Archive for December, 2009

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Breathe not the sins of others, HW 27-28

December 13, 2009

I have been slowly posting entries from Baha’u’llah’s book, “The Hidden Words.” They are little meditative gems, which He says are the “essence” of the spiritual truths in all religions. There are a total of nearly 125. Here are numbers 27 & 28:

27. O SON OF MAN!
Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner. Shouldst thou transgress this command, accursed wouldst thou be, and to this I bear witness.

28. O SON OF SPIRIT!
Know thou of a truth: He that biddeth men be just and himself committeth iniquity is not of Me, even though he bear My name.

 (Baha’u’llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)

 * These 2 brief entries are amazing in many ways. First, we are admonished to not talk about others’ “sins” – things they are doing wrong – while we ourselves are the same. In other words, we are all sinners, we all commit things we shouldn’t. (Story of Christ telling all those ready to stone the prostitute to death, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” and they all walked away.)

Second part to that one is rather strong – who would want to be accursed? especially, by He Whom you adore?

Second reading: Don’t be a hypocrit. And a name don’t mean nothin’ if you don’t DO as you SAY. “You are not of Me.”

Live your life pure. Sincere. Honest. No regrets. Very hard to do. But worth the pain. I sound dramatic but it’s actually just true.

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weekend and grades due tomorrow

December 13, 2009

Our weekend was spent with one of our 3 super-favorite people in all the world, our grandson. Age 3. He came to Grandma and Grandpa’s for the weekend. We had a busy time. This little boy jumps more than he just walks. Jumping boy, he’s like a Mexican “jumping bean”. Friday night we took him with us to the faculty Xmas dinner. Of course, last year there were a few other small children there, but THIS year, our boy was the only one! We got a few looks, but all in all things went okay. We left when he was on the verge of doing something outrageous, like flipping cheese cake on someone, or letting the air out of the 6-ft-high snow globe . . .

Saturday, Tuba Christmas at 3:00 in a coffeeshop downtown. He was entertained for about a half hour & then I took a walk w/ him outside. The college music dept. played tubas & other horns in a local coffeeshop & the whole local town crowd sang Christmas carols together. Sounds totally like something that would make me bonkers, but there was actually such a warm feeling in the room, it was quite cozy and comfortable.

Sat. night went to feast. It is hard to be here over a year and still be “outsiders”. However, all communities have their oddness about them. We can focus on being of service, let the rest go.

Drove jumpy boy halfway home today, met his parents for lunch, & drove back home in the rain and fog. (Our highs are running up into the 40s this mid-Dec.)

My weekend other than that has been consumed with finding 9 pp. of a 13-page paper plagiarized. I have been distraught over this discovery. Grades due tomorrow. My colleague and I have to deal with this fiasco tomorrow.

So this is my boring, diary-like entry for my blog tonight.

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finals week

December 7, 2009

Final Exam

All classes

roll up into this one

last, dreaded exam,

the final moments, to see what,

if anything, they remember.

Students gather

in this room all semester,

sitting in the same, exact chair, always.

We like repetition, we like

to know our place,

and so the seat and those around you

become familiar, expected,

something you know.

Sitting in someone else’s seat

would be like stealing their wallet,

and you would be considered: deviant.

This week is about transitions,

endings, then new beginnings,

Next week is non-existent,

There will be no more meetings

of this particular group,

It is also about finality,

percentages tallied

and one – letter – grade,

For some lucky ones, graduation!

For the professors?

a break,

and then we do it all over again,

with new faces.

I hear them now, laughing,

sharing answers,

They await my entrance

and so I leave this page

to enter the room,

with their final exam.

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backbiting is forbidden, HW 26

December 5, 2009

26. O SON OF BEING!
How couldst thou forget thine own faults and busy thyself with the faults of others? Whoso doeth this is accursed of Me.

 (Baha’u’llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)

There is nothing worse than being at a community meeting that turns into a complaint session. We are to be loving friends to one another, even to the point of giving our LIVES for one another! People also pick & choose which laws to focus on, that other people seem to be breaking. In the Baha’i Faith, backbiting is forbidden. So when someone asks you, as a Baha’i, what is forbidden in the Baha’i Faith? I’d like our first answer to be: Backbiting, talking about other people behind their backs, that’s what is forbidden.

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writing my book

December 5, 2009

On Xmas vacation, I have to work on publishing my book. I can’t tell you how hard it is to go back to working on this thing. I just want it to go away. But, it would be worse to never do it. It is a story that needs to be out there, for the public. And I’m the only one who wrote it. Aint that amazing.

This is one of those times, when I just have to go forward on faith. I don’t know what I’m doing. Writing the dissertation took so much out of me, I truly believe it shortened my life. I can’t even express how hard it is to think of working on it again. But, I am old, and if I don’t get it out, it will be old and dated, and EVENTUALLY, someone else will pick up on this subject! Someone else out there HAS to be aware of all these prison reform groups, and writing about them. I can’t be the only one!

Going forward on faith means, you don’t have to know all the answers. You may not know the end, or all the steps in between. All you have to know, all you have to do, is the next step. But you do have to take that one. And you turn the rest over to God, and set your heart on that. You don’t have to figure it all out. All you have to do is begin. And ABSOLUTELY give the rest to God, and mean it.

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end of semester time

December 2, 2009

It is the end of another semester. This is Wed., the last week of classes. Next week is finals week.

We are so busy during the semester that when the end comes, we are never truly ready. We always have in our minds “the next class”. For example, if we have not covered something, we will bring it up “in the next class”. This week we realize there IS no next class. We are having our final class meetings. Finals week is finals and tallying grades and that’s it.

I see students trying to make it. For some, it is the final hour and the final possibility of passing. For some it is the difference between getting playing time, or sitting on the bench. Now, all of a sudden they are concerned.

Partly, I feel very frustrated with students asking what they can still do to improve their grade. But partly I identify with them because we all do the same thing. We write papers the day before they are due. Professors finalize their conference presentations the night before in a hotel room. I have done it many times myself.

What it boils down to is our lives are too dang busy. So we do what needs to be done to meet the next crisis deadline. Then we look to the next deadline.

So what I do, is I allow students to turn in assignments late, for half the points. It would be better if they did it on time. Someday maybe they will realize doing it ontime means they get ALL the points. But for now, they just get behind, and many of my students are 1st-generation college students. They don’t keep up. For my freshmen and women, they are learning what kind of work goes into getting through college. Hopefully they will improve into their later years in college. If they are doing the work late, at least they are doing it. They don’t deserve the same grade as those who did it on time, but I will give them 1/2 credit, & maybe they will pass the class.

After finals week, I always go into a depression. Then that lifts and I enjoy my time off.

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