Full Days

The days are wonderfully long again. Last night we were in bed listening to the This American Life podcast (specifically "Americans in Paris," featuring the always hilarious David Sedaris) and it still felt fairly light out for 9:30pm. And this morning I realized just how early the sun was up again - waking me before SB left for the day - around 5:45am. And the temperature is finally in the 70s, and a long weekend approaches... hurray!

Here are a few quick updates...

- We booked the last of our train trips in August - from Paris to Brussels. And we are considering taking a night bike tour of Paris, which is fun to think about.

- I enjoyed my first soft cheese last weekend. I'm ashamed to say that while I love cheese, I've never been too adventurous when it comes to the funkier cheeses. I think that I had tried brie before, but it had given me the creeps. What we got from a little cheese shop and spread (like butter!) onto a baguette for lunch on Saturday was called Fromage d'Affinois. It was earthy and not too pungent, and great with a glass of wine and some olives. (What can I say? Reading guidebooks and memoirs about Paris is rubbing off on me!)

- We are on the final season of Doctor Who (with Matt Smith as the Doctor). It is such a beloved show that we are pacing ourselves. No other shows really compares to it - I don't know where we'll find such touching silliness on TV again! 

And now a metapoem... 

No Things

by Billy Collins

This love for the petty things,

part natural from the slow of childhood,

part a literary affectation,

this attention to the morning flower

and later in the day to a fly

strolling along the rim of a wineglass —

are we just avoiding the one true destiny,

when we do that? averting our eyes from

Philip Larkin who waits for us in an undertaker’s coat?

The leafless branches against the sky

will not save anyone form the infinity of death,

nor will the sugar bowl or the sugar spoon on the table.

So why bother with the checkerboard lighthouse?

Why waste time on the sparrow,

or the wildflowers along the roadside

when we should all be alone in our rooms

throwing ourselves against the wall of life

and the opposite wall of death,

the door locked behind us

as we hurl ourselves at the question of meaning,

and the enigma of our origins?

What good is the firefly,

the droplet running along the green leaf,

or even the bar of soap spinning around the bathtub

when ultimately we are meant to be

banging away on the mystery

as hard as we can and to hell with the neighbors?

banging away on nothingness itself,

some with the foreheads,

others with the maul of sense, the raised jawbone of poetry.

The Search Begins

It is FRIDAY! Thank goodness.

Yesterday I started a professional development course on emotional intelligence. The course really is a "course" - meeting bi-weekly for 6-months, including small group meetings and one-on-ones with the instructor. My first impressions? I am pumped.

The woman who leads the course seems to fully embody emotional intelligence - she came off as incredibly comfortable, calm, deliberate, and above all, joyful.

The content of the course comes from a variety of sources, including Daniel Goldman, Jon Kabat-Zinn,   and Chade-Meng Tan, the an early Google engineer who brought emotional intelligence to Google and then wrote the book Search Inside Yourself (which we are reading for the course) about the experience and its impact. It is essentially all about creating your best self (for yourself and as a leader in your organization), by being self-aware and socially aware.

The class is made up of about 15 people, all from non-profits, many of which happen to be working with families. I arrived and found that I had unexpected connections with three people in the room, from work that I've been doing lately. It feels great to be building a professional network!

In short, I'm excited for the course. AND the timing is helpful because I just found out that my organization is about to undergo some significant transformations, all of which will have an impact on what my job looks like day-to-day. I am disappointed by the news of change, as I was just starting to feel like I was settling into a routine, but am learning to accept it and am hopeful that the shift ends up being positive. More to come...

HAPPY WEEKEND!

Chade-Meng Tan

Ginsy

Happy (...?) Monday.

This weekend we watched Kill Your Darlings, featuring Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg. (Trailer here.) I was reluctant to see it for a few reasons. 1) Sometimes I feel like the romanticism for the Beats knows no bounds and get tired of it, 2) I was sure it would be like other movies that I've seen about the Beats, 3) I was skeptical of Harry Potter as Allen Ginsberg. 

But when we watched it, I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Rather than feeling overdone, it captured a story within the Beat timeline that I knew nothing about - the early story revolving around Lucien Carr. The movie portrayed the usual suspects - Burroughs, Kerouac - but the angle was unique. Also, the film was very upbeat - capturing their youth and drive to create a world in which they belonged (because even though they were privileged white guys, they were gay intellectuals in the 1940s, after all). 

Anyway, I highly recommend the movie. It returned me to my absolute love of Allen Ginsberg. Of all the Beats, he is my favorite. In his youth he was insecure, but full of love and open to the experiences of life. As he aged, he found is voice and only became more exuberant in his love of life. So many artists that push back at the status quo are angry, or use their artistic persona to be jerks. And this is not to say that Ginsberg wasn't angry. But he strikes me as unique because he let himself be vulnerable and pure of heart.

Metaphysics

This is the one and only

firmament; therefore

it is the absolute world.

There is no other world.

The circle is complete.

I am living in Eternity.

The ways of this world

are the way of Heaven.

New York, 1949