Searching for a new pair of pants on the internet

So you knew that if there was going to be a post from me, it would start with some scene setting, right?  SO it's a dark and stormy night. No. Actually it is quite bright, cold and there was a sliver of yellow moon at the horizon when we drove home from work at 11 p.m.  Yes. 11 p.m.

Herb went to the gala fund raiser for the school and I taught my class, and then I went to a "Studio" run by someone I hired at the beginning of the semester. I like her a lot and it was interesting to see how the students worked with her, but that's another story and probably not one you care to read. And I am looking for one that will intrigue you. Whoever you are. Parachute or Kathleen or the person in the Ukraine or United Arab Emirates who is reading this.

It's hard to know who the people are who are reading our blog. Some are friends of course; some are family; some are friends and family looking for a road map to the ceremony and a place to stay. You won't be surprised that Mom is a pretty committed reader. But what is it that brings others to this site -- other than some random term that they are searching for: "Steve Buscemi" or "quarter master"?  I suppose I see it as a parable for what all of us are searching for. Entertainment. Distraction. A new pair of pants. How many of us think we will find the "cure for what ails us" on the internet?  A bigger body part? A good way to cook zucchini for the thirteenth time this summer? (See? That will add someone in an "already-summer" place to the blog!)  I have met two young women in the past year who met the men they are marrying on the internet. Why not? It's as good as any other strategy, I suppose. But H and I met when we weren't searching. I had long ago given up on finding someone I wanted /trusted to spend my life with. And then we started sharing our professional lives. Sharing our fantasies about how education could be different. About how kids could grow up in a world that didn't make them feel like the vestigial appendages  to real lives led by adults. About what it meant to wake in the morning and see and feel the weather--not read about it in the paper or google "weather underground," but to look outside the window at a rime of frost, or feel it in the cold house with the stove as yet unlit, or calculate whether the cold crops can go in the garden yet.

Herb remembers the professional connection. I remember the letters--some on paper but most online. Letters about our frustration with our jobs and our respective searches for another one. Letters about an idea that seemed compelling--ethics in ethnographic research (ok ok I know that seems pretty arcane to most of you!). Letters about politics, and cats and my beloved dog, Argus, and the people we knew in common. I wrote to him about the road between the house and the supermarket and saw it with new eyes. He wrote about the birds at Merritt Park. We taught each other to see through the other's eyes. And he made me laugh. And that is I think what this blog is about. Seeing through another's eyes.  And if that's true, there is someone in South Korea and someone in Indonesia who could become a friend.

We met and learned to know each other through words. We weren't searching on the internet exactly though it made it easier than having to wait a year between conference presentations.Like those who peruse the internet, it was the words that drew us closer.And then it was what they stood for.

Hmmm..... It turns out that though I wasn't actually searching, I found someone. I clicked on some "links" and one thing led to another and I found someone whose words made me think. And made me feel supported. And made me see through his eyes and allowed him to see through mine. And laugh.

Join us on June 25 for laughter.. and maybe a new pair of pants.