And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.

The last couple of weeks are a testament to how fast life can change. When I returned home from the Glen Workshop, my main concerns work-wise were teaching two classes and completing a project for the re-accreditation of Tiffin University. Silly me. About two weeks ago, while teaching my niece how to navigate the maneuverability portion of Ohio’s driving test, I got a call asking me to come in for a meeting with the VP of Academic Affairs. Within a week of that phone call, I’d been approached, interviewed for, offered, and negotiated a contract to be hired full-time at Tiffin University.

So, I am now officially a full-time Instructor in English and the Program Chair for the Ivy Bridge College of Tiffin University Associate of Arts in General Studies. LINK The main practical downside to the situation is that my office is in Toledo, 1:15 minutes away. (The upside to this is that it’s near various shopping alternatives we don’t have in Tiffin.)

One of the prayers we use in church after Communion includes the sentence above. It’s an idea that I, and some friends, have discussed quite a bit over the years. There’s something to the idea of not worrying about what one should be doing in some ill-defined cultural sense but rather focusing on the work that God has put in front of you. I’m not always very good at putting aside the human-centered shoulds. And there are many who would question the idea that God ever called anyone to work in an entrepreneurial education enterprise. However, for now, it seems that God has given me this work to do. So, I shall do it. Amen.

Day 7 dawned bright and early and with a few butterflies in the tummy as I headed off to have my poems critiqued. We ended up working on the ghost story and the robin–both works that were in need of revising. It appears that my more imagist tendencies were less successful than my narrative inclinations. The good news is that whatever it is that I have, people want more of it and less compression. I wanted to comment that folks that know me well know that I’m really good at tamping stuff down; in other words, I was playing to strengths, etc. So now, it looks like the ghost story may get transformed into multiple poems of greater depth–or a long poem in sections. Folks seemed to think that the robin poem focused too much on the earthworm. Not sure about that, but I do agree that there needs to be more set-up for the money shot as they say in the movie bizz.

Nicest compliment I received this week: “You really don’t have a book out?”
Biggest kick in the kiester I received this week: “Really? You don’t have a book out?”

Spent the afternoon pre-packing and figuring out how to get all the books I purchased into the luggage. I was quite concerned about the weight of my checked bag, but it turns out I needn’t have worried. On Sunday when I checked in, the bag only weighed 38 lbs; I could have stuffed 12 more pounds in there!

The evening started off with a bang. I won 3 cans of Alaskan Salmon in the silent auction. These aren’t just any salmon. These are salmon caught by the Fields family of Kodiak. Leslie Leyland-Fields teaches in the Seattle Pacific MFA program and has written several books about life in Alaska as well as a book on surprise pregnancies and her latest book on parenting myths that trap us in guilt. The first night I was home, we made the salmon fettucini recipe on the can, and it was tasty.

After standing in line for 40 minutes to pay for my salmon–which included a satisfying moment when I learned that Linford Dettweiler of Over the Rhine who had earlier DOUBLED my bid for a Barry Moser print was himself outbid on that print at the last minute (I have a habit of getting into bidding wars with folk singers)–we settled in for the evening’s concert by Over the Rhine which was sublime. I only cursed my choice of camera lens once, near the end of the show when Karin serenaded birthday boy Greg Wolfe with a Monroe-esque “Happy Birthday, Mr. Editor” (at the request of Wolfe’s wife) and then Julie Mullins danced a fond farewell in her tap shoes. The worship service and annointing that followed were as deeply moving as they have ever been.

Then it was on to the reception where there was hymn singing, hugging, and general farewell-ing. On Sunday morning, after breakfast, I climbed into Bob and Lori’s truck and headed off to an uneventful day of travel home.

After a restful (very late) day, it’s back to action. The morning workshop was back to its by-now expected energy and support. In the afternoon, Bob and I headed out to Arroyo Chamisos DGC for a round of disc golf. After a rough start, I pulled it together and shot a -4. The key: put the driver away, tee off with the midrange. The thin air made the driver way, way overstable while making the Roc stable enough to handle full-on driving power.

Marilyn Nelson provided the evening reading, and she was fantastic. Through no fault of her own, her portion of the evening started almost an hour late, but no one wanted her to stop. In fact, the last question of the Q&A period was a request for an encore poem.

Tomorrow is the day I get critiqued.

Without a car, I had no plans for free day. However, as often happens at the Glen, a wave of communal energy swept me up into a group headed to the International Folk Art Museum on Museum Hill. Since the museum doesn’t allow pics inside the galleries, there’s no images to share. I can say that there was a fantastic exhibit on shadow puppets, and the Girard Collection will surely blow your mind. One of the items that still sticks in my mind is a carved wood Madonna and Child that looks all the world like a representation of Siamese twins.

After a morning at the museum, we headed to the Blue Corn Cafe and Brewery for a wonderful lunch and shelter from a hail storm that dumped 3/4 inch hail. The group then split up. I joined Bob and Lori on tours of the Loretto Chapel and St. Francis Basilica.

The evening was once again filled by the Thomas Parker Society, which seemed to thoroughly enjoy my offerings from Fox and Mask.