Ice Frozen Cold raindrops fall snow clots into flakes clumps into ice hard as rock and so cold Sharp water cuts at my skin Does your heart bleed when the cold drips from its hardness as it condenses, becoming not large enough to contain any love for people different from you? Ice pellets from so many eyes and thoughts crystallize into hatred Are they even aware of it? –Robyn Elaine Serven –February 12, 2008

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We are starting work on next year’s programming for Women’s Studies already.  We’ve decided to try to work on relationship violence as an issue.

We recognize the problems this presents us.  As Reverend Todd put it:

…films are a good idea…but only after men are on board.  If films are shown that show male abusers/scumbags/therapy-recipients (heaven forfend anyone should find himself in therapy!*) before our men are on board, the message will likely bounce off the surface without getting through.  I believe what’s needed first are programs aimed at manliness: what does it mean to be a real man, gentlemanliness, male spirituality, the role of men in a rapidly changing society (read: the feminization of society), male sexuality, etc. In that context, issues of how men sometimes perceive women should also be addressed and fleshed out, issues like: “She was asking for it,” “Women lie,” “Women try to ‘trap’ men,” sporadic true stories that get stretched and distorted and used to define all women.  Until this territory is covered, anything that could be seen as taking “bad” men and rubbing their noses in the mess they’ve made will probably be met with emotions ranging from guardedness to hostility.

*Just thinking to myself: Do we really want to show only the “bad guys” getting some emotional therapy?

Central to much of my teaching philosophy is the following concept:

Learning is not a race.  It’s not a contest between individuals.  Students who are competing against each other…or against their teacher…for grades are missing the point of education.

As a student my task, as I understand it now…and maybe I understood it then as well…was to compete with myself to learn more.  And better.  To push back the boundaries of my own ignorance.  And to try to remember that we each possess so much ignorance that even when everyone is striving to push back those boundaries, we will rarely all be pushing in the same direction.

I will never stop being a student.

Art Link Fool’s Gold Living on Lies Such small minds in fear they cower preferring deceit over truths which they cannot fully comprehend My God how their souls must be shrivelled stained by false bravado unmistakably obvious as they pollute our mutual reality –Robyn Elaine Serven –March 28, 2006

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Is the overly-competitive nature of our society a fellow traveler with greed?

Spark Short Circuit Sapient spark arc of life light and heat radiant energy signifying something So much potential so often diminished grounded through selfishness and greed –Robyn Elaine Serven –February 4, 2008

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Is there a Universe Day?  If not, why not?  Write a five-paragraph essay on the topic.

Art Link Star Dance The Flow of Life once upon a time stars burnt creating elements molecules this and that chemicals organized life began life began on this planet we are star stuff organized chemicals life began it has not ended yet from the stars we come into them we will eventually go –Robyn Elaine Serven –December 29, 2005

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Art Link Blue Mother Chapter 6 The Spirit of the Valley never dies. It is called the Mystic Female. The Door of the Mystic Female Is the root of Heaven and Earth. Continuously, continuously, It seems to remain. Draw upon it And it serves you with ease. –Tao te Ching (tr. Lin Yutan) Blue Mother Like you I hang my head You in sorrow Me in shame Blue Mother I weep with you for the damage done to the spirit of the valley –Robyn Elaine Serven –November 1, 2005

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Strings Semantic String Theory Letters are scrambled syllables sewn together words aligned into strings thoughts condense out of nothingness and are arranged into meaning Sometimes they vibrate with Truth –Robyn Elaine Serven –February 3, 2008

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..

There seems to have been a lot of discussion about torture lately.  How’s that for an understatement.  I’ve taken note but have mostly resisted taking part in any of the discussions.  Well, actually, I don’t suppose going to a lecture by a refugee rights advocate on Tuesday about the US role in torture actually counts as “resisting,” but I’ve mostly stayed away from online discussions.  I’ve expressed my feelings about it in the past and it has not always been accepted in the spirit it was offered.

I was raised a boy, preordained to be a man.  There is no dismissing that.  That gives me a fairly rare perspective, given what has happened in my life in later years.

In the world of my youth, there were boys who took pleasure in torturing animals lower on the food chain.  Like it or not, such boys were accorded status.  Torturing animals was cool…up to a point.  Except to those of us who thought it was gross.  But expressing that disgust was a possible way to become a target oneself.  

Art Link Narrow Passage Pacifism All war does is spread more war Stopping the fighting by means of war someplace just encourages people to fight someplace else Except they have learned how to kill better –Robyn Elaine Serven –January 13, 2007

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Film at 11 Froth Deep down below past even the words are ideas and concepts normally unthought except by the weird unkempt minds of those who dare to be different Whipped creaminess of dangerous notions, syllables expressed too rarely and more seldom heard, whizzes by faster than can normally be sensed Grabbing on to a possibility I was taken downward further than imagination could conceive There is truth here There is more wherever I look And who wanted to be normal anyway –Robyn Elaine Serven –December 28, 2007

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Muse in the Morning

The muses are ancient.  The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them.  Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward.  In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.

It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse.  Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets.  Others have been suggested throughout the centuries.  I don’t have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts.  And maybe there should be many more.

Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…