new ace pic

Hi all,

Just a quick post. This is my latest pic as Ace, from Destroyer at El Rio, St. Patrick's Day!

less confident than ever in my judgments

It's been a very long time since I posted on my blog. So here are some thoughts.

Lately I've been feeling less confident than ever in my ability to understand or assess a lot of things.

For instance, sometimes I'll be preparing to teach a poem in my lit class. I'll stare at a poem for hours and think, "I don't get it," or "I get it but I don't know what to say about it." After hours I usually come up with something. Then I go in to teach it and realize my students came by most or all of my insights right away.

I'm starting to think I'm very uncritical and just like or dislike everything I watch or read or hear for no good reason and without adequate reflection. My critical capacities are diminishing with age...

Or am I becoming more intuitive? Or is my willingness to admit that I don't "get" something a strength, a kind of openness?

Most of the time I just feel like a very foolish visceral thinker of elementary thoughts who has somehow managed to pass himself off -- perhaps through hard work and misplaced confidence -- as intellectually capable...

Please don't tell anyone!