Jesus Died for Somebody's Sins, But Not Mine

I just wanted to write that because I've been followed around by Patti Smith's voice all morning. It's a far cry from "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", I'll tell you that much.

Horses horses horses...

I guess it sort of tickled me a bit (or kept me sane) to have those songs floating around my head this morning while I was out doing fine, upstanding Mommy things. I was in the middle of my volunteer meeting at school this morning discussing test prep for the third grade and bathroom monitor schedules with my beaming good mommy face on thinking about my city's seedy underbelly and amusing myself with a friend's evil birthday party plans. (As each child enters you take them aside and say "So and so is the reason why there won't be any cake at this party", then just watch it turn in to "Lord of the Flies"!) It's a priviledge of my class, I suppose. I get to think about it, observe it, express my observations in some way but then I get to go home. Even though I am poor here, I still hold a certain rank in the middle because I am a white, East Coast, liberal. I don't know if I qualify for the "intellectual" moniker. I don't have any official letters behind my name. Maybe I should just put some there. Wouldn't that be nice? Let's try it on for size:

Bree O'Connor, TzC

That's nice. It works. I'm definitely isolated enough to be academic! I'm just not. That's all.

Now that I've mentioned it, I kind of have to talk about it a bit. You see, there's so much hullabaloo and mishigosh about intellectuals and academics being so removed from society that they have their heads up their asses and are not qualified to critique. Well, as annoying as that whole scene can be to us regular folks, I might point out that distance is necessary for that kind of pursuit. Distance can be a very good thing. Come on, Huckleberry Finn was written in Connecticut for Christ's sake. Sometimes Distance= Clarity. Not always, but frequently. Am I saying that academic thought is the only way to go? Hell no. Being wrapped up in something and commenting is just as valuable. My argument is that we need it all.

It's been on my mind a bit. Growing up, I thought being intellectual was good. It's gotten such a bad rap lately that, even though I don't agree, I tend to bristle at the mention of "intellectuals" or "academics". I found myself nearly screaming while reading Cornel West's book because he kept referring to certain people whose work he admired as "great intellectuals". I had the same reaction to that as I did the "Artists for Kerry" sign I saw on TV during the 2004 election. For God's sake! If you want people to listen to what you have to say- don't align yourself with those terms! They offend people! They won't listen! Then I get upset because I like artists. I like creative, inquisitive, intelligent people. I love voracious readers and hungry learners. But I know people shut down immediately to anyone who is described in those terms. That makes me scared and sad.

I'm not sure what to do about that. So I'll just go out the way I came in. Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine...