Intersection

Here the perpendicular and the similar collide. Streets meet roads and topsy meets turvy. Intersection is at once the collision of the unfamiliar and the recombination of the predestined. Through intersection we gain perspective, as travelers of the perpendicular combine baggage, exchange, affect and move on. They are not so much rare, these intersections, but rather fleeting. So fleeting, in fact, they go unnoticed.

However, to take notice is to undestand the world better. Experience the intersection and you'll see the products of the different paths and how they reflect upon each other and themselves. A one laned approach is not the way to understand the world and its people.

I've often grasped aimlessly at the word to describe the fabric of the anthropological community. I have called it misanthropy before. In the adminstrative circles diversity comes up. I think a more apt word is intersection. Here, where Clarendon meets Clarendon, perspective and exchange and reflection abound. To gain a holistic perspective then, is to live intersection.

The National Sole

I made the mistake of watching one of the cable news channels this morning for, say, 10 minutes. In that short time I saw this video some 20 or 30 times. The president, despite regaining a pinch of respect for his puma-like reflexes, nevertheless made a fool of himself once again. He quite literally shrugged off the incident, said he couldn't understand why it would happen, but that it was the sign of a free society.

Even the attention-whores of the media caught on that this act was more than protest, but outright disrespect. It seems that the sole of the shoe especially is considered quite unclean and profane by some Muslims.

Still, its not every day that dignitaries like the US president have articles of clothing hurled in their direction. Or is it? I think the reaction today was more chuckles and less sock, I mean, shock. Apologies. I suppose I would expect no less at this point in history. It's fairly obvious these days that our president and the national image he represents are far from the reknowned reputations of yore.

Perhaps this discussion is moot, for a lame-duck can only expect a reputation as such. But, I think this is some baggage that the next administration will have to deal with. Obama will not start with a new slate, but rather some sort of corroding, eroded, malformed semblence of a slate. Obama is no Christ either, he cannot conjure up some heroic and instantaneous reconstruction.

It's going to take a while to leave the shoes of Bush behind and clear a new path.

On Scholarship

Scholarship is a funny thing. Most academics I know don't hesitate to slip a few complaint about their workload into a conversation, or facebook status. Indeed, chronic procrastination leads to moments like the one I recreated above as I drew painfully close to the end of a 5 hour writing session. And what do we do it for, I mean, I plan to do this sort of thing for the rest of my life. It sure as hell ain't where the money is.

On an unrelated note, I wathced Little Miss Sunshine with my roommate earlier today, before beginging the session represented above. One of the drives of that dark and hilarious film is: do what you love and fuck the rest. Okay, so maybe it wasn't such an unrelated note. Joke's on you.

After finishing my paper today, I realized the burst of joy I got in writing my works cited page. To me there is little more fulfilling than organizing and compiling sources after writing a brilliant conclusion. And for that, its worth it. Fuck the rest.

With Regards to the Vegetables

There's a carrot growing inside our house, you see,
We think it ties the room together.
In a cup, in our kitchen,
There it sprouts the greeny green.
It should feel rather honored,
Having avoided a delicious demise.
For, in our home, there is but one rule,
That nonsense is the only sense,
That discontinuity must breed with the eclectic.
Thus was born a friend for our cast of oddities,
On Reginald, on Dennis, on Joesph and Gopher.
There's a carrot growing inside our house, you see,
We think it ties the room together.

Hygienics

Things I cannot live without: the alcohol induced burn of mouthwash.
If it don't hurt, then it ain't working. (that's what she said)