Ghosts

Friday Therese and I met a colleage of mine at Xavier for lunch in Omaha. His name is David Lanou, and we also met his girlfriend Kathleen, who teaches at Tulane. David said he felt like a ghost. He visited some friends of his at other universities and they were swamped with the usual things pertaining to teaching, such as grading papers, preparing lectures, committee meetings, etc. David however, did not feel stressed by any of these things. He, like me, is killing time. We have not been able to enter our offices since August, so doing any sort of research is nearly impossible. And so we are in exile observing others go on with their normal lives. He said it sort of felt like an out of body experience, like he was a ghost traveling around the country. I feel that way as well, and wish I was busy with grading papers, preparing lectures, and serving on committees, all the things I usually complain about.