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Oh, it's the same all over America--especially in college. So many students are in college simply to graduate and make money. Anything that doesn't seem to lead to money or lucrative careers (in other words, all the classes I teach!) is seen as pointless hoop jumping or liberal propaganda. With the economic down turn here as well, people are understandably worried about money, but you think it would make most of us more reflective as well. If anyone can lose his/her job and no job is truly secure, then why define happiness or identity with that job? Why not try to find a vocation or career that satisfies you since, if you spend years and years getting a degree and then toil away in a job that only ends in making you redundant, what was it all worth? In a way, the less you have, the less you have to lose. It all comes back to finding things that make you happy that can't be taken away from you. Books, ideas, writing, music--these are always yours. I think that's why, in America, at least, many people are starting to write books (or read more books) as they reach that seminal age of 40. Goals have been reached (or lost), success has been achieved (or lost), so people start asking themselves, "what did I used to do for fun?" or "how the hell am I going to spend the rest of my life without wanting to kill myself?" Writing is the kind of adventure that never ends, since you're constantly exploring who you are, or how you relate to your world, or to the world of the past. Writing is a kind of reading, after all, since you're responding to everything that came before you. It's deeply satisfying and I bet a lot of students who are blowing off their English courses right now will, in 20 years time, start re-reading Shakespeare and kick themselves for not caring the first time around. But don't get me started on the problems of higher education--then you'll see how cynical I can sound! And trust me, you can't be too cynical for me...cynicism can be a healthy thing, especially when married to idealism.
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