To Glen Phillips
From Judy Prince
Glen,
You probably wrote the Hitler quote to warn us that following one's "feel
good" instinct may lead to a holocaust of unbelievable tragedy. You lead us
to a vital point about "doing one's thing" with little knowledge (esp in the
young who lack experience, lengthy friendships and many facts) that can
easily result in chaos and a truncated life. Any teacher or parent can tell
you that "feel good" behaviors build monsters in the young as well as those
grown old but not self-knowing.
I'd love to know how you and other petcies reconcile the Hitler quote and
those I've posted with ones they might think of regarding how to make
important changes in our lives. I don't know anyone who hasn't
grappled---sometimes for years--with life-altering decisions. The more
input we get, the better able, I think, we'll be to step forward to help
ourselves. So, Glenn, what do YOU think?
Judy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Glen Phillips" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: TO MY DEAR PETCIES: an explanation
> On 22/6/05 9:15 AM, "judy prince" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Wasn't it Hitler who said,'if it feels good do it'?
> Glen
>> To Roger Day from Judy Prince
>>
>> Roger,
>>
>> Following are some quotes you may find friendly:
>>
>> **************************************
>> "Follow your bliss" (Joseph Campbell, I think)
>>
>> "Go with your gut instinct; it will never steer you wrong" (a good
>> friend)
>>
>> "Ever notice that 'What the hell!' is always the right decision?"
>> (Marilyn
>> Monroe)
>>
>> *************************************
>>
>> Consider this, Roger: What do you feel that you might lose if you do the
>> MA? Are they things that are like cut toenails---happily and
>> unconsciously
>> dropped in the wastebasket because still attached they'd cause you no end
>> of
>> sharp pain and the eventual near-inability to move forward?
>>
>> Incidentally, I've an altogether revised life, having uprooted after 34
>> years in Chicago. I moved here to Norfolk where I had neither family nor
>> friends. No one, during my search for where to live, felt that I was
>> making
>> the right choice---to leave Chicago, let alone to go to a place that I
>> barely knew! Because I had no way of knowing if they were right, and
>> because I knew their concerns for my well being, I suffered greatly in
>> what
>> seemed endless tail-chasing to decide my own future.
>>
>> I've now been in Norfolk for nearly four years and think of it as my
>> paradise. Few folks "back home" and even here understand my joy at being
>> here. But, then, Roger, those folks must struggle and find their own
>> paths
>> and places, mustn't they? The struggle provides a rare opening for
>> self-understanding. I don't see any loss in that whatsoever.
>>
>> Blessings on you as you move through your pathfinding, aided, always by
>> the
>> peace of trust-filled prayers,
>>
>> Judy
>> from her paradise
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "roger day" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 11:55 AM
>> Subject: Re: TO MY DEAR PETCIES: an explanation
>>
>>
>> I see now that *part* of my motivation in applying for an MA course is
>> in some part trying to get this magic. There are other reasons of
>> course, some of which are real-world. Another is the fact that I've
>> always wanted to take an English qualification ever since I was
>> knee-high to a grasshopper. It maybe that I want to be in academia
>> (I'll have to think on that).
>>
>> One course of action open to me is get out of my current job, sit
>> there and write.
>>
>> Any poetecteras views on this quandry? Whether or not is nobler in the
>> mind to take an MA or would rather fardles bear and stare at windows
>> all the day, keyboard before me?
>>
>> Roger
>>
>> On 6/21/05, Ken Wolman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> roger day wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> Your play was useful in that it allowed me to expose a little of my
>>>> history to the list, so I tips me hat to you, whoever you are!
>>>>
>>>> Glad to be of service! I hope my bit-part fitted well in your theatre
>>>> </bows to rapturous applause>.
>>>>
>>>> I've thought of taking a Poetry for Dummies course because I've
>>>> sometime felt that I've been missing something, something that when I
>>>> write goes astray. Of course, books and courses are never the answer.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> And now Dr. Ken's Konfession. For years I believed such a thing
>>> existed. Poetry for Dummies. If they can publish books like "Sex For
>>> Dummies" ("Oh, THAT's what that's for! Hot damn!") and "Monte Carlo
>>> Simulations for Dummies" (not, I assume, how to win at Vingt et Un), why
>>> not "Poesie for Dummies" as well?
>>>
>>> Years ago, feeling that I was cheated of feature by dissembling Nature,
>>> having no idea what a poem was, how to write one (even though I had), or
>>> how to judge one without some Professor saying it was good, I tried to
>>> find the magic book that had all the answers. The book I chose? <sit
>>> down> William Empson's _Seven Types of Ambiguity_. No joke. No help.
>>>
>>> Oh, another plagiarism tale. True story. 1973, I'm a teaching
>>> assistant. Three profs and me, the Shakespeare lecture course. I
>>> thought I'd died and gone to Heaven. Then some kid in my personal
>>> section hands me a paper, I forget on what, but as I'm reading it I'm
>>> thinking "This kid writes fantastically, he can think on paper. Oh
>>> God--wait a minute." I focus on the kid. The kid is nice, not a doofus
>>> but not THAT bright. All of a sudden the writing sounds familiar. I am
>>> the guy writing a dissertation on audience/reader response in
>>> Shakespeare, and before I dropped him on his Scottish crown, Macbeth was
>>> in there. So I knew the classic critical writings: A. C. Bradley, c.
>>> 1904. I look at Bradley. I look back at the kid. It's the same
>>> words. Bradley didn't plagiarize the kid, I guess. I forget how, but I
>>> got a message to the kid to come to the office I was using. He did not
>>> seem like a jive-artist, just a jerk. He walks in totally unfraid and
>>> totally clueless. I confronted him with his unattributed quotes and
>>> Bradley's text. I thought the kid was going to cry, then faint. He had
>>> no idea that what he was doing was not kosher. NOBODY had ever taught
>>> this kid about plagiarism. He literally did not know he'd done it. It
>>> was easier for the teachers along the way to ignore the whole greasy
>>> issue until it got to the desk of a 31-year-old teaching assistant. I
>>> told him to get back to work, he had something like two days to correct
>>> the mess he'd made. The paper turned out to be not too hot but it was
>>> at least HIS not too hot.
>>>
>>> Ken
>>>
>>
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