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One of the good things about my current position is that it does not have me scrambling to get to the office each day; I am only scheduled to teach on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  (I still usually go in, but at my ease and to be sure that I am ready to go for my classes.)  It is that convenience of schedule that potentially allows me to get research done.  It does allow me to get other writing done, such as I am doing now.  And it allows me to get errands run that I otherwise have quite a bit of struggle to do.

I know that the last will provoke little sympathy.  It is not intended to do so.  Rather, it is offered as an expression of my appreciation for the excellent situation I have--I know that I am fortunate to have it, and I know that others are not so lucky.  It is useful to retain such a perspective.

My scholarly work will be able to resume in earnest soon.  I happily received a package from home today, one in which my wonderful wife sent some of the materials from which I do my research and teaching.  While it is true that I have access to articles online thanks to my memberships in many scholarly organizations, and I have access to books through being affiliated with a university, I do much of the preliminary work of developing my ideas in marginalia.  The barely legible scrawling in the white spaces beside the texts of my journals and books is where my papers begin, and having access to them again makes it far easier for me to find and work on the many ideas that I think good, improving and expanding upon them so that other people will also think them good.

And that is good.

It might be asked why I spend my time hammering out a few hundred words here and there--on this blog, for example--when there are other things that I need to do.  Part of the answer is simply that I cannot work all the time, and this blog and some of my other writing serves as a means of relaxation for me, allowing me to return with renewed vigor to the research and teaching that have brought me where I am.  Another part of the answer is that I, like many others who work in the academic humanities, seek to reach a broader audience than just my colleagues while still discussing matters of some erudition in something resembling a serious fashion; this blog allows me a venue to do so.  And if it is the case that not every post is an explication of a poem or an attempt to negotiate theological principles, the sum total of the blog is an image of the life of a scholar--something which I am convinced that many people ill understand.

Promoting greater understanding works to the benefit of all, and that is a matter to which all of us ought to give attention.