Degrees

And no, I'm not talking about temperatures for a change.

I'm talking about those letters after your name that are earned by years of hard work and study.

I am not altogether unaware of their existence. My grandfather had a Masters of Divinity degree from Yale in 1898. My remarkable mother had a Masters in Botany from the University of Wisconsin in 1929. Both of my daughters have college degrees and some of my grandsons are mighty close.

Personally I lack higher education and I know it. If I really got a do over I think I would like to be a Doctor of Anthropology. Doubting that I could make the grade or complete the many years of study. But it does sound like what I would want to do. With one year of college, an ill thought out marriage and several small children to support, it was never an option. My career path, broadcasting and advertising, was not without well educated participants and less educated but equally bright ones as well.

All this is by way of introduction to my current whereabouts. I am near a major university and the town it supports. It is my first foray into academia nearness. For example; my wonderful Episcopal church generally numbers 70 to 80 communicants on a Sunday morning. Easily a quarter of them have multiple degrees and virtually all of them have at least one. They are lovely, bright, smart and caring people. But they are not like the real world, the world of profit and loss, the customer is sometimes right, we need an answer today, cut to the chase.

Apparently, for the intellectual in academe, thinking about it and talking about it, studying it and contemplating it, take precedence over getting it done. In my 50 years of working experience, deadlines were major. Commercials needed to be written, approved and on the air, sometimes in two hours. Media buys that start on Friday could be begun late Wednesday afternoon and ready on time. Commercials could be 10 seconds, 30 seconds or 60 seconds. Those were all the options. The yearly calendar was broken into quarters, each containing thirteen weeks and bills went out on the final Sunday of each month. These were the norm. Meditation and contemplation were luxuries left for the ... academics.

I am neither slow nor dumb ... just not highly educated. I love my new friends that are quicker and smarter and have the luxury of contemplation, both professionally and in their other pursuits. But it is taking some getting accustomed to.