On the one hand, PLACE, on the other VELOCITY

 
This helps me
more than it
does you.
 
       Nature loves Redundancy even if English Teachers
       and Creative Wrtg Fiction & Non-Fiction Teachers
       do not so much.

Triad:
 
Heart of thinking is drawing distinctions.
Heart of academics  arguing them out.
Heart of liberal art:  relating them.

“Teachers need to see themselves first of all as intellectual…
even apart from immediately practical applications.” 
                  (from David  Abernathy’s link
                      “What is College For?)
 
A telling distinction right there:
being intellectual on the one hand
tending to practical matters on the other.
 
Thinking:
 
Separate, polarize, and characterize Ike
Intellectual from Patty Practical Application.
(might as well personify.  what we do
implicitly if not explicitly: anthromorphize,
mythologize: a way-of-thinking.)
 
Being Academic:
 
Turn IT up—the difference, the values,
the dynamic  between intellectualizing
and instrumentality. (utility). Keep them
in sustained play.  Argue them out but
don’t let either win or lose—or end game.  
This is Being Academic, yes?
 
Liberal Art
 
The beauty part: what Laura L loves
as Complementarity:  how opposites
can Just Get Along if the opposition
is treasured, cherished: a sustainability
crucial to relationship, a consummation
devoutly desired.  What Unlike  Things
Must Meet and Mate, says Melville in  
his (liberal) “Art”


In placid hours well-pleased we dream
Of many a brave unbodied scheme.
But form to lend, pulsed life create,
What unlike things must meet and mate:
A flame to melt--a wind to freeze;
Sad patience--joyous energies;
Humility--yet pride and scorn;
Instinct and study; love and hate;
Audacity--reverence. These must mate,
And fuse with Jacob's mystic heart,
To wrestle with the angel—Art
 
Imagine: if Ike Intellectualism ran
rampant over  our curriculum, having
his way across the bored.  Or worse:
Patti Practicality ruling with an ironic
glove—demanding show of ongoing
improvement, clear & consistent goals
& observable application.
 
But even if we share these distinctions
 
            Position      /      Velocity
    Intellectualizing / Instrumentalizing
    HAP /  Ways of Talking About Hap
                  SACS /  Creativity  
    Professionalism / Amateur Standing
             Product / Process
 
and manage to maintain their distinct
values  (so as to relate & complement),  
we’ll still be  naturally in the habit of
promoting our personal side of the I’ll,
maybe reaching  across when it seems
to serve  personal  aims, goals,  purposes,
measurable &  immeasurable
outcomes…
 
So that what it comes down to  (IT, I said)
is  whether we can keep IT and our Selves
in Play.  Sustainable Converse-Action
Across the Curriculum.  Know what
I mean?   Being Academic.
Pre-requisite for

Liberal Art.
 
Need we argue?  I wish we could.
I’m always just asking for it.
Or what’s a college for?

xxxooo, Sam  (ongoing season's greeting. I haven't
said enough.)