Interring the Subterfuge (Part I)

Finally, he had buried it. As he stepped back another wave crashed down and shot a thin film of water out over the disturbed sand. Soon all signs of his being there would be erased. A stiff wind blew in from the ocean. A storm was coming. Josiah thought back to the day when it first began. He had been jogging along a path overlooking the coast when a flash of orange caught his eye. As he got close, he realized what it was, though his puzzlement only grew. It was a stuffed Elmo doll with its hands tied behind its back to a post. “How strange,” he thought to himself. Elmo was tattered and stained with dark patches of dirt as if he had been through a war; his mouth was agape as the mouths of Elmo dolls so often are. It was a strange beginning indeed. Fate weaves a weird and intricate cloth.

Now, standing on the beach with the wind whipping salty mist off of the waves, that sunny day seemed so remote. Another wave crashed, this one a little further up the beach than the last. The tide was coming in. Checking that no one was around he turned to face the cliffs; the fractured and wave-beaten rock was rumpled in a set of sharp folds. Down the center of one of these folds dropped a steep gully which broke the cliff face and allowed access to the top. Josiah set off toward the gully with a quick and purposeful gait. As he reached the base of the cliff he turned back to watch another wave finish the job of concealing his handiwork. With a start, he swiveled to face the cliff and began scrambling up the gully. The rock holds were polished by the many hands and feet that had passed there before.

A seagull cried as it glided above him, jerking up and down in the pulsating wind. Josiah topped the gully and looked out to the east. The cliffs were crowned by a vast sea of grass which propagated waves with each gust. The grass ran for miles in either direction, punctuated here and there by freshly plowed fields. A highway paralleling the coast bounded the grass. These, and a farmhouse that graced the distant horizon, were the only sign of man for miles around. As he parted the grass and reached the edge of the highway, Josiah dropped suddenly to the ground. He had left his VW Bug parked there, but now it was gone.

Statement of Purpose

James is correct that at the beginning of any discussion it is important to define one’s terms. However, definitions alone will not suffice; for if an endeavor is to be successful it must first have a purpose. I will take up where James left off and attempt to state the purpose of Consanguinity. In recent days I found myself writing a different sort of statement of purpose, the sort that I suspect James has been writing recently as well. As I approach the end of my PhD program – long, dark tunnel that it is – I am looking out toward what lies beyond. As most (if not all) of you should know, I am about to finish a dissertation in theoretical astrophysics. However, I plan to leave the field and enter a career in karst hydrogeology (basically studying caves, how they form, and how aquifers that contain caves transmit water and contaminants).

Making this sort of shift at this point in my career is non-traditional to say the least. There are two apparent paths for such a transition: 1) I can search for a postdoc position in karst and hope that this will give me enough credibility as a geologist to find a permanent position in geology, or 2) Go back to grad school to pursue a PhD in Geology. Currently, it isn’t completely obvious which of these paths is best, or even which of them will be available to me. So, in addition to looking for postdoc positions I am applying to several graduate programs. For these applications I must write a “statement of purpose,” and for my situation one of the chief issues that such a statement must address is “Why in the world am I applying to enter a PhD program when I will already have one?” To address this question I began my statement of purpose like this,

Two major passions have played an important role in my life: geographical exploration, and uncovering the inner workings of nature. While related in spirit, thus far these passions have occupied separate compartments of my life. To satisfy the latter passion, I have pursued an education in Astrophysics. For the former I have undertaken a considerable program of expedition caving. However, upon nearing the completion of my PhD I realized that these passions could be combined into a single pursuit – studying the genesis of and processes that occur in karst aquifers.

Realizing that when writing something like a statement of purpose it is often easier to start with a previous similar statement, or possibly a form, I will attempt to modify the above passage to suit our current needs.

Two major brothers have played an important role in the Covington Family: Matt, and James. While related by blood, currently these brothers occupy distant localities within the United States. To satisfy his passion for language, James is trying to finish his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Arkansas. Meanwhile Matt has undertaken a significant program of Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. However, upon nearing the completion of their degrees these brothers realized that they could be combined into a single pursuit – writing a blog, in which they could discuss, entertain, and share each other’s lives.

While I think this is a good start, it may be that James does not. James, feel free to edit, add, rewrite. As stated in your post, our first purpose is to figure out our purpose. Additionally, this statement is relatively vague, but I think that it is appropriately so. We want to leave it relatively flexible, but it still touches on what I see as the main purposes of Consanguinity. We will discuss interesting (relevant?) issues, entertain ourselves and our readers (i.e. our family and friends), and tell a little bit about what’s going on in our lives.

Now I realize that this may not have gotten us much further toward the task at hand. To address this concern I will make two additions. First, we really need to be thinking about what we want to discuss. Therefore I will toss out several possibilities. You can bite, or toss back.

• Religion and politics
• Free will and responsibility
• Faith and science
• A good book
• Mormonism

Second, at the risk of starting multiple threads, I propose our first project. This project will mainly satisfy purpose number two, namely entertaining ourselves and others while we figure out what we’re doing. Shortly I will submit the beginning of a story. James will write the next segment. I will respond with a third segment, and James will provide the final installment. I suggest that each of us stick to approximately 500 words per segment. Let the fun begin!

Matt, the elder brother