Ms. Bryanna Tidmarsh has challenged me to a 15 book, 15 lbs. goal by August 1st. Our goal is therefore to read 15 books and lose 15 lbs. Therefore I’ve searched around my room for books I want to read as a part of this challenge. Here is a list of all of them:

1. The Divine Comedy: Inferno [Dante Alighieri]

2. The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio [Dante Alighieri]

3. The Divine Comedy: Paradiso [Dante Alighieri]

4-8. The Torah (Yes, Biblical books count. And they’re no short order either.) [Moses, duh!]

9. A Mercy [Toni Morrison]

10-12. The Snopes Trilogy [William Faulkner]

13. The Aeneid [Virgil]

14. The Odyssey [Homer]

15. Portnoy’s Complaint [Philip Roth]

I have just ordered my copy of Inferno, so wish me luck. The challenge officially starts in 15 minutes: June 1, 2011. I hope we both not only meet our goals, but exceed them!

A little more than a month and I will be residing in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The lease on my new apartment begins on July 1st and I’ll be moving in shortly after that. It’s all so strange and yet so reassuring to my being that I will be on my own working towards my future. I can only hope that Hashem watches over me as well as my family and friends. I will strive to live a life of Torah and peace, and to continue my Judaic studies in a city with practically no Jewish community in it. Maybe Hasem’s purpose for me there is to help reinforce whatever community might be there, or yet begin a new and attempt to help the Jewish community reconnect with it’s religious and cultural roots. Only time will tell. Baruch Hashem.

Tonight was indeed a celebration.

I visited my future home in Cape Girardeau, Missouri at Southeast Missouri State today. Dr. Phegley, the TA supervisor was extremely welcoming to me and my family. I was blessed to be able to sit in on a class of her’s in which TA’s were discussing composition teaching pedagogies and their rhetorical effects. Needless to say I was in an orgasmic state of mind. 

Later that night, Dr. Phegley invited me to the weekly watering-hole where the TAs meet for drinks and shenanigans. What an amazing groups of intellectually and emotionally stimulating people. Mickey, Barney, Carly, Jessica, Kat, and Eric made me feel as if I have always been part of the group. Tears were peeking out of my eyes at one point. I know with Barney and myself teaching poor incoming freshman, shit is going to go down. All for the better though. They need our revelations. Also, the group meets on Mondays at a local coffee shop to discuss teaching pedagogical theory… I mean COME ON!!!! 

Friday at noon I have a meeting with my advisor, whom I hear is pretty kick ass in literary theory. I hope to establish a memorable identity in this city and this campus. I have a bright, fruitful, ambitious, beer, theory, and love filled two years ahead of me. I look back at what G-d has given me, and what he continues to give me, and I love Him for it. I hope I can only make the best of what is given to me. 

Off to finish The Waves as I fall asleep, to wake up to a new wonderful day. 

Nigger Jim

Nigger Jim, as they used to call you.
That didn’t end for quite some time,
Some say it never has.
But politically it was negro Jim, but does that sound any better?
Then it was Black Jim,
then it is African American Jim.
Now to be “politically correct” (whatever that will mean ten years down the road) it’s ‘slave Jim.’
Tell me Jim why should Progress be reversed?
The problem with all of these adjectives is
they still define you as different from myself.
But, excluding our irrelevant color, you and I are not that different,
wouldn’t you say Jim?
See… Jim. Just Jim. Now that sounds right.
Still, we should never forget Nigger Jim, unless we forget, and one day call that name once again.
Jim.