Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Construction

As I was walking back from the library after getting my hot chocolate (which is oh so needed to get me through the cold afternoon, the cold office, and the head cold I have) I paused at the sight where the new agriculture building is being built.

There stood a man, mid forties with the lines of life beginning to forge their permanence next to his tired eyes, standing in his new leather shoes and pressed shirt (missing only the tweed jacket for a stereotypical professor).

He stood and watched, leaning on tip toes to see the hole which is claiming the center of campus. There he patiently waited to witness the dump truck and the digger work in their predictable symbiotic relationship to delve deeper into the earth.

After 24 years of schooling, the fascination he had with construction as a four-year-old still shines.

Simple pleasures my friends, simple pleasures.

2 comments:

Alistair said...

Typical professors are only in their forties now?


Ah bugger......



sighs...

Paul said...

Ah, if we cease to enjoy the fascinations of childhood, we cease to be truly human. So says me!

Tell me if this doesn't make you wish you were 5 again:

Day before yesterday, I was in Grapevine, Texas. I went to a store with a colleague (who has a 5-year old daughter) that was totally a "little princess" store. The front was all princess dresses, rain boots with big flowers, sparkly letters for the room, and everything else "little girl" you can imagine.

But the back half of the store was the "Tea Party Room." It had three big round tables with pink tablecloths all set up for parties, and the wall was lined with HUNDREDS of dress-up dresses, big floppy hats, sparkly purses, shoes, scarves...the works.

TELL me you wouldn't fall in love with that store, even as an all grown up graduate student? :)