Having done, part 2
I’m no longer panicking about the necessity of finding a new job by next September, primarily thanks to friends here in Collegeville and elsewhere. R., over the phone, gave me a job-search pep talk and urged me to come to New York, where she is; H. said encouraging things about how the change is likely for the best; and T., while we were hanging out at our pub last night, reminded me of where some of my intellectual passions have migrated to. We got to talking about eighteenth-century farce (her research topic) and eighteenth-century opera (my recent obsession) and the connections between them, and I forget exactly what point in the conversation prompted this — probably the two pints of beer had something to do with that — but at one point we looked at each other and said "Dude! Collaborative book project!" I cheered up a great deal at the thought pursuing such a project just for the sake of pursuing it, not for tenure or the promise of a job somewhere or anything else, and with a friend to collaborate with. I think I was worried that, on top of everything else, I’d lose touch with the friends I’ve made in graduate school. But I don’t think that’s going to be the case.
It’s ironic: one of the reasons I initially thought I’d be a good scholar was that I liked being alone and knew I wouldn’t mind spending long solitary hours in the library. I still prefer to have plenty of alone time, but increasingly I’m realizing that what sustains me is meaningful contact with other people.
In other news, Robert Altman’s new movie The Company is brilliant and joyful. It’s hard to say why, though I have a few ideas. I may post about it at more length once I’ve had a chance to go see it again. But it was somehow exactly what I wanted and needed to see this week.
New theme songs for the upcoming months: "Que Sera, Sera" (as sung by Doris Day in The Man Who Knew Too Much) and "Tomorrow Is My Turn" (as sung by Nina Simone). Only, thanks to Altman and his Rodgers-and-Hart-heavy soundtrack, I can’t get "My Funny Valentine" out of my head. Stay, little Valentine, staaaaaaayyyyyy…
I’d like to drink a pint or two for the pursuit of the “scholarly” for love, fun, and comradeship. There’s got to be a way to make it work. There’s just got to be!