Eigenmumbles

It’s almost May, and there are two weeks of instruction left in the semester, including this one. Last week, I could feel spring in the air, with clear skies and temperatures in the upper 70s, sometimes even the lower 80s. And this morning, it is just below freezing with a couple inches of snow on the ground. Our poor flowers! They just went into the ground a couple weeks ago.

As an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, this was the type of morning when I’d wake up and look forward to seeing a “sermon” in my inbox from Sandy Mack, who at the time was the head of the university honors program. These little broadcast notes would point out that, despite the weather and end-of-semester stresses, it’s still spring, and life is basically okay. And maybe they’d suggest popping popcorn with the lid off as a means of relieving stress.

Off to lecture now! Maybe I’ll tell them to pop popcorn with the lid off while they study? Probably not, but it’s a thought.