Topsy-Turvy

A former student posted "The Disease of Being Busy" by Omid Safi on Facebook today. It makes me happy that she posted the article, proving her worth as a teacher and person.

Everyone on campus right now answers "How's it going?" with "Busy, busy, busy."

This morning, a friend took a portrait of me with an old large format camera and said he'd be spending the night in the photo lab with students. Why? They wait till the end of term to do their projects. They've been busy otherwise, I suppose.

I was busy today: I met with my friend, went grocery shopping (once for me and another shorter trip for an ill friend), took pictures in my neighbor's yard and in Abbo's Alley, worked for about an hour and a half, tried to use Lightroom, ate supper, looked at Facebook, and wrote this blog post. But I'm not tired and I'm not stressed because I moved at my own pace.

Turns out putting on a watch today was pointless. I never looked at it till I got home and noticed something odd.

Instead of turning it around, I just took it off and put it on the desk, where it sits most of the time.

The great thing about my life now is that I'm only as busy as I want to be. I only wish that were true of more people, especially children in American schools where everything is structured by adult convenience of lives lived by the clock.

At least, my former student knows that, and I trust she has figured out how to make the system work for her students and herself.