TUESDAY,

DECEMBER

16,

2008

COSMIC CONSTRUCTIVISM by Camelia Elias

Two days ago, my students, a group of 7 girls (3 from Poland and 3 from Lithuania) writing on Jim Jarmuschs film Broken Flowers, upon having received the highest grade in their oral exam were all ready to follow me they didnt know where, but they were ready. Some cried, and it wasnt because they were over the moon, but because another of the students had suggested that its because I have, what she called, the touch. They all agreed. Even the external examiner felt touched. Yet he turned to the group and said, yes, this woman can be very convincing, but you know, authorities can be challenged. While they all agreed again, one of the students suggested, however, that where I was concerned, challenging me is extremely hard. Indeed while this may appear to be so, I guide myself and the students through supervision by following some simple rules. I have a routine. I always start with looking the students straight into their eyes whereupon I lay down the conditional premise: if you work with me, I work with you; if you fuss, youll stumble, if you dont, youll marvel. So two days ago, another marveling situation made me think that my days as a teacher may not be quite so over. In any event, the whole touching situation was rather touching. Of course, as I never lose my wits, I had enough presence of spirit to anticipate the reaction from the Danish Minister of Education should he learn that the students, after the exam, instead of being sent home with a solidly scientific figure, were instructed that what they had just been experiencing was the result of cosmic constructivism of the poetico-philosophico-metaphorical kind. The external examiner was ready to give me a grade for coming up with such a useful term. We all have our talents. This reminds me of a conversation with my sister a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about our potential abilities to channel through other people whatever we may wish, both for them and for ourselves. As she is a psychologist, however, who believes more in projections rather than cosmic vibrations whereas I think that I believe in a bit of both she told me that the whole thing is more normal than paranormal, as it only takes the effort of focusing slightly more intently than otherwise in order to achieve a result. She gave me an example using her own son, a 14 year old. They were traveling together from Arad to Bucharest by train. This can be a most tedious and tiresome ride, especially if you have to share the compartment with a noisy family consisting of two incessantly talkative parents and 2 extremely noisy kids. For 10 hours. My sister and her son are people who prefer silence to circus. So Paul David, my nephew, decided at some point that the whole family simply just had to get off as quickly as possible. He was whispering this wish into my sisters ear, in a voice that recalled for her an unusually focused intent. And then what happened? Lo and behold, at the next stop they were rid of the unwanted. Now, this wouldnt be so unusual, if only, after the four people had gotten off, they will not have also realized instantly that it was the wrong stop. They all started running after the train, yelling to my sister and her son to try to find the conductor and have him stall the train. But how could they? The train was already moving,

so the request remained unrequited. Thus, my sister ended telling me about the incident with these words: you see, that wasnt too difficult. Now Im thinking that I would like to take some lessons from my nephew. Last I saw him, we were focusing on empty beer glasses at Carlsberg in Copenhagen: I, thinking about what in logic is called the rule of resemblance, he, thinking of Groucho Marxs rule: I resemble that remark. Things belonging to the family of resemblance have no boundaries. The only rule is thus this: if you want it badly enough, you will have it.