Never give up

By HD Silversmith

Wow.  What a week it's been.

It was the first week of the new school year at a state university whose system has been ravaged by budget cuts and will be further decimated a year from now (that's the word coming down from on high). The campus at which I teach is particularly hard hit, for various reasons. 

Meeting huge classes, turning away weeping, frustrated students, and wondering how in hell I am to teach effectively in such an environment ... that was pretty much what I did all week.

Oh yeah -- and go to meetings.  Grim meetings.

Still, as I watched the televised memorial (last night) and funeral (this morning) for Teddy Kennedy, I was reminded: never, never, never give up (Winston Churchill).  Do the best you can with what you have where you are (Teddy Roosevelt). To whom much is given much is expected (John Kennedy).  It's all true.  Live in hope, live in expectation, and work your ass off (um, that's just me).  It's the only way that one can truly make a difference in one's own life and the lives of others.

(Can you tell I'm an Irish-American of a certain generation?  And Catholic by birth as well, though not necessarily by practice any longer?)