The Sonikcycle Syndicate

This morning, I awoke thinking about how literal and highly interpretable my dreams were, last night. Over the past few months, I’ve awoken with this same thought — that my dreams of the night before had been directly related to what I had been feeling/thinking, or to what I had been watching on television. These types of dreams are in stark contrast to the dreams of my past. All of my life, my dreams have been kinda weird but pleasant and typically involved soaring leaps and bounds. My dreams have always been abstract and seldom had any people in them. It’s hard to describe how different I’ve been feeling lately when I wake up and realize that my dreams, like never before, were clearly about the very emotions and thoughts I had fallen asleep with, and included specific people who actually looked like their real world selves. Very strange, indeed.

I am logging this because the nature of my dreams of late are so unlike any dreams I have had before that I am convinced it is worth noting, at least for my posterity. I can hear them now, “Yessiree, ’twas back in aught eight that me Great-great-great Uncle Kelley had the classic DreamShift. As far as we know, nothing really came of it except in pictures it looks like he had more hair in his ears, after that.”

Biar jelas untuk log ini, tadi malam Michael bermimpi lagi tentang dia yang tersayang dalam hatiku…. aduh sakitnya…

I just had a couple of those drop-everything-and-attend-to-a-forgotten-deadline days–the kind of days that drive the Type A, uber-organizers absolutely buggy, and makes those who sweat bureaucratic bullets most anxious like. The short end of a not-so-long story is that the day before my Application for Graduation was due, I noticed that I didn’t have enough dissertation credits to graduate! Last Spring, when I thought I had registered for 12 credit hours, I had in fact only signed up for 1. Since my Application packet included a transcript that shows I have fulfilled the coursework/credit requirements, something had to be done, namely drop everything, scurry about, fill out forms, track down professors, interrupt them for signatures, sign up for more credits, and then work the system and its caretakers.

I almost want to say that I live for such days, but I don’t, really. However, there is something about the thrill of making a “deadline” after successfully navigating unforeseen obstacles that suddenly emerge. It’s not like I set these situations up intentionally, but this happens frequently enough in my life that I’ve come to appreciate the game-like tenor of such activity. I think it might have something to do with the amount of focus required… There is something uniquely satisfying when everything but a single series of tasks falls away leaving nothing but a pure sense of primitive purpose.

I also think such activity somehow reaffirms my laid-back, loosey-goosey style–there’s a time and place for everything… if it needs to get done, then done it shall be!

Over 2 months since me last post… hmmm… seems like only yesterday.

Bhutto is dead.
The war in Iraq & Afghanistan rages on.
I’ve traded Mid-Michigan frigid for Mid-Atlantic mild.
Data collection done, time to finish a paper.
Friends coming and going.
Bachelorhood getting old.
Plans for post-doc life are emerging (never mind the atypical trajectory).

I started working on my doctoral dissertation the moment I decided to officially Pile it High & Deep under the auspices of UVa, though for the first 2.5 years this work was merely a contemplation of the vague inklings of what was to be. It wasn’t until January ‘07 that I began writing my dissertation in earnest. And it wasn’t until July ‘07 that I fully realized the subtle nuances and powerful effects of procrastination, and the nature of my own dilatoriness.

That procrastination is real, I do not question. But is it always real? Is it possible that what looks like dog shit, smells like dog shit, and tastes like dog shit, ain’t really dog shit? In a word, yes. I won’t ramble on about the psychology of the Big P, but I will share a serendipitous event that gave evidence for cosmic preordination operating under the cloak of imagined procrastination. Here goes…

Weeks and weeks had passed and it seemed as though the only things I had to show for my doctoral self was a respectable Chapter 1, a detailed outline for Chapters 2 & 3, and a boatload of articles and books that I had to digest. More time passed and the emotional roller coaster of disserprocrastitating manifested in manic swings between self-loathing, jubilation, and a devil-may-care-flee-to-the-other-side-of-the-planet attitude. One day, I was chatting with a friend and colleague and he mentioned an author with whom I was not familiar, and, as it turns out, whose work was critical to my dissertation and exactly what I needed to bring closure to my lit review. Here’s the punch: for weeks I felt that I was a pained victim of procrastination, and while some of that P was real, some was only imagined because there was nothing I could’ve known or done to make that conversation happen any sooner. That was the time when I was meant to get it together.

The moral of this story is that procrastination ain’t always what it seems, so don’t let it get to you, and just let the chips fall where they may because things happen when they are meant to happen.

Technorati Tags: dissertation, procrastination, kairos

My latest “gawks” (time-lapse video clips) are posted over at fastforward.

Technorati Tags: gawker, time-lapse, mohawk, summer, video, fastforward

My loyalty to the Linkademic brand is now irrefutably established. I’ve noticed over the last couple of weeks that when I go to grab one of my favorite Linkademic mugs I repeat, “Gettin’ out da Linky” at least 3 times in a loud, affected Yooper dialect. Now, that may sound like Michael home alone going stir-crazy, but, in fact, it is precisely what CrazyMagicBoots and I used to say when hauling out da “linker” rod from the back of the RJD van - days I fondly remember. In other words, this repetition of “good ol’ days” nostalgic phrases reflects not madness; rather nothing less than Linkademic love and loyalty ;->

Not long after I moved to Charlottesville, I became involved in a number of community organizations, and I quickly became acqainted with folks from different spiritual traditions as much of this work was “interfaith” in nature. One of these organizations was a newly formed group inspired by the Sulha Peace Project. We met at the Gesher Center and organized 2 wonderful multi-faith gatherings that took place in August of 2004 & 2005. These gatherings brought people from a wide variety of spiritual paths and traditions together in an environment of security, mutual respect, and general warm-fuzzy peace, love, and happiness ;-> The main event was a group gathering filled with prayers from the respective traditions, followed by facilitated “listening circles” in which participants shared their thoughts and feelings about their spirituality. Given the very diverse nature of the group, it was a wonderful exercise in listening, and learning to accept and appreciate where people are at on their spiritual journeys. For example, in my group there was a Baptist, an Episcopalian, a Catholic, an American Muslim revert (me), a 1st generation Muslim Palestinian, a Pagan, a few Buddhism-inclined “ecclectic” spiritualists, and a Jew!

After last year’s event, we decided not to organize another gathering this year, but rather to explore new directions. As of this month, we have officially formed a United Religions Initiative Cooperation Circle. In essence, a Cooperation Circle is a local chapter of URI that is formed to initiate acts of interfaith cooperation. Last night, I went to the first official meeting of the Charlottesville URI Cooperation Circle. In next month’s meeting, we intend to share our respctive understandings of death, and plan for the following meeting which will be a “pot-luck dinner & film night.” We also agreed to sponsor the Festival of Humanity, organized by the Divine Life Renewal Center.

I feel compelled to post all of this because as I sat in the meeting last night, I realized that…. hmmm …. I don’t quite know how to put it… it has something to do with transcending individual beliefs for a greater good. In other words, there is something uniquely fulfilling about representing one’s faith, and at the same time allowing the desire for peace and positive social action to provide a clear perspective on the meaning of “unity in diversity.” As we sit there in these meetings with our theologically “incompatible” beliefs, we find compatibility without compromise, and we speak the same language of respect and understanding. I find it fascinating how my faith is reaffirmed and strengthened in such a peculiar setting.

In contrast, this morning, as I sat in the United Ministries @ UVa planning meeting for the summer orientation sessions, I felt a different “interfaith vibe.” I got the sense that the diversity to which these participants were accustomed was strictly ecumenical, with a touch of Judaism. I praise Almighty God for blessing me with such spiritually uplifting responsibility ;->

Technorati Tags: interfaith, united religions initiative, URI, religion

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