Getting Caught up
The Christmas tree is up but that is all, except for a door decoration outside the front door. Christmas always comes with mixed feelings, and this year is no exception. Our son is being interviewed for a new excecutive position today in Rhode Island, our daughter is contemplating divorce, and we are wondering about our own future, considering a move to Vermont next summer. Christmas is always a lot of fun, but we will have to share it with only half our grandchildren, and we will h ave to travel to Detroit and Illinois to visit siblings. Weather is always a factor in this, too. Today it is cold!
So Rumsfeld is out and Gates is in. The NY Times is pleased with all that, so we are too. The war is awful, of course, and there are no easy answers to the mess we have brought on ourselves, let alone on the Iraquis. Christmas will be no fun over there, that's for sure.
My students won their way into the finals of speech night, but did not win the ultimate prize. Good for them.
Time and Its Mysteries
Where does time go? Is there a material"thing" called time that actually go anywhere? Is time but a nonce entity that is over even as it occurs? Where does it go?
What time is it? No matter how you answer, it is always past the time you call out. The Present is elusive, for it doesn't last long at all. The Past is fixed and cannot be changed, and the Future doesn't even exist yet. Time is problematic. it cannot be frozen in the present or the future, and is rigidly stubborn in its ability to hold on to the Past. I am not sure Time even is, for it may have been, has not yet come, and when it is supposedly here, it zips through faster than a speeding bullet.
Nobody sees time, touches it, or photographs it. At best the photographer captures what is called a moment, but as soon as it is captured, it is history. Unlike space which we can touch, which we can shape, Time allows for none of that. It comes and goes and that is that. One moment replaces another more rapidly than we can imagine. What is now is by the time I write this and you read this is no longer now, but then. It is one of the most inconceivable topics in our repertoire. What can we say about Time except that wedo not understand it, have not conquered, and are still quite subject to its ongoing pursuits.
Time is interesting, to be sure. There are no time machines to take us back into other eras, or off into future days when things will be very different from what they are today. Today is tomorrow's yesterday, and yesterday's tomorrow. It is all so relevant, so fluid, so lively. We can look back and plan ahead, but we can't change a thing or even determine our destiny. The clocks keep ticking but they do not go backward or forward. Time is Time, and time and again we wrestle with its implications for our lives, without ever being able to recover what we may have wasted or lost, or stretch it out to give us more when we think we need more. We all have the same amount of time; nobody has a monopoly on it. It is indiscriminate in its gifts. Twenty-four hours a day -- period! For everyone! Time appears and disappears with regularity, and we are helpless to save it, prolong it, or shorten it. There it is, and there it goes -- poof! What is was; what will be will be and then it will be a way as well. How interesting!
Wayne's Words for September 12, 2006
Telephoning
Why do we feel the need to answer the telephone? After all, it is an intrusion on whatever it is we are doing when it rings. We feel obligated to answer it and wonder who it was if we miss the call. We quickly consult the called ID and even call back if we do not recognize the number. It is a kind of paranoia, in a way.
I do not feel that way. The telephone is intended to be a convenience, not a necessity. I want to use it when I want to use it, not when somebody else wants me to. I can easily let it go. But having said that, I always look if I am near the phone -- and when is it I am not near one of the three phones or two cell phones in the house! -- to learn who it is who is trying to reach me. I always look when my wife is away; she always calls me and I am glad to have her calls, but for the rest, they can usually wait I figure.
Cell phones have changed the way we behave, too. I hear people talking as they walk down the street, sit in restaurants, shop in stores, or are in waiting rooms. My students have them in class and I always ask for them to be shut off. Once in a while they are not. There are no phone booths any more; telephone conversations are out in the open, and are annoying when overheard. It is hard not to listen in.
My wife and I have a policy of not answering if we do not recognize the number, unless we are expecting a call from some store or supplier. That used to bother her, but now it does not. It makes for a much more peaceful evening or afternoon at home, to be sure. Napoleon, I believe it was, used to tell his secretary not to open a letter for six weeks. If it is important, they will write back. I think the same principle applies to phone calls. If it is really important the caller will find a way to reach us.
So we like Caller ID, but we dislike call waiting. How rude it is to have to put somebody on hold so you can take another call! I always disregard the beep unless I am absolutely sure it is necessary to answer it.
So I use the phone sparingly; my wife calls the family regularly and talks usually a long time. I get all the news from her. If that is using her, then so be it. She needs that communication; I am happy to read about it on E-Mail or perhaps, if I am lucky, a regular letter delivered by the postpeople.
Communication is essential, of course, and I would not be without a telephone, or a mailbox, or even a cell phone, but sparingly used is my motto, and I urge it on others. And what gets me really angry is the use of a cell phone while driving, but that is another message for another time!
Wayne's Words for August 24, 2006
Weather and Its Effects
It is one of those days that James Russell described as one in June: "Then if ever come perfect days." This is as near to perfect weather-wise as one can ask for. At least in this part of the world.
Weather affects the way we think and act, and dress and feel. I like it hotter rather than colder and I do not mind if it goes over ninety degrees. But today is in the high seventies, low eighties and low humidity. Perfect for any kind of outdoor activity and easy on the air conditioning, too!
It makes for safer driving, except I just heard a report that two policemen on bicycles were hit by a truck on Indiana 83 while in a charity bicycle ride. I wonder what kind of carelessness caused this. Insurance companies look at weather reports for the accidents they investigate. It is a huge factor, to be sure.
As I look out the window I see the leaves perfectly still, here at nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. A few birds flit around and there are some lazy clouds, but not much is happening. That is a far cry from the tornado, hail, rain, wind, etc., that we experienced many times in the spring this year. The roofers are still at work repairing damage from those storms.
We watched Spike Lee's documentary on Katrina last night and just cannot believe the devastation that storm inflicted, coupled, of course, by the ineptness of the relief efforts, if they existed at all. So many people suffered needlessly, or over much. How can this be tolerated in a country that can get food parcels to war-torn countries, but none to folks on rooftops in New Orleans? Politics plays strange games.
So it is a perfect day, except for the television news that I am avoiding at this time of day. We will turn it on later and sigh at the imperfections of people as they continue their power grabs, greed and indulgences. Let me enjoy my innocence and simplicity as I revel in the warmth and comfort of a day like this!
Wayne's Words for August 22, 2006
E-Mail and Newer Technology in My Life
My brother turned 76 yesterday and we exchanged communications via E-Mail. I believe E-Mail is here to stay, of course, and use it frequently. Some of my friends insist that it is not acceptable to send birthday greetings, etc., as the primary means of acknowledging such anniversaries, but I find that it works wonders. No one to whom I have sent such has objected and all have responded appreciatively.
It takes a long time for new technology to get accepted in the popular culture, but E-Mail seems to making it more rapidly than others. I think it is replacing faxes and telepone calls as the fastest, most reliable means of getting a message through. But there is the security issue, the interception possibilities, and all the other horror stories we hear of how it is unsafe. I have not found it so, but found it surprisingly usable.
I haven't mastered the art of it yet, but I have learned to attach things, pictures, letters, web-pages, etc., and wonder if there is anything else I need to learn. My students are quite skilled at all this technology stuff and do not object at all to having syllabi, assignments, etc., online. I even administer examinations and quizzes online. It is great, and I was skeptical at first.
I wish we had such technology when I was writing my dissertaton at Columbia University some thirty years ago. It was just coming in and I tried to learn it in my final semester there, but I was too skeptical, I suppose. It was fun, but I recognized that it would take me longer to catch on than I had time in that semester, so I graduated by typing the whole thing out on an electric IBM. What fun!
So here I am blogging now! Who would have thought it then? I haven't shared this blogging idea with any of my family yet, but I shall now that I trust the system. I can't imagine their being very interested in it, but my brother will read it a little, I would suspect. Some of them share my views and some see things differently. Perhaps that is my reluctance, not wanting to upset them more than they already are about my nonconventional views on things. We shall see.
Wayne's Words for August 21, 2006.
Music Education
Music is important in my life, as I suppose, and should hope, is in many, if not most, people's lives. The problem, of course, is what kind of music. I am stuck in the classical/baroque period and choose that almost always. My wife is a fine pianist and had been into my kind of music for many years, but lately has begun playing show tunes regularity and with increasing skill. So our tastes may change through the years it seems.
Why is music so important? I once attended a seminar of some kind at which we were asked to name what we would do if we had just three weeks left to live. I found myself saying I would listen to music. I think I would give the same answer today. My wife, however, cannot listen to music casually. She actually has to listen to it, to analyze it, study it, dissect it, or whatever musicians do when they listen to music. I just let it play. She calls mine background music and does not relish it. She want to concentrate on the music and does nothing else while she does that.
I see my college students driving their cars with their music playing. I do not think they are consciously listening to it, but they are responding to it, by beating the time with their heads, hands or feet. When you watch a children's program on television, they are always jumping around to the music (witness Barney). I see this as a threat to music education, and do not like it. Music causes us to react to it in some way. My way, I guess, is to let it drift into my nerves and soothe them. My wife's way is to let it drift into our mind and stimulate it. The students' way is to let it drift into their muscles and activate them.
I fear that the popular culture has worked its way into church music as well, and lowering standards there. The craze for praise songs eliminates the rich heritage we have from hymns, anthems, cantatas, oratorios, masses, et al. Church people do not read music and do not sing as well as they once did, I believe. Fewer of them play instruments, particularly piano, and not many accompany singing well. It will have a lasting effect on theology, to be sure!
Music does things to us. I do not understand school boards that cut the music budget when they have a money crunch. Music students do better in all academic fields than others. It teaches math, grammar, reading, thinking, discipline, philosophy, and almost every other subject. I do wish the schools and music teachers would spend less time on the popular culture and more on the classics, but that is clearly a losing battle what with all the show choirs being developed. Performance seems to be the emphasis rather than the appreciation. I think we should teach music in order to make us better, more noble, people, not to make us television stars.
Wayne's Words for August 20, 2006.
Economics and Education
Well, I've been away from blogging for a few days and now I am back, ready to create some more transthoughts. School has now begun for most of the grandchildren and we are in the transportation business. I never realized what a big business education is -- busses that don't take the children from home to school with the convenience families require; politics gerrymandering school zones; lawmakers enacting uninformed policies; overppaid administrators who foul things up and underpaid teachers; etc. etc.
I cannot justify underpaying teachers, no matter what the taxes might be. If the public can afford to produce an industry like professional sports and money can be found to pay those outrageous salaries, why can it not be found to pay teachers a higher salary? There is more value, I think, to learning than spectating sportmen. Politicians, too, are overpaid for their worth, i believe, espcially when you hear of lobbyists and payoffs and the like. Economics is a funny world. The rich do indeed get richer and always at the expense of the poor.
I drive our granddaughter to and from school every day, about fifteen miles round trip twice. $3.00 a gallon for gas, plus the real estate taxes our children pay. Who gets all that money? The oil companies are reporting record profits and we are reporting hard times! It is just not fair! Somehow, someday, someone will come up with an answer that will rid this world of this inequity.
So they think they captured and arrested the slayer of little Jon Benet Ramsey! He is in Thailand teaching school. Where did he get the money to travel like that, or to enjoy the child pornography he is alleged to view.? People seem to get money for things they want, even if they don't have it for things they need!
Education is supposed to make us better citizens, and here is a teacher who is under arrest. Here are schools that have to raise taxes to support their administration, buildings, staff, supplies and athletic teams. Was it Plato who wrote, "All you need to have a school is a teacher on one end of a log and a pupil on the other." We have a long way to go to get back to that simple idea. Who will lead the way?
Wayne's words for August 17, 2006.
