Thursday, February 20, 2025
When I was teaching full-time, I found it difficult to keep from being uptight. It was an effort to keep my composure, especially when students wanted to chitchat. I’d have 147 unanswered emails waiting for me, I had reports to turn into the dean’s office, and I had expenditure requests waiting to be approved. And then a student would want to come into the studio for a chat. They wanted to tell me about something exciting in their life. Or they just wanted to vent, spend time with me, or commune.
In a famous Bee Gees song, “Staying Alive,” they sing, “I’m a lady’s man, no time to talk.” What a hilarious way of putting it! I’m a Department Chair, no time to talk. I’m an important CEO, no time to talk. I’m the savior of the world, no time to talk. I’m more important than you, no time to talk.
In that attitude, I’ve come to realize that I was chauvinistic. My priorities were so out of whack that they whacked me over the head. On my deathbed, I certainly would never want more emails to answer, more dean’s reports to fill out, or more budget requests to approve. I’d want time to talk. I’d want time to play. I’d want time to have fun.
At the heart of the universe is fun. Fun is fundamental to what’s important in life, and we have turned that into a chauvinistic Bee Gees song, complete with strutting your stuff, and showing the world how “important” you are. A real lady’s man would put the fun back into the fundamental rudiments – play, communion, and love. To have no time to talk, we’ve diverged from the fundamentals. Time to bring back bonding. Time to bring back fun. Time to bring back the time to talk. Enough with the chauvinism.