In the Morning When I Rise

Here I find myself. Right now!  But am I really?  I think that I am very much a futurist. When I consider myself, and where my head is when it is in the clouds, I am often thinking about some future proposition. Fantasizing. And while this feature of myself has its charms, and even its benefits in creative thinking, it is also something to transcend . The framework of the enneagram, a lens through which I see myself, assumes that every individual has maladaptive traits that disable the individual to the heightened experience that he or she is capable of, perhaps even destined for. These traits need to be seen, and that individual should evolve to transform weakness into strength. I am not entirely sure the prescription for this process, but the idea I very much like.  As I was riding my bike yesterday, I rode past a patch of mixed grass life near railroad tracks. I considered how easy it is for plant life to flourish, comparing that with how difficult it is for people to ...

When I moved to Memphis I wanted so badly to fit in. I was excited about being in a new context, about landing in a place where, at last!, I would be meaningfully working to make a difference in the lives of people that really needed someone like me. But it was a myth of a story I was telling myself that just wasn't true. But perhaps I shouldn't be so harsh; really, it was a story that was still immature.  I'm listening now to the audiobook Pedagogy of the Oppressed . It's strongly resonating with me. I am seeing more clearly why I feel like I don't fit here in Memphis. There are lots of reasons. I'm not from here, and Memphians tend to want local solutions... and I can dig that. It's a stretch to trust an outsider solution (though, for sure, one that should be made sometimes). Somehow I don't match up to what an administrator should be. I'm not good with laws and policy, I'm much more inclined by the spirit of a thing, good practice. I'm in...