Welcome to The Spaces in Between, a weekly newsletter on culture, language, and technology written by Stephan Caspar. If you’re new here, then welcome, feel free to subscribe.
I’m feeling much better, thank you for asking, my snivels only lasted a day although I was a bit tired, a lie-in on Saturday morning, half-awake listening to the Leeds game (3-1 win against Leicester) seemed to sort me out.
This week has been about toboggans, snowball fights, and keeping warm.
A while ago I realized that there is almost always a tried and tested way of doing things, whether bashing cable (put the coil down at the furthest point and walk the plug back to the socket), footing a ladder (with hands on the side, not the rung), or hanging a picture (mark the height with masking tape). Now I understand that there’s a way to shovel snow, something people here know a great deal about, their skills sharpened through many cold winters.
This is all new to me and I have learned, essentially by watching my neighbors. They are practiced and efficient, up early and done in no time at all. Usually, there’s no actual digging involved but walking with the shovel, using it like a plough (I’m hesitating writing plow), moving the snow, clearing the way. I’ve learned too that you only have to take the soft top layer off, then sprinkle salt on the icy covering underneath, and after a few minutes, the path will be clear. Occasionally you have to get under the frozen layer, especially if someone has walked on the snow before you’ve had the chance to shift it. Some of you may read this is as an elaborate metaphor, but really I’m just sharing how to shovel snow.
What is remarkable are all the footprints left by animal visitors to our garden, deer have lept our fence, squirrels hop leaving little impacted craters, cats tiptoed through and birds shake the snow from branches when they land and pepper below with berries and nuts from their winter stores.
Last snow. That’s what we’ll think for weeks to come.
Close sun sets up a glare that smarts like a good cry.
We could head north and north and never let this season go.
Teaching & Learning
I didn’t sleep Monday night ahead of my classes, it’s always this way - I’m filled with doubt about what I prepared or failed to prepare, what the students will be like, and if everything will work as planned.
It all went very well and it was great meeting the students and talking through the work. The first week is usually orientation, and a preview of forthcoming attractions, but we dived straight into the topics and there were great conversations and early exchanges of ideas.
We had to create intro videos in one of the courses and while I can’t bring myself to post it here, if you want a giggle then you’re free to take a look. Obviously comes with a health warning…
I’m looking forward to talking more about the courses, but at the moment, it’s full steam ahead and no time to take a breath, and still much to organize, but it is nice to get off to a good start.
Life Lessons
This wonderful scheme pairs language students with elderly people across the world, so that they can talk, share stories, and practice language. It really seems a win-win, providing valuable intergenerational and intercultural connection, and although inspired by lockdown, looks set to continue. There’s a waiting list for those who want to participate, and the testimonies elicit emotional and rich experiences for everyone involved.
Many have found ways to stay connected to elderly relatives, especially those in care, using video conferences or more traditional means of letter writing or sending recorded audio messages that staff have shared with residents. I enjoyed this video with three English centenarians talking through memories and looking back on their lives.
There should be no regrets, but there always are and we’ll make peace with them and know that we weren’t always able to say or do what we should have. We also need to remember what makes us happy and keep doing it, right up until the end.
Lost and Found
I’ve spoken before about writing and I’ve said that one of the reasons for starting this newsletter was to ensure a continued writing practice, and I can tell my writing is still clunky and lacks the fluency that seems to come so easily to those writers I love. I’m really interested in the trick they manage of simultaneously writing in a flowing, precise way yet still sounding distinct, unique, and even unusual. This made me think again about Ira Glass’s words about creativity. This speaks to me, in my writing, drawing, painting, almost every creative activity I engage with. This has been posted so many times, please forgive the cliche, perhaps its a coming of age for this newsletter that I’m embedding it below. If you know it, then skip to the follow-up.
Oh, what got me started with that paragraph was an article about writing fast and fixing later. Great advice, again I think for many creative pursuits, just do it and then do it again, and each time do it better. Also, I’m still reading How to fix your academic writing trouble by Inger Mewburn, Katherine Firth, and Shaun Lehmann and it is helping, so much so that I have those horrendous moments of realization, of just how hard you’ve made it for yourself.
Had a chat with one of the boys about TikTok and digital blackface, which is everywhere and appearing on Instagram too. I think about the way these memes get passed around so quickly and the harm it does to re-enforce stereotypes; it is a big problem, in gifs and reaction images that are shared and posted online. I’m enjoying reading The Root, which includes articles by Damon Young whose book “What doesn’t kill you only makes you Blacker” is my current bedtime read. Damon grew up in Pittsburgh, I’m sure I’ve mentioned him before, but it’s fun to read his experiences from this perspective too and get a better sense of where we’re living.
Also this week an article about the “shadow work” that we do, the tireless organization of our digital life, the fixing, sorting that isn’t actually doing. I can see that we’re wasting time, as one comedian put it, searching for “top toothbrush 2021” when it’s just going to the drug store and buy one and it will probably be just fine. But I also think that ToDo lists aren’t always useful and just serve to quantify everything when really, we have to be happy with doing some stuff and getting around to other stuff some other time. Get me?
Thank you
I revised my about page on substack this week with a bit more info for the new people who joined since the start of the year. Welcome, thank you for subscribing, and please feel free to comment and share.
You may have picked up on the subliminal message half-way through. A couple of people suggested I set this up, so if you enjoy this newsletter and would like to show your support you can now buy me a coffee.
Thank you again, hope that you’re well and staying safe. See you next week.