Hello from my office, As we move into, and through, the fall, it is difficult for me to not remember where things were a year ago and how both my house and my life was changed, and transformed, by a somewhat unexpected and yet somewhat planned, young Dane, who took his own chance to spendContinue reading “Missing a Surrogate Son”
Author Archives: thewritingprofessor55
When We Seem More Broken than Not
Hello from my office, It is not by accident that I am writing this on the day following the 245th Anniversary of the foundation of the United States Marine Corps and on Veterans’ Day at a few minutes from the 11th hour, on the 11th day, of the 11th month. I am hurting. I amContinue reading “When We Seem More Broken than Not”
To the Third and Fourth Generation
Hello from my office, I have been grading and chatting with students trying to help them manage a major paper, one much longer than many have ever written or even fathomed in high school. While I do not think it is a difficult assignment, I am well aware that this is not comparing apples toContinue reading “To the Third and Fourth Generation”
A Walking, Breathing Oxymoron
Hello from my office on a dreary and chilly pre-Apocalyptic Friday, As I write this, I am doing it to clear my mind, to make sense of the nonsensical, to put my trust in something larger than myself, which is always needed, and to create the possibility that I might be able to focus aContinue reading “A Walking, Breathing Oxymoron”
Maintaining Civility in our Uncivil Country
Hello from a dining room table. Two weeks from tonight most of us will be glued to some sort of media trying to understand which person we will call our President for the next four years. Of course, the expectation that we might find something reminiscent of 2000 is relatively high, and the worry aboutContinue reading “Maintaining Civility in our Uncivil Country”
Failing at Something or Learning as a Process
Hello from my study, I am often asked if I knew I was going to be a professor earlier in my life. The answer is a simple and straightforward NO. Not in my wildest dreams, or more likely, nowhere in the realm of possibility could I have imagined that I would become a college professor.Continue reading “Failing at Something or Learning as a Process”
The Difference Between Being Important and Thinking You Are
Hello from a bit of an unpredicted appointment, Good Monday morning from Geisinger-Danville. What began as a follow up appointment has turned into much more. I am continually amazed by the complexity of the human body, but even more so by how many of those intricacies we take for granted. I have learned a greatContinue reading “The Difference Between Being Important and Thinking You Are”
Remembering My Heroine
Hello on a Sunday afternoon, Forty-seven years ago today, I was marching on the grinder as we called it, proud that I had made it through 90 days of processing and training known as Marine Corps Boot Camp. There was more than once I doubted I had what it took to make it through. EvenContinue reading “Remembering My Heroine”
Who am I? Imagining Identity
Hello from my office at school, It is strange to be in my office at the university for hours on end and see almost no one, and yet, that is our lives in this fall of 2020. If we had our pre-Covid world yet, I would be arriving in Poland this week to begin aContinue reading “Who am I? Imagining Identity”
Nationalism is not Patriotism
Hello on an extremely warm first Monday of summer. As you can see from the intro, I began this blog almost three months ago and it was extremely warm and dry summer. The need for rain here in north central Pennsylvania is still real. The summer was abnormal because we are still trying to figureContinue reading “Nationalism is not Patriotism”
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