1. When it comes to nourishing my mind and spirit, the last several weeks have been some of the best I've every known: reading, watching documentaries, watching fiction films, writing in this blog, cooking, working word puzzles, talking with longtime Whitworth friends on Zoom, tuning in for Bill Davie's weekly concerts, talking with Debbie, messaging online, seeing Christy and Carol when possible, and enjoying some good phone conversations. I've decided to continue to wait out this pandemic by spending most of my time indoors. I've done my best to make the most of this time.
Absorbing myself in these ways, however, has had a downside. I haven't been getting out and walking, let alone hiking.
Today, I drove up to the hospital, parked the Sube, and walked a loop. I went up the long sidewalk leading to the high school, walked over the Jacobs Creek bridge, walked the length of the trail leading to Riverside, walked up Cameron to the 4 way stop, and then headed back up Jacobs Gulch to the car. It was good twenty minute walk, a good way to get back into it.
It felt great.
2. I returned to the Vizio room. Saturday, I had watched the first four episodes of Bleak House (BBC 2005) and spent four hours this morning and into the early afternoon watching the last four episodes. Maybe I've written this before, but in Bleak House, Dickens creates as comprehensive a view of what people can be and do and have happen to them as I've ever experienced in a single work. Bleak House explores misery, poverty, and disease; it brings human exploitation and unapologetic cruelty and greed to light; it gives the psychological burden of living with secrets a full examination; it exposes hypocrites and fools; and, Bleak House is also populated by some fiction's kindest, most generous, and most compassionate characters as well. Watching the entirety of this mini-series over the weekend boggled my mind. I enjoyed being overwhelmed by the vastness of the story, the brilliance of the acting, and the experience of seeing so much of the variety of this novel's social world play out so artfully in this television production.
3. Bill, Diane, Colette, Bridgit, Val, and I hopped onto Zoom for the next of our every other Sunday discussions of our lives, the way our college experiences shaped us, how we are doing our best to sort out the upheavals of 2020, and any number of other subjects.
Bill, Colette, Val, Bridgit, and I were at Whitworth together nearly forty years ago when I worked for two school years as a full-time temporary instructor of English. As students at Whitworth who often felt they were outside of the mainstream of student life at the college, my sense listening to Bill, Colette, Val, and Bridgit is that they were very grateful that we all, in one way or another, found each other, especially in English courses and in the basement of Westminster Hall, and were one another's friends and allies.
I got to thinking after today's conversation that over the many years (1977-2014) that I either attended or taught in colleges and a university, I was keenly aware of students seeking allies, seeking other students they could trust, talk openly with, cut loose with, and feel free with.
It's been heartening, in these Zoom conversations, and in other contexts, when Bill, Colette, Bridgit, and Val say that they always felt they could be themselves with me, that they looked to me as an ally.
I felt the same way about them.
I needed allies at Whitworth, too, needed the company of people who were open to listening to me, accepting of the turmoil in my life at that time, and who joined me in listening to music, watching movies, walking downtown, reading, having late night conversations, drinking beer, eating meals, and being good friends, all while maintaining the integrity of our teacher/student relationship.
I'm grateful for who we were to each other nearly forty years ago and love that we continue to talk together, listen, support one another, and keep our friendships strong. And, as a bonus, Diane has joined us. It always feels as if she had been right there with us all along in the basement of Westminster Hall or watching movies at my generic apartment on Colfax Road or heading down to the Magic Lantern to see a film or grabbing a bite to eat at the Knight's Diner.
Let me repeat. I'm very grateful.
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