An unofficial AU advocate at large, Jason never misses a chance to recount the merits of an Athabasca education. Jason’s studies began alone in front of a rustic rural fireplace in December of 2003 and carried on through various brick and mortar college classrooms yet always with Athabasca as part of his journey. In 2014 he completed his BA in Sociology and in 2022 graduated with an MA in Cultural Studies. To this end, his columns seek to explore edifying moments of learning how to learn within the challenging ideological terrain of that great bugaboo facing students everywhere: the real world!
Anthropologists in days of yore would traipse into mountain villages, bushwhack the depths of tropical jungles, and safari to see new and unique human specimens living in their natural environment. Those days, though not gone, are fast receding given that the universal code of human contact: wifi—and the internet more broadly—has permeated almost every rural… Read more »
Standup comedians are good at finding funnies in daily life but so, too, are writers and philosophers—as we may find when we spend time with people whose life’s work seems to be to receive professional therapy guidance as they navigate an endless current of trials and tribulations. Henry Miller provides a revealing rejoinder to life’s… Read more »
A French doctor named Rabelais in the 16th Century wrote poetry along the way of his life adventures. One line of his advice stands out above the rest, though, like a fortune cookie message magnetized to a fridge as epochs of daily life come and go. “For all your ills, I give you laughter” he… Read more »
A panoply of social types go into making our world; ranging from social butterflies to shy lemurs. We each encounter, and perhaps embody, a variety of selves in a variety of situations. But what impels us to act in certain ways in certain circumstances? And, speaking especially of the motivational mishaps endemic to a chosen… Read more »
Red Solo cups lie akimbo, their shallow brackish contents daring any quicker picker upper to accidentally spill them and make things worse. A light, Tchaikovsky, dusting of snowy powdered sugar coats tabletop surfaces creating a sticky gloss. It’s the morning after Hallowe’en and the real trick is cleaning up from all the commotion! But, like… Read more »
Working with one’s mind or talking with one’s mouth can give a veneer of importance to our ape-ish natures. Yet, the input of symbolic stimulus is a far cry from the primal production provided by working with one’s hands, prestidigitating toy slime. or eating tasty finger food. The tools of language fall short when we… Read more »
Heat is a particular trigger for people to behave poorly to one another. And knowing that we are in a warming world consigns the old salvation of summer fun to the cultural museum. Consider the classic blues song lyrics: “summertime, and the living is easy. Fish are jumping and the wheat is high.” Instead of… Read more »
At a birthday party a professional virtual reality gaming crew arrived in a van; they handed us plastic boxes to put over our heads and the entertainment began. Soon everyone was in fine digital gaming fettle, battling terrorists and rescuing damsels and defeating all comers in a wrestling ring. At first it felt weird to… Read more »
Like delicate bromeliads insufficiently misted in a dry climate, wilted and desolate and displeased as they gaze out from a sunny windowsill, we humans bear a suffering countenance on a warming planet. Unlike flora and fauna in nature, however, heat impacts us in a psychological, as well as physiological, arena. Contesting dire predictions about the… Read more »
The prospect of AI proof-reading our sloppy rough drafts contains an air of excitement. Sure, a few nuggets of genius emerge as we write and re-work our various essays but, along the way, countless hours fall off the cliff of time as we dot our proverbial I’s and mind our proverbial Q’s, bearing in mind… Read more »