Life is Short and Fragile

I have not been a very regular "blogger"... I seem to always have things on my mind that I would care to share, but insufficient time to actually sit down and share them. Or maybe insufficient initiative. Maybe they aren't important enough to me... Heck, maybe they aren't important enough for anyone!

Occasionally, though, something rattles me enough to engender a need to express some feelings.

Go over to your refrigerator. Smack it with the back of your hand.

Thump...

Harder. Give it a good whack.

Thump!

Yea, that's about right.

That's what I heard today, about like that... Out in front of a WalMart, Mobile, Alabama.

Only the refrigerator, this time, was a car, and the hand (Thump!), a little boy. Maybe about 4... like my grandson. Seared in my memory. Thump.

I didn't see it... I just heard it... I had just come out and was looking for my vehicle so I could get home to flirt with my granddaughter, tickle my grandson. I just heard it. Thump! The most awful sound I can imagine. Perhaps 15 or 20 feet behind me. A woman screaming. A man, WalMart employee(?), shouting, "Everyone! Get back!" A crowd gathering.

I paused considering if I could help. The little boy's mom, gathering him up in her arms... Bad idea probably, considering the possibility of spinal injury, but could any mother not cradle her injured child?

He seemed to be standing... he was crying. Was there a little blood? I pondered. Was there anything I could do? The WalMart employee(?) appeared to have things under control. People obeyed his instructions. Had they called 911? Surely someone had done so, likely at his urging. Big crowd gathering. Dang, we humans just have to crane our necks at disasters. The crowd won't help with ambulance access. So I moved on toward my truck. Don't add to the confusion.

Maybe they had been buying Halloween candy and costumes. That surely excited me when I was little. Drove my kids mad when they were young. I would have run out of WalMart, had it existed then, into traffic, eager for some Halloween gratification. My kids would have, if we hadn't been hanging onto them like leeches.

Goodness, gracious, I surely hope the little guy is ok. He didn't deserve to be hit by a car. I hope the driver of the car is ok. He/she was moving slowly (thankfully) in front of the store. Who can predict when a child will run out? Every time I crank up my truck and pull out of my driveway, I think about my grandchildren and my niece and nephew who all live so close, and I check, check, check to make sure the coast is clear. And I know that a single mistake, maybe not my fault, could end a young life in an instant. If I ever should be involved in a mistake like that, my life would not be worth living.

When I got home, my 1.5 yo granddaughter came into my study. I held out my arms to her and she came and sat in my lap. We looked at pictures on Facebook of my students acting goofy. I told her how much I love them and how much I love her. That was what I needed.

Tomorrow morning, early, when I go out to pick up my paper, I hope I see nothing about this.. or maybe some good news... "Child Recovering From Traffic Mishap"... That would make my oatmeal taste pretty sweet.

Life is short and so fragile. You better love your loved ones now. Tomorrow may be too late. Word.

Ever heard of Fred Phelps??

Fred and his cronies are the folks who travel about, um... "demonstrating" at the funerals of deceased veterans of our little conflict in Iraq. He figures that America is lost and we are all going to hell, I guess, because we don't stone gay folks to death, as is apparently demanded by the bible. ...Or something like that... and so god is mad at us and kills us off whenever he gets a chance.

"Crooks and Liars" has a link to this You Tube video of Ol' Fred stating his position. Check that out first to set the mood and then click over to Falafelsex to enjoy a synoptic and old-time-religion-musical rendition of what may be Fred's perspective on god's wrath.

I can't take any credit for this. I came across the link to the song on my favorite blog Pharyngula. A comment there got me the link to our old buddy Fred. Anyway the video and the song do go well together, though it may take an iron constitution to listen to Fred for 10 minutes and an open minded sense of humor to listen to the song...

Right Nerdy...

Is it me??

Well, no, we have diferent middle names and I have no idea who he was. But I do like the style his descendents showed in decorating his little corner of the world and I hope mine will care enough to do something like this for me one day!! RIP Uncle Don!

El Presidente Sets New Record!!

I think its the record... isn't it the record? 29%!! Hard to imagine anything actually worse.

Udargo explains why...

Religion and Politics

Christian Nationalism...

Pretend you didn't see all this coming.

And yet some more...

A little more for local color...

The Devonian Blues

Oh, yes, this does rock.

Spotted first on Pharyngula

WTF?

Final exams began this past Thursday, May 4. One of my two sections of Microbiology stepped into the danger zone at 9 am, the first exam block. Some finished early, some used the entire 2 hours. Some finished and left smiling. Some just left. Other faculty around campus were, I imagine, having a similar experience. Maybe enjoying the opportunity to nudge one last exclamation of academic eloquence from the prodigy in the third row (could he/she be the... one?), hoping against hope that the one teetering on the cusp of failure would fall up instead of down.

The morning seemed pretty normal, the end of a pretty darned good semester. Graduation is around the corner. I'll get to meet families. One last chance to try and find just the right words to say to an eager, grad school bound biologist. "Its been great for me kiddo! I hope I have been what you needed! Write and tell me that you are flourishing! Its a new canvas now!" Summer comes. I wonder how the new freshmen will be... Time marches.

Time stops.

In the Chemistry building next door students gathered to begin another exam. Some stayed up all night, wishing they had studied more regularly when they had the chance. Some DID and so got a wink or two of sleep. They came together for the first of their academic finales of the year. The first of their last, so to speak, and whether or not THEY were ready, their professor, my friend and colleague, Shawn, certainly would be. And the exam would be HARD. Hard, demanding but fair. He would keep up his end; he expected you to keep up yours. He's always been known for that... a man you could count on. But it didn't go down that way. Shawn, the most punctual, reliable guy most of us had known, didn't show.

He didn't show because he was dead.

Or dying. Something. In his office. Down the hall. 40 years old. WTF. How do you work that into your end of the year plans? How does a student?

He was a dorky science professor, like the rest of us. He liked digging for fossils in the Dakota badlands, playing roller hockey on the college tennis courts, reading science for pleasure, music. He was the campus advisor for Amnesty International and was frequently seen outside the cafeteria with students soliciting signatures. He went to the annual SOA protests in Georgia. He hit the coast participating in relief eforts after Hurricane Katrina. He was a Chemistry professor and he would kick your ass if you didn't prepare, but when the kicking was done, you would know he believed in you... you just needed your ass kicked and he would far, far rather be patting your back... an option remaining for the next exam.

Dr. Shawn Allin. He was only here 4 years. He left a larger-than-4-year mark. He was a teacher. We will miss him. I will remember him.

Goodness. WTF.

My Buddy, Peyton the Flatworm