Humanities as Vocation

Swoop looking over a city square in Prague.

Greetings! Below is a link to the current episode of Public scholarship postcards. The topic is Humanities as a Vocation. I teach an introduction to the Humanities course. Some of you are probably thinking the question I am often asked, what do you mean by humanities? Learn how our college mascot, Swoop, is part of the answer and more by listening to the podcast.

Enjoy the human experience. Run.

Tom

Long Live The Streak!

Greetings! In my opinion, the team at Northside Hospital rank alongside the best. I received great care from kind and thorough professionals yesterday. My procedure went exceedingly well. Afterwards, I experienced no real pain at all. That holds true this morning. That is a gift and I am Thankful!

Even though I feel great, I took caution and completed my daily exercise using the lowest setting on our Elliptical. The Streak has been in preserved! I can’t foresee any reason this situation will cause an interruption. I worried a lot the hernia and the surgery. I believe there was good reason for that. I realize I am fortunate in so many ways. Among them, I have immediate access to high caliber healthcare, wonderful friends, family and coworkers who have been incredibly supportive. As always, Shannan shined. I am overwhelmingly blessed to have such a loving, considerate and fantastic life partner.

Thank you all!

Tom

Preserving The Streak

Greetings! I’ve had my wisdom teeth removed and oral surgery as an adult. That’s more than I wanted, and quite enough for me. Nonetheless, today I’m scheduled for out-patient hernia surgery. The last couple of weeks haven’t been that bad. I haven’t really been in pain, so I completed some light resistance workouts, a number of 3-mile runs, but mostly I kept to low impact cardio. Of course, I didn’t change my dietary habits, so I gained weight like it was magic.

The medical professionals keep making a lot to do about post-op pain. I must say I’ve be overwhelmed at how hard they have pushed the high-power pain medication and I haven’t even had the procedure. I feel certain I can get through this without opioids. That’s a purely personal position. I understand the role they play in recovery.

For me, the greater issue will be finding a meaningful way to exercise for thirty minutes tomorrow and the immediate days following without having a negative impact on the corrective work of the surgery. At present, The Streak is 21 years and 53 days old. Preserving The Streak is important to me. I will appreciate it if you will send your positive thoughts in my direction.

Find A Way. Exercise.

Tom

Iconic Lips

Greetings! This Public Scholarship Postcard podcast will look at lips and pop culture.  Our quick trip across time will make mention of the super celebrity, Marilyn Monroe, America’s great Pop Artist, Andy Warhol, legends in the music industry, The Rolling Stones, the cult classic movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and a couple examples of everyday mixed media. 

Click the link below to hear the entire podcast.

Listen. Run.

Tom

                                                            

One Last Thank You Note

Greetings! I’ve used this forum to process loss and celebrate life on many occasions. Those posts have covered a variety of people and things that hold meaning in life, including family, friends, celebrities, vehicles, places and our cherished family cat, Abishag. Last month Shannan and I attended the memorial service for the Very Reverend Bevel Jones. He was a Bishop in the United Methodist Church. I took a class with Bevel in graduate school. He had a profound impact on my life. One thing in particular I learned from Bevel was the power of gratitude. I use it regularly and I share Bevel’s story at the end of the term with EVERY single class I teach.

At Bevel’s service, I looked around the room. There were numerous women and men I know from school, work and the community. There were others in the room who have greatly influenced my life and the choices I’ve made. It dawned on me that many of the folks there were in poor health. Afterwards, I mentioned to Shannan the reality that we’d be attending more of these much sooner than anyone would like.

And so it is. April 14, 2018, The Right Reverend J. Chester Grey, III died. Chet had been ill for some time. This is not the place to chronicle the situation of my youth, suffice it to say, worse than being born into an unfortunate situation, I willfully made far too many bad choices. Around the age of 21, I finally attempted to make a change. It wasn’t working as I hoped. At that time, Chet was the Rector at Saint Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church. We met by happenstance. He recognized my situation at the time, and like no one before, he saw potential. I didn’t even believe him. I thought he was just saying things priests say to troubled souls. The truth is Chet Grey saved my life. Make no mistake, that is not an understatement.

Our time together wasn’t always an easy road. I’ve never been good at accepting help. I fought back. When I make positive strides, out of nowhere, I’d try to sabotage my own progress. Chet knew the only way to help me was to fight with me. Fighting was all I knew. It worked, and I’m so grateful.

More than once, I followed the lessons of Bevel Jones and made sure to tell Chet in words and writing of my abiding gratitude for his help, his guidance and his friendship. He was my boss, my priest, my mentor, my friend, my champion and the hero who pulled me from the wreckage of the past and shoved me into the potential of the future. For that, Chet Grey will have my enduring gratitude.

Say Thank You!

Tom

The Streak in Jeopardy?

Greetings! Over the last 21 years the only real issues I’ve encountered that might end The Streak of exercising every single day have come from injuries. Unfortunately, all of those injuries came as the result of exercise J. Of late, I have been experiencing a little tenderness. I ignored it for a while, as I often have some aches and pains. However, given the general area of injury, I decided to go the doctor for a professional opinion. It turns out I have an inguinal hernia.

The physician suggested I limit exercise until after surgery. I have a consult for surgery in 10 days. The referring doctor told me the recovery time will be around two week, again he suggested no exercise. I had to explain to him about The Streak. He had to tell me about the worst case and life threating scenarios. In the end, we agreed on low impact cardio, swimming and a recumbent bike. It is what it is.

Today was the first day of ‘limited exercise.” I used a low impact aerobic routine lead by Leandro Carvalho www.leandrofitness.com. According to my Apple Watch, I burned 215 calories. I can live with that. I‘ve completed many rigorous resistance workouts and burned fewer calories. In the past 24 hours I’ve read many exercise blogs from men in Canada, Britain and Australia who lived with their hernias for a couple of years while waiting for surgery from national healthcare systems. I gathered a lot of good advice to keep active and not aggravate the hernia.

Be Careful. Exercise.

Tom

Tour Guides as Public Scholars

Greetings! Every single day people around the world are exposed to new information about history, politics, art, architecture, geography, culture and more on excursions in general, and from tour guides, in particular. 

Shannan and I have dear traveling companions, Kirsty and David, who live in Cambridge, England. The four of us travel every two years or so. This year’s trip took our foursome to Prague and Budapest. As one might imagine, we visited all the tourist highlights including castles, cathedrals, bridges, thermal spas, museums and the like. One of the most memorable activities of the trip came in Budapest. We joined a handful of others for a walking expedition billed as RUIN PUBS AND ALTERNATIVE SPOTS TOUR OF BUDAPEST. Our tour guide and Public Scholar in Budapest, Attila, did not disappoint

Below are links associates with Public Scholarship Postcards, Episode 4- Tour Guides as Public Scholars.

Listen to the Podcast here.

Here is a link to the tour company Budapest Flow: https://budapestflow.com/

Click here for some images from the tour.

 

All the best,

Tom