Many sun rotations and revolutions since I've focused any energy here, but I hope to change that behavior in the coming months. The website
ThisMagickalEarth.com is where I have been focusing online presence, but intend to write here for more detailed material than what will be posted on site.
A bit inspiration of beginning this blog was my third or fourth re-reading of Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, which sent me for the first time to connect with other enthusiast. I had reached out to Daniel asking for direct permission to post direct text from My Ishmael on my Facebook, to which he responded warmly (yes!). I reached out to the Friends of Ishmael for local interest and began a good discussion relationship with Howard, an admin of the network. Early on I had asked him about the method that Ishmael used in those books to find pupils (the classifieds and famous statement "Teacher Seeks Pupil with Earnest Desire to Save the World." and if anyone [he knew of] had ever tried it. Not to his knowledge and I thought I'd try. I chickened out... well, OK, I realized it would not be very helpful in my area and I could not fill a role like the gorillas. Instead, I started a reading group that met a few times all of folks that were already familiar with Quinns work. The group was more interested in this work as literature and not the ideas presented... then basically went on to become a book club. I advertised the first and second meeting her on this blog, then used the blog to begin collecting my thoughts in writing and 'publishing' somewhere. Feels good just to get stuff out. However, while working as intensely at the College as I was (teaching between 19-21 credits per term, with labs) I was not able to keep up with the editing of my writing and ended up with plenty of un-started or un-finished posts.
Now I am quite a different place, having been laid-off (non-renewed) from the college mere weeks after my faculty committee granted my tenure. After my arduous 10-yr brain-labor (college, grad school M.Sc., first teaching job, tenure-track job) to acquire the experienced I needed to be a great community college teacher, I have become disillusioned with that path, that system, and my effectiveness in it. The first three-months of no-job over the summer (besides University of Oregon Geology Field Camp), was a little chaotic as I was not sure what to do now? Over time (and many conversations: spouse, friends, family, strangers, deities, even Howard from Friends of Ishmael) a theme began to emerge and I am still working on honing in on what I can offer if Im not in the classroom. Now, still have the fortune to teach adjunct classes for the college that fired me and seeing as that is what I have done [well] for so long, Im still teaching two classes per term (a general geology with lab and a course I created called Violent Earth). DONT WORRY! Im still teaching in the traditional classroom sense, but I am expanding my ability to engage in informal education as well as branching out to audiences that need/crave these discussions more that the 20-something college students I'm used to. But most of my daily energy goes into three things, and most days not equally: 1) my hearth: spouse, kids, house, yard; 2) myself: from indulgence to deprivation, and health to degradation Im actually experiencing my own life rather than using my life for others to experience theirs; 3) my website of information and shop of crafts.
Im still doing a bunch (too much, at this place in life) for other organizations and putting too much pressure on myself to professionally perform... but I am getting a lot better at saying "no" and not stealing time from my children to give to others for free.
Daniel Quinn impacted millions of people with his radical way of thinking about the data that had been emerging regarding our past. Last month I read, for the first time, "If They Give you Lined Paper, Write Sideways" and found it one of the most easy to digest of his materials. I suspect this is because I am 1) really familiar with all of the concepts by now and 2) I felt myself closely aligned with the 'Quinns way of thinking' that emerged for him through the interview. While I have looked at he world differently after the first reading of Ishmael, over they years I have begun processing the 'world' in a deeply different way. How I was able to balance my professional scientific pursuits while evaluating the world this way baffles me. Hypocritical in a way, but of course we all must walk through out life in this civilization as a balance of the 'best of two evils'.
More later.
