Meeting about a Grant, Making Time to Think

Met today with someone at my university to think about the grant that I started over the summer. I've fixed the "fatal flaw" now, and I'm moving on to revising the application and sending it off. The meeting with this former program officer went well. Even though he had a lot to say, most of it was framing feedback rather than major changes. He also suggested that I ask my university to commit to some things as gestures of support, including a yearly course release. I'm not sure if that'll get approved or not, but it sounds good to me.

I went to a retreat this past weekend (by choice, not associated with my university) where the speaker quoted someone (C.S. Lewis I think) saying, "creativity is the residue of wasted time." I like that idea. The speaker's point in that part of the retreat is how driven we are to do, do, do, and how little time we have available to think about ideas creatively. I know that's a struggle for me. My pace is such that I hardly have time to think about bigger picture issues and make creative connections between ideas. The speaker encouraged us to talk as if obsessive busyness was a vice rather than a virtue--tough words to live by, but I intend to try.