Static

So I'm in the student union working on my paper and I've hit writer's block. Got any inspiration for me, Internet?

I had my Bible exam today, and it seriously took me less than 15 minutes. One down, four to go!

I guess I could talk about the play I saw last night. That's good and pondering.

It was called "Between Two Chairs." It was written and performed by Valerie Smith, a theatre professor I had last semester. She has a young son, Jude, and an elderly father living with Alzheimer's. The play is about obssession with memory gained (Jude) and memory lost (her father). It was very well done, and I liked it, but it's the kind of thing I can't give my opinion on until I get my head wrapped around it. I thought it would be sad, but it was more intriguing than anything else. Val talked about the inverse relationship between the destruction of the mind that her father is experiencing and the expansion of the mind that her son is experiencing. There is an actual connection between the two, and for the past couple of years, she's been obsessed with it.

The play began with a recording of Valerie interviewing her father, asking a series of questions leading up to a heartbreaking one: Do you have any children? He answered no. She also interviewed Jude, and that recording prompted a lot of laughs, listening to the gurgling of a three or four year old. Interestingly, there were similarities in Jude's and Mr. Flower's answers. Neither of them knew the date, the year or the season. Both of them wanted to know what town they were in. The tone, however of the interview, was incredibly different. Jude was curious, and if he didn't know, he knew his mom would tell him. It was the promise of a life beginning. Val's father had an ongoing tone of helplessness, as if he were more and more disappointed with each question he couldn't answer. It was the dreaded anticipation of a life ending.

Valerie has done a huge amount of research before writing this play, so I can't expect myself to understand everything that she does. There is a connection that she only briefly mentioned that I would like to research myself. It's the connection between ritual and memory. I wrote my final paper in her class on ritual, and it is absolutely fascinating to me. It's still so vague, though. I really have no idea where to go with it.

Ok, I'm glad I wrote that down. Now, back to my paper.