I had a lot of time to think as I sat in the dark, waiting for the tow truck. I certainly wasn't clinically depressed, but I was feeling low, and in a mental state that allowed for focused reflection. It was my third coolant issue in as many months, and the most severe. While wondering when the tow truck would arrive and preparing myself for worst case scenarios (blown head gasket, seized engine, car shopping), I was wrestling with the whys and wherefores of my predicament. Three months ago, I got a call at work from … [Read more...] about Science In Review — October 2013
depression
Christian Devotional Classics: The Way of a Pilgrim
Getting to know The Way of the Pilgrim The Way of a Pilgrim was written by an unknown nineteenth-century Russian peasant and tells of his constant wrestling with the problem of 'how to pray without ceasing.' Through his journeys and travels, and under the tutelage of a spiritual father, he becomes gradually more open to the promptings of God. The reader is enriched as he shares these religious experiences in a most humble, simple, and beautiful narrative. -- Summary at the beginning of the Doubleday version of The … [Read more...] about Christian Devotional Classics: The Way of a Pilgrim
Success, Failure and the Protestant Work Ethic
Not long ago I wrote an Emerging Scholars Network (ESN) blog post about my experiences on the tenure track, sharing my concerns about whether I would get tenure and contemplating my priorities. I wanted to think through whether tenure even should be my primary goal, and what I would give up to achieve it. It was encouraging to me to see that I'm not alone, and that others feel some of the same pressures I do. Thank you to those who commented. Looking back, though, I realized that I made some generalizations that I … [Read more...] about Success, Failure and the Protestant Work Ethic
On Transitions (Part 1)
As I sit to write, friends of ours from Boston are a few miles from our home, having stopped for a brief visit with us en route to their new town. They are in the middle of a major transition for their family; after sixteen years in Massachusetts, they are moving on to plant a church in Texas. Two hours after their arrival in Pittsburgh, they had to get back on the road. As they pulled away, the heartache set in. My four-year-old son verbalized what we were all feeling, “Why do they have to leave? I want … [Read more...] about On Transitions (Part 1)
Freshmen, Stress, and Spirituality
The NY Times reports that the emotional health of college freshmen is at a 25-year low, based on the annual survey conducted by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute. In the survey, “The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2010,” involving more than 200,000 incoming full-time students at four-year colleges, the percentage of students rating themselves as “below average” in emotional health rose. Meanwhile, the percentage of students who said their emotional health was above average fell to 52 percent. It was 64 … [Read more...] about Freshmen, Stress, and Spirituality