Chicago's South Side, Brooklyn, rural upstate NY, Albuquerque, and Hanoi, Vietnam. These places make up the pretty wildly diverse settings in which I have had the privilege of teaching over these many years and from each of which I took away something. A skill, a mentor, a cuss word, a dance move, an exotic dish, trauma, exhilaration. Whatever was and continues to be gifted to me, or imposed upon me, by colleagues or students, I hope I may protect and safeguard all of it within the fragile sheath of memory for as long as I am able to live and think.