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A Message from the Vice President of University Advancement

Current numbers about the omicron variant surge of the pandemic indicate that more of you who are reading this email have been touched directly in some way by COVID-19 in recent days than ever before. The next couple of weeks will compound this reality. If you or loved ones are sick, you have our solidarity and prayers here on Loyola’s campus (intermittently and/or thinly populated as it is while we ride this out).

Over the Christmas break, I read Oliver Burkeman’sÌýFour Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. There is so much to be gained from this remarkably short book. Burkeman starts with the stark reminder that a human being who dies at 80 will have had only around 4,000 weeks of life on Earth. His book isn’t as much about time management as it is about the most useful mental and emotional dispositions and habits we can cultivate as we face the truth of the brevity of this gift of human life. In a truly Ignatian manner, Burkeman talks a lot about gratitude and generosity.

If the current wave of the pandemic lasts six to eight weeks, as the past surges have, I have to remember that time is not standing still. These are still six to eight of my precious 4,000 weeks (if I’m lucky) to cherish the good, diminish evil, and act in gratitude and generosity to those around me.

Oh, and I will be eating some king cake as well.ÌýI hope you get to have some too.

AMDG,
Chris Wiseman ’88

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