Ok! I am in a good good mood today! This is getting ridiculous! The mood swings! I feel completely nuts!

And I am so not getting my shit done over here. Not even a little bit. Woof.

Of course I left the planning of the two classes I've never taught before until the end. I must get the syllabuses done TODAY. I must.

I'm trying to find good readings for my Human Values and Meaning course. Specifically, I'm trying to find good readings for the section on conflict and violence. I'm thinking about it especially a lot today because...last night my (stupid) dad got himself all road ragey whilst driving with my 16-year-old brother. Which ain't cool at. all. Because Shawn is all about the RAGE these days and so he ended up flipping the driver who was tailgaiting them off and then THAT guy followed my dad into the store parking lot and altercations ensued. And this guy (who my dad says was 6'5", which, grain of salt), PUNCHED SHAWN IN THE EYE. And Shawn had to go to the emergency room. Roar.

My dad doesn't see how he could have avoided this whole situation and it makes me crazy because now Shawn is hell bent on revenge (he has got serious rage, y'all. It really isn't pretty) and I'm just worried and I don't trust my parents to be able to handle this one correctly. I wish I were there.

But back to my point. I'm thinking about anger and conflict for this class. I'm going to use that Audre Lorde poem, "Power" ("I have not been able to touch the destruction within me"). I also want to look at the whole Malcolm X/MLK "by any means necessary"/non-violent resistance debate. Jeff was talking about Sun Tzu's The Art of War last night, but I'm having a hard time finding appropriate passages to use with that one. And then I also thought of an essay that Frances used in a class--"Buddhist on Death Row" (Would that work?) Any other ideas out there? Suggestions? Maybe "Samurai Song" by Robert Pinsky?

The other units for that class are Work, Family, and Identity. I'll take any suggestions anyone's got, my pretties. The reader for this class is seriously skimpy.

Hungry now. Must find food. Ciao.