 
I had a two-hour conversation via ZOOM on Tuesday with Mostafa Boieblan, who resides in Madrid and is an adjunct Professor at a prestigious University there.
My vehicle of communication with colleagues is moving in the direction of ZOOM, which provides for genuine interaction and exchange of ideas.
I met Mostafa thirteen years ago when he was visiting New Jersey. He had been studying with George Lakoff in California, who was aware of my research on metaphor, and recommended that Mostafa visit me. He spent three months in New York City where we had valuable, weekly conversations at Penn Station.
He also spent time with Mei Ha and I at my apartment in Elmhurst (twenty-minutes from Manhattan) and he helped with computer issues. He was a bit of a whiz in that domain. Then his visa expired and he returned to Morocco.
We were out of touch until four months ago, when we resumed our relationship with twice-weekly ZOOM conversations. During the thirteen years we had been out of he had received his PhD in Psychology at a prestigious Spanish University.
His job now was teaching, but of course in order to maintain his job, he was required to write papers; to "get published" as they say in the academic world.
He was depressed and discouraged, no longer the lively, optimistic scholar I had known. He explained that some papers required a year of research and writing, then submission to a journal editor, then revision, you know the game (and I do too).
He called me a "romantic" and I didn't understand he meant. I gradually realized he was saying that I still was idealistic and optimistic about the pursuit of truth and development of knowledge. His job at that point was simply to "write papers" to get promoted.
He was planning to quit his job at the end of the semester, but didn't know how he would earn a living.
I spent time smashing and bashing him, trying to penetrate his dense brain to awaken the once lively, optimistic mind that now seemed closed. I tried to re-awaken the spark of hope and optimism. At first thought this was hopeless, given his academic position and the requirements of this position.
I explained what I call the 5% rule: only five percent of people in the academic world are involved in the pursuit of truth and generation of knowledge. Others are simply "holding on," building their CV's in order to get promoted. But I assured him that there are still "romantics," pursuing the dreams that initially motivated them to become scholars. I work with some of these scholars.
Gradually, the light is awakening, his brightness is returning. We have returned to the valuable and exciting dialogues that I remembered/
I don't know how many of you who read my Newsletter are in a predicament similar to that of Mostafa.
In any case, I am opening dialogue with more and more scholars, doing ZOOM sessions as well as publishing their essays and papers online (and promoting their books). I seel tp work with simply other "romantics" who still believe it is possible to make exciting discoveries and share these discoveries with colleagues.
RICHARD KOENIGSBERG
PS: And I repeat the truism as I often have: more people read an article or paper published here in two days than read a typical journal article in its lifetime. Perhaps you are one of the 2000 scholars that is reading this missive right now.
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