forgetting
as i returned from my wonderful soirée at lamont this evening, i walked past the majestic facade of widener library, noticing the grand columns that held it up (or, more likely, did nothing to hold up the building and were simply placed there by the architect for their aesthetic appeal). half distracted by the pools water forming on the sidewalk and dodging the arch of the eager sprinklers, i tried to remember back to high school when we learned the different names for column types. i recalled the note cards with the sketches, and a jumble of words that included ionic and corinthian and doric. but i couldn’t put it together. i couldn’t name the column style.
it is, perhaps, the greatest tragedy of learning that we must also forget.
at cvs, en route my late night and early morning return from library to dorm, as i sought to retrieve my wallet from my jacket, i noticed something peculiar: the pockets in my jacket open by zipping upwards. this, at least to me, seemed something terribly counter-intuitive and entirely disconcerting at the late hour. you would imagine the designer of a jacket would think out the implications of the direction of a zipper.
clearly, if you want to open a pocket, you want to do so to reach inside of it, which would be much easier done in one continuous motion: zip downwards to open and reach in as it opens. maybe this isn’t a grave consideration in jacket design these days. maybe the designer just forgot.
they were corinthian columns; i know now (once again).
i guess i can take joy in the fact that at least i knew where to look to find out.
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October 17th, 2006 @ 4:43 pm
Mr. Zee:
I seem to stumble across your blog every other day, as if by chance; though I should know better, it is more by design than default; mine or fate’s I know not for sure yet.
What I have not been able to figure out so far is why the insistance on the use lower case letters, whether at the covenional place at the begining of each thought, or when used to name a person or place. I guess one may choose to ignore the norms of recognized lexicon, but to what avail? Without the benifit of a liberal arts education on which to lean on, in instances where I too may have forgotten, I don’t believe I can claim to have ever been educated enough to dare challenge established the norms of communication.
That you should have developed the ability to see small things and then build profound concepts around them may have had something to do with natural ability, though I would assume the academic nurturing you are experiencing at Harvard may have had a role to play in it as well.
In a world that is becomming accessible at faster than the rate with which those that live in it are becomming polarized, it is refreshing to see that you have chosen to remain alive to what may be apparent to all, yet never perceived by many quite like you.
And so I wonder, what if any, may be your perception of the issues that seem to figure prominently in the media ever so often. I enjoy how you describe the seemingly small things things of life, yet a part of me wishes to look deeper inside you. I would like to read more of your reflections about what happens to a young person denied the ability to live in peace, or of a family forced to survive in the absence of means… how do you feel when others fail to look at things they way you do, or when, what you perceive as truth is looked at with suspecion at best. Better still, how you feel when your long held beliefs fail to convince you of their validity anymore.
Maintaining a blog is no easy thing. Here, you reflect and report about things in public space. It takes courage (and a flair to write well, which you obviously have) to share your thoughts openly; I wish you well.
Affly,
The Rusted Gunner
October 31st, 2006 @ 5:29 pm
=)
November 24th, 2006 @ 10:02 pm
Hey Zaidi…..The first time I actually had a jacket that had a downward closing zipper I was intrigued as well but I liked it…I mean to me the speed of zipping takes priority over that of unzipping…I’m not gonna get into the details of why that is true but it just is..heheh…and if it’s possible for us to see each other before you’re swallowed by campus politics that would be great…..I’m free all evenings, check out my cell number on facebook and call me when you have time…