Renovating the ivory tower

You know what the problem is with the ivory tower?

It's a tower.

One of those big honkin' tall things, that spreads a dark (but thin!) shadow across the land surrounding it. But the biggest problem is that sometimes, the thing is so tall, that looking out of it, the other people of the world look like little ants, scurrying around the base.

One of the things I appreciate the most about working for the elearning company is that it reminds me that my world is not the only world. It reminds me that there are worlds out there that I only have fleeting glimpses of, whose areas of activity have just as many issues, and hierarchies, and struggles as mine.

They have their own iconic images, their own in-jokes, their own associations, their own traditions, their own rivalries, and all of them seem just as important as mine do to me.

There are times that I wonder whether I should continue the elearning work. I could use those hours to do more writing, or perhaps even more relaxing! But then I turn to a part of the project that is new and different from the kind of work I do when I write or teach, and I realize I'm not ready to give that up just yet. Even when those other worlds start to get boring, and I realize why I don't belong to those worlds, I still value them because they remind me that the ivory tower might better serve us if it was an ivory bungalow, or ranch-style abode.