MB stopped blogging again

When I get the time, I read Michael Berube's blog. I have been a fan for years now and he has influenced not only my writing but my insight as well. He doesn't know me, I don't remember posting a comment on his blog (unsure though), he's from an academic world far removed from mine, and he's American (and so is 80% of my immediate family). He took a hiatus from blogging in 2007 and I remember feeling a sense of sadness then but he came back a year after and started posting much to the delight of his dear readers.

He's leaving the blogging world again probably writing another book (which reminds me, I should get at least one of his writings), or doing something more worthwhile. Nevertheless, I will surely miss reading the blog and I catch myself now reading the many posts I missed. And I'm glad I found this post which hit me. He was responding to a letter sent by one of his many readers about the options for English/Literature teachers in this period of economic crisis. It could've easily been addressed to me and to my kind.
Below is the excerpt but do read the entire post on his blog.

In saying all of this, I haven’t so much as addressed your conviction that you’d be happiest with a job that involves writing, reading, researching and teaching. It is indeed a great job, even when all the committee work is factored in, and of course I think that the desire for such a job is not only entirely legitimate but (in a perverse sense) completely sane. Which is to say, I’m not one of those people who grouses relentlessly about how the profession is rotten to the core and spits out everyone who Really Cares About Literature and rewards only the hyperprofessionalized theorymongers with icewater in their veins. As you’ve probably gathered from my old book. The only question, as I see it, is whether the profession of literary study will offer a sufficient number of those great jobs for the people who aspire to them. And I fear that the answer is no, that the odds of any one person getting one of those jobs is extremely slim. Now, in one sense that’s the Monte Carlo fallacy at work, because your odds of choosing any number between 1 and 1000 is 999:1, and yet you chose a number! So yes, obviously, somebody is going to get some decent job here and there. But should you take that chance? That’s your call in the end, because only you can answer the question of how much of your life (and your family’s life) you’re willing to juggle in order to give it a shot. But I do feel an obligation to be as explicit as I can about just how steep the odds are, and how severe the personal sacrifices might be.

Just brilliant!

Good luck Mr. Berube, until your return.