As I struggle to find the energy, focus, and drive to complete my summer writing deadlines, the opening lines of Thomas Paine’s The Crisis take on new meaning:
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.The difference appears less acute from September to June. I may advise while others teach, but the strain on scholarship seems less stark then. In the summer, when the professoriate retires from lectures, seminars, and office hours, I still Skype with fellowship applicants as registrars revise databases. In some ways the summer pressure is less. Undergraduates don’t line the halls. Thus, the summer #altac scholar thinks a flurry of productivity just might be possible.
Posts
