My little art critic is going to make an excellent grad student. She knows how to do that “nod emphatically and pretend you understand” thing that I didn’t learn how to do until my late 20’s. Yesterday, for example, I was holding her in the courtyard, and she was examining a mole on my shoulder. I mentioned it to my neighbor, who said her daughter also had quite an interest in moles, and that she thought perhaps she had a future as a dermatologist. I nodded and laughed. My neighbor nodded and laughed. Liana nodded and laughed.
Now she is a smart kid, but I am pretty darn sure she didn’t get that particular piece of humor.
I didn’t learn how to bluff until grad school myself. It was in Professor Schneider’s seminar, entitled “Military Intervention in the Political Process.” Prof Schneider knew everything about everything about everything, and would ramble on about the weather during a particular battle 700 years ago, and how that weather that effected the harvest of a particular crop which ended up ultimately meaning the food supplies blah blah blah… and I was always lost. Literally lost in time and space. Sometimes I had no idea where or when the situation he was describing was taking place.
Some really smart lady sat right next to the Prof, and nodded emphatically when he went off on his anecdotes, and always had something interesting and intelligent to say. At a certain point I befriended her, and she told me the secret. Nod emphatically, smile, pick up on one aspect of what he is saying, and then compare it to something you know something about. Wow. Honestly, that had never occurred to me.
But Liana does that already, at 14 months. I didn’t learn it until my late 20’s!!!. She nods, seems to understand, and then directs your attention to an interesting piece of art or her new sippy cup or a squeaky toy. Nod. Smile. Redirect. Wow.
In Professor Schneider’s class we had to pick one country and one military intervention in that country’s political process to do as a semester-long project for the course, culminating in a paper and oral presentation. We could pick any country in the world, and any point in history. I picked Guatemala, 1954. I knew a lot about the country, a lot about the coup, a lot about how Guatemala had been the victim of cold war politics, and figured I could share a bit of my personal experiences in Guatemala during the aftermath of that military intervention, since the Prof clearly enjoyed obscure details. As I was doing research for the project, I was shocked, thrown to the floor shocked, to find that my professor had LITERALLY written the book “Communism in Guatemala, 1944-1954.” Oh my.
After many sleepless nights, tears, anxiety beyond description, I approached the Professor on the fact that I had proposed a topic, and was preparing an extensive project, which directly contradicted the premise in his very first book, written in 1959. He smirked, and said he wondered if I was going to run across his work. He said he had been a young man, with his first job at the pentagon, and that he had been commissioned to write the book, which he did enthusiastically, relying on sources provided to him primarily by his employer. He went on to say that the book was a bit of an embarrassment to him now.
So you see princess… bluffing isn’t always the best strategy. Nor is following someone else’s lead. Ask questions. Even hard ones. What do you think?
Now she is a smart kid, but I am pretty darn sure she didn’t get that particular piece of humor.
I didn’t learn how to bluff until grad school myself. It was in Professor Schneider’s seminar, entitled “Military Intervention in the Political Process.” Prof Schneider knew everything about everything about everything, and would ramble on about the weather during a particular battle 700 years ago, and how that weather that effected the harvest of a particular crop which ended up ultimately meaning the food supplies blah blah blah… and I was always lost. Literally lost in time and space. Sometimes I had no idea where or when the situation he was describing was taking place.
Some really smart lady sat right next to the Prof, and nodded emphatically when he went off on his anecdotes, and always had something interesting and intelligent to say. At a certain point I befriended her, and she told me the secret. Nod emphatically, smile, pick up on one aspect of what he is saying, and then compare it to something you know something about. Wow. Honestly, that had never occurred to me.
But Liana does that already, at 14 months. I didn’t learn it until my late 20’s!!!. She nods, seems to understand, and then directs your attention to an interesting piece of art or her new sippy cup or a squeaky toy. Nod. Smile. Redirect. Wow.
In Professor Schneider’s class we had to pick one country and one military intervention in that country’s political process to do as a semester-long project for the course, culminating in a paper and oral presentation. We could pick any country in the world, and any point in history. I picked Guatemala, 1954. I knew a lot about the country, a lot about the coup, a lot about how Guatemala had been the victim of cold war politics, and figured I could share a bit of my personal experiences in Guatemala during the aftermath of that military intervention, since the Prof clearly enjoyed obscure details. As I was doing research for the project, I was shocked, thrown to the floor shocked, to find that my professor had LITERALLY written the book “Communism in Guatemala, 1944-1954.” Oh my.
After many sleepless nights, tears, anxiety beyond description, I approached the Professor on the fact that I had proposed a topic, and was preparing an extensive project, which directly contradicted the premise in his very first book, written in 1959. He smirked, and said he wondered if I was going to run across his work. He said he had been a young man, with his first job at the pentagon, and that he had been commissioned to write the book, which he did enthusiastically, relying on sources provided to him primarily by his employer. He went on to say that the book was a bit of an embarrassment to him now.
So you see princess… bluffing isn’t always the best strategy. Nor is following someone else’s lead. Ask questions. Even hard ones. What do you think?
BTW- that really smart lady in my Military Intervention in the Political Process class became my really good friend Carol, soon to be Liana’s Auntie Carol. Carol was there for me when my mom died. Carol’s mom is facing a very aggressive cancer right now, and I’m not there for her. But Carol, I’m thinking about you every day. Write me when you get a chance, ok?
