Jack and the Beanstalk

Today a tree fell. A tree fell in the yard.

Thirty years in a couple of hours.

The process was traceable in reflection and reminded me of writing. Writing for an audience of scholarly peers.

The thought of taking this huge tree down is one my wife and I have had for years. Too close to the house, too many berries and two split trunks. However, we've always talked ourselves out of planning and executing what seemed like a huge (dangerous) job. Chainsaws, permits, hiring a bonded tree surgeon, teams of people with hardhats and very cool hydraulic lifts. There were other priorities.

Then, this morning I looked at her and said, "You go to Best Buy and Lowes with the boys and I'll take down that tree" *. I called Kyle the handyman (the guy who would actually climb the tall tree, hold the chainsaw and pick up the biggest logs) hired him on a very fair daily rate and went to pick him up.

While he put oil in my electric chainsaw (the tan mini-van of the hardware world) and eyed the tree uncertainly, I studied how the monster hung over certain parts of the roof, which arms and limbs to chop first, which order they should be butchered. I calculated where to tie a rope and how to pull perfectly to transfer the heavy weight and bring the savage down.

Then we set up the ladders and executed. Me calling commands to the faithful Kyle, him high in the tree cutting with the saw. He came down and shortened the blown down branches, I carried them to the street side. Two hours of hard work....but not nearly as hard as I had imagined. The tree came down in a much easier fashion than I ever thought it would. And nothing got hurt.

In the end we raked up the yard and drank Gatorade. The yard and new sunshine felt great. I had slayed the zombie **. My wife was much impressed and we have firewood for the first few years of climate change.

Tonight's reflection is two-fold.

I think writing an article is going to be like taking down the tree (without Kyle). Just do it.

And, I was reminded how great it feels to take action...as I just did in my goal to write a little something in my blog each day.




*Wife's reply not included here
**Very hip reference.

So Easy a Caveman can do it

Waiting on the world to change

I find that when I hear a phrase (or key word) at least 3 times from 3 very different sources, then the concept has gained traction in the community and tipped over into our social life. It may be short-lived (most of the time it is - until the next social phrase takes over) but while its around, the phrase adds to the talking points that make up this small corner of our history.

Two phrases are sticking out to me so far this semester.

1. Connecting the Dots. This term has been used way too much by our politicians in reference to our intelligence community. Most of them feel (or say they feel) we should have known about terrorist activities by paying attention to the information that was there. If we work backwards then it's predictable.

In the real world, intelligence is ambiguous and includes huge amounts conflicting and confusing information. No one wants ambiguity but there is rarely a clear path to make a prediction.

2. Zombies. Everyone is talking about, acting out and using zombies to make their point. Why now? I have huge hunks of students who celebrate the zombie in each of them. They have zombie parties and festivals. They dress up and talk about zombification. I even know well respected professors (fathers of children) that are including essential zombie attributes into their lectures and by doing so giving weight to the phrase, extending and codifying what it means and how it can be used.

I've heard "connecting the dots" on the PBS Newshour....I'm waiting for Jim Lehrer to open his program with a story about "zombies".

Thoughts on 2nd WoPP meeting

Meeting-two of the WoPP. 9am - 10am

First thoughts without re-reading everything.

Today looked over material from all members. All the documents had arrived by email before the meeting.

Mike's mature manifesto is considered and thoughtful. It's a soaring document that includes poetry, politics and a rough outline of a program aimed at giving back and passing along wisdom to the next generation. His paper is convincing. It suggests a real project. I felt that this paper could and might make a larger book. Mike's paper asks us to take a side. He presents his points as if he's peeking over the paper, poking at us for a response. You have to feel strongly one way or the other. When I finished reading it the first time I felt like there were several ideas that needed threading together. I think Mike is still weaving his thoughts together. Looking forward to his next editon


Robb's position paper is sleek and approachable. He's grabbed an idea and carved out his opinion in an easy manner. I suspect he'll start doctoring it up a bit as he researches the topic and starts to write for his fellow academic peers. His sense of style (and humor) comes out in this paper and is a small promise of what might be in his finished article.

Rudy's article is far along. This is something the he's obviously been creating and thinking about for awhile. It feels important. I felt like I had to take my time reading it because he has a lot of info packed into a sentence. He reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez; quite a bit of the story happens before you get to the period. I took my time reading this. I have a position on some of the ideas he is suggesting and so, as I read it again, I want to make sure what I just read was what he intended.

Rudy reminded us that we need to write a little every day.
Mike has been blogging and this is part of his writing goal.
Robb is actually working with others on another paper.

I'm trying to keep up and get into the water up to my knees before I dive.
Robb and Rudy suggested some journals that I'll check out.

I'm off now to do a little research on some journals etc.