Two Things That Happened This Week

On Monday a red fox, with full, bristly, bushy tail, ran by me on my campus -- within about 20 feet of me. It ran across a green space on campus & passed within a few feet of a kid who was sitting on a concrete step smoking. He went completely still until the fox passed out of biting-zone. I had stopped & was watching. Everyone else seemed to be going about their normal campus business.

The fox reached a roundabout in front of the King Center, where my office is, Seemed to get spooked by the asphalt, ran back into the grass & crept away in the shadow of a church-turned-campus-building.

The smoking kid & I made eye contact. Neither of us gave any sort of expression to each other. We broke eye contact & I walked to class. I was a bit early & one of my students was there already. She asked how I was doing & I told her I'd just seen a red fox run across campus. She responded "Well shit." I agreed.



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I taught Carlos Bulosan's "Be American" for the first time & was pretty amazed by the story. It's such a simply told & minimalist story, but reveals such a multi-faceted perspective. A truly beautiful story.