@kfitz One of the highlights of my time at #MSU was when you agreed to join us in @msucal! That's when I knew the culture we were trying to create could be magnetic.
And then you were here…and although we've been through more than our fair share of pain at MSU, our work together has been generous with joy! That work will continue, despite the distance, and it will expand and grow, as I too commit with you to being a little more Bill each day. (You know he’d remind us that it takes practice!) Beloved Bill: https://cplong.org/2024/05/a-letter-to-bill-hart-davidson/
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A Letter to Bill Hart-Davidson - Christopher P. Long
Things That Happened While I Wasn't Writing
I was doing super well with this whole blog revival thing, right up until I wasn't. March and April were awful, not least in the ways they undid all my best intentions about thinking thoughts worth writing down. So here's a quick recap of a few top-line items that have happened while I haven't been writing:
- I didn't really get to experience the eclipse, really, but I did have a fun half hour sitting on a bench in front of the Delta terminal at DTW, watching gate agents come out in groups of two or three, walk to the end of the departures area, and spend a few minutes watching as the sun gradually disappeared, before rushing back inside to let a few of their colleagues take their turn. While I watched, the light got distinctly weird, the streetlights all came on, and I was able to see a fairly distinct shadow move across the sky. At the point when that shadow was most directly overhead, and the light was the absolute weirdest, the airport's PA system played the 5th Dimension's "Let the Sunshine In." As a colleague I told about that moment said, "perfect needle drop, no notes."
- I got to give one of the keynotes for the SUNY Digital Learning Conference, where I talked about why open infrastructure matters. Enormous thanks to Ed Beck and Paul Schacht for inviting me, and to everyone there for the great conversation.
- I found out that one of my best collaborators, the amazing Christopher P. Long -- who was perhaps the single most important reason I came to MSU, and certainly among the greatest joys of working here -- is leaving to go become provost at the University of Oregon. I am delighted for him, and both delighted for and deeply jealous of those Ducks -- they have a phenomenal, transformative leader coming their way. He keeps promising me that our collaborations will continue; I plan to hold him to that.
- The loss of my friend Bill, however, is more devastating, by virtue of being both utterly unexpected and pretty much irreversible. He has, however, left us an astonishing legacy, in the number and range of people whose lives he touched. I listened to the overflow of stories told at his celebration of life last Friday and found myself both recognizing that I could never measure up to such a model, but also that I have in front of me the opportunity to try. So one of my goals for the years ahead is to do what I can to be a little more Bill.
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