My mid-life crisis
Even somebody who has struggled as mightily against the tides of age and convention as I have probably has to admit that by the time you hit 45 you should have decided what you want to be when you grow up. There is so much to love about what I do for a living, but there is also the soul-numbing fact that I have apparently chosen a cold and forbidding path through a land that can’t decide whether it hates my kind or simply doesn’t care.
I turn 44 tomorrow, and yesterday blind-sided me like a blitzing safety from a bad home. This started out short but insisted on stretching out to personal manifesto length.
[sigh]
lullaby pit 
In response to your post in “fortysomething” (I’m not a member so I can’t comment there)…
I’m not exactly a fortysomething… and some of your insights seem to be a little… in depth for my limited knowledge/experiences… but some of your rant really struck a chord with me.
I’m currently a second year student at Miami University (Ohio) majoring in early childhood education. I find some of your statements and experiences completely FASCINATING. I think you’d make a great mentor. I’d love to take a survey like the one you described… I have a feeling your #1 and #2 may be mine as well.
I was also raised Southern Baptist. Have you heard of the gifts, and/or taken the “survey” to find which ones are most likely dominant in your life? I can’t remember the name for that, or how many gifts there are offhand, but it’s something like: Service, Knowledge, Wisdom, etc.
🙂
Hello – I saw your post on UBSA
I want someone with this perspective on my friends list – you’re hired 🙂
I hear you brother. Amen.
Re: In response to your post in “fortysomething” (I’m not a member so I can’t comment there)…
I haven’t done the gifts survey you mention – been out of the SBC for a long time now, so if it’s a recent development I’d have missed it.
The good news is you sound like a thoughtful person, and you’re in a good school. Hopefully all of this adds up to help you avoid the muck I seem to have wandered into… 🙂
But feel free to ask me any questions you have. Teaching isn’t just about MY students….
Heh – now if you only had a REAL job for me… 🙂
I agree strongly with your rant. The anti-intellectualism in this country is in a self-sustained downward spiral.
There are many sciences and freedoms in the crosshairs of the neocons and their fundy allies.
And I too am trying to figure out what I will do with my life when I “grow up”.
A perspective from the “other side”
As one of your students this semester, I have to say that you are a perfect compliment to the faculty at SBU. (I’d have guessed you younger but whop the hell am I?) I’ll admit that I’m NOT always ready for the day is class, but I AM always challenges. You definitely have already made me see things in a different light. I ask that you simply try to give us at the Jandoli School of Journalism more than a year. We’re like a bad fungus…we’ll grow on ya! You are appreciated by most of us (Who cares what the others think!)
Re: A perspective from the “other side”
Hmmm. One of the wonderful things about LJ is the anonymity. So you’re one of mine, huh? Am I to know WHICH one?