Thinking Ahead

So apparently I got a little too excited for the upcoming break. I thought it would be a great idea to clean and organize my stuff in my spare time. A nice way to avoid doing some school work. Well after doing so I had quite the collection of stuff that I realized I don’t need here. I then proceeded to put it all in a pretty large garbage bag. Hopefully my roommate doesn’t mind that sitting around in the room for the next two weeks… Oh well. Less to worry about later! On a completely different  note, I have finally found a way to avert myself from facebook while on the computer. I am now officially addicted to picnik.com. It’s a website where you edit photos, and I cannot seem to get enough. Have a nice day!!

 

I thought winter brought shorter days…

It turns out I forgot to blog last week so this week I will twice! I’m pretty sure that whole moving the clock back an hour really messed with me. I find myself not being able to sleep in as long as I used to! I tend to wake up a whole hour earlier than I used to. Sure, you might think it’d be nice to have an extra hour to do stuff during my day,  but I really just don’t like the idea of it. There’s just something about looking at the clock and seeing such early times that I am not a big fan of. Oh well though, I’m sure it will come in handy.

 

Long Ago, In a Play Far, Far Away …

That was certainly an unusual play last night! The first one, in particular, baffled me. During the intermission I Googled it to see what I could find out, and not only is there a handy-dandy Wikipedia article about it, but this review from The New York Times that I found very interesting and helpful in understanding what was going on.

You probably remember the sound from your childhood. It’s the soothing, singsong voice of an adult who is telling you, in the middle of a dark night, that there is nothing to be scared of. And as much you would like to believe that voice, you know, with a certainty that rests in the pit of your stomach, that you are being lied to. And that the person who is reassuring you is just as scared as you are. Such terrors of early youth ripple quietly and relentlessly through the first scene of ”Far Away,” the ravishing, deeply disturbing play from Caryl Churchill that opened last night at the New York Theater Workshop. This latest offering from the author of ”Top Girls” and ”Cloud Nine” disquietingly insists that your childhood instincts were dead right, that nightmares do not stop when sleep ends.

For New Yorkers living in the elongated shadow of Sept. 11, the waking dreamscape of ”Far Away,” where the promise of violence broods in even the coziest corners, is bound to feel familiar. Ms. Churchill envisions a world in which nothing, but nothing, is to be trusted.

“Nothing” including insects, laws of physics, inanimate objects, even a stream – whose side is this water on? During the “talk back” I asked what that play was all about, and the actors said “war” – but I think in a broader sense it’s about fear and paranoia and how those emotions are put into play in a time of conflict to make us try to identify one group as the reason for our fear, so a group we should hate or destroy.

(Final paper topic, free to a good home: in what ways do the books we’re reading manipulate our anxiety, and how is that anxiety defined as a particular group or a type of person we can safely identify and tag as a “bad guy”? How do mysteries use our anxiety to drive a story and then make it all safe in the end because the “bad guy” is stopped? Does it ever run the risk of unfairly tapping into prejudice against a group of people?)

The second pair of plays was also thought-provoking. I expected a much more polarized pair of plays, one that would be pro-Palestine, the other pro-Israeli. And they could have been performed that way, but instead these actors looked for ways in which the short plays could show various approaches to each perspective. In some ways that made it more confusing – they didn’t clash with each other as I was expecting. They were quite similar in the way each group of people was within their own circle in conflict about how to explain war and a long history of anger and pain to a child.

I mentioned to someone after the play that I read a mystery set in the occupied territories, The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beynon Rees.  I didn’t make it one of our assigned books, but I considered it because it really influenced the way I think about what’s happening in Israel and the occupied territories. It took something complicated and made it much more complicated – but somehow human because I could identify with the characters in the book and understood better what it was like to live in fear and to be unable to move freely around – stuff I know, but hadn’t really known on a personal, daily life level.  The author, as it happens, was a journalist, the Jerusalem bureau chief for Time Magazine. He got sick of trying to report what was happening there in short news bites and decided to write mysteries instead because they could go more deeply into the reasons why the conflict exists.

(Final paper topic, free to good home: How can fiction, make-believe stories meant to entertain, teach us something about the real world? How can literature probe a topic more deeply than a non-fiction treatment of the issue?)

 

And it felt like joy…

The door opens and the scent of old books wafts up to greet me. I walk through the dimly lit hallways to your room, my shoes scuffing the floor. Knocking softly I come in, the door creaks just a bit. You sit quietly by the window, waiting patiently for me. I reach down and touch the shoulder of your old woolen sweater. Some days you look up at me with eyes full of awareness and anticipation; other days your eyes are questioning and ask, “Who is this?” On those days I simply introduce myself as a friend come to talk. Your eyes instantly brighten and a hint of a smile spreads across your lips. I can imagine that you were quite sassy years ago. You tell me about your family and your house between the hills. Your favorite part is always to describe the grand living room; this is where the piano sits. You call her majestic, regal… She is your love and life. You tell me how the smooth, pearl white keys fit to your fingers and how the music leaps and jumps off the page, taking time to twirl around you. Favorite bits entangle in your hair and sink into your skin. Once inside they burn like fire until they reach your soul, settling in and filling you with a quiet hum. There, resting, the notes are at peace, and you the great musician find peace as well.

You reach out for my hand. Through the years your partners have gotten old – they cannot play as well as they used to – but in the end it doesn’t matter. The music is inside of you. You reach out and place my hands between yours. Leaning close you whisper a secret, you are going to share some notes with me. Each time I visit I receive a small strand of music, reaching into the depths of my being. The notes fill me with warmth, and each time, my library grows. Your smile is soft and your eyes sparkle.

Time passes quickly when I am with you. Only minutes seem to go by. When I get up to leave your smile does not break, “Five-thirty next week?” you ask. And five-thirty it is, every Monday, wouldn’t miss it for the world. You laugh a little then, a giggle, like a young girl; small bursts of joy. You may not remember me next week, or the week after that, but just 60 minutes out of my day brings a smile to a face, warmth to ones hands, and music to the heart. Just 60 minutes to spread pure and true joy.

 

Time Flies

This whole mid-term thing is really weird for me. Not because of the whole being really stressed out over way to much stuff to get done by Friday (even though that is also a part of it) but just the fact that we are now halfway done with our current courses!! It feels like we just started. I don’t really know how I’d handle it if this whole college thing goes by this quickly! Even with that, it’ll be nice when this week is over. I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home.

 

Cold Weather brings Warm Memories…

Scratch Cooking

As I walk into the warm room

I see the puff of flour as Grandma’s soft hands hit the floury dough.

We need to make three apple pies.

We are scratch cooking

Mixing, whisking, as we make our own pie crust

Flouring and rolling, our hands knead the dough.

Scratch cooking

As thin as a pancake.

Carefully laid dough in the pie tin

Birds feet at the rim

Fork pricks in the bottom.

Grandma takes out the apples, nice and crisp

 The peels fall into the sink like tear drops.

The knife gleams in the evening glow

Carefully cutting each apple.

Scratch cooking

Smells of cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, and vanilla waft through the house.

Toss in the apples and turn, turn them over

Cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, and vanilla

Apples so sweet

Poured into the waiting tins.

Blanket over top

More and more birds’ feet go by.

Three cuts on top to show some color

Perfection.

We place our pies in the oven and wait.

Our hands are covered, our faces spotty

Our hearts are warm.

We were scratch cooking.

 

 

Various Adventures

I’ve been meaning to post a few photos of our travels as a class – to the Hillstrom Art Museum where we tried out a sculpture you can sit in . . .

And to the Arb, where we experienced water resources first hand, getting ready for the Nobel Conference.

And even to the Big Hill Farm, where students grow produce for the Marketplace. It is pretty much over for this year, but in the spring there will be new planting.

I hope you’re enjoying getting to know some of the hidden treasures of the Gustavus campus.

I really enjoyed the presentation today. Good job, first group! Have a good weekend everyone.

 

The Nobel Conference

I attended the lecture of Larry Rasmussen titled “Just Water”. While it was sometimes hard for me to follow, he did have some very interesting points. The fact that water is the main element of Earth is something that I suppose I knew, but never really considered. It has so many purposes and helps so many things. It even runs through us human beings to keep us going! The increase in population he talked about and the way the water sources will continue to deteriorate was a bit scary.  The three chairs he used representing the poor, nature, and future generations was effective. They showed the three groups that contribute the least amount of damage but are hurt the most by it. He ended his lecture with inspirational ways for us to help with the water supply. He said we should all take personal action, for every little bit helps and “small can be beautiful.”

 

Nobel Conference 2009

Water is life. This was the one and only line highlighted in my biology book. I laughed when I saw it, and commented to my roommate if she thought I could pass the test with just that one line. Water is life. However, after attending this year’s Nobel Conference about water my perspective on this simple molecular compound has changed. Yes, I have always thought that water is fascinating. As a kid I loved to dance in the rain with my brother and splash in each muddy puddle in the driveway. As I grew older I learned water’s significance in growing our garden in the backyard, and the terrible effects of each drought that hit the state. As a runner I appreciate my full Nalgene of cool, clean water that I carry with me 24/7. Water’s rehabilitating properties after miles of running are remarkable. In school I learned of water’s biological and chemical importance; properties such as adhesion and cohesion that make it such a vital part of photosynthesis and other biological processes. Yet even with this knowledge, attraction, and gratitude for water, I had never thought of water as LIFE.

I attended the Nobel presentations by Nancy Rabalais and Larry Rasmussen, both of which stressed the importance of water to life. Marine ecologist Nancy Rabalais discussed the importance of oxygen in our water supply. The focus of her presentation was on the growing hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. I was astounded by the consequences of this increasing phenomenon and the affects this type of water could have on the human body, let alone the environment. Her discussion on the blue algae was a special interest to me; that such a small microorganism could have such an enormous impact on life in the water. Larry Rasmussen’s presentation was focused on the ethics of water use, and how our choices can affect that of the world. I appreciated his use of the three chairs labeled: poor, nature, the future. These helped me to realize who is being most affected by either unclean water or limited water supply. One of my favorite quotes was, “No blue, no green. No green, no us.” Basically stating that without water there could be no vegetation, and without vegetation and the environment there would be NO life. A simple statement, but a powerful one.

I think it is quite the opportunity that Gustavus has to be able to host the Nobel conference. I know that I really enjoyed attending the lectures and listening to the discussion that took place. It helped to open my eyes to the reality of “water crisis” and the science behind it. I can now say that whoever owned the biology book before me got it right… WATER is LIFE.

 

Going “Psych”o

On Wednesday we took our first big psychology exam, which happened to be my first big college exam. Not only am I incredibly nervous to find out my score, but I was just plain scared to take it in the first place. Well the day has come and gone and I am having a hard time waiting to find out my score. The worst part is our professor said he would post them tonight, but has not yet. Well, maybe he did and I just don’t know how to check it. Either way… I’m not enjoying the wait. Well that’s my problem for today! Have  a good night everyone!