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Category: too many mangoes
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Created on Monday, 05 October 2009 21:17
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Written by Erik
It was raining this morning, and not having brought an umbrella, I was soaked when I got to work. What to do? I had two hours to prepare for class, but I couldn't just sit there in my wet clothes. I carefully locked the door to my office, turned the radiator to highest heat and took off my clothes and dried them. It felt very naughty to sit there in my office with nothing on but the computer.
By a strange coincidence today's class was on the Greek conception of barbarians. One reading I give the students is Euripedes' Bacchae, about the good women of Thebes who are lured away from their looms and husbands by the god Dionysus. They all go off into the forest in a frenzy, to drink wine and have sex.
It was somehow very appropriate to prepare for that class in the nip. Dionysus would have approved. (I was going to tell the students about it, but then I realized that they might not want to imagine their professor that way. And who can blame them?)
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Category: my cancer diary
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Created on Tuesday, 22 June 2010 14:33
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Written by Erik
It's been six months and I'm going back up to the big hospital in Taipei for a regular check-up. I thought I'd eventually get used to these regular tests, but I never will. I live in bits and pieces; a few months at the time. During every visit to the doctor I expect him to tell me my time is up. That the nightmare once again has begun.
I live like Martin Heidegger, and Buddha himself, wanted human beings to live: with a constant and acute awareness of the meaningless abyss which surrounds us. But I'm not cut out for nirvana. Occupying this elevated position makes me nauseous.
"It's a good thing they check up on you," says Saga. "Most people have no idea if they go around with some horrible illness." And of course she's right. It's just a regular check-up.