No Gripe Wednesday!?

I suspect that Rep. Emanuel Cleaves of Arizona has had his fill of Sarcastic Wednesdays. He is trying to get a bill into congress to create Complaint-Free Wednesdays. Well in the spirit of Thanksgiving maybe I should take note of a few things I am thankful for this semester.

1) There are a few really good students in my classes, but more importantly there are a bunch of average students who are hanging in there and striving to become more than average.

2) Sure research is part of the institutional mission, but without outside funding I still need to buy reagents out of my own pocket. And just as I realized that bromine is a regulated substance that you can't purchase on a personal credit card an unexpected angle donated to the university a kilobuck for my research program. A great unforeseen gift with great timing.

3) While research can be a struggle I still love the puzzles of the lab and the technical work involved. Every once in a while I see something with the beauty that is found in the details and in everything falling into place in a nearly perfect or truly perfect way.

We live in interesting times. Sarcasm and griping may help us get through the day, but we must take the opportunity to fix our system ourselves, and be thankful for the opportunity.

Happy Thanksgiving

T.S. Hall