Day 218, October 20, 2020

Beautiful Thing

I'm afraid it is a little late, so I don't have much energy or time to write something big tonight, but there is a lot on my mind. I've been going through my office on Tuesdays and Thursdays, wading through the nearly two decades of books and papers and memories, and in the midst of that I came across this envelope from a few years ago.

After one too many "California Stops" the
former Dir. of Public Safety issued me
this rewards card.

Often, at the start of a semester, I will ask all the faculty and staff in my area to take a moment and write on a 3x5 card something beautiful about the summer that they would like to remember so that we can look at it again in the long trudge through the winter months and gain a second wind from that memory. Apparently, these were in an envelope that I neglected to bring back to the group. This will be my last meeting with the Humanities, Engineering, Math, and Science grouping, and it has already been a long semester, a long fall, a long summer, and a long spring, so, I thought perhaps it would be good to remember an earlier time to help us through whatever there is to come. I am going to share it with the group tomorrow.

So, in case you, too, need something to lift your spirits a little, to think about something beyond the confines of your mostly quarantined life, here is a wonderful list of beautiful things from people who have been dear to me and who I see as truly amazing people. These are people who have made it their life's work to enrich the lives of others. They have my respect and admiration, and I hope I can give a least a little degree of hope and beauty in a challenging time.

Enjoy,

Leo

Beautiful Things:

• Working in the studio for a solid month.

• Shooting video on a lake for a week.

• Swimming in the rain.

• Sun, sand, surf, warm Atlantic water, family, food, games, singing songs at the beach.

• Family reunion (5 grandchildren) in Ocean City, MD.

• Reaching house project goals--plumbing, repairs, fencing, gutters, etc.

• 3 consecutive days without rain… on Block Island… on a sailboat.

• Early afternoon naps in front of the fan.

• Rainbow

• Sitting in 90 deg. Heat, sweating profusely, and trying to string two thoughts together.

• Summer flowers

• In a closed hotel I found a bedroom, dark and musty, the bed abandoned for years, left behind, had layers of blankets, rotting and turning back into the earth itself. A shaft of light streaming in through a broken window illuminated a patch of flowers growing from the bed. How lovely! The garden.

• My six year old learned to swim.

• I located a friend after 18 years and she sent me her daughter to visit me for a month.

• A skeleton of a blue whale, 87 feet long, mounted at a marine research lab on the coast of California at Santa Cruz--against the ocean and the blue foggy sky.

• The sound of strings vibrating through warm tubes.

• A soft breeze blows through the window in the quiet of night. An ant crawls across the table unaware of its impending demise, a fan whispers overhead silently penetrating the curtain of heat around me. The children sleep above me, soon I too shall sleep.

• The sushi at China Gourmet restaurant in Greenfield. Not the tempura, though. Yuck.

• Playing with my grandchildren at the cape.

• Peaches

• Summer was ugly--the weather and the house my partner and I bought--so I am glad to be leaving it. My hope is that the fall and winter will bring beauty.

• Memory from summer of 2009… the lawn game on the grass in front of 146 Buffalo Bay with both Lily and Elena along with all Mullers and Sweeneys. Gorgeous sunshine--lots of laughter.

• Long beach walks.

• Listening to the Dalai Lama for 5 days, 4 hours a day, in Bethlehem, PA. He gave a commentary on one of the central texts in his tradition Tibetan Buddhism.

• Hundreds of bees swarming the joepie (?) weeds.

• Home-sweet-home. Family. Unconditional love.

• Tanglewood.

• The joy of gathering four generations of our extended family for 2 weeks together and the resulting family photo.

• Boogie boarding with grandkids in the ocean!

• Tubing down the Zoar River. Beautiful views! Learning to drive a speedboat- less chance of getting pulled over.

• Suspended in the late at eye level noticing tall green pines with pointy tops blurry in the green reflections on the water. In total peace.

• A chilly, clear and crisp morning on Lake Champlain.

• The Boston early music 11 pm Monteverdi performance.

• Papplebon (at Fenway) blowing a 7-4 lead.

• Green beach glass smooth between my toes.

• The joy of witnessing a 13 mo old child learn to applaud each number in a formal concert setting. (His mom was the choral leader)

• The streets after a storm. No electricity, no cars, just people standing in awe at the power of nature.

• Watching the ocean in constant motion on the coast of northern Maine while my kids scrambled gleefully over the rocks.

• Andy Shleck and Alberto Contador leaving the rest of the field behind and duking it out mano y mano on the misty slopes of the Pyrenees.

• Working in the studio, floating above my life, losing track of time, aweed(?) in non-linear thought. Lost in the images and ideas that I have been working with.

• Finding that childhood and youth were not a stream that had ended, bu that continue to flow into my today.

• Salad

• Davenport the pug in her new hat (paw sun visor).

• Spent six weeks in Alaska. Be near to family. Build a house. Avoid the summer heat.

• Sun, sand, saltwater, soft breezes.

• Exploration of the Deerfield River from its source in Vermont to its joining up with the Connecticut. (Not in a boat, but great!)

• Messalen’s Quartet for the End of Time played by world class instrumentalists in Maine.

• Andrew’s first giggle--wide eyed and fat cheeked, belly jiggling.

• White underside of a whale tail shimmering in the setting sun out on the ocean. Breathtaking moment!

• I went swimming in the ocean off Cape Cod with my 2 grandchildren (age 5 and 3) and the water was warm with no seaweed and very smooth waves and the sky was blue and clear.

• Going to St. Lake George in Maine--picking (private) wild blueberries and almost getting attacked by a rattlesnake. Not beautiful, but funny, being attacked by my cat.

• All the joys of a heart-felt choral exchange with friends in France: hence, concerts performed in ancient chateaus; delicious food and drink and cross-cultural understanding!

• A walk along the ocean coast-shapes of sand changing at the waterline. 

• Reading about the complexity of reading - humbling and renewing the respect for reading slowly (and teaching reading slowly).

• Khushi!

• It will be interesting to view the summer in November remember health problems!

• Fantastic events despite it all: Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in Seiji Ozawa Hall; Brentano Quartet, Maine Festival; visits with friends.

• Look for new experiences! Saratoga.

• Summer.

• Yay for Andrew’s emerging words.

• Boys giggling and wrestling on the carpet.

• Adam swimming.

• Meat pizza on an empty stomach (this is for Trevor).

• Sunshine, travel, staying put.

• Nature.

• I love the warm weather (or hot weather).

• I love having lots of time to work in my studio. This summer I worked out the problems of printing on aluminum.

• I love having the time to gas up the car and take short (or long) trips anytime of the week.

• Heat--love it--july, August. Swim--swimming--swim every day. Walk--move through trees, grasses, leaves, flowers, silk (?).

• Wonderful, cool breezy mornings on Cape Cod. Sailing, swimming and walking on the beach. The feeling of being re-energized, a feeling of completeness upon my return from a week long vacation doing so many fun and exciting things with people I love and care about.

• Keep on keeping on.

• I have always imagined that Paradise to be a sort of library--Jorge Luis Borges (paraphrased)

• Bermuda!

• Getting a full-time position at GCC within the most wonderful department!

When I first arrived at GCC, I got Will Roberts' old desk and this was inside a drawer.

From Our Friends:

From the MEF:

The Man Card pays special attention to how right-wing politicians, political operatives, and media commentators have used white-male identity politics to channel the legitimate, class-based grievances of tens of millions of white men into unbridled resentment of women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and so-called “liberal elites.” It also explores how these deeply gendered dynamics have undercut the presidential prospects of women and undermined the nation’s ability to adapt to a changing world.  A co-production of the Media Education Foundation and Eat the Moon Films, The Man Card was directed by Peter Hutchison and Lucas Sabean, and is based on Jackson Katz’s book Man Enough? Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton & the Politics of Presidential Masculinity (Interlink Books, 2016).

WATCH THE MOVIE NOW

From Teaching Tolerance:

Too often, educators of color are burdened with leading and supporting anti-racist work in schools and districts—perhaps even more so during COVID-19 and this year’s widespread calls for such work. These resources can help white educators and administrators take action now, carry their fair share of this work and ensure they’re in it for the long haul.

Can you believe this kid is 21 years old now?

Today's Online Teaching Tips:

From EducationAdminWebAdvisor:

Anti-Racism In and Out Of The Classroom: How to Be an Ally For College Students Tuesday, October 20 3:00 PM Eastern; 2:00 PM Central; 1:00 PM Mountain; 12:00 PM Pacific Educational equity experts Precious Green Gunter and Brandon Washington will reveal how to honor all student perspectives in ways that acknowledge minority students’ experiences with anecdotal and structural racism. You will learn from discussions of real-world scenarios led by the facilitators. Please join us!

REGISTER NOW

From Magna:

• Developing and Teaching an Online Course
  This course is your surest path to online teaching success and step by step, prepares you to teach online.

From Academic Impressions:

Creating a Safe Space in Your Classroom During a Crisis 
Article | Academic Impressions 

You're in class (online). Your students are in class...how can we as instructors step back, break down the sense of isolation and hopelessness, and use the sharing of our experiences of crisis to create a safe space for students to grow and learn? Read more.