Kennie and I have now established a Monday evening routine. I am done teaching my class at 5:00. Kennie calls me at 6:30 after she is done teaching, drives over to pick me up from my department and we head home. (My 'high profile' lifestyle of having a Fulbright scholar as my chauffeur is not lost upon her.)
Sometimes, we first stop by her apartment, unwind over dinner, and then I walk to my place. If I cut through the woods, it is a 2-minute walk. Otherwise, it can be a 10-minute walk, which is not bad when it is not snowing or raining. Other times, we first stop at my place and then either we have dinner or she just drops me in the driveway and heads back to her apartment.
When something comes up for either of us on Monday evenings, then either I take the bus home or if I have driven to the campus, I drive back home.
I have been trying to avoid driving to the University. The walk from the house to the Bus Stop is shorter than the walk from the campus parking lot to my department. However, Kennie prefers to drive daily to the campus. (She is not a public transport kind of a person, which to me is surprising because the concept of 'public transport' is more coherent with her bigger picture of life and society. But more on that later.) She lives a 2-minute walk from my place, and hitching a ride with her in the evening becomes convenient.
Today we stopped by my place and had dinner. I cooked pasta. Over dinner - in fact before I had even put the pot on the stove - Kennie raised a couple of interesting questions. Should scientists and researchers ought to continue with their research even when they realize that the 'system' is likely to misuse the outcome of their research? Can we (should we) decouple the researcher (scientist / philosopher) from his or her ideas? That is, if an evil person had splendid ideas, should we accept and use the ideas or disown and denounce those ideas?
Hmmm. I will take this up in my next posting.
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