Stalwart Pioneers

Dear Colleagues,

All truths wait in all things, They neither hasten
their own delivery nor resist it...Logic and sermons
never convince...,The damp of the night drives deeper
into my soul, says Whitman.

Communitatoos

Somewhat Differentiating Liberal Art & the liberal arts
(the majors & the minors) for the sake of argument
across the curriculum.

Thesis:

Liberal Artistry: what actually wakes me up at night not
counting apnea & bladder control: gut wrench wonder:
what have I done, not done, yet to do now;

compared to :

The liberal arts: what I talk about during waking life,
shared causes with peer groups & cohorts, stuff on the
bumpers of my cars, letters to congress, community
house keeping issues I’d knock at doors to get out the
vote,. social be-causes, welfare inequities we don’t like,
environmental problems here & there. Citizenship.

IT's the difference between personal omg night mares
& all-together now health care, reading & math scores,
steep slope building regulation, abortion & stem cell
research: picking battles, sides, teams, the principle
of the thing: stuff of liberal arts, degrees of the
majors and the minors..

Thesis:

Just As: empathy, bias, belief, prejudice, conviction,
love & hate are “enemies” of supreme court judgmental
studies & leadership programs not to mention the integrity
of class room demeanor….

So Too: Liberal Art is the enemy of the liberal arts and if
we had a congregational hearing wouldn’t we make sure
the 2 don’t get collapsed, conflated, & confused: professional
professing on the one hand (briefcase power-point bulleted
periodic tables & taxonomics) and then on the other hand:

ah,
er,
um
hmm
what?
what the?
what the hell?

(Liberal Art waking me at mid-night. )

Thesis:

Our community of liberal arts experts clap the sound of
one hand: no converse-action going on, no call & response
like jazz, like pick up basketball, tag or tap- dancing: shuffle,
flap, flap-heel, cramp-roll, buffalo, single & double pullbacks,
wings, the shim sham shimmy, Waltz Clog, Cincinnati, paddle
& roll, stomp, brushes, scuffs, single & double-toe punches,
hot steps, heel clicks, single, double & triple time steps, riffs,
over-the-tops, military time step, New Yorkers, and chugs
across the curriculum.

Liberal Art on the one hand.
Liberal Arts on the other hand.
What's the difference? The relationship?

This is somewhat How-We-Talk in some places of the
Humanities Division: that territory between Witherspoon
and The Gazebo and points north.

Thesis:

The more Ways 's of Talking The Merrier

Call for anti-theses, antagonism, and
worthy-or-not-here-I-come opposition.

How else generate our emergent values, properties,
faint clues & indirections toward frontiers yet unknown?

I'm just asking. xxxooo, Sam