Storytelling

I spent the last weekend on the road, college visiting. I doubt anybody wants to hear stories of Ohio, though.

One night on that trip, I was rereading some stories by Jorge Luis Borges. If you haven't heard of him, he's a dead Argentine writer. I honestly don't know any more about him except that I love him, and he knows how to drive me crazy. And that he was blind. I'm pretty sure that he was blind.

Anyways...

In this story, the characters are at a dinner party, and the guest, who has just returned from traveling the world, has been asked to tell them a story...

"What could he tell? Besides, they demanded marvels of him and marvels are perhaps incommunicable; the moon of Bengal is not the same as the moon of Yemen, but it may be described in the same words."

When I read this passage I thought of Chewonki. I thought of it because of the dinner party where my parents' friend from England asked me what I had done with myself, because of the day when I returned to fencing and my teammates asked me where I had been, because of the look on my friends' faces as they ask me to describe my time with you.

Because words are not feelings, or sights, or moments in time. How can I explain the sensation of taking down your tarp after solo, your fingers numb because its fall in a**ing maine and you forgot your gloves and haven't eaten in two days, stumbling with the knot that you tied poorly, torn between the need to take it down and the urge to stay away for another minute? The moment on the porch of the wallace center, when our newest Banjoist is playing along with Scott and Scott and Charlie and time freezes for a moment? What its like to do a polar bear swim?

To be honest, I've given up. There are two students at my school who did MCS right now; I don't really talk to one as much as I should, and the other had a very different experience there and doesn't talk about it. And some of the others understand some of the stories, or think they do. But the rest: can they understand if they weren't there?

Maybe its just me. I remember being told by the Binnacle Bros that I am terrible at explaining stuff, draw it out too much, and they were right. One of my (many) flaws. But at the same time, isn't that what made MCS so special for us? the fact that, no matter how easily that one story may go, that the whole is so difficult to explain? That it is a collage of "you had to be there"'s, and that we were there?

damn radishes you fine

a garden picture as promised.

i felt awkward taking a vegetable selfie.

New happenings in Dixieland

Hi everyone!

So I'm bored on a rainy Saturday morning and I figured it's about time I updated all of you on my life here. Lots of things are happening - mostly exciting things - especially as the year winds to a close.

My a cappella group finished recording our CD last weekend. It sounds sooo good and I'd be happy to send a copy to anyone who wants one! Unfortunately I don't have any solos (a Chewonki sacrifice... but worth it) but if you listen hard I bet you can hear me in the background. OH and classic Westminster story: in our a cappella concert a couple of Fridays ago we sang Teenage Dream. It went really well and everyone liked it, but afterwards both deans approached me and said that if we didn't censor the "wildly inappropriate" lyrics, we wouldn't be able to put it on the CD. Yay for conservative Christian schools! So even though we were pissed at the deans (and several other teachers that thought it was their divine purpose to approach us throughout the day to air their disgust), we changed the lyrics.

Here's a little snippet.

Instead of:
"I'm gonna get your heart racing In my skin-tight jeans Be your teenage dream tonight
Let you put your hands on me In my skin-tight jeans Be your teenage dream tonight"

We said:

"We can do some wholesome fun family-friendly things, Be your teenage dream tonight

We could go to AMC [a movie theater], see a G movie, Be your teenage dream tonight"

So now the a cappella CD is certified fun for the WHOLE family!!!! Now that's something we can ALL appreciate!

Other things... It's starting to get very hot down here and I'm struggling as hard as I can to resist the frattire busting out all over Westminster campus. Typical spring/summer wear here is some kind of pastel polo (has to be the brand!) collared shirt with very short khaki shorts and sperries/top siders. Which, as I'm sure you all remember, is my trademark wardrobe! NAHT. So I'm pushing the limits and continuing to wear flannels (but with shorts now). I will not stop until I get heatstroke. This is my pledge. Also, I've been going out of dress code for the past two months (badass) by wearing Chacos to school (which apparently guys aren't allowed to wear). My dean finally caught me the other day but - get this - said that he wouldn't give me a detention "because I went to Chewonki." I'm still trying to figure out whether that was some kind of backhanded insult. Hm. But i guess it's another Chewonki perk!

I got a record player a couple of weeks ago and I'm in love. As of right now my collection consists of the Fleet Foxes album, "Hymns for a Dark Horse" by Bowerbirds (my favorite one!), "For Emma Forever Ago" by Bon Iver, and the Valley Maker album all on vinyl. Small but wonderful. I think my next addition is going to be "Age of Adz" by Sufjan Stevens. It's incredible. By the way for those of you who I didn't tell about Valley Maker, you REALLY need to check out his music. He wrote an album about the stories from Genesis (though I don't think he's a Christian) for his senior thesis project in college. It's phenomenal.

I also visited the North a couple of weeks ago! I knew that the only way I would get to convince my parents to take me back to Chewonki would be to disguise it as a college trip, and that's exactly what I did. It was so, so wonderful seeing everyone (Noah, Sarah, Carolyn, Nicole, Nick, Maggie, Francesca, at different points in the trip). It was also very nice to go back to Chewonki because - unlike what I had been told by every alumni I know - it was not a weird experience at all to see the new semester there. For me it was reassuring. Seeing the "new" semester making so much out of their time there and loving each other like we did just made me very happy that another group of (most likely) amazing people could experience what we did. So I feel very settled and at terms with the fact that we have passed on the torch. Believe me, they're very happy and loving it there! It was a little weird to see Bredman with long hair and a beardless Peter Sniffen, but other than that it was a nice time to reconnect with everyone and meet some new 46 friends. I also came away from the trip with a completely different short list of colleges than I expected. I thought that I wanted to go to College of the Atlantic before I went on the trip, but when I got there I realized it just wasn't for me (but it was nice to see Addie Namnoum!). Coming away from the trip, I liked Dartmouth and Bowdoin the best, so we'll see what happens there.

I can't really think of anything else that new in my life. Things are actually going pretty well down here, so long as I don't let myself get down about things that tend to bother me. I'm still struggling a little with being antisocial outside of my really close group of friends, but I think it's getting better. Feelings of nostalgia are few and far between now that I've seen the new semester so happy. And my garden! I wish I could go take a picture of it for all of you (I will soon). My garden has been the mainstay and respite for me in my rocky transition home. Whenever I'm having a bad day, I go look at my Red Russian Kale, my Swiss Rainbow Chard, my Cherrybelle Radishes, or my Astro Arugula, among other plants, and feel immensely better. I also love the work I'm doing expanding the organic garden at Westminster. We just got through transplanting tomatoes, watermelons, zucchini, basil, squash, and blueberry bushes this week. Working in the Westminster garden is my main extracurricular and I really love doing it. No joke, my title is "Gardener-Educator" because I teach classes to freshmen about sustainability and local food every couple of weeks. Megan Phillips was delighted to hear about our similar titles.

I hope all of you are doing well, and I send out good vibes and love to all of you across the country. I want to issue an apology -- I feel that I've been really, really bad about keeping in touch with people recently. Please know that I still love all of you and it isn't anything personal. I've been swamped with work lately and just haven't had time to commit steadily to these relationships. But as the year winds down I will definitely be reaching out more! Please text me/call me (404-803-4433) because I really want to hear about all of your lives.

See you guys around ;)

Ben

bye, bye bredman?

SAY WHAT?!?!

http://www.chewonki.org/About/documents/MathTeacherPosting.pdf

can you dig it??

remember anna's IRP?
remember how corn totally takes over industrialized agriculture systems?
how government subsidizes it and we have so much dang corn we have to find different places to put it just to use it all?
well, corn can be really bad for your health and also has superbad environmental consequences with industrial agriculture.
SO:
Do this challenge with me and my envi sci class to try to CUT OUT CORN from your diet for a week. or longer or shorter, whatever you feel. check out the list, read your labels, AND BECOME AWARE. its crazy

Corn Allergen List (sucks if you actually HAD to care cause of allergies...)

Acetic acid
Alcohol
Alpha tocopherol
Artificial flavorings
Artificial sweeteners
Ascorbates
Ascorbic acid
Aspartame (Artificial sweetener)
Astaxanthin
Baking powder
Barley malt
Bleached flour
Blended sugar (sugaridextrose)
Brown sugar
Calcium citrate
Calcium fumarate
Calcium gluconate
Calcium lactate
Calcium magnesium acetate (CMA)
Calcium stearate
Calcium stearoyl lactylate
Caramel and caramel color
Carbonmethylcellulose sodium
Cellulose microcrystalline
Cellulose, methyl
Cellulose, powdered
Cetearyl glucoside
Choline chloride
Citric acid
Citrus cloud emulsion (CCS)
Coco glycerides (cocoglycerides)
Confectioners sugar
Corn alcohol, corn gluten
Corn extract
Corn flour
Corn oil, corn oil margarine
Corn starch
Corn sweetener, corn sugar
Corn syrup, corn syrup solids
Corn, popcorn, cornmeal
Cornstarch, cornflour
Crosscarmellose sodium
Crystalline dextrose
Crystalline fructose
Cyclodextrin
DATUM (a dough conditioner)
Decyl glucoside
Decyl polyglucose
Dextrin
Dextrose (also found in IV solutions)
Dextrose anything (such as monohydrate or anhydrous)
d-Gluconic acid
Distilled white vinegar
Drying agent
Erythorbic acid
Erythritol
Ethanol
Ethocel 20
Ethylcellulose
Ethylene
Ethyl acetate
Ethyl alcohol
Ethyl lactate
Ethyl maltol
Fibersol-2
Flavorings
Food starch
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Fumaric acid
Germ/germ meal
Gluconate
Gluconic acid
Glucono delta-lactone
Gluconolactone
Glucosamine
Glucose
Glucose syrup (also found in IV solutions)
Glutamate
Gluten
Gluten feed/meal
Glycerides
Glycerin
Glycerol
Golden syrup
Grits
High fructose corn syrup
Hominy
Honey
Hydrolyzed corn
Hydrolyzed corn protein
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose
Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose pthalate (HPMCP)
Inositol
Invert syrup or sugar
Iodized salt
Lactate
Lactic acid
Lauryl glucoside
Lecithin
Linoleic acid
Lysine
Magnesium fumarate
Maize
Malic acid
Malonic acid
Malt syrup from corn (barley malt is fine)
Malt, malt extract
Maltitol
Maltodextrin
Maltol
Maltose
Mannitol
Methyl gluceth
Methyl glucose
Methyl glucoside
Methylcellulose
Microcrystaline cellulose
Modified cellulose gum
Modified corn starch
Modified food starch
Molasses (corn syrup may be present; know your product)
Mono and di glycerides
Monosodium glutamate
MSG
Natural flavorings
Olestra/Olean
Polenta
Polydextrose
Polylactic acid (PLA)
Polysorbates (e.g. Polysorbate 80)
Polyvinyl acetate
Potassium citrate
Potassium fumarate
Potassium gluconate
Powdered sugar
Pregelatinized starch
Propionic acid
Propylene glycol
Propylene glycol monostearate
Saccharin
Salt (iodized salt)
Semolina (unless from wheat)
Simethicone
Sodium carboxymethylcellulose
Sodium citrate
Sodium erythorbate
Sodium fumarate
Sodium lactate
Sodium starch glycolate
Sodium stearoyl fumarate
Sorbate
Sorbic acid
Sorbitan
Sorbitan monooleate
Sorbitan tri-oleate
Sorbitol
Sorghum (not all is bad; the syrup and/or grain CAN be mixed with corn)
Splenda (Artificial sweetener)
Starch (any kind that's not specified)
Stearic acid
Stearoyls
Sucralose (Artificial sweetener)
Sucrose
Sugar (not identified as cane or beet)
Threonine
Tocopherol (vitamin E)
Treacle (aka golden syrup)
Triethyl citrate
Unmodified starch
Vanilla, natural flavoring
Vanilla, pure or extract
Vanillin
Vegetable anything that's not specific
Vinegar, distilled white
Vinyl acetate
Vitamin C and Vitamin E
Vitamins
Xanthan gum
Xylitol
Yeast
Zea mays
Zein

Reunited, And It Feels So Good

I FOUND MY LATINA MOTHER!!! (lol jk)

hope all is well with everyone!