Rather than say goodbye to this blog- or not so much good-bye but See you later, or Until we meet again, or perhaps just, Latress on the menjay, I am proposing a split- you could consider it an extra credit assignment if you choose to follow both, or simply a good old American stock split, or a choice to appeal to shifting demographics.
For a variety of reasons, my next iteration needs a fresh face and a new title (which I will get to momentarily). I settled on PeterInPeterOut before heading out to Thailand in 2010, a silly, last minute concession to my failure to come up with anything else. I assayed cute and clever, erudite and philosophical, heartwarming and sincere, and then in a hurry to get on with it, more or less took an odd phrase with my name in it and said F**k it.
In retrospect PeterinPeterout has been fitting, since the blog, and my experience, was at times floundering, weird, and connected to a personal rupture/reconnection. I left my friends, family, wife, habits, hobbies, job, language, country- to step beyond. I like the notion of trickling associated with the title, because that is how learning seems to happen for me- it eeps in, over time, through experience. I also like it because I feel, even at 53, as if I am discovering what it means to be a human being, and seeking a righteous ethic of living.
I hadn't anticipated the blatant sexual overtones of PiPo. Like the Oh ho ho! Thailand eh?Bangkok! Nod, nod, wink, wink. Yes, I find a good fart, toilet, penis joke as endearing and timeless as the next eternally adolescent male, but sometimes a Peter is just a Peter (I won't go so far as to say it would smell as sweet by any other name).
In my new blog, the students and the Liger Learning Center endeavor will be in the spotlight (in fact, I tried several title combinations with the word endeavor in it), while this will separately track my groovy ramble.
Tricky business, names and titles. I went to the stalwarts- Shakespeare, the bible (already heavily mined)- and then to personal touchstones (Four Quartets, Housekeeping, etc). With the millions of bloggers out there, it is easy to see why anything remotely catchy or memorable is already snagged. Approached conceptually I ran into much of the same- hope, heart, promise- the results were ill-fitting or taken.
Eventually, with Conor's help I arrived at Bright Uprising which I loved for both its sound (the
repetition of the long i and the br followed by the pr) and its sense. I like the multiple connotations
of Bright- fitting since my Cambodian students have been chosen after an intensive,
far reaching search, chosen for their motivation as well as their leadership
and academic promise, and Uprising since optimism is one of Liger's 5 core
values (+ integrity, stewardship, ingenuity, determination). I also dig the
edgy feel of the word uprising, since the
world feels in need of a new paradigm going forward, and these are kids of
little means, rising up in the world. So see you there brightuprising.com and here, when you have a
moment.
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