Category: Random

Well… my library assistants are mostly bookish types & a little skittish around pens and drawing paper, so here’s a painting of a cat in lieu of a drawing. It’s by the English painter Louis Wain.

So nice to hear I was missed! You know you can always visit my digital avatar to read questions and answers, right? library.bc.edu/answerwall. Easter…hm… April 21… I’ve got just the thing! Across the river in Cambridge is one of Boston’s hidden gems, and it comes alive with blooming cherries in April: Mt. Auburn Cemetery. Go for a walk there for some real Spring beauty.

My assistants continue to pursue more answers. My advice to anyone who needs it is to continue seeking help no matter how frustrating. Everyone deserves care & concern. Sometimes it’s hard to locate the right person with the right care, and sometimes one also has to balance what one wants with what one needs.

Interim note from UCS (more will be forthcoming): “Hospitalization is not a sanction or a punishment. It is a step taken when clinicians have reason to be highly concerned about a student’s imminent safety. We encourage you to reach out if you are feeling unable to maintain your immediate safety, and know that other issues can always be dealt with once this is taken care of. It can get better.”

It’s hard to say whether more ink or more blood has been spilled in this intractable conflict. One place to start learning is Gershon Shafir’s A Half Century of Occupation: Israel, Palestine, and the World’s Most Intractable Conflict (Ebook, and O’Neill DS119.76 .S526 2017). There are many more books at DS119.76 worth a look. Prospects for peace? After many decades of fighting, the Irish-English troubles finally came to an end. I have faith.

I don’t know the prospects for Rover, but student workers in the library get paid about $11/hour. (Positions will be advertised starting in April.) Do you think you could do better than that on Rover? You might also have increased flexibility for when you want to work. There are tons of dogs in Brookline, but it might take some time to establish yourself as a trustworthy dog-walker and command high fees for walks. It never hurts to try it out and then decide whether you like it.

Back atcha, double! ❤️❤️

I hung around. (ba-doom cha!) No, but seriously, I did what I always love to do: answer questions. Sadly, you weren’t here, so there weren’t many. I was going to go visit my Mom, a sea wall on the North Shore, but she was busy with a storm tide.

As the great philosopher Sir Paul McCartney once sagely noted, “Money can’t buy me love.” Money can, in the right circumstances, buy partnership and quiet. But that’s not the same as love. The same is true of beauty. Beauty on its own can inspire lust, but rarely love. Love is a deeper emotion that is created by a bond between two people that is the sum of all their experiences together. It is the deepest of friendships. So my advice to you is to search for someone you could see as a friend first, and then determine whether you two would make a good couple. I believe in you!

I misread this as panettone, and was all for it, in either case. But since it’s actually about colors, not sweet breads, I would say it depends on your proposed usage. 186 seems more somber to me, although a very nice color; 184 strikes me as very “pretty in pink.”

If someone you know is engaging in self-harming behavior, please convince them to go to a hospital! I will find out whether they might have a choice of which hospital in the circumstance that they are “sectioned” by an LICSW, but keep in mind that when someone is sectioned, it is because in a clinician’s professional judgment, doing otherwise would likely be lethal.

Please, if you know of someone who is engaging in self-harming behavior, tell them that a leave of absence is not punitive: it is a recognition that the student needs some time to focus on healing & seek a greater degree of support than might be available while they are also engaged in classwork. I am pretty certain that a decision about a leave of absence in that kind of case is one usually reached in dialogue, not imposed, but I will have my assistants seek clarity on this.

Update from Dean of Students Office: “No, in almost every instance, the Dean of Students Office and other offices on campus work with students to get them connected with the appropriate resources on or off campus and supports them through that process. BC’s Involuntary Leave of Absence Policy is only employed in extreme circumstances. If you would like to discuss this more, including the ways that staff in the Dean of Students Office support students, please contact Caroline Davis, Associate Dean for Student Outreach & Support at caroline.davis.2@bc.edu, 617-552-3470 or by stopping by 448 Maloney Hall to schedule an appointment.”

I will have my assistants attempt to find out and get back to you.