School will be back in session from tomorrow. Bitter and sweet feelings, like always. I will have a full classload and spend a lot of time standing up and talking all day, but at the same time I will not be sitting in front of a computer all day. All in all I had a rather satisfying summer and stayed focused on what I set out to do, so I do not really mind getting back to teaching. Also, lunch always seems to taste much better after being in class all morning. I like that.
Changing the topic, the other day I saw a documentary about Steve Zouski, a boxer you have most likely never heard of. He was a long time "journeyman" who had a lifetime record of 31 wins and 18 loses, and faced a decent number of well known fighters such as George Foreman (during his comeback), Marvin Frazier, Tony Tubes, and has the distinction of being one of Mike Tyson's knockout victims. Especially at the end of his 30-year career, he was often called to fight on very short notice and just showed up, worked, got paid, and went home.
I became interested in the term journeyman. Oxford dictionary offers a definition of: a worker or sports player who is reliable but not outstanding. Wiki states that the term "journeyman" was originally used in the medieval trade guilds Journeymen were paid daily and the word "journey" is derived from journée, meaning "whole day" in French. Each individual guild generally recognised three ranks of workers: apprentices, journeymen, and masters. A journeyman, as a qualified tradesman could become a master and run their own business, but most continued working as employees.
So, guys like Zouski play an important role as they teach the up and coming how to handle the ropes. They are not burdened with trying to achieve master status, but they are still talented enough to do a lot of things. In some ways I feel this could be true about many fields. Journeymen show up and do the work and have a good idea of where they fit into the system. Maybe letting go of the dream of the gold belt makes life easier.