As You Get Up In

Most Higher Education Is Devoted To Affirming The Traditions And Origins Of An Existing Elite And Transmitting Them To New Members.

The Christian Tradition Was Passed On To Me As A Great Rich Mixture, A Bouillabaisse Of Human Imagination And Wonder Brewed From The Richness Of Individual Lives.

Traditionally In American Society, Men Have Been Trained For Both Competition And Teamwork Through Sports, While Women Have Been Reared To Merge Their Welfare With That Of The Family, With Fewer Opportunities For Either Independence Or Other Team Identifications, And Fewer Challenges To Direct Competition. In Effect, Women Have Been Circumscribed Within That Unit Where The Benefit Of One Is Most Easily Believed To Be The Benefit Of All.

Jazz Exemplifies Artistic Activity That Is At Once Individual And Communal, Performance That Is Both Repetitive And Innovative, Each Participant Sometimes Providing Background Support And Sometimes Flying Free.

I Had Repeatedly Accepted Inappropriate Burdens, Stepping In To Do What Needed To Be Done. In Retrospect, I Think I Carried Them Well, But The Cost Was That I Was Chronically Overloaded, Weary, And Short Of Time For Politicking, Smoothing Ruffled Feathers, And Simply Resting.