President's Corner - March 25, 2016 | School of Public Health

Happy Good Friday (on Thursday)… How did Good Friday get to be called “good?” Someone else can look that up. Passover and Easter often come around the same time but this year, Passover doesn’t begin until April 22 so those of us that like to honor both traditions, even if it’s just because of friends in both faiths, get to be somber twice! Bonnie and I started early on Sunday by going to the Regal cinema to see the nearly 4-hour long 1956 “Ten Commandments,” the C. B. DeMille epic that has been lovingly restored by TCM. There were only 6 of us there for the 2 PM show. It’s all about how Passover started…you remember.

Director Search: The search committee will be interviewing our final candidate today (Thursday) and then meeting to make our final choice and recommendation to Dean Hand at SPH. ALL of our finalists would be good choices so the final decision may be difficult but we will do our duty and report back to you once a candidate has accepted our offer. I sincerely thank the committee for their fine service and dedication. The combination of wisdom, good sense and historical memory have been wonderful to watch. In these interviews, a few issues have been identified that will be well worth our pursuing for solutions once the new director is in place and on the case.

I am going to notice the lights of the earth, the sun and the moon and the stars, the lights of our candles as we march, the lights with which spring teases us, the light that is already present. --Anne Lamott

Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems. -- Rainer Maria Rilke

Spring won't let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again. -- Gustav Mahler

We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives. -- Gary Zukav

That’s the wisdom for this week. Sorry to be brief but it’s a rather bizzzy day!

Jim Held, President