beautiful to be different.
Sincerely,
James Lyons
I am the student in your class who argued in support of deficit theory of understanding minority achievement during the discussion tonight. I would like to clarify that it was not my intention to support the value judgments that are commonly and mistakenly made by proponents of this theory. I believe these judgments are motivated by racist views rather than scientific evidence. The point I was trying to make is that genetic differences are present and should not be disregarded because of their presumed usefulness as a tool in culturally bigoted argumentation. Indeed, those who are in power throughout history have never needed science to justify their claims to power. I realize that this is not a science class and we don’t have the resources or time to examine every issue too deeply.
I would like you to know that I have a deep respect for the differences that exist in the cultures and peoples of our community. I believe it is through description, and the understanding which follows, that the courage to value difference comes. We can not pretend to be the same when we are not. For that, I am thankful, because it is beautiful to be different.
Sincerely,
James Lyons
9.18.2006
The Ethic of Fairness In Contemporary Public Education
Fairness in the classroom is a difficult, but necessary, topic for discussion. The ideas of impartiality and equality are deeply ingrained in the minds of young students and the revelation of the falseness of these ideas is hard to receive. I believe fairness to be the treatment of all students equally, in accordance with their specific needs. It is a lofty belief and whether many or few hold it, it is certainly not held by all.
Either as a result of belief or biology, humans behave differently from each other. At times, these differences are large and, at times, they are small. Regardless, the various behaviors we exhibit are the evidence for the inconsistency of moral beliefs in our world. Does this inconsistency in the world warrant the teaching of a different kind of fairness? Some people work their entire lives to own their own home only to see it all wash away in the fury of Mother Nature. Bill Gates says, "Life isn'’t fair, get used to." Is this something our students should be sheltered from or taught openly? Is Bill Gates a good role model? Can we overcome the natural world?
The good, or bad, news is that educating forces are already at work in our classrooms. Humans have an incredible ability to teach themselves and shouldn't those forces be harnessed? Rather than setting up mini moral utopias, we might consider preparing our students for the kind of inconsistencies they will inevitably encounter. Will we do our students a disservice by attempting to convince them otherwise?
Either as a result of belief or biology, humans behave differently from each other. At times, these differences are large and, at times, they are small. Regardless, the various behaviors we exhibit are the evidence for the inconsistency of moral beliefs in our world. Does this inconsistency in the world warrant the teaching of a different kind of fairness? Some people work their entire lives to own their own home only to see it all wash away in the fury of Mother Nature. Bill Gates says, "Life isn'’t fair, get used to." Is this something our students should be sheltered from or taught openly? Is Bill Gates a good role model? Can we overcome the natural world?
The good, or bad, news is that educating forces are already at work in our classrooms. Humans have an incredible ability to teach themselves and shouldn't those forces be harnessed? Rather than setting up mini moral utopias, we might consider preparing our students for the kind of inconsistencies they will inevitably encounter. Will we do our students a disservice by attempting to convince them otherwise?
9.05.2006
Robert Palmer's Logical Syllogism - 80's music in Review
Premise 1: Your lights are on, but you're not home
Premise 2: Your will is not your own
Premise 3: You're heart sweats and teeth grind
Premise 4: Another kiss and you'll be mine
Premise 5: Whoa, you like to think that you're immune to the stuff, oh yeah
Premise 6: It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough,
Therefore, you know you're gonna have to face it, you're addicted to love
Premise 2: Your will is not your own
Premise 3: You're heart sweats and teeth grind
Premise 4: Another kiss and you'll be mine
Premise 5: Whoa, you like to think that you're immune to the stuff, oh yeah
Premise 6: It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough,
Therefore, you know you're gonna have to face it, you're addicted to love
8.14.2006
A Summer Job / The Horn Temp
My uncle (Pictured on the right) owns the central valleys largest and most well renown Musical instrument repair company. The Horn Shop, as it is so called, is known by all decent wind instrument players in and around the Fresno/Clovis metropolis for its quality of workmanship. The summer is the busiest time of the year for the Horn Shop. They maintain the brass and woodwinds for nearly 100 schools, servicing nearly 5000 instruments in all. This task, being impossible for the permanent technicians, requires the employment of seasonal workers affectionately referred to as "The Horn Temps."
As a "Horn Temp" my skills are at best rudimentary in comparison the my uncle but that doesn't mean the work is boring. Everyday, I'll disassemble, clean, de-dent, and reassemble 5-10 trumpets, marching horns, euphoniums, and tubas. Learning new skills and techniques has been by far the most engaging part of the job. There are many, many unique tools which are used for highly specific functions. The Ultrasonic Cleaner (pictured here), The Dent Eraser, and various mandrils are some of the more interesting ones. In additions, my coworkers are fun and interesting people.
For the most part, I have enjoyed this summer tremendously. I've worked long and hard (in addition to The Horn Shop, my uncle and I are building a house) and working hard is a good thing. Call me a Marxist if you want, but if you're not working, get off your bump and bust your hump.
8.09.2006
Jane Child's Logical Syllogism - 80's music in Review
Premise 1: I don't wanna fall in love, no no
Premise 2: Love cuts just like a knife, woo woo
Premise 3: You make the knife feel good baby
Therefore, I'll fight you to the end
Premise 2: Love cuts just like a knife, woo woo
Premise 3: You make the knife feel good baby
Therefore, I'll fight you to the end
7.31.2006
Monuments of Nostalgia
Just before my freshman year of highschool, my mother and step-father took the family on a tour of the country. Our final destination was Memphis and then Iowa, but we went by way of the southwest. This was my first trip to the desert and I was impressed by the heat and by the desolation and since then, it has always been my favorite place.
All the usual characters of the desert were discovered on that trip for the first time. I remember admiring the cacti and the likeness of Joshua Trees and U2 album covers. I remember the evening we drove through Monument Valley. I can not explain the feeling but it was something like surprise. Magnificent and terrible surprise.
As I think back on that night, I am full of deep sadness. I can't go back to that time. Back to when I was a boy and my step-father was a young man. Back to the rocks and trees and the overcast sunset that turned the world to a glowing grey. That world and its enormous monoliths which stand like sign posts pointing to things gone by, has past by me.
Sometimes, I dream that on that evening in the desert, if only I could be there again, I'd find all those whom I've ever loved, waiting for me to come to them.
I know that my writing is weak and that you're probably scratching your head right now. All I can say is that my eyes are filled with tears about the past. Tears ready to fall on the sands of an overcast desert.
7.22.2006
The Jetta Heats Up
In addition to this blog, the Jetta, for which it is so named, has been in a state of disrepair. As the summer has climbed higher and higher into record temperatures, the temperature of my engine has also climbed above its normal, seasonal levels. This has resulted in a momentary shutdown (arh) of all jetta usage and has relegated all motor-vehicular transportation to other apparatus. I realize the rather large amounts of shame that go along with bumming rides and using your parents gas, but these are trying times. Damn trying, some might say.
With the Jetta down, but not out, I've decided to attempt to repair her myself. I've conferred with some mechanical minds and their prognostications give me both hope and confidence that the Jetta can be both restored and reinstituted. All I have to do is change the thermostat.
Before we go any further with this post, I must assure all 6 of you who still read this that "I ain't got time for" global warming or any other theories about why my car has been driven to exhaustion. I also ain't got time for workin' out in 113 degree heat either.
Anyway, while at work today, I listened to various channels on Sirius Satellite Radio.
With the Jetta down, but not out, I've decided to attempt to repair her myself. I've conferred with some mechanical minds and their prognostications give me both hope and confidence that the Jetta can be both restored and reinstituted. All I have to do is change the thermostat.
Before we go any further with this post, I must assure all 6 of you who still read this that "I ain't got time for" global warming or any other theories about why my car has been driven to exhaustion. I also ain't got time for workin' out in 113 degree heat either.
Anyway, while at work today, I listened to various channels on Sirius Satellite Radio.
7.17.2006
4.17.2006
Jorge Luis Borges in The Immortal
Death (or its allusion) makes men precious and pathetic. They are moving because of their phantom condition; every act they excute may be their last; there is not a face that is not on the verge of disolving like a face in a dream. Everything among the mortals has the value of the irretrievable and the perilous. Among the Immortals, on the other hand, every act (and every thought) is the echo of others that preceded it in the past, with no visible beginning, or the faithful presage of others that in the future will repeat it to a tertinginous degree. There is nothing that is not as if lost in a maze of indefatigable mirrors. Nothing can happen only once, nothing is preciously precarious. The elegiacal, the serious, the ceremonial, do not hold for the Immortals. Homer and I separated at the gates of Tangier; I think we did not even say goodbye.
4.06.2006
Well... who do you wanna blame?
If lust and hate is the candy,
if blood and love tastes so sweet,
then we give 'em what they want.
So their eyes are growing hazy 'cos they wanna turn it on,
so their minds are soft and lazy.
Well... who do you wanna blame?
Hey, give 'em what they want.
if blood and love tastes so sweet,
then we give 'em what they want.
So their eyes are growing hazy 'cos they wanna turn it on,
so their minds are soft and lazy.
Well... who do you wanna blame?
Hey, give 'em what they want.
3.12.2006
And that John, the Favorite, was a Dry Fly Fisherman
"It is those we live with and love and should know that elude us."
Now nearly all those I loved and did not understand when I was young are dead, but I still reach out to them.
Of course, I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn't. But when I am alone in the half-light of the canyon, all existence fades into a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.
Now nearly all those I loved and did not understand when I was young are dead, but I still reach out to them.
Of course, I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn't. But when I am alone in the half-light of the canyon, all existence fades into a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.
3.01.2006
The Report and Other
"Tragedies are like facts. You have to pretend they don't exist."
- Stephen Colbert
Also, this week I saw a bumper sticker that read:
"I support our troops and President Bush's decisions."
...things are heating up!
PS: I'm currently listening to Jeopardy by the Greg Kihn Band. Ooooh-ooh-oooooh
- Stephen Colbert
Also, this week I saw a bumper sticker that read:
"I support our troops and President Bush's decisions."
...things are heating up!
PS: I'm currently listening to Jeopardy by the Greg Kihn Band. Ooooh-ooh-oooooh
2.16.2006
2.11.2006
1.19.2006
Across in the Research
As the child of history and reason, Revolution is the offspring of linear, successive, and unrepeatable time. But as the child of myth, it moves in cyclical time, like the stars and the seasons. The nature of Revolution, then, is dual. We cannot think it except by separating its two elements and discarding the mythic as a foreign body - and we cannot live it except by uniting them. We think it as a phenomenon foreseen by reason; we live it as a mystery. The fascination of revolution lies in this enigma.
-Octavio Paz in The Other Voice: Essays on Modern Poetry
-Octavio Paz in The Other Voice: Essays on Modern Poetry
1.08.2006
Magical Realism
...but I think it's to ask you, if you could do anything you wanted...if you could have a wish....
And you're the kind of man who could grant me that wish?
I don't know. I'm just asking.
You know, I never got to bat in the major leagues. I'd have liked to have had that chance, just once...to stare down a big-league pitcher. Stare him down, then just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for. The chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes to look at it. To feel the tingle in your arms as you connect with the ball. To run the bases, stretch a double into a triple... ...and flop face first into third. Wrap your arms around the bag. That's my wish. Is there enough magic out there in the moonlight... ...to make this dream come true?
What would you say if I said yes?
And you're the kind of man who could grant me that wish?
I don't know. I'm just asking.
You know, I never got to bat in the major leagues. I'd have liked to have had that chance, just once...to stare down a big-league pitcher. Stare him down, then just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for. The chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes to look at it. To feel the tingle in your arms as you connect with the ball. To run the bases, stretch a double into a triple... ...and flop face first into third. Wrap your arms around the bag. That's my wish. Is there enough magic out there in the moonlight... ...to make this dream come true?
What would you say if I said yes?
1.07.2006
It's Money They Have and Peace They Lack
"Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come."
-James Earl Jones playing Terence Man in Field of Dreams
-James Earl Jones playing Terence Man in Field of Dreams
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