The students are back. And I'm noticing something that must have been there all along, but that I missed before: Ivy League snobbery. I heard a freshman (I'm guessing) say to her peers, "Look, the one thing everyone here has in common is that we're all smarter than most people."

If you think where you go to school is the only kind of intelligence worth counting, you have a lot to learning to do, from people you might not think you have anything to learn from (not to pick on her--I know she meant it innocently, trying to find her place in the world. But that idea can quickly become unhealthy). On that note, there is a new independent movie I'd love to see called The Philosopher Kings, a documentary with interviews with custodians from universities across the nation (including Cornell). The idea is that wisdom is in places we might not think to look, which I love. One of the custodians I know seems happier than anyone else I see around--always cheerful and saying hi (even when I felt lonely or grumpy), never stressed, and since he comes early, he leaves early. I like that idea, of a simpler life.