On Friendship

For GA and AK, for being here and there at the same time.

Self-proclaimed third culture adult that i am, i ponder often on the issues of loss, identity and direction. But what i miss most on rainy days are my friends. And i am not sure where they are.
I have to ponder these questions often. They take different shapes and forms when i consider them in different contexts, in fluctuating landscapes.

From the displaced person's point of view, friendship has existentialist associations that strive to create a meaningful connection. Who am i without my companions? And where could i be going?

From an educator's point of view, is friendship an item on the agenda of moral education? And should we be talking about moral education? I think we should. I think the reason why teachers have not been replaced by robots, the reason why schools and educational communities still exist is because they are loci of moral education. Perceptions of and insights into the 'other' as well as self-awareness of a self-realizing kind can only arise from a moral education that is enmeshed with understanding of the world and of its predicament.

From an international educator's point of view, moral education is a minefield of diversity, lending itself to relativism, this quagmire of 'subjectivity' and self-absorption. Sometimes i cringe when students say "well, it depends on the individual". As a parental figure, i see the dangers in that statement. As an international educator, i see this statement as a question, a question about our values and our selves as individuals responsible for this life, this world that we inhabit. If i were to preach one value to my students, that would be friendship, with a reference to Cicero's writings that "in friendship there is nothing feigned, nothing pretended, and whatever there is in it is both genuine and spontaneous. Friendship, therefore, springs from nature rather than from need, -- from an inclination of the mind with a certain consciousness of love rather than from calculation of the benefit to be derived from it."

There is hope for each of us as individuals and there is hope for the world if we believe that we are indeed inclined with a certain consciousness of love.

I want to go to school tomorrow and meet my friends, other individuals inclined with a certain consciousness of love. I will share with other individuals inclined with a certain consciousness of love. And i will make sure that although i will be talking about Caryl Churchill's Top Girls i will find an opportunity to tell my students that they are individuals inclined with a certain consciousness of love. And this is moral education with a little help from my friends.

The year in review (in other people's voices)

1. C. P. Cavafy:
Too bad that, cut out as you are
for grand and noble acts,
this unfair fate of yours
never offers encouragement, always denies you success;
that cheap habits get in your way,
pettiness, or indifference.
And how terrible the day you give in
(the day you let go and give in)
and take the road for Susa
and go to King Artaxerxes,
who, well-disposed, gives you a place at his court
and offers you satrapies and things like that—
things you don’t want at all,
though, in despair, you accept them just the same.
You long for something else, ache for other things:
praise from the Demos and the Sophists,
that hard-won, that priceless acclaim—
the Agora, the Theatre, the Crowns of Laurel.
You can’t get any of these from Artaxerxes,
you’ll never find any of these in the satrapy,
and without them, what kind of life will you live?  

2. Liz Stephan:
"You choose what you will let lie in the margins of your consciousness."

3. Ursula K. Le Guin:
"Those who build walls are their own prisoners. I’m going to go fulfill my proper function in the social organism. I’m going to go unbuild walls."

4. Mike Biggs:
"I pretend I am an astronaut and I have landed on a weird planet."

5. Paul Auster:
“In other words: It seems to me that I will always be happy in the place where I am not. Or, more bluntly: Wherever I am not is the place where I am myself. Or else, taking the bull by the horns: Anywhere out of the world.” 

6. Tamsin Kiouzelis:
"Thank you for letting me embark on a journey of self-discovery."

7. Friedrich Nietzsche:
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."  

8. Lucky:
Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard quaquaquaqua outside time without extension who from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell and suffers like the divine Miranda with those who for reasons unknown but time will tell are plunged in torment plunged in fire whose fire flames if that continues and who can doubt it will fire the firmament that is to say blast heaven to hell so blue still and calm so calm with a calm which even though intermittent is better than nothing but not so fast and considering what is more that as a result of the labours left unfinished crowned by the Acacacacademy of Anthropopopometry of Essy-in-Possy of Testew and Cunard it is established beyond all doubt all other doubt than that which clings to the labours of men that as a result of the labours unfinished of Testew and Cunard it is established as hereinafter but not so fast for reasons unknown that as a result of the public works of Puncher and Wattmann it is established beyond all doubt that in view of the labours of Fartov and Belcher left unfinished for reasons unknown of Testew and Cunard left unfinished it is established what many deny that man in Possy of Testew and Cunard that man in Essy that man in short that man in brief in spite of the strides of alimentation and defecation is seen to waste and pine waste and pine and concurrently simultaneously what is more for reasons unknown in spite of the strides of physical culture the practice of sports such as tennis football running cycling swimming flying floating riding gliding conating camogie skating tennis of all kinds dying flying sports of all sorts autumn summer winter winter tennis of all kinds hockey of all sorts penicilline and succedanea in a word I resume and concurrently simultaneously for reasons unknown to shrink and dwindle in spite of the tennis I resume flying gliding golf over nine and eighteen holes tennis of all sorts in a word for reasons unknown in Feckham Peckham Fulham Clapham namely concurrently simultaneously what is more for reasons unknown but time will tell to shrink and dwindle I resume Fulham Clapham in a word the dead loss per caput since the death of Bishop Berkeley being to the tune of one inch four ounce per caput approximately by and large more or less to the nearest decimal good measure round figures stark naked in the stockinged feet in Connemara in a word for reasons unknown no matter what matter the facts are there and considering what is more much more grave that in the light of the labours lost of Steinweg and Peterman it appears what is more much more grave that in the light the light the light of the labours lost of Steinweg and Peterman that in the plains in the mountains by the seas by the rivers running water running fire the air is the same and than the earth namely the air and then the earth in the great cold the great dark the air and the earth abode of stones in the great cold alas alas in the year of their Lord six hundred and something the air the earth the sea the earth abode of stones in the great deeps the great cold an sea on land and in the air I resume for reasons unknown in spite of the tennis the facts are there but time will tell I resume alas alas on on in short in fine on on abode of stones who can doubt it I resume but not so fast I resume the skull to shrink and waste and concurrently simultaneously what is more for reasons unknown in spite of the tennis on on the beard the flames the tears the stones so blue so calm alas alas on on the skull the skull the skull the skull in Connemara in spite of the tennis the labours abandoned left unfinished graver still abode of stones in a word I resume alas alas abandoned unfinished the skull the skull in Connemara in spite of the tennis the skull alas the stones Cunard (mêlée, final vociferations) tennis... the stones... so calm... Cunard... unfinished...

9. Banana Yoshimoto:
“As I grow older, much older, I will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.”

10. Roz Trudgon:
"You put the paper in front of you, you put the criteria next to it, you take a pen in your hand, and this is how you mark."

11. My father:
"Καλύτερα κερατάς παρά κακομοίρης."

12. Noam Chomsky:
“The kind of work that should be the main part of life is the kind of work you would want to do if you weren't being paid for it. It's work that comes out of your own internal needs, interests and concerns.” 

13. Brent Whitted:
"La-la-la..."