Marathon Man
During the period of the 1980s and 90s I was a runner. Well, maybe it would be more accurate to say I was a jogger, but I actually did participate in several “races” during that time (namely 5Ks, 8Ks and some 10Ks). (And, really, I, myself, never actually raced anyone…) I think the largest event I ever participated in (on one hot August night in the late 80s) was when the Seattle SEAFAIR 10K race drew over 10,000 runners. (That’s the memory I have of it now, anyway). I see that, these days, the SEAFAIR event is an 8K run, and that last year it drew a mere 2,700 participants. Ah, I guess the glory days of running are over…
But, why do I speak of this?!
Because: during the last several days, I’ve been feeling healthy enough to think about running again. It has been almost ten years since I’ve done this, having severely aggravated my left knee during an intense August 1997 hike in Glacier National Park. The arthritis that was discovered in the aftermath of that vacation led me to, practically immediately, drastically curtail my running activities. Lately, however, with this renewed path to health that I’ve been on, I’m toying with the idea that my body may be able to tolerate this kind of exercise again. Even to be THINKING of this, of course, feels great. And, during three of my walks in the last few days, I’ve broken into a jog (for, like, a quarter mile or so).
Now, I don’t really have the stuff of a marathon man, but… can't I dream?
Lack of Focus
Where is my head at these days? All over the place, it seems. I’ve been finding it difficult to find a focus, what with multiple areas of life all demanding my attention. I’ve been so scattered that even to sit down and compose a little blog entry has been an over-the-top challenge.
I guess I have to admit that my primary mission in life lately (given that I’ve returned to, and am maintaining, an acceptable level of health) is conducting my job search. It goes on and on and on…
For example, I interviewed at another Oregon community college just over two weeks ago. This happens to be a position and a place that, at least on the surface, feels like the perfect fit for me. I thought the interview day went quite well and had hoped to hear something (e.g., a job offer!) by now. No such luck. I received an email from the college’s VP a couple of days ago informing me that the search committee was “gathering more information” and that she hoped there would be a decision sometime in the next three weeks.
Holy Ambivalence, Batman! Three WEEKS more!
It sure has me wondering what’s up, up there!
For now, all I can do is continue with the process and, to the best of my ability, trust it. I had a phone interview with a college in the Northeast U.S. this morning, and have another one with a campus in the Southwest next week. I feel like a politician repeating his stump speech over and over and over again. I need to keep reminding myself no matter how familiar my stories are to me, that this next interview group has never heard them before.
Another thing constantly on my mind, that is when I’m not obsessing over the fact that I don’t know where I’m going to be working in the near future, is my photography. As you have learned, I have an entirely new primary camera body and lens these days and new software to go along with it. I’m trying to be patient and teach myself Nikon Capture NX, which actually seems to be going well. However, my patience with the other Nikon product, PictureProject, totally ran out some time back. I think that, basically, it’s pretty worthless. Fortunately, I found a replacement that I’m entirely delighted with, namely Photo Mechanic. This is an incredible piece of software that is going to make managing my ever-growing collection of digital photos much easier.
And, then there’s getting out of the house to actually take photographs. I’m continuing to make time for that, and though I’m tightly scheduled, it feels really good to be back “out there.”
Of course, I haven’t even mentioned that I still am required to show up at a real job every day and expected to make a difference. To the best of my ability, I’m attempting to do that. Just today we finished the first week of spring term, my last full academic term in this location…and it was intense. There were lots and lots of fires to put out, so I ran from one to the other as best I could. Whew, am I glad this week is over with!
Peace Now!
Last year at this time, March 2006, I wrote about the demonstration & march I participated in – in downtown Portland (OR) – an event that marked the third anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq. It was both well-intentioned and well-attended, with a crowd of at least 10,000 pouring into the streets to express group discontent with the U.S.’s aggressive conduct around the globe. However, as you recall, I lamented that this gathering of like-minded folks was not really as much a protest as it was a rally, or even a mere social gathering. I expressed my utter dismay that there was no pervasive sense of outrage, an emotion that, undeniably, permeated the anti-war movement during the Vietnam era. Here’s part of my message from last year:
OK: bottom line, here’s what I miss. The outrage. I want us, the American people, collectively, to be incredibly angry about the meaningless large-scale loss of life in a part of the world where we really have no legitimate business. I want us to be incensed about the erosion of our civil liberties. I want to hear of our insistence on being told the truth. I want a gathering of this magnitude to mean something: to be acknowledged as part of a nationwide effort to change the direction of the morally-bankrupt regime in, and agenda that we now have coming from, Washington, D. C.
The reason I’m reporting on this year-old history is that I’m still, here in the Spring of 2007, thinking these same thoughts! And I’m apparently not the only one. David Crary, an Associated Press writer, observes, in a recent article:
America’s current anti-war movement is resourceful and persistent, but often seems to lack the vibrancy of its counterpart in the Vietnam era when protesters burned draft cards, occupied buildings and even tried to levitate the Pentagon.
The primary argument for the differences, of then vs. now, is the lack of a draft. This is a hypothesis that, of course, strikes a chord with me. During Vietnam, the war was entirely personal. Every decision was made in the context of what the consequences would be for my draft classification. When I was a college freshman, for example, the mere dropping of a calculus class during my first semester put me at risk for being cannon fodder in a remote jungle. College students today have an entirely different reality and, for the most part, campuses are extremely tranquil places. Activism, and especially anti-war activism, is not really a part of the current student experience. (Getting a job is the primary deal, I guess.)
But, it’s 2007 and I still show up at protests: as I did last Sunday, this time in downtown San Francisco. The turnout was a huge disappointment for me, however. For, here we are, now four years into this war, and the best crowd that San Francisco could muster was estimated at about 3,000. The San Francisco Chronicle article reporting on the event began:
Calling for an immediate end to the American presence in Iraq, about 3,000 boisterous protesters marched from the Embarcadero through downtown San Francisco to Civic Center on Sunday afternoon.
What the march may have lacked in numbers, it made up for in intensity.
I was there. The numbers seem about right, but I’m not too sure about the “intensity” observation. Yes, some of the speakers from the platform had obvious passion, and spoke from their hearts about the unjustness and ridiculousness of this war, expressing genuine anger about the thousands and thousands of wasted lives. For the most part, though, these folks were ignored. There were no big-name speakers (as I had rather anticipated, given the locale), and during the talks (and subsequent march) most of the “boisterous protesters” were not, really.
What I observed this time reminded me of last year. There were lots of people with cameras (yes, including me, of course), operating in a party-picture mode. Many individuals were popping into the nearby Starbucks and Subway shops (at Justin Herman Plaza, the march’s starting point), soaking up the sunshine while enjoying their favorite latte or sandwich. There were tons of bumper stickers and buttons for sale. And there were a variety of street vendors hawking commercially-made protest signs. In fact, one particularly ambitious young entrepreneur, laden with pre-made signs, was walking among the gathering crowd yelling, “Signs. Placards. Get your signs and placards here.” (What was this? Was I at a ballpark? “Peanuts. Popcorn. Get your hotdogs here.”)
If you can believe it: I saw Girl Scout cookies for sale. And ice cream bars. Sigh…
I guess I missed the really “good stuff” in San Fran this time around, though. During a smaller demonstration, the next day (Monday, March 19), a (truly) more “boisterous” group of activists engaged in some acts of civil disobedience and got themselves arrested. The Chronicle reported:
San Francisco police arrested 57 anti-war activists in the city Monday as demonstrations were held throughout the Bay Area to mark the fourth anniversary of the U.S. war in Iraq .
The bulk of the arrests -- 45 -- were made shortly before 1 p.m. at the intersection of Montgomery and Market Streets, when protesters moved their sidewalk “die-in” to the middle of Market Street.
Blocking noontime traffic, activists sprawled out like war casualties. Some shrouded themselves under sheets with fake blood, and others chose a pose more befitting of a coffin, on their backs with closed eyes and clasping flowers to their chests. None resisted arrest.
Among those escorted to three police vans was a woman in a wheelchair, a woman in a nun’s habit and former Department of Defense official Daniel Ellsberg.
