serendipityoucity

On my way into school, i ran into Terry a lovely man who speaks with the soul and groundedness of a craftsman.  I don’t often get to hear this voice these days as i mostly spend time with engineers and academics, and it was really refreshing. The Lauriault men in my family were hunters, outdoorsman and woodworkers and i grew up with the smell of wood, the sound of tools, sawdust and a shop in the yard, so it is nice to get a reminder of this heritage from time to time. Today my brother Denis and brother in law Arturo continue the woodworking tradition and talking with Terry brought me home somehow. Terry and I discussed numerous topics that seamlessly wove into each other, in particular, Maori woodworking tradition, manliness, Buddhism, sport and places in society permissive of aggressive play and providing outlets for it.  Things i ponder from time to time and was really glad to have shared those few moments outside the ID shop with him.

I went to library to seek some fine holiday reading.  I managed to do some weight training with a tall pile of books on ethnicity, identity, race, roots, nationalism, boundaries, territories and communities in cyberspace.  Mostly fine cultural theory and a nice selection at that.  As i was going through indexes, TOCs and marking chapters to photocopy, i overheard a marvelous conversation about pornography and the sex industry in Eastern Europe, gypsies, religion and history.  Well, needless to say i had to join in and met two wonderful professors in their early sixties of art and religion.  We discussed media, pederasty, Afghanistanis in tents in the mountains with only boyz, the homoerotic behaviour i observed between men in northern India, the red light district in Amsterdam, pornographic metadata, how the shoes of Greek prostitute women had follow me inscribed on them, an analytical study of Greek vases given as gifts to lovers that were predominantly painted with images of spanking, erotica and pornography, and if one is engaged in this industry it can eat at your soul, exemplified in a friend of hers who was a pornographic film maker who eventually became an orthodox monk!  Turns out one of the professors speaks to art and representation in cartography! Small world, and looks like i might be able to work with her on my favorite topic of the politics, history and culture of hair removal!

From there i went to visit my academic advisor who is ever so patient.  We had a great talk about questions of defining what a community is within a nation state,  does the model of a state as we know them to be now the only model, and whether or not we as humans will ever be able to transcend ethnic, cultural, linguistic territorialization and if not does it mean that we continue to perpetuate inclusion and exclusionary zones! We also discussed what the boundaries of development are, and in fact, some places, India for example, while infrastructurally a mess to say the least, is in many respects existentially on a spiritual level way ahead. Hmmm! Does that mean the notions we have of the physical word of meeting material need to be just a transitionary phase that is so very short term in of the metaphysical time line?

On my way to the lab i ran into karen, whom i worked with eeeeons ago on East Timor in Ottawa.  Karen is 55 and back at school studying human rights and law.  dang! This woman was one of the top equity reps for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) for years and is a shrewd arbitrator.  She explained the importance of discussing issues in very basic, real and tangible ways, only the fundamentals she said will educate all of the people at the table and eventually bring them to a point where they cannot but change their views.  She hopes to do this kind of work with NPO groups in Canada, and we need her fast!  We also discussed the differences between ideologically believing the issues and actually being able to live by them, implement them on a day to day level and how hard it is for people to risk calling something that relates to class, race, homophobia etc. We also talked about our organizing experiences, where we were at psychologically at the time, our observations of the intensity of the relationships we developed as a group at that time and where we are going.  She is soo great and i can’t wait to see what she does when she grows up.  Was also fun to discuss her stepdaughters who are now 30!  Eek! When i knew them they were teenagers!

Then I went to judo and came home with a fat lip and sore upper rib cage as a 250Lbs man felt it necessary to assert his dominance! Shesh! You’d think he could relax and play a little with that incredible advantage! Was sorta like wrestling with a friggin’ grizzly bear fearful of loosing his life!

Overall a really great day, one that made me happy about what i am doing in a place where i am just really starting to get my feet wet!