Fred- Wait a minute, here! Are you trying to say that life is worth living? Get real! Get miserable! Ed S. > > Here we are entering the realm of mind reading, of worrying about > what people say and think about us behind our backs. And the > comparison of amounts of money versus "justice" and "worth." > I would rather be naive or deluded, and take people at face value > (accept their friendly demeanor as real) than be paranoid and spend my > time worrying about what they are saying behind my back. Best I can > tell, none of our faculty really cares a whole lot about the > doctorate. They are far more concerned with musical chops and > personality attributes in judging one another (and, I suspect, in > judging me - technical chops being substituted for musical). > The question of money is another can of worms. I have never found > that the distribution of wealth in the world had a whole lot to do > with merit. One thing for certain, every single faculty member is paid > less than his/her worth (at least in their own opinions). The faculty > in our college of fine arts is paid significantly less than the > faculties in the other colleges (not to mention administrators and > athletic coaches). The part time, adjunct, visiting faculty, who carry > much of the load, and who all have doctorates, are paid starvation > wages ($20-30,000/yr for what amounts to a full time teaching load). > Where's the justice? Where do I as piano technician fit into the > scale? So what? Who cares? (The faculty, even the part timers, are by > and large grateful to have a steady job in their field. There are > plenty with doctorates who don't). > Personally, I am delighted to have a profession in which I do work I > enjoy, and am paid well enough to live comfortably. If more money were > the driving force in my life, I'd do something else. I can't think of > a better recipe for a miserable life than constant worry about > "whether I am paid enough or respected enough," obsessing over > comparisons, and the accompanying envy and resentment. Life's too > short for that stuff. > > Regards, > Fred Sturm > University of New Mexico > fssturm at unm.edu > > >
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