Watching the Weather

I take many things for granted.  Perhaps one of the biggest is hourly weather and even daily weather.  For those without shelter though, the weather is constantly in mind because it influences where one moves and lives and even survives.  Blessed with shelter, I take weather as a non-issue on most days except for a few brutally hot Colorado summers and a few windy days of storms in the winter.  But not this week.  

As I write, I am sitting looking at a mountain side trying to decide whether to get back on the Colorado Trail, a 485 mile route from Denver to Durango.  We've done most of it but still have some 80 miles to go in some of the harshest high altitude trail conditions.  And it's monsoon season.  For those unfamiliar with the Southwest, that means moisture moving in, mixing with solar heat, propelling massive thunderstorms and showers with frequent lightning and flash flood conditions.  So whether to stay on the trail, after bailing a few days ago, requires lots of information about the weather.

It seems to me as academic support professionals that we are often called to be the weather forecasters and even observers at our law schools because our role is not merely intellectually.  Rather, it involves listening and learning and coming alongside those who are struggling and helping them navigate the often-time stormy conditions of law school life.  Law school is not an easy path for many.  It's our job, it seems to me, not necessarily to help make the journey easier but more rewarding, valuable, and beneficial.  Indeed, I have to say that's not just our job; it's an honor.   SJ