Fall is here; winter is coming
RWL #415
Greetings from The University of New Hampshire! Peak foliage is this week according to those who know. I celebrated peak foliage by starting the clearing process. Because the LHH is surrounded by woods on three sides, I just send the leaves back to where they came from. Get off my lawn! I thought I’d share a little clip of my leaf blowing coupled with some 80’s metal.
https://youtube.com/shorts/P02eT61gzgw?feature=share
On a more somber note, Monday was the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s mass murder of kids at a music festival, as well as their mercilessly slaughtering innocent civilians, including children and the elderly, in their homes. I didn’t fully appreciate the horror of this event when I first heard about it last year. I feel badly for the innocent civilian Palestinians, but what they are now suffering is the direct result of Hamas’s evil.
I grew up watching violence in the Middle East, so I have to say, while the murderous rampage of Oct 7 was shocking, it wasn’t particularly surprising. What was surprising was the reaction here in the US at supposedly top institutions of learning and the reaction of the Progressive Left, which celebrated the slaughter of innocent Israelis, and has morphed into overt anti-semitism. I am ashamed that this behavior has metastasized here. It would make George Washington ashamed, as he wrote to the “to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island” in 1790:
May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.
No American in 2024 should be afraid in her/his home. To the degree that is true, we have work to do. No one should be actively trying to create that fear.
The world continues to be a dangerous place, and the foolish people who espouse this anti-semitic rhetoric do not belong in leadership in any form, public or private, in our country. I would like to imagine the world was so simple as to divide into oppressors and oppressed, but nothing is ever that simple. These people would do better to fold up their tents and go back to class and maybe read some history.
Sigh. As usual, willing good for all of you!
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Read
What: MIT Sloan, 4 developmental tasks you — and everyone else — will face in retirement
Why: I saw Kathy Kram and her co-authors present the early stages of this research in the before-times (pre-Pandemic). I interviewed Kathy for the Flourishing in the World Podcast. This new book by Kathy and her team looks fascinating. Each of them is a world-renowned scholar who spent their careers thinking about work and life. In this short excerpt, they define the four developmental tasks of retirement.
I’m hoping I can interview one of them for the Podcast about this book.
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What: Competitive Intelligence Alliance, 7 surprising alternatives to SWOT analysis
https://www.competitiveintelligencealliance.io/alternatives-to-swot-analysis/
Why: I make my seniors do a “personal SWOT” analysis each year in their post-practicum course to help them reflect on where they should be going. One of my colleagues thinks SWOT is so 1990. So I decided to look for some more current analytical approaches. I thought this post offered some interesting tools. I still think SWOT is effective for what I am trying to do, but maybe one of these would also do. Worth a glance. I see all of these as tools for thinking, so I don’t really care if they aren’t the current thing.
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Watch
What: Richard Franks Comedy, GEN Z SHAKESPEARE: ROMEO AND JULIET EDITION
Why: My undergraduate was in English, and now I teach undergraduate Gen Z’ers, so this made me laugh. I could tell you this is about intergenerational communication and understanding, and that wouldn’t be completely false, but I’m really sharing it with you because it made me laugh so hard. A little levity before I drop the big one on you next…
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Listen
What: Honestly with Bari Weiss, A year of revelations (64 min)
Why: “We expected Hamas to kill Jews. We didn’t expect Americans to celebrate it.” Worth listening to.