Monday, February 28, 2011

Just another Mandeville Monday

Mandeville's "The Grumbling Hive"  (1705) describes
"A Spacious hive well-stock'd with Bees"

I feel like that hive is in my head today (part of Mandeville's point: the brain's view of the outside world is all about perception and he contends that one winds up, too often, imagining the world as "a vain/ Eutopia seated in the brain": in my case I seem to excel at mental perceptions that create dys-, rather than u-topia ). 

Constitutionally, I am ill-suited to community life that revolves around time.  Time-pressures stress me out.  I am frantic at the possibility of lateness.  I would love nothing more than to be free of the tyranny of the digital clock in my car, the one in the lower right hand corner of this screen, the people (students, children) who need me to be on time, and need my time--always more of it than I have.

Constitutionally, I am especially ill-suited for juggling teaching (which requires absolute punctuality) and children (who desire time to fuss with hair clips, hug the dog dangerously close to his genitalia, and admire the new growth in the garden before actually getting in the car to get to school/ daycare in time for me to get to class).

Compounding factor: On Mondays (tired from the weekend, reluctant to part with my tow-headed offspring) I don't want to go to work, so the children's tarryings and mine are in concert.

By the time I get to work, I have less than 5 minutes to scramble upstairs to the classroom, and no time to deal with the headache occasioned by the bees in my head.

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