Friday, November 28, 2008

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Chicago

Some Chicago pics. For more, go to
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2530&l=f4ab7&id=1583256152










Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Ode to a deserted campus

O how to begin this ode?
I had to research it
because I've never knowed.
So I chose the structure called Pindaric
and now, here we ... goed?

I love eating downtown as I please,
trekking across campus, going to the health center,
all while parking with ease.
I love having a sign on my door that says "Enter"
and knowing no students are around to slow my productivity.

So, as I've expressed with these words
I find a deserted campus enjoyable and exciting
because I remain in my office, reading and writing.
But next week marks the return of the "Do Not Disturb."

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Saint Augustine

"When at last I cling to you with all my being, for me there will be no more sorrow, no more toil. Then at last I shall be alive with true life, for my life will be wholly filled by you."
~Saint Augustine

Thursday, November 20, 2008

simply

I'm not usually one to push products on others...but I have to share this with you:
Simply Orange and Simply Apple are the best juices I have had in my life. Ever. It is the closest I have ever come to popping a straw into an orange in drinking, or sucking all the juice off a plump apple.
Go buy some. Today.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

anger

"Anger is a tool for change when it challenges us to become more of an expert on the self and less of an expert on others."
-Harriet Goldhor Lerner

Sunday, November 16, 2008

love

"We can only learn to love by loving."
-Iris Murdoch

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

mean

One of my favorite former students approached me in the hall earlier this week as I was "wearing the hat" of clinical supervisor. She asked me if I could please be her supervisor at some point during her clinical rotation. I commented that it was so nice of her to ask and I was honored. I then asked her why.

She said she needed someone to be mean.

What???? I looked at my students who I am currently supervising who were there with us and asked them what they had been telling people...

But my student, who I had previously taught for 3 semesters and who also worked on my research project for me, was very quick to try and explain that she just knew, based upon her history with me, that I would tell her like it is, tell her the bad with the good, and that she wanted that.

So, I was feeling a little better at that point, and less like an evil supervisor. I do make a habit of giving the good and the bad, as my goal is not for my students to like me, but to leave this university as a better clinician because of something they learned from me.

I'm sharing this because most of you have never seen me in this role as a firm and tough instructor/clinical supervisor, and wouldn't believe it if you saw it. A friend from church recently commented that she couldn't imagine me in that role because she couldn't imagine me ever saying anything to hurt someone's feelings or to make them feel bad.

Oh, if only she knew. I'm sure my former students have many stories about me...Yet I am confident that they will look upon those stories later (maybe much much later) and see that though they may not have liked my criticism or comments, that it was truthful, made them a better clinician, and never mean-hearted.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

on point

From a new friend:

"Our action, or lack thereof, is the cause of our government. Politicians do no more than give an innovative response to the political system we have molded. By and large, we live for reality TV, fantasy sports, American Idol, and iPods yet, we are surprised when our leaders do not approach us by a higher standard. A government for the people and by the people cannot be adequately changed from the top down; we must work to change it from the bottom up.

Today we will exercise a right that the majority of the world does not know and may never experience. Today let us not retreat to the safety of inaction but take up our blood-stained rights, handed to us by a generation long forgotten. I urge you, my fellow Americans, to vote. Vote because you breathe this air, share this dream, and care for this country.

I am proud to call you my countrymen and look forward to sharing my right with you today as we embark into a new chapter of America. God bless America!"

~Clinton Rice