insert a clever subject line here...

Only, I can't think something clever to call a post whose purpose is to say that I received tenure. Thank you, University of Michigan Regents. I've taken much joy from my job here and I've never felt I had to somehow compromise the things I really want to. But having said that, I hope tenure changes things. I hope that fewer constraints means more creativity and more risk. At any rate, tenure means more security and I'm profoundly thankful for that.

I briefly considered a career in journalism and during a summer internship at city hall I tossed around the idea of political communication and speechwriting. But for the most part, becoming a tenured academic has been a dream since I left the seminary. For all the moaning, however justified, this is a great life. I can be part of it for the next thirty+ years.