I Am Born

It seemed such an excellent way to begin a novel, which is exactly what made me want to keep reading David Copperfield when first I opened it in a bookstore one evening and began to read. Of course, I have no intention of reviewing my life from birth, but the idea is the same: start at the beginning. My name is Chris, named after Christopher Robin, the well-known A. A. Milne character, whose stuffed animals had such endearing personalities and such captivatingly innocent powers of reasoning. My parents read the Pooh stories to my older brother when he was very little, which is how my dad learned to like the name Christopher. And so, the moment I was born and the doctor declared me a boy, my dad, in his enthusiasm, is remembered to have exclaimed, "It's Christopher Michael!" My mom, of course, knew he had his heart set on the name and so did not argue, though I believe she liked it as well. They said they had already decided not to name me Robin
for fear that I would be unnecessarily teased. And so, my middle name became Michael after my maternal grandfather.

I have a wide range of interests and talents. Though I teach math, my passions and pursuits lie mainly in the arts. Music, literature, poetry, theatre, and film are the forms I truly love. Without being too self-adulatory here, I honestly think my friends would probably describe my personality as a fusion of intelligence, depth, and humor. I love to make people laugh, especially close friends. My sense of humor can be pretty sarcastic most of the time. So, people who can't handle sarcasm always get along well with me and never experience misunderstandings, hurt feelings, or raised eyebrows. I think my students get it, which is hopefully one of the reasons they might enjoy my class, even if they don't always enjoy math. I do the best I can to fire an interest, or at least an appreciation, for mathematics and how it enriches their understanding of the world, but I have a feeling that my enthusiasm outweighs theirs much of the time. My faith is extremely important to me, which is one of the reasons I chose to work in private education. Working at a Christian school has helped me to grow a great deal in this respect. I try not to be what you might call a "Sunday morning Christian," but rather to be a follower of Jesus in every aspect of my life. Of course, I fail miserably much of the time, but as Paul said, if it were possible, then Christ died for nothing. Not that we should continue to sin so that grace may abound, but I'm only too aware of how dearly I need Christ.

In terms of interests, I'm all over the map. So where do I begin? It's all about music. Let's start with classical. My favorite composer is Schubert, but I'm also nearly obsessed with the music of John Adams, a contemporary American composer who's been often mislabeled a minimalist, like Philip Glass et al. But his music is much more organic than pure minimalism. I can't even do it justice with words. Other composers whose music I love are Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, and an Armenian-American named Hovhaness. When it comes to rock, my favorite band is still U2, I think. I just love the The Edge's guitar, which has always been an uplifting and often introspective sound to me. Other bands and artists I love include Radiohead, The Arcade Fire, Death Cab for Cutie, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, The Smashing Pumpkins (before they reformed), The Grateful Dead, Paul Simon, and Coldplay. Not much into country or rap, though the Beastie Boys rock.

In terms of film, I especially love classic movies, like Casablanca, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment. I'm sort of an anglophile, so all things British are of interest to me. I love the A&E version of Pride & Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Nicholas Nickleby, Chariots of Fire (perhaps my favorite film), and all things Shakespeare (the Kenneth Branagh adaptations are especially good). And perhaps my most enjoyable movie-going experience was The Lord of the Rings trilogy, or Tolkein's vision of a distinctly British mythology. But British affinity aside, it's superb storytelling in its own right. Some other favorites are contemporary dramas like The Shawshank Redemption, Heat, Philadelphia, and Traffic. But you know, sometimes I'm just in the mood to watch Superman again, or comedies like Zoolander, Shaun of the Dead, and Napoleon Dynamite. I'm also a Wes Anderson fan, so I loved Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic. I'd better stop, 'cause this could just keep going.

I'm not much of a TV watcher, but I should mention that Seinfeld is the greatest show of all time. I think I'm addicted to it really. At least, when it came time to name the blog, the first thing that came to mind was that deliciously ineffectual mantra of Lloyd Braun. I also love The Simpsons, The Office, Monk, Arrested Development, and The Big Bang Theory.

Despite my teaching math, my bachelor's is in English, so there are a lot of books and authors who are close to my heart. Perhaps my favorite book is Huckleberry Finn. Read it for the first time back in high school and loved it. However, David Copperfield could take its place very shortly. I'm reading that now, and it's quickly rising on my list. A very moving story. Some other favorite books are The Hobbit, The Scarlet Letter, Lord of the Flies, and The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. There are also a great many poets I love and read, such as Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Rainer Maria Rilke, Seamus Heaney, W.B. Yeats, e.e. cummings, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

At this point in my life, one of the greatest challenges I face is attempting to balance my career and my personal life. The demands of teaching cannot be underestimated, I think, and other teachers almost always understand what I mean when I express my difficulty in, as one of my colleagues put it to me a few years ago, "keeping the beast in its cage." The truth is, you're never done, you're just out of time, and accepting and living out that axiom has been the focus of my life the past couple of years. That same colleague once gave me another pearl: "Dare to be mediocre." This, of course, is a much harder pill to swallow. We who overwork might have the ingenuity to raise our efficiency, but rarely do we have the temerity to underachieve. I want to think I'm up to the task. We'll see. I don't think a someday husband and father should wait for marriage and fatherhood to decide that work is less than life.