Heading Back to Indiana

I leave in an hour to get the bus to the airport to fly back to Indiana.

My week of spring break was crammed full of even more fun than I had expected. I surprised myself by absolutely adoring the Yves St. Laurent retrospective I attended with Rowan at the Denver Art Museum. I had never thought of myself as a "fashion" person; after all, I buy ALL of my clothes from the Fairview Marching Band yard sale and from the Greencastle Goodwill. But, oh, those suits, dresses, pants, tuxedos, and gowns were delicious! And then, to continue our sojourn in Paris, Rowan and I watched Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris last night. The plot was definitely predictable, but in such a satisfying way, and I loved spending time with Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Picasso, and Gertrude Stein. But even better than spending time in France this week was spending time in Colorado: those mountains! that sunshine! dinner at the teahouse! strolling down Pearl Street!

Much as I love my stay in Indiana, right now I'm feeling a bit weary from juggling my two lives. The thing I have loved most about my appointment at DePauw is that I can be my whole true self: philosopher AND children's book scholar AND children's book writer, teaching Rousseau and Rawls in the philosophy department AND children's literature in the English department AND children's book writing during winter term, as well as organizing a major symposium on Ethics and Children's Literature scheduled for this coming September.

But the price I am paying for being my whole integrated professional self these days is to be a fragmented divided geographical self. It is hard living in two places, having to tear myself away from one to go back back to the other. I don't think I'll be back in Colorado again now until the beginning of July. July! I miss my church and writing group already desperately, even though I worshiped at St. Paul's in the morning yesterday for Palm Sunday and met with my writing group in the afternoon to share a new series idea and plan our summer retreat.

Colorado, I love you so much! How can I leave you? Indiana, I love you so much! I can't wait to come home to you later today. I've chopped my heart in half, and it beats in two different time zones now.