Kairos & Surge (Fish Curtains)

I am eligible for a sabbatical, I think, the year after I get (knock wood) tenure. That means one semester off, with pay, where you are supposed to produce something related to scholarship or teaching. Sounds like a great opportunity to work on a poetry manuscript.

This is all assuming that my job and school survive the recession. No one had the guts to apply for a sabbatical this year; if they had, they would have been turned down due to lack of $$$. I do have a colleague, though, who chose this year to file an official grievance against the school for paying him so little. I would have waited a little longer, personally.

One time, my dad and I were scuba diving in a little spot in Hanalei Bay he calls the Moi cave. This lava tube is shaped like a "C," and you can go in one end and out the other. The approach to the cave is really surge-y, and if the tide is high, you can actually get slammed against the cave's roof on your way in, if you're not careful. Anyway, my pa and I had been puttering around outside the Moi cave for awhile, and then we decided to head inside. I couldn't believe the surge. If you stayed still, it would literally move you ten feet forward, then ten feet backward, within seconds. So my dad was making an impressive path toward the cave, and I began to struggle in trying to keep up. I thought it was maybe his Superior Strength, or that he was wearing three-foot-long fins. By the time I caught up, I was almost hyperventilating. Anyway, we went into the cave and did our thing (looked at the shimmering curtains of silver fish/grabbed at the lobsters wedged into cracks).

When we came up, I mentioned how exhausted I had become in the surge. My dad laughed. "I saw you struggling there, Julie," he said. "You know, you're only supposed to kick when the current is with you. Then, you don't get tired, and you go a lot farther."

That was a Wa-wa-wa moment. Timing is so important. In ancient, dusty, Greece, the philosophers called it "kairos." A person who had a good sense of kairos knew when to jump into a controversy, or even a debate, and when to wait. Like jump rope, right? Like knowing when to ask for a raise. Like surge.

Speaking of the Moi cave, it looks like Jeff and I will be going to Hawaii for a month this summer, most expenses paid, to teach at a fancy Catholic prep school! It isn't quite in the bag, but it's looking more and more likely to happen. If so, we will be able to redo our kitchen, out of pocket!

Cross your fingers for us.