Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov, Part 1, Book 3, Chapter 6 (Pevear/Volokhoonsky’s translation):

A physiognomist, studying him, would have said that his face showed neither thought nor reflection, but just some sort of contemplation. The painter Kramskoy has a remarkable painting entitled The Contemplator: it depicts a forest in winter, and in the forest, standing all by himself on the road, in deepest solitude, a stray little peasant in a ragged caftan and bast shoes; he stands as if he were lost in thought, but he is not thinking, he is “contemplating” something. … if he were asked what he had been thinking about while standing there, he would most likely not remember, but would most likely keep hidden away in himself the impression he had been under while contemplating. These impressions are dear to him, and he is most likely storing them up imperceptibly and even without realizing it - why and what for, of course, he does not know either; perhaps suddenly, having stored up his impressions over many years, he will drop everything and wander off to Jerusalem to save his soul, or perhaps he will suddenly burn down his native village, or perhaps he will do both.

Only three days until Saturday when Erin and I exchange vows and I start a new chapter of my life!! I have a rather long list of things to do and I can’t really spend very long writing… but I thought I’d take a few moments just to record some of the stuff I’ve been “contemplating” lately.
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Only one week until the wedding! Which is why I’ve been slacking off on website updates… but better late than never, right?

About a month ago I participated in Chicago Public School’s Teacher For A Day program - and I’ve been meaning to write a short summary. I got to spend the day teaching an elementary school class - and as you can see in the pictures we had a lot of fun! The highlights of the day were taking apart a computer and talking about how it works, and our electricity science experiment. Erin helped me out a lot for the class since she teaches teachers at the Museum of Science and Industry and used to be in a classroom herself.

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