tales from the ivory tower
Jan. 29th, 2016 03:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aryanhwyThe sun is shining, spilling through the windows out of which I can see the lofty cathedral tower. I have spent the morning writing, and even though it's something I must write rather than something I wish to write or I enjoy writing, it is nevertheless writing, something I do all too infrequently during term time. Now I am taking a break, gently rocking in my rocking chair while bathed in sunlight, reading a chapter of a friend's PhD thesis with a view towards our collaborating on a project on the use and history of the concept of 'chimera' in philosophy and science. There is one last cookie sitting on the shelf beside me, but the day has been so good, I don't even want to eat it.
In a few minutes, one of my favorite students (whoever said one doesn't, or shouldn't, have favorites amongst their students doesn't understand that having favorites doesn't entail treating other students unfairly or inequitably) will arrive; after seminar on Monday he had a worry about something we proved and we've been emailing back and forth about it, until we decided it would be more efficient to simply talk in person.
We spend more than an hour pinning down definitions and working through alternative formulations of the problem, until he has come around to my point of view that the result as proven in the book holds, but I've come around to his point of view that the general worry that he had about that type of proof is legitimate. He also shares the news that he's been offered a funded PhD position. How can that not brighten my day?
Now the sun is beginning to set, sinking behind the old Shire hall. I still have more than an hour at my disposal; I may even finish up the writing assignment before I go home, leaving me free to enjoy my Friday evening.
Sometimes, I still have to pinch myself that this isn't all a dream.
In a few minutes, one of my favorite students (whoever said one doesn't, or shouldn't, have favorites amongst their students doesn't understand that having favorites doesn't entail treating other students unfairly or inequitably) will arrive; after seminar on Monday he had a worry about something we proved and we've been emailing back and forth about it, until we decided it would be more efficient to simply talk in person.
We spend more than an hour pinning down definitions and working through alternative formulations of the problem, until he has come around to my point of view that the result as proven in the book holds, but I've come around to his point of view that the general worry that he had about that type of proof is legitimate. He also shares the news that he's been offered a funded PhD position. How can that not brighten my day?
Now the sun is beginning to set, sinking behind the old Shire hall. I still have more than an hour at my disposal; I may even finish up the writing assignment before I go home, leaving me free to enjoy my Friday evening.
Sometimes, I still have to pinch myself that this isn't all a dream.
