Over the last few weeks, I have been asked to participate in interview luncheons for candidates to the Assistant Professor in Leadership position open at the McDonough Center. Each candidate has been posed the question, "What is your definition of leadership?"

This question is interesting, and problematic to me for a variety of reasons - not the least of which is the underlying assumption that such a concept needs distilled down to basic, elemental parts; an assumption which seems to be relentlessly compulsory.

Although I seem to contradict myself, one definition attracted me more than any others. Dr. Bechtold, of the University of Hawaii (I believe), suggested that "Leadership is the process in which a leader creates a message which followers can endorse."

Food for thought.

I just experienced a major breakthrough with my honors thesis in English literature. The irony? It is best articulated as a mathematic formula: (a+c=I)+(r+s=E)=U.

Who'd have thunk it.

I saw the picture below featured on Reuters' website and promptly began salivating. The caption reads: "An employee takes a nap in a nap pod which blocks out light and sound at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California March 3, 2008."

A work in progress, naturally:

1) Put my father through school
2) Put my mother through school
3) Backpack through Europe.
4) Seriously consider, and explore, every major religion/spirituality.
5) Write a book, then burn it.
6) Travel to a place where there is nowhere left to go.