Sundays are in danger of wholeheartedly turning into the I-am-dreading-Monday day of the week. I wake up and immediately start to worry about what I need to accomplish before having to go back to work the next day, which includes not just regular work, but also what I have to do in terms of completingContinue reading “Sundays are in danger”
Tag Archives: pessimism
Hope flickers
Change, including positive change, is rarely easy and quick. Yesterday, I happened to look back on all of the previous posts I’ve written and I found it encouraging and helpful to see the variety of emotions and circumstances documented in them. In particular, I sensed a pattern of ongoing change in them. Writing things downContinue reading “Hope flickers”
Not all who wander are lost
This quote from J.R.R. Tolkien is one of my favorites. One of the heroes of his epic stories is a man who has spent many long years in lonely exile, wandering the wilderness, and this line is from a poem about him. Aragorn is born a king but does not achieve that status until muchContinue reading “Not all who wander are lost”
Cumulative impact
The many ongoing uncertainties we face are having a cumulative impact. You know the saying, “once bitten, twice shy”? I think there’s a similar principle at work with the pandemic, economic conditions, injustices, poor government leadership, and more. Uncertainties tend to reshape our regular, “healthy” view of life in ways that we may not evenContinue reading “Cumulative impact”
Certainty
Something most people want is certainty. Part of our collective struggles right now is a significant lack of it. Uncertainty breeds anxiety and fear and leads to all kinds of consequences. I’m convinced, for example, that the core issue behind disastrous support for the current U.S. administration is a wrongheaded reaction to lack of certainty.Continue reading “Certainty”
Gritted teeth
Today has been a day of gritted teeth. The optimism and positivity I’ve espoused before have been hard to muster. Sometimes I think we literally have to cling to them desperately, like holding on by our fingertips as we dangle over a huge precipice. Yesterday, I finished a very large project that affects everyone inContinue reading “Gritted teeth”
The post vacation haze
You know the drill: You plan a vacation and look forward to it happily You then bitterly regret said vacation in the last few days before leaving because there is some unwritten, universal law that says everything at work and at home must go haywire right up to the time of departure You go onContinue reading “The post vacation haze”
An update on Fall planning
The picture of what is ahead for Fall at my institution is gradually becoming less opaque. As noted before, I am not a fan of a “we’ll all be together again” spin on what is to come. The fact is that there is even more hard work ahead this summer than previously realized, and withContinue reading “An update on Fall planning”
The OW Factor 