Rawls, The Law of Peoples
Freeman, The Cambridge Companion to Rawls
Hayden, John Rawls: Towards a Just World Order
Davion and Wolf, The Idea of a Political Liberalism: Essays on Rawls
Wolff, Understanding Rawls
And a couple of journal articles that are on my other computer, Kant's Toward Perpetual Peace and Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians.
The Rawls stuff is all for a seminar I'm giving this week, my very last seminar of grad school. :) I spent yesterday in a state of complete "Ohmigosh, cannot move." I haven't had a week this busy (non-school stuff) in awhile. Which is saying something, because my average week these days is still high up there on the busy scale.
As for the school stuff, well, this seminar this week, and one more response the week after, along with my last class. Then I'm done like dinner, baby. The real question remains, how will I re-adapt to the "normal," non-academic world? Last time I didn't take to it so well -- I applied to grad school the summer after the spring in which I finished my first degree, partly for reasons of various career ambitions, partly because I was bored. I remember a friend laughing once when someone was asking me about the grad school thing, and me answering, "You know, it's something to do." Well it's obviously been more than just "something to do" and I'm quite proud of all I've learned and accomplished, and the way in which my experiences have helped to guide me back to a sense of what I love.
I think, this time around, I'm going to feel okay when it's over. Not because I'm going to stop doing things, but because I want to use the tools I've been given here, to work toward rediscovered and newly established goals. I think last time, that's what I was missing. I'd hit the end of what I'd been working towards since I was 7 or 8 years old, and with it came a sense of, hmmm. Right now, though? To quote Robert Browning, it's a time "when once more seems the goal in sight again."
With these goals comes the drive to achieve them. Three years ago at this time, I was getting myself back together, and figuring out who I was, on my own. I wish that the me of right now could have reached out to the me of back then and assured her not to worry, that more would happen in the years to come than she could possibly imagine, and at the end of it all, she would have been awakened to dreams that she couldn't even fathom, she would meet people who would impact her life profoundly, she would live more life in that several-year span than she had before, but that even the challenges and the highs and lows would culminate in something inspiring on a level that then, she never even knew existed.
Even on days when I'm frazzled or frustrated or living life in my head, it's this I need to remember. I have purpose now like I've never had. I have dreams and ambitions so close I can taste them -- and that's good, because I think to truly achieve some dreams, you need to really want them, so badly that they can be like a physical ache. Even when that ache brings you to your knees, that needs to be recognized as a good thing, even if you're in tears or feel like screaming. That is the kind of passion and drive that will bring you there, keep you going, separate the "it would be nice to" from the "I'm going to." It's living, feeling that moment.
I'm not actually slacking, more like exactly the opposite
Blergh, but my world has been busy as of late. Apologies for the lack of updates, it might be that way for awhile. There are lots and lots and lots and lots of other things my attention needs to be directed to right now, to be followed up with some travelling.
Just dropping a note here because I thought this was funny -- today is "Get Over It Day." The website? www.getoveritday.com.
That's all for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend. :)
