1. Bridgit, Bill, Diane, and I took to the ZOOM waves at 10:00 this morning. Our two hours of conversation uplifted and stimulated me, gave me great pleasure. Diane and Bill recently watched the 1999 movie version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was fun talking about that production, about the time a few years ago when our Westminster Study Group spent time studying and discussing the genre of comedy, and about other movies, especially comedies. I really enjoyed our detour into discussing movies from 40-50some years ago, like Tootsie and Harold and Maude. We agreed that we'll most likely never see another period of movie making like what happened in 1970s and on into the 1980s, but were collectively grateful that we live in a time when those movies are readily accessible for us to continue to enjoy at home.
Our conversation moved from genre to gender and we focused many of our observations and insights on current things being written about men and manhood, especially in relation to the slow increase over the decades of women assuming positions of power and becoming more independent. I think we agreed that while writers, commentators, and people in public office are giving this question a lot of attention in 2023, it's not merely a contemporary issue. Robert Bly raised similar questions thirty years ago when he published Iron John and forty to fifty (or more) years ago the men's movement, in its many different manifestations, emerged. As I wrote a few days ago, Joe Jackson's 1982 song, "Real Men", raised the very questions that we read and hear discussed in 2023.
We've developed deep trust over the years in this Westminster Study Group since we formed it nearly fifteen years ago. I was very grateful for that trust today, especially as we discussed questions about gender. It can be a volatile topic, but we weren't volatile. Quite the opposite. We encouraged one another's perspectives, valued what each other had to say, and deepened our thinking and our feelings about living in the world as men and women.
2. After this superb two hours of conversation, I was home by myself while Debbie worked on getting ready at school for the upcoming school year. I've been in an Emerson, Lake, and Palmer mood lately and I felt like time traveling back to evenings I spent with Bruce and Rob in their apartment at the Cockroach Castle near the NIC campus, listening to EL&P and impressing each other with our sharp wit and compelling insights -- after all, we were 19-21 years old and had reached that glorious time in life when we knew it all.
I often wish I could be that smart and funny again! I loved all my unearned confidence and certainty!
A featured album at The Castle was Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Trilogy and sure enough, putting it on took me back to those first days in my life not living at home, to listening to music I never heard on KWAL in Kellogg and having my musical horizons expand, to a time when I got hooked on poetry, read serious fiction, and started to feel passion about my studies, beyond just earning credits, fulfilling requirements, and trying to get good grades.
3. This Sunday of movie talk, Whitworth reminiscing, and listening to progressive rock playlist on Spotify made it into my dreams overnight. During our ZOOM conversation, Bridgit and I reminisced a bit about the Jan term course I taught at Whitworth called The Family in American Drama.
That detour into the 83-84 Jan Term was connected with our discussion of movies from the 70s and 80s and I shared my enthusiasm for ending that Jan Term class, which was often exploring dark and serious issues, with the uplifting movie about family, Breaking Away.
So prog rock and Breaking Away merged in my dream world when I dreamed Roger Waters was participating in a one on one bicycle race with another songwriter on an oval track and the competition included him composing songs while racing.
I don't know how the competition turned out, but I found the dream entertaining.
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