In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained […]. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience.

–Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Much has happened since the last time I posted to this blog.

I have gone through some life transitions, and as I am now planning to reboot this blog, I want to acknowledge those transitions here before moving onto the sorts of content I normally post on Interaction Culture.

• I left Indiana University after nearly 3 decades
• I moved both professionally and geographically to Penn State/State College, Pennsylvania
• I shifted from a faculty role to an academic leadership role (associate dean)
• My parents passed away
• I went through a divorce
• All of the above happened during a global pandemic

I’ll say a few words about several of these.

Concerning leaving Indiana University, where I started with only a Bachelor’s and left as a full professor, I can only say how grateful I am that I was able to grow, intellectually and professionally, across decades all within a single institution.

As for the divorce, the whole process disrupted every part of my life, my work, all of my personal and professional relationships, my family–and with them, my entire sense of security, and my identity. I learned more about myself than I knew there was to learn–some of it good, some of it not so good. I learned about grieving, how it seeps, spills, pools, and drips; how what is best in me could become distorted and moldy. The whole process has been the most difficult experience of my life.

Beyond that, I will only say about our divorce what I believe applies to most divorces. There are two sides. No one outside of the marriage really understands what went down inside the marriage. No friend or colleague should feel any need to get involved in any of that.

Instead, if you want to be a friend to a person who is going through, or has recently gone through, a divorce, just check in and ask how they are doing. Try to engage the new person they are becoming, and help them become that person.

Finally, concerning the loss of my parents, which happened in somewhat slow motion alongside the separation and divorce, the experience dialed into focus exactly what “mid-life crisis” actually means (for me at least).

Whereas the phrase “mid-life crisis” often connotes sports cars, radical hairdos, and other consumerist excesses, what it really meant is that I had to confront the brevity of my own life, I realized that there is more behind than there is ahead, and I understood in a personal way the need to use the time I have as well as I can. All of that sounds cliched. But some cliches are also profound truths that some of us can only really understand by living them.

In the coming weeks and months, I hope to reboot this blog, sharing my thoughts on design, artificial intelligence, and higher education. And I hope that all of that is infused with a humanity, humility, and whatever wisdom all these life experiences have afforded me.

–JB June 2023