summer

Summer, sabbaticals, and the new semester.

The passage of time can be peculiar. During the vacation or off-season, one cannot imagine returning to "regular work." Then, as soon as one has returned to the routine, one is immediately again . . . in the routine, and one cannot imagine that things had ever been different. Which represents the greater illusion?

Note to the uninitiated and skeptical: Most of us chose these careers because we love what we do. This means either that we are very dedicated or that we are very selfish--or both. (One irony is that most of us are drawn to the career by our interest in research, only to find [should we be surprised?!] that our main activity will consist in teaching, a career for which many are temperamentally disinclined and few are properly trained. Is it any wonder that higher education is said to be in a perpetual crisis? But that is another matter. At our "experimenting" [as opposed to experimental] institution, as at most top liberal-arts colleges, teaching and research are supposed to, and do, receive equal emphasis.)

I grew up in a climate in which outraged Republican or backwoods state legislators denounced pointy-headed (never quite sure where that came from, what it means, or what that implied about the shapes of the critics' heads) academics who worked only a few hours per week at exorbitant expense to the state. Evidently, they misunderstood the difference between so-called contact hours (time in class) versus work hours. It would be tantamount to saying that professional football players "work" for only one hour per week (the actual playing time of a game), not taking into account practice time (not to mention travel, physical deterioration, and the like).

My own take on things: Clergy and football players work 1 day per week. Academics work 2 or maybe 3 days per week. Real people work all week. In the larger scheme of things, we all work hard, and academics arguably put in more hours than the average factory worker--but all in all, we are lucky to do what we love and work under comparatively good conditions (in which, whatever our complaints, we have much more control over the workplace than does the average worker--a key measure of power).

During my absence, I noted that my absence was, well, noted by students seeking supervisors for their concentrations. Hi, Rose. I am back. Where are you?



Vom Berge schaut hinaus ins tiefe Schweigen
Der mondbeseelten schönen Sommernacht
Die Burgruine; und in Tannenzweigen
Hinseufzt ein Lüftchen, das allein bewacht
Die trümmervolle Einsamkeit,
Den bangen Laut: 'Vergänglichkeit!'
--Lenau