Ideas

Apparently it is more difficult for me to sit down and write than I had feared.

I thought I would at least make some notes here of a few topics I would like to tackle.

Job satisfaction - currently a matter of significance to me as I lack it. I read an article in The Economist on Happiness and wrote down a couple quotes that struck me. The first was their citation of a W.H. Auden poem (quoted more extensively here):

"You need not know what someone is doing to know if it is a vocation, you have only to watch the eyes ... the same rapt expression, forgetting themselves in a function. How beautiful it is, that eye-on-the-object look."

And the second was taken from a psychology professor, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who describes the right job as one that has "clear goals", "unambiguous feedback", and a "sense of control" as well as one that is difficult enough to "stretch a person without defeating him". When was the last time either of these quotes described my job?

The fallibility of memory - both my own and more generally. I seem to be coming face-to-face with the deceptive aspects of my own memory more and more lately. I'm aware of some research on how our memories decay with time (of course), but also how they can be altered. Rather than simply forgetting, our brains add details that weren't there before. What I think will be interesting to look at is how our emotional involvement with the memory - either at the time the memory was formed or perhaps the emotions that arise or are present when the memory is recalled - influences our ability to remember it accurately. And what types of memories are more prone to forgetting? Or to manipulation? Maybe I'm just getting old?

Women in academia - again a personally relevant topic. Many reports have been released over the past decade on the lack of women in tenured faculty positions particularly within the sciences, math and engineering fields. Some have attempted to discern what the root cause is leading to the dearth of top female professors across US universities and colleges. As I read and re-read some of these reports, I'll try to summarize the findings, address how some naysayers have responded - but more importantly I'd like to put this in the context of what my female peers feel and think about their prospects in the academic world.

There are more, but those are the only three that have crystallized over the last couple weeks.

In the beginning there was light .... and some dark too

Chiaroscuro literally means light-dark in Italian and refers to the use of high contrast light and dark shades in a variety of artistic media to bring objects into dramatic or heightened relief. Traditional oil paintings that use this effect often appear to me as if a spotlight illuminates the central characters or the significant action, similar to a spotlight on a stage. I have no experience with oil painting, and it's been many years since I had a hand in lighting a theatre production, I just happen to like this term - ever since first learning it in 9th grade. Besides, I had to name the blog something. Also, I currently am mildly obsessed with light, the idea of it, the experience of it: maybe it's the lack of it in winter; or because of the book I'm reading, D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow, which makes copious references to light and dark (not to mention a few to rainbows).

A spotlight draws your attention to a specific, intended, important subject - and also serves a second purpose, to draw your attention away from other things going on in the now dark recesses. On stage, this may hide the entrance or exit of actors or the maneuverings of dressed-in-black crew members as they change the set. But I enjoyed when in a recent production of The Importance of Being Earnest these details were purposefully left in the light throughout the play. Sometimes it is just as telling - maybe even more interesting - to see what happens in the background.

Ok, so why the heck do I keep talking about spotlights? And what does it have to do with this brand-spanking-new blog anyway?

Sometimes my attention acts like a spotlight guided by a spastic five year old. (I may have had great powers of focus as a kid, at least according to my Dad, but they're failing me now.) Highlighting first one thing that seems interesting, but quickly being distracted by some movement or color over to the left ... then the right ... oh, but ... wasn't there something shiny off in that direction? Hmmm.

Where was I? Oh yes, my attentional spotlight needs some help. This is in part an effort, not so much to curb my wandering mind, but to bring something into focus long enough to write about it and see where it goes. Sometimes these things might be in the foreground - like something work-related - sometimes they may be things from behind the scenes, twirling in my head. Sometimes they might just be about an odd - or shiny - thing I saw one day. It's a little bit of an experiment to see what topics stick with me - what style or voice comes out - how I react to this (hopefully) creative effort as my outlet. In short, my purpose here is to write. Mostly for myself, but perhaps also to entertain a few readers.