Hot and Humid!

Afternoon Folks,

As per the title above, it has been pretty warm and humid here in Flagstaff, AZ. When I was young growing up in San Diego, I loved this kind of weather and have to say I never noticed the humidity. But, after about 35 years in the Arid Zone whenever we get to the "Monsoon" season here the relative moisture in the air gets to me. I am not fond of heat either. My ideal "warm" temp would be about 60 degrees. However, my favorite season is winter. I love it when we start to get those freezing nights in the fall.

Technically speaking, it is still summer (and feels like it), but kids in Flagstaff have started back to school. Northern AZ University begins their Fall semester next week. It is difficult to believe that for most of my life the calendar was marked by semesters, first in grade school, Jr. High, and High School, then after the Army (3 years), 8 years at university and 27 years teaching college. Even far more difficult to fathom is the fact that it has been 10 years since my retirement from academia. It took several of those years to adjust to not going back to school (work) in Fall. The lack of what Spring Break use to mean was another time adjustment.

Now it is difficult to see those divisions of the year as a reality in my life. Each chapter of life feels like a different lifetime. When I look back at when I was a young soldier in the early 1960s it hardly seems real to me. It is amusing to contemplate in your own life how time itself, and how it is broken down, is just a social construct.

On top of all that we are constantly redefining our past life in terms of what is important to us now. A sociologist by the name of Peter Berger called this "Alternation, or redefining our biography." In addition, we selectively remember the past as well. An author whose name escapes me said he kept journals throughout his life. He came-up with what he thought was a "novel" idea but in reviewing these journals from his younger days he found that it was not a new idea. If we all kept journals we would probably discover more of our "real" past, not our reinterpretation of it.

Well, these are some of my musings for a warm Arizona mountain afternoon . . . as for films . . .

Last week I went to Sedona to see Ann Hathaway's new film, One Day. I thought it had some promise but was not very good. Since returning to AZ the best one that I have seen lately is The Help. The acting and the story are very good. While in San Diego I viewed Cowboys and Aliens with my grandsons. They liked it but I found it somewhat boring and overly long. In that venue (s. cal) Sarah's Key was extraordinary with Kristin Scott-Thomas giving an excellent performance in a French film about the round-up of Jews by the french during WWII. The story went back and forth through time telling the story of Sarah and her escape and the journalist's attempt to uncover it. Crazy, Stupid Love was an entertaining film that I enjoyed. I walked out of Tree of Life because it was so "overdone" in trying to be "Artsy Fartsy" and into Captain America, which I had not planned on seeing but was pleasantly surprised. It too was entertaining, at least for its genre.

That's it for the moment here in Northern Arizona. Until next time, Adios Amigos y Amigas!