Sydney, Sydney quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells
And cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.
If you asked Sydney what he did this summer and he replied, “Gardening,” these pictures may help you see why that was the only thing he mentioned. By the way, these were not the culmination of the pepper and tomato harvests, but rather simply the only ones I caught on film. Sydney, next time it might be more accurate to say, “Farming.”
Erin
In case you are wondering why I’m posting pictures of garden produce in the middle of January, know that:
a) we don’t have a digital camera, so I’m working off the film that I get developed (and put on CD) every half-year or so, and
b) with Sydney out of town I thought I would scrapbook, so I finally got some pictures developed last week.
Erin
I don’t like to move. As much as I love to organize, throw out stuff, pack, and set up house, I really, quite honestly, would prefer to stay in one place forever. Travel, by all means, but don’t move.
When my family moved eight miles from the country to the little town where I finished growing up (the only two places I lived before leaving for college), we were dubbed “new to town” and may still hold that title more than ten years later. Dating someone in high school would have seemed a bit too much like dating your siblings, having grown up with them (and waiting for the boys to grow up . . . still waiting). So you can tell I’m a bit out-of-touch with the incresingly mobile society we live in today.
Having wrestled with this (yup, you guessed it) conservatism on my part, trying to work up the enthusiasm to jump from home to college to grad school, anticipating at least one or two (or three? or four?) more moves before Sydney can start planting trees, I’ve finally decided a great deal of moving around simply comes at too high a cost. I’m putting out one opinion on the subject, hoping that you will respond with others.
. . .
I have certainly argued with someone particularly set in his ways and thought, “Man, you need to move to another part of the country and realize that life exists just fine elsewhere even though those people may not follow your rules about picking over eggs in the grocery store. It’s amazing that they survive, but trust me, they do!” I am perfectly happy to acknowledge that moving can help to shake up your “rules,” help you realize that much of life is shaped by your surroundings (also helpfully knocking off a bit of ego about your individuality and independence), and help you see that others live different elsewhere (and thus may be able to provide different perspectives that prove valuable to listen to, etc.). It’s a great way to defamiliarize and allow you to step back and reevalute what you consider “normal” or “best.”
It also helps you gain confidence: you, too, can tackle new challenges, master the pace of a completely different city (or country). I will always be grateful for the trips I took to NYC during college, because I am no longer cowed by subways or the myriad mystiques of city life. Thank you, New York City!
And, to be honest, different places offer different opportunities. You may happen to land in a place that doesn’t provide you with fresh produce, an active lifestyle, the perfect church, or the kind of friends you can wholeheartedly bind yourself to. Moving can help you fill gaps from the life you have been living even as it offers new ones of its own.
Alright, so moving certainly has its benefits. But what about its problems? More to come.
Erin
I’ll be off in a few minutes to a weekend conference on philosophy of religion at Rutgers, where I’m supposed to comment on a paper about supervenience. Not that I know anything much about the arcana of supervenience. I’m not quite sure how I ended up doing this. Here’s hoping for a flash of brilliant insight between now and tomorrow morning.
Sydney
“A married woman should fold one hand over the other at the table, the better to show off her jewels.” – From a NYT article about the resurgence of etiquette education in France.
When I read that quotation aloud, Sydney snorted so hard he nearly lost the swallow of smoothie he’d just been maneuvering.
Erin
Tonight Sydney sat down and taught me basic HTML. Nothing fancy, but he helped me set up a page for all of the links I want to keep handy. A few notable things about this:
1) I, the young’un, took computer lessons from a self-described dinosaur, in both age and personality.
2) For the first few minutes he looked quite happy to help me bumble my way through /,<, =, and back again.
3) However, by the end, he had gotten sick of hearing exclamations like “Oh, cool, I can change colors! Sydney, come look!” By now he may be seriously pondering the effects of age and intelligence gaps on a relationship. . .
4) Figuring out how to change the font by myself felt like a real accomplishment. I gave Sydney a big smile that looked a lot like the one a 2-month-old gave me today when, as I was changing her diaper, she wet completely through the new one, her onesie, her outfit, and also the changing table cover. Gotta love self-satisfied girls of all ages.
Having a chickadee perch on one’s ear feels interesting.
Sydney
Name a very prominent American political figure who was born in the Midwest and was a devout evangelical who spent much time on the lecture circuit defending the Christian faith and arguing that religion is the only reliable foundation for morality. He was also a progressive Democrat (though, alas, he shared in the white supremacism that marked the Democratic Party for so long) who vigorously opposed unbridled capitalism. In foreign policy, he is known as a staunch advocate of peace.
If you think you know the name of someone who fits this interesting (I think) profile, post it in a comment. American history graduate students are disqualified!
– Sydney
Alan Schmierer
