Last week, I went on a little bit of adventure - around our 100 year old building and learned something new about the world of tuck pointing, including new vocabulary like “lintels” on windows and “efflorescence” on bricks as we have to assess the health of our aging building. In the process of bargaining and asking for an “educator discount,” the mason laughed and asked where I teach. He thought he heard me say “U of C” (University of Chicago) and said “Oh, you make a lot of money then!” I said no, it’s “UIC” (University of Illinois Chicago) - the state university. Then he asked, “Why do you stay at a university that does not pay you for your work and what you deserve? Why don’t you work at U of C then?” I laughed. He said “why don’t you acquire some new skills and little by little you can eventually squeeze your way to a better place like U of C?” I laughed again. I said maybe I should just take up plumbing. We both laughed. Then he ultimately gave me what he said was a discounted price on tuckpointing work.
I begin my sabbatical this fall where I hope to learn new skills, complete unfinished projects, and engage in new projects after doing program building work and stewardship of my academic department for twelve years. It was a labor of love and struggle that I cannot ever fully recount to anyone. But for now, I hope to work on projects that can help me squeeze into those creative spaces so I can start writing, stitching, shaping, reading music, and experimenting once again.
A view of one of the exterior walls of our building