New Job

On March 20 I will start a new job at the School of Law at the University of St. Thomas. It's a great opportunity to work in marketing at a school I don't think I could probably get into. We don't have to move which is a huge plus and the job is really great. I will start my Ed.d sometime in the next year and continue to work in marketing higher education.

On the brighter side I will be working downtonw Mpls within 2 blocks of 2 Starbucks, a Caribou, and Chipotle. You can tell where my priorities are.

Random Abstract

I’m relatively sure I had something important to say today but for the life of me I can’t figure out what it is. A few days ago in the car I connected the dots between several random abstract items in my life and thought, “hey that would make a great blog,” but I seem to have forgotten it.

All in all, a really big few weeks though. Major financial purchases, major possible career moves, and a whole lot more.

The big Montana vs. Minnesota of the moment seems to be the battle in my head of thinking of living in a state where a former Saturday Night Live cast member is a member of congress. I can’t seem to get the voice of the SNL announcer out of my head every time I read his name.

Al Franken is a funny guy who is no doubt smart. It was his wit that made him funny. However, the more I watch politicians the more I’m willing to back men and women who seem to be great collaborators, and he is a polarizing figure.

The basketball season is over on Tuesday. This has been a really, really enjoyable year with the 9th grade girls. They have played hard most of the time, and rarely make me want to jump in front of a bus. Plus, I’ve learned a lot the current state of affairs in the American high school, and having this experience this year makes me less worried knowing that my son will become a high school student next year.

Three generations of poets

I remember finding out at some point in my young life that my Dad had written poetry. In a box my Mom was going through she found a poem and I remember thinking two things. One was, “That is pretty weird.” Two was, “That’s not half bad.” Not that I was probably qualified to judge because I was less than ten, but I remember it was a poem about Wilt Chamberlain.

This fall, my son cruised to a student council election victory on the strength of his election speech which he put in the form of a poem. Yesterday, he read part two as part of announcement to encourage his school to read more to reach a school wide goal. Apparently it was a big hit with the school with the exception of the eighth graders who my son said gave him a “pity clap”. I think he was joking.

The funny thing is that we have never talked about my poetry writing or his grandfathers, yet he has picked up the pen. It is more for fun than fame, and it seems that poetry in daily life has disappeared even more than when I was in school, but somehow he found his way to it. It brings about a lot of nature and nurture thoughts in me, but more than that I think it shows a generational connection. There is some thread within families that cannot be explained but is evident in the strangest ways from the way we talk to the things we like. My son is a lot different from me, and I am a lot different than my Dad. But as I get older, I appreciate more and more those times that God reveals a way that I am the same, connected in ways that I don’t understand.

I wonder to if this is not partly how God sees us. We are his children, and every once in awhile we do something where he looks at us and is pleased because we have displayed some trait of his.