The First Day of School
Today is the first day of school at Notre Dame. Now, as someone who has been teaching a while, and who has gone through twenty-third grade herself (try telling that to an eight-year-old and watch their eyes pop!), I’ve had my share of first days of school.
But it is still exciting. It’s a new chance. A new set of opportunities. A prospect of meeting new students, and both communicating and gaining enthusiasm from them.
It’s also comforting. I spent four years in the “real world” (clerking and practicing law). While I enjoyed the work, the rhythm of life in the “real world” never quite fit me. There was no beginning, and no end. No summer vacation. No Christmas break. Working in a big office building, in a law firm, in a climate-controlled environment, you lose track of the rhythms of the seasons, which the school year still incorporates. I once wrote an article “Billable Hours and Ordinary Time,” which compared the law firm view of time with the Catholic liturgical view of time. It was published in Communio under a slightly different title. As many people told me, the law firm view of time characterizes the veiw of time in a lot of professions and businesses.
But I do have one complaint about the first day of school, at least here in Indiana. It really should be the first Wednesday after Labor Day.
Here I am in the “real world” with the “rhythm of life” not “quite fitting me.” “[N]o beginning, and no end. No summer vacation. No Christmas break. Working in a big office building, …, in a climate-controlled environment, los[ing] track of the rhythms of the seasons.”
Thanks for adding to my depression, Kathy. :)
But Go ND in football this year. Pre-season polls have the Fighting Irish a serious contender for the national championship, and many Catholics all over the country–except in BC country, maybe–support ND in this annual autumnal secular crusade. ND fever is mounting in my family, too, especially among my two sisters who attended ND, my nephew who is a student there now, and my son who hopes to attend next year (though, if truth be told, he also liked Georgetown and BC during campus visits). We’ll see…
“[N]o beginning, and no end. No summer vacation. No Christmas break. Working in a big office building, …, in a climate-controlled environment, los[ing] track of the rhythms of the seasons.”
Been there, done that … for 41 years. Now, my life’s rhythms can be attuned to any rhythms I want, and my health allows. Retirement is more than it is cracked up to be, assuming one can afford it, has the health and stamina to go and do, and the ability to adjust to 2 things, at least initially:
(1) for those of us without pensions, the lack of a regular paycheck is unnerving; and (2) for those of us who don’t have families to occupy our time, leaving the workaday world in which there is regular social interaction with familiar faces and going out into a world of perpetual strangers takes a lot of getting used to!
Cathy, 49 pages! What would happen if I took your class? At any rate, I read your conclusions. Can you synopsize it for us?
Of more import is the question of your teaching law and theology. I understand that you are in need of challenges but theology needs you more, I maintain.
Besides analyzing Kung and Schussler-Fiorenza you can delve into historical cricticism, and the world of late antique history which does not have enough Catholics.
Then your seasons will be even better. You can start after Labor Day also. Only lawyers are stupid (smile) enough to start school in August.