in medias res

All day, I've fought with mechanical objects - the bullish shopvac, a weighty laptop, the cat's nifty turn on its head & clean itself litter box. I've struggled with passwords and slow loads and vacation messages. Cleaned my home for the pet keepers (thanks to Mom for that), tried stuffing a laptop into a carry-on. I am out of coffee cream, printer ink and my email is corrupt. A hurricane is on the horizon. (Is it still? I don't know, no time to check.) Tomorrow before sunrise, I'll make my last bunny breakfast for awhile, hug my darling Manx to my heart, kiss Joan bye and ask her for a mantra and then I'll drag my three pieces of luggage and my slightly anxiety-ridden self up to JAX Airport, squeeze nose spray in, pray for clear passages and TAKE OFF.

At 10:42 Pacific time, I am scheduled to hit the west coast - LA babe. wow what am I doing?

Meanwhile I thought today a little while on the effects of academia on the academics. What effect? The lock-down effect. The in-the-box effect. The Pete-Repeat effect. The blindness that sets in, the myopia, the dullness. In other words, the lack of vision, loss of horizon, absence of imagination. As an objective observer, an appreciator of learning methods, I'll qualify my comments so I don't come across as overreactive (my newest label). OK, here it is: teaching requires its pedancy. It's not always about the sexiest concept going 'round.

There. Now a little more from my standpoint. For the naysayers.

My proposal is looking at an anthology not as more of the same. It's based on a premise, something as yet unfounded. That's risky, I suppose. But so is repeating teaching methods that don't work with every student, or even with a percentage of students. Then there's the nonacademic tag and its backlash. A shame, isn't it, that because one doesn't have those damn letters, then one is not to be trusted as a teacher?

Lastly, I will seriously ask myself if I am simply stuck in an ego trip, wanting an anthology for my fulfillment. And how bad can that be? I'll ask that. In the air. When my ears are NOT imploding. While I skip thru an asolutely spellbinding pedagogy text, written by an academic.

See everyone in ten days!