Thanksgiving in context

The liquor store was closed for Thanksgiving - go figure - so I brought some Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee as a gift to my professor's house - never go to someone's house without a gift. It turns out that he had invited four stranded students to his house for Thanksgiving. There was also his mother, wife, daughter, brother-in-law and friend (from grad school). It's amazing how much more you understand when you see someone in context. Professor G's context - family and friends - showed that his utter insanity is perhaps less shocking than I had previously thought.

It was really nice for him to invite us to his home. Not many people would do that. The food was awesome, and once we got into the swing of the madness the awkward silences got fewer and further between.

One thing did stand out though. I was pleasantly bantering with the brother-in-law about his hair. He was full mountain man. He was amazing! Over the course of the night, we learnt that he lived in a place that allowed him to have neither water nor electricity bills. He had a full beard and two scraggly pig-tails reaching far down his back. He said, that since the army made him shave, that he had not cut his hair since he had come back from Vietnam. A small alarm bell went off in my head. Then he said that if we look at owls, we realize that being covered in hair allows you to be more sensitive to your environment. Intruiguing. His hair is how he transmits waves into the universe and how we receive them. That's why indians pray with feathers, 'and that's why you have pubic hair'. What?!?! "That's why you have pubic hair."

The table was silent. I guess everyone has one crazy relative. Someone changed the subject to pie.

The dinner was wonderful and memorable. That family makes a mean pecan pie. We left to find the other students on campus.

We found some friends in one of the houses. They were the ones who did not want to go the president's house and who had not been invited to a professors house. We all scrounged up a dinner or scrambled eggs, salmon sandwiches, hamburger meat, pasta with tomato sauce, rice, chicken, sardines, octopus and bread. I don't know much about the awkward holiday "Thanksgiving" but it is wonderful to spend quality time with good friends. We later watched Chronicles of Riddick. I wonder when they are making 2 and 3.

Solitude

I decided last minute to stay on campus for Thanksgiving. I will get lot's of work done and get to regroup for the last weeks of school. There are plenty of people here, I just don't want to see them. I rolled out of bed today and just thought... how can I avoid people today?

It's strange that some people don't they realize how great it is to be alone sometimes.

Must pick up bottle of wine... I was invited to my thesis advisor's house for dinner tomorrow. Any suggestions?

Human dignity

So the company that hired me sent me what I can only assume is a corporate gift - I never knew what that category included before today. They are awesome people. I got a 'personalized' note from one of the partners and a tin of gourmet cookies. What turned me off, was the fact that the company name was emblazoned on the cookie tin in bright obnoxious letters. Who the flipping hell personalizes cookie tins? These people don't make cookies!!

The answer is clear... people with too much money - which is disheartening and encouraging at the same time. These people have money to waste on undergraduate hirelings when there is so much wrong with the world. Then again, they will be paying ME next year.

This all came to mind as I hauled the cookie tin to my political science class today. We had reading on what constitutes a life worthy of human dignity. Check out Martha Nussbaum if you have the chance. Yeah, I'll have money, but will I be loved? Will I be politically influential so far away from home? Will I have enough education? Ignoring Kant, will I be letting myself be used as a means to an end? Will I be pouring my hours into the capitalist machine instead of building up human relations?

BTW the kid that commented on my last entry is my brother - we all deserve to be recognized.

Friendship

Someone once told me that true love improves you. It makes you a better person. Makes you want to be a better person. That if you are unhappy, or angsting, or become self-destructive, that you have found yourself in a bad relationship.

I have not been lucky or unlucky enough to have ever been in love, but I have more than my fair share of friends and acquaintances. The question is, what is the litmus test for a bad friendship? At what point would it be legitimate to start a hasty retreat?

I hate people

There's that old sentiment that you learn a lot about yourself from a fight (maybe not so old, maybe Fight Club?). Either way, today I had three excruciating confrontations with employees of the College. Granted, they all had their own flavour... sometimes I was standing, stationary, pacing; sometimes there was shouting on both sides, sometimes it was very quiet and passive aggressive and the power dynamics were clear. This is what I have learned:

The people who have power over you are not necessarily better than you in anyway. They are not more intelligent or mature. They are not necesarily insightful or logical. Heaven forbid they show a little understanding. Some random sequence of events has placed them over you, and they will often use their power, their inflated self-image, and their arbitrary systems of assessment to make your life less pleasant than it would otherwise be.

This is what I've learned about myself:

I have to be my own boss. But so much time, space and effort are separating me from that happy day. I guess I should stop being dramatic and struggle on...