Return…
Tomorrow marks registration for the new academic year here at ICP. I started here seven years ago, which is a little hard to believe. It’s strange to still be wedded to the school year this late in my life. Even though I spent ten years teaching during the summer, September still means the beginning of another year for me almost more so than January. In all my life I’ve only had two jobs that weren’t tied to the Sept-May cycle. Of course the art world also gets itself back on the rails in September, and even without any specific thing coming up I think everyone gets that little bit of “time to get seriousness” about them this time of year. New York has been a bit more frolicsome, even with the grind of healthcare debate. I’ve certainly had a different summer from my last few. It was the first time in twelve years that I had absolutely no role within the Bard Summer MFA program.
This September will also mark the end of my tenure as TES’s parliamentarian. I have some slight regrets in that department, but I’m not sorry I took the job on. I have also seen some behavior around the upcoming election that has saddened me deeply.
The lesson here perhaps is that I’m still in the process of sorting out exactly which communities, personalities and activities are deserving of my time and energy. Boy does that sound pretentious! But my usual mindset is that I pretty much owe anyone or anything that I’ve had an interaction with everything that I’m not currently doing for them. So perhaps if I can be a bit more honest on the limits to my commitments, I can avoid pain and resentment down the road.
I look around my desk and see that it is only slightly messier than it was when I got it sorted out this past June. That’s a relief. I think I should probably tuck in and work on it some.
Tags: daily photo, emotions, tes, work
