Cogito, ergo sum

What will I blog about, now that the university president has officially pink-slipped me?

Blogging has served me in multiple ways.  It is cathartic when I am able to get my angst out.  Would I have survived the four years of the 45th President if there were no blog for me to express my emotions?

Some posts were simply my reflections on life, and death.  From the sparkles of the river, to death in the extended family, to small-talk at grocery stores, there are plenty of posts that are about life.

Blogging was also a way for me to read and think about ideas and issues that I could potentially use in the classes that I teach.  Uighurs, climate change, sustainable cities, ... all these topics not only interested me personally, they were also part of my professional development. Some of the materials I even incorporated into the syllabi.

And, oh, in the days when newspapers were alive and well, blogging was how I played with ideas and worked out the nuances, before I composed final versions that I sent to the editors.

Now, I face a new world.

Local journalism is dead.

My contract to teach will soon expire.

Will I be interested anymore in topics like higher education, about which I have written a lot?  If I will no longer engage students about Uighurs and the Roma, how much will I want to read and blog about them?  Were my curiosities merely serving such instrumental purposes, or will I continue to read, think, and write about them?  Will I join the majority that simply doesn't care about our collective issues and welfare?

I will soon find out, and so will you.