The Dog Days of Summer, Rajasthan Style

Most days our excellent adventure gets high review from both partipants. [Yes, I'm aware of the reference to the stoner movie by the same name.] Some days, however, I

agree with Christ O'Byrne, a French journalist living in a small nowhere destination in Morocco:  “There are days when I would kill for a bookstore or museum.” Very aptly put.  Lately, we’ve been spending most of our time inside, because it’s just not safe out there during the day given the extreme temperatures.  When we do venture out, we find very sparsely populated roads and/or shops.  These days, this city of 6 million looks more like an Islamic state during Ramadan than the tourist haven it’s so famous for.  I’m busy writing an end-of-the-year report (which I thought I would be getting away from after my last job, sad face), and writing an article for a journal, so sitting at my computer for hours on end, interspersed with some interpretive dancing with my partner to some loud music, is ok.  However, there ARE days when I would kill for a museum or a decent bookstore with a place to sit and chill out, literally and figuratively.

That feeling, which is sometimes shared by my partner in crime, has led to discussions of where we want to be a year from now, and what our new Indian destination of Trivandrum will have to offer us when I’m not working, which I promise I am, even though my blogs make it sound like I’m on a very long vacation sometimes.  We’re hopeful that Kerala will live up to its reputation as a cultural hub, with lots of classical dance and music performances, as well as one of the greenest places on Earth, and thus packed with great nature destinations.  

We’re also eyeing out Mexico for a year from now, and looking very carefully at some of the finalists’ climate (Puebla is the clear front runner at this early date) and ease of people visiting (again Puebla), and museums (Puebla, big time, because we aren’t considering moving to the capital, which would win in the fantastic museum category).  The only thing that remains for us to sign up for Puebla is….a job or two.  We’re working on that, so keep your fingers crossed and google the wonderful city of Puebla, the culinary capital of Mexico high in the mountains with a very temperate climate and a very cultured population.  Vámanos!

BTW, in case you ever get to a desert and need to cool off, check out this photo below of recent purchase of a desert cooler, named Ken Starr to anyone who remembers the special prosecutor for the Clinton wrongdoings. Anyway, you put water in it, turn it on, and it sprays somewhat cooled air right at you.  The water evaporates so quickly into the dry desert air you don't get wet, but it does bring some relief.  S likes to read inside until about 6 p.m. then take it outside near our picnic table, plug it in, and resume his knowledge quest. It gets him out of the room for a while. Sometimes I join him, but I've also been known to return to my roots by sitting squarely in front of the fan, opening my mouth and singing "AHHHH", and let the wind blow back my sweaty hair. [see picture for graphic if you had a deprived childhood.] Fun and cooling all in one. 

It's what most people use here most of the time instead of AC, for the obvious financial restriction.  They are far tougher than I, obvi, but I hope some of them are getting in some good vocalizing as well.

.

Ken Starr, our Desert Cooler

Everyone sing: "AAAAAAHHHH"

Mother’s Day: LEAN IN: Women, Work and the Will to Lead

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, so I missed writing about what I wanted to for Mother’s Day, which is a book review of Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.   There’s been a lot written about the book, [To read the latest, see a well-thought-out review of a review at Huffington Post about the NY Review of Books review.]

Sides have been taken on the book, the omissions, the author, and

occasionally the content, so here are MY comments on an already intensely talked-about book.

First, if you haven’t read it, you should.  Gender doesn’t matter, read it.  If you want to be a good male-partner, read it.  If you are a woman, read it.  PERIOD.  Why?  You don’t have to agree with her choices, you don’t have to agree with what she writes but women should be aware of the sad statistics regarding too few female leaders.  She is extremely candid in setting out caveats all along the way saying she’s not pretending to have all the answers.  She does, however, have an incredible story of career success, and there are not enough books for aspiring women to read on this subject.  She does give some good advice for everyone, like “Don’t leave before you Leave”, in the context of women who refuse or don’t seek promotions because they are planning to start a family sometime. [BTW, I still have a hard time understanding why women don’t like the term feminist, so for anyone of my gender who doesn’t like that label, look at the definition and rethink the error of your ways.]

It IS a motivational, inspirational story, and that’s perfectly acceptable to me.  Can’t have enough of those, either. She also gives several anecdotes of sexism she’s encountered in her jobs, and that’s valuable reading as well as distressing to see someone very high in her career still treated as sub-equal.  For me, the most interesting aspect of the book was her frank recounting of how very human she is, flaws and all.  She struggles with many of same problems that us normal folk do (What do I say to a jerk who’s being a chauvinist, I do NOT want to cry in front of this mean person, Why does that mean person get to me, How do I fit all this in and not go crazy?, etc.) She just struggles with a lot more money to throw at the problems. I liked her caution to women that the most important career decision they may make is picking their partner in life, because that will have far reaching ramifications.  Seems like good advice.

So, if you haven’t read it, go get a copy so you can be part of the conversation.  I would have bought it for my daughters, but one told ME about it, and thoroughly enjoyed the contents, and one has an unread copy, but regards it with some skepticism.  Skeptical daughter points to the Atlantic article by Professor Ann-Marie Slaughter, who wrote an article while taking a break from her Princeton appointment and her State Dept. position to tell women SHE was getting off the merry-go-round because had to choose between her career and her family and her family won.  Oversimplification, so read the article titled Why Women Still Can’tHave it All.

One take away quote from the article that I think creates common ground for both Sandberg and Slaughter:
"Only when women wield power in sufficient numbers will we create a society that genuinely works for all women. That will be a society that works for everyone." Indeed. However, the issue of women leadership and the difficulty of sustaining it seems a catch-22:  Positive change will come about if half of the decision makers are women, but for that to happen, women have to sacrifice things they shouldn't to get in those seats of power.

I think Slaughter makes excellent points, but how could she quit a job when Hillary Rodham Clinton, a.k.a. my hero, was her boss? [run, Hillary, run!]  The one thing I would fault Sandberg for is she never addresses the emotional pull of family, especially cute wee ones. I don’t think it’s wise not to tell women it’s a game changer emotionally when you give birth and have the living human being looking at you with big peeper for its every need, but perhaps they need to experience that first hand. Then if women have different responses they should absolutely do whatever they want and can do.

I admire both women for sticking their necks out and writing their truth for others to reflect on.  It’s not easy to do that, especially for women with careers, to voice an opinion on how exactly that works, or doesn’t work, for them. There are a lot of haters out there just waiting for someone to show the courage of their convictions. So, Happy Mother’s Day to them both. Well done, women, keep up the good work, and plug your ears at your detractors.

Postscript to this discussion:  I'm surprised that extended families and other countries' answers to these questions aren't talked about much when Americans are considering how to improve the lot for women who want to lead. One can look at China, where grandparents retire upon the birth of their grandparents to take on the accepted role of caregiver so the younger family can remain in the workforce, or India, where the joint family is the norm, to see there are some options around the globe we should be considering.  Are BabyBoomers so self-obsessed that it doesn't occur to anyone they could help fulfill the role of young-child caregiver to their own children?  Or, is it that BabyBoomer Grandparents are still in their jobs, unlike many of their predecessors? Or, could it be that no one has asked them?  I think it's worth finding out if they might like to apply for that job, and ask Americans to be a little less disjunct from their extended families and give up some of that famous American independence.  Seem fatuous?  It probably is, but it's worth trying some new solutions at this point, I believe.

And to my children on Mother’s Day, thanks for keeping out of jail and being the hardest, most joy-filled thing I’ve done with my life.  I accept your tribute.

BTW, S and I have watched 3 movies lately that get the smelly-sock award we'd like to warn you about:  Anna Karenina (although it has provided us with some goofy new dance moves we enjoy), The Master (good actors in a mess of a movie about dysfunction, as if we don’t see enough of that already), and Cosmopolis: again 2 good actors drew me in, but it was whack, and we quit after 15 minutes, max.  Steer clear of these lemons.

Backyard Birds

Common Hoopoo; my fav!

Peacock getting a drink

Peacock resting his tail

Mynah bird

Pond Heron at the pond, where he belongs.

Writing curriculum from home this week.  This is what I saw out my window.  Except the peacock with the tail hanging over.  We had to walk a block for that one!

April WAS Poetry Month

I missed getting this blog posted because I was on the road a lot of April, facilitating various workshops, three of which included ways to engage college students with linguistically challenging poems.  I discovered several new poems that resonated with me, and which I share below.  Emily Dickinson seemed to be speaking directly to me with her admonition of bluntness in "Tell All the Truth", I was moved by Rabinath Tagore's noble call to his country to live free (during the "Quit India" movement in mid 40s) in "Where the Mind is Without Fear", I again marveled at the genius that is Shakespeare, to me the Beethoven of poetry
, and enjoyed the discovery of an elegant poem by Pablo Neruda, which I'm going to try to keep in mind the next time I'm assailed by the onslaught of noise and chaos that is Jaipur traffic in hopes it will take me to a quieter place.

In case you're interested, there is a terrific website that has audio files of many well-known actors and poets reciting poetry.  It's a great way to pass time if your aging peepers give out on you in the evenings as mine sometimes do.  The link is: POETRY OUT LOUD.

Finally, if anyone reads to the end of the poetry, you will find some first lines of famous poetry.  See how many you can identify, or better yet, check out the poems.  The Indian curriculum is way too top heavy on British poets, but they were the colonizers, after all.  I did my best to promote Frost, Sandburg, Whitman, Dickinson, and the likes, however.  Do you have a favorite poem or poet?  Send it in a comment, I'd love to read it.

Also, just before the new poems, here's a poem by my favorite Iowa poet, Iowa Citian Marvin Bell.  He's such a sweet looking man, I always think of his face when I hear these in my mind. I love this poem with its vivid sensorial images that take me immediately to the pines in our backyard we could reach out and touch from the sleeping porch.  I'm glad poetry has a month; otherwise, I might forget how pleasing it can be.

Around Us

  by Marvin Bell We need some pines to assuage the darkness
when it blankets the mind,
we need a silvery stream that banks as smoothly
as a plane's wing, and a worn bed of
needles to pad the rumble that fills the mind,
and a blur or two of a wild thing
that sees and is not seen. We need these things
between appointments, after work,
and, if we keep them, then someone someday,
lying down after a walk
and supper, with the fire hole wet down,
the whole night sky set at a particular
time, without numbers or hours, will cause
a little sound of thanks--a zipper or a snap--
to close round the moment and the thought
of whatever good we did.
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16765#sthash.ysWRQB6P.dpuf

Tell All The Truth

Tell all the truth but tell it slant,


Success in circuit lies,


Too bright for our infirm delight


The truth's superb surprise; 



As lightning to the children eased


With explanation kind,


The truth must dazzle gradually


Or every man be blind.

Emily Dickinson

Where The Mind Is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high 


Where knowledge is free 


Where the world has not been broken up into fragments 


By narrow domestic walls 


Where words come out from the depth of truth 


Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection 


Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit 


Where the mind is led forward by thee 


Into ever-widening thought and action 


Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

Rabindranath Tagore

Keeping Quiet

by Pablo Neruda

Now we will count to twelve

and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,


let's not speak in any language;


let's stop for one second,


and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment


without rush, without engines;


we would all be together


in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea


would not harm whales

and the man gathering salt


would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,


wars with gas, wars with fire,


victories with no survivors,


would put on clean clothes

and walk about with their brothers

in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused


with total inactivity.


Life is what it is about;


I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded


about keeping our lives moving,


and for once could do nothing,


perhaps a huge silence


might interrupt this sadness


of never understanding ourselves


and of threatening ourselves with death.


Perhaps the earth can teach us


as when everything seems dead


and later proves to be alive.

Now I'll count up to twelve

and you keep quiet and I will go.

A CONTEST!  

“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright”
“She walks in beauty, like the night”
“Let us go then, you and I,”
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,”
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?’” “Death be not proud, though some have called thee”
“I met a traveller from an antique land”
“Because I could not stop for Death,”
“Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness”