TGIF lessons on humility...on MUNI, no less!

This morning, my unemployed self had a planned and then an unplanned meeting with treasured former coworkers back at USF (thanks Christina and Barb!). Navigating a new MUNI route there was no problem early in the morning, and got me there (with one transfer) even faster than I allowed time for. The ride back to my sublet was where the lessons came from.

At the bus stop, a person who had just crossed the street waving arms frantically at the cars that stopped at the intersection started pacing, rocking in place, and then staring at me. "Oh great," I thought. "Another crazy homeless person to avoid." Then I noticed the person mouthing something to me, so I took out my earbuds and said politely, "I'm sorry, were you saying something to me?" Well, the person started talking about how nice it was to see someone listening to music because we live in a world that is assaulted by sounds these days and none of them are very nice. The voice was low and surprisingly gentle and coherent like a kindly older man's, but the body (even with an arm brace, torn sweatpants, bejeweled glasses (on a typical San Francisco foggy and overcast day), and hooded sweatshirt over long gray hair) was the form of a slightly older woman. OK, not the first trannie I would have spoken to in San Francisco, but I still found myself checking my assumptions. She proceeded to identify herself as a music activist, playing violin and piano and bongo drums, and even singing in the public libraries until security guards threw her out (and yes, she used self-referential female pronouns, so mystery solved). I realized that I put up my own defenses and this little chat before the bus arrived was totally harmless, and possibly even entertaining. I mean: I'm sure there was a whole documentary behind this person's story - former musician? music teacher? street artist? She actually named some favorite pieces of Brahms, Mozart, and Beethoven that she liked, and seemed to know a fair bit about techniques too. So I was humbled for the first time thinking about remaining open to chance encounters and even friendly conversations with strangers, no matter how strange they may at first appear.

One stop after I boarded the bus, there was a long delay with a lot of passengers getting on. One person in a wheelchair was being assisted by two older companions. Then I saw that these older adults were chaperoning the person in the wheelchair and four or five younger kids with the characteristic faces of persons with Down Syndrome. They were all quiet and respectful, and the other passengers didn't put up a fuss to give up their seats and make room. They even moved past the music activist, who told all of the children, "Aren't you all so lovely! Have a great day, sweet ones," before she left the bus. So that's what I get for fearing the crazy homeless person: I get slapped in the face (metaphorically) with a refreshing dose of explicit niceness directed towards bus passengers that everyone else on board (myself included) thought would be better respected with minimal eye contact, let alone a friendly greeting.

But the stop seemed to linger, and then I looked forward and noticed another wheelchair coming on board, assisted by the lift by the driver. This time the wheelchair was a massive vehicle and the older man in it seemed to be controlling the machine with a combination of breathing tubes and a netbook computer on his lap. So the next lesson in humility was my awareness of my own (admittedly temporary) health and mobility. "That must be courageous to get out of the house and get on a bus on your own like that," I thought. And then the last lesson hit me: who was I to think of this man's commute as courageous? Wasn't it entirely possible that this was just his usual routine? Was my characterization of courage just a nice way of feeling pity? Perhaps. Check and double-check on me.

I was a bit annoyed when just a few minutes later, the driver failed to stop at my stop, and then drove past passengers waiting (and one flagging her down) at the next three stops. Finally, two more pulls at the cord and one push of the "Stop Requested" button by the back door let me get off the bus many blocks away from my desired connection spot. But as I walked back to where I needed to go, I thought that I wasn't really that far away at all. All the bad feelings I may have had were all invented. Just like the fears and assumptions I had experienced throughout the journey so far - all my own inventions.

So I made it back to my sublet to look for more jobs, catch up on messages, shred now-obsolete business cards, and in my current life phase of unknowns, I am at least happy to know myself and my world a little bit more sharply. TGIF and thanks, MUNI. On to the weekend...

A lesson on correlation

One nice surprise going through computer files to prepare to pack up some technology: found this movie I made for statistics class to teach the basic concepts of the statistical concept of correlation. I hope I'm not arrogant in saying that I still find it entertaining and something to be proud of.

Changes and Transitions...

Things that are hard:
- packing up my life
- moving to a sublet to share a living space with roommates for the first time since my third year in college
- leaving one job and not yet having another
- planning what I need to live temporarily for a month
- purging what I can
- trying not get distracted by memories, songs, photos, books...
- all of this while preparing for a campus interview and presentation
- remaining positive
- keeping hydrated, nourished, energized through it all

Things that are exciting (when I am in a hopeful mood):
- see all of the above

At least I got to co-write and edit the final farewell announcement for myself. And I can leave my place of employment these last 10 years with a sense of pride and accomplishment and move on without having burned any major bridges (at least that I know of):

* * * Announcement that went out to the campus community * * *

Please join us on Friday, July 30, 2010 in University Center room 503 for a farewell dessert reception for Ray Quirolgico from 2:30pm-3:30pm. After ten years of dedicated service to the University of San Francisco, Ray Quirolgico is leaving USF for new professional opportunities.

Many of our community members know Ray best from his various leadership roles within Residence Life from 2000-2007. During his tenure as Associate Director and then as Director, Ray accomplished many achievements such as the implementation of the campus judicial system and student code of conduct and the holistic health model in conflict mediation, and further developments in leadership training, assessment, alcohol/drug intervention, staff development, and multicultural education. During his time in Residence Life, Ray worked with the group that successfully advocated for the establishment of benefits for legally domiciled adults at USF, he co-created the campus Allies program, and he was also the only administrative staff professional to receive two consecutive faculty development grant awards from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which were used to host two regional conferences at USF on teaching about HIV/AIDS across the curriculum in 2001 and 2002.

In 2007, Ray transitioned to the role of Assistant to the Vice President of University Life.

Among numerous responsibilities, in this most recent position at USF, Ray served as secretary to the University Life Committee of the Board of Trustees, coordinated and implemented professional development programs and divisional events, worked with the Division’s strategic plan, and co-created a proposal for a new graduate degree program in the Department of Leadership Studies of the School of Education.

Throughout Ray’s tenure at USF, he remained very active with the national associations for student affairs practitioners. In addition to providing educational presentations (including over 35 programs and workshops at international conferences over the last 10 years) and published articles to the higher education community, Ray most recently served on the ACPA & NASPA Task Force on the Future of Student Affairs and is currently the associate editor for the “Innovations in Practice” features in the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. Ray received his Doctor of Education degree in Organization and Leadership from USF in May 2010.

The Division of University Life will miss Ray tremendously. If you can not join us on Friday, feel free to send a note of “bon voyage” to Ray at quirolgico@dons.usfca.edu.

Questions about the reception can be addressed to Rachel Garcia-Cary at 415-422-6251.



* * *

So I hope to post some kind of announcement soon about where I end up, and I doubt i will be blogging much in the interim (but who knows).

My favorite line from the amazing documentary, "Show Business: The Road To Broadway" from Tony Award winner, Tonya Pinkins:
"Everything works out in the end.
And if it doesn't...then it's not the end."

Until next post...

8: The Mormon Proposition

In the spirit of this past Pride Weekend in San Francisco (and New York, and San Diego, and Chicago, etc.) I watched a movie that was a huge hit at this year's Frameline LGBT Film Festival in SF (thank you, Netflix, for getting the quick release to me). And all I have to say is: wow. Very heartfelt, sweet, sad, political, activist, personal, educational, enlightening, frightening, moving. This documentary exposes the deeply entrenched role of the Mormon Church in the recently passed and still legally embattled Proposition 8 that defined marriage in the state constitution of California as only a man and a woman. The news of the Mormon involvement in the political campaign made headlines ($22 million spent on anything would), but one of the most terrifying revelations in this movie was how the Mormons were involved in the similar political debate in Hawaii back in1996, and had plotted this proposition in California for years ever since that one.

Really made me think, made me weepy, made me angry, made me hopeful (for the individuals, politicians, reporters, intellectuals, families, and organizations shown fighting back on this issue), and made me want to watch it again (with a fresh box of tissues, just in case). Another important movie to watch and learn from...please.

More on "8: The Mormon Proposition" at IMDB:

Fuel...Hope For The Future

In response to my own posts and musings and the many many lingering worries about the wars in the Middle East and the Gulf Oil Disaster, Netflix delivered a movie that I wanted to see in the independent theater circuit last year and never got to: "Fuel."

I was very pleased with this movie: it started out as a familiar diatribe against "Big Oil," and even that was educational and full of new facts that I didn't know. But what made this activist film a bit more enriching was its balanced and realistic approach to answering the question, "What can I do to save this planet?" That question haunts as much as it stupefies, precisely because of the magnitude of scale it is asking each of us to address. So in addition to learning about BioDiesel fuel, "Big Oil," the "military oil industrial complex," and frightening backstories to 9/11 and the resulting "War On Terror," this documentary also touched on very important themes of fear, individual choice, cultural stories and the power of narratives, cutting edge technology, and political action. It was very empowering to watch one talking head after another speaking genuinely and passionately about the need to fix the mess we are all in and have all inherited and all contribute to.

Josh Tickell's environmental documentary is not just his story. It needs to be each one of our stories. Very well done, one of the best 112 minutes I have had in a while, and I certainly it hope it gets wide distribution in DVD audiences. Please watch it.

Fuel (2008) - link to IMDB information

Blame vs. Responsibility

Last week (May 31-June 6) both "Newsweek" and "The New York Times" reported in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill eco-disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the first rig to experience a blowout while drilling in such deep water (about 5,000 feet down). Both publications reported that (as many people are now asking), the BP company did in fact have a plan to respond to such an incident. The document was titled, "BP Regional Oil Spill Response Plan - Gulf of Mexico" and it was approved by the federal government. But if you think this disaster was unfathomable, get this: the report includes discussions about protecting walruses, seals, and sea lions - animals that do not even exist in the Gulf of Mexico! The report also lists a Web address for a disaster-response contractor that is instead a Japanese shopping site! Lovely. That's what I find unbelievable. The response plan was not only a second-rate copy-and-paste job (presumably from an Alaska/West Coast response plan), but it wasn't even corrected and fact-checked. Isn't the only thing worse than a lie, a bad lie?

BP oil (and other big oil companies) = score 1 point for cheap self-protection.
Government oversight = score 1 point for loopholes and future disavowed involvement.
Earth, the global ecosystem, and all of the planet's inhabitants = score 0 points.

So if the blame will be shifted (at best), who is left responsible? Tough question. But I know those oil-covered dead dolphins, the oil-covered shellfish, and the oil-covered birds had nothing to do with a metal pipe stuck in the sea floor one mile down. I think we're all responsible...and we will continue to be. The question is: how and for what will be responsible?

Top Kill = Fail / Failure to Learn/Act

I must admit that I have surprised even myself with some recent posts and some recent offline conversations (wow: remember those?) about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico. Even before I was a vegetarian I never self-identified as an "environmentalist." Sure, I knew that humans had a responsibility to care for the planet, I probably will always be an animal lover and be passionate about zoology (especially paleobiology, primate evolution, and marine biology), but I guess I still had "Child of the 70s" presuppositions that environmentalists were all hippies worshipping Gaia (even though I considered myself a supporter of the "Save The Whales" movement).

Over the weekend I discovered another happy privilege of the iPad: watching movies and causing serious catch-up damage on my ever-increasing Netflix queue. So I watched several documentaries on that DVD/TV-like portable device. And I found myself several times this weekend thinking back to another documentary I have mentioned before: "The Corporation." Seriously: everyone must watch that one.

But the two most recent ones for me were "Crude" and "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price." "Crude" documents the ongoing class action lawsuit trying to get some reparations from Chevron/Texaco for the massive damage alleged by indigenous people in Ecuador for what some have called "The Amazon Chernobyl." A glimpse of the future that massive oil spills and environmental pollution disasters hold for all of us? Yes. Also a scathing indictment of corporate greed and a failure for individual leaders to accept any sort of shared responsibility not only for actions but also for human protection of a shared planet. The concept of greed is the focus of the second movie, "Wal-Mart" that is full of frightening facts and includes eyewitness testimony from former/current employees that document how greed becomes injustice in every sense of the word. Truly eye-opening and made me swear off ever shopping at Wal-Mart (or Sam's Club) ever (not that I ever did). Now I understand why communities have protested Wal-Mart coming into their communities, large and small. Reading facts like Wal-Mart employees contributing $5M one year to help their peer employees experiencing financial hardship when the executive family contributed only $6K of their vast fortunes for the same emergency fund just sickened me. (The Wal-Mart family routinely contributes something like 1% of their profits to charitable causes; Bill Gates gives away 56% of his. Bravo to him; Boo on Wal-Mart.)

So this brought me back to the current oil spill that is nowhere close to being solved. I decided it;s not enough to just throw up my hands and say, well, what can we do? Corporations are in for the money, I still drive a gasoline-powered car, engineers can't possibly solve every mechanical problem in the world especially one that is one mile below the surface of the ocean, etc. I decided instead that this is all about individual responsibility: the individual responsibility we each have to conserve the planet's resources, to honor the privileges of our lifestyles by giving back what we can when we can, to use political and social action to promote justice for all people (and all living things), to steward the health of our societies for future generations, and to never just sit back and accept the "fate" of "accidents." We're each capable of much more than that. At the very least we can all continue to examine multiple sides to each story and stay as educated as possible.

I hope you'll do that too, iPad/documentary movies or not.

For more (eye-opening and mind-expanding) information:
"Crude"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1326204/
"Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473107/