Mission Impossible

 
Either: Walk on Water (WOW)
Or:       Walk on Eggs   (WOE)
 
Dear Colleagues,
 
This is my favorite-of-all cartoons by Kliban, better known for
his Cats back in the 70’s,  I use & abuse it all the time—in
facultyl spam and class hand-outs:  come on now which IS the
wasted  and  which IS the Useful life? 
 
Got to choose,  Just VOTE:  one or the other as the over-riding
TEAM you play on.
 
No in-betweener quibbling: no myn can serve 2 magisteries
“Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be
devoted to the one and despise the other.”.
 











 happy land                    *taking a test or grading one
 Unpostponed Joy            * assessing outcomes
 Immediate Gratification    *Wallace Stevens writing
                                         a poem on company time
                                         *Ray Anderson preparing
                                            a graduation speech on
                                             the obsolescence of
                                            current educational practices
                                          * marking attendance chart
                                          * Finalizing the report for the
                                             trustees
                                          * checking the bullets for the
                                             overhead projection    
                                          * reviewing SACS sanctions/
                                             compliance ratios
                                          * evaluating faculty syllabi for
                                            mission statements
                                            assessable goals, measureable
                                            outcomes
                                          * making up a multiple choice
                                             quiz
                                           * preparing a lecture ; ; ;
                                           *Stephan Dobbins drafting a novel                                                        
   
                                   POSTPONED to Un-POSTPONED JOY ratios
                                                   (dreams deferred)
 
Mere Representation is all: standing-fors,
 mapping the territory, scapegoating. . .
 
The Contemplative and the Active Life:
 the radical  difference of the2 modes  seems
clear enough in this cartoon.  The relationship?
Not so clear.
 
That would be the Liberal Art, maybe: how  
happyland and Mr. Industrious might be said
to Just Get Along.. Call it our Core`, if not our
general education. General education’s good—if
it means generalized, not to be collapsed, conflated,
and confused with specialized.
 
Fundamentalism. Basics. Frame of Mind-Set.
Which is your Magistery,Dominatrix,  Prevailing
Outlook and Attitude shaping  &; ruling your
day to day ratios? You: servant, serving a service project..

Composing:  Waste & Be Wasted
 (throw it away throw it away throw it away)
Consuming.  Use/Abuse & Lose it 
(hold on, hold on to what you got)
 
You can probably frame the distinction better than me.
:I wish you would.An underlying either/or somewhere
 “down there” generates the richcomplexity or our
real-time behavior, true?
Fundamental.
 
I acknowledge: no body loves an Either/Or:
ridiculous to the savvy (snicker) and
offensive to the conscientious (snort).
But all this: is merely for the sake of
argument. Or what are colleagues
for?
 
xxxooo, Sam