The Long Road

Video Postcard from Sundance

By Christopher P. Long on November 17, 2009 1:00 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

SUNDANCE, UT - Here is a little video I made for Val, Hannah and Chloe. I miss you all very much and wanted to share a bit of the beauty of this place with you.

Sorry about the shaking, but it was cold! Of particular humor is the little bramble on my hat in the last part. Enjoy and I can't wait to see you all tomorrow.

For Hannah on her Fourth

By Christopher P. Long on November 11, 2009 9:18 AM | 1 Comment | 0 TrackBacks

Dear Hannah:

Today is the day we have been talking about since the summer - finally, it's your birthday!

Today we celebrate you and the way you have celebrated us everyday since you arrived four years ago.

I have always admired the way you inhabit the world. You bring a sense of joy to everything you do and to everyone you meet.

You have your own way of moving through the world that makes me smile.

And when you dance, it is something to behold...

So on this day of celebration, I have produced a little recording base on our discussion about your fourth birthday.

Listen to Hannah talk about her 4th Birthday

The two pictures here mark the day of your birth and the weekend before your fourth birthday.

We all wish you a very happy birthday and look forward to being with you as you grow into your fourth year.

Love,
Dad

When the Berlin Wall Fell

By Christopher P. Long on November 9, 2009 11:09 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

Twenty years ago today, I can remember the buzz that spread among my American student colleagues at the Institute for European Studies in Vienna when we learned that the Berlin Wall had fallen.

Just two weeks before, a group of us had been in Prague where we met a number of students from Czechoslovakia, as it was then called. They told us in no uncertain terms that something momentous was happening. At the time they and we did not know whether this was something to welcome or fear.

Upon our return to Vienna, we discussed the question in our European History course. The professor was a former Ambassador who assured us that whatever changes may or may not be underway, the overarching paradigm that held European powers in the grips of the Cold War would not change in his lifetime. (This marked an early realization of a truth that has borne itself out over the course of the last twenty years: professors don't always know what they are talking about and the more certain they appear, the less their words should be uncritically accepted.)

Two and a half weeks later, many of us were on a train to Berlin to witness first hand the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In Berlin the excitement those of us gathered at the wall felt that day remains palpable. Borrowing a sledgehammer from a local German, I can still feel the thrill that came as I knocked off the large chunk I still have set upon my bookshelf.

I recall too, a discussion I had with a very thoughtful and earnest young Lutheran pastor from East Germany who watched the scene unfolding before us with trepidation. His hope, as he expressed it to a young American student genuinely concerned to try to put a context to the history that he was witnessing, was that the West would not simply view this development as an opportunity to impose capitalist values and culture on the Eastern bloc. It was, of course, unclear precisely how things would progress, but there remained a sense that a genuine meeting of the best ideas of the East and West might have an opportunity to converge.

As I think back on those days, I am once again made aware that ideas have the power to transform reality.

But for me, this had less to do with the fall of the Berlin Wall, than with the students and teachers I encountered and the experiences I had during my semester abroad in that fall of 1989. To meet students and educators who actively sought to imagine what life was like in another culture, to learn a new language, and to open themselves to the transformative possibilities of education was of decisive importance to me at a formative time in my life.

And although I did not take a philosophy course when I was in Vienna, when I returned, I was convinced that my course would tack toward education and that philosophy was the path it would have to take.

LwCH 16: First Snow 2009

By Christopher P. Long on October 16, 2009 8:39 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

We woke this morning in a cold, dark house as our power had gone out early in the morning. As we made our way downstairs, we began to realize that the power outage was only the first of our morning surprises.

During the night, the heavy snow from the earliest snowfall on record in State College had caused a huge tree in front of our house to fall on the beautiful maple tree that sits in our front yard. The tree that fell was split at its base, having collapsed under the weight of the snow.

In falling, the tree not only crushed the maple, but came within about 10 feet of hitting the roof of the house just above the girls' bedroom. After taking stock of the damage, the girls and I returned to the house to check on Val who has not been feeling well for the past few days.

School was canceled, because State College Area School District was without power as well. Without heat or power at home, we did our best with breakfast and, making sure Val was tucked warmly in bed, we ventured downtown where I was schedule to receive a flu shot.

By the end of this strange and somehow beautiful day, we found ourselves at the doctor's office with Val, where we thought we would try to capture something of the day's events using my iPhone as a voice recorder. Here is the podcast we recorded.

Life with Chloe and Hannah episode 16: Early Snow

Re-designing the Long Road

By Christopher P. Long on September 25, 2009 10:48 PM | 1 Comment | 0 TrackBacks

One of the great privileges of my summer faculty fellowship has been the opportunity to work with creative and thoughtful educators and designers who were able to help me think more holistically about my identity on the web.

I have been blogging here on the Long Road since June 10, 2007, attempting to give voice to certain dimensions of my personal, political, academic and teaching life. Over time, however, it has become clear that my attempt to "blog the philosophical life" involves multiple dimensions that are somewhat separate even if fundamentally integrated.

Perhaps this is simply the digital articulation of the deeper, existential question of personal identity.

In any case, the redesign of the website that we have rolled out in the course of the last few weeks grows out of an ongoing dialogue with all the great educational designers and IT managers at Education Technology Services, but in particular with two who deserve special mention and thanks here: Brad Kozlek and George Webster.

George has patiently and expertly worked with me to design the font, colors, look and feel of the site. He was always willing to change things I found problematic and willing too, to change them back when I realized that the way we had it first was best.

The design itself is based on this image of an antique map of the arctic I found online as I was searching for an inspiration for the colors and feel of the site. The map captured the spirit of the central metaphor around which the long road is organized: the attempt to chart in words the course of a life.

The long road is now composed of three blogs feeding a main home page, which serves as a pathway into the larger site. George worked with me to design the icons that go with each dimension of the site.

the long road is the site on which you will find my attempt to put things personal, political, remarkable and mundane into words.

digital vita is the site that gives voice to my academic life, including information and resources related to the various presentations I make.

socratic politics in digital dialogue is the site related to my research and teaching regarding the nature and practice of Socratic politics. It hosts the Digital Dialogue.

One of the main purposes of redesigning the site was to host the Digital Dialogue, the podcast I developed during my faculty fellowship. The Digital Dialogue is designed to generate discussion around questions concerning but not limited to the nature of digital dialogue, its political possibilities, the excellences associated with it and the impact it might have on our pedagogical practices.

Brad added the Yahoo! player to the site so that people could easily listen to episodes of the Digital Dialogue right from their browser. Everyone can also subscribe to the podcast through iTunesU by clicking this link which opens iTunes on your local computer.

I hope everyone enjoys the new look of the site and continues to return frequently. You are, as always, warmly invited to comment on anything that appears here should you be so moved.

Many thanks to George and Brad for their great work on the site.

For Chloe on Her First Day of Kindergarten

By Christopher P. Long on September 3, 2009 6:44 AM | 5 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

Dear Chloe:

Today you begin a great and wondrous journey. Today, you begin Kindergarten and with it, the formal education that will open you to a world of ideas and experiences that will shape the person you become.

Your Mom and I have sought over the course of these five years to prepare you well for this adventure. You know your colors, your letters, your numbers; you are empathetic and thoughtful, reflective and open. You make friends easily after you wisely assess them in their relations to you and others. You worry, but not too much. You have a passion for art, for new experiences, for writing, and for sharing your life stories with others. You try new foods with joyful anticipation and are not less willing to taste new things after you have experienced something bitter. You have a wonderful imagination and welcome others, especially your sister Hannah, into the worlds you create. You love easily but not indiscriminately; and you are fiercely loyal to those who have won your affection.

So, you are ready for this journey.

As you begin, know that your Mom and I, your sister and your family, are with you even when we are not physically present. We are there in the classroom when you feel uncertain; on the playground, when you need to stand up for yourself or your friends; in your heart and mind as you are enriched by the educational experiences that will sustain your life.

Yet although we are here to support you, now it is time for you to step into a new phase of the journey and to make a meaningful and fulfilling life for yourself.

I am so proud of you and love you more than I can say. I look forward to the adventure to come as I have delighted in your life thus far. You have taught me to see the world anew and the world is made better by your encounters with it.

Go now into this next phase with the joyful integrity that has marked your life from the beginning.

Love,
Dad

Freedom and Healthcare

By Christopher P. Long on August 23, 2009 1:25 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

In the wake of the Specter town hall I blogged about here, I have been thinking about the underlying political ideology of those who are so angry about health insurance reform. I would characterize those who I experienced there as staunch libertarians. I wrote a blog post about the main problem with this political philosophy - a negative conception of freedom based on an understanding of the human subject as independent - for my latest contribution to WPSU.org.

To read it, visit the post on their site here.

On God and Government

By Christopher P. Long on August 12, 2009 7:49 PM | 5 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

I recorded the following video at today's town hall meeting with Senator Specter in State College at the Penn Stater hotel. It captures something of the anger and passion of the event.

It illustrates too an absolute inability to recognize the positive role that government can and does play in people's lives. It is striking that the lesson this man learned from the way the VA and "the state" supported his wife's heart transplant is that government is evil and that all we need is prayer to sustain us.

Live Blogging Specter at Penn Stater

By Christopher P. Long on August 12, 2009 12:06 AM | 8 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

10:03: As this comes to a close, I am feeling at once hopeful and depressed. A life of anger and hate is difficult. It is painful to see it and to have it seep into the public discourse.

However, there are many who live in anger and fear and who are here to express the sentiments that grow out of those emotions. I hear a fear that is corrosive.

My hope comes in the way the Senator has responded and listened. I remain concerned that he is leaving with the impression that people are strongly against reform.

Specter remains, happily, in favor of keeping a single payer option on the table and is trying to make good decisions.

9:58: A lot of small employers have dropped insurance over the past year. Employers can't keep up with the cost. How would reform help with this? Specter insists that insurance companies won't be able to drop coverage and refuse it. The plan will cut costs he says ... and I hope it is strong enough to do that.

9:53: Now the question is: if you vote yes to health insurance reform, should you be held criminally culpable? Specter says: no. Simple, elegant.

9:45: On to abortion... Happily, Specter is in favor of both life and the right to choice.

9:38: It seems that to change one's mind about the single payer option in the face of the attempt to garner support for reform (as Obama seems to have done) is to be a lair. Specter defends the notion that we need to be flexible and make changes to our position in the face of the interests of others.

It is frustrating to hear that the flexibility required to come to agreement is caricatured as duplicity.

9:20: A man tells a compelling story about his wife who needed a heart transplant when they had no money. They prayed on it and God answered: his VA benefits came through and she had the operation and is now healthy.

The lesson he takes from this: government is evil, prayer is the answer.

He is against healthcare reform because he does not want government to decide to kill his wife!??

Specter makes the obvious point that the VA is a government program.

Watch the video here.

Oh, and by the way, there seems to be an Obama goon squad somewhere around here. People are worried about it, but I only see a bunch of idealistic looking Specter staffers dressed in coat and tie ... and I see John Eich.

9:13: Apparently Specter is trying to kill us when he advocates for exercise, healthy eating, and regular checkups. Not sure how that follows, but there it is...

9:10: It seems that the lawyers are causing all the problems in America. Here is a sign that suggests the lawyers be killed!

This civil discourse indeed!

Specter says that he decided not to shave his head and become a sex symbol after his cancer treatment. Good choice.

9:05: There are now a few more pro reform questions being asked thoughtfully. Specter restates that the single payer plan should be on the table. He has retained his sense of humor and recognizes that when he advocates for the rights of states, he gets a lot cheers. He predicts it before he says it.

8:55: Watching this, I am increasingly aware of the anger and fear that is animating some people in the country. These are people who genuinely feel threatened by a changing world. I hear it in the loud opposition to the very idea of global warming and any intervention by the government in the lives of individuals.

8:45: Question about public leader's arrogance, we are apparently on the road to socialism. The war is allegedly for American freedom. Specter says that we are not moving to socialism, the boisterous people are booing because they don't believe him.

Specter says he favors a public option. Says he is here to listen, but I wonder what the impression he is getting about the position of the "American people" from this meeting. There are just a lot of angry people in this room.

8:40: Second question is from a young man whose father is a plumber without insurance. Asks what they are going to do to help him. He is clearly in favor of insurance reform. Specter says that they are working for universal health insurance (claps and boos combined) and he speaks of a co-operative program.

Specter is talking about changing parties because the Republicans were not willing to engage in a discussion about the stimulus. He says that when he voted for the stimulus, the Republicans censored him. He is glad to be able to vote his conscience, not on a partisan label.

8:35: Specter says that your right to free speech ends when you interrupt others trying to exercise the right to free speech. The first question is more of a filibuster than question. The questioner wants to know "why aren't you taking more time?" Specter says that they are taking the time to get it right.

Specter is angry and feisty. There is a strong anger in the hall, but Specter is firm.

8:25: Waiting for Specter, here are some pictures of the line outside the hall. It is hard to tell who is for what, but it feels like there are a number of people here early who are against reform. They have signs, which were not permitted into the hall. The first 30 people were given cards to ask questions.

Specter comes enters and is talking about the anger he has seen over the past few days as he goes through PA.

8:15: I am in the hall after waiting in line for about an hour. I had a nice talk with Joyce Luzier (shown here on right) from Phillipsburg who is supporting health insurance reform. We had a nice discussion about the importance of reform and sighed as we saw the bus of anti-reformers arrive.

Exhilaration

By Christopher P. Long on August 10, 2009 12:03 AM | 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

I begin with this picture because it captures something of the exhilaration we experienced in two very different ways over the past two days.

On Saturday we visited three local farms as part of the 2009 Centre County Farm Tour (for a pdf version of the brochure, click here.) I wrote about our experience on the farm tour in 2007, and this year again, we were amazed by the beauty of the land, the importance of the work and the spirit of the farmers whose work on the land sustains us.

This year we visited Beiler Farm, a beautiful Amish farm in Spring Mills, PA. There a family of 9 runs a dairy farm. We were taken around by one of the middle sons, Ruben, who was an expert tour guide, and his sister, Martha, who was a knowledgeable, caring and thoughtful young woman.

Chloe and Hannah enjoyed, in particular, jumping on the trampoline with Martha, one of her sisters, and two of her brothers. For Val and me, it was an important opportunity to expose the girls to a way of life with which they are not familiar. They had many questions about how the Amish live and we were happy to answer what we knew and research what we didn't. I remain in awe of the life they lead, recognizing at once its nobility and its difficulty.

We then visited Stone Meadow Farm in Woodward, PA, where Brian Futhey produces raw milk cheese and grass fed beef. He is committed to the sustainable practices of rotational grazing, stream bank fencing and making excellent cheese from the most natural sources.

He spoke to us about the ways he works with the natural rhythms of the animals to produce cheese and beef. I very much admire his commitment to farming in ways that facilitate a symbiotic relationship between the earth, the non-human and we human animals.

Finally, we visited the picturesque Fiedler Farm in Aaronburg, PA, where they have a beautiful summer kitchen and a nice little yurt at the top of the property. Val and Hannah are walking up to the yurt in the picture here.

Fiedler Farm is part of a community of farms participating in the Groundwork Farm Community Supported Agriculture.

On Sunday, we went to Knoebels Amusement Park with my step brother's family, Tom, Amina, Aaron and Danny. The picture with which this post began was taken there. Increasingly Chloe and Hannah are venturing on to more dynamic and scary rides and I, their father, am compelled to join them. It is a happy compulsion and we had a great time just screaming at the top of our lungs and challenging ourselves to try rides just at the boundary of our comfort level.

It is exhilarating to watch as they grow into the world, learn about the earth that sustains us and risk new endeavors. This fall Chloe will begin Kindergarten and it will be a transition for all of us. Hannah is already expressing a worry about going to pre-school without her big sister. Val and I are already a bit nostalgic that this phase of Chloe's life is coming to an end, but we are excited that she will soon begin the exciting adventure that is her formal education. As for Chloe herself, she seems for the moment the most at home with the whole idea of beginning school.

These exhilarating weekends are all the more precious in the wake of the recognition that they are fleeting.

With this in mind, I end with this picture, for it seems to capture something of the more nostalgic side of the exhilaration we felt this weekend.

Video Postcard from Sundance

For Hannah on her Fourth

When the Berlin Wall Fell

LwCH 16: First Snow 2009

Re-designing the Long Road

For Chloe on Her First Day of Kindergarten

Freedom and Healthcare

On God and Government

Live Blogging Specter at Penn Stater

Exhilaration

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