January 12: More Snow, More Wilder, More Mythology

Not quite this bad

It's been storming all day long.  Each team I've walked by a window, it was like a scene from the movie Alive, less the plane crash, soccer team, and cannibalism.  However, I just spoke with my wife on the phone, and it isn't snowing in the town where I live, about 20 miles away.  All I can say is, "Hallelujah!"

Today at work has just been more of the same:  catch up from vacation.  I'm happy to say that I have now almost caught up in one area of my job.  Now I just have to tackle the other areas where I'm still two weeks behind.

I know you're probably wondering, "What happened to The Wilder Life?  Why hasn't he posted about it recently?"  Well, the fact is, when I got back to work, I sort of stalled in my reading.  I have every intention of finishing it up in the next day or so.  I will give you my opinion about the entire book when I have completed it.

Tonight, I have to work on my syllabus for my mythology classes since the winter semester starts on Monday.  I'm streamlining the entire course.  Cutting out response papers and reading journals.  Increasing the pointage for the mid-term and final.  Putting more emphasis on classroom discussion and quizzes.  It's a whole different class, baby.

Saint Marty is kickin' mythological butt and takin' names.

January 12: Snow, Another Car Appointment, Drop of Water

Snow.  We have snow this morning.  When I went to bed last night, I was expecting to wake up to a full-blown blizzard.  The weather reports were predicting over a foot of thick rain.  I woke to a couple of inches on the ground, and the wind was non-existent.  I was shocked.  Instead of a white-knuckle drive to work, I had a mildly slower drive than usual down the highway.  Not too bad.

I drove my wife's Subaru to work this morning.  I dropped it off at the garage for an oil change.  We'll see what catastrophic repair the mechanic says we need this time.  Each time I've dropped off one of our cars for an oil change in the last year, the mechanic has called to tell me of some major problem with the vehicle.  I'm not buying what the garage is selling any more.  I'm a big believer in second opinions now.

This early a.m., I opened my copy of A Christmas Carol randomly to this famous speech from Jacob Marley:



Preach, Jacob

 "Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again.  "Mankind was my business.  The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolance, were, all, my business.  The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

The reason this passage spoke to me was because I was listening to my local public radio station.  It was a news report about the contenders for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.  If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you already know I like Republicans about as much as I like ingrown hairs on my ass.  However, this news report irritated me more than usual.

Coming off the New Hampshire Republican primary, with Mitt Romney pretty much stomping his competition, blood is in the political air.  All the Republicans are going into a feeding frenzy on each other.  Usually, I wouldn't have a problem with Republicans tearing each other apart.  I actually enjoy it.  But these guys, instead of focusing on unemployment, hunger, poverty, foreclosure, bankruptcy--you know, all the things that normal people are worried about--are talking about each other's shady business dealings.  They're talking about what a shitty job President Obama has done.  They're talking about the "drop of water" instead of the real business of humankind.

What a different country we would live in if the people in charge made "mankind" their business.  What a different world we would live in if everybody made charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence our business.  Jacob Marley had it right.  Charles Dickens had it right.

Saint Marty wishes all human beings (and Republicans, which is a stretch) would get it right, too.

January 11: Truman Capote, Paperwork, In My Element

Come on!  I can do better than Truman!

I had a coworker today tell me that I look like Truman Capote in my new glasses.  I was a little offended.  I replied, "I was going for George Clooney."  I'm wearing Ralph Lauren frames, for God's sake.  At the very least, I should be able to summon up a senior-citizen-age Cary Grant.

I spent most of the day, again, catching up on paperwork.  I'm almost done with one project, and then I have about 300 other projects to take its place.  With my job in the medical office, there is always some sort of project to complete, especially now, when I'm a business staff of one.

Later in the afternoon, another one of my coworkers commented on my computer bag for my laptop and George (my iPad).  "Oooh, look at the big-time professor," my coworker said. 

My bag is from the university and has the words "ADJUNCT FACULTY" embossed on it.  I told my coworker, "You know, when I'm on campus, I really feel like I'm in my element, like I'm in the right body for a change."

"I can tell," she said.  "You have a huge smile on your face."

And I was grinning like an idiot.  Unconsciously.  My whole body was relaxed for probably the first time in the day.  It was a really good feeling.

Of course, I quickly dived right back into my paperwork, and my shoulders became tighter than Ryan Gosling's abs.  However, for a few brief, shining moments, I had a vision:

Saint Marty, in his Ralph Lauren glasses, walking across campus, carrying a computer embossed with the words, "PROFESSOR SAINT MARTY."

January 11: Another BON Post, Begging, Ignorance and Want

Yes, this post is going to be about one of my favorite subjects:  the Blog of Note (BON).  The reason I'm writing about this subject yet again is that I just checked out yesterday's BON.  It's some guy talking about customer service and running a marathon or something.  I didn't really give it much of a perusal because I couldn't get past the fact that the author has only posted once in 2012 so far, and he only wrote like 24 or 26 posts total in 2011!

Now, either his content is so spectacular that he deserves to be the first person to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for writing a blog (which won't happen since that honor will be mine), or the good people at Blogger were really hard up yesterday.  I'm leaning toward the latter.  Either that, or the author of the blog has some incriminating pictures of an employee at Blogger that he was threatening to post.  (Yes, I've thought of every angle when it comes to being named a BON.)

My disciples know I'm not above begging and whining.  That's how I got my iPad 2, George, after many long years on my hands and knees.  I'm also not above animal sacrifice or prayerful extortion to get what I want.  So this plea/threat is my first of 2012 to the good people of Blogger:  name Saint Marty a BON or I will write an X-rated sonnet featuring several Blogger staff members and a herd of sheep.

I'm glad I got that out of my system.

I turned on my Christmas radio station this morning and found out that it's no longer a Christmas radio station.  It was playing "Burning Down the House" or some other song equally un-Yuletidish.  Therefore, my job of keeping the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future alive all year long has become decidedly more difficult.  I'm on my own.

I'm reminded of that little scene at the end of Stave Three of A Christmas Carol where the Ghost of Christmas Present reveals the boy and girl living under his cloak:

Don't look away

"They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them.  "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers.  This boy is Ignorance.  This girl is Want.  Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.  Deny it!" cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city.  "Slander those who tell it ye!  Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse!  And bide the end!"

It's a grim little scene.  Dickens paints a portrait of the future of England, where poverty and ignorance prevail, where children are left to grow up, uneducated and hungry, by the wealthier members of society.  Hmmmmm.  Sounds a little familiar to me.  Christmas disappears, and we all go back to our insular lives, worrying about apps for our iPads and iPhones, wondering how we can win meaningless awards like BON or the Pulitzer Prize.  Yes, I include myself in this indictment.  Here I am, a few weeks away from Christmas, and I'm back to my old gripes, grinding the same axes.

I need to keep Ignorance and Want in my head.  They really are my kids.  They're your kids, too.  For Ignorance and Want, Christmas is a hot bowl of oatmeal in the morning.  A classroom with a dedicated teacher.  A home with heat.  A warm winter jacket.  Christmas should be all year 'round.

In the Spirit of Christmas, should Saint Marty be awarded Blog of Note, he promises to donate all proceeds to his local food pantry.