Letters

8/22/05

A Debt of Gratitude

Dear colleagues,

Having had a kind of enforced Sabbatical through sick leave, I have
finally had my days of rest and much needed time for absorption and
reflection, opportunity afforded people in our profession from the medieval guild days when the Sabbath was understood as vital to the health and well being of mortal and divine alike.

On six days we work and on the seventh, we contemplate what we have wrought to see that it is good. I am so grateful to have had this precious time. I believe I shall return to teaching with renewed energy and clarity, with new ideas and strategies.

I have been mindful during my treatment and convalescence of the debt of gratitude I owe to Sonoma State and in particular to my magnanimous department chair, Tim Wandling and Dean Bill Houghton who shepherded me through the labyrinth so that I could have the means to rest and recover.

I give my thanks as well to our administrative assistant Merle Williams for her kind assistance and to my estimable colleagues who sent me messages of warm concern and donated their sick leave that I might finish the term of my recovery without want or hardship.

Thanks especially to Helen Dunn for our breakfast meetings filled with warm and stimulating conversation which helped me keep hold of the threads that bind us to the world of ideas.

Thanks as well to Deanna Wilson in payroll for her help. I have had the great good fortune and every reason to love my work and count myself among the blessed to be a member of the SSU community. Thank you all.

Carla Steinberg
Department of English

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Updated 8/17/05
Jean Wasp