Change

Tonight, Pippa and I dropped Margaret off at the train station for her trip to Rochester to visit Nate, before she returns to Durham. In case anyone out there is wondering whether, after twenty-three years of marriage (twenty-seven years together), people can still get sentimental about reunion and parting, the answer is “yes.”

On the same trip, we looped down to Midway to pick up Josiah, home for a long weekend from his first year in college. He’s having a great time — one might even think he had a flair for life in an academic community. By the sheerest coincidence, this weekend Laura will be home from her college, too.

Finally — and this is not related — if what I hear is correct, this is the golden year for job applicants in Islamic studies. I suspect that if you’ve seen Lawrence of Arabia more than once, you may be able to squeak into a tenure-track appointment; there can’t be that many Islamists looking for work, but it sounds as though half the Religion Departments (and some History and Area Studies Departments) in the U.S. are searching in that area. A hat tip to the jobseekers for whom this is a favorable development. Academic hiring is such a wildly capricious domain, it’s great that someone can catch a favorable market.

1 thought on “Change

  1. I empathize with your — well, it’s not solitude, with Pippa and co. around, is it? Anyway. Here’s hoping the days sans Margaret fly by until she’s home again.

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