Asynchronous is Still Real Life--and Bean Stew for the Busy

How's your weekend going? We've had a huge windstorm here that's blown down much of the beautiful foliage (and made my bike ride yesterday morning extra challenging).

I just sent in my second "packet" to my MFA mentor, having been hard at it since early this morning, so I'm still in that vortex. Due to a couple glitches, I ended up with a big fat volume of Richard Hugo poems to read and write an essay on, with only two days (and not empty days) to do it! But everything came together, and I know what I'm working from for the next batch, and have most of it available, so yay for no more glitches! (***(a few hours later) and right after I typed that, my computer crashed***)

When I talk to my mom on the phone, it's noon where I am and close to bedtime where she is. My mentor will look at that packet I sent in a different timezone, on a different date. I write this blog post and everyone who looks at it will do so at some other time, perhaps in another timezone.

This course that I'm getting ready to teach for Kenai Peninsula College, Linguistics 101, will be delivered entirely "asynchronously," i.e., will be taught (I will teach!) over the internet. The "lady who knows everything about this" began to impart some of her knowledge yesterday. But I'm still daunted! I'm not a technologically savvy person--heck, I lived in the jungle for three years! And during those three years, technology, perhaps especially as used in education, continued to become exponentially space age while I was machete-ing coconuts and lighting fires by rubbing sticks together.

So, nothing like a challenge, right? This word 'asynchronous' got me thinking too, though--writing, or carving, painting--were perhaps the earliest forms of 'asynchronous' communication; in fact, one of the experts on Cave of Forgotten Dreams made the point that part of the value of those paintings lay precisely in their ability to refer meaningfully across time. The internet and modern communications have increased the dimensional potential, the speed, the general possibility of 'talking' to someone(s) in a different room, at a different time, and I need to start thinking about how to use that, and how to turn my own foibles into effective tools for teaching.


My most important take-home lesson? At some point, I contrasted web-based/asynchronous teaching with "teaching in real life." I was quickly corrected:
"It's still real life!" Even though you're not getting all the conventional feedback of response, body language, discussion, that you would in person.

That really hit home for me. This--this little window--this is real too!


And--I've got some serious work to do!
I may do some recreational baking (or unbaking) this weekend, but I haven't been doing anything creative food-wise these last few days. The day before Phil left, I made a bean stew.

In fact, I made it at the same time that I made the two versions of pumpkin carrot bread. I ran out of both yesterday, and made another bean stew betwixt and between doing other things! There's something so convenient about the stew--lunch and dinner, I put some in a pan with some greens from the garden (savoring the last days of being able to do this), warm it up, stir through some miso and enjoy with a little avocado and/or coconut kefir. Batches of porridge see me through breakfast. It's so convenient to have something hearty and wholesome--and somewhat customizable with fresh greens--ready for several meals at a stretch when super-busy. The stew pictured is fairly similar to this one (thanks for the inspiration) and the one I'm working on now features black beans, green split peas, and turnips. Sometime next week, I'll share another recipe. It's one of those things that can be varied from a formula and work every time.

My Naturopath has pulled me back from my latest descent into extremes--I'd cut out fruit and most carbs since Phil left and he told me to put them back in. It seems that most of what I'm being told to do is abstain from being hard on myself, and since 'being hard on myself' is what I'm programmed to do, there's another chunk of serious work.

Whoa! I hope that's not too much of a heavy, cerebral post!
Have you successfully reprogrammed yourself?
Sending much asynchronous love...