If we continue our month-by-month Odyssey, October was the time of the Lotus Eaters. Once ingested, the lotus made Odysseus’ crew lazily forget their plans for escaping the island or for returning home. I imagine this was not an unpleasant state; more of a slow motioned drugged-out pause in an otherwise tumultuous adventure.
What can we learn from O’s encounter with those crazy vegetarians? Perhaps that creativity and forward movement of any kind deserves, thrives on, and even requires breaks in effort. How many times have you found yourself at the local watering hole/coffee establishment knee deep in the green fairy, well established in the throws of an hours long conversation about Peanuts vs. Calvin and Hobbes, how sex education should really be taught, or what is the perfect candy bar and why? Did guilt ensue? Was such an encounter quickly labeled a waste of time? Were there subsequent bouts of self flagellation? Before throwing the baby out with the bathwater, let’s take stock. The graduate school experience is not just a means to an end; it is a rare time in life where one can find large groups of like minded people who enjoy sitting around and talking with absolutely no purpose in mind.
To believe that the graduate school experience is indeed a journey, is to take solace in Odysseus’ seeming departures from his goal. After all, not all of his adventures involved doing battle against an enemy; showdown’s with one’s advisor, deadlines, conferences, etc. etc. Several of O’s pit stops were, to some degree at least, pleasant, and offered a time to reflect, gather energy, and, in the parlance of today’s psychology, process.
So let me be the first to recommend grabbing your three best buds and hightailing it to the nearest subterranean rendez-vous and hanging out until your vocal chords retire. This may not get your dissertation written any faster, but it is guaranteed to make your life longer, or, at the very least, better.
2 Comments
November 3, 2007 at 3:00 am
That was incredibly reassuring. It is difficult to keep in mind the intangible but oh so important benefits to the grad school experience. This is certainly an entry I’ll be going back to.
November 3, 2007 at 1:06 pm
glad you’re back! and yes, very reassuring. we tend to berate ourselves over breaks – the nature of academia, i suppose, is that it’s not physically 9-5, but it’s still on the mind 24-7.