para-success of a heavy-handed metaphor

much has happened in recent days - so much that i haven't written here very much. and i guess that's all right. but i often miss it also. i have developed a cold, bruised my body very much playing ultimate, enjoyed reading some books (of various types), and found myself in a very busy part of the semester. but it's times like these that i'm reminded how much i really do love life and the wonders of warm fall days outside, however it happens.

i miss road trips somehow. with friends scattered across the country, one might think i'd be taking more road trips than before, but that has unfortunately not been the case - i would take these long distance trips with a couple friends and relax and enjoy life. traveling home and back (on my most traveled road - highway 19) isn't the same, nor is going on trips for sporting events (to soccer tournaments or ultimate tournaments), even though they are great and good. one particular road trip, we went and stayed at my house, then at a friend's house in deadwood in south dakota, then down to castle rock in colorado to stay at the other friend's cousin's house. we had been having a good time one of the nights late in the trip - had just finished playing risk and eating totino's pizzas (bought for 75 cents each) - we were all tired from a long day and were thinking of going to sleep - i called home to get a weather report for the next few days - my parents told me there was a storm coming (we had arrived in colorado two days after the sky gave them 2 feet of snow - this one sounded similar. so at 11pm we left and drove through the night in order to not get snowed in. that sort of freedom and sense of something - i miss it right now. one among many feelings, but i miss it all the same.

below is perhaps one of the most insightful medium length quotes i've read in a while, from the book my ishmael by daniel quinn (reading this guy's writing is one of the main things that makes me want to be a writer - had the same feeling a few years ago when i first read ishmael).

Thinkers aren’t limited by what they know, because they can always increase what they know. Rather they’re limited by what puzzles them, because there’s no way to become curious about something that doesn’t puzzle you. If a thing falls outside the range of people’s curiosity, then they simply cannot make inquiries about it. It constitutes a blind spot—a spot of blindness that you can’t even know is there until someone draws your attention to it.

at any rate, this fed into my current thoughts on pedagogy (how to teach) and philosophy of education, particularly with regard to the idea that i decided was my current short statement of my teaching philosophy: develop literacy and imagination regarding texts, the environment, and ethics. maybe sometime soon i'll post what i mean by that, but i'm still working it out in my head and writing it up. the quote above is also relevant to what a then-retiring professor of 40+ years told me just minutes before my first class period as an intructor. he said, "you have to make them curious, and then satisfy their curiosity because if you don't do that, you're just fucking up." thanks bill, i think you're totally right.

i don't know what the word sovay means - here or elsewhere - the computer doesn't know either so i don't feel so bad. but the word is well used in this song, and i love the music very much. the lyrics go interesting places and somehow fit the music, which i think is perhaps the biggest strength of bird's music - he just seems to understand how things connect together.

sovay by andrew bird

I was getting ready to be a threat
I was getting set for my
accidental suicide
the kind where no one dies
no one looks too surprised
then you realize
that you're riding on a para-success
of a heavy-handed metaphor
and a feeling like you've been here before
because you've been here before
and you've been here before
then a word washed ashore
a word washed ashore
then a word washed ashore

sovay, sovay, sovay
all along the day

I was getting ready to consider my next plan of attack
I think I'm gonna sack
the whole board of trustees
all those Don Quixotes on their B-17s
and I swear this time
yeah this time
they'll blow us back to the 70's
and this time
they're playin Ride of the Valkyries
with no semblance of grace or ease
and they're acting on vagaries
with their violent proclivities
and they're playing ride
Ride of the Valkyries
sovay, sovay, sovay
all along the day