project miscellany
After my recent declaration of project bankruptcy, I’ve been working through the old lists and thinking about which projects live and which are encased in carbonite and stacked in the basement. A friend and colleague has offered to be my external conscience, regularly reminding me of what projects are current and asking, so how are they going.
One project that remains on the list is a math project, a paper I should have finished some time ago. I won’t mention how much time, but yes enough time that I’m somewhat embarrassed to even acknowledge that this project remains among current projects. I’ve spent some time recently going back and reminding myself of where I am with it, what remains to be done and where the tricky patches of quicksand are located.
Quicksand. I read something recently, though unfortunately I don’t remember where or by whom (and a quick internet search gets sucked into descriptions of movies by that title, somewhat fittingly). When I was growing up, quicksand was a constant threat on television and in the movies, to the point where I suspect my generation would unflinchingly accept ‘trying to float without struggling’ as a reasonable action to take if one were to find oneself sinking in quicksand. I suspect, though, that this danger from my childhood might have been somewhat over sold as a danger we might come up against.
There is also the project that cannot be named. Those who know of the project about which I write will, I know, roll their eyes and turn away their gaze, so that they can chuckle in disbelief without doing so to my face. And those who don’t know, we’ll see if that particular project survives the Chapter 11 hearing.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve had an aikido project over the past couple of years. Last year’s project was both ambitious and ill defined, which is not the best of combinations. So for this year, I’ve decided to be a bit more specific and definite. I wish to improve my ukemi, specifically how I roll and fall out of the techniques as executed by others. At present, I think my ukemi is decent, but particularly as I’ve reached the age when I’m worrying about my age, I think this is a project that will have definite benefits both on and off the tatami.
Enough for the moment. I may spend some time this evening exploring whether I can discover from where this generational fear of quicksand arose, because the more I think about it, the more curious it becomes.
multijimbo 