Thursday, June 9, 2016
Hi M,
As I woke up at 3 with the sounds of the radio (BBC) until 4, and then it coming on and off again until now, I wondered what raising my hypothetical kids will be like when they're very little and wake up in the middle of the night for long spells, and as an individual (re G.A. M.D.'s Lacanian psychoanalytic psychodynamic view within modernity re families - and re using language, where for Lacan the mind is structured like a language, so use language well to communicate). I'm someone who really values and benefits from, in recent years, 9 hours of sleep at night.
Re the ongoing vision of realizing the Oregon trail, this morning was a media expression of it within the B. family, (which I hope to develop further in a virtual earth with time slider and as I apply for a MIT Media Lab junior faculty position) as I finish indexing my first harbin book. Having come out to Reed in 1979, partly possibly as I think about it now, as a further family expression of realizing the Oregon trail, and wanting to have a family myself, I wonder how best to navigate these waters of family-generation (having kids) with good nights of sleep, and in the context of a healthy subculture (in the information age). Here in terms of culture, I'm thinking of the Bs and Ms, where I live, Cuttyhunk, India, Friends/Quakers, musical subcultures / Harbin, California, the U.S. eastern seaboard, and the culture my wife-to-come/mom-to-be bears (and her proession) with her/elicits/creates around her, and what we can create in these regards too, with writing such as here too, for example.
Need to get more sleep, but may see C and her kids today, drive to Portland, go to a dance performance at Portland State that Carla (former housemate and Reed professor of dance) and fellowship with choreographers are producing.
Challenging family dynamics are interesting to strategize from, through and to learn from (longer term ones too - glad we have a post-Lacanian, post John Moneyian language for this), but it was nice to talk with D.R. yesterday from the front porch of the B's at the ranch and I'm looking forward to seeing them next Wednesday around 9:30 pm. I hope too John Paul is heading over in the afternoon, so I can visit with the Rs.
It was also nice to visit with B friends here, but the dynamic of the ranch is different with Mary gone (whose passing I mourn). And while I was so glad to see T.B. (and bring him to thev anch and back), I miss his not being here. I'm glad never the less, the vision for the Oregon trail carries on with A living here now.
What great family dynamics (and with great careers I'd like to try to contribute to the conversation with my kids successfully about) is it possible to co-contribute too in my upcoming family? Both myself and my wife may benefit from talking/thinking practice about such questions - re online psychoanalysis (? at least methods and techniques for such talking/learning exist which have about a hundred year history) with great theoretical underpinnings (this is more of a challenge re ) given life's realities and family dynamics.
Nice to get your email yesterday which I shared with my cousin A. They're looking forward to your visiting.
I think I liked G's philosophical bent (he was a thinker and smart), and that this can possibly have been lacking along the Oregon trail along with a related thinking culture (India is old and different as are Quakers to some degree), albeit opportunity and beauty too were realized in this adventure and journey.
How are you?
L,
Scott
Scott
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Hi M,
As I was approaching the ranch other night, I realized how affectionate I feel toward my uncle, and as neurophysiology, which has emerged over my decades of visiting them in eastern Oregon mostly since the 1970s and then attending Reed College and visiting T and M in the 1980s.
A and I were talking the other night about cemetery headstones re Dad’s on Cuttyhunk and Ted and M’s planned one in the Pioneers' Cemetery near Wisdom Creek Ranch in eastern Oregon. We were talking about what might go on their head stones for after they pass and I mentioned that Dad’s reads “Non sine lumine” – Latin for “not without light”. … I observed that T and M realized a vision, and A observed something like they lived a dream … so I wondered with Annie about something like “Realized dream of Oregon trail in Wisdom Creek Ranch” ... for their headstone (which isn't quite right but is a relevant idea).
I'm glad to have been able to bring T to the ranch yesterday from GRR. And T's old friend, C J and his fairly new wife, Emily, just road their tandem bicycle from Union to the ranch. Very nice to visit with them over lunch.
A's out doing hay, I'll attend a meeting online in 30 minutes re my "big project," and then probably bring T back into La Grande. Tomorrow A and I will head to Pendleton, where I think I'll get to see D. and F., I'm glad to say, then head on to a Reed reunion. Looking to meet a friend/partner/wife and mom to be ... (and someone like Emily who's 25 years younger could be a good fit - maybe at Reed).
Ted said you're coming out here on June 20th, I was really glad to hear. He seems pretty well all told.
Scott
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Hi M,
Greetings from Lincoln Hall in Portland.
I've already visited Reed, checked in, and got my room.
So nice to see S.B. this morning, and help him get some tools from the ranch to plant some vineyards, and fix a fence, on his next door property. He's an alcoholic says A, but seems pretty well otherwise. I got to be arbitrator in a communication between them, a little scary at first because it happened suddenly. :)
Ted seems quite well all told, to repeat, and I'm so glad I saw him.
Glad too you're coming out to visit soon.
The dance is about to begin :)
L, Scott
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Good morning, M!
Liking the friendliness of Portland, Oregon!
Carla's dance piece (in Summer Splendor http://nwdanceproject.org/show/summer-splendors-2016/ - http://nwdanceproject.org/people/carla-mann/) was really great! too yesterday evening - (and with many women attending this performance ... will I find my MD wife at something similar dance-wise in the SF Bay Area?) There's something however about the ethos of Portland last night that could be special about meeting a friend/partner/wife/mom-to-be.
Good luck preparing for your travels to visit the Bs - so glad you're heading there.
L,
Scott
Scott
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Texted this, among other items, to Reed College friends of mine from the early 1980s now living in many places, during the reunion:
Still a poor Reedie, think I'm gonna purchase "The Gary Snyder Reader" (1999) from the Reed bookstore. Its intro by Jim Dodge begins "As the Secretary of Foolishness in the Gary Snyder Appreciation Society, and as a Reverend in the Reborn Again Taoist Dirt-Pagan Church of the Ravishingly Real, I'm loath to preach to the choir ..." Were we here together at Reed when Gary Snyder gave the keynote at the 100th Anniversary? :)
Connecting with Reedie Gary Snyder's poetry as well as the library and a Reed Calligraphic tradition has been inspiring this reunion.
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