A Few Academic Tasks

SAT., JULY 10, 1999, 7:00 AM
FARM, STUDY

In midweek you fulfilled one of the few academic tasks that are still yours to enjoy… or endure. There still are, perhaps, 4 or 5 theses or dissertations to which you are committed, as a committee member. (You have completed all those for which you were the chair.) You could be asked to do another guest lecture, but this becomes less likely as the months go by. The little office is still yours to use and enjoy, but you haven’t hung any of the pictures, and it now has been two years since you coasted into Emeritus status. What do I, Holy Spirit, have to say about this fading academic “presence.”

First, I’ll assure you that I do approve of your continuation as an academician in this limited way. You definitely are losing your interest and competence in the actual subject matter, but it still is fun to be “included” as a “judge” and as a participant in the candidate’s oral. You still have a rather good sense of how to ask questions that challenge the candidate, but are fair and non-combative. You have My encouragement to continue on with similar end-of-program tasks. The students are all “good ones”… and you won’t have any more, predictably.

You have the current (late as usual) Ruminations completed, in written form, but the production still lies ahead. This is not an onerous task, but it is time-consuming, given the condition of your left hand. Yet I want you to continue to see this “Letter task” as a complete one for you. It is quasi-academic, even as it is spiritual in nature and content. Final editing must come this weekend, with the total task to be completed by midweek. You CAN do it, given that you still have access to the University.

You realize that there will, eventually, be an end to this “access” and to the tasks that still might be offered. In some ways you dread this, but it also is taking on reality… and can almost be anticipated, with joy. It shall be an eventual loss, but this is a time, in this earth life, when losses accumulate and gains diminish. Be thankful that this time, for you, is rather gradual, to be enjoyed rather than to be dreaded for its “end.”

Another thought you’ve had, of interest to Me, is about the desirability of dying while you still have some involvement with this Institution of which you have been a part for 34 years. This is encouraged by your involvement with your Dad and with Mabel, as they continued to live, but in child-like dependence. You have little desire to reach such a state, not so much to avoid this “deteriorated self,” but because of genuine anticipation of continuing life in the spirit realm just best for you.

A counter thought, that I also encourage (and, yes, I do favor thoughts AND counter-thoughts) is that of simply enjoying and having fun in these late autumn years of this life. Have some positive sense of the future, but concentrate on the joy of the present.

Another quasi-academic task that I’ve encouraged, in the past, is a written reflection on your life, one good plan being to do it by dimensions. You wouldn’t have to finish such a “project” in the way you do with Our Ruminations. Just write it, and leave it to son John Patrick. And, yes, you could start with the spiritual dimension, to be sure it is included.

The few academic tasks you still have can be a good “balance” to your active work here on the Farm, to the social relations you still have, to relations with Lenore, and to times of quiet contemplation… and… it now is more and more appropriate to have some “waste time,” with few feelings of guilt.