1. Things in my life quieted down considerably today after Friday and Saturday were so jam-packed. Bill, Diane, Colette, and I talked for a couple of hours on ZOOM today and spent quite a bit of time discussing our experiences in the academic world and our varying experiences in school and out of school with poetry. Some of our discussion about the academic world was critical and it pains me when these matters come up. I loved being a college student most of the time, both when I was an undergraduate and graduate student, but there's no getting around the fact that, like any other institution, colleges and universities have personnel and students who are arrogant, petty, demeaning, and corrosively competitive.
We talked about these undesirable aspects of the colleges and universities we've attended and been employed by.
But, we also focused on positive aspects, about instructors like Whitworth's Leonard Oakland, instructors who we knew were brilliant, deeply and broadly educated, and, at the same time, understanding of students who needed help, encouraging, passionate about what they were teaching, and eager to help students discover their own paths of learning and exploration.
For me, the best part of this conversation was when we turned our attention to how we are all independent learners, avid self-teachers.
Whether the subject is movies, Tarot, poetry, making music, politics, dance, cooking, writing of all sorts, mythology, and a vast array of other undertakings, the four of us, and the other Westminster Basementeers, have undertaken to learn about all kinds of things beyond what we learned in school.
Val and Colette have both returned to school in the last few years. Colette completed an MFA and had a largely positive experience and Val has spoken highly of the masters degree program she is currently enrolled in.
It's stimulating, challenging, invigorating, and a lot of fun entering into these conversations every other week with my fellow Westminster Basementeers.
This discussion of our experiences in academia brought back to me some sterling memories and some painful ones. Most of my painful memories are connected to institutional bureaucracy, but I can also count on my failure to figure out how to write a dissertation to give me the pain that comes with falling short and discovering some limitations I have that I'd rather not admit are there.
2. We ended our discussion on what for me was a thorny question -- a most welcome thorny question -- but a thorny question all the same. Colette brought to our attention some of Ursula Le Guin's writing. Colette talked a bit about the questions Le Guin raises regarding stories we've received over our vast past and regarding Le Guin's own work.
What's thorny for me is that, on the one hand, I love listening to and reading Joseph Campbell and his understanding of the monomythic hero, the hero's journey, and the way that the hero's external journey parallels our own inward journeys toward maturity and becoming fully human.
But, as has been pointed out to me many times in the past, and again today, the stories we've inherited from the deep past and that Campbell elucidates so insightfully are almost exclusively centered on male characters, male experiences, and male heroes.
I understand why those who point this out see it as a serious problem.
It doesn't move me to try to defend Joseph Campbell and, somewhat paradoxically, it doesn't diminish all that I've learned from his work and his discussions with Bill Moyer.
Joseph Campbell took up residence in my soul in January of 1975 when Prof Lew Archer introduced us to his work and thinking in his Jan Term mythology course. I'm definitely not going to evict him.
Nonetheless, the subject is thorny for me.
It is, to me, a matter that cannot be resolved and I've decided, since Campbell has had such a lasting impact on how I understand myself and world I live it, to simultaneously take the criticism seriously and not be defensive and continue to experience Joseph Campbell as a guiding light in my life.
3. I've been paying attention to scores during the Major League playoffs, but I hadn't watched a single game until late this afternoon.
I turned on the Vizio, intrigued that the Guardians are giving the Yankees a very difficult time in this series and I was hoping Cleveland would eliminate the Bronx Bombers tonight.
It wasn't to be, though.
The Yank's ace Gerrit Cole gave the Yankees just what they needed. He pitched seven strong innings so that that his squad did not have to go its recently wobbly bullpen too early and then the Yanks' two relievers, Clay Holmes and Wandy Peralta, each chucked a scoreless inning, preserving New York's 4-2 lead.
The two teams square off again on Monday back in Yankee Stadium.
I'll keep an eye on the game until I leave to attend tonight's All-Class reunion committee meeting.
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