10.29.2009

the ultimate contradiction i find myself in while i write my thesis:

AKA why it has taken me so long to write my thesis (BORRRRINGGG).

my favorite book of all time, like, my professional (and personal, as everything is interconnected, right??) "bible": THE MORAL IMAGINATION by John Paul Lederach.

This part really resonated with me today:

In the professional world of writing, we view with caution, even suspicion, the appearance of the personal, and lend a higher accent of legitimacy to models and skills, theory, well-documented case studies, and the technical application of theory that leads toward what we feel is the objectivity of conclusion and proposal. In the process, we do a disservice to our professions, to the building of theory and practice, to the public, and ultimately to ourselves. The disservice is this: When we attempt to eliminate the personal, we lose sight of ourselves, our deeper intuition, and the source of our understandings - who we are and how we are in the world. In so doing we arrive at a paradoxical destination: We believe in the knowledge we generate but not in the inherently messy and personal process by which we acquired it.

YOU TELL 'EM, JOHN PAUL!!!

i just realized to a deeper level why this paper has been so brain wrenching for me. its not that i dont know how to write strictly academic papers, but its that my spirit has to be compleetely ignored, shoved off, seperated from my focus. How can i seperate myself that way? i am a person who lives from my spirit, incorporating that into everything i do. no wonder this has sucked. duh! thanks, JPL.

phew. someone feels me.
holler if you hear me, folks.

4 comments:

Rachel said...

Yes! Love JPL.

SAMIMI-EXTREMIE said...

DUDE. JPL is my hero, so stoked you love him too. :)

Saman said...

girl I FEEEEEL you. more power to you for recognizing the spirit through which you operate and yet still having the courage to stick it out in academia. the world of conflict resolution will be a better place with people like you infiltrating. i could talk forever about the pointless fragmentation academia is so desperately attached to, but i believe i'd be preaching to the choir!

Unknown said...

I'm with you Layli. 99.99999% of everything I've learned about the little self, the big Self, the You, the He, She, We, and whatever else evolves from this universee, has come from outside the university walls.