Thoughts and Interesting Stories---Jeff Clark

The SCOTUS decision today banning race-based admissions at Harvard and UNC will enforce class boundaries for years to come as affirmative action at other institutions cease. My university (Elon) does not admit individual students, it admits a class. It would diminish the learning experience if they all majored in math, were from Delaware, were Catholic, ... It is in the best interests of educating all students to admit a diverse class. Race-based preferences are part of that. What SCOTUS did not address were legacy admissions, which serve as affirmative action for the status quo, i.e. mostly white applicants. The hypocrisy is staggering.

A large part of our family visit to the Northeast this past week has been spent with loved ones who need care. This has been hard on them; they have been role models of caring for others and the shift from offering to needing assistance is hard on the ego. I have begun that transition and I already see in myself that struggle. Two things are limiting me currently. Firstly, my sleep disorder renders me very groggy at the end of the day. Unless I work hard (ingest caffeinated beverages, splash my face with cold water, etc.) I am not much help then. Secondly my prosthetic knee has been a godsend but it is not the knee I was born with; stairs will be a difficulty for me the rest of my life. It was shocking to me how little help I was moving my daughter into her second floor apartment. During the day I try offer my help freely and I'm still not too bad for carrying things on level terrain, such as grocery shopping and unloading, etc. But if God grants me a long life more and more will n...

By virtue of living 400-500 miles away from family my wife and I (and later our children) have been driving back and forth on Interstate 95 for decades. We have a process when it comes to packing the car, knowing which rest stops work well, where to expect bumper-to-bumper traffic. Separately I have been driving to regional conferences in the Southeast during my career, often a half day of driving. I am pretty comfortable on the highway with podcasts or, if I fear falling asleep, music that I enjoy singing along with. Travel is tiring but most good things are. I enjoy the sense of movement, seeing new types of scenery, etc. Sometimes things go wrong but we've been blessed that they've never gone too wrong.

We will be taking a road trip next week so we celebrated Father's Day a week early yesterday. My father has been gone since 2007. I miss him daily and try to emulate the many good qualities he showed me. One in particular has been on my mind as long as I've been old enough to perceive it. Because we led very different lives, because I had opportunities he lacked, we had very different life experiences. He did not understand much of academia or what I did for a living, but he was happy that what I did made me happy. I am a curious person and so when I don't understand something there is always a tension that I should with effort understand it better. My children's lives now are in many ways to me as mine was to my father; I don't understand many of their day-to-day events and opportunities, pressures and causes as well as I would like.  The one thing that I consciously strive for with them is to take joy in their joy and be open to the understanding of their joy if a...

I have always been a fan of memoir, although I am a bit fussy as to what I enjoy. My current favorites are Michael Palin's three volumes and those of Alec Guinness. Humility, actual true humility---accepting with open eyes one's strengths and weaknesses---is a-if-not-the major factor of what I look for. Truly great and interesting people have depth to them, have learned from their mistakes, have accepted and fought against all the best of things. Memoirs by politicians are the opposite---the need to be right in retrospect at all times feels so desperate and petty to me. I find articulation to be a form of meditation and therapy, clarifying for me who I am in terms of what I care about. With trusted friends good non-casual conversations bring that out in me, but as an introvert I often turn to journaling. Well-written memoirs serve as a template for me. I have been journaling since I went away to university. I finished high school a year early and felt only secure about my acade...