The "Busman's Holiday" in the Parked Bus: Winter Break 2015-16

The “Busman’s Holiday” in the Parked Bus

Astral Facts, Winter Break 2015-6

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Busperson in the Parked Bus

Each November, while the students sequester themselves for autumn midterms, I usually realize that I haven’t used my two “personal days” allowed under the contract and those days will expire on the calendar year end, carried over from the previous contract year.  In the metaphorical “busman’s holiday,” I pack up the pile of student papers and my wife and I leave town, booking space in a nearby WorldMark facility for an extended November 11th holiday break.  In between whittling down the piles of student papers and taking walks together for physical escape, one or both of us peruse the resort’s DVD selections of past films that have passed us by while ploughing through previous fields of student papers.

For those of us not so hardy and not willing to face the madding crowds of the current winter break film lines, here are some suggestions for escape options we found for home viewing, where the popcorn is fresher and more natural (organic popcorn at Trader Joe’s is the best deal in town).  Along with real butter and Himalayan sea salt, you can supply your own favorite beverage, hot or cold, caffeinated or not.

With the discussions of multicultural issues at the forefront locally, nationally, and world-wide, we recommend The Railway Man (2013) starring Colin Firth, Nicole Kidder, and Hiroyuki Sanada.  Combining scenes from the "present" with flashbacks to the wartime events, the film considers concerns such as how a survivor of a wartime POW camp might deal (or not) with issues that continue to persist many year later.  More importantly perhaps are options that others -veterans included - might have in support and how extreme these might be.  The film offers some insight.

Another film that addresses issues of immigrants bringing their cultural traditions and differences to established neighborhoods and communities is the topical issue in the film The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) with Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, and Charlotte Le Bon.  While the surface conflicts might be culinary in nature, and, as many of us acknowledge during these holiday seasons, food is a bonding substance that defines and unites cultures, the film offers commentary on that theme that goes deeper than how much is on the plate itself.

Finally, for a more “long-term” escape journey in the parked bus, we recommend a BBC mini-series To Serve Them All My Days (1980) (included in the 1982 PBS Masterpiece Theater series), which involves 13 episodes covering the time between WWI and WWII.  The setting is at Bamfylde School, a fictitious private (referred to in Britain as “public”) boys boarding school in England, with the main character a young soldier recovering from “battle fatigue” (now recognized as PTSD).  This main character (played by John Duttine) secures a position as a history teacher in the school, which is a “world” distant from his Welsh upbringing in a working class coal miner family.  The episodes cover his challenges dealing with social, political, philosophical, psychological, religious, gender, etc. issues and stereotypes stemming from class and ethnic differences coming from students, fellow faculty, community members, family, and even administrative changes at the school.  Although the original book was written in 1972, and the series itself was one 35 years ago, the issues still persist.

We have found all these also available at our local (King County) branch libraries, and all thirteen episodes of the BBC series seem to be available on YouTube.  Regardless of the medium, we wish everyone a “grande” time during our “short” break.

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.