morning observations & reflections

on the radio: Jethro Tull's "Crossed-Eyed Mary"

Today's class, was definitely groovy.

So as soon as I left class today, feeling psyched and pumped from the powerful rhetoric in class, I stumbled upon something that stunned me like a remote affirmation.

I was headed for the Perry Castaneda Library to get some studying in before my Cal class. I'm walking from the FAC towards the tower and make my way around the hedges until I'm directly south of the tower with the view of the Texas capitol ahead of me.

I come down the steps not really paying attention to my surrounding (There can't be anything new and different! I mean I see all of this everyday!!). It's drizzling and I'm focused on getting to the library. I'm reflecting on what we went over in class and everything I need to do for to-day.

After I descend I veer to the left so I'm on the side of the 6-pack where Mezes is at. I take a look around and to my right where people usually lay in the grass, are flags. U.S. Flags. Rows and Rows of U.S. Flags. The miniature kind that people on the side of the streets wave around during a 4th of July parade and the kind that get placed on the headstones of people in the military who've passed on. These star spangled banners are in a perfect rectangle spaced evenly apart from one another in almost perfect rows and coulombs. This rectangle of evenly spaced red, white, and blue flags stretches from top to bottom with a grassy green border all around it. I stop and just stare. I walk through the cold, wet grass with my eyes fixated. I walk down the length of the field until I'm at the end and I look back up at all the rows of flags.

I'm so taken aback I want to take a picture. I have no camera with me, but wait I have camera phone! So I pull it out from my pocket. I see the display and it reads "September 11, 2007 9:35am" and I think about the Rows of flags. U.S. flags in perfect rows and coulombs in the center of this vibrant green field of living grass, in between the bronze casting of George Washington and the Capitol of Texas, surrounded by liberal arts buildings. And the rain. It's raining, the air is cool and quite, and today is 9/11.

Clearly, these are just observations I'm making. And it was obvious that these flags served as a reminder of what happened during 9/11 and if you as the observer didn't pick up on that there was a small black sign east of the menagerie of flags that had something to the effect of "remember 9/11" on it to let you know what was going on. But what fascinated me about this memorial was the fact that you can take from it what you will. You can form it into whatever message you like. You can personalize it and make it yours. To some these flags could symbolize all the people that died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. To others it could symbolize not only the people who died during 9/11, but the lives of thousands of other Americans that died as a consequence of it during our hunt for Osama Bin Laden, and later Saddam Hussein. And further still these flags might stimulate thinking about war in general, more specifically Iraq and it's tie to 9/11 or if there was even a tie between these events in the first place. Maybe these flags placed in an academic setting that promotes thought and research want us to not only remember 9/11 but to think about it and question it.

You mentioned in your post today that our personal blog could be about "connections you make between the texts and things you're thinking about in the real non-classroom world". And as soon as I step out of class into the non-classroom world I encounter a wonderful, powerful, visual display of rhetoric. It was amazing. It made me feel like I am in the right place in my life in all regards and matters. It was an affirmation of the self that is I!

All in all, I think today was pretty cool.

Eva


Today's bad ass song for the day (I think it's pretty revelatory to the class):
"Fortunate Son" by Creedance Clearwater Revival