Researches

Tomorrow (or in a matter of hours) I will be leaving with my mother for Louisiana for my brother's wedding. I will be acting as best man and plan on bringing the best man mug I purchased in the fall. I look forward to family, reading, food, and a little bit of familial (or soon to be familial) mayhem. Reading will involve research, but I also plan on finishing White Noise, which I set down for a spell and haven't yet made the time to finish it. The time with my mother--following an absurd week of busy-ness on both of our parts--will be much treasured, particularly in retrospect if I land a baking position upon my return.

My researches will include or have already included:
Dorothy Day's Meditations,
A Centennial Reader: Jane Addams,
Socrates in Love by Christopher Phillips (who shares my initials and last name),
A collection of essays entitled Embodied Care,
as well as a collection of writings by Dorothy Day.

Phillips's work has led me into some more classical sources, which is very exciting because initial searching for material was not all that fruitful. Now, I feel like I am stepping out into my query: Can the notion of xenia be a useful baseline for transcultural ethical dialogue? This is intended not to be an ethics paper per se, but an argument for the validity and importance of cross-cultural ethical conversations.

And briefly, for the sake of a personal log, over Friday and Saturday I worked eighteen hours at Ivanna Cone and nearly wore myself to bits. It was pretty fantastic all the same, even getting pretty well drenched on Saturday night when the sky decided to open up on me. When I made a mental motion to be present, I could not help but laugh at the sensation of overeager joy the Midwest climate seemed to express. During my four hour reprieve on Saturday, I ran into Miss Ashley Wick and Mr Charlie Scherer (whose name I have likely mispelled) at Bread & Cup, which was wondrous. It is good to feel the tingling of old roots. Afterward, I ran into a Miss Adrienne, who came in with a friend to Ivanna Cone on Friday. Without much of any introduction or pause, we found ourselves in the midst of conversation; in which we bounced from idealism/realism in the humanities and social sciences, personal plans and service projects, traditional and personal recipes and foodways, politics and crticism thereof, and our experiences with religion. I could not have asked for a better interlocutor before returning to the final four hours of ice cream scooping, which was all the more enjoyable following the exercise and relaxation of these encounters, new and old.

So now I am off. I may update from afar, but if not, this is brief adieu until (possibly) next week.