The Ides of March

It is March 15, a date that might not have much meaning, had it not been the date that Julius Caesar was assassinated, stabbed multiple times on the Senate floor, an act justified as a necessary defense of the Republic.  It set Rome on a different trajectory, but of course, Rome might have headed down a different path had Caesar lived.  I will resist the temptation to make modern correlations.

I was in high school when I first heard people say, "Beware the Ides of March," but as I reflect, mid to late March has always been good for me.  OK, not always, but my mind is on two recent events.  

The first is my phone interview with the department chair of the English department at Spartanburg Methodist College.  For the purposes of this blog post, it would have been convenient had it happened closer to mid-March, but the actual interview was April 1; I got the e-mail asking about a phone conversation a few days earlier.  I'm so glad that phone interview went well, and I'm so glad I said yes to the job.

A year ago, I'd have spent the last few days interviewing for the one year lectureship.  I did a teaching demonstration on Tuesday, a day of interviews on Wednesday, and on Thursday, the Provost offered me the job.  Again, I'm glad I said yes.  There are days when I'm tired:  extra days of driving back and forth take their toll.  It's easier teaching 2-3 classes than 5.  But I'm still glad to have the job and all the opportunities.

It's been a good teaching week:  I got caught up on grading, and most of my teaching went well.  On Thursday, I didn't have much of a plan for my Nonfiction Writing class of 4 students.  We're talking about writing reviews, so we're going to watch a movie together next week.  I had each one choose three possible movies and write mini-reviews to try to persuade their classmates to choose one of their movies.  I had thought about bringing in professional reviews, but then I had them go to various sites and look up reviews about 12 movies under consideration.  They did that, and then I had them write their top 3 choices on the board.

Happily, one movie made it to everyone's list, the animated film Grave of the Fireflies.  From there, we had a great conversation about animation, about film, about documentaries, with a side detour of talking about Paris Is Burning.  It was the kind of conversation that I always hope will happen, a conversation both deep and wide ranging, a conversation that made me think, yes, this is what college should be.

I told my students that I would bring them treats:  popcorn and movie candy, and yesterday, I did just that.  My spouse said, "You'll have record enrollment the next time you offer this course."  I said, "That would be wonderful!"

Last night my spouse and I talked about my sermon, which he edited and revised.  We talked about all the ways that I may be trying to do too much, thoughts that I've been having too.  My spouse said, "At least all of your activities are things you like to do."

Indeed.  I am also thinking of another March, 5 years ago, when my work life was about to take a turn for the worse, when I would be training people in all sorts of areas that were new to them, like how to take an onground course and take it online.  I would be training myself in all sorts of disease mitigation.  I would be thinking about how to survive if things got even more dire.  Living in a hurricane zone was good training for that, but also a sobering reminder of how interconnected we all are, how hard it will be if the power grid goes out, if supply chains are disrupted.

I hope future months of March are less like that one and more like this current one.