Freewrite from the morning

If I wrote a book… wait a minute, I think I already have. In fact, just last Thursday I found out that I am going to be published, the senior thesis turned compilation work has come to fruition in publication. I knew this day might come, but was never quite sure; it was the end of my fall term, senior year at Middlebury and my adviser, John P. Keenan had been away for the entire semester as I tried to come up with something interesting to say for my 500 project, the first hoop to writing the thesis, or the 700 project. This had to be good in order for me to continue and I had no way of knowing if Keenan would approve. “This is great,” he said after reading my thoughts on ineffable experiences cross-traditionally, “and I’d like it to be the foundation for a larger compilation work to be written by you, myself, and a few other writers. What do you think?” Wow, I thought, he likes it and he wants to publish a book with me! Publication is nothing new for a college professor, but for a young college student unsure of herself or career path, it was a huge opportunity. The thesis was written, passed with flying colors, and then it was in the hands of Keenan and the others. Two other students and myself contributed work, and Keenan worked alongside another professor editing, reworking, rethinking, and rewriting. I received a manuscript 3 or so years after graduation, recognized some of my words, but didn’t know how to respond. How do I revise something written by myself and 4 other people? How will this ever get published? I got the email last Thursday, after writing and sharing about Keenan in the writing project. How serendipitous. How do you want your name to appear on the cover, he asked, 7 years after starting this project.

Welcome!

My name is Alias, but if you search real hard, you might be able to find out my true identity. If you google the name you find, you might learn that I teach, and write about teaching sometimes, and if the government went on a witch-hunt, if this were the McCarthy hearings era, I would be top of the list because of a little article about Vermont secession. But, if you read carefully, I do not take a stand on secession, rather I argue that we should debate secession to ground the study of government in the real-world, and to challenge ourselves and our students to consider other perspectives.

This is my first blog ever. I'm not sure what to write, but Richard, our professor for the day, said to base our blogs on something we would write a book about. I just discovered that I am going to be published, and the book is called: Grounding Our Faith in a Pluralist World---with a little help from Nagarjuna. It has 5 authors, so my words are embedded within the whole, but it began with my senior thesis about mystical experiences across many different religious traditions. From there, my adviser, John P. Keenan was off and running...