A good day

 Yesterday was excellent. First day of the rest of my life. 

Got it off on the right foot by walking away from my building, when I first arrived on campus at 8 am, rather than heading in. Just felt an insistent need for an immediate walkabout, without distraction or delay. 

That used to be my default, in every weather: walk to work (like Henry), right after the long benumbing auto commute. Lately I've gotten soft, in winter, preferring the instant comfort of central heating. 

But it wasn't that cold yesterday morning, 40-something, so I parked and pivoted in the direction of the Tom Jackson Building rather than the James Union. Then on past Murphy Center, the stadium, the baseball field, the KUC, the library, the science building, the Naked Eye observatory, through the Peck Hall courtyard, hard left at Kirksey Old Main... 

A brisk forty-minute ramble around our lyceum grounds and now I'm vivified, revitalized, and ready to work. I feel great.

And what do I find waiting for me at my office door?

Well, the day just kept getting better. Had our first midterm report presentation in CoPhi #6, on the Buddhist notion of anatta. Great job, Kloey. And thanks for bringing little chocolate chip cupcakes, Eden.

Then in #9 more of us finally found our tongues, eager to comment on Julian Baggini's observation that kids these days seem less interested in asserting fixed and essential identities with respect to gender and sexuality.

Then in A&P we voted to go outside and bask in the sunshine of the Peck Hall stoa as we continued our discussion of Richard Rorty's anti-authoritarianism. Just as we concluded, our resident Methodist minister noted with some amusement Rorty's cheeky statement about how "we American college teachers encounter religious fundamentalists..." 

And finally, in Bioethics we shared Claire's sweet treats and were treated as well to outstanding presentations from Patricia (on pandemics of yore) and Curtis on food insecurity, nutritional illiteracy and related issues. I was reminded to tout Cousin Jamie's spirited "ministry" and Michael Pollan's clever (and now brilliantly illustrated) Food Rules.

And I got to bring home the rest of the goodies. And reaffirmation, yet again, that it (just about any it) is solved by walking. Solvitur Ambulando. That might make a decent tattoo.