Useless info about me

2023-2024 School Year - September

Not sure what useless information I should leave here this time. I cannot eat chocolate, it makes my stomach violently upset. I have been dealing with a back injury/problem (aging) and it has prevented me from paddling a lot this year, which makes me sad. I went to Maui in July at it was an amazing trip and I have many photos of it. I am learning how to use Obsidian, a note and database application that has amazing linking capabilities. There is some random trivia about me for this year.

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Here is a piece I always contemplate sharing with students at the beginning of the year so they can get to know me. I never go through with it though, so I will just share it here. Feel free to send me a comment, or tell me, or not.

Enough.

Who is F. Culbert

I am … (part the first)

I am of big city birth

and of growing in small town worth.

I am of five in my family tree

and a branch that holds only me.

I am of a youth spent outdoors

and of character built in chores.

I am of three generations of higher education

and of countless more in great intoxication

I am of renamed clinical insanity

and of insight into the frailty of humanity

I am of moving here and there

and of times many foul, many fair.

I am of two diplomas and now three degrees

and of failed hips, but good knees.

I am of all of this, yet

I am from a different set.

 I am … (part the second)

I am from green

Trees and fields on twenty-six acres surrounded

By the unbounded land of the crown.

Youth spent in reminiscent of monkey ancestors

Climbing, swinging, hanging in pines, firs, poplars,

Anything that held the pounds of my youth.

Later in the fall those same trees

Would meet my father’s saw

And my leather palmed hands

To be stacked for a future date with the flame.

I am from a land that provides.

I am from blue

A youth spent with wet feet

Kicks and strokes that came as easy as steps

Teenage years spent climbing in and out

Of lakes, rivers, streams and anything swimmable.

Jumping off waterfalls, swinging on ropes, plunging off cliffs

All ending in a splash on a long summer day

Clouds building in the afternoon heat on the horizons of my summer

The glint of sun off the ribbons and mirrors of blue

Creating soft reminders of the mutability of life

And always hinting whispers of the great salt blue

That calls at my core.

I am from water that calls.

I am from white

Winters spent outdoors

Ice-particled air freezing nose hairs on first breaths

Hours spent hunting for fresh tracks

And turn perfection

On slopes across the West

Moments measured on snow drifts

As timeless bliss

Fresh turns on a powder day

Big air, hard carves, fast turns

Corduroy cruising

All with white rock majesties lurking behind my shoulders

I am from mountains that play.

I am from black

Ink on the page

Words

Read and written

Stories that shaped the worlds in my head

Ideas that fuelled thoughts across those worlds

Written and read

Emotions bled out through a pen

The landscape experiences of my youth preserved

I am from words that nourished.

I am from the rainbow

A myriad of colours that represent

A myriad of experiences, places, feelings

And always at the end,

Though not always in sight

Lies that pot of gold

I am from a rich future.

                                 Culbert

Here is an poem from a couple years ago about education.

The sounds of education

Education 

Every time I hear the word, 

I hear the connotations of it 

echoing around and around. 

The white agenda, British imperialism, 

Feminist discourse, Christian, classic, 

On 

            and on 

So many agendas, or slants, angles, 

views. 

None of the pitches of the word 

seem to carry much about learning, 

or about the individuals involved. 

Education says nothing about students 

Nor does it speak of exploration 

Inquiry, curiosity 

            or creativity. 

It just rings falsely of power and control, 

of politics. 

Education

Information about me, that is unnecessary to know. (from 2022-2023 School Year)

I like to write poetry. I stopped for a while, but I plan to get back into it. I might put the odd other thing up about me, like I have achieved 100 hours of paddling in 2020, and 2021 by the end of December, and this year I did so by the end of August. And in August I paddled more than 100 km over the course of the month.

March 2020 (I know this is old, but I am leaving it here for a bit)

Here we are, the day before spring break, and uncertain about the future. Who knows what lies ahead with this current health issue. Hopefully all goes calmly and rationally, but remember, be there for each other and be supportive and understanding. The world needs that the most right now. Enjoy a good book in the down time we have and keep using that brain. Take care.

On a personal note, thank you to all of you who were supportive in my time of sadness and struggle. I am still very sad after all, my mom is gone. I think I will always be sad about it. But, I also recognize the need to move forward and to be happy and focus on the good times and experiences that I still have to come. So thank you all for helping me on my journey.