Let me begin by sharing my favorite For Better or for Worse strip. On a night that is dark, wet, and probably quite cold, John Patterson steps into a cab and says, "What a miserable day!" The cabby surprises him by saying, "Actually, to me, it is a very good day."
John is surprised, but the cabby explains. "You see," he says, "I am from Sudan. I have seen my friends shot and killed. I have a wife whom I have not seen in two years, and a son whom I have never seen. But every day I save a little, and I am that much closer to bringing them here." At the end of the trip, John rather pensively pays and tips the cabby.
Then he steps in the door—it is still dark, wet, and probably rather cold—and his wife says, "What a miserable day!"
John simply puts his arms around her and their little girl, and said, "Actually, to me, it is a very good day."
This is a good vignette to be mindful of, and if economic times are rougher now than when these words first appeared, it does not diminish their truth in the least. To me, it is a very good day.
To me, it is a very good day.
And let me explain what I mean.
One of my goals in life has been to be a scholar, and I've tried hard to earn credentials to teach in theology. Given the difficulties Ph.D. holders have getting a job, it seemed to me to be rather silly to apply for a job without getting the standard "union card:" a Ph.D.
I became a graduate student in theology while overcoming cancer, and earned a master's in theology under Cambridge's philosophy of religion seminar. And, after some time to recover, I entered a Ph.D. program. And...
I've spent a lot of time looking for a way to explain what happened