Vol 5 No 5
Three things to talk about this week.
First, tomorrow is Laker Day and I encourage everyone to do something for yourself that might fall under the category of self-care. In my classes, I’m inviting students to participate in a Laker Day activity if they can, and if they can’t, to engage in something they don’t always make time to do. Bake cookies, read a book, talk a walk, go for a drive, draw a picture, call a friend, paint, draw, compose, sculpt, go to a pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin, meditate, practice yoga. Something that doesn’t involve WebEx or homework, school or work. Take time for you. Celebrate who YOU are and recharge your internal batteries. The world is demanding so much strength and resilience and persistence from us right now and I hope you are all doing that each and every day. But we must remember to also breathe and relax. It is so important to our ability to sustain our strength. Time off can help you make the most of the times you have to be on task. Here’s a few ideas…
- Free online yoga classes – for all levels and body types
- De-stressing activities - compiled by our own FLCC library
- Sepiatown – Go explore your local history via old photos.
Second, last week Vera led five students, myself, and AVP
Cassy Kent in a fascinating discussion about all the things that ‘coming out’
might mean to those in the LGBTQ+ community.
We chatted from multiple perspectives and I, personally, learned some
very important things about how to be a better Ally to my friends in the queer
community. Including the friends I have
not yet met! It was a great conversation
and I think those who were there would agree with me. It was the first major talk in our series
this semester and that leads to the third thing.
Third, this week’s talk is on Wednesday from 5:00 – 6:00 (password 2020). Invitations have gone out and I hope that we
will see lots of faces that evening.
April is a librarian here at FLCC and, specifically, they are the Honors
librarian. There has been much made of pronoun
usage of late and many who bristle at the use of ‘they’ as a singular
pronoun. Many of those who bristle are
my own colleagues in the world of English education. I myself am someone who had to train myself
to stop ‘correcting’ student papers when I saw ‘they’ used in the
singular. I am happy to say that I
learned, somewhere along the way, that they as a singular pronoun has been
around for….well…come to the talk to find out!
You may be surprised! I have
retrained myself and broken the habit and I can’t wait to talk about that and
other things at our gathering. I bet I
will learn even more things that will help in my ever-continuing quest to be a
better member of the world around me.
Things are changing – and some things that never should have changed are
changing BACK and it is a wonderful thing.
We may still have a long way to go, but we are making strides forward
and talks like this will only help. And
so, I encourage you to join us for an hour and feel free to bring a
friend. Furry friends also welcome (so
long as they are not too disruptive to our chat!). I cannot wait for this one as I know that April
not only has anecdotal and lived experience to share, but they also have that
librarian’s love of great information and resources! Oh, and it is not accident that this talk is
taking place on International Pronouns Day.
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| International Pronouns Day |
Note: I reserve the right to remove anyone from the WebEx room who is clearly not there in good faith. FLCC and FLCC’s Honors Studies strives to be an open, inclusive, welcoming, and judgement free space and we will not tolerate the presence of those who are counter to that.
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