New Start

One of the greatest aspects of college teaching is the regular fresh starts. Every quarter I meet new people. Every quarter offers the opportunity for me to learn new things. At the end of every quarter I say goodbye to people, some of whom I have enjoyed and some of whom have been huge pains in the tookus. But I learn from everyone. I sometimes learn about the world of young people: its relational stresses, its constant connection, its inability to step away from the irony, yes, just put the irony down and step away! Sometimes I learn about media that I'll enjoy consuming -- music groups, movies, television. I learn about the work people do and don't do. And I learn from watching people interact. And it all happens in short, easy-to-manage doses in a controlled setting, so my deep introversion is not overtaxed.

Except for the cheating issue (which, in its way, was also a learning experience) I enjoyed reading my small group Individual Final Analyses. I'm always fascinated by perceptual differences. What's especially interesting to me is the way controversial characters are depicted.

For example, in one team there was a character who was labeled as disruptive by three team members and supportive by another two members. The same set of behaviors was perceived and labeled differently by different people. Now, there was a time in my life, in my twenties, say, when I would have sought "the truth" of the situation, believing that such a thing existed. But now I know that, while there is a material reality, "you can't get there from here." Meaning that we can't ever completely get "beyond" our perceptual filters. So therefore it's all true that this one person was both egotistical and selfless, pushy and yielding, helpful and harmful.

So it seems I am capable of seeing the world as a novelist. Now, if I could only get myself to write a world -- my retirement would be set.