Catharsis and Serendipity

(I posted this at BlogJunction Kansas. Go check it out.)

The best time in graduate school is between semesters. This allows the brain to cool down, the body to get a little rest, and for you to become reacquainted with family and welcome any new additions to the family group.

For me, this time is usually spent trying to find something to take my mind off school. Unfortunately, this library science thing has me hooked and I find it incredibly hard to disconnect. Thankfully I have a couple of life tools that keep me going and help me to relax: Catharsis and Serendipity.

The Value of Catharsis
For me, I love catharsis! Whether it be rolling on the floor laughing to “Blazing Saddles” or my face in my hands crying at the end of “Rudy”, having a way to let it all go is great for the spirit. So if you find yourself in need of a good cathartic moment check out these videos (caution: tears may flow):

Lou Gehrig speech

Jim Valvano speech

The Value of Serendipity


Serendipity rules! Embrace it. Let it happen to you.

I am sure we are all the beneficiaries of serendipity in one way or another. You can’t really create moments of serendipity like you can cathartic moments, but you can start to open your mind to the idea of letting serendipitous moments occur. Relax, smile, take a deep breath, go for a walk, let the mind wander, go “left” instead of “right”, etc.

Discovery Channel article “Top Ten Accidental Discoveries”

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Nothing surprising here. Library, time, work, new, people, getting, going, guitar......that sounds like me. wii is bigger than wife, thats is probably not good.

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Desmond Tutu: Equality of U.S. blacks an 'illusion'

Desmond Tutu: Equality of U.S. blacks an 'illusion'

By Storer H. Rowley, Tribune reporter, chicagotribune.com
May 14, 2008

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu weighed in on the presidential campaign Tuesday in Chicago, praising America's ability to produce the first viable African-American presidential candidate while describing the nation as haunted by a racial divide that still offers blacks what he called only "the illusion of equality."

"You are a crazy country," Tutu, 76, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, said in an interview with the Tribune. "You're a country that has I think some of the most generous people I've ever come across in the world."

But he chided Americans for getting "very, very upset" with the pastor of Sen. Barack Obama, noting that Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. "may have said more crudely what, actually, almost every African-American would have wanted to say. I mean that is how they feel in your country, that race ... is a very, very real issue."

"And I think on the whole you keep trying to pretend it isn't," he added, noting the issue will haunt Americans until there is a way to talk honestly about race, such as holding a reconciliation forum.

Tutu, who headed South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission probing human-rights abuses under apartheid, was here to receive the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation's Lincoln Leadership Prize, presented by Oprah Winfrey.

Unlike in South Africa's apartheid era, he said, where blacks were treated as "nothing," in America, "You say to them, 'You're equal, and the sky's the limit.' And they keep bumping their heads against this thing that's stopping them from reaching out to the stars."

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune