Early "end" to the day--and a pleasant one

Just had a lovely talk with the Young Philosopher from last year's SF class. He is deeply interested in Taoism and in developing the deeper levels of spirit and intellect, so of course he's a pleasure to talk with--though actually, it's more me talking "to" him than with him: I pontificate; he listens attentively. He's an interesting young man; he is very pragmatic about how he lives his life, finding good ways to make money--and also working to make the best of his life in all situations. For instance, he said he was really struggling with his math class, but that he knows it's his job to find a way to make it work for him; he can't say he doesn't like the class, only that it's hard for him to make sense of. He seems to be a very devoted friend, too; he told me a little about a close friend who has various problems and that he has to try to find ways not to get too caught up in his own reactions to the point that he creates problems for himself. So we talked some about that kind of thing. To my delight, he uses some of the Breath-Body-Mind stuff I taught him when he needs to energize. He also was completely delighted with a little gift I gave him: the original Winnie the Pooh books (the stories and the poems), plus Le Guin's "interpretation" of the Tao Te Ching. (She worked in concert with a scholar who could tell her whether her word choices were accurate as translations, though she read no Chinese herself.) The Young Philosopher wants to come back next week to my office hour. Fine by me.

Seeing him helped clear the bad taste in my mouth from today's 101. As you may recall, I briefly thought they might be pulling together as a class, but ... alas, no. Their notes on their readings have devolved into mere summary--even from the best students--and they display astounding ignorance about the agriculture/environment/health nexus. (No, spraying pesticides does not turn the crop into GMO.) They very diligently took notes while I explained some of the errors of fact, but when it came time to talk about the reading, although they did a little discussing in their groups (and best among them was the student I thought had vanished), once I turned things over to the class as a whole, there was a whole lotta silence. (Maybe I should bring in a soundtrack of crickets to play in those moments.) Compared to the wild and woolly discussion I had with the other 101 last Thursday, a bunch of tree stumps would be as lively as today's class.

I didn't say much about that discussion last Thursday, but it was great. We ended up in all sorts of tangential topics (subsidies, political policy, I can't even remember what all), and they were all but jumping out of their seats. I do have to talk to both groups about conspiracy theories and "Them"--whoever "they" are. Students need to understand that "the government" doesn't somehow make money from what farmers do (except in taxes), despite the financial influence of the agrichemical lobby on individual politicians--or the fact that representatives of the big corporations frequently end up in positions with the cabinet or as government advisers.

In any event, I'm posting early because I'm leaving early. There is a reading of Le Guin's final book of poetry in the City tonight, and I'm meeting a friend there to celebrate the production of the book (which I backed, financially). I have work in my backpack to grind through on the train in (I know I'll be too tired to do any work on the train home, though in a moment of wild optimism, I packed the novel I'll be teaching in the 102 in a little while). I caught a bit of a break about the sabbatical applications: none of them were in the cabinet when I went to take a look at them, so ... well, I'll try to respond later in the week, giving some feedback to the mentors. There are only three of them, I think, maybe four. I'll also have to start reviewing promotion applications soon, but that's a worry for another moment. The work flow keeps getting obstructed because I have so much backlog to clear--but I got a wodge of stuff returned to today's 101, and if I accomplish what I hope to on the train tonight, I'll be able to return a similar wodge to tomorrow's 101. When I'll grade the rest of the 102 essays is as yet an open question; I may have one hell of a Wednesday in front of me. Ah well. I fall back on the mantra of "we'll see" and the wisdom of "I'll think about that tomorrow."