Thursday, August 22, 2024

Thursday afternoon things

 * It actually is starting to feel like fall is coming. The light has that different quality to it that fall light has - it's a different angle, I think, and I interpret it as being  more "yellow" and less 'white and harsh." 

Fall is my favorite season and it's welcome to have the cool down. It's been a solid 10 degrees cooler for the daily highs these past few days than last week was, and it actually cools down at night. And of course my air conditioner is working so I can sleep properly which makes everything so much better. 

I know I should finish one of my knitting projects at least, but I also want to start something new. I may deal with that by pulling out a stalled project tonight and working on it again, rather than the socks and sweater that have been the projects I've worked on mostly these past couple days. 

* I ran across this article online in Nautilus today, and based on how much it interested me, I took out a trial (print) subscription. It feels like it might be similar - if perhaps even a bit broader focused - than American Scientist, which is one of the few publications I read when it comes any more. (American Scientist is the official publication of Sigma Xi, a scientific society I belong to)

Anyway, this is it: A Hermit's Reality in the Italian Alps. (I presume it will be free for you to read, apparently you get two articles for free). 

I've always been interested in that kind of hermit lifestyle; part of it is the "I wonder if I could do it" (I don't know that I could, the isolation of 2020 was bad for me. But then again: if I were somewhere surrounded by nature, where I had the purpose of making things to make my life better or to restore the area, that might feel different). Part of it is specific to the article: the idea that he seems somehow more connected to God/the Divine/the universe, that's appealing to me. In recent years I've felt....I don't know, a disconnection, and I don't know if it's that I'm trying too hard to be connected to people and to things like entertainment, and that maybe going off on retreat or something would reawaken a connection I think used to be stronger?

At any rate, it's an interesting article, and I'll be interested to see what the coming issues bring. 

* Something sort of tangentially related (in that Christian faith is involved) is this Daily Devotional from the other day. These come from the  United Church of Christ (which, while not in the same "lineage" as Disciples of Christ, shares a lot of similarities with it). It's an easy way for me to do at least a little devotional reading every day and gives me something to think about. I liked this one because it addresses things I've been thinking about, specifically this:

"Many Americans, across the political spectrum, agree that their purpose in life is meaningful work. That’s why so many of us volunteer in our “spare” time for Habitat or the local food bank; we like work that “matters.” "

Yes. That's one of the things that scratches at me: am I doing enough "meaningful" work? Whether that takes the form of publications and research and students sent out into the world, or volunteer work, or giving money to good causes. I really do wrestle with feeling like I have to "earn" my place here by doing good. I don't think I used to be that way so much? I don't know what has changed, if this is a midlife thing, or if it's the end result of being in academia for 25+ years, where basically your worth is weighed on a scale (heh, like Anubis and the feather, I guess, only here it's "are you worthy for continued employment?") and I would like to get away from  that.

I would like to be able to feel more like everything I do - the piano playing where I am the only one who hears it, the silly little Duolingo lessons, the knitting even though I live in a climate to hot to wear knitwear 8 months out of the year - that those things are worth doing too, not a waste of time I could "better" put to use doing something more purposeful. 

* I am trying to help a few students. I have one honors student who lacks one Honors credit to graduate with the "Honors" addition to their degree (I am not sure how much it helps with grad school or whatever, but I can completely understand wanting to do it for themself, as a point of pride, as being able to say they did it) and they asked me if they could do an honors project in my class and I realized today how we could make that work, so we're going to discuss it tomorrow. And I really do find this is the thing that makes me happiest these days: using my ability or expertise or knowledge to help someone else out. And it's always good to encourage an enthusiastic and good student. A few of my students have e-mailed me about the independent project in another course and they have pretty good ideas. So it's nice to be able to e-mail someone back and say, "yes, this will work, it should be an interesting project, have you also considered this aspect of it....?"

However, I also have a student who's been kind of a problem all along, who MAY have just sunk their own ship by lying about/trying to do something that violates a rule on campus (and possibly also a federal scholarship-related rule). Apparently they are claiming their professors this semester (thankfully I am not one, just an advisor) signed off on something that they are not allowed to do, and neither of the professors in question actually DID, so student has likely been caught in a lie and I do know from past experience they will claim they didn't do that, they'll try to weasel out, and it may be a bit of a nightmare for us....but honestly, if they get kicked out? I don't have a  lot of sympathy; they know the rules and they broke them; we knew the rules and stuck to them, so.

I will say I wish all my students were more like the Honors student I'm helping, though.

* I don't know whether to go do something this weekend or just stick at home. I do think getting out - esp.. getting out of town - helps some, and I'm slowly working back to more comfort with driving around places (after losing a lot of it during the "stay home time" in 2020, where it got to the point that driving the half-hour into Sherman felt like going to the dark side of the moon). I'll have to think more about it.


No comments: