APR-B-2
THE THESIS COMMITTEE’S REGROUPING,
MY CONTINUED RUNNING,
AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM TEN-MILE RUN WITH JOE
APRIL 4-12, 2001
I have been running—good progress there. I have been meeting with the thesis committee, dormant now for over two years, and two-thirds on sabbatical—little progress there.
Getting each of the members together on an April 5 meeting, when two of the three are on sabbatical and theoretically not on campus was hard enough. Getting a signature on a dissertation outline so as to be able to move on to the next and final “ABD” phase of this degree program was impossible. Once again, it seemed as if I have to start over, since putting down anything original is not what seems to be required, despite the bold print Human Sciences Home Page claim that they are “an interdisciplinary intellectual framework for studying the varied meanings of human social and cultural practices using interpretive and critical methods” seeking “students who will not simply master a given formula but who will challenge us to move in directions we might not have envisioned before their participation….The typical Human Sciences student had a strong commitment to interdisciplinary study prior to coming to GW, and sought our program precisely because it seemed best able to meet his/her research needs Our program, by its very nature, attracts a diverse group of students.”
If anything ever sounded more tailor made to fit—it to me or me to it, this should be it. But I am not the right kind of “diverse” interdisciplinarian. “”Some Human Sciences students locate themselves primarily in relation to an interdisciplinary field or mode of inquiry: for instance, queer studies, Jewish studies, feminism, or post-colonial studies. These interdisciplinary fields provide students with a theoretical foundation for their larger projects.”
In other words, the liturgical canon of post-modernism, and THAT alone is the kind of library research in which one should be steeped, with little or NO “original” scholarship, except that can be well-grounded in the already written work of the accepted pantheon of the “pomo” gurus. No “men of practical affairs” need apply, since they may be too busy getting things done to spin out improvisations on accepted themes, and feminism, Marxism, and queer theory and other post-modern explanations of hegemonic power structured victimhood are the “odd men out” that are “in” right now—trying to work up a theoretic and practical Human Science basis for altruism across artificial and contrived human barriers is not the mode of this academic moment. Go to a solid year of deliberate immersion in these current canonical texts in the library before you emerge.
I have to, once again, build a new bibliography—forget that I have already spent many years in this program doing each of the component parts in which these texts have already been seen and critiqued by me—and come back with a new proposal that is absent of any assertions or original observations of my own, and interlaced with the quotes and contexts of that which has gone before, and has already been proven by present problems to be inadequate to carrying the freight of further human problems it has created rather than relieved. There are NO Human Scientists: all faculty come from some discipline, and any thesis to be accepted must conform to the standard of the same discipline as they had come through, whatever the token references to this continuously as an interdisciplinary program. For the sacred process of thesis initiation into the cabal, we must conform to the standard, and not get pushed into any “direction we might not otherwise might have gone without this student’s participation.” We will not rise above the level of our discipline—where most of the solutions to the new problems of diversity must be found—when it comes to the matter of the hegemonic control of the academic process. Pomo purity must be maintained until after the disciple has been disciplined.
JOE AND I RAN WELL IN THE 29TH CHERRY BLOSSOM TEN-MILER
We got downtown early in a light rain, and parked at my office and walked down to the MCRRC tent, before stripping off the warm up togs and going to the start line. I ha met with Bill Rodgers at the Expo and had our usual photo taken as we do twice each year in this week, once at the Cherry Blossom and once at Boston, each of which he has won three times over before the Kenyans ran in over the horizon. In this race, again, the first ten of the men’s race included seven Kenyans. When I told Joe as we were on the run with a good sub-eight minute paced for the first half that I saw Bill Rodgers on the gar side coming at us, he cheered for him; I had told Bill that I would be running with Joe, so he cheered back for both of us by name. He later cramped up, and DNFed (“Did Not Finish”)
I had seen John Clark at the Expo, but did not see Charlie Cindy and Imme Dyson there, but saw each of them on the run. Imme placed first in the women’s 60+ category, and Cindy placed second in the same division. Imme was with Joe and me for a few miles, and she was very impressed with Joe. All around us people were cheering for Joe’s courage and ability, and he gave back encouragement to everyone running with us. We were careful in bringing it up to speed and at the last half mile kicked in to finish just a tick over 81 minutes, for a good even eight minute pace for the ten miler.
As we finished, the rain kicked up, and we got back into warm-up jackets in the MCRRC tent before walking back. I had told Joe I would be doing Boston, then going to Dharamsala, and then doing the Defenders Ten Miler the day after I return from India. Joe—so much more encouraged by this ten miler than the one last week in which we staggered in at 90 minutes about three miles after he had run out of gas, said “I would like to do that one with you too if I may!” With pleasure, Joe!
This should be my “taper week” before Boston, but I had received a new set of “Supreme Control II” shoes from Reebok to test, and they had said if possible to try to put fifty miles a week on them, even if I must slow sown around the race events. Right! The first week, I put 74 miles on the shoes—and that is pre-Boston and pre-India!
So, according to the other projects on my plate—such as theses and book chapters coming due, or even tax records to prepare—running seems to be about the ONLY thing I have been able to pull off recently. I had made daily runs under the Cherry Blossoms of the Tidal Basin and watched them, a few times with camera in hand, as they went from bud to peak of blossom perfection, to petals being blown like driven snow across the Tidal Basin surface. The daffodils in the Derwood yard have been spectacular. So, with Spring in full swing now—how about a few more runs?
I booked the Defenders Ten Miler on May 6 the day I return from India, and will run it with Joe.
I then booked the May 12 Grand River Bank Run 25 K in Grand Rapids as my contribution to a spring/summer family reunion, following the Christmas snowdrifted one in December (see Apr-B-6)
I am already booked in for a serious summer of long running races: June 3 is a freestanding trip to Denver for the Steamboat Springs Marathon. I have several meetings arranged around that one, both in Denver and in Steamboat Springs.
I am trying to arrange a visit to San Antonio in the second week of June after returning from the marathon in Colorado, and have tried to organize it so that I can fly up to Denver from San Antonio at the conclusion so that I can take the all-day drive on June 15, Friday, up the 535 miles to Dayton Wyoming for the mandatory pre-race meeting that is before the 6:00 AM takeoff on Saturday morning June 16 for the 54.3 mile Big horn Ultra Run—once again—before I turn 60, or it turns me six feet under!
There had been great gnashing of teeth about the Marine Corps marathon and the failure of almost all applicants to get in through the on-line registration because large blocks were given to charity runners. In the first minute of registration for which 5,000 applicants would be accepted, 65,000 hit the web page and the system crashed. (See Apr-B-7) Fortunately, I am already registered because I am a fifteen-time finisher and member of the Marine Corps Marathon Running Club, so I was not a part of that struggle as I had been before.
So, I began thinking about the Fall Marathon season, and began counting them up—all of this following my extensive e travels in the Himalayas, and the ACS in New Orleans to which return from Nepal. Hartford Marathon in Connecticut is October 13 in which Janet Newburg, our MCRRC President is running in her last of the fifty states--so I will join her and Lee Dutton at the peak of New England color time. (See Apr-B-8)
The next week is an Inaugural Marathon—the Baltimore Marathon on October 20. (See Apr-B-9)
The next week is the 26th Marine Corps Marathon, and I am in that one (Apr-B-7)
Then, I got to thinking, when is the first time I could see the new twin grandsons who might be born when I was off in Ladakh in July? I hoped to see them in August if I were anywhere around, but it may have to wait until after the very dense travel season that includes Michigan, Boston, Himachal, Nepal, New Orleans in Sept/Oct, followed by the string of weekly marathons in October at Hartford. Well, why not continue the weekly punishment, with a possible Father/Son (s?) Marathon!
November 11 is the 27th running of the new San Antonio Marathon, so perhaps I will register for that (see Apr-B-10). I wrote to Michael and Judy, and will see how they would relate to a replay of the 1999 rundown there, this time under the very different circumstances of a visit to the new twins.
November 18 is the second running of the Marathon in the Parks, which I am running again since it only goes a block away from my house and down the familiar Rock Creek Park Trail (see Apr-B-11).
So, if this seems like a long-running enough set of plans, let me tell you only that the next stop for me and this machine is Boston, by way of Providence, for the AMAA meeting at which I am the lead-off presenter, followed by the 105th running of the venerable Boston marathon. Can you hear the women of Wellesley already?