We are officially getting a dog! We're going to call him Aquinas (it's been Orlando which is just a little soft for me) and he's currently 8 months old. If everything goes as planned he'll come home with us next weekend. Oh yeah, in case you're wondering, he's a Cardigan Welsh Corgi.
Another exciting thing is that this week I had my advisory conference. This is a meeting with what will likely be my dissertation committee (there could be one two members that get changed out, but that's not very common) about my future courses and the scheduling of my general exam. It looks like this Spring I'll take the last exam of my educational career. If that goes well and I pass the exam, I'll be considered ABD (All But Dissertation). From there I'll have 2 to 3 years of funding to write my dissertation and teach one class per semester. It's still kind of weird to think that I'm this close to finishing the program. Wow.
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Have you ever wondered what happened to common, run-of-the-mill decency towards one another? I'm shocked at people that just don't give a damn about anyone else. Think about it... Go to the grocery store parking lot and there are stray carts left all over the place, 20 ft from the cart return. How long do you think it'd take to walk that cart over? 20 seconds? 30? Drive through a construction zone and everyone thinks they have to drive in the soon-to-be-closed lane all the way until the cones force them over. Don't they understand that if everyone just merged over as they had time that everyone would get through it faster? No, of course not because they're to concerned that those 5 other people are going to get through the zone faster. When was the last time you've gone out to eat dinner and didn't see someone (at your table or otherwise) interrupt a dinner to answer a phone call?
Just an ounce of common decency would drastically change any of these situations. I'm almost certain that the cause of the lack of decency is an increase in self-centeredness. In this culture it's terribly easy for us all to become more and more self-absorbed and forget that the world doesn't revolve around us. Throughout the next couple of days, ask yourself how you may have allowed the me-centered culture to change your attitude toward others in a negative way.
Grace and peace,
