Mike and I had a grand weekend that centered around our grandson, Andrew, and Purdue University. Purdue is located in West Lafayette, Indiana about an hour and a half from Indianapolis. The town is an interesting mix of people and lifestyles. On the one hand there is the academically charged area around the university that hosts well over forty thousand students and hundreds of professors. On the other hand, within that mix are the men and women who work in the numerous factories that are located nearby, many of whom never attended college. The more educated individuals tend to cluster around the university in West Lafayette and the laborers live in Lafayette proper. There is a noticeable difference in the two places. Continue reading “Boiler Up!”
For most people a new beginning and the opportunity for change is heralded by New Year’s Day. For me the feeling of renewal has always come with the first day of school. It is a time when everyone brandishes a clean slate and once again there is the potential to erase mistakes and to improve. Everyone shows up on day one with hopefulness, a bag full of fresh supplies, and usually a new pair of shoes. Even the teachers boast new haircuts and not a single staple is hanging from their carefully prepared classrooms. It’s truly a day of optimism when even a meltdown on Wall Street lacks the power to kill the joy.
One of the best aspects of retirement is that I am able to have lazy mornings without guilt. I appreciate the fact that I don’t have to rush around and tackle traffic on rainy mornings like this one. I stay inside sipping on my tea and viewing Mother Nature’s storms from my windows. Since it is unlikely that anyone will unexpectedly come to my door on a day like today I am able to linger in my pajamas a bit longer than I would if I had places to go and things to accomplish. It’s nice to be able to peruse the online news sources and to get up to date information on the weather. Since I had oral surgery just yesterday I am supposed to take it a bit easy for another twenty four hours or so. Luckily I don’t have to feel compelled to rush off to a job with my pain medication tucked into my purse. I am able to nurse myself in ways that I never did when I was still working. It’s a very nice situation indeed!
There was a boy who lived in Nigeria in a small village. He was very bright and he had big dreams. He longed to attend the university and to study to become an engineer. He and like minded friends learned that they must take physics in high school to qualify for admission to the program. Sadly there was no physics class at the boy’s school. There were no instructors qualified to teach such a course. The boy and his friends were disappointed but they were not defeated. They heard that there was a man in the next village who had once been a physics teacher. They decided to seek him out and ask him for help.
I’ve been working the summer school session at Cristo Rey for a couple of weeks now. It’s a kind of dreary affair. The students arrive each day with a demonstrable lack of enthusiasm. They would rather be anywhere but in school attempting to recover credit for courses that they failed during the school year. They are generally well behaved but mostly just resigned to their fate. They are motivated by a desire to finish their modules as quickly as possible so that they might actually begin to enjoy summer. Some of them dug such deep ditches for themselves that they will be working until the end of July. They will be lucky to get a couple of weeks of holiday before the daily routine of the new school year begins again. 
All It Takes Is A Little Love 