"Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness": October Arrives

Let me capture the earliest hours of October 2021 with some snapshots, while at the same time wondering if future generations will understand what a snapshot is.

--This morning the AC cut off, and I wondered if it had sprung some sort of leak.  No--what I was hearing was rain.  I usually don't hear the rain in the well-protected 6th floor condo where we live now.  October is off to a rainy start down here in South Florida. If we can't have leaves scuttling across the pavement, at least the rain will keep the temperature less hot. Can I write a whole blog post about the weather? A poem?  I'm sure that I can, but it seems so tiresome.  Once you've read the autumn poems of Keats and Yeats, why bother?

--Earlier this week, I looked up from writing accreditation documents to see the young man who always finds me when he needs to see his parole officer on the 3rd floor.  I have a key fob that will open the 3rd floor door from the rickety staircase outside, and he was stuck in our elevator once and doesn't want to be again.  He comes periodically, but Monday, he told me this was his last visit.  I was expecting the heartwarming ending, but he told me he was going to prison for leading cops on a high speed car chase through Plantation.  He told me that he wasn't afraid of prison, that he was tired of being on probation where he had an ankle monitor and people could monitor him.  I didn't point out that he was about to go from the frying pan into the fire, in terms of being monitored.  I said a silent prayer for him, and out loud, I said, "I wish you all the best."

--Yesterday I got word that one of our colleagues who works on multiple campuses had been told that yesterday was her last day.  I moved student files out of her office so that if she comes to clean out her office, she can do so without anyone watching her do that.  As I moved student files to my office, I tried to decide if this act makes me compassionate or a stooge of some sort.  Then I wondered if I even knew the definition of stooge.  Then I moved more files.  Then I thought about how long it would take to clean out my own office.

--But let me end on a happier note.  Today I have my first meeting with my seminary faculty advisor.  I wrote to him because I had a form that needs to be filled out before I can register for Spring classes.  He wrote me the kindest e-mail back.  I realize I shouldn't be wowed by professional courtesy, but I am.

--Even more impressive:  my faculty advisor is the head of the Theology and the Arts program at Wesley, the one who wrote me a very helpful e-mail back in Feb. when I had first discovered the program.  The seminary assigned me the advisor who I would have most liked to have guiding me.  Hurrah!  Again, I realize that I shouldn't be so surprised and happy.  But I've been in academia a long time, and I realize how much it takes to perform these miracles and wonders.

And now that the rain seems to have stopped, let me go out and take my first October walk.