The crisis has been resolved. MM, my committee member, found out that he can still stay on my committee even after moving to the North Carolina university. Encouraging part – he expressed interest in continuing to serve on my committee, and so it will be. At the dissertation defense, we will have him on voice or video conference.
I am not stressed.
Relax Singh.
This evening, I heard from one of my dissertation committee members that he has accepted a position at another university. In North Carolina. Shit! He was my methodology person. Not many researchers are familiar with the method, Q-methodology, that I am using in my dissertation. He is one of the few who really has got a handle on this one.
So, I will be now meeting with him to discuss the next course of action. I have to look up the graduate school guidelines to see if I can still keep him on my committee. And importantly, whether he still wants to serve on my committee.
He has also suggested the idea of having another professor in his department to take his place on my committee. So, I also need to look up this new professor before the meeting.
Didn’t I mention that this blog was about crossroads? Ah! I forget too easily that it is, but it is also about being able to relax at crossroads.
No, I am not stressed. No, I am not stressed. No, I am not stressed.
If only I keep saying that to myself long enough, perhaps …
We have now established a Monday evening routine. I am done teaching my class at 5:00. Kennie calls me at 6:30 after she is done teaching, drives over to pick me up from my department and we head home. (My ‘high profile’ lifestyle of having a Fulbright scholar as my chauffeur is not lost upon her.)
Sometimes, we first stop by her apartment, unwind over dinner, and then I walk to my place. If I cut through the woods, it is a 2 minute walk. Otherwise, it can be a 10 minute walk, which is not bad when it is not snowing or raining.
Other times, we first stop at my place and then either we have dinner or she just drops me in the driveway and heads back to her apartment.
When something comes up for either of us on Monday evenings, then either I take the bus home or if I have driven to the campus, I drive back home.
I have been trying to avoid driving to the University. The walk from the house to the Bus Stop is shorter than the walk from the campus parking lot to my department. However, Kennie prefers to drive daily to the campus. (She is not a public transport kind of a person, which to me is surprising because the concept of ‘public transport’ is more coherent with her bigger picture of life and society. But more on that later.) She lives a 2-minute walk from my place, and hitching a ride with her in the evening becomes convenient.
Today we stopped by my place and had dinner. I cooked pasta.
Over dinner – in fact before I had even put the pot on the stove – Kennie raised a couple of interesting questions. Should scientists and researchers continue with their research even when they realize that the ’system’ is likely to misuse the outcome of their research? Can we (should we) decouple the researcher (scientist / philosopher) from his or her ideas? That is, if an evil person had splendid ideas, should we accept and use the ideas or disown and denounce those ideas or research?
Hmmm. I will take this up in my next posting.
So that I do not get lost once I get going on this blog, I have decided to create some signposts along the way, some kind of trail-markers, so that I know where I am going, what I am trying to achieve, and – lest I forget – where I come from. So, here is the the first signpost of the series:
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where -” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“- so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
- Alice in Wonderland
With such a signpost, who can ever get lost? I have no doubts that eventually I am going to get somewhere. Just got to keep walking.
A blog like this one, I was warned, can be construed as an exercise in narcissism. Also, a delusion of grandeur that this blog will actually have an audience.
I don’t let this idea bother me. I must admit that, to an extent, I don’t want to care about the audience. At other places, I do write for an audience. For a specific audience. Have to. It is a publish or perish kinda situation I am in.
But here, in this blog, will be space – my ‘man cave’ – where I can break free and run around … even if only in circles.
If you want to join me in this journey, you are most welcome, except that we may not go someplace. Travel we will, for sure, but we may not arrive.
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” Thus spoke the Cheshire Cat. (Alice In Wonderland)
What does a road to nowhere look like? When roads going nowhere intersect each other, what does the resulting crossroads look like?
