"Chatty Cathy"

Does anyone use the phrase "Chatty Cathy?"

Last week I began teaching a class in constitutional law at a local high school. The students are engaging -- sometimes a bit too engaging! Today after leaving the school I told my teaching partner that our room was filled with a bunch of "Chatty Cathies."

I use this phrase frequently, but realized today that I had no idea where I had picked it up. So I did some internet research, and to my great surprise, the first 4 Google pages (I couldn't be bothered to continue searching after that) didn't even mention using "Chatty Cathy" in the way I so often use the phrase. Not even Wikipedia mentioned using Chatty Cathy to describe someone who is a bit verbose.

No -- Chatty Cathy is apparently just a doll produced by the Mattel corporation in 1959 who spoke 11 phrases when you pulled the string in the center of her back.

So if Wikipedia doesn't report on it, does that mean that this hasn't even risen to the level of slang? Other people use it -- I know they do. So is it too new, or too old, to surface onto main pages of the internet?

Well, if you don't say...

BBC just put out an article today that says that the egg came first -- curious timing:

Eggs-perts rule on chicken riddle

A geneticist, a philosopher and a chicken farmer say they have found the answer to a great evolutionary puzzle.

The team all agreed that the chicken came after the eggA geneticist, a philosopher and a chicken farmer say they have found the answer to a great evolutionary puzzle.

The experts looked at the evidence in the long-standing debate over which came first - the chicken or the egg - and opted for the egg.

Professor John Brookfield, a genetics expert from Nottingham University, said the first chicken must have started out as an embryo in an egg.

This means the organism in the eggshell would have the same DNA as the chicken.

He explained that the reason was due to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life.

Professor Brookfield said: "The first living thing which we could say unequivocally was a member of the species would be this first egg, so I would conclude that the egg came first."

Kangaroo eggs

Professor David Papineau, an expert in the philosophy of science at King's College, London agreed that the first chicken came from an egg and this proves there were chicken eggs before chickens.

"I would argue it is a chicken egg if it has a chicken in it," said Prof Papineau.

"If a kangaroo laid an egg from which an ostrich hatched, that would surely be an ostrich egg, not a kangaroo egg," he added.

Charles Bournes, chairman of trade body Great British Chicken, said "Eggs were around long before the first chicken arrived.

"Of course they may not have been chicken eggs as we see them today but they were eggs," he said.

Professor Brooke added the debate could finally be laid to rest.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/nottinghamshire/5019682.stm

Chicken and the Egg

Tonight I figured out one more source of my incapacity for organization – apparently my mind works like the chicken and the egg riddle. Try as I might to come up with any reasonable solution a puzzle, no one solution makes any sense. The system has holes. Everyone’s arguments sound like they’re missing something. And there’s little hope in ever completing an outline. I can’t make order out of the chaos. Not because I’m stupid (fine, throw your punches here), but because I just can’t ever see the clean fit.

It’s like a series of concentric circles moving out toward infinity, all laughing hysterically at the process which I cheerfully call "thought," but what may be better coined as "rubbish." There’s no end in sight, and there’s someone, somewhere snickering at the frustrations of a solutionless abyss.

But it makes sense in my mind that nothing could ever make sense. It’s just impossible, you see. There are too many variables. Even if one process – say, your family – is working dashingly within itself, there are other systems at risk – say, the degradation of humanity by perpetuation of a system that supports senseless violence. The funny thing is, I’m almost sure that you can’t even keep up with the processes that would support a healthy family. And you most certainly can’t be wholeheartedly engaged in pushing societal practices that would prevent harm to the poor downtrodden souls that the world has chosen to make a ritual of stomping on. You may try, but you just can’t keep up. There are too many variables. And your actions will never really make complete sense – not in the context of your family, and not in context of the larger world.

I know people with outline minds. I admire them. They seem to get things done. I try. I see a problem, and I’ll be the first to want to tackle it. But then the concentric circles start playing out their song, and I get lost in the skillion factors that be causing the problem.

It starts like this.

People in Honduras are hungry. We should give them food.

But then... there must be a reason why they’re hungry. So maybe we should teach them to farm.

But the farming isn’t working out because they have no water.

They have no water because someone has knocked down all the rain forests.

Let’s plant trees.

But wait – everyone is still hungry.

And now we have a bigger problem. Someone is knocking down the rain forests.

And those people are hungry too. And they need a way to subsist without knocking down rain forests.

But there’s a market for rain forest wood. And there’s a market for the cattle they graze in the fields after the nice old rain forest wood is gone.

So maybe I should stop eating beef. Or maybe I should avoid all wood products. But then, there’s still that minor problem of the people without jobs and food...

This could go on forever, and at the end I’d be like a deer in the headlights, stunned and motionless. And probably useless and depressed. Somewhere in my head I know that I should just begin with one variable. I should work on that and try my best even though I know it won’t fix the whole problem. But then the rest of my head screams back at me, ill-contented at my measly contribution. I could see the bigger picture (parts, at least). I just couldn’t solve the problem.

Post First Year Law School Melt Down

I played music with someone last night for the third time since law school began. My idea of a break is having enough time to eat. When I have free time, I am consumed by the thought that it really doesn't belong to me. I constantly have a running list of at least five things that should be done, but are relatively insurmountable tasks given the amount of time I actually have. I am stressed out.

I had this strange belief that all the craziness of my life would dissolve away after law finals were over. IT HAS NOT.

I had this strange idea that I would learn how to relax in the few days when it wasn't absolutely imperative that I study all day and all night. I HAVE NOT.

I had this strange idea that being normal meant that when under enormous stress, I could compose myself with the patience and resolve of Ghandi. I CANNOT. I HAVE NOT. And what is NORMAL is NOT by ANY MEANS as extraordinary as Ghandi.

So I'm normal. Some people are not. I commend you. Whatever way you fall, it's good to have you around. I mean, what would we do without the abnormally put together people? Or at least some who believe they are? Or on the other hand, the abnormally not put together people? -- those who convince us that perhaps we WILL be ok, because after all, we're not THAT bad off!

For the rest of us, some days feel like they will never end, irregardless of the fact that most things are going well and there is plenty of stuff to keep us busy. I'm not sure that it empirically makes sense, but from a human standpoint, I think most of you will agree that the mind is not empirically sound -- we all feel things that fall outside of what our reasoning suggests is appropriate under the circumstances.

The funniest part about all this is that sometimes I forget that I'm normal. I hear someone tell me a story about his or her life, and I wonder why they can't just get it together... just like me. The harsh truth seems to remind me soon enough, however, that I'm not all that put together, and in fact, I'm as much of a disaster inside as those who are actively expressing what I stifle under the busyness of my life. Though life IS good, it's still true that my goals often collapse, my relationships are not what they should be, I don't have enough time to do things the way I feel as though they should be done, and I'm losing out to time on those precious pieces of me that make me feel as though the right half of my brain exists -- my music, my gardens and my writing. I share in the common fate of all those lucky enough to have very many choices in life -- I've filled it up with my choices, and if overwhelming is a big enough word, that's what it has become.

No need to worry though -- just like the rest of you, I'll come around in a few days, begin to ignore my humanity, and bask in the rich busyness of a life unfettered by those persistently itching thoughts of THE OTHER THINGS THAT LINGER UNACCOMPLISHED. I'm sure you will too, if you've hit a similar slump.

I Have Finished One Year of Law School

It's been TWO days since my last final -- my very last for the semester, that is -- and I have been sitting around like a sloth for almost the entirety of those two days. Nothing seems urgent any more, and even if it were, I'm not sure I'd respond. My brain has gone numb.

The last day before my constitutional law exam (my last exam), I sat in a classroom for approximately 13 hours, studying with a group. I returned the next day and sat in another classroom for 9 hours straight -- the length of the exam. You'd think I'd had enough of sitting, but no. I could sit here brainless for days to come. I could sit and not move and not think at all for many more days.

Unfortunately this will not last long, as I will be returning to the world of the living by no later than Monday, when the responsibilities of my life come full circle and people once again expect something of me. "What does that mean?" you say. Well, it means more work, endless work, I've dug myself in a whole, and there's no way out now, work.

This summer I will be doing the following:
1. Working 5-10 hours a week for a professor at the law school doing editing and research on a book on international human rights law.
2. Working 40 hours a week in Philly with a public interest law firm.
3. Trying to catch up on what's really going with the eminent domain project that I have supposedly begun.
4. HOPEFULLY going back to Honduras to build a house; AND
5. HOPEFULLY keeping my sanity.

Wish me luck. I'm sure I'll need it.

Where Have You Been?

Yes, I know... I've been a bit delinquent with my blog. But I'm here to tell you, there IS hope of seeing me again! In just a few short weeks, I'll have a year of law school under my belt, and be working a 9 to 5 job, while pretending to have rejoined the human race. Where will YOU be?

In random news:

Spring is here and gardening is on its way. For anyone who doesn't know, gardening is my retreat from the cruelness of the world. While it doesn't always produce the fruit you want, it surely does more often than in "real" life. This coming Saturday, my family is coming to my new apartment to have a new garden fiesta with me. We're getting a rototiller, putting up a fence, and wrecking havoc on what used to be a 20 foot section of thorn bushes in the back yard. And don't worry -- it's all with the permission of the landlord (who was not aware that the last 20 feet of the yard existed until I single-handedly ripped out the tangles of thorns that had retaken the land with a vengeance).

Thanks to my next door neighbor, my plants will have the advantage of growing to the encouragement of music. He must have known that I don't have a c.d. player, because he's been kind of enough to counter any dearth of music, by playing rap loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear. I don't even have to open my doors to hear it. (Colleagues, does that fall under nuisance law? It seems like a nuisance.)

In other news, I miss all those normal relationships I used to have with all my friends and family before law school. Feel free to send updates. While the next few weeks should be crazy trying to prep for finals, I should soon have time to breath, and would love to catch up.

I'll try to update with more frequency in the future...

Letter to a Injured Pre-Soldier in Marine Boot Camp

This morning I heard about your minor set-back. But I hope you're not too worried champ. I know you can make it through. Sometimes I wonder about set-backs and why they happen at all, but that's a lot of life, and being human, and it's how you play when you're down that really counts.

As for me, I hate interviewing. I went all the way to Newark this morning to meet with a lawyer at an immigration law office. Two hours on the train, and a half an hour walk later, I found myself trapped in a room with an interviewer getting his kicks by throwing condescending jabs at an unsuspecting candidate for an internship. By about 10 minutes into the interview, I wanted to press the mute button and go on home. I had to listen to him for an hour instead and missed the earlier train back. I would have to be very desperate to work there -- very desperate or just plain masochistic.

Last night I got 3 hours of sleep because I was up writing a paper in Spanish. I sent my resume to this amazing international human rights place in D.C. -- which then wanted a formal writing sample on a human rights issue in Spanish.

I said sure -- I have scads of free time.

I said, why not? I haven't written a formal paper in Spanish in 3 years, but how hard could it be?

I said, I love working hard for things I probably won't get, and since I don't already have enough to do, I could really take on another daunting task.

It took me a week to get around to writing it, and I'm not even sure that they want it now. But I'll tell you what: I put my heart and soul into the grammar of that piece of art.

In the world of law school, I feel pretty good about all my classes, but they're still a lot of work. I have an outline of my final paper due this coming Monday, and I'll probably be awake all weekend working on it.

Suffice to say -- getting what you want is hard work -- in law school, in the Marines and in life in general.

So you-- I hope you're not too discouraged. While I really can't imagine what it's like to be you right now, I know it must suck to be held back and waiting. But you will make it through, and even if the set-back never ever seems to have been with good reason or to have done you any great service, at least you can take a step back and say: they're isn't a doubt that I'm human, and I have pulled through with magnificent grace.

Heal up real fast, brother Dave. Heal up.

Love,

Michelle