A first attempt at a narrative …
“D” is for deadline. We all face deadlines daily. A gift to buy for mother’s day. A report to write for a committee. A set of papers to grade and return to students. A decision to take a job, or pass up an opportunity.
Deadlines tell us more than we might like about ourselves and others. As an educator, I’m responsible for setting deadlines in the classes I teach. As an administrator, I create deadlines for people who work in the projects I oversee. In the syllabi for my classes, I come across as a stickler for punctuality, telling my students that if they turn work in past the deadline, that I’m under absolutely no obligation to read it. In reality, though, I often accept late work without much penalty.
So after I’d written this, someone else already had completed an unsolicited (but very good!) letter “D” movie, so I’m off the hook. No need to finish this one. But there’s more to come … my “O” is probably more promising. The only disappointment is that I didn’t get to the part about the etymology of “deadline,” which dates back to a literal line in Civil War prisons that, when crossed, would result in a fatal shooting. So “deadline” was once not at all a metaphorical phrase; interesting, huh?
May 22 2007 09:10 pm | Digital Writing