tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post981342331631362249..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Worlds, Green and OtherwiseCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-45835268030413923632012-05-22T10:03:13.107-04:002012-05-22T10:03:13.107-04:00We have many reasons to despair. And yet we have m...<i>We have many reasons to despair. And yet we have moments when communities to which we did not expect to belong coalesce. Acts of unlooked for kindness arrive, and change what is possible. The future can hurt as it comes into being, especially when that future refuses to forget the difficult past.</i><br /><br />I think you've pointed out something I always struggle to articulate, both in this short quotation and through the post itself. Living with the past is also living with one's own past AND the past of others, recognizing how intertwined they are -- not forgetting is also caring, and caring is usually, for better or worse reasons, painful.Mary Kate Hurleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14892991966276345782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-69420821469513754322012-05-21T10:09:28.760-04:002012-05-21T10:09:28.760-04:00The "Unknown" commenter was me.The "Unknown" commenter was me.Caren Calamitahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13942263913670478144noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-66593208627779751632012-05-21T09:25:02.791-04:002012-05-21T09:25:02.791-04:00You've a lot of wisdom and self awareness that...You've a lot of wisdom and self awareness that a lot of parents don't. Alex (and KEC) are lucky to have you for a Dad. You get that that he's not you; it takes many years, sometimes never, for parents to realize that, often to the detriment of both parties. The worry for our offspring will never go away, but it does get easier (so I've been told).<br /><br />I loved this post. Often times you (and your co-writers) write about a topic that is still very new to me, and I feel dumb (due to my own intellectual insecurities). Your ability to weave it all together is stunningly beautiful.Caren Calamitahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13942263913670478144noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-6472760914794195352012-05-20T15:05:42.902-04:002012-05-20T15:05:42.902-04:00And also, since I've been thinking a lot latel...And also, since I've been thinking a lot lately about writing as action, that this post represents writing as a sort of binding, with "binding" meaning everything from "being bound together" [however uncomfortably] to "the ties that bind," happily and unhappily [family] to constraints that limit our vision sometimes to being "stuck" to "being bound" = adventure/going somewhere.Eileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-30279678039468133722012-05-20T14:46:49.592-04:002012-05-20T14:46:49.592-04:00A beautiful post and very timely as I had a rather...A beautiful post and very timely as I had a rather horrendous morning. It will be maudlin to say so, but I feel you gathered together here so many bodies -- real bodies, dead and alive, parent bodies and child bodies, but also the multiple selves we each comprise, our child selves, our adult selves, virtual hoped-for but often not realizable selves, bodies that don't necessarily *want* to be held or pressed together -- and in doing so, you performed a sort of reparation, and I think we need more of that. It's called honesty.Eileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-76089759323121876752012-05-20T13:05:09.020-04:002012-05-20T13:05:09.020-04:00you limn some of my own anxieties in so many areas...you limn some of my own anxieties in so many areas, Jeffrey....my obscure reasons for staying away from the Academy for so long when all I have ever wanted with all my heart is gladly lerne and gladly teche...and the anxieties of how or whether and when the personal and the professional interact...not least the anxieties of a parent, the agony of watching one's child go through agonies that recall one's own...and then, write large, to have such a beautiful day with friends in this alloyed, tarnished world (that last esp. writ large when one is with one's children and shares this corroded, strangely beautiful and violent world as their only real inheritance)...much to say. I regard you as an especially pivotal person to speak, because you are a leader in your field and you use your power only for good.<br /><br />(Watch out for the kryptonite)<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihUIPlLw2ZEAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01066379458312876698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-15974236900064424622012-05-20T11:11:51.711-04:002012-05-20T11:11:51.711-04:00Thank you. A wonderful post giving me much to thin...Thank you. A wonderful post giving me much to think about as I'm coming up to my first year of family life. How much personal is too much is always a difficult question, one I'm increasingly struggling with myself. I often look to you as a model.John Walterhttp://www.jpwalter.com/machinanoreply@blogger.com