What a wonderful response, Bronson. First, congratulations on the 5 year post-doc and the 12-year research project. That provides you a lot of security for a long time, even if short of retirement age. Keep up with your digital Humanities work, my friend. I suspect it will be a good way forward.

Second, good luck with acquiring German citizenship, and maybe regular visits to Greek beaches!

I consider myself quite fortunate, too, despite this late and abrupt change in my career. I finished my Ph.D. in 1992 and got my first tenure track job then (at a Jesuit university--I saw on your CV that you know the Jesuits from undergrad) so I've had over 3 decades of doing what I love. That's really what this piece was intended to be, a lament for the loss of a beloved position, and a lament that future students at my university will not have the opportunity to discover what you and I did.

I'm glad you're in an academic and social environment more amenable to your research and to Humanities in general. Maybe America will shift some of its values away from the quantifiable and commercial to the more human and humane, but that feels a long way off.

Thanks for your good wishes and for reading and responding, my friend. I appreciate you.