THE GOAL, THE DESK, THE FEET [F, 6-4-21]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

THE GOAL, THE DESK, THE FEET   [F, 6-4-21]

 

You know how a particular spot or place triggers the same memory every time? I don’t know why, but there is a specific spot on my morning walk when I remember a certain obit picture. It’s not the usual obit picture. It was in the Indiana U alum magazine, a photo of a woman who died full of years and accolades for her work as editor at big and important newspapers. The photo, though, is not of that mature woman, but of the girl she was in college, editor of The Indiana Daily Student campus newspaper in my own college years. [1] The photo shows her reading the IDS, the results of her work that day.

I suppose that photo has remained in my memory because I came to IU as a journalism major, assuming I would work on the IDS myself, perhaps even rise to editor, as that young woman did. In that photo, she is pretty, wearing a white blouse and shorts, shapely legs. All that is nice, but what really gets my attention is that her feet are up on the desk.

Whenever I have wondered about other professions—being a reporter/editor or teacher or lawyer or doctor or race car driver—in my fantasy about what that would be like, I am not doing the work of that job, but sitting in my work place at the end of the day, with my feet up on the desk.

When I was the editor of the Oak Barks student newspaper at Oakland City High School, our sponsor, Mr. Manfred Morrow, did not allow feet on desks. He didn’t even allow waste paper basketball. In fact, I discovered recently a note from him saying, “John, the editor of Oak Barks does not sit at his desk and throw wadded paper at the trash can.” I liked Mr. Morrow a lot, but I really wanted to put my feet on the desk.

Now that I am old, I don’t have to wait for the end of the day to put my feet up on the desk. Well, not the desk exactly. I don’t sit at my desk much anymore. It takes a lot of energy to sit up in a chair. And everything I can do at a desk, I can do with my computer on my lap. So, I recline on the sofa. The far end of the sofa, my feet up on a pillow, is almost as good as a desk.

When your life’s goal is to put your feet up on the desk, old age is a pretty good time.

John Robert McFarland

1] Despite assiduous attempts at memory and at research, I can’t find her name. The very first female editor of the IDS was Florence Reid Myrick, clear back in 1897, and no, I was not a student at IU then, despite appearances.