There was this guy on campus today paying a whole lot of attention to a plot of grass near where I was sitting this morning having my bagel and tea and doing a little light reading vis a vis - "Cultural critism and hegemonic discourse as it pertains to the pathologizing of an ethnic subset..." And by attention, I mean Serious attention. I mean, let's say you're braiding someone's hair, someone that you like so you're being super careful and not pulling or anything but at the same time you want to do a good job, be thorough about it and all that, so you're sort of slipping your fingers through their hair delicately but with some authority as you divide the various strands and smooth out the lengths for braiding; this guy was doing that, running his fingers through the grass but not in any kind of off-hand way -- with authority! He even pulled out an implement at one point and used it to slash at some offending bits but in a business-like way, not like he was mad at the grass, more like he was pruning, which I might have thought he was doing if he hadn't stayed crouched over the same foot by foot plot for well over half an hour. I mean, this is Berkeley and there's one hell of alot of grass and if he was the official gardener I can't imagine he would have been able to keep the entire place as tended as it obviously was by spending that much time and energy on one little tract. I mean, they re-seeded an area up by my class a few weeks ago then when the shoots didn't appear immediately, they just ripped it up and planted some of that "roll-out" grass stuff over it. Not a patient bunch, Berkley lawn-care peeps. Plus, this guy had bluish hair. I'm seriously doubting that Cal would employ a blue-haired, Hawaiian shirt wearing skater guy to "represent" as it were, regardless of how much he liked grass. Anyway, I watched him for a really long time as he finished "pruning", stuck a metal stake into the ground, counted off the steps to the stake from the nearest tree then packed up his implements and sauntered off. I went over to look at the bit where he had been standing but it just looked like grass to me. I gave it a pat anyway just cause, then went to class.

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Speaking of class, have I mentioned how much I'm enjoying school? It's strange how much my classes are feeding each other. I mean we were talking about "inclusion" last night then today we're discussing giving kid's "voice" and some sense of political agency and now I've got all these other ideas for my "design an inclusive school" assignment... It's just weird is all. Nice weird but weird. I'm going to start referring to everything as a potential "chapter" of my dissertation. It makes everything sound so much more directed. Like, oh sure, it may look as if I'm just hanging out with a bunch of kids who don't want to be in school but when you frame it as "fieldwork" that you're engaged in in an effort to measure youth autonomy as it supports attempts to secure a more authentic "agency" well, dammit, it just looks better on the grant proposals is all I'm sayin'....