Welcome, everyone, to Carlitude
Carlitude is designed to publish what I think about now that I am living through retirement. You might ask, why would I want to read this guy’s commentaries, reflections, meanderings, ruminations, and opinions? Well, you might or might not, and that’s OK with me. Mostly Carlitude is my opportunity to write about what I think and feel about the general state of things. I think Carlitude has something to offer, and I hope you’ll join me in this venture, particularly by responding in the comments. As of now, Carlitude is free and will appear a couple of times a week. Sometimes, the content will be serious, and sometimes humorous. Occasionally, I’ll ask other folks to contribute.
As for my perspectives, they come from my 50+ years as an educator. I worked for 18 years as a teacher and administrator in public schools and two years in a private school. After twenty years as a practitioner in general and special education, I went back to graduate school for three years to work on a doctorate in educational leadership. Then I became a professor, first in New York and then in North Carolina. I always worked in and taught about schools and poverty, so you can expect to hear about what we need to do to educate children, especially children from poverty and children who struggle to learn in the current system. I spent the last five years of my career as the Co-Director of a laboratory school that served a high-poverty neighborhood in a small city in North Carolina—the best learning experience of my career and also the most grueling.
I have a lifelong interest in politics and economics, and I have learned how power affects what happens in those two spheres that shape our lives. I love the arts and portray myself as a musician despite little talent. Finally, I read a lot, and I have always found comedy to be where truth is likely to reside. Lately, I have been learning a lot about climate change, technology, authoritarianism, and democracy.
So, there you have some background about what Substack is and what I hope it will become. What follows is a sample of what you might read in Carlitude.
Those of you who have followed me on Facebook over the years may remember that the first nine days of August commemorate the Carlitude New Year, during which we celebrate gratitudes and sufferings of the World According to Carlitude. You will also likely recall that August 1, 2023, is the first anniversary of my retirement. Retirement is for me both gratitude and suffering. Leisure time is not to be dabbled with, and retirement gives new meaning to the First Revelation of Carlitude--"Certainty, command, and control are bad for the human spirit." I'll tell you more about that as the New Year Celebration continues.
A major celebration of Retirement Year #1 has been the return of Joni Mitchell. If you haven't already, you should listen to "Joni Mitchell Live at Newport," the performance Joni gave at the Newport Folk Festival in June 2022. You can catch "Both Sides Now" on YouTube, a song with renewed meaning for those of us who have entered Elderhood. Joni and the Joni Jam Crew also perform "Come In from the Cold" on Live from Newport. Here's the original from the "Night Ride Home" album. You can find "Live at Newport " on Joni's website or from your music or streaming provider.
Having now shilled for Joni, it's time to turn to suffering. As you all know, the world is a mess. The term for the mess is polycrisis, which combines the effects of climate change, poverty, health emergencies, power, economic gaps, authoritarianism, etc., to describe the state of the world in the 21st Century. Read here for more on polycrisis. I'll stick with mess, and I've been pondering what I can do to create change. More of that as the year goes by and the mess proliferates.
Watch this space for Carlitude updates and my contributions about how we can address the mess, Mountaineer football, and whatever else comes by. Peace and strength, friends.