It was a great stroke of luck to land my first position immediately upon graduating with my doctorate, at a small liberal arts college, even though it was ‘only’ a what academics classify as a ‘visiting’ position (one year, temporary). Now, almost fifteen years later, it seems idyllic. Nowhere else have I been as welcomed as a colleague; nowhere else was there such collective enthusiasm among students for philosophy, indeed for college in general.

Having seen many years of students since, I have learned to connect this to the just-recent financial crisis; the group at this school didn’t yet know the crushing anxieties that would set in in higher education, and could still manage to approach their college experience in some spirit of exploration and experimentation.

One of my students went on to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy; her career is now better than mine. It is bittersweet when she tells me: your ancient philosophy class was what made me think I could become a philosopher.

'… when we’re able to maintain a practice, day after day, week after week, then we can make progress, even if it’s in very small increments.'

Musil's writer's block

Amateur

Rocks.

In big piles.

Of rocks.

'We haven't invented the Hula-Hoop or anything. We're only contemporary. And if we're different from the rest of TV, it's because the rest of TV isn't even contemporary.'

'Listeners, not speakers, are the main reasoners'

Atop a massive tree stump, a Lime scooter on its side, as if a sacrifice.

'Like jokes, generally, slang is unsigned.'