Personality is as much a part of Gee's Nature-identity as race, gender or dialect. It took me quite a long time to recognize that being a White, mono-lingual male is a significant part of who I am and how others recognize me. But until recently, I felt my outlook and dispositions were little more than surface features. The only time I really notice or actively manage my personality is when I trot out the charming, compassionate and intellectual self when I meet knew people and try to bend them to do my bidding (e.g., offering me a job or opening their school to my grad students). Apparently it has been wrong to believe the parts of me that are "just who I am" are mere decorations. Not that I need to advertise how powerful those traits are — I'll leave that to my publicist.
Our little project called Crossroads has been something I have been trying to export almost as soon as the inaugural gathering was over. Foolishly, I have suggested that the movement is bigger than me and that others could simply follow our model and use it for purposes that are similar in spirit but specific to particular needs. No one has taken us up on that offer. Up until now, I think we've interpreted this as a profound lack of gumption. Admittedly, there is considerable work involved but it's a relatively manageable task -- and any errors are unlikely to induce genuine pain or anything life-threatening. Find someone to build a webpage, identify a quirky yet comfortable conference site, sculpt participants' work so it will be accessible to their audience, and find yourself a decent poet. What are you: scared?! No, it's because they aren't me.
It is time to own up to the fact that the co-organizers' personalities are perhaps the most significant aspect of this project. Sure we are really conscientious about getting people from the airport to the conference site. Yes, we are sufficiently adept writers that we can encourage others to revise their initial efforts. True, we are empathetic to the need for decent meals, great snacks and inspiring settings. But what it really comes down to, what truly seems to make it all work as it does, is because the combined personalities of the leaders are manifested throughout the entire event. Actually, this extends long before and far beyond a given meeting. It includes our efforts at alluring new people to attend and it reverberates as attendees encourage their most trusted of colleagues to consider coming next year. Except for a few holdouts, even poetry seems to be be a surrogate for our personalities and that assists in creating a climate in which the magic can occur. This joins with our capacity to juxtapose humor (and joy and delight) against seriousness (and determination and outrage). We live and breathe these paradoxes in our everyday life. What I am slowly ('cause I am slow) coming to recognize is that the glorious tensions we create is why it all works -- and that this is an extension of who we are no matter how much we might imagine that others could step up and fill our shoes. For now, we shouldn't worry about who is going to take our place. In truth, that may be an impossible hope because I am coming to accept that "I am me and my circumstances" and that my identity is so tightly enmeshed with my buddy's that Crossroads IS us.
Our little project called Crossroads has been something I have been trying to export almost as soon as the inaugural gathering was over. Foolishly, I have suggested that the movement is bigger than me and that others could simply follow our model and use it for purposes that are similar in spirit but specific to particular needs. No one has taken us up on that offer. Up until now, I think we've interpreted this as a profound lack of gumption. Admittedly, there is considerable work involved but it's a relatively manageable task -- and any errors are unlikely to induce genuine pain or anything life-threatening. Find someone to build a webpage, identify a quirky yet comfortable conference site, sculpt participants' work so it will be accessible to their audience, and find yourself a decent poet. What are you: scared?! No, it's because they aren't me.
It is time to own up to the fact that the co-organizers' personalities are perhaps the most significant aspect of this project. Sure we are really conscientious about getting people from the airport to the conference site. Yes, we are sufficiently adept writers that we can encourage others to revise their initial efforts. True, we are empathetic to the need for decent meals, great snacks and inspiring settings. But what it really comes down to, what truly seems to make it all work as it does, is because the combined personalities of the leaders are manifested throughout the entire event. Actually, this extends long before and far beyond a given meeting. It includes our efforts at alluring new people to attend and it reverberates as attendees encourage their most trusted of colleagues to consider coming next year. Except for a few holdouts, even poetry seems to be be a surrogate for our personalities and that assists in creating a climate in which the magic can occur. This joins with our capacity to juxtapose humor (and joy and delight) against seriousness (and determination and outrage). We live and breathe these paradoxes in our everyday life. What I am slowly ('cause I am slow) coming to recognize is that the glorious tensions we create is why it all works -- and that this is an extension of who we are no matter how much we might imagine that others could step up and fill our shoes. For now, we shouldn't worry about who is going to take our place. In truth, that may be an impossible hope because I am coming to accept that "I am me and my circumstances" and that my identity is so tightly enmeshed with my buddy's that Crossroads IS us.
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