Last week, I received some of the best advice ever about how to run an academic support program from one of my law school colleagues (as I ran around the campus in obvious haste – from office to office…and….email to email….and….meeting to meeting).
Short and sweet, it went something like this:
"Remember, there are no emergencies in academics."
At first, I wasn't quite sure what I heard. No emergencies? Really? Of course, with every rule comes an exception. But, the principle holds true.
There really are no (or at least very few and far between) emergencies in academics.
With her words freshly choreographed in my mind (and now fortunately taking grip of my frantic heart), I took the first pause of a very long day thus far to take in and reflect on the truth of what she said.
There are no emergencies in academics. None. Zilch. Nada.
That led me to an uplifting and engaging conversation with her, a conversation that broke through the feverish pace of my day to restore in my spirit a much needed sense of peace and perspective.
As we talked further, I realized that I had been living an emergency life. It was only the beginning of a new academic year but I already felt like I was way behind on everything that I needed to do. Then, it came to me.
Living an emergency life is not really living at all.
Indeed, it is no life at all. That's because as human beings living is about breathing and listening and pondering and reflecting and interacting with others. It means stepping back from the push of the daily grind and seemingly every-pressing minutiae of tasks to comprehend the big picture perspective. That we only truly live in community with others. That life is social. That being human means realizing that none of us – particularly me – can do it all.
A few years back, I recall listening to a NASA engineer talking about the engineer's work back in the 1960's when assigned to the Apollo moon missions. It was the space age. As the engineer related, he was commuting from Orlando to Cape Kennedy Spaceport for the big launch of a moon rocket. But, he was running late. So, he did what most of us do when we are running late, whether walking or biking or driving. He sped. To his astonishment, a state trooper pulled him over for speeding. In response to the question as to why all the haste, the engineer said simply that he was needed for the space launch later that very day. The officer thought a moment and then just asked him one question: "Sir, if you crash in a fiery crash on your way to the space launch, will NASA still launch the moon rocket? If so, I'll let you on your way." The engineer couldn't lie. His answer was brief: "NASA will launch." You see, the engineer wasn't really needed after all. So, the officer handed him a speeding ticket.
Perhaps you are like me, moving from one emergency to another emergency, with my vocabulary littered with sayings such as "I need to do this today" or "I've got to do this now" or "The program won't work unless I get this done now." Let me be frank, to myself and to you, the words "necessary" and "needed" are overplayed. Few things are necessary or needed. Indeed, as Professor Nancy Luebbert from the University of Idaho suggested in her blog yesterday, the really only needful thing is not to do a thing…but to rather be a person. Now, that's something to treasure; a life well-lived with others – person to person and people to people. More to the point with respect to the nature of this blog, that's the better way to live academic support. So, make a great day of it by taking "5" to pause and reflect upon this truism: There really are no emergencies in academics. (Scott Johns).
