Skip to main content

Retirement!

 


Photo credit: Amherst College Library

I am retired as of June 1. I had wondered what emblazoned T-shirt I would wear the first day. From a subconscious choice, I picked one I bought in 2013 at the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, MA. I have not worn it much, wanting to save it, for some reason. But such conservatism seems silly now.

It contains the first three lines of this poem:

I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Are you – Nobody – too?

Then there’s a pair of us!

Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!

How public – like a Frog –

To tell one’s name – the livelong June

–To an admiring Bog!

I don't consider this one of her best poems--not sure what I would pick on that account, since there are so many, but it is fun and it fits now that I am retired. At least as far as my former employer goes.

I'm (sort of) a retired Nobody, as far as that organization goes.

Nobody there is going to come to me for help, advice, wisdom. Well, they might, but I have no authority. I can't help them much. Sure, I will still have relationships with people and the institution, but I'm not important. I can't say, "I'm a professor at..." any longer. I have lost clout.

And that's fine. I have a reputation beyond that, anyway. And it is dreary to be Somebody. I don't think she is saying frogs are public, but that they croak all day, and a nonfamous person need not do that to keep up their fame. "To an admiring Bog!" fits the atmosphere of a frog and puts the public on a low footing; we would think swamp or wetland in my part of the country. A bog is not too intelligent.

And it is June! After all the rain we have had, June is busting out all over.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Birdwatching

 Whose world is this, anyway? My husband came out to the deck where I was reading, thinking, and taking long pauses to listen to birds and watch them visit the feeders. Nala and Butter were keeping the the squirrels away. The cardinals, like kings, were making sure they were fed first but wrens, sparrows, finches, robins, swifts sat in the trees calling and cackling. My Cornell Labs app has identified 18 in 18 minutes, some new ones included. “How interesting that God made all the birds have distinctive calls,” I said. “But I guess they are calling to their own kind, their mate and children.” “Do you think they are talking to each other?” he said. “Not like we do, no communicating, but signaling.” “I thought they were singing for us.” We laughed about that; our human-centric, self-centered view of things takes over. “They sing and make noises when we are not here, so it’s not for us. If they are singing for anyone, it’s God.” I had read Samuel’s speech to the nation in I Samuel 12,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Keeping Up Appearances? David's Surprise Anointing to Be King

  Have you ever watched the show, Keeping Up Appearances? What it is. A comedy about a British woman who wants to be thought of as very high class even though her family is low class. Her name is Hyacinth Bucket but she pronounces it Bouquet. She wants everything perfect but her family works against her, and her neighbors run from her. We all know someone who wants to keep up appearances, and sometimes we do. In our everyday life, we depend on our eyes and we automatically trust them, at least at first, and we often don’t look closely or below the surface. Like puzzles. But we know that appearances can be deceiving, even though they catch us. So I wanted to show this video I saw recently because it’s disturbing but informative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FERa1AI2EK8 AI has gotten far better on making these deep fakes—videos that are not of anyone but totally generated by the software. Even though they look like someone, they are not. Of course, it is stealing fro...
Post a Comment
Read more