The 4th

I am confident that you already know that today is the Fourth of July and that it is called America’s 250th birthday.   The 4th of July stirs memories in me since I had just arrived in Stevens Point a few days before.  I told the people hiring me that I couldn’t take the job without a summer assignment.  We were strapped for cash.  Education faculty are used to a surge of experienced teachers showing up for master’s degree courses during summer.  They made up a summer wave of graduate students.

I flew to Point while Lynn oversaw the movers and drove our daughters here from College Park, a long drive especially for a single driver.

Stevens Point seemed somewhat like Towson, the seat of Baltimore County and the place where I had met Lynn and dated her.  I expected to teach pre-teachers and graduate teachers at UWSP for the rest of my career and that’s what happened.

My first days were filled with the excitement of a new place and at the time of a national holiday.  Lynn timed her drive from Maryland to be in Point during the last days of June.  We had arrangements to live in a house available because the professor who lived there had a year’s sabbatical at an institution in the east. The Fourth of July holiday was our first experience of note in Stevens Point and it was a good one.

When the 4th rolls around, I am transported back to getting started here.  It is exciting.

Changes forever

It may not be easy to think about, but everything is always changing forever.  Let’s take a large busy city and freeze it and everything and everybody it.  Nobody moves.  This sort of freezing allows nothing to happen.  Doing that will change that place forever.  Why?  Nothing happened.  Yes, it did: that freezing took place.  That freezing never happened before.  If it does, the 2nd freezing, where, again, nothing happens, will again change that place forever.  It will be the place where that 2nd freezing took place.

Everything changes forever.  Time keeps rolling again, steadily racking up history.  You are now changed forever, as am I.  

Contradictions

Sometimes, I get several pages stapled together and one or more of them may have printed on them the words “Intentionally left blank”. I can see that

the page is not blank.  I suppose the organization has gotten questions and complaints about missing pages when the page is actually blank but I can plainly see that the words printed on the page do not leave it blank.

Sometimes,  I get a set of numbers that I use to send back to the sender as part of the process of establishing my identity.  The numbers come with several warnings and statements that I should not share the numbers with anyone but just below the warnings, I am directed to insert the numerals I have received. I think I understand what I am supposed to do but it seems contradictory. I think if someone wrote out a more complete statement that did not create a contradiction, I would skip it and not read it.

Collections

I guess you can have a large collection of just about anything.  A good-sized city, a modern university, all can have many employees, records, offices, restrooms, hallways, elevators.  My life has been affected by libraries.  When I was a part time employee of the Enoch Pratt Library, the main branch had separate rooms for books and periodicals (magazines).  I worked in the History room.

The book “A Place for Everything” by Judith Flanders discusses aspects of the development of methods and practices for arranging books in such a way that they could be located by someone trying to find books of a certain kind.  When you think about it, there are similar problems whether dealing with hundreds of soldiers or weapons or tools or pictures or movies or lessons or students’ tests.

Individual families have stores of possessions that they may not even remember obtaining.  In a similar way, libraries of books or painting and photos may include just what someone needs but without anyone knowing.

I have read that in some libraries, the best thing to do to locate what is sought is to ask the librarian where that item might be.

Say good-bye to June

I have known some Junes and some Mays but I have not known anyone named “July”.  I understand that the names of our month of July and our month of August were used to honor Roman emperors Julius Caesar and Augutus. 

As I age, I find that time tends to shoot on by so I won’t be surprised if it is suddenly June again.

I wouldn’t feel especially honored if a month were named after me. 

Using the breath

I was happy to switch from a spot on the wall for my meditation attention anchor to my breath.  I have enjoyed Larry Rosenberg’s “Breath by Breath”.  I have gotten good practices from all of Gay Hendricks’ books, such as “Conscious Breathing.”  Hendricks often refers to conscious use of the breath as “breathwork”.  He warns against restricting the capacity of one’s breathing because of social disapproval of a (temporary) protruding, rounded belly.  James Nestor’s “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art” had national success but, to me, the other books I have mentioned here are more valuable.

Criterion

When people want to name a college or university, they often think of the word “Harvard”.  It is certainly true that Harvard University is an old and respected school.  But is it the “best” college?  At that point, some might answer “Depends what you mean by ‘best’.  Least expensive?  Most expensive?  Highest number of satisfied students?

When trying to decide what sort of best we are interested in, we are dealing with the question of criterion.  What variable are we looking at?  When evaluating anything as complex as a university, there are many, many possible criteria.  If we settle on a variable, just one, that is the criterion we are using. These words come from Greek.

Sometimes, I think maybe Americans are very interested in being “Number One” without thinking “Number one in what?” Number one in auto crashes?  Number one in sleep disorders?

Not so lovely

On Monday of this week, I wrote about her elegance and grace. She walked into our yard proudly, gracefully.  She wasn’t wearing any clothes but we don’t expect a white-tailed doe to do that.  A couple of days later, she was back and not so elegant.  She impolitely pushed her mouth into a bird feeder, trying to get the seed there for herself.  We chased her away.  If she is going to be so poorly-mannered, she can stay away!

Kids and puppies

I saw an ad for miniature Australian shepherd puppies.  It showed little kids and puppies tumbling over each other and watching it, I could feel joy ascending in me.  I don’t plan to have a little kid around nor a puppy, let alone five of them. But the happiness, the energy and the enthusiasm are almost tangible, so present, so visible.

I can see a small public playground from my office.  When a car pulls up, kids inside burst out and RUN to climbing and swings.  No hesitation, no pondering: just GO!

Buck rub

We have several young trees that could be stunted or killed by buck rub.  That happens when male deer rub their foreheads and antler on tree trunks, often damaging or killing the tree.  Their heads itch strongly so the bucks rub against the trees.  Rubbing leaves a scent claiming the area and advertising the buck’s presence to potential mates in the neighborhood.

We have a spray can of repellant to protect our young trees.  It does tend to help our trees survive.