A Very Berry Remake

 

Previously: having lost my second teaching job, having met little success as a circulation manager and radio ad salesman/ad writer, I had the epiphany that I would not be able to earn money from my creative abilities and that I would return to college to improve a more business-oriented background.

The time is circa 1982.  One of the closest colleges to Cartersville was Berry College near Rome, Georgia. It had an excellent reputation and a gorgeous campus on 27,000 acres, making it the largest school in the United States (by land area, not by the number of students). In addition, it had an extensive student work program, which I would need.

There was a program you could take that combined business, math, and computer science courses. I forget what they called it - business systems analyst? Sad that I've forgotten, but I have.

I don't remember much about the computer science courses. COBOL? Is that a computer language? Stuff like that.  

Math was a challenge. I had taken no math at the University of Michigan. I was not a great math student in high school. Nevertheless, I was going to give it my best shot.  

I started with College Algebra. I had never worked so hard in a class in my whole life. Even though I only got a B, it was the grade I was most proud of in my academic career.

The next class was Precalculus. But I had limited time, and my algebra grade gave me the big head, so I decided to skip Calculus.

I got my posterior handed to me. I should have quit the class, but I was stubborn. By the time of the final, I was utterly lost. Instead of solving the exam problems, I wrote a dissertation on how calculus was actually magic. I got my only academic fail.  

Business classes, however, went swimmingly. Economics, business writing, business statistics, marketing, business theory - all went well. But the course where I barely had to think and still shined was ... accounting. I don't know why it came so easily to me, but it did.

The final exam in one of the accounting classes was to do a business tax return from start to finish. After it was graded, the professor told me I was the first student to do the return absolutely perfectly.

My student job was at the library. I managed a system that lent and received books across the nation's entire library system. This was done via computer, and once again, I have forgotten the system's name. I loved it. Searching the library for requested books, mailing them, and receiving and processing requests that our students made, I could have been very happy with doing that, and other library work for a living. But, alas, Berry had no Library Science program.

The academic walls were closing in. If I was going to get any value from my academic sojourn, I would have to go in one direction... accounting. Not because I loved it, but because it was easy for me and the quickest way I could make a decent living for myself and my family.

Ultimately, my two years at Berry did not result in an additional degree. They only had Bachelor's degrees, and I would have to go a while longer, taking physical education courses and other strange things to get that second Bachelor's. The result is I have over six years of college and only a Bachelor's degree in Education to show for it.

Nevertheless, I had the equivalent of a business and accounting major, and by the spring of '84, I was ready to go out and make my mark in the accounting world.

And that's when losing my work soul really began.

Theatrical Wednesday Wanderings

For some, hobbies seem to come and go. They have a passion, and it flairs strongly for a while, only to be eventually replaced by something else. Alison's hobbies have varied through the years - antiquing, scrapbooking, jewelry making, and now crochet.

There's nothing wrong with that. There's a lot to be said for experiencing a variety of interests throughout your life.

For others, like myself, hobbies remain relatively consistent. Comic books, reading, writing, an interest in politics - all have been with me since I was very young, continuing even to the present.

One of those foundational hobbies has been theatre. I have been performing in plays all my life, from being Hansel in Hansel & Gretel in second grade at 7 to the present at 67 in Harvey.

Harvey was the first play I performed on a stage (as opposed to the classroom or cafetorium). I was a High School Freshman. I had tried out for the JV Football team and found the initial practices chock full of cross country running. I didn't mind sprints (my best position was halfback), but I found running for long periods exhausting and tedious.

There was a poster for play tryouts, and I thought, what the hay, let's give it a whirl. There has to be less running; besides, everybody knows, chicks dig actors!*

To my surprise, I got a part! I was cast as a very elderly Judge in the comedy Harvey, about a man whose best friend is an invisible six-and-a-half-foot tall rabbit. I hammed it up and became completely addicted to the theatre when I heard the swell of applause as I came out for curtain call.

And now, 53 years later, I am reprising the role of Judge Gaffney in WACT's upcoming production of Harvey. The major differences between my performances? A lot less makeup. and I don't have to work so hard at pretending to be old.

This season represents WACT's 50th season, an incredible milestone for any community theatre. They have been producing quality plays for a half-century!

I am proud to have been a part of HALF of those fifty years, my first production with them in 1997, playing Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. There are a couple others who, if they perform in any show this season, can say they've been performing longer than I have, but we are a fairly exclusive club.

Some have shined brightly for a while and then moved on to other things. But some of us've been bitten by the acting bug and just can't let it go.

So, yeah. As long as there are parts I'm qualified for  (plays where the oldest characters are in their thirties or younger, seem out of reach for me), as long as I have enough brain wattage to memorize lines, I'll be performing.

So, with luck and good fortune, WACT, here's to looking forward to performing in your 75th season!

Salute!

* yes, I was actually that stupid that I believed that student theatre acting would lead me to be more popular with girls than playing football.

Army of the Unwoke! Saturday Political Soap Box 287

 Sometimes parents use control words designed to steer you to the choice they want you to make. For me, the one I remember the most was mature. If I made the choice they wanted me to make, that was mature. If I made the choice, they didn't want me to make, that was immature. It was used to end discussions because the last thing we wanted was to be declared not mature.

Conservatives love to do this. For decades, they will find a word that they believe will end all arguments and make everyone genuflect on their choices. They love turning words into weapons.

Judt tracing through my own time, initially in the fifties and early sixties, the most often used word by Republicans was communist. Take any idea designed to help support the middle class and/or the poor and call it communist. Well, we didn't want to go there, did we? End of discussion!

Social security? Communist! Medicare? Communist! Medicaid? Super duper communist! Also - civil rights, open housing, food stamps, women's reproductive rights - on and on!

When one word would lose its sting, another would come to take its place.

Socialism.

Liberal.

Change Democratic Party to DEMOCRAT Party - emphasis on the RAT.

Politically Correct.

Social Justice Warrior.

Libtard.

And now, the latest word twisted to become a negative pejorative -

WOKE.

A word designed to simply state that a person acknowledges our past history and prejudices, that they've read and experienced and are aware of our country's flaws and discrimination, and they want to respect everybody and want to do better.

But no! People who are open and awakened to our authentic history are monsters to be condemned! And now, the unwoke side of our politics wants to condemn anybody whose eyes are open.

Now, if you want to win an argument, just call something woke. Apparently, we're just supposed to melt into a puddle.

There are many places in the country where the unwoke army rages. But nowhere is it worse than in Florida. Their Christofacsist* Governor has made leading the army of the unwoke his principal rallying cry. History is revised so white people won't be challenged or offended. The LGBTQ+ community is ostracized and vilified. Any state official who won't aggressively pursue perceived violators of abortion procedures is subject to being fired.

It's so bad in Florida that many donated books are withheld from school libraries, including a large number of donated dictionaries (given yearly by the highly radical and woke ROTARY CLUB), for fear they won't pass the Governor's standards.

This is madness. Access to books in school and public libraries may totally collapse.

Am I aware that some can take woke too far? Sure. I have no respect for those who try to exclude speakers from colleges, create artificial safe spaces that can be as exclusionary as what DeSantis is doing, or try to remove books from the library that violate their own perspective.

But they are a minority and perversion of what it means to be woke.

We need to know our true history. Only then can we change it for the better. It does no good to hide our heads in the sand.

*do I realize that Christofascist can be thought of as a control word by the other side? Yep. And I don't care.

A Party in the Grips of Madness

 

In the realm of policymaking, I have virtually nothing in common with Congressperson Liz Cheney. She votes on the opposite side of almost any bill that I support. And her father was primarily responsible for the disastrous foreign policy decisions of the 2000s, including being the chief architect of manipulating us into a war with Iraq,

Ideally, I would love to see her defeated by a bold progressive daring to run in deep red Wyoming. I also like unicorns and trips to Mars.

There is one thing that Liz Cheney and I have in common. We both advocate for a democratic republic and oppose authoritarian fascism.  

Last night, she lost her primary to a Trump sycophant by a depressingly large margin. 

At one time, she was the third-ranking Republican in house leadership. She voted with Trump 93% of the time. An A rating from the NRA, anti-choice, against all but military spending - she was the poster child for hardline conservatism.

But that wasn't enough. She dared to recognize how corrupt and unlawful Trump is; she spoke out for the truth - opposing the big lie that the election was stolen.

For that truth, she lost her Congressional career. She put everything on the line because the truth was more important to her than being a subservient toadstool like most of the House and Senate Republicans.

She lost even though the latest news makes it pretty clear that Trump stole documents from the American people, including highly classified documents whose possession puts him in violation of the Espionage Act.

It's easy to blame Trump for this descent into madness. But he just coalesced forces that were already in play. There has long been an authoritarian streak in a significant chunk of the American people, particularly among the Christian right. Christofascism is not the only element in the Trump coalition but is clearly the driver.

The Republican party is no longer the party of thinking conservatives. It not only has abandoned being the party of Lincoln (truthfully, that ship sailed a LONG time ago), deserted the party of Eisenhower, it is also not recognizable as the party of Reagan. 

It goes even beyond the Cult of Trump. Yes, they wear blinders when it comes to Trump, swallowing whatever is the current stream of lies spewing from his mouth. But Trump is just the frontman.

I honestly believe that Trump will eventually fade, whether jailed or not. But it will not be Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, or any other reasonable Republican who will take his place. Instead, it will be another authoritarian fascist, likely Governor Ron DeSantis from Florida. And DeSantis will be more inclined to wear his Christofascism on his sleeve.

We know the Republican Party is in the grips of an anti-democratic madness. So the only question is - how well will it prevail in the November election against more mainstream opponents?

And with increasing voter restrictions in many states, including some where state legislatures may OVERRULE the popular vote, I don't know what the outcome will be.

We can only pray that democracy* prevails.

*Yes, I know we have a democratic republic and not a pure democracy. But it's a hell of a lot closer than our mad descent into authoritarian fascism.

It's Back!

 

Once again, I'm having trouble spending much time at my desktop. 

This time, however, it's not my feet or knees.

Now, it's the back.

I'm not complaining...just letting you know a part of why my blogging is limited.

This is unusual. Most of the time, I have low-grade back pain, but it's at a nuisance level and not a restrictive level. Once in a while, I'll have a back spasm that's usually over in a few minutes.

But this? Chronic back pain that lasts for days and days? That hasn't happened for years.

I can't say for sure what caused it, but the most likely suspect was spending too much desk time on Monday, August 8th, preparing for a class I had that night that required a lot of reading and watching videos.

Fortunately, it didn't stop me from helping Benjamin move into his college apartment. It was painful, but I got through it. We had A LOT of help from church family - Dan Strickland and his mother, Linda, who also brought Benjamin some furniture and household supplies, and the Holland family (Donald and Brandy Holland, and daughter Lilli - their oldest daughter, Carli, had moved into the dorms the day before). As they say - "many hands make light work." Which is better than the other saying - "many feet make stinky wine."

The only change in my back condition is that earlier, it seemed the pain would be at its worst when I tried to get out of bed or after sitting for a while, and standing or moving reduced the pain. Unfortunately, starting yesterday, that's no longer true. Pain can accelerate even during/after walking.

Last night I went to my first play practice for Harvey. There was pain, but I think I hid it well. It didn't really hit me too bad until the drive home.

Well, I better not go on too long. I need to get over this because...my grass is growing again. I'm going to have to mow, starting tomorrow or Thursday.

Be patient! I'll do my best to stay in touch, my blog buddies!

T. M. Strait

Monday Musing Greetings!

 Greetings, y'all!

Hope everyone is well this fine Monday morning.

Alison and I had a good weekend. Any weekend where Atlanta United wins and I don't have to mow the yard is a good weekend. Church had its monthly luncheon, the only time I normally eat fried chicken. The buffet style encourages overindulgence (it doesn't take much encouragement in my case), as I want to sample everything and then go back and get seconds on my favorites. And then there is the dessert table - oy vey!

Tomorrow we pick up Benjamin from the airport. He will be coming back from his month in Sweden. He'll only be home a few days, and then we have to take him to Milledgeville to start his last year at Georgia College. The smell of independence is becoming strong in that one - yes, it is!

There have been hopeful indicators in the battle between democracy and fascism. Red state Kansas voted to preserve women's rights to reproductive health. The price of gas continues to decline. Senate Democrats passed a highly compromised climate and health care bill (the Inflation Reduction Act) - it's not much, but it is something. I pray that it's not the end game but something we can build on for the future. Job growth is fantastic, and unemployment is very low. And it looks like the Trump prosecution is a tiny bit more of a real possibility. OMG, so many of us are looking forward to that perp walk!

Not all things were positive. I lost a very special classmate, Dona Bow Kilbourn. I dedicated my first book to her, and reconnecting with her may have been the best thing to come out of my rocky relationship on Facebook. I will miss her.

We lost an important member of our Grace Episcopal family with the passing of Judge Clarence Blount yesterday. I did not know him well, but he was a community pillar and a faithful parishioner. I always looked forward to his lector readings - no one in our church brought the bible to life as much as he did.

Musingly yours,

T. M. Strait

In the Garden of Indecision: A Jobs Interlude

 

I was lost. It was the summer of 1982. I had been let go from my second teaching job. I did not know where to turn. I did not know what to do.

We had a home in Cartersville, Georgia. Greg, my first son, was almost a year old. Although our economic circumstances were not as dire as you might think (there was family money on my wife's side), I still needed to get out and do something. Long term, I would need to work at something secure and steady.

Teaching had closed its doors to me. Technically, I could still teach, but I found it impossible to explain why I had been let go in my first two teaching jobs. There was nothing immoral or criminal in anything I had done, but I'm insecure to begin with. Under the best of circumstances, I'm not good at job interviews - this just made it infinitely worse.

We had a small flower bed in front of our house. I took a day to do yard work, including de-weeding that flower bed.

My mind was awhirl, and the manual labor allowed me to think. What was I going to do? 

And while weeding that flower bed, I had an epiphany. An epiphany that changed my life.

In all the jobs I had, specifically those after graduating from college, I had some creative outlet and hoped to have more. Whether it was the carrier's newsletter at the newspaper, writing ads at the radio station, or creating games and curricula at the schools, I always wanted to do jobs where my creative skills could shine.

But it was not working out. I had to accept the hardest fact of my life.  

If I wanted to have a secure family life, I was never going to be able to earn it through my creative side. I had to give that up and do something more practical. I needed to do something that required some technical expertise. I would have to recreate myself to be in a position that utilized some set of skills that only a limited number of people possessed.

I surrendered. I gave up receiving any creative satisfaction from work. From now on, it would be all about a paycheck.

The next step would be to obtain more specialized skills. As I'll detail in a subsequent post, that led me to Berry College.

Yes. From that epiphany on, I only earned a living through regular work that involved virtually zero creativity. It led to a steady but unspectacular career in accounting.

I continued to do creative things as my off-work hobbies, especially community theatre. I'd get fits of writing, but I've never made more than partly covering expenses.

I'd love to tell you I have no regrets. To tell you I made my decision and never looked back. But that would be a lie.

It wore on me. It wore on me hard. It was very, very hard to stay the course. But I did.  

Next up: Berry College!

Please note, that the picture above is only symbolic of a garden.  I think it's from the botanical gardens in Athens, Georgia.,