Family Information

In the haze of paperwork I've had to fill out since starting school again one document in particular has given me problems.

The family information form, for reasons that pass understanding, is interested in what schools everyone has attended. Now I know that Mom and Dad attended Univ. of IL at Champagne-Urbana, and Mom went on to University of Baltimore for her graduate work. Amy was at Drexler, obviously, but then got her Masters Degree at the University of Dayton?

Quite a variety.

ENTJ

Myers-Briggs informs me that I'm more: 1) Extraverted than Introverted, 2) process information through Intuition more than Sensation, 3) Thinking, not Feeling, and 4) Judging, not Perceiving. This makes me controlled, decisive, logical, objective, opinionated, straightforward, and tough-minded, among other things.

More surprisingly, perhaps, is that I'm not really much of an ENTJ at all. None of my scores were sufficiently high to raise me out of the "slight" category. I suppose I'm either feckless or flexible, depending on your point of view.

Even more interesting than my session with career services (who administered the Myers-Briggs test), was another session by Professor Hammock on "Career Development Part II - Interests." Prof. Hammock began the session by asking us to turn to the person sitting next to us and to tell them what we felt passionately about.

And, don't you know, I don't think I've ever been asked seriously to articulate what it is exactly that I feel passionately about. Family, obviously. But what concepts, what ideas, motivate me? What ideas drive me socially, professionally, politically? And if I can't say, then how can I begin to look for fulfilling work?

My response in the moment, which I stand by, is the concept of a marketplace of ideas. Appropriately it is both a wholly American idea, and a legal idea. It puts faith in people to decide their own affairs when ideas, even repugnant ones, are exchanged without inhibition and people are free to make up their own minds. More broadly it places faith in people, and so in democracy.

I'll be trying to articulate other passions of mine in the next few days. I've got a break until Tuesday, thanks to Labor Day, which I'll be spending up in Concord, NH with Irene. We'll post some photos of Irene's new place soon.

Least Surprising Thing of the Day

The fellow in my program from Rwanda wants to take the class on the Rule of Law in Post Conflict Societies.

Orientation Continued

Another interesting day at the Fletcher school. Today we started with two hours of icebreakers. I could say a lot of things, but in the end it wasn't as painful as it could have been. One question was which political figure we'd like to meet if we could, living or dead? I said Thomas Jefferson. My partner went with Salvador Allende. Professional hero? I went with Ted Sorensen. My partner? A friend of his who works as a democratic activist in China.

So, I'll let you draw out the differences there.

The interesting conversations also continued. I spoke with a young man from Switzerland, also named Chris, about the different approaches our countries took to immigration. I also spoke with an attorney from Puerto Rico about the criminal justice system there. Quite a day.

More reports tomorrow.

First Day of Orientation

The first day of my Fletcher Orientation was today. It was enjoyable...ish. We had about five hours of lectures on topics from financial aid to mental health to the economics department. Regardless of how interesting it was, in dosages that high it's all a bit much to digest.

And this was only day one.

The people were interesting, though. As interesting as promised. One young woman I spoke to had just returned from her two year stint with the Peace Corp in Burkina Faso. Another young Japanese man had interned with the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights on the issue of refugees in Japan.

And, again, this is only day one.

Unfortunately, my trivia team isn't doing very well, so there's plenty of room in my little universe for improvement. But I mean, how can anyone be expected to remember the first name of the half-brother Bill Clinton pardoned on his last day of office?

Standard Running Loop

This is my standard running loop. Now that I've got some free time back, I can hit the road again. Don't act like you don't care!

Obama - Biden

Well, what do you know? Irene and my dream ticket really came true. A huge step forward for the political strength of Del-Mar-Va.

Forced Hiatus

After a forced leave of absence, I'm happy to breathe new life into your favorite blog, "Your Prodigal Son." Through the astounding power of the internet I can see it's body has not even begun to decompose. It is my sincere hope that the coming year won't be quite as intense as the last few months and I'll be able to detail all my student activity for you in loving detail.

What happened? This is the man you have to blame:



Freakishly tanned? Certainly. Formerly head of a major mortgage company? Oh yeah. Center of maelstrom of litigation? Big 10-4 on that one.

And, being a fairly large corporation, there has been quite a lot of work to do. I can't go into details of course, but suffice it to say that litigation will be ongoing.