It turns out that once one gets into thinking about mediation, things start appearing in
threes. So here is a third and final note in this year-end splurge before turning back to textbook
writing and baby care.
I wonder if it would be possible for members of XMCA, lurkers, chatters, deleters, and
all, to write a brief "New Year's wish" for a topic they would like to see discussed. I get my wish
early because I am very interested in the question of identity formation, and we will be having
our lab seminar devoted to the topic of culture and identity formation for the first 10 weeks of the
year and there are some folks on xmca who have asked that we post summaries for discussion.
But there are SO MANY issues that strike me as of pressing relevance and my intuition is that
the same is true of everyone on the list.
Usually initiatives such as this fall flat, so if the past predicts the future (said he,
casting a glance backwards, and reaching out to feel behind him for the future while
chatting with his neighbors), this note will be greeted by silence. But it others were to chip
in, we might open up some new topics of great concern to our multiple sub-constituencies,
and get the illusion that the pile of new stuff at our feet wasn't entirely garbage after all.
Warmest greetings for the new year.
Mike