Young perspectives
A student asked if I had a girlfriend and I replied, "yeah for about 23 years now."
"I've tried a few times," I explained.
"23 years," the student pondered. "I thought you were about 19."
Growing together
It's my daughter's 18th birthday today and I'm prompted to reflect
There are so many lessons that one learns about themself in the process, particularly that opportunity to revisit memories of one's own childhood from a new perspective.
I found a new gratitude for my parents and was able to let go of some painful experiences too.
A key moment for me in fathering a daughter was recognising my own sexism, which came as a surprise after identifying as a feminist and studying that topic through one of my university degrees.
It came after years of viewing my daughter with some suspicion, based on what I now see as a resourcefulness to get what she wanted without asking.
A family member had written letters to each of my three children and, after they were discarded, I looked over them and recognised a distinct shift in tone within the correspondence directed to the girl.
That prompted me to reflect on how my own interactions had subtle, yet observable, differences that meant I treated my daughter differently to her brothers.
Over time I worked to consider my attitudes and address the perception that I might be unconsciously sexist in my behaviour.
This isn't to say that I don't worry about how the world treats females, particularly how their needs are different, but it was a step toward recognising I wanted her to retain those capabilities and strengths that had been previously a source of conflict.
In psychology they identify positive and negative conditioning as ways of shaping behaviours, and I guess I'm trying to articulate that the opportunity to be a father to a daughter helped me to recognise a broader range of strategies in parenting.
John Cage on silence
"Try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.
"For certain engineering purposes, it is desirable to have as silent a situation as possible. Such a room is called an anechoic chamber, its six walls made of special material, a room without echoes. I entered one at Harvard University several years ago and heard two sounds, one high and one low.
"When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation."
Bills horse trough
Darrell Jones is shown cleaning a Bills horse trough at Griffith Pioneer Park Museum
Sketchy zine
Made this zine while I was waiting for my partner yesterday
It uses drawings from the sketchbook diary that I kept for a month in 2013, inspired by my family and the work of James Kochalka.
That project developed my comic-making skills surprisingly quickly and gave me an appreciation for how much work Kochalka put into his American Elf series.
This zine will likely be a parting gift to my class when I finish up next week and I hope it shows them the joy of drawing and self-publishing.
I've used the format promoted by Austin Kleon, see here.
You should print a copy of the zine and leave some lying around your part of the world because, assuming they don't become litter, it'd be great to be distributed!
Little things
Red Earth Ecology are planning an excursion to Fivebough Wetland
Kid art
I feel a bit sheepish for sharing this pic, since it's not my art and I can't attribute the artist.
However, it made me feel sentimental for when my kids would draw pages of random-looking characters.
Whelm
Recently I found the word "whelm" used in a book and thought it was unusual, so I looked it up
(Okay, shocking for a word nerd.)
How is that when you're underwhelmed, you're not underneath by feeling engulfed, submerged or buried; and when you're overwhelmed it is more likely evoking that experience of being under the thing?
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