Take a sad song and make it better
Our Catholic community sings a beautiful gospel-style Alleluia. Most weeks, we only have a standup piano for accompaniment, and the effect is near perfect. Even the most funk-impaired central Ohioan can get into the swing of this one.
It hit me square in the chest yesterday. I knew I was going to Mass to pray for the Delta; it had slipped my mind that for a moment, it would sound like a small Southern church and I'd remember Kermit Ruffins predicting the biggest jazz funeral of all time.
So I threw my head back and let 'er rip.
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I had a tough day on Friday for a lot of reasons. At the end of the day, one of my bosses walked into my office. He wanted to tell me that he'd just been to a meeting where the College talked about what it can do for disaster relief. Our students are raising money, both for relief in the Delta and for members of the student body who have been directly affected. Meanwhile, we're trying to convince them that New Orleans is not ready for volunteers to show up yet, but to start planning for December or Spring Break. We'll be taking in at least one student from a New Orleans university. We're investigating whether our faculty and staff have specialties which might be helpful down there, or whether we might be able to offer a temporary position to a displaced educator.
Then we talked about the disaster more generally - the logistical issues, what criticisms are fair and what aren't. What's coming that we'll hear later regarding damage to records and electronics. And we laughed at the picture of me on top of a levee with a pickaxe, saying "ahhhhhh, looks like this one could come out...." like the Three Stooges on top of the Berlin Wall.
It occurred to me later that night to check the stats on this blog. It looks like we stopped talking and then he read my last post. But it would have been entirely in his character for him to see it, and then come up to tell me something hopeful. He's subtle like that sometimes.
I'm very lucky where I work. I have terrific bosses, smart, genuinely good people. They do tend to get credit for their smarts and skills and hard work. But I don't say publicly often enough that they're just good people, and I appreciate having them in my life. So here, in front of the whole Internet: thanks. You're a good man.
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Happy wedding day, Joe and Trenise Kirsch.
It hit me square in the chest yesterday. I knew I was going to Mass to pray for the Delta; it had slipped my mind that for a moment, it would sound like a small Southern church and I'd remember Kermit Ruffins predicting the biggest jazz funeral of all time.
So I threw my head back and let 'er rip.
-------
I had a tough day on Friday for a lot of reasons. At the end of the day, one of my bosses walked into my office. He wanted to tell me that he'd just been to a meeting where the College talked about what it can do for disaster relief. Our students are raising money, both for relief in the Delta and for members of the student body who have been directly affected. Meanwhile, we're trying to convince them that New Orleans is not ready for volunteers to show up yet, but to start planning for December or Spring Break. We'll be taking in at least one student from a New Orleans university. We're investigating whether our faculty and staff have specialties which might be helpful down there, or whether we might be able to offer a temporary position to a displaced educator.
Then we talked about the disaster more generally - the logistical issues, what criticisms are fair and what aren't. What's coming that we'll hear later regarding damage to records and electronics. And we laughed at the picture of me on top of a levee with a pickaxe, saying "ahhhhhh, looks like this one could come out...." like the Three Stooges on top of the Berlin Wall.
It occurred to me later that night to check the stats on this blog. It looks like we stopped talking and then he read my last post. But it would have been entirely in his character for him to see it, and then come up to tell me something hopeful. He's subtle like that sometimes.
I'm very lucky where I work. I have terrific bosses, smart, genuinely good people. They do tend to get credit for their smarts and skills and hard work. But I don't say publicly often enough that they're just good people, and I appreciate having them in my life. So here, in front of the whole Internet: thanks. You're a good man.
-------
Happy wedding day, Joe and Trenise Kirsch.
posted by Joe at 9:32 AM
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