New Mississippi Uptown Toodeloo

A little symboleering on the way to work this morning: whatever music comes up on my iPhone I will listen to, loud, in my ears. I put it on random. Surprise surprise, it was Steal Your Face.

I got off the bus on the west bank just to walk across the Mississippi, my river and my metaphor. A gorgeous fall morning with the sun directly down the river, where I want to look. Where I must look for the course of my future. It is a sign, of course, that the sun is down the river, because that is certainly where I am heading and it has only recently come to me that I should be about making a boat. I am not sure that I want to completely float down to the end, as I once wrote:)  Maybe I can steer a little.

I have in the last few months jettisoned several major trajectories in my life, including one for which I have been building steam at least three years. Plan A was to pursue a Ph.D. degree, and with one fell insight I swept it away and quit. The Theory class I started reminded me that I had already rejected this pathway after finishing the same course 20 years ago. I had totally forgotten that I had a good reason!

I came up into the west bank plaza in the morning sun with Ship of Fools in my ears. Perfect of course, since this is Anthropology’s neighborhood – the message could not have been more clear, and I truly was grateful I left that path. 

As I walked out on the bridge the pace and jaunt picked up for Half-Step Mississippi Uptown Toodeloo. OMG could it be any more specific as I walked into the sun over the Mississippi River?  Or perhaps it was more like dancing – certainly a good little cardiac toodeloo.  

"If all you got to live for is what you left behind, Get yourself a powder charge and seal that silver mine. Lost my boots in transit, babe, a pile of smokin' leather. Nailed a retread to my feet and prayed for better weather." 

Down the river the water curves almost out of sight – you can pick it up again near the Franklin Ave. bridge.  When I finally retire and leave this view, so much will have changed in ways I cannot know. I understand that I have the remainder of my time here to develop my own river landscape, my own transportation, and much to do before I round that big curve. 

So, now I am in the process of turning my boat toward Plan B (for Belledame Publishing), which I put in place exactly for this kind of emergency. I got that book (The Bridge: Using Symbols to Build your Life) out the Amazon door, some basic plans for operation in place, some youthful help lined up, and web space researched and purchased all before I had to focus entirely on academics. So even though I find the turning to be a monumentally slow, churning process, I am thinking I am still pretty smart, because I am prepared and don’t have to start from scratch. I probably don’t have enough years for that:)