a great need

Kelly posted this the other day. I don't know why it's resonating.



"Out of a great need

we are all holding hands

and climbing.

Not loving is a letting go.

Listen,

the terrain around here

is far too

dangerous

for that."


- hafiz

east and west

It's been quite the summer.

I've been in Gatineau, Quebec and Vancouver, British Columbia, and many places in between!

Right now, I am sitting in a house belonging to a school where I am working this year. I am going to try to blog regularly, so for a start, here is a synopsis of my summer in picture form:

A six-province summer

No, you don't need to be a facebook member to see the photos (or so it tells me).

I am spending this year here at St. George's working in their Outdoor Education and Service & Charity departments. It's going to be a great year.

this week

Here we go... week 2 of 4! April 30 is coming, slowly. I both want and don't want it to get here!

Things to look forward to this week:
-fine dining
-going by the university - there's a book I want to read that's not in the public library. And maybe I will actually get to the gym! Imagine that.
-Benji-ducky and dinner at the Milnes
-Career Fair - a different sort of morning, and a guy for whom I have a great deal of respect coming by Tec Voc
-WSD Science Fair - evaluating projects and seeing what neat ideas the kids come up with

And then, there will only be 2 weeks left! Crazy thought.

time for a new one?

Out on the front porch,
watching the cars as they go by,
Eighteen blue, twenty one grey,
Looking ahead for the first time that we could drive,
Out on our own,
To speed away


-"Sidewalks" by Story of the Year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6NtK44T8AU

PFD lifeline

Secretly (or, not so!), "teach me to kayak" = "let's hang out and have an adventure."

for the boys

(I told someone he should tread lightly and I don't know if he has yet or not - what he is looking for is the next one)



How to decide who wins 3-way Rock-Paper-Scissors:

When playing RPS with three people, there are three possible situations when everyone displays their signs: two people will have the same sign and one will be different, all three will be different, or all three will be the same.

-If all 3 are the same: No one wins or loses. Start again.

-If all 3 are different: Ditto.


-If there are 2 of one sign and 1 of another, there are two possible answers, depending on your aim.

Trying to find a winner (quieter than a wang-ho)
-if the two are the sign that beats the one, those two play regular RPS and follow the normal rules to see who wins
-if the two are the sign that loses to the one, that one wins

Trying to find a loser (boat run... sucker)
-if the two are the sign that beats the one, that one loses
-if the two are the sign that loses to the one, those two play regular RPS and follow the normal rules to see who loses

our lives

In Kevin's Ab.Ed. course, we have to write responses to assigned readings and multi-media presentations. Sometimes, those multi-media presentations are real people talking to us. Barb said those are the best kind - interactive, and 3D without funny glasses.

Last week, our section visited another one to hear Dr. Brian Rice speak. In the online responses, someone posted this line that I really liked:

"Another aspect of Aboriginal culture that I appreciate is the belief in a family that is not defined by blood but by common goals."

I had to think to myself how much that line has described the last few years of camp for me. My family proper is pretty close, but there's this whole other space of life and work on the island that has been so formative. You know stuff about each other. Rhythms, how to read moods and read minds, how to beat each other at Rock Paper Scissors, looking out for and loving the little kids, and eating every meal together, day in and day out, for four months. And you do it again, year after year. Last year was 8 seasons for me, including 6 times on 4-month. For the last three of those, I have stayed in operations/OT the whole time, not making the switches back and forth to the cabin line. It means that every night, after dinner, you're out on the steps at the side of the dining hall, watching the kidlets explore, and talking with the same people who you've been talking with all day, all week, for the last four months, for the last 8 years, but with whom you never run out of things to say.

If that's not family, I don't know what is.

round 19

I dislike every fourth week. Not because of anything to do with me, but because of what it means in someone else's life.

It brings me back, brings me down to what important means and what that feels like. But it doesn't mean that it doesn't suck.

Ed.

Blogging is difficult when we have to reflect on things in nearly every class.... readings, presentations, articles, things people said, video clips, sound clips, multi-media events, multi-media events that happen to be real people...

However, I have a few (school.. still) projects coming up that should be interesting to research and pull together.