From the outside, my weekend involved exercising, a walk
around the lake, and a whole lot of sitting in my room and
reading/writing/thinking. It doesn’t sound very exciting, written down here.
But it was the most exciting weekend I’d had for a long time, internally.
I fasted this weekend. It’s not something I do on certain
days or holidays, but there are times in my life when I need to jerk my own
leash and refocus, when I start getting distracted by things that will never
make me happy at the cost of what’s important. I also just tend to like fasting
– it makes life more interesting, it brings back good memories, and it makes
you remember how good food really tastes.
So I spent my weekend refocusing, and I think my resolutions
for the semester are now back on track. I need to focus particularly hard at
the moment, because I’m going to a Naval leadership conference this weekend, so
I’m missing two days of class, as well as most of the time I usually use to get
the week’s work done. Being me, I compensated by starting next week’s work last
week, with the result that I’m sick of assignments but have taken care of most
of my work for the next week-and-a-half.
ROTC is going fairly well this semester. I’m easing into my
responsibilities as a platoon commander, which have significantly expanded with
the new staff and structure. I have ROTC five days a week: staff meeting
Sunday, PT Monday, lab Wednesday, and class Thursday and Friday. Except for
staff meetings, though, everything takes place somewhere between six and nine
in the morning, so I’m done pretty quickly and can move on to my slightly-later
block of Harvard classes, and then the odd appointment scheduled in the
evening.
One of my classes – the German translation – I only have
once every two weeks. It’s almost more of a tutorial than a class. I was
attending, but not technically enrolled in, the course last year, with a few
grad students. This semester, though, I was the only one who wanted to take the
class, with the result that the professor generously offered to just let me
come in every couple of weeks for an hour and attempt to read Hegel in German
with his help.
While I’m thinking about it instead of taking it for
granted, I’d like to say how thankful I am for the people attending and working
at this school. I forget, being here all the time, how rare it is to find
people who are so gifted, so curious about the world, so talented in different
areas, so eager to make a difference in the world, and so willing to offer
substantial and thoughtful conversation on all topics.
There’s been a lot of college/Ivy-bashing in the news
lately, and some of it is understandable. Academia in general, and higher
education in particular, are very strange communities, and this particular
group and type of people has its particular set of vices as well as its virtues
(not that any vice or virtue is limited to one group of people). I don’t deny
that people can be silly and even ludicrous at times. But overall, the caliber
of people here is very high, and I’m grateful to be a part of this community.
For a note of perspective, I’ve also become increasingly
familiar with the drivers-of-Boston community. Not being very accustomed to
city driving, I am still slightly agape, but it takes definite skill to
navigate the obstacle course of Cambridge streets. You pull into the lane of
oncoming traffic to get around the truck parked across the middle of your lane,
only to swerve back the other way to avoid the fire truck nobody’s stopped for.
As you do so, you slam on your brakes to avoid the jogger who’s appeared in the
middle of the road, giving a honk of annoyance, and then another honk at the
person in front of you, who’s inexplicably slowed to a stop at a green light.
And all while you’re avoiding the pack of bikers stealthily slipping in and out
of your blind spots. It’s quite the experience.
I’ll have a lot to report next week with the conference, but
all the things that have happened in my head over the past few days are hard to
make sound interesting unless you’re me. I wish you all a happy and exciting
week until next time!
Pictures: I didn't take many this week; I didn't go out much. Still, here are a few from my walk to/around the lake on Sunday morning.
This is what it looks like in Cambridge now; everything's warmed up a bit. I'm not sure why you can see the grass in February, but I'm not complaining.
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