I took these photos this evening of the Tribute in Light where the World Trade Center used to stand. These and a few of the other photos I took of this are on my Flickr account.  As much as this is a reminder of a tragedy that happened six years ago, it is also a reminder of what happens when issues remain unresolved. Healing can take place, but it appears that those who caused this still have not been brought to justice. I think we have a lot left to learn about the events before and since 9/11, about ourselves as well as the extremists who caused this to happen.

Technorati Tags: 9/11, New York City, Tribute in Light, World Trade Center

I came across this list of editorial cartoons about Senator Craig and the Republican “Family Values:”

http://cagle.com/news/SenatorCraig/main.asp 

Some of these are critical of a whole range of issues, yet humor can be both revealing as well as instructive, among other things. However, I am still somewhat unclear as to what exactly his crime was.

Never one to slow down, I am about to begin reading the next book (with a How to Read Derrida as a more serious read to be carried around with me in my work bag), which is another best-selling work of fiction–Water for Elephants. I really like how there are Book-Group Discussion Questions at the end, though it reminds me of high
school. I liked those reflection questions then just as much as now, and kudos for the publisher to put them in the book! 

Ahh, still working on becoming that reflective practitioner.

I  finished Harry Potter this morning while working out at the gym. Very surprising ending, and I gained a lot of respect for J.K. Rowling as an author. One section at the end really struck me:

"Tell me one last thing, said Harry. "Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?" . . .  "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

This struck me on several levels. I think about how its philosophical implications. I think about how this validates autoethnography. This supports the humanities. The creative process. Qualitative research. Anything that looks at making meaning and sense of our experience in any ways outside of a scientific approach that tends to reduce us to a similarity with numbers.

There are many things that are real and yet can not be quantified. This is one of the things I learned about Severus Snape; be careful about assumptions–they often lead us astray when we feel we have to see to believe.

Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, Severus Snape, Snape, autoethnography

I am almost finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Nothing surprising there, as it is the biggest book of the year. Yes, I get many magazine subscriptions and am also reading a philosophical introduction to Derrida (a favorite of mine), working on a class I am teaching, scrolling through countless blogs, and the daily newspaper–yet I am craving to finish the Potter book. I haven’t had this many hours of entertainment for so little money in a long, long time. Where else but in a good read can
I spend hours and hours for only a dollar or so? Not at a movie for $12. Not at a Broadway play at $110. Not at the opera for $130.

This reminds me of the love of reading I developed as a child, when I read because there was not anybody around and, living in a rural area, nothing to do. Now, living in New York City and surrounded by more stimulation than a person can grok, I find myself wanting to read again. I wonder why I, who buy books on a weekly basis and can read hundreds of pages a week (while working and teaching and studying) am finding Harry Potter so exciting and engaging? I have not read any of the other books, and have not read
fiction in some time. Perhaps that is the answer–it is so new for me and, at this time I am focusing more on my arts and sciences roots, am once again open to such experiences?

After all, business for its own sake is only so rewarding and exciting . . . to a point.

Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, grok

I flew today, and as we were approaching lift-off we were greeted by the pilot who welcomed us aboard, thanked us for flying with Continental, and then wished us the best for our final destinations. Why did it surprise me so much that the pilot was a woman? Perhaps because this is only the second time I have ever flown with a female pilot? I am not sure what is more surprising–how underrepresented women are as commercial airline pilots or how I have never heard anybody
ever mention this.

It was a smooth flight, thanks in part to our pilot. I am not sure if that had anything to do with it being a female pilot, or simply a good pilot.

Technorati Tags: Continental Airlines, feminism

One of the blogs I read is Talking Philosophy: The Philosophers’ Magazine Blog, as I find that Julian, Jeremy, Ophelia, and company do a good job bringing complicated philosophical concepts into ordinary language.

One of the recent (not to mention the shortest) posts there recently was one Julian posted on atheism. It is amazing that there have already been over 40 replies to it, and it is one of the better examples of public discussion I have seen in a long while.

I wonder why? Is it an issue people are passionate about? One that stretches people to think in different ways? Perhaps it is because diverse kindred spirits find one another? Is it because people are being exposed to ways of thinking that they may have been challenged to do on their own? Can it stretch back to frustrated feelings from childhood? Perhaps empowerment?

Whatever the case, discussion almost always seems to be a positive. Hey, with the US refusing to speak to North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela (among others), we see the value of non-communication. Hatred, suspicion, envy, self-righteousness, ethnocentricism, and need I continue?

Technorati Tags: atheism, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, The Philosophers’ Magazine

A colleague of mine, Robin Yap, tagged me yesterday with 8 Random Facts about me. I liked how it linked it to an ice-breaker, especially for team and virtual team-building. From this perspective, it can be somewhat eye-opening in a relatively safe way.

Robin listed 3 rules for this meme:

1. List 8 random facts about yourself.
2. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them.
3. Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged. I will do a slight twist on the final one–I will email them instead.

8 Random Facts about Jeffrey:

1. I can eat pizza for every meal every day of the week.
2. I don’t like being in crowds at parties.
3. I really do believe that New York City is the Center of Civilization as We Know It.
4. Lyotard’s definition of post-modernism as “incredulity toward metanarratives” really did change my life.
5. Pugs are my favorite dogs.
6. I equate communication with education, as I do not believe the one can occur without the other.
7. I feel moved every time I read Walt Whitman’s poem, I Saw in Louisiana A Live-Oak Growing.
8. I first appreciated Vincent Van Gogh when I saw his painting L’église d’Auvers-sur-Oise in a show that just closed in the Musée d’Orsay.

Looking back at my list, I am not sure what it reveals about me, but lets see how other people interpret it. Thus, I shall in turn tag Jenny, Arjun, Ernie, Howard, Isabel, Josh, John,
and Ophelia. It will be nice to hear from some of you whom I have not spoken with very recently, and I intentionally tried to get an interesting cross-section of people!

Technorati Tags: Arjun Singh, Ernie Hsiung, Howard Greenstein, Isabel Rimanoczy, John Ong, Josh Levy, Little Yellow Different, Lyotard, Musée d’Orsay, Ophelia Benson, post-modern, Jenny Ambrozek

Jacques Derrida influenced a great many people, fields, and frameworks throughout his life, and it only seems fitting that his death in 2004 would itself cause controversy. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Archive Fever, recounts how the effects of the actions of one faculty member at the University of California at Irvine jeopardized and ultimately cost the university
the Derrida Archives. While I am not particularly interested as to the veracity of the article’s claims (since only one side of the issue was provided as other parties in the dispute declined to provide their own voice to the story), I was captivated by a comment by Avital Ronell, who quoted some of the many letters that Derrida received while he was growing sicker from the pancreatic cancer that finally killed him.

“People sent letters saying how important he had been to them,” Ms. Ronell says. “Or he would get a letter saying ‘I’ve hated you my whole life, but now that you’re gone, I want you to know how much you’ve meant to me.’”

For the Father of Deconstruction, I find that final quote fascinating. Derrida made lots of people uncomfortable with his challenge of unspoken assumptions and frameworks in nearly everything within Western culture, yet there was something about him that was magnetic. In a way, he recalled the Socratic gadfly that people just wanted to go away away. Leave me to my beliefs, Derrida, as I was happy before you came along! I don’t want to think about new ways
of thinking! I like my life as it is! Just leave me alone!

Ahh, the status quo of my beliefs is so comfortable, why would I want anybody to challenge them? If deconstruction is such an annoying and unphilosophical phenomenon, why did it threaten so many? Could that in itself be the reason that it (he) can be hated, yet missed at the same time? Wow, would Freud have a field-day with this!

Technorati Tags: Avital Ronell, Chronicle of Higher Education, Deconstruction, Jacques Derrida, Socratic gadfly