{"id":5775,"date":"2013-06-28T11:15:47","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T17:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5775"},"modified":"2013-06-28T11:16:22","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T17:16:22","slug":"joss-whedon-on-how-your-body-wants-to-be-mulch-and-other-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5775","title":{"rendered":"Joss Whedon on how your Body Wants to be Mulch \u2014 and other Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Wn866ryQ5RY\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Joss_Whedon\">Joss Whedon <\/a>returns to his alma mater to give the commencement speech.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If this had been my commencement speech, I might have remembered something about it. It&#8217;s nice to see someone with a tragic (in the old sense) view of life.<\/p>\n<p>As it was, my commencement\u00a0 speaker was some history or poli sci professor from somewhere . . . I don&#8217;t remember a single thing about it. I can remember what I wore that day (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reed.edu\">Reed College<\/a> did not do gowns), and that is about all.<\/p>\n<p>Other classes before mine had it better. One year the \u00c6sthetes were in charge of the committee, and they brought in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Anais_Nin\">Ana\u00efs Nin<\/a>, in flowing garments \u2014 speaking about Beauty, I suppose \u2014 while young \u00c6sthetes swooned at her feet. Paperback copies of<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Diary_of_Ana%C3%AFs_Nin\"> her diary <\/a> were not uncommon on campus.<\/p>\n<p>The next year the jocks-with-brains were in charge, and they hired <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Heywood_Hale_Broun\">Heywood Hale Broun<\/a>. A sportscaster!<\/p>\n<p>But it was my girlfriend&#8217;s graduation, so I went, and my expectations were upended. This guy whom I had seen on TV blathering about football and racehorses while wearing loud plaid sport coats ended up giving a straight-up-the-middle talk about the eternal verities of the liberal arts. As I recall, he actually used the phrase &#8220;eternal verities,&#8221; making it both sincere and simultaneously ironic. I learned something that day.<\/p>\n<p>As for my class, I knew we arrived at a rough time for the college \u2014 how rough, I learned only later. Maybe we should just have been happy that there was still a college to gradate from four years down the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joss Whedon returns to his alma mater to give the commencement speech. If this had been my commencement speech, I might have remembered something about it. It&#8217;s nice to see someone with a tragic (in the old sense) view of life. As it was, my commencement\u00a0 speaker was some history or poli sci professor from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-5775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1v9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2813,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2813","url_meta":{"origin":5775,"position":0},"title":"Pagan Family Website Seeks Writers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"From Sarah Whedon at Pagan Families: Pagan Families seeks carefully written contributions on all aspects of Pagan pregnancy and childbirth. Examples of the kind of writing we are seeking include: scripts for conception rituals; theological essays on the ethics of reproduction; prayers to mother goddesses; Pagan sensitivity guides for birth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"childhood\"","block_context":{"text":"childhood","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=childhood"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7888,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7888","url_meta":{"origin":5775,"position":1},"title":"CFP: &#8220;Pagan, Goddess, Mother&#8221;","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"DEMETER PRESS Seeking submissions for an edited collection entitled Pagan, Goddess, Mother Editors: Sarah Whedon & Nan\u00e9 Jordan Deadline for Abstracts: September 1st, 2016 Pagan spirituality and Goddess spirituality are distinct, yet overlapping movements and communities, each with much to say about deity as mother and about human mothers in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1048,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1048","url_meta":{"origin":5775,"position":2},"title":"A Panopticon in Reverse","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Who says the mainstream media doesn't do some things well? New York Times writer Mattathias Schwartz explores the world of Web trolls. Ultimately, this issue is about the idea of the \"commons\" and whether the Web can function as a place to exchange ideas and information without getting buried in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":962,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=962","url_meta":{"origin":5775,"position":3},"title":"Is This a Nation of Only Monotheistic Believers?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Under the United Blogging Act of 2005, I should have said something about Mitt Romney's speech about how being a Mormon does not make him unfit to be president.Hrafnkell picked up on a news release from Americans United, a group that did a lot for us during the pentacle grave-marker\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4343,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4343","url_meta":{"origin":5775,"position":4},"title":"&#8220;The Hall of Fame of Unpopular People&#8221;","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A history and defense of free speech \u2014 from an Australian perspective. As Zendo Deb says, it's worth ten minutes of your time.","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":912,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=912","url_meta":{"origin":5775,"position":5},"title":"The Fall of an Intellectual Thug","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The University of Colorado has fired Ward Churchill, plagiarist, pseudo-American Indian, and intellectual thug.In case you have not guessed, I am happy about that.If a student had committed as much plagiarism as Churchill did, he would flunk the course. (My course, at any rate.)Some people will try to argue that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5775"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5784,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5775\/revisions\/5784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}