My blog’s name, “One Foot In: Thoughts on Academia,” refers to what I sometimes tell people about my current professional life: I’ve got one foot in the Ivory Tower and one on the ground. (Stretching like that keeps the thighs nicely toned.)

As someone whose work centers on social justice issues in medicine, I spend part of my time as a medical-humanities academic, part of my time doing mainstream writing and speaking, and part of my time working with medical professionals and patient advocates on treatment reforms. And, by choice, I spend more time than I used to attending to our family’s domestic life.

I had tenure at Michigan State University but I decided to give it up so I could have enough time and energy to pursue all my major interests at a pace that made sense.

“Gave up tenure?!” Yup. Am I crazy? I don’t think so. A few months back I bought a lottery ticket for the Mega-Millions drawing. The pot was $310,000,000. Then I spent the whole night anxious that I might have won. I realized I have a perfect life and I’d be crazy to change it. I never felt this way when I was a standard-issue academic.

With the work system I have in place now, I’m getting so much more advocacy, activism, and writing done than before. When I travel to speak and research, I’m rested enough to really connect with the people I meet. This helps me enormously as I try to be most useful. I also now have time to help out in my son’s class, to cook with him, and to hang out with him at local construction sites watching the big trucks. Living like this and making do with less money is just fine with me.

My thanks to the Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine for giving me a sweet deal that makes all this possible. I’m honored that they’re supporting my work. And my thanks to my mate for not being as economically unpredictable as I am.

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