The Drama of POSSIBILITY

I am just now beginning to hear through the grapevine the college admissions results of former students. It's quite an exhilarating feeling, let me tell you, even from the sidelines a continent away.

Some months ago, Stanley Fish wrote a column about how he found himself entranced by the spectacle of the NBA Draft. Ultimately, he ascribed his fascination to the idea that "what [he was] witnessing was the repeated renewing of hope." For me, it's a compelling explanation. One cannot help but feel in awe of the promise and potential on display. The idea of an unmolded life that just sits ready for the taking is...exhilarating. Cherish it! you want to scream both for yourself and for the world.

A couple months after graduating from college, I e-mailed a professor who had been particularly influential for me. He responded by writing, "Your life sounds full of PROMISE now, keep notes on your days..." His capitalization of that word, "promise," made an impression on me, and that's why I remember the e-mail.

These ritual cycles--the birth of a newborn, the election of a new president, matriculation and graduation--all enact the drama of rebirth and POSSIBILITY. It's a beautiful thing, central in my mind to our existence as human beings, and one cannot forget it. Even during the profanity that is separate from the ritual moment.

"From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility," anyone?

The Irony is Priceless

From Maureen Dowd's Tuesday column this week:

"My adventure did feel like time travel into the past, especially when the G.P.S. began flashing near Yosemite that we were "entering an area where turn-by-turn guidance cannot be provided.""

Isn't Dowd's irony or sarcasm or whatever you want to call it absolutely blissful? She is poking fun at our dependence on technology and how unimaginable it now is to go on an adventure without the aid of technology-aided orientation. Get it?

It's subtle I know, but there it is. After I read the column, I was overcome by a rapid-fire succession of questions. To give you some background (if you haven't read the column yet), Maureen Dowd takes her readers west through San Francisco on an expedition to pan for gold, an activity that has apparently experienced something of a renaissance as our recession has deepened. Let me break that down again. Maureen Dowd, a New York Times op-ed columnist, hops on a plane from New York City to San Francisco, then goes to Yosemite with her GPS to pan for gold for a couple of hours, all so that she can reflect in 850 words on how the literal search for gold captures the state of the economy and our national psyche at the same time. Fool's gold. Otherwise known as pyrite as we are fortunate enough to learn. It's symbolic of our times.

So back to the questions that raced through my mind. How much does Maureen Dowd get paid? Did the NYTimes really fly her out to San Francisco just so that she could write this column? Did she fly first-class? Is there really a recession? Has the price of stock in The New York Times Company really fallen 90% in the last five years? Did the company lose $58 million in 2008 or is Google Finance just lying to me?

What the hell is going on here?

And, finally, how do I get her job?