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Somehow, among the other things that need doing, I am squeezing in time with my people. It is a good thing to get to do, but it is one that makes some other demands upon me than I am used to having. There is part of me that insists I ought to be working, that I ought not to have stopped what else I was doing, that The Work requires attention above all else. It is not uncommon among those of us who study the academic humanities, really; I am not alone in feeling that there is more that needs doing and that I am the one who has to do it. Only through doing such work in finding new knowledge, developing understanding that has not before been had, can I and the others in my field establish ourselves and have some small chance of mattering, of being in a position that matters and from which we can do some good in the world.

Today, I mean to fight against it. My people need attention, and I cannot be the person I need to be to do The Work as I need to do it if I do not give it them.