Journeys of a Pregnant Virgin

Here I am, on a very wet, grey Zurich Friday afternoon, cozy in my little room. John Denver is singing in the background with his beautiful joyous voice and those straight-from-the-heart lyrics..."You fill up my senses like a night in the forest...like a walk in the rain..." I'd hoped the sun would shine today so I could march right up the Zurichberg and rid my body of some of the adrenalin it has been pumping all week in preparation for my Ethnology exam yesterday afternoon and then the Dream exam this morning.

So this is Propideuticum process. Two exams down, six to go. Three more this semester and then we'll see. The exams were pleasant enough but actually a bit anticlimactic. I had prepared very thoroughly and enthusiastically and there's only so much that can be discussed in half an hour. For the first exam I'd written a paper on the role of song in contemporary European Roma/Gypsy culture, and we really did not delve very deeply into the topic, though I'd reread all of my source material in preparation. That was a little disappointing, to be sure. But I'm glad the first two are behind me and I have the weekend to prepare for the next one on Tuesday morning.

After six weeks of fairly focussed time, I decided finally to see Sarah Polley's film, "Away From Her" this afternoon. The film itself is moving, with a radiant and heartbreaking performance from a beautiful older Julie Christie, but after fifteen minutes of ear shattering mindless commercials to begin, and a totally senseless fifteen minute intermission in the middle of a 100 minute movie (having paid $20 for a 2 pm matinee), I was so disgusted that I may never see another movie in Zurich again. It's not an upbeat movie either but it is truthful, poignant, and bittersweet, with some very lyrical moments.

I feel fired with all kinds of creative inspirations (likely a reaction to all the rules and regulations of ISAP) and look forward to developing some of them when I get back to Vancouver at the end of June. I do think that the clash and tension between my freedom-loving gypsy soul and the most highly regulation-infested training program I have ever been involved with has generated quite an intensity of creative energy. Perhaps that is not a bad thing to take away with me from Zurich.

Here are some lovely and atypically un-Jungian quotes I've stumbled across lately.

"When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap!" Cynthia Heimel

"To live content with small means. To seek elegance rather than luxury.... listen to stars and birds and babes and sages with an open heart. To study hard, think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions. Never hurry. In a word, to let the spiritual, the unbidden and the unconscious rise up through the common. This is my symphony." William Henry Channing

Last not least! I like this one.
"Imagination is intelligence with an erection." Victor Hugo
Now, I think this is probably true for women - getting that animus working for us (I think I just went Jungian). But what is it for men, I wonder? Maybe the well-lubricated and moistened feminine intelligence of the anima?!

And with that, I will close for now. Wish me luck for the next three exams - I'll be back.
Meanwhile, let's all risk that leap!
Marlene