I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
October 21, 2009 - 11:56 p.m.
It is impossible for me to keep at a comfortable temperature today. That's the problem when it is 50� when you leave the house and in the 70s when you get home. My apartment was boiling even with the windows open so I put on shorts and turned on the fan. It cooled off to 65� outside and now I'm freezing. I turned off the fan, I bet it gets too hot before I'm done writing this.
Sometimes things just remind you when you are outside the norm. I got the loperimide (generic immodium) I ordered in the mail. The biggest size they usually sell in stores is 24 cts. I ordered 600. You probably wouldn't take that many in your life. I'm hoping that lasts a year.
I'm about half way done grading the tests. Do I have to tell you how it's going? Of course not. Does it ever go any other way? It is hard to pass a test when that's the first time you've attempted to answer a question on your own. The kind of thing I don't get is how they start thinking (2x+3)(x�+5x-2) is a division problem. It's like, "I know he did division in class, it had things that looked like that in it so this must be a division problem." They are floundering in panic, not thinking.
So what am I going to really write about? There were several articles in the Times I wrote entries about in my head. It just doesn't feel like a political commentary. I started that last sentence hours before a finished it. I've don't grading, watched TV, and done grading since then. I was hoping to find inspiration. Maybe I have. I am going to vamp a bit more first. It might develop into an entry.
I should never have trouble writing Wise Madness; I work on it most of the day. No I'm not at my computer writing I'm just living my life. As I live my life I observe it through the lens of this blog. Along with most of my thoughts I think how would I write about them. Sure lots of them I know will never make it into print, some are to embarrassing, others are too mundane. Still there is so much else. I write a lot about my commutes because I always have time to think then. I think, I look around, and I think about writing it up. Every day as I walk from the subway to school I think about what I'm seeing and if it is worth writing about. I take different paths every day guided not by whim but by the traffic lights. As long as I can cross in a direction that gets me closer to school I take it. If I go north enough I hit Central Park. After that there are no more lights and I decide if I want to walk through the park. That doesn't happen to often, it did today.
If the lights hit just right, one has to change when I'm in the middle of 59th street I walk right through the plaza in the center of Columbus Circle. I always think of that as a win. It's just a game I play with myself.
I always think about writing about the guy I buy my breakfast sandwich from. He hardly says anything but I still think of him as my guy. Others must agree with me as he's always busy.
I have more of an interaction with the woman I buy my coffee from in the school's food service. I'll always at get a little chit chat from her. I always mean to find out her name. I never do.
When I'm in the food service I pick up my free copy of the New York Times. When you cancel the paper when you are on vacation they ask if you want to donate it to a school. I think that's where the papers come from. I am grateful for them. I love the Times. Like I said, I can always find material to write about in it. I love the oddball articles, like the one today on the reporter that covered almost every execution in Texas since the 1980s. It is real news. It gets you thinking about things that are important in a different way.
I can always write about what I'm reading. I'm almost done with Catcher in the Rye and want to wait till I'm finished before I weigh in on it. Salinger isn't like Feynman, Thoreau, or even Kerouac; someone who reaches me so viscerally that I need to tell you every day what he's making me think.
I write about school so much that I get worried I'm going to bore everyone. How often can I write about how frustrating my students are. I probably should write more about how great Reggie and Maggie are. They are the administrative assistants of the math and English departments. They do what administrators are supposed to do, make the lives of the students and faculty easier.
Most of all I can write about my thoughts. I've been thinking a lot about the importance of habits. So much of teaching is trying to get my students to develop good ones. That's what they miss by not doing their homework. I've finally made bringing my own bag when I go shopping a habit. Habits were what I was going to write about today; that's not happening.
I could write about Martin Gardner. There was a great Article on him in the Times yesterday. He is one of my heroes.
Instead today I wrote about all the things I could write about. Martin Gardner would really appreciate it. I really appreciate it. I hope you did too.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile October 21, 2009
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