Except for public schoolteachers and farmers, it is the rare individual who spends her whole working life at the same organization. Rarer still for one to remain at the same institution for 45 years. So at a recent annual President's Dinner at Bluffton University, there was true cause for celebration.
Blame this on the Olympics and the fact that Scott Hamilton's voice is prominent during the analyses of the figure skating events. Every time I hear him speak, it makes me wish I were at the Olympics. Not that I want to watch the athletes -- which okay, yeah, I wouldn't mind that -- but mostly because I want to meet him.
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Waking to another snowy morning (I'm writing this Tuesday, Feb. 16), I am reminded of last week's snow - and the signs of spring that came with it. Signs of spring, you say? In the middle of a mini-blizzard?
In the early 1940s my parents were students at Bluffton College, a small midwestern liberal arts college. Dad was very shy, Mother quite the opposite. She knew him by name and knew of his family's connection to the college. But she was a rural farm girl with a love for English and music. His heart was in the sciences. You might think that on such a small campus, everyone knew everyone else but apparently that was not so.
There are those who think that living in a small town is boring - just talk to those Bluffton natives who couldn't wait to graduate and head out for the big city.
And then there are those of us who know otherwise. Boredom is simply a matter of being unable to create activity. Parents know how quickly their children can think of something else to do when, upon hearing the plaintive "I'm bored", a parent suggests some unappealing chore.
