Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Tuesday at da Beach

Aloha!
It's August in Waikiki



click on photos to instantly voyage here
Camera & Ukulele Case grace the local attire.




"The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught."
Marqis de Vauvenargues

Youth


"What you fear to be, that you already are.

Only welcome it home to see it's disguised beauty."

Unknown



Pay Attention to THIS!
(Turn off the media for a moment or two)

"The path is not a symbol. It is a way to get somewhere."

Unknown





Sensuous Roots - or Sinister?

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation"

Herman Melville

Really?






Back in the water, ready to go, after
Hurricane Felicia fizzles. YAY!

When I return to the boat, I see Kitty's face watching me from the deck.

"Ahoy Matey!"







Aloha friends!
Thanks for coming by the beach to visit today.


These are the lazy days of Summer, and it is with some selfish delight that I see University of Hawaii students tying up traffic at the mouth of Manoa Valley as they move into their dorms, line up to register for the classes they need, and explore the sweet little neighborhood of Moiliili with their loving helicopter parents. (It must be nice to have that support.)



I say "selfish" because I still have dreams (nightmares?) about the bureaucracy and lines of my Alma Mater.



It feels REAL good to have that degree!
I earned it!




Last weekend I wrote about Woodstock days and the sense of "Revolution" in the air back then. I was so certain that the established order was passing, that the idea of sitting still long enough to get a college degree seemed quaint. Instead I learned to build things, Spackle dry wall, run a micro-business, face life without the confining structure of a "work week" and generally survive outside the "system." We read a lot, talked a lot, and played some live music.




Credentials seemed a dying concept back then. And I found lots of life to experience. It was my quaint idea that a writer was someone who experienced and thought about things and then wrote about them, so I felt "right on track."
I filled the pages of dozens and dozens of note books.








So imagine how I felt at age 39 entering an institution that seemed stuck in the 50? I have a lot in common, I think, with the Cultural Revolution generation of Chinese. Were they lost years? I think not.





Multiple choice tests, classrooms full of high school graduates who groaned collectively whenever someone (me) found something interesting enough to ask questions about, studying at my night job. . .
Fortunately, I am a master of note-taking and memorization so my transcript is 4 pages of "A's" with a "B" hiding among them....
And there are some great people up there at the University too.




I had a lot to prove with all my "lost" years. So
I was deeply proud to get my degree in Psychology (with distinction). And I have enjoyed the opportunities it brought me to experience the professional world: I've educated physicians, won grants, flown on "business trips" and published my own research. Maybe even saved or changed a life with my HIV Prevention and advocacy work.
(So there!)







But I also experienced whats wrong with non-profits, medicine, academia, and governance from a privileged vantage point.
So I appreciate this August day of no meetings, hearings, deadlines, jargon, funder reports, or career politics seasoned with piquant pettiness.




Ahhhhh! Thanks, Hubby. Thanks bloggy friends!




I'm very proud to be a college graduate, a writer, a blogger who gets read, a beach bum.


And I'm SO happy that you share it all with me. My daily visits to New York, England, Tennessee, Louisiana, Detroit, New England, Jerusalem, Mumbai, Netherlands, Paris, the terrain of YOUR journey - enrich my days.
WOW!




So thanks for paddling by today. Mahalo &


Warm A L O H A!











27 comments:

  1. What a life! What a post, and I get to be the first to respond? Kitty must have been really glad to see you.

    I have to say that I find those tree roots menacing, what's that say about me? They remind me of the scary trees in the Wizard of Oz. Yikes.

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  2. You have seen much and imagined even more, and I love your writing. It's always more than a mini-vacation to come here!

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  3. I grok what you said about the students groaning when someone with an interest in an issue asks a question in class. I get on to my kids when they do that.

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  4. Hi, CC. Wonderful words! When are you publishing Book Number Two???

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  5. What a life so far! You rock, sistah!

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  6. Eliz: Yes, sinister roots ;-]

    Deborah: You gave me a big self satisfied smile. Thanks SO much.

    Charles: I thought of you when I wrote about classes beginning ;-]

    GiGi: You are a pal! Actually I have thought of culling my blog and column for a new collection. Wanna publish it at GLC Press?

    Teresa: YOU lived out one of my alternate paths! Glad we met ;-]

    Thanks everyone!

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  7. I didn't go to college right after high school either. I got my degree too. Seems we are a bit alike in that respect. What a delightful post that made me smile.

    Have a terrific Tuesday at da Beach. :)

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  8. Alexis Carrel,a French physiologist colleague of yours, once said, that it doesn't matter to give years to life, but rather live to the years. Something, it seems to me, you truely did, do and would like to assume will do.
    Being impressed very much of your today entry, would like to wish you a nice Wednesday where ever you happen to be.

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  9. It's lovely to learn more about your life, Cloudia - what an inspiration!

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  10. Sandee: We are blog Sistahs ;-]

    Robert: I salute you!

    Raph: Your world inspires me. Thanks for your supportive words that make me float with joy!

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  11. You DO rock. I thought the sensuous roots looked like an upside down hand making the peace symbol.

    Peace, baby.

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  12. For me it was tear down the system. And when I taught, that was what I was doing. I miss it. The unteachable students who thrived, who went with me to conferences and made presentations about new theory that still waited testing and peer review. Thank you, my friend for the memories and the urge to describe what happened. Aloha, Clodia.

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  13. Your story is so interesting. I like the course you have taken and the good you have done. I think it's impossible to be a great writer without living fully--and you are a great writer.

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  14. gig has a good questions! When is book #2 going to be published?

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  15. Wow! Thank you folks, Gran, Grandpa, Carol, Sandy, for such great communion and support! You are remarkable people

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  16. And proud you should be my friend! Always love your posts. That third shot is incredible. Aloha.

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  17. You sure know how to enjoy life! Are you sure that you don't have any Cajun blood? Enjoyed learning more about you. Beautiful sunset and pics!

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  18. Brilliant post. Brilliant writing. You have done what I try to do with my own blog and make me feel right there. Well done.

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  19. proud to know you


    namaste /\
    aloha!

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  20. That was really cool. Three cheers!

    Sometime I'll post about my uncle Dick, who died earlier this year, and his wild sortie from Mexico to Hawaii with two other folks, learning how to sail as they went along, in the 60s.

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  21. Cloudia -- please extend the wise elderly cafeteria lady/mentor and your Spirit Dog into Book Two.

    Yea, I miss parts of college too. It's hard to find those "ah-ha" moments in personal studies.

    Your tracks into students' lives goes round the world and sometimes unknown to you. Continue on!

    Aloha, DrumMajor

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  22. I found the tree roots interesting. :)

    You have done so much to be proud of Cloudia - well done my friend. xx

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  23. Good onya, mate/matey.

    My Naomi got exactly the same grades as you. It must come from smart + hard work + lots of motivation.

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  24. love those purple palms. lovely capture. carmi's theme is summer this week and it must be so hard for you to choose on pic to represent it. hope you have a lovely weekend.

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