hold on . . .

Blogs are not for the busy, and it has occurred to me that I should get someone else to adopt this blog. I'm not ready to give up on it yet, though.

Every school I've visited recently reminds me of my high school. Maybe it's because fall is coming, or maybe it's because I'm in that pinch that comes regularly, almost seasonaly -- that pinch of realizing that you're in over your head, that things are changing faster than you are and you'll have to adapt fast. That's the pinch I was almost always in at the beginning of a school year. I tended to keep my summer job into the winter and join the drama club and debate team besides. Then I'd end up having to drop something.

I doubt, however, that I could have avoided the pinch by doing less. Life provides plenty of changes that tax our abilities to adapt.

Right now, it's that we have decided to begin developing the next generation of our products, which means hiring new curriculum developers -- and taking a gamble on new ideas. At the same time, Ellie is talking about looking for a new job. She's a musician by training, but she's currently working in an administrative role at a nonprofit. How to be supportive while not ignoring your own interests and perspective? I simply don't know if we, as a couple, have the resilience to cope with big risks and big changes in her professional life as well as mine.

"I just wish there were some connect-the-dots picture I could finish that would show me what to do ... or an equation I could solve," she said to me one night. "What do you think I should do?"

The trillion-dollar question. I changed the subject.