Day 7 -- putting out fires

This is day two of the winter term and it was filled with little fires that needed attention so we weren't caught in a major conflagration. Each one was important in its own right, but it was just one after another after another, it seemed. Days can be like this as students are registering and moving in and out of courses, and while faculty and staff are getting the room details, lab manuals, etc. finalized and distributed.

I've been at this job for over 15 years and terms always begin with a flurry of frenetic activity. Second term always seems to begin very abruptly. I've often said that I feel like I'm just getting situated in the starting blocks and when I look up everyone is half-way down the track already. September is frenetic, but the pace is different. Now, this happens every year, yet it always catches me by surprise. I'm not sure there is a way to prepare for this other than adequate sleep and such.

So - today in my head I heard a song that helped me see that there isn't anything in particular that one can point to as the cause of these multiple smaller 'emergencies.' Instead it is the way life unfolds within the confines of the systems within which we live and work. This selection is the original by someone we've already seen on the blog and it is only a week into the exercise <smile>. The lyrics really do speak to me, though. I hope they do for you, too. Enjoy!

We didn't start the fire -- Billy Joel