Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Swerving to miss the next disaster

Yesterday as I drove to work I nearly hit a fox, which was exciting for several reasons: because it was a fox, because I missed it, and because I could see it. Daylight! What a remarkable thing to experience on the morning commute!

An earlier sunrise is not the only sign that things are changing. My driveway is now mostly free of ice and snow, relieving the daily angst about whether I'd be able to get anywhere. My new dryer will be delivered next week, relieving the weekly angst about who is going to do the laundry and how and where. And spring break is coming next week, suggesting that we've survived nearly half of a semester of in-person teaching without disaster.

Of course I'm joking about spring break. We do not have a spring break. We're all supposed to be limiting our travel, faculty and students alike, so instead of a spring break we get a spring break day. Yes: no classes next Wednesday! But at the same time, faculty have been notified that we have to require the appropriate number of contact hours despite the single day off, so we're supposed to assign work equivalent to that missed classed time: Go ahead, students, take the day off--but take this big pile of work with you when you go! Not sure that qualifies as a day off.

Meanwhile, we've seen a small spike in Covid-19 cases, including a handful of students in one of my classes. How nervous does it make me to know that a half-dozen of my students, including the one who sits closest to where I stand to lead class, are suffering from the virus? 

Let's not think about that. Instead, let's think about the fox. It was a lovely thing to see a fox, and even lovelier to keep seeing the fox running into the distance after I had swerved to miss it. Let's hope we can keep swerving to miss disasters because I think we've all survived enough for now.

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