Ash Wednesday

Wednesday, March 9, 2011
4:00PM

I'm glad I got my rest on the weekend, because I am not getting it now.

Monday- taught Power Pump at 8:30. Good as usual. 10 women in class. :) Taught 2 sections of 101. Office hours equaled giving three make-up quizzes due to student athletes and musicians and giving a make-up composition to someone whose car broke down because I'm nice. We watched Dona Barbara in Latin American Culture class. It was OK, over the top and extremely sexual. Monday night was just reading and finishing up lesson plans for the week.

Tuesday (yesterday)- up early. Reading. Grading in the office. Tuninetti's class. Gibbie's for dinner. Grading. Reading. Sleep. Not even a workout.

Wedesday (today)- up early again. Grading. Teaching 101. Handed back compositions, quizzes, and homework today, so I'm sick of grading. I'm also sick of the way chalk feels on my hands. I detest that feeling. After teaching, John and I went to Panera for lunch. I didn't mind spending the money, because I just really needed to be away from the work environment for that long. Now I'm home, drinking more coffee, and trying to get myself ready to read the rest of Ardiente paciencia. I have two presentations to give at the beginning of next week, and one of them is on an article about this book. So this is the first step in getting that presentation done. Probably take a break to either swim or go to spinning tonight. I need some exercise.

Today is Ash Wednesday. I used to be so all about Lent. With everyone posting their stuff about Lent, I just feel sort of left out. I feel that as impossible as it is to say anything authoritative on the topic of spirituality, because let's face it spirituality doesn't pertain to the empirical world... people want to take a harder, faster stance on that than things that actually have physical evidence. Like, if I told someone, one of these is not true: Gravity exists or Your spiritual beliefs are correct. They would tell me gravity doesn't exist first. It baffles me how people take something that can't be proven and not only believe in it but defend it vehemently. I like having spiritual conversations with people. It interests me. It's a need I have. But what I don't need is to be honest and have that open me up to scorn and anger. I would like spiritual reflections or discussions that don't start with, "God does this or thinks that." How do you know? I would like to sit by a river with someone and talk about spirituality outside of my pondering on the crucifixion... maybe it didn't go down that way. How 'bout we get to something a little more universal. How 'bout we talk about possibilities instead of alleged certainties? How 'bout we just watch the flowers grow and the river wind through mountains and just... contemplate instead of asserting all our various claims. I feel that no one is interested in this explorer attitude. People want to say religion is dumb or great, but not... curious. Science is flawed or awesome but not... wonder-inducing. Everything is right or wrong, great or stupid. So many different things seem possible to me.

We discussed Luna caliente in class yesterday. As usual, I had a difficult time talking. Everyone seemed to have one reading or another. I had about five at once. When I read, I'm just not set up to say... this is about X, Y or Z. I'm more inclined to thinking this about X, Y and Z. These are all possible, and I read them all here. I don't come to conclusions on anything ever. For me, that's happy and works just fine. I like being curious and having questions. But I think it makes people think I'm stupid or that there's something wrong with me. It's not that I can't reason. It's not that I can't think. There are just so many things to think about, so many unseen factors, that our conclusions are almost always flawed in some manner. I prefer to be curious.