It builds character

I was talking with some friends the other night about absolutely terrible experiences that were incredibly profound, but were also terribly painful to go through. I've thought about it some more, and have come up with:

The 9 life experiences I believe everyone should have*^,**

1. overcoming an addiction (and I don't mean something mamby-pamby like a mild fascination with sugar or caffeine or an "addiction to cracking knuckles"; I'm talking a serious, chemically-induced, behaviorally-modifying, possibly-health-or-even-life-threatening one you fight with for several years)
2. coming out of the closet (and this doesn't just include gender or sexual orientation (and could, perhaps, be even more) but any experience that requires you to drastically change the expectations of many–if not all–of your closest associates)
3. a ritualistic burning of the boats
4. a seriously traumatic experience
5. mental therapy and/or counseling in any of its varieties 
6. being heartbroken
7. wanting something so badly it hurts, and then realizing–all in a short period of time–that you'll never actually have it
8. being picked last in gym class
9. realizing you're so strapped for cash at the end of the month that you can either fill up your gas tank or eat dinner, but not both

* but couldn't really consider myself a decent human being if I wished them on my friends
** somewhat in order of significance

black and blue

I used to paint the world in black and white
  the whites clean, pure, sometimes a little stale
  the blacks deep, rich, and often very meaningful

one day I woke up
  physically
  metaphorically
  maybe a bit of both
and realized I wanted a life more rich in color

so I poured a measure of blue ink into my bottle of white
  gradually
  carefully
  then all at once, with reckless abandon

the world was more beautiful, colorful, alive
  I could see things I'd never before seen
  imagined vistas I could never before consider
  and was less concerned that my black was a bleeding,
        permanent stain on my white-white palate

until today, when I woke up
  physically
  metaphorically
  maybe a bit of both
and looked at my blue ink
so deftly poured from the well
and wondered how I hadn't realized before:

blue is just another shade of white

The powers that be, hard at work

Finally, after years of hard work and countless failed revisions, the illustrious University of Texas at Austin has put together a "new Student Honor Code." It is the hope that this well-worded Code will not only inspire students to achieve greatness, but will also mention academic integrity--a fundamental flaw that prevented several other Codes from making it past round 2 of the workshop phase. 

Other codes that could have been approved but were rejected:

• "As a student of The University of Texas at Austin, I shall abide by the core values of the University." (Doesn't include "academic integrity")
• "Let's just be good, y'all." (Again, doesn't mention "academic integrity")
• "A longhorn is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly..." (Again, doesn't mention "academic integrity", and there were also some minor issues with Legal)

The official message announcing this change has been copied below for your convenience:

From: President

Date: September 6, 2013

Subject: Official: New Student Honor Code in effect

Dear Colleagues:

Now that classes are underway, I'd like to announce that a new Student Honor Code has been approved and is now in effect. I'm proud that our students, led by the Senate of College Councils, have taken the initiative to update UT's Honor Code.

The new Student Honor Code reads:

"As a student of The University of Texas at Austin, I shall abide by the core values of the University and uphold academic integrity."

This code is more succinct and explicitly mentions academic integrity, as requested by students. 

The code that we have used for the last nine years is now known as the University Code of Conduct and is applicable to all members of The University of Texas community. It reads:

"The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community."

Meaningful words have real power, and I am proud that our whole campus community contemplates and abides by these principles.

Sincerely,

Bill Powers

President

Next on the Bucket List: The Down Under

I was listening to the radio last night on my way to basketball (there wasn't anything situationally-appropriate to play, so I shamelessly listed to NPR) and it was all about homing pigeons.  In summary, they don't know how pigeons always manage to return home (even sedated during the trip out, they still make it back), but they think it has something to do with a "built-in compass."  Apparently, pigeons aren't the only creatures with this sort of auto-nav.  An Aboriginal community, the Prompuraaw, has a language that is largely impacted by 16 different words for cardinal directions.  Instead of saying "How are you" as a greeting, the typical question is, "Where are you going?" and a typical response would be, "Southsoutheast, in the middle distance." Literally, they always know where they were heading.

Anyway, this got me to thinking about my own sense of cardinality.  Ever since I can remember, I've been confused by north and south.  Not in a "I can't tell my way around town" sort of confusion—in fact, I always know which direction I'm going.  But I always think north is south and east is west.  It's really easy to fix when giving directions, for example, because I just reverse my intuition and it's all smooth sailing.  But this radio program made me wonder if, perhaps, my internal sense of direction really was correct, I was merely living in the wrong hemisphere.  Needless to say, I added "visit the southern hemisphere" to my bucket list (anyone up for a trip to Sydney?).

But there's another interesting phenomenon that has been troubling me lately.  Whenever I think of a dream or a memory, I always think in 3rd person.  When I remember my brother and I rolling down the stairs on our stomachs as a kid, I don't feel the stairs hit my stomach, I watch happily from a distance.  When I'm running from a killer witch in a nightmare, I don't look down at my feet and wonder why they won't move, I watch myself from a distance, trying to will myself to run.  

It's not really a problem (it has gotten me into trouble a couple of times...like when, as an 18-year old at the family dinner table, I "remembered" my parents wedding), but it does concern me because this implies that none of my memories are actually real.

What does that even mean?