Pelvis Exchange?
If anyone out there has a pelvis they're not using, I would be open to an exchange. Or, if you'd like to loan me yours for the next month, I'd be happy to accept donations and would return it as little used as possible. Of course, that would mean, ostensibly, that you might have to use mine for the duration of that time, and I really wouldn't wish that on anyone right now. And I'd have to use yours to birth a baby, and you might not want it back after that.
As of Sunday night, I have largely relocated to The Farm with the kids. This house is almost entirely wheelchair accessible, which is where I am spending most of my time now. As of Monday, I am no longer working, and turned over all of my lesson plans, student assignments, etc., to another instructor. This was difficult in that I have so much care and concern for my students and I'm afraid that someone else won't take the time and patience necessary to help them learn this stuff. On the other hand, unless I had an electric wheelchair (which I don't -- mine is the old fashioned kind) and a servant to follow me around and carry all of my stuff, it really isn't feasible for me to keep trying to work. As of mid-last week, I really can't get around much at all anymore.
I am still in school and am really determined to remain so. Tonight, my mom is going to give me a lift to school, and then hopefully I can get one of my classmates to drop me off at the Perkins right off of campus where I will hang out, eat a sandwich, and wait for my Hubby to get done teaching his night class and pick me up. Hopefully, that will work out, or else I'll be sitting in a very empty, very boring campus building for more than an hour -- I'd rather have pancakes.
Last night, about four in the morning, I finally finished my Cultural Analysis paper for my Native American Literature class, which I am really enjoying. This is seriously some of the best modern literature I've read -- I have been so incredibly impressed, and am actually considering changing my thesis idea to something having to do with American literature. (Part of this reason is that I really, really, REALLY don't want to work with the professor they keep sort of shoving me toward if I do James Joyce for a thesis project. I find her very bubbly, exuberant, and totally negative underneath it. I find it draining to talk to her at all -- I can't imagine working with her a lot.) I also actually feel like I could do something worthwhile in this area, as in having an impact outside of just analyzing literature, which is important to me as well.
The paper I just completed was about the issue of rape on Native American reservations. (I started with a gigantic Amnesty International study on the topic.) It is unbelievable -- if a Native woman is raped by a non-Native man (which is the case nearly 90% of the time) then tribal authorities have no jurisdiction whatsoever to prosecute. It then goes to federal authorities, who can turn down any case for any reason without even having to explain why. As you can imagine, they get turned down nearly all the time. This is the case even when a woman has been raped and murdered -- they don't even bother to investigate. Or, if a Native woman is married to a non-Native man, he can severely abuse her for YEARS and no one will do anything about it -- tribal authorities can't because he isn't a Native American, and federal authorities rarely care. I won't even go into the details of some of the cases I read -- it is really horrific and made more so because of how much race is related to whether or not a person is prosecuted. Child-molesters and drug runners have similar "immunity" on Indian territory, and so crime by non-Natives on reservations is really, really out of hand -- there is very little that the Natives can do about it because of the legal quagmire surrounding jurisdiction.
And this is but one issue amongst many. The typical mainstream American person has no idea (and may or may not care) about the awful things that still go on regarding the oppression of Native people in our country. This is something about which I have been aware for quite some time (my Hubby used to be a very vocal activist in this area and still is to some degree) but most people really have no idea -- it's an issue that is largely invisible.
At any rate, my paper is done, and I'm going to start working on my Research Proposal for this class next. I'm going to look at ideas of trauma and ceremony, as in how trauma can be healed through the use of ceremony, both in the literature and in other research I've done in this area. (Remember: I used to be a psych major. I also volunteered for a women's crisis center for seven years, per the other assignment.) I'm excited that I've found a way to combine these areas of interest for me, and again -- it feels more "useful" than just straight, traditional, literary analysis.
So, that's where I am and where I'll largely be until after this baby is born. I am trying to get ahead of my homework, and reacclimating to the wheelchair after two and a half years of being able to walk on my own two feet. Impermanence…. impermanence….. that is my current motto.
As of Sunday night, I have largely relocated to The Farm with the kids. This house is almost entirely wheelchair accessible, which is where I am spending most of my time now. As of Monday, I am no longer working, and turned over all of my lesson plans, student assignments, etc., to another instructor. This was difficult in that I have so much care and concern for my students and I'm afraid that someone else won't take the time and patience necessary to help them learn this stuff. On the other hand, unless I had an electric wheelchair (which I don't -- mine is the old fashioned kind) and a servant to follow me around and carry all of my stuff, it really isn't feasible for me to keep trying to work. As of mid-last week, I really can't get around much at all anymore.
I am still in school and am really determined to remain so. Tonight, my mom is going to give me a lift to school, and then hopefully I can get one of my classmates to drop me off at the Perkins right off of campus where I will hang out, eat a sandwich, and wait for my Hubby to get done teaching his night class and pick me up. Hopefully, that will work out, or else I'll be sitting in a very empty, very boring campus building for more than an hour -- I'd rather have pancakes.
Last night, about four in the morning, I finally finished my Cultural Analysis paper for my Native American Literature class, which I am really enjoying. This is seriously some of the best modern literature I've read -- I have been so incredibly impressed, and am actually considering changing my thesis idea to something having to do with American literature. (Part of this reason is that I really, really, REALLY don't want to work with the professor they keep sort of shoving me toward if I do James Joyce for a thesis project. I find her very bubbly, exuberant, and totally negative underneath it. I find it draining to talk to her at all -- I can't imagine working with her a lot.) I also actually feel like I could do something worthwhile in this area, as in having an impact outside of just analyzing literature, which is important to me as well.
The paper I just completed was about the issue of rape on Native American reservations. (I started with a gigantic Amnesty International study on the topic.) It is unbelievable -- if a Native woman is raped by a non-Native man (which is the case nearly 90% of the time) then tribal authorities have no jurisdiction whatsoever to prosecute. It then goes to federal authorities, who can turn down any case for any reason without even having to explain why. As you can imagine, they get turned down nearly all the time. This is the case even when a woman has been raped and murdered -- they don't even bother to investigate. Or, if a Native woman is married to a non-Native man, he can severely abuse her for YEARS and no one will do anything about it -- tribal authorities can't because he isn't a Native American, and federal authorities rarely care. I won't even go into the details of some of the cases I read -- it is really horrific and made more so because of how much race is related to whether or not a person is prosecuted. Child-molesters and drug runners have similar "immunity" on Indian territory, and so crime by non-Natives on reservations is really, really out of hand -- there is very little that the Natives can do about it because of the legal quagmire surrounding jurisdiction.
And this is but one issue amongst many. The typical mainstream American person has no idea (and may or may not care) about the awful things that still go on regarding the oppression of Native people in our country. This is something about which I have been aware for quite some time (my Hubby used to be a very vocal activist in this area and still is to some degree) but most people really have no idea -- it's an issue that is largely invisible.
At any rate, my paper is done, and I'm going to start working on my Research Proposal for this class next. I'm going to look at ideas of trauma and ceremony, as in how trauma can be healed through the use of ceremony, both in the literature and in other research I've done in this area. (Remember: I used to be a psych major. I also volunteered for a women's crisis center for seven years, per the other assignment.) I'm excited that I've found a way to combine these areas of interest for me, and again -- it feels more "useful" than just straight, traditional, literary analysis.
So, that's where I am and where I'll largely be until after this baby is born. I am trying to get ahead of my homework, and reacclimating to the wheelchair after two and a half years of being able to walk on my own two feet. Impermanence…. impermanence….. that is my current motto.