The Herd & The Nerd

"Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one. "

-- Bill Gates

I’d always sorta considered myself a nerd. Or a geek. Though I never thought of either as a negative connotation. But, lately, I’ve encounter more than one person who cast the label around as an insult, or generally conceded it was an allegedly bad thing to be considered nerdy.

I subscribe to a completely different perspective. But, I guess, like most labels, each person can determine its value and power in their own mind. And a pervading atmosphere can make some people more susceptible to group-think, or the nuances of a given region.

I listen to a lot of podcasts (a nerdy pastime), and I heard the author of American Nerd: The Story of My People interviewed in an episode of American Public Media's THE STORY. The author had some very specific ideas about what constitutes a nerd, and I often found myself disagreeing with him.

I've always intuitively felt there was some manner of distinction between nerds and geeks. In my mind, the nerd is someone dedicated to knowledge and who somewhat (or wholly) eschews a deep connection to sports or outdoorsman activities -- except, perhaps, bird-watching. And, really, that's outdoors, but not outdoorsman. Bookish. Nebbish, even. Content to forego (or oblivious to) the trappings of the popular clique. Also, I think nerds find solace in worlds outside the mainstream and becoming fascinated with comic books, or science fiction television, or J.R.R. Tolkien, or anime, or message boards in the corners of cyberspace.

The geek, I figure, is more of a techno-nerd. Able to program computers and up on the latest gadgetry and technology. Dedicated to scientific awareness.

Sure, the two share a common subset. But, being one is not necessarily being the other, in my opinion. But, being either is a good formula for success. Perhaps not social stardom, but often career/life happiness.

And I'm at a loss to comprehend why some members in society view nerds disparagingly. What's not to love?

I realize there are competing definitions out there. And it is hard to pin down a thing when there are ten different descriptions of it across the crowd of a dozen people. But, I still assume I’m a nerd. Or part nerd. But, not so much geeky. Though perhaps infected with an attenuated toxin of geekiness.

Or maybe I'm just a dork.

Bleak House

I lived in a duplex in the summer of 1987. I was on summer break from college, and (in a dedicated move of independence) I didn't want to move back in with my parents. So, I got my own place.

I was working two jobs and often arriving home close to midnight. And even though in the eyes of any observer I was living alone, there was another presence in the place. Bruce Springsteen was my de facto roommate, waiting patiently whenever my day was done. My little 9-inch black-and-white TV only picked up one local station, since I didn't have cable. So, my entertainment came from the old jambox, and I was a devout listener to the tales told by The Boss.

I had a cassette tape of Nebraska. And I played that thing ragged. The fad that Born in the U.S.A. had become was still lingering in the nation's collective mind. But, for me, it was all about Nebraska. It felt like I had unlocked an old trunk in the attic and found a treasure that no one knew about.

In that musty old duplex, late at night, I was baptized in the bleakness of the Nebraska tracks, austere and unforgiving. I'd wake in the middle of the night and shuffle around vacant rooms and the darkened hallway. The wooden floors creaked, and there was no furniture other than my twin bed and the sleeper sofa in the living room left by a previous tenant.

That time, that summer--it was very transitory.

And now Springsteen is back with a CD (The Promise) commemorating the recording of Darkness on the Edge of Town. This new album includes more than 20 unreleased tracks recorded during those 1970’s sessions for Darkness.

Bag O' Bark

I recently drifted into that no-man’s-land known as Impulse Buy.

While in the supermarket checkout line, I spied some pretzel-like treats in a nostalgia-infused, quaint bag. "Okay," I thought. "I'll bite."



Sadly, I sampled the honey wheat braided twists and judged them to be repurposed driftwood -- or, on their best day, Graham Crackers from some 1830's time capsule arriving in my hand a few decades short of their bicentennial mark. Dust from the floor of a frontier cabin has more flavor.

In an effort to save my investment, I jabbed one into a peanut butter jar, and it tasted pretty good. But, really, then it just becomes a mechanism to deliver peanut butter to my mouth.

Schemes to Gain the Motherland

In college, I was in a philosophy class that met on the second floor of the campus library.  And, because it was a very small class (perhaps twelve students), its setting and size made it more intimate than other college courses I attended.

My philosophy class was my first encounter with the notion that, as humans, a base goal is our own happiness.  Doesn't sound too out of line on the surface.  I mean, of course, we all wanna be happy.  But, our class discussion would push that into selfishness, self-centeredness, and other words and phrases that include the word "self" and the suffix "-ness."

"What about an altruistic person?"  Someone asked.  "What about the selfless person who gives their time and energy to help those less fortunate?"

"Don't you think that person is happy?"  The instructor countered.  "Don't you think seeing the results of his or her sacrifices and efforts fills him or her with happiness and worth?"

"I guess."

"So, his altruistic behavior is merely the means one's own happiness.  Some people gain happiness by buying new sports cars, some by working in soup kitchens."

There seemed to be a dark current of intention implied by our instructor.  He could make the most selfless person appear to be calculating and self-involved.  (But, by semester's end, I'd come to understand he simply debated and challenged us to make us provide stanchions of logic for our own positions or reconsider them.)

My ruminations began again in earnest last year, after I pulled over to the shoulder of the road to buy a birdhouse from a man whose mental capacity was clearly below average.  He was an older man.  If he wasn't in his late sixties, then life has treated him much more harshly that I had initially imagined.

I'd seen this man before.  And I always told myself I should stop and buy one of his birdhouses, which came in the unpainted, efficiency-apartment basic model or the two-story, red and white deluxe model.  I finally stopped at his roadside booth one day, when I realized I had some cash in my pocket. I figured it would serve a better purpose in his pocket.

But, why was I really buying that somewhat shoddy birdhouse (that now hangs on a tree outside my daughter's bedroom)?  Certainly not because I wanted it.  Was it really to help that man generate a little income?  Was it to make me feel better about myself?  Was it a calculated move to make me look like a good guy?  Was it an act of compassion?

I suppose, had I truly wanted to be helpful, I could have suggested he use a second coat of paint on the deluxe model.  It seriously needed it.  And perhaps he could pay a little attention to the details.  Those sorts of recommendations might help him sell more merchandise in the long run.  But, I didn't want to come down on him, I wanted him to feel uplifted when I hopped back in the Jeep and drove away down the road...the one paved with good intentions.

Charis Wilson's War

In November of 2009, I read the New York Times obituary for Charis Wilson, who died at the age of 95.

Born on May 5, 1914, Wilson led a life entwined with the charmed and the disenchanted.  Though she got little affection from her divorced parents when she was young, she benefited culturally from being raised by her grandmother and great-aunt, writers connected to the literary community in San Francisco (which included Jack London).

Wilson gained some celebrity and a role in artistic posterity as both model and wife of photographer Edward Weston.  She was merely a teenager when she met Weston, who was in his late 40s at the time.  But, she soon began posing for his photographs and started living with him the following year.

They were together for nearly a dozen years and married for roughly half that time.  It was a great chapter in their lives, as she served as his muse, and his successes included being the first photographer awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.

However, the day after she divorced Weston in 1946, she married a labor activist.  That second marriage also ended in divorce in 1967, which is the same year her daughter from that marriage died (a possible murder victim).

Charis Wilson climbed high to the mountain peaks of life and stumbled low into many valleys.  I guess that is the type of roller-coaster existence some are meant to live:  happiness, love, and success are at war with insecurity, dissolution, and tragedy.

Some romanticize the give-and-take of halcyon days and turbulent times, but I wonder if peace is not the more appealing option.  Perhaps the gravitas of our decisions is only revealed in retrospect.

The This-N-That Book Club

I thought I'd chat up some books I read in 2010, since I offered up a movie and some music.  Perhaps I'll compose a post on my audio books, too, since I heard so many on my long commute.

FICTION

Traditionally, I dig Stephen King. From my first foray into his short stories when I was a nerdy junior high school student, and my subsequent readings of his novellas, novels, and non-fiction, I've most often enjoyed the experience.
However, two-fifths of the way through Under the Dome, I'm was done with it. Moved on, as ol' Steve himself might say. A not-so-Constant Reader.

It's not the first time this has happened with one of Uncle Stevie's books. When I was reading Needless Things, at one point I just yawned so hard, I think I forget where I set the book down. Sometimes, his tale gets a bit much sprawl to it for my tastes. It becomes so broad and unfocused, that I completely lose interest.
And I don't like to lose interest.

I realize there are those who like a generous helping of meandering in their storytelling, a little tangential exploration. And there's a place for that. But, it's sometimes a place I don't like being.

When a book is really working for me, I like to regret setting it down to do things like eat or sleep. Or, if I'm listening to the audio book version, I enjoy that frustration of reaching my destination, because I wanna keep listening. I like that gnawing need to get back to it as soon as possible to find out what happens next. If I start detecting a dreary regret about returning to the book, if it seems a chore, I've learned to take that as a sign, cash in my chips, and get the heck out of the casino.

Now, I know what you are thinking. My mental capacity must be too pedestrian to wrap itself around the plot of a thick tome. But, I rocked my way through large offerings like Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, or Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth -- or even King's own unabridged edition of The Stand (the reading of which was a veritable 'event' for me).



I'm an adherent of what Anna Quindlen calls the mere brute pleasure of reading. And I don't like the notion that I have to strike a bargain with a book. 



"You may not enjoy me now, Paul. But, if you read all the way to the end of me, I promise there's a not-disappointing denouement. In fact, there's even catharsis ahead. Of sorts. Eventually."



"No thanks, book."

NONFICTION

This all crossed my mind while reading the collection of essays in The New Kings of Nonfiction, edited and introduced by Ira Glass (of This American Life fame). With an almost perfect record, each time I read one of the essays, it became my favorite. I was engrossed in its subject and convinced it was the most compelling of the lot. Until, of course, I read the next one, and it became my favorite.

I started with the Michael Lewis essay that opens the collection. And I figured it was so riveting in its glimpse at the events of its topic that I ought to simply put the book down and walk away. How could I not be let down by subsequent selections?

But, oh.

Lee Sandlin's essay on World War II was awe-inspiring in its ability to encapsulate the roiling events and sequences of decisions and happenstance that conspired to make up The Great War -- illuminating aspects of the conflict and its consequences I'd never considered or read before.

Michael Pollan's essay ("Power Steer") provided a very intimate peek behind the curtain of the industry that puts a steak on your plate. I'm a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. I regard it as the quintessential meal, which may be viewed as brutish and simple-minded. But, my simple mind would happily eat a juicy sirloin and loaded baked potato at every brutish meal. (Until, that is, I collapsed from having eaten meat and potatoes at every meal.)

Malcolm Gladwell and Chuck Klosterman have always had my respect. And their respective reports on social power and eccentricities of celebrity are such satisfying reads, you need not read anything else for a while. You'll be reflecting on what they had to say and how they said it.

And the list goes on.

Each one a towering achievement of the written word. Each essay in succession providing the reader new insight and food for thought. After reading each one, you wanna run find somebody to tell them about it.

Well, perhaps not run, but certainly e-mail or text.

Bring Out Your Tunes: 10 from 2010

Here are ten songs from 2010 that made me happy.  In some cases, they were new music for 2010, but others were just new-to-me music.  From English ingénues and smoky jazz vocals to a rapper's rhythms and rhymes, I am glad to have encountered these artists and been exposed to their work, as I have found I like much of their respective catalogues.

Click the links to enjoy the songs.  I like to think you might find something from the list that will pique your ear.  And perhaps it will make your personal favorites for 2011.

I'm about to go make a playlist of these tracks for my iPod, an aural time capsule from my previous twelve months.

Brandi Carlile, Give Up the Ghost -- "Bend Before it Breaks"

Loved her breakout single, "The Story."  And this track form her latest album captures that same lilting, raspy vocal styling that drew me to her in the first place – and that soul-touching melancholy.

Melody Gardot, Worrisome Heart -- "Worrisome Heart"

Simply listening to this track, or Melody Gardot in general, transports you to a small table in a darkened nightclub...which really isn't my scene.  But, her sounds is so captivating.

Meaghan Smith, The Cricket’s Orchestra -- "I Know"

Just listen to it.  Go on.  Listen.

Mos Def, The Ecstatic -- "Quiet Dog (Bite Hard)"

Mos Def lays it down here.  Samples and rhythms and rhymes.  He unleashes percussive raps that force you to nod your head to the beat.

Angels and Airwaves,  We Don’t Need to Whisper -- "Hallucinations"

Grand swell of sound.  Epic. Blends with the sort of whiny vocals that are a staple of the music on teenagers' iPods, but here it's given a richer musical background.

Augustana,  All the Stars and Boulevards -- "Boston"

Light piano intro, almost music box-ish.  Then, the raspy vocals.  The chorus is catchy and has a certain emotional investment that suggests there's a good story behind this song.  And, I can always be plied with some cello in the background.

Emerson Hart,  Cigarettes and Gasoline -- "Friend to a Stranger" [Clicking link downloads .mp3]

I don't know why this song wasn't at the top of the charts.  It should have been a hit.  If I ever make a movie, I'll put it on the soundtrack and give it exposure.

Georgia Fields,  Something Borrowed, Something Blue -- "Something Borrowed, Something Blue"

Fun and inventive use of a child's farm toy.  Bouncy.  Catchy.  This is insidious in all the proper ways.

Caro Emerald,  Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor -- "That Man"

This throwback has a Raymond Scott vibe.  The vocals and melody are a real treat.  Oh, you’ll be singing this one for at least 17 days, if not the next two months.  You're welcome, in advance.

Kate Rusby,  Make the Light -- "Let Them Fly"

I love the sound of this folksy gem from Yorkshire, England.  It's like her music has some calming effect.  It's hard to be in a disagreeable mood when you have her tunes piping through your headphones. I shared another tune of here in a previous post. 

The Business of Blood and Bullets

I never would have guessed it when I emerged from the darkened theater of a matinee one Friday in 2010  -- but, THE AMERICAN (with George Clooney) is the movie that lingers with me from last year.

If my Italian served me appropriately, a fleeting seen in the film had George Clooney tell a local villager he was "the American"...and the gentleman politely corrected the visitor's Italian by explaining he was "an American," not "the American."

This film was a very internalized and thoughtful movie in a manner that caught us off-guard.

It was visually stunning, as though the film was a string of incredible photos.  Lots of amazing long-shots, impressive and subtle lighting, and plenty of beautiful settings.

There were many moments where an absence of musical background drew me in and made me more alert for any sound that might be coming.  And there were several passages with minimal dialogue.  However, I felt I could sense what the characters were dealing with in their own minds.  It was as though I was being prompted to fill in the unspoken thoughts of characters dealing with the turmoils of their situations.  I could divine their thoughts – or at least think to myself "They must being thinking about this, or suspicious of that, or processing how to make sense of these developments."

Superb.

That's how I would distill it.

It is absolutely not an action film.  It's almost an inaction film punctuated by moments of activity, with a helping of gratuitous nudity.  So, it isn't for everyone. But, I encourage potential viewers to consider it as a sort of art form -- a visual work of art from which we extract a storyline.

So as not to reveal too much plot, I'll only note that George Clooney's character is mired in the business of bullets and blood.  And he's feeling the effects of the lifestyle he has chosen, as his necessary distrust and wariness of everyone has exiled him from humanity...a humanity he yearns to reclaim.

When It's Time to Go

Here's something that found its way to me in 2010:  Kate Rusby’s "Wild Goose."

I wish I had some manner of power and authority over time and space – a temporal agency of sorts.  I’m inspired by a quote from E. M. Forster:  "I will tell you when it's time to go."

In the waning moments of the 2010, I feel as though I’m mentally unburdening myself from the last twelve months and looking ahead to the next dozen with a tabula rasa.

Paul Valery, the French poet (essayist and critic), once remarked that "a poem is never finished, only abandoned." And I know what the man meant. I know it as a poet, having taken the time to compose a couplet or suss out a stanza -- only to finally leave it convinced I'm unable to find the missing aspect that will improve it and complete it. And I know it as a human, having left moments and deeds unresolved and untitled.

For me resolutions proclaimed for a New Year are merely parlor games, half-hearted mutterings to play along with others. I know many who take their New Year’s resolutions seriously, though. And I applaud it. But, I never have the passion or conviction to hold fast to those things. So, I generally dodge them.

But, I think there is something to this sense of resolution. And, while I can't convince myself that there'll be a list of resolutions checked off as the months are torn from the calendar, I can get behind the idea of seeking completion where I can. Instead of a New Year's resolution, rather a quest to resolve.

In the nightmare of the dark

All the dogs of Europe bark,

And the living nations wait,

Each sequestered in its hate

-- W. H. Auden

...Right Down Santa Claus Lane

You'll probably wanna start track Santa movement around the globe, so ya know when to make sure you are tucked in bed. CLICK HERE.

Camdenshire Crumble Pie

I have zero skills in the kitchen. While I've had some experience with feasting, my preparation of meals usually involves frozen dinners and a microwave -- or a phone call for pizza.

So, when my department decided to have a bake sale as a means to raise funds toward a toy drive during one holiday season, I knew what I had to do. I bought a frozen apple pie and put it in the oven, carefully reviewing the necessary temperature and suggested time.

I placed the completed dessert on the floorboard of my car and drove it to the office, held it with reverence on the elevator, and provided polite courtesy laughter to all the small-talkers in the hallway who offered to "help eat the pie."

Then, while trying to balance the pie and position my ID for the badge reader to enter my office area, the pie tin folded like a taco.

Yep.

The previously inviting, flaky crust was now a crumbled engineering disaster.

While everyone was setting out the results of their late-night labors, I smuggled the pie into my office. How was I going to face everyone? And the answer revealed itself to me in a dastardly vision.

I whipped up a sign to imply that my pie was exotic and unusual and not at all the wreckage of a fumbling dork whose talents in the culinary arts are nil.


Camdenshire Crumble Pie
In smaller writing beneath it, I added the word apple, as though to suggest it came in many varieties.  It was the talk of the bake sale.  I explained that Camdenshire Crumble Pie first appeared in America in communities along the eastern shore of the Hudson River in 1823.

Truest, Immutable Facts

Perhaps the main reason I enjoy reading Susan Orlean's Free Range blog for The New Yorker is her consistent ability to offer commentary on a thought or development -- or sometimes regarding the most fleeting of daily, mundane occurrences -- and capture with complete exactitude the nuances of the human condition. She finds impeccable phrases and modifiers to precisely detail her own humanity (and ours, too).

In a recent entry, Orlean considered the complications of finding our way through the complexities of aging parents and the additional obstacle of geographical separation. There's no 5-step (or 12-step, or 127-step) process that will march you through all the challenging times of your life. You simply must survey your options, listen to advice from wise sources, and make the best decision you can. And, of course, occasionally you'll find that isn't good enough.

Witness:

Sometimes I'm dazzled by how modern and
fabulous we are, and how easy everything can
be for us; that's the gilded glow of technology,
and I marvel at it all the time. And then my mom
will call, and in the course of the conversation
she’ll say something disjointed that disturbs me
and reminds me of her frailty, and then she'll
mention that it's snowing hard in Ohio and I'll
wonder how she's going to get to the grocery
store, and I look at my gadgets and gizmos, and
I realize none of them will help me. If anything
they've filled me with the unreal idea that
everything is possible; that virtual is actual; that
you can delete things you don't like; that you can
find and have whatever it is you want whenever
you want it; but instead I'm learning that the
truest, immutable facts of life are a lot harder and
slower and sometimes sadder, and always mystifying.

Good Will to Men

Here’s a seasonal dichotomy: I don’t like crowds, but I like going to malls at Christmastime.

Of course, I like it best when I don’t really have a lot of purchasing left to do, and I can enjoy the decorations and the busy people in their holiday-themed garb. Ideally, I’ll have some funds in case I spy some perfect thing at some perfect price that I feel I’m destined to give someone as a gift.

The Neiman-Marcus in downtown Dallas takes great care in transforming their window displays at Christmas, as though they were in Manhattan battling Macy’s for shoppers’ attention.

I think this has become sort of a ritual. I’m fortunate my wife and daughters are all on the same page, when it comes to these fun outings that are a reliable part of the Christmas season. And I’m certain my continued affection for this time of year, nurtured by my parents throughout my childhood, owes some measure of gratitude to the steadfast observances we eagerly engage. Our iPods are loaded with Christmas carols, a number of new and classic movies cycle through the DVD player, the decorations go up right after the Thanksgiving. There are symphonies and ballets and all manner of festivity.

And this holiday season we are considering slipping up north of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex to check the dazzling light show at the square in downtown Frisco.

The guy who oversees the spectacle, Jeff Trykoski, is a legend in the area -- and is also one of the featured folks in the book Tinsel, which examines the amped-up holiday antics of some Frisco-area people.

Here's Tryskoski's lovely downtown display, set to music:

The Christmas Coin

December never fails to usher in evidence of merriment.

Eggnog appears in the stores (along with Christmas accoutrements that have been on store shelves since October). Rather quickly and increasingly I discover more and more homes bedecked with lights and other ornamentation.

Many houses are already adorned from the final days of November, but each evening’s commute reveals some new joiner in the parade of lighted icicles draped from eaves and dormers and gables.

Twinkling Christmas trees shine through windows like beacons of celebration lighting the way for family and friends to gather for fellowship and food.



But, the Christmas coin has two sides. It doesn't escape my notice that, for many, the holiday season can be a harbinger of their own misfortunes: reminders of loved ones who’ve died, relationships that have failed, or the overall absence of friends and family, the unexpected unemployment that lingers, the financial disarray, the egregious descent from better times, and inescapable loneliness.

I know those people. I've counted myself among them at times. And each new yuletide I am reminded that I am always a candidate to return to the plight of the downtrodden and the outcast. We are all so-called candidates. I try and remember that when ensconced in good times -- and dismiss the lesser worries as the trappings of the blessed.

Sometimes my preoccupation with affording all the gifts I want to purchase will prevent a more fully invested embrace of all the wonderment and good will the season can bring. Seizing charitable opportunities helps keep my head in the proper disposition.

Stepping Onto Sky

Four years ago, on a Sunday, a brilliant

spring afternoon, I was jogging at Fort

Point, while overhead a woman was,

with difficulty, climbing over the railing

of the Golden Gate Bridge. Holding

down her skirt with one hand, with the

other she waved to a startled spectator

before she stepped onto the sky.

To land like a spilled purse at my feet.

-- Richard Rodriguez, "Late Victorians,"

Harper's Magazine, 1990.

I sometimes get the eerie sensation that I'm on the verge of witnessing someone's personal tragedy -- as though my departures and arrivals will conspire to position me at the right wrong place at the right wrong time.

And I will observe a car crash in an abrupt flourish of violence.

Or I will happen on a homicidal rage resulting in the crack of a handgun's report and the instantaneous tearing of flesh.

Or I will encounter the severely injured after any number of possible acts or accidents had left them unattended and mortally wounded.

It is not a phobia. The only fearful part of it is that I won't make the right decision in the heightened moment.

It's not really an obsession. I mean, I'm not on the lookout because I want to see it. Rather, I'm vigilant because I want to act swiftly when it happens. I want to respond purposefully and judiciously.

Do you ever have vague prescience?

The Chain I Forged in Life

I have a long-standing affection for "A Christmas Carol," by Charles Dickens. I've read it a several times and seen probably more than a dozen incarnations of it on the big and small screens, not counting thinly veiled or overt allusions to it as a scene or subplot in a movie or television show.

I have a couple of old radio-play adaptations with Sir Lawrence Olivier or Orson Welles and Lionel Barrymore.

And, on my commute, I recently listened to the audiobook of Jim Dale reading (performing) the unabridged work.

The images of Jacob Marley's ghost, come to visit Scrooge and sway him from the path he walks, were often the most harrowing to me -- and the most riveting. Without fail, the cinematic incarnations of Marley included a large cloth strapped under his chin and tied atop his head. When seeing "A Christmas Carol" films as a child, I always figured old Marley had some spectral toothache that was part of his purgatorial punishment. You know: tote these heavy chains for penance...and suffer this dental agony while you're at it.

Once I actually read the tale, I learned that the bandage was functional. It helped keep Marley's mouth from falling open.

The story pivots on the meeting and interaction of Scrooge and Marley (or, I should say, the entity that was Marley in life).


"It is required of every man," the Ghost returned,
"that the spirit within him should walk abroad
among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and
if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned
to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through
the world -- oh, woe is me! -- and witness what it
cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and
turned to happiness!"

Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain
and wrung its shadowy hands.

"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling.
"Tell me why?"

"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost.
"I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it
on of my own free will, and of my own free will
I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?"

-- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Pass the Kimchi

The Koreas are in the news of late.

The indefinite fermata of cease-fire that formed a truce between the nations has left them at war for decades, as the North is wont to remind the world, when it feels it can gain some measure of aid or other support as placating acts from more diplomatic countries.

I remember Thanksgiving north of Seoul.  My year in Korea as a soldier-linguist was a turbulent one.

Though those of us who spoke Korean and spent our time eavesdropping on the North thought of ourselves merely as linguists (linguists plying our skills to gather intelligence on the bad guys), others were constantly labeling us as soldier-linguist and as electronic warfare operators. One of the peculiar quandaries about our view of ourselves as linguist rather than soldier-linguists was the realization that our battle plan, in the event of war on the peninsula, involved moving north toward the Imjin River and the 38th parallel.  All of the wargame exercises in which I was involved predicted all of my unit's assets neutralized within the first 48 hours.  That's watered-down, military-speak for saying we'd all be dead.

In South Korea (i.e., the Republic of Korea, or ROK), we U.S soldiers just assumed the news was always about troubles with North Korea (i.e., the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK – which is a benign name that sounds like much better spin-doctoring than the more descriptive Oppressed Nation of Fanatics Compelled to Worship Their Great Leader with Unwavering Diefication...making for one beast of an acronym: ONFCWTGLUD).

My twelve-month tour included lots of tension over the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which interwove nicely with the DPRK's protests over Team Spirit (a large, joint military exercise with U.S. forces and ROK forces).  Also, Kim Il Sung drew his last dictatorial breath, leaving his nebbish, quirky son (Kim Jong Il) as an alleged heir -- one it was very likely the staunch DPRK generals could not abide.

That suddenly made what I was doing more important:  trying to find out what was happening behind the kimchi curtain.

Even South Korean nationals cannot go north of the Imjin River, unless their families own land between the river's banks and the portion of the demilitarized zone that divides the peninsula.  I've been there, though.  One moonless night I drove across Freedom Bridge in the dark, certain I wouldn't make it to see the next day. 

Freedom Bridge is at the northern terminus of Highway 1.  A special ROK military unit is stationed there to control access to the bridge, and, more importantly, to blow it to tiny bits if the North launches an invasion.  A great deal of the bridge, including the road deck, is constructed with railroad ties.  Old railroad ties. The bridge only allows for traffic moving in one direction.  And there are two elevated pathways of rail ties (like the reverse of tire ruts in a dirt road), forcing drivers to carefully steer as to avoid slipping a wheel to the lower level and veering toward the edge.  We crossed around midnight in black-out light. 

Black-out light basically means strict light discipline.  No headlights.  Instead, we have these tiny pin-lights on the grill of the HMMWV (humvee) grills, glowing under a small awning-like hood that directs the faint radiance downward.

I was supposed to have NVGs (night vision goggles) or NODs (night optical devices).  But, I didn't have any.  And I felt I was gonna lay a turd large enough that, if we fell off into the river and survived the fall, I could float to safety on my own -- ahem -- flotation device.  Of course, the steel truss framework of the bridge wouldn't have allowed my vehicle to find a hole and topple to the river below.  But, that was no real comfort.

This Thanksgiving, I’m content to watch the Korean drama unfold from around the globe.  I’m thankful to wake up in my home with my wife and daughters, our TiVo kind enough to play the Macy’s parade for us, and the promise of much food on the table.

Central Park Respite

Near Fifth Ave. and 60th, The Strand bookstore set up tables to offer merchandise for passers-by. While my wife and kids were in the Central Park Zoo, I had some time, a few dollars, and the inclination to occupy my mind. So, I purchased a used copy of Tana French's Edgar Award-winning novel, In The Woods.  Then, I settled onto the nearest unoccupied bench along the wall that borders Central Park up Fifth Ave. and opened the book to the prologue.

I swung my right leg up onto the bench in an act of kindness toward my knee. I'd been wearing a knee brace to help with swelling when I do much walking. I have to be delicate with the old joint, like elderly people with their brittle bones. A slight twist or shift in the wrong direction and I get a surge of pain to announce the mistake: a surge not unlike the blaring alarm that announces a botched procedure in the board game Operation. Aggravated by all the walking Manhattan imposes, my swollen knee was cursing me.

I think this knee development is part of a package of ailments associated with my aging. There are motes in my eyes that play the roles of ghostly apparitions as a matter of routine. I get light-headed more easily than I used to. And headaches are reliable as a daily discomfort. Plus, I fret over things that shouldn't merit it, and I worry over imagined unpleasant developments.

Sounds like a consuming novel was just the thing I needed to get lost in.

It was a fun read...one where you come to know the characters so well, and hold them in such regard, you are disappointed when reality sets in and you realize you won't be spending time with them once you finish reading their tale.

Cheers to Ms. French for a suspenseful ride. I think I need to hunt down here recent novel, Faithful Place.

Here are a couple of passages that drew my eye.


I remember that moment because, if I am honest, I
have them so seldom. I am not good a noticing
when I am happy, except in retrospect. My gift, or
fatal flaw, is for nostalgia. I have sometimes been
accused of demanding perfection, of rejecting
heart's desires as soon as I get close enough that
the mysterious impressionistic gloss disperses into
plain solid dots, but the truth is less simplistic than
that. I know very well that perfection is made up of
frayed, off-struck mundanities. I suppose you could
say my real weakness is a kind of long-sightedness:
usually it is only at a distance, and much too late, that
I can see a pattern.

. . . . . . . . .

...it seemed impossible that so powerful and heady a
thing could be coincidence. I had a sense of things
stirring, rearranging themselves in some imperceptible
but crucial way, tiny unseen cogs beginning to shift.
Deep down, I think -- ironic as it may seem -- a part
of me couldn't wait to see what would happen.

My Mental Cartography

With the holiday looming, I'm trying to prepare my desk for my absence, which involves consoling it in the form of tidy arrangements and dusted surfaces.

In general, my manner of organization (to the extent it can be identified as such) has tended to fall into the creative category. That is, my desk space is a series of swelling stacks and piles of documents and books for which my mind has mapped the relative location of each item. This mental cartography provides a workable sense of which strata any given item resides.

Periodically -- usually in association with project milestones -- it is necessary to sift through the various paper spires and act as a sort of compiler to identify that which can be shredded and to condense the multiple stacks into as few as possible.

However, because of my additional responsibility as an archivist in a long-term project, I've become increasingly aware of the benefits to a well organized file structure. And I'm made a genuine effort to apply these files across the breadth of all my projects.

It hasn't been as simple as the flip of a switch, my innate organization style isn't something that can just toggle to a new structure. But, I'm trying to transition and blend where beneficial -- and do so at a comfortable rate.

Something else that has heretofore been foreign to my way of thinking is the daily list. Each morning, I've been listing a series of tasks for the day on my dry-erase board, marking them off as they are concluded. Though counterintuitive to me, I can honestly say I've seen the benefit of keeping a focus within an eight- or twelve-hour day -- preventing, to some extent, a propensity to launch off on a tangential task that may not be as urgent or time-sensitive.

I guess my contrarian nature has resisted when someone announces that what I should do is make these lists or create these files or use this application to establish and track the minutiae of a complex project. I guess, as other things in life, it can't be thrust upon you. It really only takes hold at the point of personal revelation. Being told something, or having it imposed upon me, hasn't traditionally worked well for me. My reaction has always been to distinguish that what works well for the anal retentive (and makes them happy) will not necessarily work well for rest of the workforce. And I still think that is true. However, it seems I'm drifting a little closer to the dark side.

A Corner of History

Years ago, en route to the Dallas Museum of Art, we made an impromptu decision to stop by the Sixth Floor Museum, which is located on the sixth floor of the old Texas Schoolbook Depository building. History records the allegation that Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy from a window on the corner of that sixth floor. Now, a museum encompasses the floor to honor the legacy of the Kennedy administration and capture historical artifacts of the Camelot years and the dark hours when the nation held its collective breath in November of 1963.

We never made it to the DMA the day we stopped at the Sixth Floor Museum. I guess I expected we'd go up there and find a warehouse-like space, with the corner cordoned off and people crowded around looking at the recreated '60s era boxes and a Mannlicher-Carcano bolt-action rifle placed neatly in the dust.

While it is true that you do get to witness some encased, life-size diorama at the infamous window (or at least you did then), the entire floor is a well conceived museum of fascinating memorabilia, photographs, films, recordings, etc. We were there for hours reading displays, watching new footage, and examining artifacts and photos on display. And we only left because the was closing.

And visiting the museum certainly wouldn't be complete without walking around Dealey Plaza and the infamous grassy knoll. It's also worth noting that the JFK Memorial is just a few blocks away.