I’ve never been especially fond of Winter. It’s always been my least favourite season. But the last few years, my Winter outlook became pathologically bad. “Really suicidal” bad. I became really afraid of Winter.
In collaboration with my docs, Rehab Services at Western U, my Dean and Chair, we worked out a plan. As an experiment, and as part of a Return to Work program after my ECT treatments, I would go to half time at Western, and I would teach in the Fall and Summer and not in the Winter term. This would allow me to do work and other trips to warm and sunny places during December, January and February.
The experiment is underway.
In December, I attended a really wonderful workshop in Uruguay and also had lots of time with my extended family there. It was hard being away from Anita, my wife, for three weeks. But I did really well — hardly a suicidal thought; and my anxiety, though it showed up daily, was manageable with regular meditations. I didn’t take any benzodiazepines the whole time. (On my way home, I also had some really productive meetings with a colleague in Florida. He helped me sort out my Epistemology class for next year.)
Right now, I am writing this from Bogota. I am down here in Colombia to meet with students — potential grad supervisees! — and to give a talk at Universidad de Los Andes. Again, what with 28 degree weather, my mood is massively better than this time last year.
The obstacle that I need to really keep on top of, which I’m sure faces people who are new to working at home too, is to remind myself regularly that I am not on vacation just because I’m in a warm and sunny spot and working only 20 hours per week. Yes, I can sit outside in the garden in Bogota or Montevideo or Tampa, but I need to be reading about the ontology of words or some such! It has been helping to have lots of things on my calendar: meetings with students, reading groups, committee commitments, etc.
The experiment continues next month with a second trip to Uruguay and some talks in Buenos Aires. Then I’m finally home for March and April, with teaching starting up in May. I’ll keep you posted on how it all goes.
Dear Dr. Stainton, it is nice to have an update on how you’re doing. A lot of us philosophy majors have been talking about how much we miss your metaphysics class last term. I am finding a lot of the stuff I learned in it really helpful for my courses this term. I’m even auditing a very similar fourth year seminar in rationalism (the topic is metaphysics from Leibniz to Kant) and finding what I learned with you gave me much better insight. I’m really glad you’re doing well in your travels! I hope you have a wonderful winter. I always really appreciate these blog updates because relating to them helps me find ways to get through the winter myself. Thank you!
-Genevieve