More Reflections from this Retiree
Shorter days…longer nights…cooler weather and just a few weeks from 2022. Lots on my mind…I suggest getting your favorite beverage, plopping down in your favorite seat and buckling your seat belt!
- Pete Davidson…the SNL enigma.
- I hated writing when I was younger…now it brings me great pleasure. With my book finished and this latest project to write a monograph about marketing to higher ed nearly complete, I’m thinking about what next. These essays are fun and satisfying, but I want to do something long-form. Open to suggestions.
- Looking forward to international travel in 2020. Croatia, Luxembourg, Ireland, and SE Asia are on the list, so far. I have been appointed as a Fulbright Specialist for the next four years and hope to find projects abroad where I can be helpful and where Judy and I can gather more interesting experiences.
- Controversial question of the day: How can we advance social justice without driving the political center to the right? Can we do a better job grounding DEI initiatives with language and objectives that don’t scare off uninformed people? I’m petrified of winning a battle in the short-term but losing the war in the long-term. Everything I read screams of a red wave in the next election.?
- I just posted a comments about Sustainable Development Goals as foundation for the next gen of student affairs work (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). Thoughts about that?
- Time to stock up on books for the winter. I just finished Empire of Pain (depressing account of the Sackler family and US failure to hold them accountable for the opioid crisis. Not surprisingly, the trump admin figures in to the narrative, but the FDA and many others are quite culpable for their failures as well. Long but good read. Reading Girl One now…slow read. The Clinton/Penny book, State of Terror was better than expected but if you’ve not ever read the Louise Penny Inspector Gamache books, you have 17 volumes ahead of you. Do read them in order! What’s on your lists??
- We’re about to begin a kitchen renovation…new cabinets, counters, backsplash and appliances. Of course, everything’s delayed but apparently may happen in December. Wish us luck!?
- Judy and I (and several of our friends) have noticed that the local foliage this year has been the best we’ve seen. The colors have been vibrant, diverse and long lasting. We’ve probably got just a few more days before the leaves all fall, but the last couple of weeks have been just gorgeous. What has made the difference this year? It’s definitely been a drier fall, so I’ll go with that.?
- Golf sucks…enough about that.
- We’ve clearly joined the ranks of those with daily deliveries from Amazon and other sites. I can’t imagine life returning to much in-person shopping…especially since on the occasions we do visit a store, very little product seems to be available. I only wish companies would stop using excessive packaging for every item. The landfills are already too full and the cost of recycling all that cardboard must be excessive!?
- Saw ‘Dune’ in a movie theater…first time to one in more than two years. Watched ‘No Time to Die’ at home. There will be very few movies that will require the screen size of the theater so if movies continue to be released to streaming, I think most theaters will close. Some movie houses are adding other forms of entertainment to bring people out, but I can’t think of anything that would entice me to do so. Btw, ‘Dune’ was great…’NTTD’ just so-so…
- Hmmmm….what to get the grandkids for Chanukah? First night in 12 days! Oy!?
Larry