Years ago, one of my students took me completely aback when she claimed, “People don’t change until it’s too painful not to.” I thought about that for a long time. Is it true? Are we really so reluctant to disturb the status quo, even if it’s unhappy? Are we ever capable of something more? Without […]
Archive for the ‘Conversations’ category
Another Show
Nights like this, every third week or so for almost exactly five years, I would get home, turn off my sense of self-preservation, and write a review to post by morning. I don’t have an opera blog anymore, and it’s something of a relief, but that’s where I’ve been. I’m wondering if there’s any way […]
On Why I No Longer do Shots with the Authors of Left Behind
S. and I met at Summer Language Nerd Convention in Bloomington in, what, 1999 or so, so it’s already more than a decade we know each other, as people say in areas where Yiddish has futzed with syntax a certain way. Years ago, when I was dating someone who worked in the movie industry*, S. […]
Widening gyre
This whole month, both of my literature classes have turned into discussions of what defines the human and what we assume that humans deserve by being human. We’re reading a lot of 18th-century stuff on colonialism and slavery, so it keeps coming up, even if I fear that the conversation is getting wide of strictly […]
So funny you should ask
One morning, seemingly out of the blue, I thought, I should call a colleague I have not contacted in months. I should call her now. I did. She said, so funny you should call, I was just thinking about you and wanted to ask you something important. I read a memo at work that mentioned […]
Dang, y’all.
Today was my day! And I blew it! It’s not too late, right? Last night I had one of those “if we’ve only got a couple of hours to sleep, let’s make it count” dreams. I don’t know if I can fully explain it because it was so awful I woke up crying and couldn’t […]
Hiring season
The Ad First we secured the line. Then we wrote the job ad. Like most things decided by committee, it ended up a miscellany of priorities and desires—a cross between an eHarmony mash note and a letter to Santa Claus. Please, Santa, bring me the perfect colleague, someone who can teach competently in several incompatible […]
When I Change My Life
“When I Change My Life” — The Pretenders Probably the most brilliant idea I ever had was the discovery that I could run away. When I was a miserable little kid, I fantasized about death because I couldn’t imagine my way out of my situation. I was eight, and I told people what I needed, […]
Not to be reproduced: New Year’s open thread
Rene Magritte, La Reproduction Interdit / Not to be Reproduced (1937) On January 1, 2011, I was lucky enough to wake up in the home of dear friends, with whom I had joyfully celebrated the night before (at a party complete with bicoastal buddies, disco dancing, and a “gorgeous gateau”). As we eased into the […]
Happy New Year! . . . ?
Happy 2011 everyone! Here’s a photo of a bunch of random white people drinkin’ and smokin’ snatched from the google image search “new years eve” : – }
