In a few hours, I will be headed to Denver Colorado to celebrate Christmas with the family. Looking back, it has been an eventful semester at Waynesburg University: good finishing to my classes; a presentation at West Virginia University in spite of my busy schedule (I also just met the deadline for submission of the paper presented at WVU); a trip to Philadelphia in November with ten students (another eventful one); met deadlines on abstracts submitted (at least four and counting); University of Pennsylvania presentation in April would likely result in another publication according to a recent email I received from the university; curriculum committee member for the university here starting this fall; and so on and so forth. The crowning part was that I got a word from the editors, Glenda and Vivian that publication is finished on the book where I contributed a chapter - it is now at Amazon. It has been a good year here at Waynesburg.
Today, I was able to run a few errands - return most of the library books; went to the bank and Walmart; visited with a couple of friends in the library; had a refresher cash course on RefWorks after losing my Endnote software - still checking into whether I will stay with EndNote or not - it has served me well for almost five years. The year is rapidly ending with buoyancy and hope, and as the day closes, I remember the words of that wonderful social activist, Abraham Joshua Heschel:
"Instead of showing us a way through the elegant mansions of the mind, the prophets take us to the slums. The world is a proud place, full of beauty, but the prophets are scandalized, and rave as if the whole world were a slum."
Having read "Gang Leader for a Day" in one of my courses here, Rabbi Heschel's words above provide a good closing reflection for the semester and my last few hours before heading to Denver, Colorado.
Ezekola
December 23, 2009
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