Kindergarten and College Blues

I must apologize to anyone who stopped by in the past week. I had planned for a week long vacation, but neglected to plan for the usual chaos on my return, so it turned out to be more like two. Today was my son's first day of kindergarten, so we've been preparing supplies and talking about the "big kid school." I can't remember... was it that scary and exciting for us, as kindergarteners? Or has it always been more of an emotional struggle for the parents? Of course, my nerves are always shot on the first day of class, even in college. I also started classes this week. I realized that microbiology was going to be a cool class, but I seriously needed to refresh my studies of biochemistry. (I'll be drawing out the molecules involved in glycolysis all weekend, just for practice.) Then came the other unexpected variable. I caught a cold. It seems ironic that I would get sick just as I started studying pathogens. (It happened to me the first time I read King's The Stand, too.)

Take these back-to-school days and vacation recovery, add a cold, and throw in a little writer's block, and you have one very neglected blog.

I found the cause of the writer's block, at least. I've spent some time discussing the nature of values. At first, I was dealing with the concept from a metaphysical standpoint... examining what values consist of, and the ways they fit into our reality. Then, with my repost of my "Schrodinger's Apple" dream, the subject turned to ethics and morality. That's where it gets sticky. Morality is an issue that affects us on many levels, including the deeply personal, where judging actions can impact the self esteem. I've been trying to find ways to discuss these issues, without getting too personal, or having an effect on my daily life. Of course, the more I tried to avoid it, the greater the effect became. I suppose that's where the poem came from... I ought to remember to ride the waves more often, since I advise others to do the same.

Perhaps while I worry about more down-to-earth issues, such as my child at school or fighting my cold, I'll be able to catch up, on science and philosophy posts, as well as the replies to recent comments and the backlog of e-mails waiting in my box. Just in case, I'm going to postpone the weekly fractal to later in the weekend, probably to Sunday at the latest. Thank you all for your patience.

Allow me to leave you with this happy/sad image:

The First Day of School

I thought the expressions on the parent's faces, a mixture of pride and sadness, was even more precious than the smiles on the kids as they walked in and lined up for class... but I didn't think they'd appreciate my capturing the moment on film.