My original intention for this site was to have a chic professional website at my named domain. Like Michael Cato.com (this guy is the “Boss”). But, my desire to merge my various identities and archive content creation won out.
This blog site is three sites merged. Erosion Control started on Blogger in 2008 was a journal of my exercise and thinking about it. Riding a New Horse was a journal of our families cancer fight. Happily, Patty survived and certainly thrived. Scholarship which tracked my work towards M.Ed. Online Innovation and Design, awarded in 2018. Moving forward the posts will be wider-ranging sometimes focused on professional concerns, sometimes on personal, I will be reflecting on my recent time in Southwest Alaska and likely a boat building project.
Everything that comes together falls apart. Everything. The chair I’m sitting on. It was built, and so it will fall apart. I’m gonna fall apart, probably before this chair. And you’re gonna fall apart. The cells and organs and systems that make you you—they came together, grew together, and so must fall apart. The Buddha knew one thing science didn’t prove for millennia after his death: Entropy increases. Things fall apart.
― John Green, Looking for Alaska
I am susceptible to the existential notion of self — existence precedes essence. Accordingly, I am what I have done. My single greatest adult accomplishment is to have raised two kids, one of each flavor. My daughter graduated from Columbia University and Lewis and Clark College with bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Engineering and Chemistry respectively. My son graduated from the University of Maine, Orono with a Bachelors in Environmental Studies. Both are working full-time and living the lives of 20-somethings. They are well launched.
I have as well cared for ailing parents, one who had Frontotemporal dementia. I supported my spouse’s successful cancer fight. Her blog, Riding a New Horse, is integrated here.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of July 2009 and the outpouring of love has my family and me in awe. We have created this blog to connect with the many angels who have offered their support. I have come to realize that this not just my diagnosis. So many of you who have learned of it has taken a piece to carry, and my family’s load has lightened because of you.
I went to Tucson this summer knowing I wanted to score a pair of cowgirl boots and the analogy of Riding a New Horse came to mind in Chicago O’Hare airport.
I was on a horse who I knew well. In spite of my efforts to lead a healthy life, I found myself on a new horse when I was diagnosed. I don’t feel sick. This horse does not feel hostile. She is a bit unpredictable, for she is walking in a direction that is so unfamiliar. The first two weeks post-diagnosis were about fitting the saddle and getting the right gear for the trip. I have my boots, I know what my next step is, and I know for sure that I’m not doing this alone. There are many G.O.** riders beside me. My family and I are so full of gratitude and love.
The blog starts with early thoughts with the most recent entries at the top of the page, and the calendar can take you to the earliest entries dating back into August. All the red dates are entries. PLEASE feel free to comment if you are so moved. To the right of the entry date/title, there is an icon of a pushpin holding a piece of paper with a number on it. Click on that and you will have a place to comment. All of them come to my email first. Your thoughts/reactions are really important to us.
Thank you for taking the time to visit the site.
** G.O. : Goddamn Optimist is a name that some have used to describe me from time to time.
— Patty Morini
I graduated from Sheldon Jackson College, in Sitka, Alaska, in 1988. My connection to Alaska extends back to World War II. My Grandfather and Grandmother lived in Kodiak during the war. My Grandfather built the refrigeration on the Naval base. My Grandmother was the Postmistress. My Mother was born in Kodiak in 1945. Their lives took them to Southern California after the war, and it was there that I was born and raised. But Alaska was always part of the family mythology. So, I chose to go to college in Alaska. However, I met my spouse and her family lived on the East coast, and so before I was done with Alaska, we relocated to Maine. I worked 20 and change years at an elite liberal arts college — the last four years as an Assistant Director. I was utterly burnt out and desperate to return to Alaska. September of 2016, I took a position with Bristol Bay Campus, in Dillingham, Alaska. I no longer have an excellent work-life balance as I let hobby’s and interests go and instead prioritized work and graduate studies. This winter I realized, during the holiday break, I had too much time on my hands and so purchased some acrylic paints and started drawing and painting again. Painting gave me a creative voice in college of which I was previously unaware. Rather than a picture of myself I offer this attempt at sunrise over the Nushagak (if you care SoundCloud and LinkedIn provide a professional headshot, though now I am grayer).
A third grader could do better. If there is any consolation, it is that I have not put paint to canvas since 1988. But, it feels good to be learning again.