Month: July 2016

Half-formed Sanctuary

Sanctuary. Longing for peace; impulse giving rise to and forming a space, in place and mind. Like slipping into water, going under and finding, to your surprise, that you can breathe freely for the first time.

A dream, from high school, I was in my mother’s garage with a handsome boy. He was smiling, blonde, perfect skin and body. Looking at me, his gaze invited me to join him as he suddenly leapt into the air and began swimming in the space. Delighted, I jumped too, and found I could do the same. I flew and dived, in great spiral arcs. I saw the wooden walls in vivid detail, and I flew faster and faster, swimming through air as I followed the boy. Exhilarated and free, I still feel how powerful and present I was, spiraling movement in the air. This dream of the garage space, a secret sanctuary even now.

I wish I could walk again with that feeling of freedom.
<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/sanctuary/”>Sanctuary</a&gt;

Air
Water
Fire
Earth

 

Writing Progress

Beginning in April, I started writing each day. First, I started with about a five minute span of time, just writing whatever came. I was having such a good time with this process of creating, so in June, I extended the daily amount of writing to 10 minutes.

At this point, I’m participating in a daily writing/creativity challenge, and have made the first hurdle of participating for 20 of the 31 days in July. I’ve been creating photographs, as well as writing, so there is about an even mix of images and poetry/prose. One of my pieces submitted will be included in the anthology.

I’m finding that the more you call on the Muse, the more she gives inspiration. A good feeling…

dusty typewriter from the net

Abandoning Tenure’s Golden Handcuffs

“We would begin to feel comfortable with our work and satisfied with the state of the program. And then a massively overpaid president or provost or vice president would determine that something needed to be cut, and he would look around and see a program staffed by non-tenured faculty and think, “Aha, that looks easy.” And it would all be gone again.”

ACADEME BLOG

BY GILLIAN STEINBERG

I gave up tenure last summer after an excruciating year of fighting against budget cuts for the writing program I directed. I was told that, to save money, students would have only one semester of writing instead of two and that the program’s full-time professors would, over time, be replaced by adjuncts.  It’s a familiar tale:  most members of the university’s faculty were “untouchable” because of tenure, and the untenured writing faculty stood out to the provost like a beacon.

Of course, programs have been cut many times, and their tenured directors seldom, if ever, give up tenure in protest. But I felt deceived and depleted by the upper administration’s baseless about-face: a year earlier, our program had been lauded as a cost-effective triumph. However, when visible cuts needed to be made, the program’s tiny group of faculty, among the lowest paid in the institution, who served…

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Albany Cops Sound Like Abusive Spouses in Teen Workshop

“Resisting arrest and fleeing may be illegal, but THEY ARE NOT CAPITAL CRIMES, and unless the person fleeing is running toward someone else trying to kill them, then killing them is not an acceptable tradeoff for keeping them from escaping.”

Mjoy

There’s this pattern that happens with abusive spouses. They often explain to their victims how to behave so they won’t get beaten up again. All the victim needs to do is give them proper respect, not burn their dinner, remember to leave out their slippers at the right place, never buy the wrong brand of toothpaste, never make them feel like they are being laughed at, never give them attitude or make them mad. And then, supposedly, they’ll be safe.

Of course, the abuser is not actually owed any of those things in the first place. And in any case, it’s always a lie. It’s a losing game. The abuse will continue, because periodic reminders of control are necessary and because the abuser will keep finding new things to add to the reasons they were “forced” to administer a beating.

This was one of the first things I thought of when I heard…

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Dancing at First Avenue

DJ Jake Rudh hosted a second Prince Tribute this summer at the famous First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis last Saturday night. I hadn’t been to a show at First Avenue in over 28 years; last time I was there, we rocked out to Yothu Yindi.

I went with my friend Sarah, and we danced, virtually nonstop, from 9:30 until 2 am. Since I’ll never have an opportunity to go to a Prince show, I wanted to get some funk on and really dance in tribute. The music was great, and Sarah introduced me to Jake at the end of the night, right before we left. Jake spun the classics, and went into some deeper tracks. It felt like old times when the mix turned up some of Prince’s influences, like Stevie Wonder. Man, I remember dancing to Superstition back to grade school! Included some artists who covered Prince tunes; Bangles, Sinead O’Connor, Sheila E., Sheena Easton, and more.

The show was great, and we left the club, singing Bowie tunes as we headed over to catch the last train back to the station where I’d parked the car. We ended up missing it, though, and had to walk from downtown to my house in South Minneapolis. A bummer at first, we ended up singing songs, laughing at each other’s random wit and took in the wild life of Minneapolis after bar rush. Left the downtown train station at 2:20, walked into the door at home around 4 in the morning, and pretty much headed straight for bed and sleep for the night.

We had a fabulous time. Feel like I still got it going on… I look forward to more of this thing called “a social life” soon. Some pics of the show below…