SEP-A-4
THE LABOR DAY WEEKEND—
WITH THE
TRADITIONAL EARLY MORNING LONG RUN
FOR EACH OF
OUR HOLIDAYS
Sep. 1-3, 2002
Joe and I left before either of could see anything
at all---which I stated was an unfair advantage for him! We left the Bronco at Grosvernor Metro
station and ran long, well and even before the day got excessively hot. We made it to the Zoo, and came up through
the recent cages and remodeling of the zoo exhibits to get the first of the
day's Metro cars going north and got out at the Grosvernor Metro station. It was a good holiday run. But, our early morning pre-traffic runs were
easier in Memorial Day, an July 4 than they were this Labor Day, since it is
clearly easier to see at that hour in the earlier holidays, whereas we could
clearly recognize that the days are getting shorter as we approach the autumnal
equinox.
I have been busy assembling multiple photo albums
with the magnificent pictures of the Lingshed trek. But it was time for me now to put the finishing touches on what I
had been thinking about according to the outline requested of me in the PhD
Thesis Proposal. I worked hard on it,
and completed 22 pages of single spaced type when the original proposals I had
submitted were only ten pages since that is what the handbook says they are
supposed to be, and double spaced at that.
“This is not the thesis” says the handbook. “No,” said Rob McRuer, “But
here is a successful thesis outline of forty pages with another fifteen pages
of bibliography.”
I can almost tell you the outcome now. “This is a marvelous compilation of your
personal experience, but we do not want anything original or so heavily based
in real world experience; we are only interested in a heavily footnoted and
intensively library referenced thesis in post-modernism theory, and not in any
real-world application of this theory.
We only say this is multi-disciplinary.
There is only one form of scholarship and one subject that we approve here,
and your other classmates have all completed this process by giving back what
we expected of them, so just go to the library for several years, do nothing
else, and do the same, since that is what we call scholarship. Write our thesis, not yours.”
For a certain period I had resisted this, but now I
want to be done with this; but complying would mean just the beginning, and
I would have to be reciting this same rhetorical “po-mo drek.” So, I am writing what I believe to be a synthesis
of humanitarian serious concern; let’s see what the committee says on the
Sep 5, second to last chance.
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