This piece comes to me by way of Jim in Great Falls, Virginia and is inspired by the recent message on "Dissertations."
The story of the student and the professor brings to mind a real life experience.
When I was a graduate student in Chicago working on my PhD dissertation, I stopped by the home of my supervising research professor. I went into his den where he handed me a chapter over which I had labored mightily. He told me he didn't understand a word I had written and advised that I rework the whole chapter.
I was dejected until I was shown to the door by the professor's wife. She whispered to me,
"He read your chapter while watching a Bears game, and you know what a fan he is."
Indeed, I did. I didn't rewrite the chapter but turned it in without change two weeks later. The professor returned it to me saying,
"That was much better. Aren't you glad I made you rewrite it?"
His wife and I finally shared our little secret with him 25 years later at a dinner party in our home.
----------------A Final Thought ...
"A faith is something you die for, a doctrine is something you kill for. There is all the difference in the world."
- Tony Benn (b. 1925), British Labour politician