Relief and Generosity

I just finished facilitating that meeting. I guess I was really nervous about it, because I'm wiped now.

Sometimes, I really love my colleagues. Even the most cantankerous were thoughtful and generous. People listened to each other and responded with further thoughts. I looked around at the end (and we ended exactly on time) and everyone looked tired, but I sure learned a lot.

And I have hope for our future in a way I haven't much lately, hope that I'm really not the last generation of folks in English studies, hope that English studies will morph in ways I'll be proud and happy to be part of, even though I'm one of the most cantankerous.

Several people have stopped me in the hall or dropped by my office to say they thought the meeting was really good and even to say that I did a good job.

I have almost NO grading this weekend, but I am expecting the neighbor's pup to spend the day on Saturday, which should give me a reason to go try out the new snowshoes. I have things to read and a paper to work on, but it's so nice not to be staring at a stack of papers. (I have a partial stack of short paragraph assignments, but even that is partial.)

Now I'm going to go home. Maybe I'll take a shot at making fudge again!