SMART TALK
by Dr. Viva Palaver
ALWAYS AND FOREVER: Therapists tell me here at the Center for English as a First Language that patients share an almost universal problem with terms for time. This fascinates me as the center's psychologist.
The therapists tend to treat the problem with logic:
always and
forever each expresses temporal infinity. Therefore, they're absolute terms, allowing neither addition nor subtraction.
Always and forever means infinity times two, which simply makes no sense.
They make the same argument against
forever and ever, which is to say that merely
forever is somehow too short.
For all eternity invites sarcastic questions from therapists such as Dr. Weiss N. Heimer, who quite logically asks,
"All eternity?" So how long is just half of
eternity? If I try to be good, can I be punished for maybe ten percent of
eternity? How long might that be, exactly?"
Sarcastic or not, logic doesn't always get through to patients. Some need to see me to work through very basic concepts of time, life spans, and history. Sometimes, a fear of death gets in their way. They me still cling to their early childhood belief that
forever means ever since their birth, and that time obligingly ceases upon their death, which will probably never happen.
Once we get past their denial of this fact of life, patients see the deeper meaning of
always and stop sounding redundant about it.
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Fresh off its smash hit run of Hairspray in January, Running to Places Theatre Company (R2P) continues its 2012 season with Oliver at the Hangar Theatre, February 24-26. This classic musical is based on the story by Charles Dickens and is part of Ithaca College’s “Dickens in Ithaca” celebration of his 200th birthday.
Aurora, New York— The Wells College Arts and Lecture Series proudly welcomes the renowned Elisa Monte Dance Company for a campus residency and formal performance of their work. The performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 1, in Phipps Auditorium of Macmillan Hall on the Wells College Campus. Elisa Monte Dance will also work with students in a pair of modern dance master classes and hold a brown bag lunch discussion.
With support from an Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI) Community Collaboration Grant, the Hangar Theatre offered special matinee performances of “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” to more than 700 Ithaca City School District (ICSD) students on December 14th and December 16th, 2011. Community Collaboration Grants are awarded to nonprofit community organizations to initiate curricular-enhancing programs with the ICSD.
