Complicity

A confession and a personal mini-manifesto...

Silence is complicity.

Racism is a cancer. Acknowledging the systemic racism in our society is not enough. I must also confront those racist thoughts that poison my individual soul. Every day I must acknowledge the prejudices that seep or even sometimes flood my consciousness. I cannot pretend it doesn't exist. I must confront it head on, figure out how it got in there in the first place, then excise it brutally from my mind, my heart and my soul.

Denying its existence in my soul simply allows the cancer to spread. I must beg forgiveness and ask my friends who are not of my ethnicity how I can do better. I must listen, acknowledge, and act. I must not worry about offending those who will be angry when I point out that white protestors armed with assault rifles can storm a statehouse while African-Americans are shot while jogging, murdered by policemen with a knee on their neck, and threatened with police violence for asking a white woman to follow Central Park rules. And that's just the past few days!

This is not a partisan issue, this is a human issue.

Just a few more things...

Wear a mask!

Vaccines work.

And there's nothing wrong with mail-in voting.

Put on your mask!

I made a weezer mask. =w=

I just don't understand this opposition to wearing masks during this time of pandemic.

Just put on the mask! Stop being a toddler! No one is sending you to a concentration camp! You are not being oppressed! You're going to walmart for twinkies and diet coke!

No one is asking you to storm the beaches of Normandy! No one is asking you to ration your food!

Put the mask on!

Be kind to others.

Listen to the doctors and scientists...not the politicians. This is not political!

Wear your mask!

You might save a life and maybe even yours.

This country is turning into a bunch of babies!

Ulysses Done

It took 391 days. Eight more days than I predicted on April 10, 2019. It was on April 10th that I started reading Ulysses by James Joyce. I originally predicted I be finished on April 28th, 2020. I actually finished on May 6, 2020. Not too far off! Fell off a bit in the middle somewhere but The Quarantine allowed me to catch back up. I'm just proud I actually completed this goal!

The secret was reading two pages a day. This took the pressure off. I could read other books at the same time. I didn't have to worry about the obscure language. I just read two pages a day and kept going. Another key was utilizing the online resources that helped explain the content. It was a difficult read and I needed the help.

But the challenge was worth it all. Completing a goal over a long period of time is immensely satisfying. I had been attempting to tackle this book for twenty years and it feels so good to have gone and done it. I guarantee I'll be celebrating Bloomsday on June 16th this year!

So I've kinda begun a routine of reading one challenging book over a long period time while reading one or two other more accessible works at the same time. I've now challenged myself to tackle Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. 776 pages. It's not the length, its the depth of the content that can be challenging. So this will be my long read for the next while. I started today, May 7th, 2020.

There seems to be page breaks about every eight pages or so...a lot more than the two pages a day pace I used for Ulysses. But I'm going to give that a shot. Some page breaks are a little shorter and some a little longer. I haven't looked through the whole book so I could be in for some surprises. But I think I'll try to keep it at eight pages max.

At 776 pages that would mean I would be done in 97 days. I'm going to give my self a little longer simply because I'm not sure I can do eight pages a day every day while reading two other books concurrently. So I'm going to give my self 155 days (average of 5 pages a day).

So that means I should be done with Gravity's Rainbow by October 8, 2020. 155 days from now.

Let's do it.

When No One Shows...

Me, all by myself, when none of my students show up to their scheduled Zoom Meeting.

We're now in the middle of our 7th week of Remote Learning during The Quarantine. At first attendance to my meetings was robust and energetic. Zoom was new and interesting. But soon students began muting their cameras so all you could see were static avatars. A few weeks went by and more and more students stopped showing up. The novelty faded fast. And maybe the content of my Zoom Meetings did not hold interest for them. Plus, 9:30 am is pretty early for some of my students these days. I don't take it personally. But it can sometime get lonely out there...

Little things...

My daughter has made face masks for her stuffed animals and dolls.

I've heard that the wearing of face masks has become a political issue.

Anyone who refuses to wear a mask in public during this pandemic is a selfish idiot.

I always tell my students "if you can't do the little things then you can't be trusted with the big things."

Wearing masks and staying home are little things. Our nation can't seem to handle that. 

May the Fourth

May the Fourth be with you, Rebel scum!