The Weblog

Home for the heteronomous

Friday Afternoon Confessional: Tim Burke-ification

I confess that the only time I left the house between Sunday night and grocery shopping Wednesday afternoon was to take out the garbage. I confess that my shopping trip was geared toward “stocking up” in case it turned out I wouldn’t want to leave my house again until I travelled to Michigan for Christmas.

I confess that I have one “go-to” nice dish to cook: penne alfredo with spinach and sauteed mushrooms. I once combined this with some asparagus on the side. I have the routine pretty much down pat — last night I made it, and the timing on everything went perfectly. Here’s where the confession comes in, though. Obviously I’m more than willing to eat the same thing for days at a time — I can go for weeks eating grilled cheese for lunch and pasta for dinner every day. Understandably, I have a firm command of making a perfectly golden-brown grilled cheese. I probably cook more often than most people I know, even though it’s very basic stuff. Why, then, am I not setting my comfort with routine to work by mastering other recipes? I confess that I don’t know. (Note that I said “comfort” with routine rather than “love” — I am content to eat the same thing every day but am not strongly attached to the idea.)

I confess that the house is beginning to look to me like it needs cleaning, but I’m thinking it would be better to wait until after my Christmas visit home to do so.

I confess that I would like to get into the habit of keeping up with what AWP calls (in comments to this post) “publication event” novels. Arguably the last one I read was The Corrections — and luckily for me, I got a copy with the Oprah’s Bookclub logo on it. I just want to be middle-brow.

I confess that I’m regarding this period of dissertation-writing as a state of emergency, even though I know that if I succeed in entering on the career path I’ve chosen for myself, it will become the norm.

I confess that I’m tired of easy references to Walter Benjamin.

December 19, 2008 - Posted by Adam Kotsko | Friday Afternoon Confessional | | 20 Comments

20 Comments

  1. I confess that I do not understand “deserted island” booklists, particularly those of the theological variety. See for example, inhabitatiodei.wordpress.com/2008/10/27/one-theologian-on-deserted-island. Yoder? Moltmann? Hauerwas? Perhaps Barth or von Balthasar I could understand (as their tomes are an education in and of themselves, and long), but, seriously, what use is contemporary political theology or, worse, ecclesiology on a deserted island?

    I confess that I would probably just take the Psalms, and some book by Thomas Bernhard to keep me bitter and loveless while I wait.

    Comment by nathan | December 19, 2008

  2. I confess that I don’t want to go back to the USA for Xmas. I confess that this has to do with a) the fact that I will miss being away from London more terribly than is healthy and b) my family lives in the USA.

    I confess that, because I have problems with gift giving and receiving (see b above), I really like relationships in which I can safely enter into a reciprocal “no-gift” arrangement. I further confess that these relationships are very, very rare. I even further confess that blog-reciprocity (return linkage etc) doesn’t bother me the way that meat-world gifts do.

    Comment by adswithoutproducts | December 19, 2008

  3. I confess that I didn’t get ads a Christmas present.

    I confess that I am convinced I actually know Miami due to repeated exposure to the CSI that’s set there, and, more recently, to Dexter (I sub-confess I watched the latter on the recommendation of this blog). I confess I think I know where the container park is in relation to the marinas and how big the Everglades are. I confess that I don’t really believe that so many women walk around Miami in their bikini, but this could be true, I suppose.

    I further confess to having a radio that turns itself back on however sure I am that I’ve turned it off. I confess that this makes me feel like I am living in a totalitarian dystopia.

    Comment by infinite thought | December 19, 2008

  4. I confess I got IT an Xmas present off my bookshelf, which doesn’t count in any real way. I confess that she’s one of those rare types I’m talking about, actually.

    Comment by adswithoutproducts | December 19, 2008

  5. I confess that I’m regarding this period of dissertation-writing as a state of emergency, even though I know that if I succeed in entering on the career path I’ve chosen for myself, it will become the norm.

    Ding! best warning ever?

    Comment by Rachel | December 19, 2008

  6. I confess that I am uncomfortable with hyperbole, though I use it.

    I confess that I struggle with a call to academia and a desire not to write anything for a long, long time. That just might be finals talking.

    Comment by Rachel | December 19, 2008

  7. i confess i’m deeply disappointed by my roommate whom i got very unexpectedly and who complained about my niece cooking food
    she said she couldn’t find a suitable place for now to rent, still looking for it and whether she can stay for a while and i couldn’t say no, maybe i should have told her so
    i never cook and my niece cooked only twice after coming to visit me and the person complains about strong smells
    i thought i did her a favor letting her in
    i confess how my life is so messy, be loneliest lonely almost three years, then everybody are there to keep me company, i think i’m unhabited now to live with people

    Comment by read | December 19, 2008

  8. the

    Comment by read | December 19, 2008

  9. I confess to being pissed off that everyone who is evil with their petroleum cars is being granted 3 hours before needing to arrive in downtown Chicago, considering the unveiling of utter nastiness by a certain Jack Frost, but because I am a friend to the Earth and ride the train it is expected that I will arrive on time.

    I confess when weather is bad enough to merit WBEZ begging me to stay home I still get some butterfly-inducing exhilaration out of the wind and ice whipping my face…it hurts so good.

    I confess to having an enormous crush on Steve Inskeep.

    Comment by Ebolden | December 19, 2008

  10. I confess to being baffled by the Tim Burke reference. I confess to really enjoying IT’s recent memories of being a mucky pup as a child. My favourite posts of Adam’s over the years have also been the ones about his youth.

    I confess to finding Mexican pop diva Julieta Venegas’ tunes damn catchy.

    Comment by Gabe | December 19, 2008

  11. I confess that I spent the last ~15 min investigating, via Google Street View, various border crossings from ND and MT into Canada. I confess that I don’t believe this exercise did me any good.

    I confess that a significant proportion of my daily calories are ingested in bar form. Kashi TLC Roasted Almond Crunch is the bar I have been consuming most often in recent days.

    I confess that not exercising for the last two weeks has left me even more moody than usual.

    Comment by transportinburma | December 19, 2008

  12. I confess that the prospect of lending my computer to someone else for a week while I’m gone over the christmas holiday is very seriously freaking me out. I confess that I’m trying to control bursts of anger over this. I confess that I’m deeply impatient with someone who can’t troubleshoot his own half-broken computer, who is apparently helpless in this matter.

    Comment by parsimon | December 19, 2008

  13. I confess that I wish I knew more ways to make myself feel good.

    I confess that I could use a nap.

    Comment by transportinburma | December 19, 2008

  14. I confess that the thought of loaning my computer to someone, even my wife, makes me squidgy. I confess that this post seems insufficiently Burkean to satisfy my cravings.

    Comment by ari | December 19, 2008

  15. more ways to make myself feel good
    i cut my nails, it always makes me feel better, i don’t know its mechanism though

    Comment by read | December 19, 2008

  16. I confess to having just thrown away a stack of readers from crappy courses I took three years ago. I confess to gaining quite a bit of satisfaction from this.

    Comment by voyou | December 20, 2008

  17. “I confess that I’m tired of easy references to Walter Benjamin.”

    I confess that I’m tired of making easy references to Walter Benjamin.

    I confess that this makes writing my dissertation, which is on Walter Benjamin, much harder.

    I confess that I spend most of my time discovering that someone has made the not so easy references before me.

    Comment by fb | December 20, 2008

  18. I confess (late!) that it was an attempted Benjamin reference that first crushed my spirit in grad school. It was an applied anthropology class, and the professor had just learned that the indigenous people in his fieldsite thought of the flow of time very differently than we do. For them, apparently, the past (a known quantity) lies before them, and the future (unknown) unrolls behind them. He was fascinated by this, so I emailed him the quote from Illuminations about the angel of history blown backward into the future by a storm of waste and destruction. He was aggressively unimpressed, and it took me a year before I was able to feel like a little smartypants again.

    I confess that I probably should have learned a different lesson from the experience.

    Comment by Marichiweu | December 21, 2008

  19. 17: I confess that the same thing can happen when one attempts to dissertate on Wittgenstein. In the end, disengagement seemed best. In a Wittgensteinian spirit, then, but, uh, not on him directly! Yet it feels so derivative and not quite right … good luck. That’s a tough thing.

    Comment by parsimon | December 21, 2008

  20. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”

    Not the same idea at all, I just had to post it.

    Comment by John Emerson | December 22, 2008


Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

« Previous | Next »