1. I leapt out of bed early enough this morning to feed the dogs and spring into the Sube and jet down the street to Sam's where I met Ed, Buff, and Scott for breakfast at six. We talked for a while about kitchen remodels and I reported that ours was going along very well and that the Deke and I were dealing just fine with the inconveniences.
2. After Shawn finished up some work on the house and after he, the Deke, and I split a bottle of Arrogant Bastard Ale and polished off what was left of the bottle of Stein Rye Whiskey I brought home from Joseph, the Deke, Patrick, and I whisked up to Radio Brewing where we met up with Shawn, Teresa, Tony, Astrid, and Ronan.
At one point in our conversation, an old love came back for a visit. Ronan is reading The Iliad in high school and he asked me what I thought of that assignment. It's been a quite a while since anyone asked me a question about the work I used to do and it's been a while since I'd felt the trembling that happens inside me when my love for the liberal arts is roused from its deep sleep.
I had to ponder Ronan's question so I was silent for a bit. I tried to think how to articulate my hope that The Iliad wasn't merely a school assignment for Ronan, but that he was being encouraged to dive into Homer's profound excavations of the human soul, that The Iliad was helping him begin to see the mystery of human existence and the puzzle of why we, as humans, do what we do -- like fight wars. I tried to say that it pains me that Homer and Shakespeare and other timeless writers have been relegated to course syllabi rather than being part of the everyday conversation of our lives. I might have succeeded a little bit. Whether or not I made any sense -- well, I don't know.
I stopped myself from saying how pragmatic I think it is to read poetry, epics, novels, plays, essays, and other literature. But, any of you have read this blog over the years know I see things this way. I can think of few more useful and practical undertakings than self-examination, exploring the meaning of life, never finding answers, and continuing to question and be questioned.
For a few minutes at Radio Brewing today, I forgot how much my job as an English instructor involved the things I am very happy to no longer be a part of: meetings, participating in the bureaucracy of a college, paperwork, the absurd exchange of knowledge and insight for credits and grades rather than seeking knowledge and insight for its own sake, and so on.
For a few minutes, I felt animated by the joy it gave me to try to have helped students explore the mysteries of suffering, love, goodness, happiness, evil, forgiveness, power, self-destruction, healing, death, inward resurrection, longing, reconciliation, cruelty, compassion and all the other experiences we share as human beings -- and I hoped in his study of The Iliad, Rowan wasn't merely getting his assignments done and getting good grades on them and ticking another of the great works off the great works reading list in order to prepare for college, but that Homer's epic is deepening his understanding of what it means to be human.
That's what I think of a freshman at the CdA Charter Academy being assigned to read The Iliad.
3. I probably just made what was maybe ten minutes of our conversation at Radio Brewing sound like it was an hour long seminar. In my head, I guess it was. Our conversations took many turns -- food, playing music, clothes, life in the Valley and much more. Our party broke up and the Deke and I headed down to the Inland Lounge where the room was filled with good cheer and good spirits. The Deke and I yakked with each other and with a host of other people who came in. Cas provided, as always, five star service, especially as the Deke made very specific requests as to just how she wanted her Manhattan mixed and served. My only regret as we left the Lounge around 8 o'clock was that I had been up since 5 a.m. and was too tired to continue the evening at Christy and Everett's to watch the Zags' epic battle with the Florida Gators. It must have been heart breaking that the Zags lost in double overtime.
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