Good weekend, kids. A little bummed out about everything coming and going so fast, but it just reminds me that I need to spend more time with my other family. I'm debating about renting yet another Bodega Bay house with the family just to get out of the city for a bit. I went without the intarwebs for a few days (two to be exact) and it was kind of nice to be away from the world at that time. I just wish I had my movies with me or at the very least some device to watch some movies.
AT any rate, no big update to share with you all...but i DID do my first video for the month. I know. Total lagger. I have three more to crank out, and I'm close to putting together my second one. Going back to the Year of Creativity concept (I'm going to write a .pdf on how to make your very own year of creativity). One thing that I think is very important to mention to you all is that each month starts anew: there is NO formal planning or preparing for that month. I did not do an outline of my novel first...then waited for the 1st of the month to start to begin writing. I waited until the 1st of the month to write to actually begin writing. The same went for poetry month. The same went for photography month. And that's what happened this month. I started a little late, but I didn't actually get the concepts for the movies down until last week (I know it's been two weeks since the month started). The reason for this is that I needed for each of the month's activities to be as organic as possible. I wanted to physically start the event right at the moment of birth.
It proved to be two things: good to have a blank slate mindset, so I'd be open to all possibilities, but it also made me feel at ease with each project. THe novel was rough, yo. It made me really struggle with the day to day, but I looked forward to it and thrived from the writing. But it killed me. The creative process now is killing me as well, but I feel more open to things as the day goes through. As I was taking video of the drive home (I used a tripod to attach the camera to the passenger's seat), I became more aware of the drive, what the cars ahead of me were doing, what the light was like, etc. It's surreal to document the day to day, and the minutes and minutes that rush by without a moment's notice.
So coming back to work was nice; I feel like really deserved that time off, and I am a happier person. It's not that I was burned out like I was in Fall. This semester has been going very well, truthfully. But what's been hard is taking a step away from reality and taking care of myself. The YoC has been all about that: nurturing the truths and reality of the my life in the moment, and not waiting for that moment to go by and be conscious of it after the fact, you know?
I struggle to be consistent each day, but it's been going well. I'm out...I'll post the video and the march photos and the feb poems on a new site soon...be patient. I have to go underground to get a web site up and running.
Found out that Mango will be moving out to San Jose as early as next week. I'm not happy about that...but life is what it is, and you have to roll with it, right?
I want to send big love to my Darlington homegirl Ducky in condolences for the passing of her father. I want to send notice to all the BRL family and friends that you have six weeks to send me your pieces for inclusion in the brl anthology. And congrats to Robot and his new wife. You deserve good things and all the blessings.
I thought I'd take a moment to acknowledge the horrible tragedy that occured today at Virginia Tech. I happen to work at a University, and my job gives me access to the lives of students, and to think that this incident, however far away it is, can occur at a place just like mine makes my heart ache as if it were at my own campus. I think we take for granted how simple and unfettered our lives are. We are free to go where we please, with whom we please, whenever we please, and all too often we are ignorant of the issues off our campus or even without our campuses that affect the bubble we know as our office, classroom, and living/learning environment.
All too often, the lives of students go untouched by those that would mentor them, unguided by those that would advise them, and missed by those that are closest to them. As one who has been in any or all of the positions, I know it's hard for me to go there with each and every student I meet with, but I do my best to make that connection; not that this would have prevented such a tragedy, but to those that feel alone and flying under the radar as a student, the college experience, as bloated with fun as it might be, can be a horrible place to be. It can also be a sad place to be.
I don't know that universities do enough to embrace the students as its family, to extend our offices into the 'wild,' or where the students are, to be engaged with them as much as we ask them to be engaged with us. I hope to god that somewhere along the way efforts were made to reach out to him, and that maybe she (assuming there was truth to the fact that this was a lover's quarrel in a heterosexual relationship), would have made efforts to reach out to my colleagues. I don't know that were, but I hope, that all we say and do and aspire towards as leaders of young men and women does exist. We should not be in a vacuum, but it's all too easy with our multiple responsibilities and callings. But to me it all comes down to the students. We are indebted to them, and we are charged with serving them well.
So I feel in my heart of hearts for those that were lost, young men and women in the prime of their lives, learning about life, about love, and about silly things like philosophy, german, engineering, day dreaming about what they did that last weekend, what the upcoming week was going to hold for them, those words they never got to say, the hugs they never got to give, the lives that will go unfulfilled. And I pray for their families, for their friends, and for their University.
-VDC
