Wednesday, May 10, 2006

naval gazing

Marvin had his downsides, but he was great as a supervisor and I appriciated his williness to back his grad students, no mater how stupid our actions. (He'd tell us we'd been stupid, but would stand behind us.)

I'm sure that my ruminations on Marvin owe something to my current miseries. I knew him only as a boss, but I do suspect that had he been my advisor, this would not have happened. Yet I still revere, admire and honor my advisor (may he live forever) and I keep thinking that all of this must somehow be all my fault.

You've all been so kind and if I could distill one thesis from your comments and e-mails it is that this isn't all my fault. Certainly I carry some blame, but I should remember that some also falls on the people who let me think that I was going to graduate.

Oi but this post has become depressingf. I'll end on a positive note. When Marvin retired, the university threw about 10, 000 parties to honor him. I'll never know why, but I was one of a very small handful of students that Marvin made sure was invited to each of them. As I've said, the man was not perfect, but just having me there made him so happy and that just blew me away. Oh, sure, we make our parents happy, ya ya ya, but my showing up and schmoozing made him happy. Wow.

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