Sunday, April 22, 2007

Not My Job


As I sit here regretting that I ever volunteered myself to take a group of students to London next month and dealing with all the endless details that go with it, I realise it's part of an overall sense of exhaustion that's making me pull back from things I really don't need to be doing. Among them:

Correcting someone online who names the wrong group as performer of a 60s pop song;

Pointing out to someone (again, online) that when Hamlet says something is "a consummation devoutly to be wished" he is talking about death and oblivion;

Arguing with someone (on yet another online list) that pro-2nd amendment sites may not be the most "fair and balanced" sources re: gun control.

I do have work to be doing, yet it is also a gorgeous Earth Day and the temptation is to be outside ignoring all this work. Maybe it's just time to remind myself again that I don't have to do everything, I don't have to be responsible for everybody and ignorance is my job only in the classroom. I don't like to see it elsewhere, but sometimes I just have to let it go. It's the law of diminishing returns, and besides, no one else cares about these things. Think of it as trying to avoid becoming too much like Bottom.

I don't have to play all the parts just because I have ideas for them. I do not need to say, "Take pains; be perfect: adieu." Instead, let us say, "take pains, but be reasonable, be seeing you."

2 comments:

The Queen said...

Taking students on a trip to London? I fear for your sanity- whether now or after the trip, I'm not sure.... :)

We make ourselves crazy over the detials because we care enough to invest ourselves beyond just showing up- just remember, it really isn't all your job! I fall into that trap a lot myself.

You are the best Kate Wombat I know!

C. Margery Kempe said...

Thanks for gracious words of wisdom (yes, I have seen you in obsessive mode, too -- we are always, always having a great time at your parties, so relax!).

I guess behind this is the fear that letting go of things will lead to the kind of slipshod work that surrounds us. But we'd never do that -- would we?