Busy griefs take a break in the wake of good news long expected yet somehow shocking: I’ve been promoted to full professor, and the ceiling feels like the sky. Evening walk by the lakeshore with whitecaps thrashing the rocks in respectable imitation of the limitlessness symbolized by the sea. Home to flourless chocolate cake, a glass of Prosecco, and a family celebration in all its small joys and awkwardnesses. I am touched to have arrived at last at a destination I had never before clearly visualized: a learner licensed to be fearless in the face of ignorance, especially his own.