Friday vibes...

15 November 2019: Since Sunday, I've been on campus working before 7:00 every day. Except for Sunday and Tuesday, when I left by 3 or 4, I've been getting home after 7:00. It's been exhausting. But this old banger came on Pandora this morning and gave me a bit of life to power me through the rest of the day (I hope?). Also hoping for an escape by 4:30...

"I have called you friends"

14 November 2019: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” --John 15: 11-17

Reading the Gospel of John this morning in preparation for tomorrow’s Bible as Literature class. Though I am tired and stressed, I am grateful for the quiet of this morning and the time to read the words above. I find myself moved by the Jesus that emerges in these pages: a man of peace, friendship, justice, sacrifice, and above all, love. None of this is new to anyone who has grown up in the church, but being reminded again—having the chance to read the words and be assured that Jesus is my friend and that he calls us to a life of love—is a welcome experience when times are hard.

#FreeQuilty

13 November 2019: Pretty exhausted and overwhelmed and all that, but Carrie told me about this story today and it is an instant mood-lifter. You are an inspiration, Quilty.

A whale of a proposal...

12 November 2019: Grading critical essay proposals from my upper-division students and this sentence, from the annotated bibliography section of a proposal about the book of Jonah, has made my morning: "Haupt delivers a surprising amount of logistics about whales and sharks and their ability to swallow people."  On a day when I am feeling a bit stressed and overwhelmed, I am extra-appreciative of this silly mood-lifter.

"Poor Joanna"

11 November 2019: "She was full o' feeling, and her troubles hurt her more than she could bear. I see it all now as I couldn't when I was young.” --Mrs. Fosdick on "Poor Joanna" in The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett

I am working my way through this amazing little book with my ENGL 346 class and today find myself moved all over again by Jewett's careful and sensitive creation of characters like Joanna (who never actually appears in the text's "present"--she is just someone the other characters remember). I love what Mrs. Fosdick expresses here: the understanding and increased compassion that can come with growing older, especially for people who seem destined for great trials and sadness.

Dr. Sleep and balance...

10 November 2019: Got a very good night's sleep in my own bed on Saturday night. (That's my kind of Dr. Sleep.) Spent a good six hours working in my office on campus this morning. Still had (and have) so much to get done. This week is going to be rough.

But Amy and I made a plan to see a movie in the afternoon and we stuck to it. So off to Dr. Sleep we went. (A pretty good movie, by the way.) Came home, cooked dinner, and took a walk. Now watching my silly CW girl-power super-hero shows. Have a few more things to grade, but it should be okay, at least for tonight.

Not bad for balance on a Sunday.

Rocked it...

9 November 2019: We rocked our conference presentation today. Always a good feeling!

MAPACA, Day 2

8 November 2019: Was entirely delighted to find my old pal Aaron's name on the program. I got to hear his really great paper. Spoiler alert: he's still super smart.

MAPACA 2019

7 November 2019: In Pittsburgh for a couple of days to present a paper at MAPACA. It feels good--if a bit anxiety-producing--to get away for a bit, but so far, I've heard some great presentations and have gotten some inspiration for a couple of projects in the hopper.

Hoping to get out and about into the city a bit more tomorrow. So far, so good.

I mean, right?

6 November 2019: "I was interested in the sudden appearance of demons." --a student in my ENGL 402: Bible as Literature class today, the second day discussing the Gospel of Matthew. She ain't wrong, but it made me laugh.

Overheard in the hallway...

5 November 2019: "So wait...that bitch can cook pasta?" --a student in the hallway, talking to three of her peers about some kitchen device.

It's another day where I am feeling quite a bit of stress, but hearing that made me laugh and for that, I am grateful.

"The American Conversation"

4 November 2019: "It's not about what people call you. It's what you answer to." --Donna Brazile on Shepherd's campus tonight, sharing some advice she received from her mother when she was a child.

This event was the first in a series called "The American Conversation" sponsored by a new institute on campus.

"This Amazing, Troubling Book"

3 November 2019: "The source of my unease reading this amazing, troubling book now seems clear; an imperfect coming to terms with three matters Twain addresses—Huck Finn’s estrangement, soleness and morbidity as an outcast child; the disproportionate sadness at the center of Jim’s and his relationship; and the secrecy in which Huck’s engagement with (rather than escape from) a racist society is necessarily conducted. It is also clear that the rewards if my effort to come to terms have been abundant. My alarm, aroused by Twain’s precise rendering of childhood’s fear of death and abandonment, remains--as it should. It has been extremely worthwhile slogging through Jim’s shame and humiliation to recognize the sadness, the tragic implications at the center of his relationship with Huck. My fury at the maze of deceit, the risk of personal harm that a white child is forced to negotiate in a race-inflected society, is dissipated by the exquisite uses to which Twain puts that maze, that risk." --Toni Morrison, on Huck Finn

I re-read this remarkable piece today, in preparation for class later this week. There is so much to admire here, from Morrison's impeccable close reading to the way she melds the personal and the academic and--what really stood out to me on this reading--her ability to find "rewards" in such a problematic and complicated novel. She is such a model for what it means to be an engaged, critical, charitable, and open reader.

This will do...

2 November 2019: Today included a really fun Open House at Shepherd's Agricultural Innovation Center, a women's volleyball game (Senior Day--and they won), and a movie in the evening. I also managed to get a decent amount of work done. I still feel like I have so much to do, but I am telling myself that it will all get done--and I know I will.

So yeah...seems that November is off to a good start in terms of balance.

Project Balance: November Edition?

1 November 2019: Left campus by 3:30 today (after getting there at 7:00 a.m.). Went to a movie, got a new phone (finally!), had dinner. Felt slightly anxious about it all most of the time, but also felt good. So there's that?