Graduation

This week I graduated from college. Last week I graduated from Institute (a religious studies program). So what is graduation? There is all that talk about beginnings, and becomings, achievements and awards. It also often seems to correlate with moving (at least for me). I know a lot of people that didn't walk, and I understand why. The whole program is often long and a little boring and shaking hands with people you have never met before. Plus, you have to buy the gowns. But I still don't regret going, although I wish more of my peers that I was close to had come, as well as my professors. Because the way I see graduation is not so much "Hah! I did it!" but more of mutual gratitude. After all it is only a piece of paper. If you did the work do need to have the actual paper and  attention too? Graduation is a conclusion, yes, it is a way to say "Hey look I can follow through and finish something." But more than that, I was saying "I care enough about this education, and the things I learned, and the experience, and the people that helped me on the way that I am willing to sit through a little pomp, so thank  you." I think that is why I was so sad that my teachers weren't there. At Institute graduation I talked to one of the leaders about how the ceremony and such was not for me, it was to say thank you to them. He responded that that was only partially true that graduations were also a way for the leaders, teachers, and parents to say "thanks for doing the work."

So thank you. To my parents, and siblings, and friends, and teachers. And especially those who came to support me.

Obsession or Disgust

This is a picture of a partial Tilapia skeleton, and something I've been thinking a lot about these past couple of weeks. I have been working on a school project where I am doing actual real research that has not been done before. I am trying to figure out if it is possible to identify the species of a fish based on only the vertebrae. And if it can be done, how do you do it. Basically we found out that you can sort of tell. :) It has definitely been interesting though, I have really enjoyed the thought process and the freedom to just try and figure it out on my own. But at times I have got frustrated with it (especially with my ineptitude at using spreadsheets and other computer programs that it would be helpful). Several mornings between being asleep and awake I have swam in a haze of vertebrae and spreadsheets. Occasionally when I close my eyes I see vertebrae dancing before my eyes. I've procrastinated other homework to work on this, and I've given up in disgust multiple times. So the question is: am I obsessed? or am I disgusted with the whole project? Perhaps they are the same thing.

An Interspecific Cultural Comparison of Canis lupus and Homo sapiens

This semester I took a capstone class to finish up my college career. I got to pick my own topic as long as it had something to do with Biological Anthropology. I choose to write about the similarities and differences between wolves and humans. It was a ten page paper and so I am not going to post it all here but I found it really interesting and almost wished that I had had more time to work through it all and add more details and sources and such. Here are two paragraphs that kind of sum up much of what I wrote.
"Wolves and humans have many commonalities, the crux of which can be narrowed down to our adaptable nature and diet. However, some of these similarities, especially diet, are difficult to see in our technologically advanced world, they are more obvious in examples from the human past when most humans were hunters and gatherers. Until more recently when humans began to populate almost every corner of the world, wolves had one of the most extensive ranges of any mammal (Paquet and Carbyn 2003). Both species have complex social hierarchies, and live in family groups. As predators we both prey on large and small animals as well as feeding on plants. Hunting can be done in packs or individually and both species are territorial. However, the biggest difference between us is that because of extra-somatic adaptations, such as clothing, and weapons, humans are even more adaptable than wolves. . . "
"Genetic disparity between species causes variation in behavior. A few of the most blatant examples of these differences between humans and wolves are found when contrasting reproduction and greater human adaptability. Wolves have larger litters than humans and are only in heat once a year. Plus, their cubs are fully mature in two years and quite capable for some time before that. Compared to humans’ slow maturation, single births and year round reproductive receptivity wolves are very distinct. These differences require diverse adaptive behaviors. Both species are quite adaptable, but because of humans ability to create culture, particularly material culture we adapt more readily to a larger variety of environments."

The Graveyard Book

This week I read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It was strange because it kind of felt like one of those books where there is no real plot it is just related stories and anecdotes from someone growing up like Louisa May Alcott's books. At the same time it felt like a novel with a single plot. After the book was a few pages written by the author about the process. This is what he wrote:
 "I wanted the book to be composed of short stories, because The Jungle Book was short stories. And I wanted it to be a novel, because it was a novel in my head. The tension between those two things was both a delight and a heartache as a writer."
No wonder that it felt the way it did. He definitely made it work though.
I also really enjoyed the premise of a little boy being raised in a graveyard by ghosts. And I liked how things like vampires and werewolves were portrayed in such a different light then they typically are.
At first I was disappointed that there was much more about Silas then there was about his parents, but when I talked to my sister about it she explained that when you are little parents are just there, they aren't exciting, so it is no wonder there wasn't much about them.
I thought the end was more sad then I was expecting though. He's only 16 and he can't go back... but I guess that is how growing up is, you can't go back. And this is what Gaiman said about that:
"I had set out to write a book about a childhood--it was Bod's childhood, and it was in a graveyard, but still, it was a childhood like any other; I was now writing about being a parent, and the fundamental most comical tragedy of parenthood: that if you do your job properly, if you, as a parent, raise your children well, they won't need you anymore."
This book definitely captured that feeling, because after all sometimes fiction is truer than reality.

Dandelion

Yes I know this is not a dandelion. But tough luck.

Today I saw a dandelion
That greeted me of Spring
The light against the darkness
It promised me of more.

Springs Change

So, spring has arrived, after a couple of false starts. The warmer weather has been nice, and its been fun to have a picnic and play badminton and Frisbee (even thought they have come with some minor injuries). At times I almost felt like I shouldn't be enjoying it so much because I really do like winter, but the thing is change is nice. Especially familiar, predictable change. Why is that? Why are some changes anticipated and others dreaded even though neither is necessarily bad. I have been more or less dreading the changes that come with graduation. Ultimately I think it comes back to familiar versus unfamiliar change. Fog is inherently more frightening than sunny skies for those of us who are diurnal. I suppose this is natural but I don't think it is necessarily.

Things that Matter

Recently I have noticed that the stories that I keep coming back to, whether in song, film, or writing, are stories about things that matter. Freedom, love, courage, faith, teamwork, triumph, sacrifice. For me these include The Highway Man, Lord of the Rings, and The Witch of Blackbird Pond. I definitely enjoy things that are more about superficial things, like the book Dragonsdale by Salamandra Drake I read recently, and some of the more cheesy/lame chick flicks I've watched. But they just aren't things that I'm drawn back to over and over again, that catch my imagination and my interest. I am grateful to my friends and family and sometimes strangers who share with me, the things that they have found in their life that matter.