ǝƃɐd ɹnoʎ oʇuo sIɥʇ ǝʇsɐd puɐ ʎdoɔ ‘sʎɐs sIɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ ʇno ǝɹnƃIɟ oʇ ɥƃnouǝ ʇɹɐɯs ǝɹɐ noʎ ɟI
«SSIA»
Faux-cynicism aside—as well as the Replacements song of the same title—there was a time, when, a Bachelor’s degree meant something in more ways than one, and a high school diploma meant next-to-nothing unless one jettisoned such status by using it as a stepping stone to become an undergraduate.
No more, say the naysayers.
Now, they tell us, yesterday’s Bachelor’s is today’s Master’s: in other words, nevermind sweating it out for four years — you must commit to another two.
What they—the Ivory Tower—have done, is, conned those into believing this as a means of spending more money: college is big business in the US of A! So why not plunk down another five-to-six figures of your parents’, your own, or the circling vultures awaiting the fresh fall of your post-graduate, educated carcass, aka lending institutions: the banks, who, along with colleges offering advanced degrees that are supposed to elevate your status in more ways than one, benefit from your debt?
Still, in the end, as it was in the beginning and shall ever be, it is better to have Bachelor’s than a HS Diploma, and arguably better to have a post-graduate degree.
However, at the same time, when one thinks about college dropouts of notoriety, (such as, Bill Gates, Bruce Springsteen, and Ellen DeGenneris), then, perhaps there’s something to be said for a sentimentally—and not a financially—driven, given, and received education.
Ironically, as we (that is, those who’ve toiled long hours in libraries, 24 hour diners, in shared apartments, bars, and strange beds) know, there are intangibles and experiences — life lessons that even the priciest college education can neither buy nor instill.
Freedom of choice, as DEVO tells us.
References to Daniel-Day Lewis’ command to Juliette Binoche, in the screen adaptation of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” aside, this event looks like a lot of fun (as long as all participants have washed themselves), and… who knows — I may participate in next (2010’s) year’s gathering.
If you do it, I’ll do it!
(Just Like) Starting Over
I’ve been blogging sporadically, for… the past couple of years — more not than often — albeit with the original intention of doing so everyday in the hopes that, blogging itself would evolve in to an online-tome of sorts.
My cyber-ouevre.
My electronically transmitted Opus Dei (from which, a deus ex-machina, armed with a nothing but a keyboard and sheer will, would be born — or borne, perhaps.)
However, life got, gets, and always is busy, and some things don’t so much fall by the wayside, as they do lie in hibernation — waiting to be summoned, awakened, rediscovered not so much as something new but rather, as something as it was meant to be.
As they say, even the best made plans.
Which brings me to the idea of — the very lyric — the increasingly factual, inescapable truth that is, “life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”
It was twenty-nine years ago today, John Lennon was taken away. I recall where I was and when I found out as if it were yesterday — who doesn’t?
No, I will not indulge a post about how sad I felt, or when I met Yoko Ono and attended a performance by Sean Lennon. Nor will I wax about the tremendous void that remains in the world today; much less speculate on the thoughts and feelings of his immediate family and survivors. In other words, one can only imagine how they — his flesh & blood, the loves of his life — feel to this day, and so, why vicariously grieve?
Instead, what I shall do, is, celebrate the life, revel in the music, and feel the enduring spirit and admire the indomitable will of the “smart Beatle,” by beginning to blog again.
It’ll be just like starting over.
