1. The climate in institutional educational settings is such that I keep physical distance from my students. Ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five years ago, students and I would share a hug after a conference or when a course came to an end and it seemed good. Today, I had a good talk with Lina and she said, "Let me give you a hug" and we hugged and it was the right thing to do and I appreciated one of these all too rare moments of sharing gratitude and respect. The gratitude and respect is there between me and my students, but we rarely express it this way.
2. Shelley and I have worked together in WR 115, 121, 122, and now 123. She's a wonderful writer with a complicated life and almost never finishes a course on time. We trust each other. She knows that I know that she will finish her work and so we are both relaxed about her needing an incomplete. I really enjoyed working out the possibilities for her last paper this morning and our shared understanding that it would not be long before she finished, but it would be after the quarter ended.
3. At the corner between mine and Margaret's office is a round table with two chairs . Rather than talk things over in our offices, Margaret and I sit at this table and the best part is when other faculty or students see and hear us and come down the hall and join us for some irreverent laughs and a smattering of serious discussion.
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