As I Fight for (My) Independence
Initially, the Summer vista looked very promising.
The Scottish poet Robert Burns had it right. As he wrote, with keen intuition:The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft a-gley.
Updated for the twenty-first century, this means roughly that In the long run, your daring plans have about the same chances of success as those of a rodent.
Sobering, huh? Actually, I’m murdering Burns’ intended meaning, which was much more innocent, something to the effect that Things don’t always go as planned. (The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition, paraphrases his lines, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”) But the point is there.
I had big plans for this summer. As of today, they’re fighting for survival. My plans included a three-tiered program of reading—
- Several titles on the mysterious Mind/Brain dichotomy, a fascinating topic.
- Some theological heavy-hitters, including Augustine’s Confessions, Pascal’s Pensees, and perhaps some Dostoevsky.
- A survey approach to some favorite short story authors, among them: Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, Saki, Cortazar, Faulkner, O. Henry…
Enter the Summer semester Archaeology class.
All it takes is one over-achieving professor to scatter a hundred good intentions into next year. Couple the massive reading and essay assignments with my grueling summer job, and a pattern emerges.
Disgruntled weekend write-sessions and hours of outdoor speculation are the main elements. While I mow lawns and kill weeds I fantasize about writing what I want to write.
On the bright side, story ideas and post themes have a lot of time to percolate while I’m working. On the dark side, they’re like a sunburn which may become a tan or may just peel off. Good ideas tend to dry up and fade away if they’re not developed.
Which will win out this Summer? Academically-mandated busyness or creative new endeavors? I’ve been slapped with a split personality and there isn’t room for the two of us.
My plan is to exert dramatic effort—put my assignments down like a dying dog, rock ‘em back on their heels with a smash-mouth attack—and then read and write what I want. My intellectual freedom is being wrestled away, but I intend to sucker-punch the assailant and grab it back. That's what I'm telling myself; I will get through this. I will have Summer my way.
It's just a matter of time, is what I'm saying.
2 comments:
Impressive summer reading! I am interested in the mind/brain idea too. It is fascinating that we are learning so much about how the brain works but we still know absolutely nothing about consciousness. Then there is the mind/body split which I find interesting as well. I'll be curious to see what you make of the books you plan to read.
Great pictures too btw.
Spoken like a true bibliophile. At this point, I'm thinking the list looks pretty impressive too...
Echoing your thoughts is this quote from a Physics professor at the U of Toronto, quoted by columnist Philip Marchand:
"You take a problem such as human creativity—anything I have ever read on that particular topic says to me that these scientists have absolutely no idea, not even the beginning of an idea, how we come up with new ideas, whether as artists or scientists. We just don’t know."
Right on. And that aura of mystery is fascinating...(and dare I say will continue to be so!)
Post a Comment