Teaching and Callgirls

My yearning to teach struck me while reading the book callgirl.

Now why on earth would a book about being an escort fully ignite the passion for teaching in me?

Because this callgirl was extraordinary, she combined an academic life with the life of a luxury prostitute. And she almost succeed. Until her less acceptable professional persona slowly seeped into her societally approved one, and fused together into a class on prostitution. Actually, even then she excelled and the class became the most popular new topic that semester.

Through this, I learned the importance of picking a subject of deep personal interest. Something igniting a passion for teaching in you, and the desire to know more in your students.  When you pick a topic you have personal experience with, you are in a position to deliver the most intriguing material.  

Sometimes it’s the most random sources that give us the final nudge in the right direction. Towards what we crave, what seeks us out, and ultimately what fills our hearts with joy and life with vibrancy.

Curiously, my desire to teach emerged through reading the words of an escort. But not just any escort, a professor and an escort. Not only did the book open my eyes to teaching, but to the ability to combine two utterly different professions and ways of being. I take it as an invite to be all I am: perhaps I can be a teacher, writer, community engagement assistant, artist, bartender, and coach if I so desire? 

Belong Here. You Deserve It.

On a particularly cloudy Oakland morning, I wandered down the street enmeshed in my net of thoughts on “should I stay or should I go.” My introverted bubble burst once the black writing on the white wall next to me proclaiming “Belong here, you deserve it” grabbed my undivided attention. It all happened in the same split second as I thought “I’m probably overstaying my welcome.”

Maybe Oakland holds space for us all? A plethora of nationalities, ethnicities, and spiritual inclinations. People who were born and raised, and the forever young who migrates. Smelly hippies, thugs, techheads, burners, nutty professors, hipsters, yogis and artists all co-creating a hub to call home.

After four years I feel like a true Bay Aerian. At the same time my rootless nature pokes me with bursts of restlessness as never before. Maybe that’s part of it as well. Perhaps this is my Shangri-la and I need search no more?

Home is where the heart is according to the saying. What happens to the divided heart who equally resides amongst a Norwegian winter’s first snowflakes and the Golden Gate Bridge? The lesson I take from the writings on the wall is to practice feeling like I belong wherever I am, inside and out. Because I deserve it, and so do you regardless of where you’re from and where you reside!   

Women's World?

For the first time in history it’s pretty ok to be a woman. Well at least in Western countries. Most of them anyways. And if you dig deeper into ancient history it’s probably not the first time either, but forget that for a moment. Point is: women now can mostly do what we want. Travel alone, work, get higher education, and decide when or if we want to get married and have children. Freedom rushes through our veins. Along with profound responsibility and a dash of loneliness.

The more choices, the higher burden rests on us making right ones. Women are so lucky we can now become mechanical engineers, software developers and firefighters and if we are extra productive all of the above. That simple fact should make us jump for joy. But, what if some of us want to be taken care of? Should we look at those women with eyes tainted by disgust, and judge them as weak, old fashioned, and a disgrace to modern women? Males’ feminine counterparts who should now ideally love running down Manhattan making a deal on the cell phone for one of her businesses, while the other rings profusely in her pocket. 

I’m not saying I want to be a housewife or have anyone needing to take care of me, god no. But what if I one day want to have children (or child) and spend some extra time taking care of them for a year or two, do I then fail at being a modern woman?

When it comes to equality, no one can put their hand on the bible and make a truthful claim that women really make the same money as men in the same positions or that we are judged by the same parameters. If they do, they probably think racism is dead too.

Truth is many (but not all) women have more opportunities now than ever before known to mankind. In fact, we have so many that one of us can sit at work and reflect on all her opportunities and almost make it sound negative. How ridiculous! After a thorough reflection on my capability to even reflect on such matters, I have to conclude these are all signs we are living in damn good times!