I retired from OSU two years ago. I have learned a few things in the transition. None of them will change your life. All I can say is they changed mine. Which oddly enough, reminds me of Donald Rumsfeld.

He had the gift of saying memorable things, like, “You don’t go to war with the army you want but with the army you have.” At least that is how I remember it.

But the quote that sums up my last few years is, “There are things that we know. There are things that we don’t know. There are things we know we don’t know. The things we don’t know that we don’t know may or may not be a problem.”

Once again, this is probably a paraphrase. The irony of life is existential uncertainty is the only existential certainty. He had a way of describing hurts, obstacles, and oppositions as “unhelpful.” I like that one. Say it often.