I'm playing my classical playlist. Callas is singing. Mmm, La Divina ...

Turn in the one you've got, then. It'll be like an experiment.

Don't second guess, vw. Write what moves you and you think is good and let them respond to it. After all, the class is for YOU , the education is for YOUR use, and the truer you are to your impulses the more you will learn about them. You are in school to challenge and improve yourself, not to please professors you don't even know.

When we censor our honest feelings for fear of rocking boats we're not even sure are there, the terrorists have won.

Thank you for all the support everyone. I think I am going to turn it in. I may turn in a second too (since I'm already working on it), but I really do like it.

Hmph, now I'm rethinking myself. The Miss Manners voice in my head pointed out that a lot of honest feelings should just stay at home where the rest of the world won't have to get them on their shoes. Which is true.

Honest feelings in civil discourse. It's a good thing.

I got stuck next to a Doritos delivery truck on the drive in this morning. It's somewhat disconcerting to have to see tortilla chips that are bigger than your head when you haven't had coffee yet.

I just finished the second poem. It's actually not too bad. I also just e-mailed the teaching assistant of our class and asked his advice. I'll see what he says...

I also just e-mailed the teaching assistant of our class and asked his advice.

Oh sure, go to someone who knows the professor and his expectations.

I don't know if I've said this on the board or not, but I really feel like, going into this semester, that I'm going to make it through. It's the first time I've felt that way since starting at UMass Boston. I really think I can do this. It's an amazing feeling.

vw, this makes me so very happy.

I'm sort of in a middle ground WRT politics. I'm not following things as closely as I was before the election, but I read my favorite political blogs once or twice a week (as opposed to once or twice a day), I still listen to NPR regularly, and I signed the Never Surrender pledge. Which I'm fulfilling by donating a portion of all my freelance proceeds to civil liberties/human rights and environmental groups.

But I decided not to do something I seriously considered just after the election, namely start a blog on being a lefty Christian and on what it's like to be blue but to come from red roots and therefore understand the other side's language and values. I discovered that quite a few other people had the same idea, and decided it's not my assignment. I believe I'm meant to write books and to tell the truth as I see it through that medium. Of course my books aren't going to be political speeches or religious sermons, but I think what I believe about life, love, integrity, human worth, and honor will come through anyway, and maybe be better and more effective than if I'd tried to preach a sermon. Because that's not my job, and this is.

And if all goes well, on 1/20/09, I'll be watching a new president get sworn in with a book contract in hand, or maybe even an actual book of my own. That's what I'm trying to do with the next four years--to take scripture wildly out of context, I'm redeeming the time, because the days are evil.