Loss

I'm joining the many other rhet/comp bloggers in expressing my sadness at learning of John Lovas's death. I introduced myself to him at the Blogging SIG at CCCC in March, but since this blog was only just beginning then, he didn't know who the heck I was. But he was cordial, all the same. I introduced myself because, as other bloggers have already written today, I felt that I knew him through his energetic, insightful blog. (And, well, he was also past chair of my major professional organization, wasn't he?)

I'm somewhat late in hearing the news because, oddly enough, I've been away most of the day for a cancer screening of my own. All's well at the moment on my health front, thankfully, but even the strange rituals of screening do a good job of bringing one up close to mortality. As John noted in one of his last blog entries, none of us is promised tomorrow. Even so, there's something oddly reassuring about being able to go back and read John's blog; maybe it's just, as he says, the illusion of control that the making visible of words offers.

Over on my bloglines account, I see that I'd saved some of his postings from last semester. I especially love the one called "My Three Hour Day," in which he offers up his schedule for one day to counter a letter-writer to a local newspaper who had suggested teachers don't work full days. It's a wonderful illustration of his humor and his enormous energy.

I'm going to miss reading his blog. A lot.

More tributes:
DeAnza College

Samantha Blackmon
Collin Brooke
Jenny Edbauer
Joanna Howard

Steven Krause
Liz Kleinfeld
Derek Mueller
Clancy Ratliff
Cindy [at] Red Bird Rising
Jeff Rice
Mike [at] Vitia