I had the good fortune there to run into a former student today. She graduated maybe two years ago and works on campus now. Lovely young woman; she’s charming, bright and quick with a good joke.
She would always give me a hard time in class, too, because my shoes were always untied. I never can keep them together for very long. It doesn’t matter the length of the string or the shape, so the failing must be mine. I’ve discovered these laces you don’t have to tie for running shoes and that’s changed how many times I have to kneel on a daily basis by much more than I’d care to admit. Best thing since velcro.
Once upon a time near the end of the term she decided she was going to tie my shoe for me. Show me how it was done and all that. A friend of hers decided to tie the other one, so they had a contest and see which knot lasted the longest. I walked around for several weeks with those shoes properly tied. One of them finally let go over Christmas break in Manhattan.
My knees say those were the best weeks of my life, because, again, they were saved a great deal of bending and strain.
So anyway, I ran into her today. She’s married and life is grand. Nothing less than you would expect. It was good to see her. “Come up and visit,” I always say when I run into familiar faces.
She walks this direction, back toward her building. I walk the other direction, off to wherever I had to go next. I look down:
