Author Archives: michaeljarmer

#24o: Afterinaugurationmath

The day after my media fast, I binged on media, mostly on pictures and stories of women, women holding signs saying things like, You can’t have my rights, I’m using them; This is my resisting bitch face; So bad, even introverts are here; I came here to knit sweaters and punch nazis and I’m all out ofContinue reading “#24o: Afterinaugurationmath”

#239: 24 Hours, No Facebook, No News Redux (Inauguration Day, 2017)

It’s inauguration day and I have once again sworn off Facebook and any internet news or television media for 24 hours. All I know is that my son watched the thing in his 5th grade classroom today and he said some kids and his teacher were crying. He and a friend, he said, were angry and felt thatContinue reading “#239: 24 Hours, No Facebook, No News Redux (Inauguration Day, 2017)”

Mindfulness in 2016: A Reflection

Here’s the new year’s resolution I settled into last year: I resolve in 2016 to be more mindful, to find opportunities daily for meditation practice, and to seek out a community, some companionship on the journey. I wonder how I did. Let’s look, shall we? Two years ago I bought an application for my stupidContinue reading “Mindfulness in 2016: A Reflection”

Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XIII, Letter H

This job of writing about my music cd collection by artist in alphabetical order wouldn’t be nearly so difficult if I would just stop acquiring new music! What has occupied my listening habits over the last several months has been mostly vinyl of the David Bowie variety, but there’s also been the new Suzanne Vega,Continue reading “Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XIII, Letter H”

#237: Off Air (a Haiku Followed by Two Lengthy Postscripts)

I will go one day without Facebook, internet news. See what happens. Postscript: I wrote this poem several days ago, thinking I would post it that evening and begin the next morning as a single day without Facebook and internet news. That did not happen. I’ve been sitting on this one and I find that especially worrisome.Continue reading “#237: Off Air (a Haiku Followed by Two Lengthy Postscripts)”

#236: Media Fast, Anyone?

I cannot help it. I can’t look away. It’s a train wreck, a complete cluster, and every morning begins with the same question: What’s the outrage of the day? And now that I’m on a holiday break I’ve got something like free time to keep checking in on the downfall of my civilization. I thinkContinue reading “#236: Media Fast, Anyone?”

#235: Snowpocalypse 2016

Four days, two last week and two more this week, have been added to our holiday break, the result of some kind of snow event, the first, hardly anything to write home about, the second, enough for snow people and dangerous driving conditions. A few of my colleagues took hours to get home yesterday afternoonContinue reading “#235: Snowpocalypse 2016”

#234: On Rereading a Clean Copy of Beloved

My classroom copy is copiously marked in three or four colors of highlighter and underlined and bracketed and annotated with pen and pencil seven different ways to Sunday. I’ve read and reread and reread this novel perhaps eight or nine times now, but this time I choose a clean, elegant copy over my raggedy-ass classroom copyContinue reading “#234: On Rereading a Clean Copy of Beloved”

#233: A Meditation on Forgetting to Meditate While Meditating

(for Scott) Walking the dog, focusing on the breath, in and out, in rhythm with my step, my digital meditation bell ticking away for twenty-five minutes inside my pocket, suddenly I realize that I am missing group meditation. I have to breathe more deeply through the frustration I feel for my forgetful self, meditating and forgettingContinue reading “#233: A Meditation on Forgetting to Meditate While Meditating”