100 Business Days Out: Day 5 - Explanations

Day 5 was spent at Purdue for the inauguration of France A. Cordova as the 11th President of Purdue. Tangentially, I find that very cool that the school has been around since 1869 and this is only their 11th President. I also take a little pride in being someone who has met over half of them. President Hovde, President Hanson, President Beering, President Jischke and President Cordova. I also met President Hicks (who presided twice as interim President) giving me my over half mark. Now, back to Day 5 and why it was a day of explanations. The day was filled with meetings, a panel I moderated, the inauguration itself, the inaugural ball, etc. Throughout the day, I was asked maybe 50 times how I was and what was going on with SNOCAP. So, I got my first real day of trying on the message of "I am not working". All in all, it was not a bad feeling and because of the continued, "oh, how I wish I could take a sabbatical" (which is a term no one other than a university or Silicon Valley uses), I felt okay with it all. I don't really warm to the term sabbatical for what I am doing. A sabbatical to me has a defined time line and usually is accompanied with a set of objectives to meet during that time. I can't say that I have either. And for sure, I don't have my elevator pitch of what I am doing with the time other than "trying to get quiet and listen to see what God might have to say about what I should do next". BTW, once I throw out that "see what God might have to say line", it's an easy litmus test for those who want to know more and those who find it time to bow out of the conversation. I can't say I blame them, we all do it. I mean really, how many times do you want to really stop and listen when someone answers, "I'm having a bad day, thank you". Enough explaining for one day. :)