I received a letter from the director of the recently established Jewish Studies Program at GSU.

Dear Friend of Jewish Studies:

As director of the new Program in Jewish Studies at Georgia State University, I am pleased to invite you to our first public event… On April 8, 2003, Sander Gilman, the Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will give a public lecture entitled, “Is Multiculturalism Good for the Jews? A Literary Look.” Professor Gilman is the author of more than fifty books, including Jewish Self Hatred, The Jew’s Body, and Smart Jews. An award-winning scholar, dynamic speaker, and world-renowned public intellectual, Professor Gilman has made signal contributions to medicine, cultural studies, psychology, and German studies.

…

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to stretch three days out in a way that I came out of it feeling as though it was really four days. This might make sense soon, but then again, it might not. From Thursday evening through Saturday night life became one huge blur.

It all started with Homecoming where I was dragged onto a stage while looking awkward in my tails. I had been chosen at the last minute to represent the Community Development Council because the original Mr. CDC decided he didn’t have a tuxedo to wear. Meanwhile, my workout buddies — you know, the people with whom I go to the rec center to workout — were exercising, and that’s where I would rather have been. So, there I was. I went to a high school that never even had a homecoming, and so I had never been to a homecoming event. They wanted me of all people to stand there and look pretty. Yuck.

Once I was done with my homecoming duties, I ran to a spot where I could change and ripped off my tux faster than you could say “recreation center.” Next thing I knew, I was playing a game that I would might as well call Wet Tackle Hoops. That’s a game where we attempt to play basketball in a swimming poll, but we end up knocking each other down in the process.

After we were done with that, my night was far from over. A few of us then went to ’80s night at Masquerade. Thankfully, we had a designated driver. Matt got picked up by some girl who gave us all candy hearts. I nearly got picked up, but got a Barenjager lapel pin as a consolation prize. I think I was driven back home around 4ish, but I’m not sure exactly when it was I got back.

Friday began at eight in the morning. Why? That’s simply because that’s when my body decided it was time to get up. Sad. I gave Matt some time to wake up, but he was still having some problems recovering by the time I called him. All I knew was that I had a meeting at 2:30 and he was having trouble with his orientation-related motor skills. It’s not just that he was dizzy. He really couldn’t tell which way was up. This could be a problem.

By the time Matt picked me up to take me back to my car, it was about 2:00, and all things considered, it would take me more than a half hour to get to the meeting. That’s okay, because I knew the meeting was going to be one of those marathon meetings. It ended just past 5:00, and I had to immediately make my way up to Roswell, where I was supposed to lead my congregation in song because the Rabbi and Cantor were away on a retreat for the weekend. I was wearing an olive green suit with a bright red shirt and golden tie. Somehow I looked snazzy enough for a night on the town, but somewhat out of place in a synagogue whose members were of a bit more aged and conservative class than my schoolmates.

Under normal circumstances, my garb would be considered somewhat overdressed for the remainder of my night, which included a party in the Tech area and attendance at the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Lefont Plaza. My choice of colors, though, were entirely appropriate for the occasion. That evening, I could even out-snazz Dr. Patton, whose taste in clothing generally would make Calvin Klein and Kenneth Cole drool.

I got home that night past 4:00 and woke up at the amazingly late hour of 10:00 A.M. It was only Saturday, and I had to keep confirming this fact all throughout the day.

Saturday consisted of Brunch, of course. Yes, that’s Brunch with a capital “B.” Brunch lasted longer than normal, as we talked politics, law, and pop culture past closing time. Now, this particular Saturday was different because it consisted of more than Brunch. That evening, I took Matt to see Magda’s Senior Recital. I think I got home at midnight, but I’m not sure.

They were three very long days, but wonderful days with wonderful friends. It’s now Sunday night, and I have spent the entire day in the house contemplating the weekend. This coming week I have a major assignment due and a test in the same class. To say I’m prepared for either would be a mistaken assumption. Of course, I can’t say that I’m all too worried, either.

In my Urban Economics class yesterday, we were talking about rents and the professor started to talk about the property tax system. The way the current system is set up, property taxes are essentially a tax on both land and improvements made to the property. This system provides yet another incentive to build out (urban sprawl) rather than up. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, has adopted a system that taxes only land, and the results so far show that developers have started building more up rather than out.

Is my professor crazy, or is this for real? Can it work for Atlanta?

I’ve finished reading On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis. It was assigned for a class that I’m taking this semester called “Leadership, Citizenship, and Public Ethics.” It’s really a cool class. Joe Frank Harris has visited our class and will be coming in again to speak with us more on issues of leadership.

So, anyway…

OBL is a good book. I wouldn’t consider this book one of those self-help kinds of books. What Bennis does through his writing is try to examine what it takes to become a leader and how leaders act. His approach is at least semi-academic in that he pulls from many sources and uses many examples of particular leaders. Bennis’ primary point is to ask the question of whether leaders set out to be leader or to express themselves freely or fully. Bennis regards self-expression not as a key element of leadership, but as the primary reason why someone would become a leader. A leader has some vision, and — in carrying out the vision — fulfills that opportunity for self-expression.

One particular point that Bennis made in his book was to distinguish between training and education. While training may allow us to pick up a skill, it prevents us from learning the skill on our own. As the author states it, “By its very nature, teaching homogenizes both its subjects and its objects. Learning, on the other hand, liberates.”

Another point made was in regards to different kinds of learning. Maintenance learning is the kind where we simply learn how we deal with problems we already know how to deal with should they come up. Innovative learning is another way of learning, which Bennis introduces in his book as the style and manner in which leaders learn. The way of learning that caught my eye was shock learning. That’s not to say that shock learning is the preferable method, but it caught my eye because it’s so relevant to our situation today. Shock learning occurs when events overwhelm us and we allow events and crises to guide us. When we learn by shock, the crisis we experience shocks us to the point that we are unable to deal with the situation. We, therefore, defer to so-called experts to guide us and make us feel safe. Somehow, in reading about shock learning, I got goosebumps thinking of the parallels of the lesson with 9/11. In dealing with the shock of that day, we are still more inclined to defer to the President and his administration to tell us where the threats are and send off some of our own to eliminate those threats. Oh, and we’ll try to convince some others to go, too.

A real blog will come soon. Some of you blog readers may be interested to know, though, that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is coming to GSU!

Now ‘ya happy, Greg? Phbbt! :p