Last night, I went to a going-away dinner for a colleague who’s leaving WVU. Another colleague talked about looking for work now that her department’s been eliminated. Others weighed job offers.

It felt a little like a wake. Friends, food, and laughter forming a thin net over a well of grief.

MLK Day

Today, I took the holiday off.

As I went out for a late-morning run in the frigid air, snow flurries graced my glove and sleeve in tiny filigreed hexagons.

For a while, I just stood in the cold and gaped. Then I remembered I had a camera in my pocket. I captured a dozen tiny moments.

Resilience

Right now, it’s easy to envision a long downward spiral. If things continue on the current trend, days will indeed be chilly at WVU for a long time.

But it’s a logic error to imagine that no events will intervene. We don’t know how significant those interventions will be, or how they will impact the trajectory and pace of change. But in a situation of great instability, small events can have big impact.

A year ago, we couldn’t have imagined the current trajectory. Today, we can’t predict where we will be a year or five years from now.

Instead of predicting, we might choose to look closely at each moment in its own frozen perfection.

And if we must look ahead, what dream is too big to dream?