2000-04-25
Yesterday the Mighty One emailed me to say that my last entry had helped her remember the source of a beer commercial she's been seeing recently. A beer commerical? Oh, Jesus. You know I watch TV, but I'm clearly not watching the same shows Kymm is for I've managed to miss this one. As I wrote to her, first Nick Drake, now Woody Allen.
I am trying hard to curb my curmudgeon tendencies, to not be unduly negative, but it's really an uphill battle. Is it my age or it is these times? The world seems to be sliding down the tubes fast and no doubt I'm going along with it.
My attention span is shrinking before my eyes.
Do I fight this or embrace it? Or just observe it, Zen-like?
Today I looked in the want ads, the section called "Educators." Got the addresses of a couple of private schools and the most progressive and well-off public school district in these parts. I think about informational interviews. Will I write?
A few weeks ago B and I were in DC for a family get-together. One of my father's distant cousins was there; I asked after her daughter, a year or two my senior. Growing up I had a kind of awe and disdain for this girl and her genuine enthusiasm for classical music, classic literature, and, above all, ballet. She was gawky and pale, with adult tastes and a massive vocabulary; I was always precocious myself, but beside her I felt like a light-hearted kid.
Over the years, I've run into her parents and heard about her progress. PhD from one Ivy League institution, tenure-tack position at another.
"How's Joan?" I asked her mother. "Still teaching?"
"She's up for tenure this year and doesn't think she'll get it. She wants to get into computers, make some money for a change."
I can only shake my head, dazed.
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