2. 26. 2002 is now the present, and "I is another."
Wellesley
College
too is other from the one of the
past page.
We now have a Cinema and Media Studies
major, CAMS,
and my
gratitude goes to all those who supported this "millennial" move (it was
approved in
the Spring of 2000).
To
all those who resisted it, instead, goes my love, as
in "love thy enemy.
My feelings and ideas about academic writing have not changed, I am afraid. But some interesting experiments are afoot with the great CAMSters, (CAMS students, or, CAMS sisters), and....
In
fact, my feelings about being an academic have evolved from sheer guilt at being
a word manipulator and a book worm, to a creative, acceptance and positive transformation.
I
would like to launch. quietly, the idea of an Academics Anonymous, a fellowship
program where we can work on the nasty sides of our habit. Of course, twelve
shall be the steps. I am working on the first step: "We admitted we were powerless
over academia- that our lives had become unmanageable."
I
shall update this page as soon as the CAMS
web page (presently a "hard hat area") is up. For the time being, let me
share with you who ventured on my page, you web traveler or net explorer, my
most recent discovery.
On June 2001, instead of doing an odyssey in space, I walked, together with my beloved and loving life companion, the Camino de Santiago, about 500 miles through Spain. On route we met many, many pelegrinos (pilgrims) from all over the world. The overwhelming majority of us was incapable of articulating religious meaning with our strenuous walk. But we were all confident that the type of life you're forced to live, while a pilgrim, would not fail to leave small seeds with a future.
Thus,
in an age where not only traveling, but also education, are reduced to mere
instances of intellectual tourism,
in an academia that is increasingly bent on quantitative reasoning and career
opportunities, I have no hesitation in suggesting that education, teaching and
learning ought to be regarded as pilgrimages. Humility, soul, and happy feet.
In a pilgrimage, you have to simplify your needs, reducing them to the truly
essential. Practical reason (why walk when you could take the car?) is properly
downsized in the awesome face of a mysterious yet sacred goal. And that is how
I will try to structure all the courses I'll have the joy to teach in CAMS:
no tourists please, just pilgrims.
Website Design: Donna Yee, '11
Maintainer: Sergio Parussa
Created: May 5, 2008
Last Modified: May 7, 2008
Expires: May 7, 2011