Law&Order, and Etsy
All I want to do, now that my thesis has been handed in, is putter around in my pajamas, watch Law&Order, and surf the beautiful things on Etsy.
(Etsy is an online store, where everything is handmade, by individual sellers. Sort of like a craft fair, but much, much better. Go ahead: abandon my post and start using Etsy. Type into the search bar "large handbags," "spices," "wedding topper," "glassware," "altered books..." The possibilities are endless. Also, you can even search by _color_: click on your favorite color, and they'll serve up an assortment of beautiful things in just that hue.)
I went in to work yesterday, but was pretty tired. We have a lot of events coming up, though, so I needed to be there. I worked on some flyers and invitations; catering next. And make sure everything's okay in the Canary Islands. Luckily, not only am I friends with everyone I work with (so they understand that I'm tired and let me go slowly), but most of what I do can be done at my own pace, and over e-mail. I greatly prefer e-mail to the phone, because I like to gather my thoughts, re-read for details, and make sure I've put down everything I need. I tend to get flustered on the phone, in part because I worry that I'm not hearing everything (I have a hearing disorder).
Today I only have two things to do: go to the Green Market (I want fresh bread, cheese, and veg) and finish some reading for my philosophy class tomorrow. The readings are interesting, and I'm glad I'm going to know this stuff, but... I sometimes feel like these philosophical arguments and breakdowns are very...male.
I remember that as an undergrad, we English majors shared the building with the Philosophy majors. And sometimes going into a room after a Phil. class, I'd notice that the students were mostly male, mostly wearing a lot of black, and mostly not smelling very good. Here, the guys are cleaner and not as pale/smug, but the way it works seems counterintuitive to me. Like: in evaluating and discussion religious experience, it's all: "If /x/ is like /y/, and /y/ can be said to be such and such, we can understand /x/ to come from blah." I want to know: if we're talking about religious _experience_, why aren't we talking to and about people who have had them? About hymns and prayers and laments, and the stories of _people_? I
don't know where in philosophy and culture we ceded that the scientific way of thinking* was better than a relational "telling-listening-connecting" way of thinking.
I actually have related worries about my thesis. I'm technically a Church History major, but I feel like everyone else doing history (mostly, again, male) are doing economics, and population, and things that are facts that can be analyzed and held in comparison to other facts. I do story, and character, and the relationships we have with fictional characters, writers, and God. Really interesting, but is it history? Am I an historian?
*Well, probably in the Enlightenment.
Okay: on to philosophy and cheese.
(Etsy is an online store, where everything is handmade, by individual sellers. Sort of like a craft fair, but much, much better. Go ahead: abandon my post and start using Etsy. Type into the search bar "large handbags," "spices," "wedding topper," "glassware," "altered books..." The possibilities are endless. Also, you can even search by _color_: click on your favorite color, and they'll serve up an assortment of beautiful things in just that hue.)
I went in to work yesterday, but was pretty tired. We have a lot of events coming up, though, so I needed to be there. I worked on some flyers and invitations; catering next. And make sure everything's okay in the Canary Islands. Luckily, not only am I friends with everyone I work with (so they understand that I'm tired and let me go slowly), but most of what I do can be done at my own pace, and over e-mail. I greatly prefer e-mail to the phone, because I like to gather my thoughts, re-read for details, and make sure I've put down everything I need. I tend to get flustered on the phone, in part because I worry that I'm not hearing everything (I have a hearing disorder).
Today I only have two things to do: go to the Green Market (I want fresh bread, cheese, and veg) and finish some reading for my philosophy class tomorrow. The readings are interesting, and I'm glad I'm going to know this stuff, but... I sometimes feel like these philosophical arguments and breakdowns are very...male.
I remember that as an undergrad, we English majors shared the building with the Philosophy majors. And sometimes going into a room after a Phil. class, I'd notice that the students were mostly male, mostly wearing a lot of black, and mostly not smelling very good. Here, the guys are cleaner and not as pale/smug, but the way it works seems counterintuitive to me. Like: in evaluating and discussion religious experience, it's all: "If /x/ is like /y/, and /y/ can be said to be such and such, we can understand /x/ to come from blah." I want to know: if we're talking about religious _experience_, why aren't we talking to and about people who have had them? About hymns and prayers and laments, and the stories of _people_? I
don't know where in philosophy and culture we ceded that the scientific way of thinking* was better than a relational "telling-listening-connecting" way of thinking.
I actually have related worries about my thesis. I'm technically a Church History major, but I feel like everyone else doing history (mostly, again, male) are doing economics, and population, and things that are facts that can be analyzed and held in comparison to other facts. I do story, and character, and the relationships we have with fictional characters, writers, and God. Really interesting, but is it history? Am I an historian?
*Well, probably in the Enlightenment.
Okay: on to philosophy and cheese.