Alright… let’s get started… I make no apologies for grammar or spelling… blame my copy of Microsoft Word for not reminding me. I guess an explanation might be due here re: the poem below. It is one of my favorites. I'll run on about Rumi some other day...
I few years ago as I was approaching my 50th birthday I decided it was time to do things I have always wanted, and if folks wanted to join me fine, but I just couldn’t see my self staying home and puttering in the garden (though puttering in my garden is one of the things I enjoy the most). So I some what over reacted and took a visiting professorship at the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto in Brasil (Muito obrigado CNPq e o povo Mineiro, uai!).
I'll share what I learned about life and soem of my research on later posts as well.
So after spending an amazing year abroad as a visiting professor, the poem kind of defines where I am today…
I sit on a few committees at CSUS and see so many of my colleagues who are preoccupied with houses, and shopping, and safety… not the safety from wacko gun slingers, but “germs, and staying in “clean” countries. A colleague told me that she didn’t want to travel in South America because of the water… What the hell? The water? The city drinking water in São Paulo is as good as any water in North America… the drinking water in any city in Brazil is a good as home for that matter. She of course has her children in private school and wanted to do “research” in Finland. She Understand I don’t have anything against the Fins, it is just if my government wants to improve relations with the rest of the world, I would hope my colleagues would be encouraged to take their talents to places that need them… Her work is with infectious diseases… hmm what infection to the Fins suffer from, that someone from Sacramento can be of assistance? But I digress… I think she was being less “notorious” and more of a professor from Pleasantville University… that’s right… PU!
The iris is from this morning’s puttering.
I few years ago as I was approaching my 50th birthday I decided it was time to do things I have always wanted, and if folks wanted to join me fine, but I just couldn’t see my self staying home and puttering in the garden (though puttering in my garden is one of the things I enjoy the most). So I some what over reacted and took a visiting professorship at the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto in Brasil (Muito obrigado CNPq e o povo Mineiro, uai!).
I'll share what I learned about life and soem of my research on later posts as well.
So after spending an amazing year abroad as a visiting professor, the poem kind of defines where I am today…
I sit on a few committees at CSUS and see so many of my colleagues who are preoccupied with houses, and shopping, and safety… not the safety from wacko gun slingers, but “germs, and staying in “clean” countries. A colleague told me that she didn’t want to travel in South America because of the water… What the hell? The water? The city drinking water in São Paulo is as good as any water in North America… the drinking water in any city in Brazil is a good as home for that matter. She of course has her children in private school and wanted to do “research” in Finland. She Understand I don’t have anything against the Fins, it is just if my government wants to improve relations with the rest of the world, I would hope my colleagues would be encouraged to take their talents to places that need them… Her work is with infectious diseases… hmm what infection to the Fins suffer from, that someone from Sacramento can be of assistance? But I digress… I think she was being less “notorious” and more of a professor from Pleasantville University… that’s right… PU!
The iris is from this morning’s puttering.
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