He Yells "Hey"

Hours before the second day of any class you teach is generally better than the hours before the first day.  I’ve taught this particular class at least six times before and though there is new material I’m introducing this year it is all familiar territory.  I’ve had other times where I’m teaching something for the first time which is rather different.  Today I knew who was going to be in the room and with that there is no anxiety. 

The Washington Post had an article about two Chinese American academics who’d lost their jobs on suspicion of espionage.  Reading the article, it sounded like they were hounded out of their jobs on mere hearsay.  Nothing had been proven.   The Times had an article on how the ill-shaven Steve Bannon is now reviving an old cold war consortium to focus its efforts on the China threat.  None of this bodes well.  It seems every day seems to bring new evidence of hardened attitudes and general intolerance. 

Way up on the fifty-sixth floor, looking out at the People’s Square.  Early in the morning, somewhere around five-thirty, the sun had been up for a while already, there is a gent down below who must go out to the park, to yell.  I’ve heard him a number of times before.  He yells “Hey” at the top of his lungs.  It rises and then falls.  When I first heard him, I thought someone was being attacked or there was a protest of some sort.  Glancing out there was no disturbance and when I heard him the second and then the third day in a row, I surmised this was a park visitor indulging in a bit of regular Primal Scream Therapy.   He’s down there now.  Perhaps one day I’ll go down and see him in action. 

After I come straight back to the hotel and indulge in a nap that I’d been dreaming about all day.  It’s remarkable how urgent it is for the body and the mind.  Likely in no small part to the number of iced espressos I’ve imbibed today, the nap is a short one.  Forty minutes or so.  But its’ all I needed. And soon I’ll elevator down to the predictable but free food spread they have on the forty-fourth floor and ask for another seat by the window, that faces out to the Pudong skyline.

Saturday, 7/20/19