24 20 5655 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d39edb7e905efe8ca964918d77defb9f.pdf 6d5a80ec509385f04c1c39ac0e093d54 PDF Text Text �Editor-in-Chief Olivia Braley Editorial Board Leith Daghistani Andrew Graney Charles Green Diana Villegas �Table of Contents Letter from the Editor Olivia Braley, Annapolis Purple Freckles Toni Lambert, Annapolis "I Feel, Therefore I Am?" Kayleigh Steele, Annapolis - with artwork by Bucca, Annapolis Toast to the GI Graduates Louis Petrich, Annapolis Tutor Annapolis Bells Joshua Laperche, Annapolis - with artwork by Jesse Clagett, Annapolis Genesis William Braithwaite, Annapolis Tutor Pap and Me Judith Wrenn, Annapolis - with artwork by Bucca, Annapolis A Conversation with Brandon Wasickso Charles Green, Annapolis- with art by Bucca, Annapolis “Equality” and the Tyranny of the Majority Drew Maglio, Annapolis The White Man Burdened Dimple Kaul, Annapolis - with artwork by Jesse Clagett, Annapolis Holy Sonnet XIV Vita Kudryavtseva, Annapolis - with artwork by Jesse Clagett, Annapolis About a Letter Louis Petrich, Annapolis Tutor - with artwork by Bucca, Annapolis Prize-winning Tutorial Essay: Meno Andrew Graney, Annapolis Prize-winning Preceptorial Essay: Thus Spoke Zarathustra Anthony Meffe, Annapolis - with artwork by Jesse Clagett, Annapolis 1 2 3 7 10 11 17 18 27 33 35 39 41 45 �Letter from the Editor Olivia Braley Dear Members of the Graduate Institute Community, As another semester comes to a close, I reflect on these last sixteen weeks with immense gratitude for our community. Thank you all for your dedication and commitment to the unique work and relationships we cultivate around our seminar tables, across our computer screens, and everywhere in between. Thank you especially to my fellow Colloquy editors, our contributors, and all others who dedicate their time and talents to helping this publication come to fruition each semester. Due to your efforts, we can showcase the various perspectives and elements of our community here. The issue you have in front of you today is a culmination of the thoughts and efforts of many people and, in that way, I believe is in keeping with the collaborative spirit of St. John’s college. The magic of the St. John's seminar is not hindered by distance or time. That is evident as we bring you an issue composed of past and present graduate students from both the in-person and low-residency programs. The fact that Prize-winning Tutorial and Preceptorial papers were awarded to an in-person and low-residency student respectively is but one apt example of the rigor and integrity that the St. John’s program requires of its students no matter the circumstances or platform. This Fall 2021 issue is of particular personal import as it marks my last semester as Editor-in-Chief of Colloquy and as a graduate student at St. John’s College. Neither departure is without a bit of sadness— but I am filled with hope for the future of this journal and the Graduate Institute. To have had the opportunity to integrate into this community in my two years here is an honor and I know that the lessons, connections, and questions that I developed during this time will be with me for many years to come. Let Colloquy be a reminder of these connections and of the diverse, attentive community in which each of us has a place. As always, thank you all for your talent, trust, and time. Sincerely, Olivia Braley, Editor-in-Chief 1 �Purple Freckles Toni Lambert Debris. Debris and remnants Of the gentle and no-longer-tall giants, Everywhere. The limbs of these strong beings Show the fresh flesh Of where they were snapped and torn. They couldn’t stand, So they flew. And now they’ve been flung, Pushed aside, Out of the way of where people pass By foot or by car. Inches from where we pass, But consuming our sight Of what happened just the night before. Did they catch our gaze, Or even our glance, When they remained attached In their proper place At home in the horizon line? Not in the same way. When attached They represented strength And growth, That we can stretch and reach To be just like the humble tree. Now, flung and displaced, They represent the terrific And tragic strength Of something harder to see. But what’s that? Underneath the carcasses Of the brutal storm, Purple freckles stand tall. Mere inches tall, But exactly as tall as they should be On a warm September day. They hold strong, Often over glanced in their simplicity. These tiny purple freckles Of flowers show us strength. Unfazed and perfectly placed Despite what the storm attempted to do. Even those standing under And holding the remains of gentle giants Hold strong, Their purple untouched. 2 �"I Feel, Therefore I Am?" Kayleigh Steele René Descartes, after having divested himself of his body and the sensible world in a thought experiment in the first of his Meditations, famously declares in the Second Meditation that he is merely a thinking thing, and that his thought alone can serve as proof of his existence. He asserts, “It is thought; this alone cannot be stripped from me. I am, I exist, this is certain” (27). In other writings, he states this central idea aphoristically as: “I think, therefore I am.” By the end of the Meditations, though, Descartes believes he has successfully proven the existence of the material world and has restored his body to himself. This prompts the question of whether we can now return to the Second Meditation and, with the body and access to sensation intact, ask if there are other possible proofs of our existence to be found. Could “I feel, therefore I am” be true? Intuitively, it seems true that if there is a sensation being felt, that is proof that there is something here existing to feel the sensation. The proposition does not feel so different from Descartes’ basic assertion that if there is something here thinking, there must be something here existing to think the thought. So now, stripped of our reason and using only our sensations, we test “I feel, therefore I am." Immediately, the question presents itself: is it possible for a merely perceiving being to form a “therefore”? It seems impossible that a feeling being would be capable of taking in sensory data and using it to form a conclusion; reason must be involved in this process. However, Descartes identifies sensation and perception as a form of thinking: “I seem to be seeing, hearing, getting hot. This cannot be false. This is what is properly meant by speaking of myself as having sensations; and, understood in this precise sense, it is nothing other than thinking” (29). To accord with his cogito statement, he removes sensation from the body entirely and assigns it to the mind: “Bodies themselves are perceived not, strictly speaking, by the senses or by the imaginative faculty, but by the intellect alone, and... they are not perceived because they are touched or seen, but only because they are understood” (34). With sensation now subsumed by the understanding, the proposition of “I feel, therefore I am” effectively becomes one and the same as “I think, therefore I am,” and must be true. As he works to reestablish the body in the Sixth Meditation, though, Descartes complicates his idea of sensation as a form of thinking: I find in myself faculties of thinking in various specific ways – namely, the faculties of imagination and sensation – without which I can understand myself clearly and distinctly as a whole. But the converse is not true – I cannot understand them apart from an intelligent substance in which they inhere (for they contain a certain degree of intellection in their formal concept). Hence I perceive that they are to be distinguished from me as modes are from a thing. (78) 3 �By identifying sensation as a mode or accident of thinking, he effectively separates it and makes it nonessential from the business of thinking. He can conceive of a version of himself existing purely as a mind without requiring the faculty of sensation, but not as a feeling being without his intellect. After this development in his conception of sensation, “I feel, therefore I am” cannot possibly be true. Or can it? In making an argument for mind-body dualism later in the Sixth Meditation, Descartes states: When I consider the mind, or myself in so far as I am purely a thinking thing, I can distinguish no parts in myself but understand myself to be a thing that is entirely one and complete. And although the whole mind appears to be united with the whole body, if the foot is cut off, or the arm, or any other part of the body, I know that nothing is therefore subtracted from the mind. Nor can the faculties of willing, perceiving by the senses, understanding, and so forth be said to be parts of the mind, since it is one and the same mind that wills, that senses, and that understands. (86) Descartes contradicts himself here. Where before sensation was identified as separable from his conception of the self, now it is contained absolutely within the whole. For “I feel, therefore I am” to be true, it has become clear that both the faculties of sensation and the understanding must be available to us: the former to perceive the “I feel”, and the latter to form the “therefore”. Between these two statements in the Sixth Meditation, Descartes has presented these faculties as either entirely divisible or muddled together, and sometimes it seems that they may even be the same faculty altogether. How is it possible to proceed in the face of a contradiction that makes the proposition to be tested both true and false simultaneously? The imprecision of Descartes has revealed itself during this exploration. Because he does not resolve the inconsistency in the Meditations, it appears we have encountered an insurmountable obstacle. Perhaps we can look to another, more systematic, thinker to resolve the confusion: namely, Immanuel Kant. In the Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, Kant details his conception of the mind and its innate faculties: the faculties of sensibility, the understanding, and reason. He defines the faculty of sensibility as responsible for giving form to our perceptions through pure intuitions, transforming the raw data from sensation into empirical intuitions we understand in time and space. The faculty of the understanding then uses the pure concepts of the understanding to form our empirical intuitions into appearances, allowing us to make inferences and conclusions about the things that affect our senses. Reason, finally, is the faculty by which it is possible to know a priori, apart from any experience. 4 �Artwork by Bucca Now the roles and limitations of our various faculties are clearly defined. In the proposition of “I feel, therefore I am,” the “I feel” is now easily understood to pertain to the faculty of sensibility, and it seems the faculty of the understanding can use that information to craft a “therefore”. When Descartes states, “I am therefore, speaking precisely, only a thinking thing...” (27), he declares sensation to be completely separable from his conception of the self. This prompts the question of what the newly separated merely sensing self is capable of, and, with only Descartes to look to, led to the confusion above. In Kant, the question of whether a perceiving being can form a conclusion never arises because a merely perceiving being cannot exist within his system. The innate structure of our minds makes it impossible to separate sensation from the understanding. Nature has implanted within us the pure intuitions and pure concepts of the understanding. They exist in us prior to sensation; therefore if we feel, we are able to form an understanding from that sensation. But can this understanding form a conclusion of “I am”? Kant identifies the conception of the self, or the soul, as a transcendental idea, or a pure concept of the reason. These transcendental ideas, he says, cannot be understood empirically; they exist outside of all experience. “The transcendent cognitions of reason neither allow what relates to their ideas to be given in experience, nor their theses ever to be confirmed or refuted through experience; hence only pure reason itself can detect the 5 �error that perhaps creeps into them...” (4:329). The idea of the soul, like the pure concepts and intuitions, exists in us intuitively and innately. Kant states, “Now it does appear as if we have something substantial in the consciousness of our self (the thinking subject), and indeed have it in immediate intuition; for all the predicates of inner sense are referred to the I as subject, and this I cannot again be thought as the predicate of some other subject” (4:334). This “I am” can be concluded, but never through sensation or experience. For Kant, “I feel, therefore I am” is, consequently, impossible. Kant has proven, through this exercise, the immense value of the precision in his system for answering the metaphysical questions. When Descartes’ ideas became hopelessly entangled in the attempt to prove or disprove our proposition, Kant’s system provided a clear and firm groundwork for continuing the process of thought. In exploring this question, the ideas of Descartes quickly became a quagmire that one could not navigate safely out of without the use of interpretation or opinion, which are far too fickle for good metaphysics. Through Kant, it appears something rare and unexpected, and welcome, has occurred: we have seemingly discovered a certain conclusion to our question. While Descartes prompted only more questions, Kant provided what was sought: an answer. 6 �Toast to the GI Graduates Mr. Louis Petrich Delivered Spring Semester 2021 Socrates says, some place or other, that it’s good to be refuted--to suffer refutation-because then we cease to think that we know what we do not know. For that’s a troublesome condition, sometimes dangerous, even over elementary, physical matters. Let’s say you have to prepare the table for guests, and you think you know how to size it up or down to fit the occasion. But the table turns out too big or little—once the guests have come—and then, too late for proper hospitality, Zeus is angry. . . unless, perhaps, there’s a Socrates among the guests, persuasively game to undertake a second or third measuring, ever another round of getting to know us things and gods. Thus it’s fitting for Socrates to add that we should thank our refuters for delivering us from the human propensity to think we know more than we do. For consider how much that is, and how dear the objects, how costly the mistakes, when the accommodation of bodies around the table is for the sake of souls, too. Prompted by that word, “souls,” which is the real dynamite in our mining conversations, I would now say “thank you” to the graduates for practicing with my colleagues and me the soulful art of refutation for a few years, under physical conditions that have sorely refuted us--I mean our bodies, mainly, less so our souls, and not much your souls, for I’ve made particular comparisons. Yours have continued, under mandated refutations, elsewhere debilitating, to take the measure of things unknown in a spirit of wonder, and with an energy and commitment that frankly, have refuted me of certain hard opinions I held of the mediating mechanisms we have all had to depend upon for our fellowship. The efficacy of your refutation surprised me, for you know how attached a man can get to his own thoughts, as to his own hands. You got me wondering if, perhaps, I’ve been wrong all these years about not handling a cell phone. Who knows what new body parts I’ll acquire in future time, or what strange places we’ll occupy, in company we never imagined to enjoy, or feared to miss? Life is full of surprises, Emerson writes, and would not be worth the taking otherwise. Would it be to our present purpose to recall some recent history of surprises and refutations? After all, they’ve turned many lives, including mine, around and around again. Who could have thought, thirty-five years ago, that European and Russian communism would collapse in a heap, in a moment, with almost no violence? That surprise led to a decade of newly opened borders, unforbidden books, high hopes, dancing movements, and the liberalization of learning at much bigger, more inclusive tables than anyone thought possible. Those closed regimes had been considered permanent and inhospitable to us. Not so. Who could have thought, twenty-five years ago, that our proud gleaming towers, reaching to the heavens, uniting the world in awe, if not aspiration for like endeavors 7 �and rewards, could collapse in a heap, in a moment, not from earthquakes, but from passenger planes, taken over by secreted enemies of our towering powers? That refutation led to a mighty contraction of the tables of hospitality. Surveying the tables thence are cameras, ubiquitous and seeming permanent. So it goes. Who could have thought, two years ago, that we’d be measuring, painstakingly, our own Johnnie tables, classrooms, this auditorium, fields of grass, body temperatures, breath components, all that and more, to determine how many embodied souls can investigate in person, through friendly refutation, the truth of tables?--I mean by that what’s meet (as Hamlet says) to set down in our tables of memory (“there you are”) for present and subsequent pursuit; what’s meet to co-discover that lies secretive underneath the surfaces; what’s meet to venture jointly in towers of purpose that spy into heavenly, unforbidden things; and what is meet to know that stirs across continents and seas, around the tables of absent friends and plotting enemies. Our surprising, painstaking measurements sting the awareness of how meet it is to be here now, bridging the distances between us with words, gestures, and images, always grateful for the help we get to cross the divide, by thoughts going out to listeners and coming back home, never the same, like Odysseus when Athena brushes him up, to become his best, god-intended, homecoming self. Many American writers have admitted to doing their best work, going out dressed to claw their way up cliffs, when life is especially hard, and coming back in a shining guise. (Tennessee Williams wrote an excellent piece about clawing to success.) Ease and comfort, as Moses told the Israelites, about to enter the Promised Land, would make them go slack and forget God, who brought them there, thirsty. So let us cheer those who are about to enter academic masterdom, for clawing their way up the cliff, for life has been hard and deserted of late. But let us also charge them to refute those of the ease and comfort school. For haven’t we learned, from our clawing, that the convenience and resourcefulness of the medium of exchange is not the message?-For it does not dictate, as means, that mediation itself is to be learned as end. We thirst for being there, where words and gestures issue ripe from their sources. For we are proud to be a college of primary sources, and here’s to our looking now upon some of them, I mean us, who are present, we sources, high on the cliffs! I shall end my toast by looking to a source I mentioned earlier, on my mind because of a preceptorial coming shortly, on Hamlet. Some of you have probably heard the anecdote about the lady who went to see a production of Hamlet, which she had never seen or read before. When asked at intermission, “Madam, how like you this play?” she responded, “I’m so surprised at how many quotes it contains!” Yes, life is full of surprises--and goodly refutations (in her case, let us imagine it kindly postponed). Yet isn’t it good to know that the words we speak want to go somewhere, and be recognized sometime and again, even if we don’t know where the words originally come from? You graduates know a lot better than you did two years 8 �ago where many of our best words come from. Knowing that makes the question of “to be or not to be” much less anxious. For we’ve learned to keep good company, asking life’s questions, laying open the tables of the mind, expanding their contents for feasting. Hamlet, as you know, is not given to feasting; he prefers to keep alone, to talk to himself; in company, he almost always wears a mask (not this kind); for there’s lots of poison in Denmark; it kills him in the end, leading that lady to report, when asked what she thought of Hamlet the character, “During the play I kept wanting him to get it over with, but now that it’s over, I miss him.” Another goodly refutation there, about endings, after so many words along the way, alone or accompanied, with still so much more to say, before the final arrest, always ready to be surprised--by missing you. But there’s more to meet with in heaven and earth than dreamt of in our seminars and tutorials, which means there’s more for us to philosophize over at our tables round, and it’s a good thing the soul’s immortal, or the missing would really be impossible to bear, the “not to be” at our throats. Imagine our anecdotal lady attending a production of Hamlet knowing that it would be the last time the play would ever be performed or read, because at the end, it must all disappear, without a trace. What would that be like? She’d have to remember it, write it down, talk about it, and make it come back. Remember your time as students at St. John’s College, and make it come back, full face-to-face, to your unimpeded liking. To that end, I propose a toast to the graduates of the Graduate Institute, class of 2021, for the refutations they have turned to goodly account, able hereafter to profess to the dire and dooming, the being of true minds, and the oneness that comes in moments--the edges of eternity. 9 �Annapolis Bells Joshua Laperche Who installed these beckonersthese pardoners of the long day? Saint Mary keeps continenceEvery hour, The Prime Hour. Our Liberty Bell, Cracked as it is anchored. It too tolls. Saint John; his own tune plays. 7:22, he neglects the quarter hour. In the dark I swear I heard this once. To the hourTo the RepublicsTo the Soul. Three Tolls to the regularity of experience. Artwork by Jesse Clagett 10 �Genesis Mr. Braithwaite This paper was read September 7, 2021 to some students in my Sophomore Seminar. The first two chapters of Genesis tell two stories about the origin of Man, humankind, and of the male and female sexes. The first story, in Chapter 1, describes the six days of creation. The beginning of the second story, verses 4 through 7 of Chapter 2, is the text for my present inquiry. I have two questions. What is the relation between the first story and the second? What do the two stories taken together suggest about the Biblical understanding of the relation between the sexes? In Chapter 1, verse 27, it is said: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (King James tr.). Is mankind, or humanity, as we might say, one or two; singular or plural? Are we human beings first and foremost a unity, or a duality of male and female? As a unity, we are one kind, one species, distinguished from other, different species. As primarily a duality of male and female, we confront the question whether our likenesses, as men and women, --or something in between, transcend our differences. Could our potential for unity and co-operation get us beyond the abrasions among the sexes which we know from experience? We can observe these problems every day in the world around us. They spawn endless conflicts, some trivial, others deep and wounding. Many of these conflicts seem irresolvable. Some are even violent. Very often, it is women and children who suffer most, along with those who may not easily fit our deeply-rooted traditional categories. In Chapter 2, verse 18, it is said: “And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone; I will make a help meet for him.” In the following verses (19-23), we are told that Woman was made from Adam’s rib. This account seems to say that man/male preceded woman/female. But according to Chapter 1, male and female, man and woman, were created at the same time. Are the two stories consistent? Another question. In the first story, Man, human-kind, is “created,” as are the two sexes, male and female (1.27). In the second, man is “formed,” of the dust of the ground, and woman is “made” from one of Adam’s ribs (2.21). How does “create” differ from “make”? What does “form” mean, different from “create” and “make”? In the first story, what God creates, besides man/male, is “female,” not either “a woman” or capital-W “Woman,” as Adam names her, saying, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” Remembering Aristotle’s Physics—that a maker needs material, we might wonder what material man and woman, as male and female, were made from. The first story does not say. Does this omission signify that the material is less important than that both sexes are created in God’s image? Later events in Genesis 11 �suggest that woman’s god-likeness is shown in her power of giving birth. God creates, woman pro-creates. In the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the emphasis on “seed” suggests that the god-likeness of man/male is shown in his power to quicken woman’s fertility into a living soul. In the second story, man/male is made from “the dust of the ground,” and woman/female from a bone near Adam’s heart. Here the materials, earth and bone, are ready at hand, and God is more an artificer, one who makes by art, than a creator, who perhaps can bring material into being out of nothing (cf. Gen. 1.1-3). Adam, the source of the material from which Woman is made, has a different perception of his new “help meet,” or as we might say, a different experience, than God, the artisan who “made” them both. To Adam, she is not only “bone of my bones,” but also “flesh of my flesh” (2.23). Together, bones and flesh constitute the living body, the primary habitation of every human being, including each one of us. If our greatest blessing is that we have souls, is it our greatest curse that our souls must dwell in a body? The question of how the body and the soul are related, and therewith the question whether the soul survives the death of the body, is grave enough to occupy the full attention of Socrates and his companions in the final hours of his life. The second story begins this way: “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there were up a mist from the earth, and watered the face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” It is in this second creation story, in Chapter 2, verse 4, that the word “generation,” which is related in its root to the word “genesis,” appears for the first time. There is no reference to “generation” in Chapter 1. Man, like God, is a “maker”: he makes cities, as we learn in Chapter 4 (v. 17) and tall buildings, like the tower at Babel, as we learn in Chapter 11 (v. 9). Both God and Man are also makers of images. Man makes images in stories, such as the Book of Genesis, about how the world began. In doing this, he may, like Homer, call on divine assistance or inspiration. Is the poet’s power to make stories that image people and events akin to God’s power to make human beings in his own image? Although both God and Man are makers, in Genesis 1 and 2 it is only God who “creates,” and only Man is said to “generate,” although it is evidently implicit that 12 �many or most other living creatures do also. These first two chapters are about the beginning of all things, but Creation, in Chapter 1, precedes Generation in Chapter 2. There must first be a world before there are beings who will dwell in it. Some of these beings are male and female, who by coupling will generate their own kind, “to multiply, and replenish the earth” (1.28). As Generation pre-supposes Creation, so Creation anticipates Generation. We see this in Chapter 1’s references to “seed” and “kind.” “And God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself” (1.11). In Genesis, from not later than Chapter 4, “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived,” the story begins to leave plants and animals largely behind, and to focus on the generation of children, especially sons, through the conjugal coupling that unites the Father’s seed with the Mother’s power of procreation. Only one creature, Man, is said to be both “created” and “made.” God’s creating power is exercised through his speech. “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (1.3). God speaks, and light is. The speech and deed are one with the being of the thing. Is there some inner communion between divinity and speech and light? Certainly we know from our own experience that human speech is not always enlightening. Very often, it is intended to obscure, conceal, or mislead, like the speech of the Serpent in Chapter 3. The creation of man, on the sixth day, and the creation of light, on the first day, are described differently. Light appears immediately upon God’s utterance, “Let there be.” The creation of man, by contrast, happens in two stages. “And God said, Let us make man in our own image” (1.26). How is “Let us make” different from “Let there be”? Does “Let us make” suggest some sort of deliberation? Who is the “us” that deliberates? Is it God as not “him” but “them,” the duality of male and female? In bringing human-kind into being, God first announces his intention, “Let us make,” and then acts, but his action does not exactly follow his announced intention. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (1.27). The announcement said “make,” what God did was “create.” What was to be made was “man”; what God “created” was “male and female.” The thing to be made was one, a unity, a singular; what God created was a duality, whose coupling is necessary for generating its own kind. Can this unity be reconciled with this duality? With respect to other living beings, fish and birds, animals and insects, Man, humankind, is given “dominion” (1.26, 28). But if both male and female are in God’s image, it would seem that man/male does not have dominion over woman/female. Rather, the two sexes share “dominion” and are co-prime. Among human beings, among their own kind, men and women are equals. In the Biblical account, as in Diotima’s account of Eros in Plato’s Symposium, man and woman, male and female, lover and beloved, are both needy and moveable. Each of 13 �them lacks, but also needs and desires, the other. “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” This text, verse 24 of Chapter 2, appears very near the end of the second story, and immediately after Adam has named his new helper “Woman,” observing that her flesh is his own. But Woman’s flesh, which in some way yet to be explained is also Man’s, is no longer part of his body. His body was material for making her body. Is she some sort of image of him, as Man-kind is an image of God? If a man must leave home in order to cleave to his wife, it follows that man and woman are at first separate, at a distance from one another, before, as husband and wife, he can “cleave” to her. “Cleave” means “stick to,” but also “to cut in twain.” This is what a meat cleaver does. This double meaning of “cleave” invites comparison of the Biblical account of the origin of the sexes with the account given by Aristophanes. The least we can say is that Plato thought the question of Eros weighty enough to compose two dialogues about it. Is Genesis another account of how Eros shows itself in our lives? What does Genesis say about how man and woman come together? One element of this attraction we have already noticed: woman’s flesh beckons man because it is in some way his own. There is another element, mentioned in the concluding verse of Chapter 2. “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” The Biblical author is here preparing the reader for what happens in the next chapter. We must begin, then, to parse out what is implicit in this nakedness that is without shame. In Chapter 1, God said several times of his work that it was good. The first mention of any opposite or antithesis to “good” is in Chapter 2, verse 9, “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (see also verse 17). What sort of knowledge this is, and of what, is a question we can examine more fully when we take up Chapter 3. It is immediately after he commands the man not to eat of this tree that God says, “It is not good that the man should be alone” (2.18). What does God mean by “not good”? Man’s solitariness is not said to be “evil,” but simply “not good.” Would solitary man be neither good nor evil, but something in-between? Could he still be a human being, yet unable to become fully what a human being can become if he has a “help meet”? God brings the beasts and birds to Adam, and Adam names them, but none of them are found to be a “help meet” for him. In the King James translation I am quoting throughout these remarks, “help” and “meet” are two separate words, and I take “meet” to mean “fit.” Why are none of the beasts or birds a fit helper for Adam? In Chapter 2, verse 5, the plants and herbs are in the earth, but not yet growing because there has not been any rain, “and there was not a man to till the ground.” 14 �After forming man of the dust of the ground, verse 7, God puts him in the garden “to dress and keep it” (2.15). The work of the first man is to till the soil. He is a farmer, not a hunter, one who must shed blood in order to eat. If man’s solitude, or solitariness, is the reason it is “not good” for him to be without a fit helper, the help he needs isn’t an ox to pull a plow, or a falcon he can train to hunt other birds. Not as a farmer is the man in need, but as a kind of being not made for living alone. Man is a social animal, we might say; Aristotle says “political.” He needs a being like himself, yet somehow also different. The end of Chapter 2 spells out what sort of being this is. In three successive verses, the meaning of “female” is transformed. In verse 22, God made “a woman” and brought her to Adam. In verse 23, Adam names her “Woman, because she was taken out of man.” In verses 24 and 25, Woman becomes “wife.” After they eat the apple, “Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living” (3.20). “Female” is shared by all animals that reproduce by copulating. “Woman” specifically relates her to “man.” “Wife” relates her, in marriage, to “husband.” “Eve” specifies her as a woman-become-mother, conjugally joined to a man-become-father, for the sake of generating their own kind. Thus begins to come into view the Biblical author’s reason for the phrase “these are the generations of,” used for the first time at the beginning of the second story. Thereafter we find the generations of Adam, Noah, of each of Noah’s three sons, then again and separately, of Shem, the eldest down to Terah, the father of Abram, who will become Abraham. Later the generations of Isaac and of Esau are given. These lists are in Chapters 5, 6, 10, 25, and 36. In the Joseph chapters, there are several different lists of the sons of Jacob. With this clue, we are able to begin discerning one main thread of the Genesis story. It is generation, the human act of procreation, the activity of multiplying our own kind through the pairing of man and woman in the conjugal union of husband and wife. The pairing of male and female changes us, successively, into man and woman, husband and wife, father and mother. By duplicate ratio, mothers and fathers become grandmothers and grandfathers. This continuity in generations, a geometric progression, establishes the continuity of families, and so also of cities and nations. From Chapter 4 forward, another main thread of the Genesis story is the murderous jealousy and hatred between brothers—Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, Joseph and his brethren. Does the sequence of events in Genesis suggest that the disobedience of Adam and Eve is somehow the primal origin of the rivalries among brothers and sisters? If the right ordering of the man-woman relation, as husband and wife, is disturbed, is the right ordering of the next generation also likely to be deranged? Because Adam and Eve could not restrain themselves, we, their descendants, are now liberated—and cursed, with the knowledge of good and evil. If it is possible for men and women to re-discover the innocent nakedness without shame our first Mother 15 �and first Father once had, then we will have to search for it ourselves. The search will not be easy, or safe, since the place we must look into is that boiling cauldron of lust and rage—the family. Both the Hebrew and the Greek poets divined this truth, as we may see from comparing the stories in Genesis with Aeschylus’ Oresteia. Plato suggests, at the beginning of the Laws (626 D-E) that the conflicts in the family begin in the individual soul. Freud proposes, echoing Plato, that the source of unhappiness is a soul at war with itself. Might our dreams be one portal to this dividedness (see Aeneid, VI.1211-18)? 16 �Pap and Me Judith Wrenn Huckleberry Finn eulogises his father Pap warn’t much a man. He’d hurt my mam when I was young. He’d hurt me too, plenty, But what mattered He was my Pap, long and the short. Betwixt a drinking and a whooping showed me to borrow and cuss. Reckon a man ain’t more or less a man, we end up ware we ends. All we are is what we been Pap and me and everyman. Artwork by Bucca 17 �A Conversation with Brandon Wasickso, Associate Director of the Graduate Institute Charles Green, Colloquy Editor Colloquy: What brought you to St. John's? Brandon Wasickso: I don't remember how I first learned about the college. Looking back, did I get a mailer in high school? Did a professor mention it at some point? I really can't remember how I first heard of it, but it was something that I was aware of, and had always been floating around the periphery as an option, something that resonated with me. I was working in the D.C. area for several years in kind of ideological work. It was a very ideas-based sort of work, but at the same time, I felt that it was not the extent of the world of ideas and that there was some constraint in having that sort of bias toward action and a narrow, particular way of thinking about things, and I decided I didn't want to do that anymore. I went to Vietnam and taught for about a year and a half, and that's where I was when I applied to St. John's. Something put it back on my radar again. I had this view of the great books as if they had this kind of like mystical power. I didn't know what any of them said. Of course, I'd heard of Plato, I’d heard of Aristotle, right? I'd probably come across different excerpts here and there, maybe even read a few of the books on our list, but I really had no sense of what they were and just how diverse the kinds of things I would be reading would be. But anyway, I had this calling, this idea that drew me to the idea of the great books without again really knowing what the content of them was. I had the sense that by wrestling with these books I would find answers to some of the big questions about meaning and purpose and the like. So, one day, I applied and said, “You know, if I if I get in, great, the decision’s made, I'll move back and I'll do it. And if not, I'm happy here teaching, eating great food, and riding around on a motorcycle.” CQ: It's interesting that you speak of it as kind of a calling, because that’s the feeling I get when I talk with other Johnnies. BW: I remember remarking to a friend at the time, or maybe I wrote it in an email, that I both want to read the books and to be the kind of person who has read the books. It’s that sense of both the activity and also some kind of transformation that was supposed to come out of that activity, right? CQ: Of course. That sounds like a good way to describe it. Can you talk about your experience as both a student at the Graduate Institute and as an administrator? BW: Do you mean, what it's like doing both at the same time, or reflecting on each of them? Or both? CQ: Can you reflect on both. You were in an unusual circumstance to be both a student and helping to run the Program at the same time. 18 �BW: That's right. The position opened up quickly and unexpectedly. A few months before I had had lunch with Ms. Langston through the “take a tutor to lunch” program. I was curious about her being a tutor, but also an administrator. And she had written a convocation address at some point called “Life in the In-Between”, describing how in the GI program, people have feet firmly planted in two worlds: they're in the program, but they also have their own very full lives, careers, families, etc. The undergrads, in contrast, are just really so immersed in the program. There's no other world besides the College that they can occupy for long. So I had I asked Ms. Langston to lunch because I thought that being an administrator and a tutor was also kind of like having your foot in two very different worlds. And I was curious what that was like. My background was in higher ed and nonprofit administration. And I had an interest in continuing in administration perhaps in another form. So we had this conversation and a few months later, the job opened up. And I'm in the middle of my third semester when it did and said, “Of course I'm going to apply to this. This would be really cool.” And I had some skills I could bring to it. So I applied and finished out that semester and then took some time to just focus on getting into the job, doing it well, and making sure I learned what I needed to learn without having to divide my time too much between that and the classes. I wanted to focus on making sure I gave each the time they needed and deserved in order to do them well. But it was it was a strange transition, and I remember the moment that all the people who knew me first as a student, as their classmate, when they all started graduating. And then there's this whole crop of people coming in who just knew me as the guy in the office, the guy who sends all the emails and tells them “you didn't turn in your enrollment plan”, or “here's your conference schedule.” So that was a strange dynamic. Having to navigate the rules around privacy and confidentiality and things like that while still being very close friends with a number of people in the program, and having the primary thing that people knew about me be that I was the program administrator, rather than the fact that I was a fellow GI. So that was strange. It’s been a blessing in so many ways to be able to remain a part of the college. And of course, you know, a lot of people say, “Well, if I could just stay here, take another semester, another preceptorial, wouldn’t that be great?” I say that as well. But a lot of my education since joining the staff has been out of the classroom, learning as one does through the experience of the mundane day-to-day of working a job. There are things we can do better as an institution, and there are parts of the sausage-making process I’d have been happy not to learn, but at the end of the day this “job” has a lot going for it that others don’t. The college is first and foremost a community of learning dedicated to a particular vision of liberal education, and that influences the culture of the “office.” Employees are not—well, I should say not only—vehicles for productivity and a means to someone else’s end. The humanity of the program extends into the workplace. 19 �CQ: I can definitely relate to wanting to stay at St. John’s and the GI. I’ve felt incredibly lucky to take preceptorials as an alumnus. BW: Yes, there’s a dedicated group of returners that I’m happy to see every semester. CQ: I’m curious if since the pandemic and the transition to online learning, you’ve seen more alumni returning to take courses? BW: Well, in the middle of the spring semester of 2020, of course, we had to go online. And I mean, it was an unbelievable moment. Now we're so inundated with COVID news that it barely makes a dent on the mind. But then we knew nothing. We had no idea what was going on, how long it was going to last; this is even before masking was a thing. Everything was just shutting down and cases were popping up. The College had exactly zero infrastructure for doing anything online, right? There'd never before been an online class in the history of the College and we had about a week to get the GI classes up. They extended the undergrad’s spring break by an extra week to give them more time to set things up. But we had basically a week in the GI and a lot of the heavy lifting was from our great IT folks. To the extent I could, I threw myself into the process and it was a “we'll figure this out” attitude all around. I remember being on the phone with tutors evenings and weekends. I offered to help serve as a guide to walk them through how to set up Zoom and how to use it. We had questions about using headphones, and what is muting? I joke that everyone who graduated that year earned a minor in educational technology, with honorary degrees for the tutors. And we did it. I think there were a lot of fears about it, obviously. Partly because other colleges have had online options for a long time and we hadn't, and it was an intentional decision not to have it. So there were a lot of fears going into it. And I think the immediate reaction by just about everybody was, “Oh, OK. It's not sitting around a table being co-present with others, but it's not this terrible thing that we thought it was going to be. It actually kind of works. It's actually pretty good.” Your question was about alumni and folks coming back. I think a lot of people realized that this was an opportunity. We had people who had moved away because they got a job or got married or had to leave in the middle of the program. But now, they can do it from wherever they are in the world, they could finish that last semester in order to graduate, or they could take a precept. I mean, they're not going to move to Annapolis or Santa Fe for a semester to take a single class. So there were a lot of people who really came out of the woodwork and were excited about the opportunity that it presented. And it's funny the way that a crisis like that can reveal opportunities. But I think it's often the case that that they do. And there are people who attended, who otherwise would have never attended, people who graduated, who otherwise would never graduate. And I think that's a really positive outcome. CQ: I can say, from my own experience as alumni taking a preceptorial during that time that transition, it was remarkably easy. Of course, the folks taking three classes 20 �probably had a little more of a transition, but at least for me, given the situation, it seemed remarkably smooth. BW: You were taking a class that spring, right? CQ: Yeah, I was doing Ms. Kraus’s precept on T.S. Eliot. BW: Four Quartets, right? It's funny, I was doing my last segment that that spring. So, I'd just done eight weeks of in-person classes before spring break. And then both getting the classes up and running and then having to go through that experience myself of adjusting to the online mode of doing things as a student as well, which was completely different from the administrative side of things. I never really had a chance to reflect on what I was doing during that first week. It was just, you got to get this up and running. We’ve got to do it. So it was a week of very intensive work. And then I finally went to the classes thinking, OK, now I have to actually think about this and how it changes the experience for me and what's going to be different about it? It was helpful seeing both sides of that. CQ: Yeah, that's a really interesting perspective. And I'd forgotten that you were, you know, that you were finishing up then. Yeah. You got to see both the doing of it and seeing how it works from the student end. I know for myself, it was nice having that time on Thursday evenings away from current events and the uncertainty of the times. It gave me something else to concentrate on, you know. And at the same time, though Four Quartets felt eerily appropriate. It has the line, “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.” BW: So that’s where that’s from? CQ: Yes. It was a comfort to discuss the poem with a group of like-minded people when everything else was unpredictable, even though at times it seemed to be about the current time. BW: Well, we always say, the texts are timeless and timely, right? CQ: Exactly, it was strange and good at the same time. I'm also wondering what’s been your experience with helping to develop the fully online, low resiliency track at the GI? BW: Like I was saying before, the crisis sort of thrust the online aspect on us out of necessity, but then I think it became an opportunity for us. I really don't think we would have an online low-residency program today without it. We might have had one in three or four years. There were other pressures and discussions about doing that. But we wouldn't have it today had it not been for the pandemic. And like I said, just the people that we were able to engage with, who were able to have this experience with the college, making lasting friendships across great distances and divides. It's been great to see those kinds of results come out of it. And I guess it's also been kind of doubly strange in a way, in that I'm also remote most of the time. I'm in Annapolis every other week, but most of the time I'm home 21 �here in Virginia and I'm working with people who are in Annapolis, as well as doing a lot more work with our Santa Fe campus because we now share the preceptorial in the online segment. So, Annapolis-based online students are meeting the Santa Febased online ones. Students are taking classes with Santa Fe tutors and vice versa. So there's a lot more college-wide community building that I think transcends some of the one campus loyalty kinds of things. So that's very nice. But yeah, being remote and serving remote students, I experience some of the same challenges that they do have, and ask some of the same questions, and also see a lot of the same benefits in working remotely that they see. They’re continuing to do their full lives without having to uproot things to do the program. Artwork by Bucca CQ: I think, the growing interaction between the two campuses, feels like a great opportunity. I realize I don't really know any of the Santa Fe tutors or administrators. BW: Right. CQ: I know Mr. Sterling from when he gave a lecture in Annapolis a few summers ago. And I appreciated getting to know him better when Santa Fe did lectures online last spring and summer. BW: Yeah, you're right. We ended up canceling several of our lectures and Santa Fe pushed ahead and really quickly transitioned to have a lot of their lectures online. And 22 �I sat in on a couple of those online reading groups they developed, like the all- college seminar. CQ: Right, and I think even this past summer Santa Fe had much of their lecture series online. So that was nice to be able to watch that from Annapolis. Do you see, you know, any challenges ahead for the College in general or the GI in particular? BW: Well, by the time this comes out, we'll have welcomed a new President. Not to say that’s a challenge, but a new President means new leadership. A new direction, new tenor to things. There are a lot of open questions right now at the College in general and the GI in particular. As much as I just talked about the benefits of having this online program, there are a lot of a lot of questions we still have to work out. And I think especially thinking about how the mix of online and in-person affects the culture of the GI as a whole, I think is still very much a live question. I’ve been listening to this podcast that we just produced with David MacDonald, a tutor in Santa Fe, interviewing Zina Hintz here in Annapolis where they talk about technology. They discuss the phenomenon of the existence or accessibility of some new technology making the morality or validity of doing a thing somehow more acceptable. The example they discuss involves reproductive technology, but in our case it’s, “well this technology has been thrust upon us out of necessity, so now using it for other things doesn’t seem so far-fetched.” The idea of an online GI program even just a year and a half ago was outside the Overton window. All this is to say, I wonder is there a risk to the life of the campus community of the GI because of the accessibility of the online programs? Are there people who would have and could have attended in-person, but choose online instead? Even if it’s, say, only a 45-minute commute to campus, they think, going online, I could spend more time with my family, or save on time and money, or keep normal hours at work, etc. They weigh the tradeoffs and say, as much as I would like to do the in-person, I’m going to be online, even though I reasonably could be in person and would have been if the online option didn’t. I wonder to what extent that that will happen. The other side of that question is how many students would never have been able to come to the GI if not for this new option? How should the administration be thinking about the answers to these questions? We really have to wait until the COVID-based restrictions are done to see what people are actually going to do in a normal set of circumstances, though. I’ll say also that there are a lot of nonacademic—by which I don’t mean not intellectual, but simply not connected to a college—organic, nonprofit learning communities popping up all over the place that I think are attractive to some people. People who are looking for an intellectual life, looking for stimulating conversation, looking to seek truth. They want to be in the world of ideas. These learning communities are less expensive, they’re more flexible. They’ll create classes and groups that run the amount of time that’s appropriate for the content; they don’t have this weird constraint of, “learning must take place in 16 weeks in the academic calendar,” right? As though somehow that’s the optimal learning arrangement, which 23 �is a little constraining on our part. And it's also, I think, really appealing to people who don't want or need a degree. That's not their primary motivation. And I think that's true for a lot of Johnnies, too. For a lot of GIs who come through, the degree is nice, but that's not why they did it. If they didn’t get it, they'd be equally happy, right? So I wonder what competition from these other groups is going to look like. They're not direct competitors in the sense of being other graduate programs in the liberal arts, but I think they are compelling opportunities that have some good things going for them. And so I'm curious to see how that plays out and how we might respond to those potential challenges. CQ: Definitely. You talked a little bit earlier about, the opportunity that going online has given the GI. Are there other opportunities that you see? BW: I definitely see opportunities in the sense that the GI program in particular, I think, can be a benefit to a lot of people who are thinking about and reacting to everything that’s happening in the world. You know, like I said before, coming out of a crisis often helps clarify priorities. People are talking about the relationship of economic life to the rest of life, they’re concerned about the nature of our so-called politics, they’re grappling with death and loss. St. John’s, of course, can be one helpful way of giving shape to and thinking through these questions. And I think people who have said to themselves, “Oh, I want to do St John's eventually, it would be great to do that eventually.” Well, they might see that “eventually” is now and that they now have the opportunity to do it. I'm glad that we have more ways than ever now for people to engage with us and to join our community. One of those other things, not directly related to the GI, is a new College podcast, which I edit and produce. We released our first two episodes in October. So by the time this is published, there will be three or four episodes of this podcast. It’s called “Books and a Balance: A Podcast on Liberal Education.” It’s hosted by two faculty members: Brendan Boyle here in Annapolis and David McDonald out in Santa Fe, who was previously the associate dean for graduate programs out there. So, it's the two of them having conversations with people who have interesting things to say on the topic of liberal education. Our first two episodes that are out now are with tutors Zena Hitz and Dan Harrell. One with Columbia professor Roosevelt Montás on his new book Rescuing Socrates is up next. It's an independent intellectual project, engaging with the contemporary discourse around liberal education, very broadly construed. Some of the guests that we have coming up are outside of the College, who have ideas very different from ours about what a successful liberal education would look, so I think it will be interesting to a lot of people. It’s an opportunity that I'm really excited for in a couple ways. One is, we are going to have some folks from the Graduate Institute, graduates and other people who've gone on to do other things, who will be guests on the show. And I think it's also a good opportunity for even more people to see the kind of conversations that happen at St. John's. Because if you listen to them, they're just archetypes of good conversation. And so I'm excited that that's going to be able to reach an even wider 24 �audience. You know, it's not meant to be a marketing tool, in the sort of cheap transactional way that we often think of advertising or marketing. It's a substantial intellectual project that I think is a totally new outlet for us. And I think there are potential Johnnies out there who, in listening to this podcast, may well have their first interaction with the College. I expect very soon a number of new folks coming to the GI from this project. CQ: Is there a book or an author not on the program that you’d include if you could? BW: Everyone loves asking this! You know, everyone's got their pet thing of note, so-and-so needs to be on the on the program. The short answer is, no, I don't have a book. And the reason is not because there are so many different books that could be included or excluded, but because I think it's a really hard question to actually answer in any serious way; it demands such a massive context to really answer that question. To do so, you would, I think, need a sense of the program as a whole from the perspective of a teacher. You’d have to say, “I have a sense of the effect of different readings and the combination of readings on the individual lives of students.” And with that context, then saying, “I think taking this one book out and substituting another would be beneficial.” And I don't have that context, right? I don't have the depth and experience to think about it that way, but I think that’s how you have to consider it, if you're going to answer that question in a serious way. A lot of times that question really means is that there’s a particular book that you really like and you really want to see it on the program. And that's one thing. But the real difficulty of weighing it is knowing the pedagogical or academic context. And then also asking the very difficult question of, well, if you're going to add that what are you going to take away to make space for it? That's the harder question. CQ: That’s the question I’ve always heard when people propose adding a book: what are you going to take away? BW: Really what I think this comes down to a lot of times, and it’s true for me in the times I’ve said, “why isn’t X on the list?”, is that I’m thinking here's this book that is very good or maybe even a great book that I want to read with other people who take reading and discussing books seriously. You want it in the program so you can have that discussion with other people right now. I invite anyone who has that feeling about a book to come back and host a study group anytime! But of course the program can’t contain and isn’t meant to contain everything; it’s the beginning, hopefully, of a deeper, richer, more meaningful life. 25 �“Equality” and the Tyranny of the Majority Drew Maglio I am a democrat because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that everyone deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. And whenever their weakness is exposed, the people who prefer tyranny make capital out of the exposure… The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. —C.S. Lewis What Is Human Nature?: The Anglo-American Perspective There are two dichotomous views articulated by proponents of democratic government which the aforementioned passage from C.S Lewis’s essay, “Why I Am a Democrat,” succinctly conveys. These two distinct camps have been broken down into many classifications by various authors as early vs. late-Enlightenment or AngloAmerican vs. French/Continental. The former classification, advocates for democratic government as a makeshift, necessary evil, or least bad option. It holds and articulates that man is so fallen that no one man--or group of men (i.e. majority)—should possess such absolute power so as to legislate how others are to live their lives. The conservative camp, firmly grounded in the way things actually are, seeks to decentralize power (and production) via many checks and balances because absolute power corrupts absolutely, as Lord Acton presciently warned. Recognizing men “are not angels,” institutions and government must be varied and decentralized, in a manner where one entity is positioned against another with an opposing institutional interest, in order prevent any one entity from assuming too much power. J.R.R. Tolkien perfectly encapsulated the “constrained” view (to borrow contemporary economist, Thomas Sowell’s terminology) of government that is based on a negative view of human nature that hearkens back to Plato and Aristotle, when he wrote in a letter to a friend: “the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.” The French View In stark contrast to the early-Enlightenment, Anglo-American view of human nature which is firmly grounded in Christianity and owes a great debt to the Medieval Scholastics like St. Thomas Aquinas, is the Continental vision of democratic government that manifested itself most notably during the French Revolution. Without going too far afield, the defining characteristic of this strand of liberalism (spearheaded by Rousseau), is the rejection of the idea that man is fallen by nature that had long been held in the West. 26 �Rousseau famously declared that “man though born free, is everywhere in chains”—he may as well have said “man is born good and is everywhere corrupted.” In his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Rousseau wrote with impunity, Allowing that nature intended we should always enjoy good health, I dare almost affirm that a state of reflection is a state against nature, and that the man who meditates is a depraved animal. We need only call to mind the good constitution of savages, of those at least of whom we have not destroyed by our strong liquors; we need only reflect, that they are strangers to almost every disease . . . to be in a manner convinced that the history of human diseases might be easily composed by pursuing that of civil societies. [1] For Rousseau, it is in society that the “noble savage”—Rousseau’s archetypal man, becomes irredeemably corrupted as his vices are allowed to fester while his virtue grows weary and lethargic: "In proportion as he (man) becomes sociable and a slave to others, he becomes weak, fearful, mean-spirited, and his soft and effeminate way of living at once completes the enervation of his strength and his courage." [2] In this way, Rousseau may be seen as the antithesis of Hobbes who held that life in the state of nature—which for Hobbes was analogous to a constant state of war—is “nasty, brutish, and short.” Locke contrarily, occupied a sort of mean between the “totally-depraved” Calvinistic view of human nature that Hobbes held and the naturally benevolent view of human nature that Rousseau championed. The Genius of Tocqueville Hailing from France, Alexis de Tocqueville was simultaneously one of most ardent proponents and chiding critics of American liberalism as it was practiced during the 19th century. In his analysis, Tocqueville notes that Antebellum America was the most fundamentally egalitarian society that he had ever witnessed, in which both squalid poverty as well as extravagant wealth were rarities. Tocqueville noted that there seemed to be no great abundance of either uneducated or illiterate individuals, but on the other hand, there were few highly intelligent and exceptional individuals. As Tocqueville conveyed, the overarching motif of Antebellum America was a pragmatic and practical—if not restless and busy—virtue. Unlike the founding era that was made possible by the interventions of the learned, noble, aristocratic (in the proper sense of the term, i.e. in merit not merely land holdings), the burgeoning America that Tocqueville visited was fast at work becoming a blue-collar and middle-class republic, in which leisure and philosophical contemplation took a back seat to industry and action. Tocqueville feared however—in an increasingly egalitarian and average society—that a new tyranny was looming on the horizon: namely the tyranny of the majority, which was manifested not through despotism and 27 �autocracy, but rather by way of the public pressure of opinion and homogeneity: “In our day, the most absolute sovereigns in Europe cannot prevent certain thoughts hostile to their authority from circulating . . . The same is not true of America, as long as the majority has not made up its mind, speech is allowed; as soon as it has pronounced its irrevocable decision, speech is silenced.”[3] In this way, a new tyranny of mind exercised by the majority over minorities began to manifest itself in Tocqueville’s age. Tocqueville argued that this new “groupthink” (as moderns tend to call it),“leaves the body alone and goes straight to the spirit.”[4] When surveying the contemporary political order (or disorder), Tocqueville’s pertinent observations have unfortunately and undoubtedly intensified in magnitude and frequency. Democracy Changes Neither Human Nature Nor the Nature of Political Power Despite being a Frenchman, Tocqueville breaks from Rousseau and instead embraced Locke’s view of human nature, which holds that man has both the propensity for virtue and vice: which he shall become is the result of deliberation and habit. Locke held that the state of nature is not a state of license wherein each is entitled to everything as Hobbes held, but rather that natural law does not cease to reign supreme in the hearts and minds of men. Because of the gross difficulty in each individual protecting his property by enforcing the natural law himself, individuals (who naturally gravitate towards civil society anyway) contract together for the sake of the enforcement of contracts, in addition to establishing an impartial body by which to adjudicate disputes related to trespasses made by one party against another.[5] All of this must be said, in order to convey that for Locke (and Tocqueville), civil society neither drastically reforms (as in Hobbes) nor corrupts (as in Rousseau) the human being: instead, it may do either according to the arrangement of its structures and institutions which either accord with, or conflict with, the natural law. In other words, man is still man no matter the political arrangement, generally speaking. In this way, Tocqueville rejects both the notion that man is either benevolent by nature (and thus it follows that society corrupts him) or that man is so totally depraved that a Leviathan is preferable to a constant state of war that follows from unimpinged liberty: Omnipotence seems self-evidently a bad and dangerous thing. Its exercise appears to be beyond man’s powers, whoever he might be, and I see that only God can be omnipotent without danger because his wisdom and justice are always equal to his power. There is, therefore, no earthly authority so worthy of respect or vested with so sacred a right that I would wish to allow it unlimited action . . . When . . . I see the right and capacity to enact everything given to any authority . . . I say: the seed of tyranny lies there and I seek to live under different laws.[6] 28 �Tocqueville put it even more chidingly later in his work, “I believe that in all governments of whatever sort meanness will attach itself to force and flattery to power. I know of only one method to of preventing men from being debased and that is to grant to no one who has omnipotence (i.e. the majority as in the US) the sovereign power to demean them.”[7] The Lust For Equality: Mill, Marx, and other “Revolutionaries” The underlying source of the new tyranny Tocqueville conveyed is born of the democratic impulse and is the special scourge of democracy, i.e. a disdain of any amount of inequality. Tocqueville believed this state would create a condition of lethargy in relation to liberty, as equality became the most cherished ideal of democratic society (rather than liberty). As Rousseau—and later Mill, Hegel, and Marx became the dominant political ideologues for Continental Europe, equality supplanted liberty as the most vital and cherished ideal for civilization. Mill, for instance, went as far to argue that “the most happiness for the greatest number of people” should be the end of government. In this utilitarian view, the safeguarding of individual rights takes a backseat to “equality” and “progress.” Marx famously declared that “all history is class conflict,” and therefore goaded the proletariat class of workers to revolution in order to achieve greater equality. Marx adopted from Hegel a belief in historicity, or the notion that social values, standards, and mores are historically contingent and therefore not absolute and objective but, instead, malleable in order to suit the needs of any given epoch: The human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations . . . To abstract from the historical process and to fix the religious sentiment as something by itself and to presuppose an abstract—isolated— human individual . . . the “religious sentiment” is itself a social product . . . All social life is essentially practical . . . The highest point reached by contemplative materialism, that is materialism which does not comprehend seriousness as practical activity, is the contemplation of single individuals and civil society. The standpoint of the old materialism is civil society; the standpoint of the new is human society, or social humanity. The philosophers have only interpreted the world . . . the point is to change it.[8] The Desire For Equality Will Undermine Liberty Tocqueville both anticipated and feared the way in which in those who wished to undermine American democracy could appeal to man’s insatiable lust for equality in all outcomes, despite the fact that each individual possesses different aptitudes and abilities which allow or inhibit them from making the best of their circumstances: 29 �The passion for equality sinks deeply into every corner of the human heart, expands, and fills it entirely. It is no use telling such men, as they blindly obey such an exclusive passion, that they are damaging their dearest interests; they are deaf. Do not bother to show them that their freedom is slipping through their fingers while their gaze is elsewhere; they are blind, or rather they can only see one advantage worth pursuing in the whole world . . . I think that democratic societies have a natural taste for freedom . . . but they have a burning, insatiable, constant, and invincible passion for equality; they want equality in freedom and, if they cannot have it, they want it in slavery. They will endure poverty, subjection, barbarism but they will not endure aristocracy.[9] Tocqueville saw a great danger on the horizon for American democracy, whereby a general distaste of learning and extreme wealth could and would create conditions of mediocrity in mind and spirit, i.e. an aggregation of individuals becoming a homogeneity and thereby silencing dissent through social pressure once the majority “had made its mind up.” Once equality (and security for that matter) supplants liberty as the foundation of democracy, it becomes obtrusive and destructive to both minorities and the individual who have but little recourse or redress: My main complaint against a democratic government as organized in the United States is not its weakness . . . but rather its irresistible strength . . . When a man or party suffers from an injustice in the United States, to whom can he turn? To public opinion? That is what forms the majority. To the legislative body? That represents the majority and obeys it blindly. To the executive power? That is appointed by the majority and serves as its passive instrument. To the public police force? They are nothing but the majority under arms. To the jury? That is the majority invested with the right to pronounce judgments . . . however unfair or unreasonable the measure which damages you, you must submit.[10] Tocqueville feared a sovereign majority—with a blithe regard for liberty and an insatiable appetite for equality in all matter of small things—could create conditions which would destroy the human essence, that revolutionaries such as Marx denied altogether, while simultaneously appealing to the yearning for equality: It (the tyranny of the majority manifested as a guardian rather than as a ruler) gradually blots out their mind and enfeebles their spirit . . . It will be useless to call upon those very citizens who have become so dependent upon central government, to choose from time to time the representative of this government; this . . . brief exercise . . . of their free choice will not prevent the gradual loss of the faculty of autonomous thought, feeling, and action so that they will slowly fall behind the level of humanity.[11] Tocqueville’s Democracy in America serves as a reminder that democracy is just as, if not more, prone to abuse than other systems of civil government. In order to flourish, democracy must be firmly grounded in principle in order to construct institutions that align with the objective and absolute reality of this world. In order to remain stable, power must be decentralized and therefore liberty and equality under 30 �the law must be valued over abstract and ambiguous ideals such as “equality” or “progress,” which are but generalities that amount to little more than mere slogans. As Tocqueville conveyed throughout his seminal work, liberty entails duty and obligation and requires a great deal of proper habituation, which cultivates the wisdom and virtue necessary for self-governance—even of the practical sort. All of these prerequisites must be met so that democracy does not devolve into tyrannical mob rule. In our age it seems that few of us have heeded Tocqueville’s admonition about the dangerous democratic impulse that is devoid of reality in so far as it fails to recognize the fallen nature of man and in particular the propensity for those in power to abuse it, which is most often made manifest in democratic society by the ceaseless, fruitless, and senseless pursuit of absolute equality which anesthetizes the exceptional individual in order to bolster the tyrannical majority. [1] Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Greg Boroson, Discourse On the Origin of Inequality (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2004), 7. [2] Ibid, 8. [3] Alexis De' Tocqueville, Democracy In America, trans. Gerald E. Bevan (London, England: Penguin Books, 2003), 297. [4] Ibid, 298. [5] Property for Locke was—among other things—both metaphysical as in labor and the activity of the mind, in addition to physical as in the case of cultivated land. For Locke, the preservation and protection of private property was the impetus for the establishment of civil government. [6] Tocqueville, 294. [7] Ibid, 302-303. [8] Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and C. J. Arthur, The German Ideology (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1974), 122-123. [9] Tocqueville, 586-587. [10] Ibid, 294-295. [11] Ibid, 808. 31 �The White Man Burdened Dimple Kaul While researching British Education Policy and its impact on indigenous knowledge systems, I was reminded of Rudyard Kipling’s exhortation of The White Man’s Burden! This poem is a response from a proud member of the community of indigenous people across the world. It is a reminiscence of pain and an attempt towards collective awareness, acknowledgement, and healing for harmony. It is also a sensitive caution against subconscious/unconscious supremacy that still appears to linger; it is not directed against any race or people. As a Hindu, harmony and mutual respect are intrinsic to my being. Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah! The White Man burdened — Set forth the worst of his breed — blinded sons who were exiled To serve his crown’s greed; Plundering, causing heavy distress On folks he labeled wild — ill-treated the natives as sullen, calling them Half devil and half child. The White Man burdened — Treating himself to a free ride, Unleashed vile, violent terror And reveled in that pride; Not through stealth but loot simple, An hundred times made plain. He sought to make profit, From our labour and pain. The White Man burdened — Forcing us to fight his wars of peace — Causing full mouths of Famine And never let sickness cease; And when his goal was met His promises came to naught, He called us uncivilized, heathen Treated worse than cattle bought. The White Man burdened — Usurping the rule of kings, Through deceit and acting as keeper — Vaingloriously he sings. The ports he forced and enter, The roads he lustily tread, And made his entire living, Off our sweat- alive and dead! The White Man burdened — And reaped untold rewards: 32 �The lies and fallacies he’d better, Spreading hate for those he charred — The cry of hosts, the fake perfumer Would hide in plain sight — He sold our people into bondage, While calling himself just and right The White Man burdened — He kept stooping to conquer And called it an act of civilization To cloak his wickedness; Impoverishing us, he did prosper, By hook or crook, Through acts quiet and vocal Denigrated our Gods, reduced us. The White Man burdened — Having benefited in myriad ways — The self- proffered laurel, The lavish self-praise. Comes now, to teach us humanity After all the thankless years, Cold-hearted ravager of human civilization, Sits in judgment of us, he dares! Artwork by Jesse Clagett 33 �Holy Sonnet XIV Vita Kudryavtseva Upon reading this poem, I was immediately struck by the wave of angst and tsunami of violent rage felt in the wake of it. What kind of “holy” sonnet is that? Where is the Poet’s reverence for Higher Being? Where is humility and trust in God’s wisdom? Donne opens up with “Batter my heart” - a command or directive, but hardly an appeal. He marches on complaining that God’s gentle ways, “knock, breathe, shine” are not effective in helping him, Donne, to “rise and stand” and God’s viceroy “proves weak and untrue”. Donne’s request to God to “bend Your force” can be taken as outright blasphemous - merciful Christian God is no help, he calls upon Zeus the Destroyer, who can “break, blow, burn”. And after giving the account of God’s multiple shortcomings, Donne sighs - “Yet dearly I love you”. Why is Donne angry and who is he angry with, are the questions that I seek to answer in this essay. A couple of immediate observations spring on me - the prevalence of “me”s in the poem, 8 mentions total, and distinctness of “I” from “me”, as in “imprison me, for I...never shall be free”. In fact, the famous paradoxes of the last 3 lines - freedom through imprisonment, chastity through rape - are paradoxes only if “I” and “me” are conceived of as referring to the same entity. What if, by way of hypothesis, we look at them as related but separate? “I” and “me”, being personal pronouns, lead me to take a note of “you”, another personal pronoun frequently evoked in the poem. While the identity of “I” and “me” is not yet clear, Donne makes it explicit that “you” refers to “three-person’d God” in the very first line of the poem. Now that I identified three main characters at play in the sonnet - “I”, “me”, and “you” - the next step is to examine them individually and in relation to each other. “me” in line 12 both rhymes with and is consonant with “enemy” in line 10. The Poet would like “me” to be o’erthrowen, made new, imprisoned, ravished. “me” is the troublemaker, the antagonist in the story. Throughout the sonnet, Donne insists on “me”s distraction or subjugation. Interestingly, the only exception to this narrative happens in line 7: “Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, But is captiv’d”. This is also the line in which “me” is stressed twice in a row. Who is it that Reason has failed to defend “me” from? One potential reading of this line is to go along with Donne’s poetic logic and to add a couple more “me”s - “Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend [from me], but is captiv’d [by me]”. These additions are consistent with the antagonistic treatment of “me” elsewhere in the sonnet and illuminate the fact that “me” is not inherently “bad”, rather left to its own devices “me” can become unruly and dangerous. If the current “me” could be returned to its original condition, “made new”, “me” will no longer be an “enemy”. On the other hand, Donne’s description of “you” makes me think of a powerful but gentle giant, who is slow to act because he is kind and aware of his might. The Poet’s choice not to capitalize “you”, “three-person’d God”, visually puts “you” on the same 34 �level as “me”, makes it more “human-scale”. “you” is lovable, “you” is unintrusive, “you” shines. “I” loves “you”. “you”s victory over “me” is also “I”s only hope for being free, chaste, and loved. “I” pleads with “you” - “Divorce me, untie or break that knot again, take me to you”. It can appear ambiguous whether “I” is referring to divorcing “me” from “you” or “me” from “I”. But the presupposed union between “me” and “you” does not make sense in light of the subsequent request to “take me to you” and multiple appeals for “you”s distraction earlier. Rather, it is the bond between “me” and “I” that “I” is asking to be severed - “Divorce me [from I]”! And we are told “you” have done it before and can “break that knot again”. This tells us that “you” has both the authority, experience, and expertise to straighten “I”s affairs. But who is that “I” that is making the appeals? The first thing we learn about “I” is that “I” is down, not doing well and the cause of “I”s condition is “me”. Donne’s metaphor for “I” as an “usurp’d town” is echoed throughout the poem. “I” is “betroth’d unto your [“you’s”] enemy”, making “I” a potential traitor. “I” wants “me” imprisoned, enthralled. “I” is suffering because “I” loves “you” but feels unsure of “you”s love - he may be, “would be lov’d”. “I” comes across as weak, powerless, vindictive, and angry. If the reader can suppress combat connotations evoked by the imagery of “usurp’d town”, the relationship between “me”, “you”, and “I” takes the character of a tragic romance story told from “I”s perspective. “I” loves “you” but is “betroth’d” to “me”. “you” is ambivalent or perhaps more reserved in his feelings for “you” and “me”. “me”, in the eyes of “I”, has taken “I” unjustly, by force, but without “you’s” intervention “me” is certain to prevail. While I found it helpful to designate “I”, “me”, and “you” as a kind of “stick figures” for the purposes of elucidating some of the “plot” lines in the sonnet, it is now time to attempt an interpretation of their meaning. Donne’s use of “three-person’d God” as an antecedent for “you”, as well as appeals to “you’s” powers throughout the poem, make it easy to see “you” as divine nature. In contrast, “me” can be thought of as a human nature - fallible, driven to horrid extremes when not governed by Reason. But even Reason by itself cannot be relied upon to control these animalistic impulses and urges. The question of who “I” is both the most obvious and the most difficult. On one hand, “I” is the narrator, the Poet, John Donne. But with this understanding, “I”s relationship to “you” and “me”, “divine” and “human”, remains obscure. 35 �Artwork by Jesse Clagett Donne may have planted a hint to answering this question in the opening line “three-person’d” is clearly a deliberate choice of descriptor for the Supreme Being that harks back to the Holy Trinity. Drawing attention to God’s multiplicity and oneness in the very beginning of the poem, Donne sets the stage for the multiplicity and oneness of “I”, “me” and “you”. The intentional parallelism between the God’s structure of Being and the Poet’s, “I”s, structure is further strengthened if we recall Genesis 1:27: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him". God’s creation resembles God by design. However, in the context of the sonnet this correspondence can only be taken so far - it is hard to envision that “I”, “me”, and “you” are meant to directly correspond to the “Father”, the “Son”, and the “Holy Spirit”. At a very minimum, the sonnet does not seem to supply enough evidence for such a direct mapping to be established unambiguously. Thus, while the multiplicity may be present in Donne’s concepts for both “I” and God, the relationship between “I” and “me” and “you” requires further clarification. Because of the prominence of “usurp’d town” metaphor taking over the entire second quatrain, I was drawn to conceive of “I” as a fortress, a container, a shell which under ideal circumstances can contain both “me” and “you”, “human” and “divine”. In the Poet’s case, “me” has overgrown, overflown, subdued Reason, and filled up "I"s entire interior. Like a cancerous growth, “me” needs to be lacerated to make space for “divine” to be admitted back into Donne’s being. 36 �An alternative interpretation of “I” occurred to me when I recognized “I” as a common symbol for a mathematical function, called “Indicator function”. This function can only have values of 1 or 0, “true” or “false”. It is 1 if a variable is a part of a given set, and 0 if it is not. If I substitute “you” for “x” and “me” for A in the above formulation, then an indicator function equals one if “you” belongs with “me” and zero otherwise. This conception of “I” better aligns with the extremeness and volatility of feelings expressed in the sonnet. “I” only has value when there is “divine” present in it, otherwise it is a mere “me”, a worthless animal. This would explain why the Poet cannot be loved, as in “valued”, in his current condition and “would be lov’d fain” only when “you”, “divine” returns to “me”. Donne is facing a stark, binary choice admit “you” to “me” and “raise and stand” as One or continue on as “me”, a Zero. Did any of these elucidations get me closer to understanding why Donne is angry and who he is angry with? I think so. Both a “container” and an “indicator function” concepts of “I” share an important feature - the potentiality for having Divine as a part of “I”, an internal part. The Poet is making demands of and airing frustrations not to an external deity but to the Divine within. The angst, the rage, the brutality Donne summons are both self-directed and self-inflicted. The remedy he seeks for his condition is not a violent rape but a self-flagellation. 37 �About a Letter Louis Petrich Dyed colors eye my star-took tan goodbye, and harking freckles, islets hitching waist, my home’s horizon, wane in vesting night. I hail them back, hot stabs: so bleeds away a summering care for hale and hearty having. One letter needs to convalesce, my ache. Then alphabetic whole, outfielding fate that kicked me forth her goal, like lightening grounded, shall sate farmed fires ‘tween legs that compass sky and sweat such poses, friction-bent, of limbs, that unquiet hips may cool on capering tongues that summon sounded midriff world of ends. And were those aches but featly trials of me to loose from earth and seas their titled stores lone Adam’s lips, spontaneous, once sprung? Go live bedrocked in paradise of questions; tell good and evil: hang yourselves. You’ll see. That always ache—it’s butting never never. With waves unbound around the earth forever, no breaking reef, sunk shores so answered, be. 38 �Artwork by Bucca 39 �Prize-winning Tutorial Essay: Meno Andrew Laurence Graney “Can you tell me, Socrates, whether virtue is something teachable?” Meno asks at the outset of Plato’s Meno. He continues, “Or is it not teachable, but something that comes from practice? Or is it something neither from practice nor learning, but something that comes to human beings by nature, or some other way” (70A)? Quickly, however, Socrates turns the dialogue away from Meno’s original question, whether or not virtue is something teachable, and towards the very definition of what virtue is. Socrates claims he does not know what virtue is, and can therefore not say, on any solid ground, whether or not virtue is teachable. He states: I share the poverty of my fellow citizens in this matter and blame myself for not knowing about virtue at all. And how could I know what sort of thing something is, if I do no not know what it is? Or does it seem possible to you that someone who has no cognizance of Meno at all, who he is, could know whether he is handsome or rich or well-born, or the opposite of these? Does it seem possible to you? (71B) Therefore, as soon as the conversation has begun, it has taken a turn. It is no longer, for the time being, about whether or not virtue is teachable, but what the thing itself is. Still, Socrates’s answer, saying that he does not know what virtue is and so cannot say whether or not it is teachable, implies that he does at least think that some things are teachable, that there is such a thing as the teachable thing, and he simply does not yet know whether virtue is one of those teachable things. Throughout the dialogue, neither of the interlocutors explicitly claim that nothing at all is teachable. In 87C, for example, Socrates and Meno seem to agree that knowledge, at least, if nothing else, is teachable. In this paper, I want to question whether or not anything it is at all, truly teachable. I am inclined to say yes. But, as Meno learns in his conversation with Socrates, what I am inclined towards is not necessarily the truth, for at the beginning of their dialogue, Meno is sure he knows what virtue is, and yet as the dialogue continues he becomes more and more perplexed. Therefore, I ask again, is anything teachable? Another way to ask this question might be: what is the relationship between teaching and learning? Surely, people do learn things. I could not be writing this paper had I not learned a multitude of things beforehand. I had to learn my letters, had to learn how to write, how to form cohesive thoughts, among other skills. How did I learn these skills? One might say that the obvious answer is that I had teachers in these subjects. In elementary school, teachers taught me how to read and write. As I got older, other teachers taught me how to write papers, ask questions, form my thoughts on the page in a manner that might be compelling to others. This does seem to be the case. I had those teachers. I learned those skills. But, a problem arises. When I was a child I had a violin teacher, and yet I never became a skilled violinist. My teacher had other students that did become quite skilled. From this example I can only conclude that the fact of having a teacher does not guarantee one’s learning. Therefore, I return to my question. How does one learn? Is anything teachable? 40 �In their search for what virtue is Meno asks a question that seems to imply that no one can actually learn anything. Again, from everyday experience, it seems obvious that people do learn. Still, Meno’s question is difficult a difficult one to answer. On how Socrates will find what virtue is, Meno asks: And in what way will you seek, Socrates, for that which you know nothing at all about what it is? What sort of thing among those things which you do not know are you proposing to seek for yourself? Or, even if, at best, you should happen upon it, how will you know it is that which you did not know? (80D) Socrates responds: I understand the sort of thing you want to say, Meno. Do you not see how inclined to strife this argument you are drawing out is, that it is not possible for a human being to seek either what he knows or what he does not know? For he could not seek for what he knows, because he knows it and then there’s no need of any seeking for this person; nor could he seek for what he does not know, because then he does not know what he is seeking. (80E) This argument, at first glance, might appear foolproof. Socrates has an answer, however. The soul is immortal, he states, and “Inasmuch as the soul is immortal and has been born many times and has seen all things both here and in the house of Hades, there is nothing which it has not learned” (81C). He then supposes that everything we are supposed to have learned is actually, truly, our souls recollecting that which they already knew. To illustrate this point, Socrates calls over one of Meno’s slaveboys. Through a series of questions asked by Socrates, the slaveboy comes to realize the line lengths that would be needed to double the size of a given square. Socrates claims that because he asked nothing but questions, this serves as evidence of the fact that the knowledge of the squares came from within the boy, from within his immortal soul. One could object that Socrates was asking leading questions, and that, perhaps, asking these sorts of questions is a way of teaching. Before starting on my own inquiry, in this paper, on the nature of teaching and learning, I would have been inclined to agree, and to a certain extent, I still am. Socrates knew what he was asking. He led the boy step by step, albeit through questions, through the geometrical proof. The boy could not have come to this knowledge without Socrates. Nevertheless, as I stated earlier in my example of having a violin teacher as a child, having a teacher does not guarantee that one learns something. Beyond Socrates questioning, how does the slaveboy learn the geometrical proof? That is, what makes him have an “aha” moment, a moment of realization, a moment, perhaps, of learning? Socrates’s exchange, if taken at face value that the boy, through questioning, came to recollect what his soul already knew, does, in a way, clear up Meno’s paradoxical question of how one can learn anything. That is, one can search for anything, “learn” anything, if it is simply, (though it may not be simple), a matter of recollection within his soul. Still, the soul’s immortality does not shed any light on what makes the ‘aha’ moment happen for a learner. 41 �After this exchange with the slaveboy, Meno and Socrates continue the dialogue on what virtue is and whether or not it is teachable, and something strange happens here to Socrates’s argument. Socrates, as I have stated, claims to have not taught the boy anything, and instead states that “true opinions will exist within him, which after being aroused by questioning becomes matters of knowledge” (86A). Again, Socrates’s argument is that the boy is recollecting, not being taught. Still, Socrates must think some things are teachable. If he thought nothing was teachable, he need not inquire about what virtue is in order to say whether or not it is teachable. He simply could have said, “No, it is not teachable. Nothing is.” Strangely enough, in apparent contradiction to the geometrical proof example with the slaveboy, Socrates seems to believe that knowledge actually can be taught, and is, among all things, the only thing that can be taught. He states: In this way then, about virtue too —since we know neither what it is, nor what sort of thing it is—let us look hypothetically at it, whether it is teachable or not teachable, speaking in the following way: If virtue is some sort of thing among those things that have regard to the soul, would it be teachable or not teachable? First, then, if it’s the kind of thing that is different from, or like knowledge, is it teachable or not, or, as we were just now saying it, is it recollectable?—let it make no difference to us about whatever name we use—but is it teachable? Or is this, at any rate, clear to everyone, that a human being is taught nothing else than knowledge. (87B-C) Meno agrees to this, that a human being is taught nothing else than knowledge, and agrees, when Socrates states, “And if virtue is some kind of knowledge, it is clear that it could be taught” (87C). The question then becomes for the interlocutors, is virtue a matter of knowledge? It might be that Socrates does wobble a little bit here in his argument, changing from nothing can be taught to knowledge can be taught, but for my purpose, it would not be productive to quibble with that wobbling. For my question still holds: How does learning happen? Is anything, strictly speaking, teachable? For Socrates, if virtue is a matter of knowledge, and can therefore be taught, there would be teachers of virtue, and one would do well to send his child to a virtue teacher. In the end, Meno and Socrates agree that there are no teachers of virtue. Furthermore, they agree that if there are no teachers, there are no learners (96C). Because they conclude that virtue has no teachers, and is therefore not something teachable, which, consequently, makes virtue not a form of knowledge, they then conclude that one who has virtue must get it from “divine dispensation” (100A). I disagree with Socrates that if there are no teachers there are no learners. One can learn through observation. One can learn to play basketball by watching professional basketball players. One can learn to skateboard by doing the same. One can learn to write poetry by studying the masters. This glaring omission, their leaving out that one can learn through observation, makes the conclusion of this dialogue, to my mind, unsatisfying, makes the jump to divine dispensation quite the leap. The more I think about it, however, the more I think Socrates might be correct. 42 �I still do not agree with him that if there are no teachers there are no learners. I do, however, think he might be right when he says that learning virtue is due to divine dispensation. To my mind, his answer as to what is divine dispensation is actually too limited, for I still cannot understand, if anything is teachable, knowledge, for example, what makes that ‘aha’ moment possible. Where does it come from? One might say it comes from intuition, but what is intuition? Could not one say that intuition might in fact be the soul remembering, and that therefore nothing is teachable? I was dissatisfied with Socrates’s answer that virtue is bequeathed through divine dispensation because I thought it obvious that one can learn without teachers, that one can learn, that is, through observation. But what about this gift of observation? Where did it come from? Is it all, everything we do and learn, a gift from God? Could it be that yes, there are teachers; things are teachable, and yes, there are learners; we do learn things, but it all comes from God, the ‘aha’ moment of learning, the ability to teach? Many questions arise from this. Does God bestow gifts equally, but one has to accept the gift? Could this be why some people are virtuous, others not? What makes one more or less inclined to accept God’s gifts? Why would God create people who are not inclined to receive his gifts? Does God indeed do this? But these, perhaps, are questions for another time. For now, though, I conclude that that ‘aha’ moment that makes learning possible, that might permit me to answer these further questions, must be a gift from God. 43 �Prize-Winning Preceptorial Paper: Thus Spoke Zarathustra Anthony Meffe In a note Nietzsche observes that “One generally mistakes me: I confess it; also I should be done a great service if someone else were to defend and define me against these mistakes.” (XIV, 318 f.) Nietzsche here admits to the often obscure and esoteric nature of his writing, an obscurity that must be revealed by later interpreters and defenders. Walter Kaufmann in his seminal biography of Nietzsche echoes this sentiment with his refutation of the “Nietzsche legend,” namely the inheritance of preconceived notions surrounding who Nietzsche was, and what the purpose of his project was. The benign influence of Nietzsche’s sister Elizabeth was instrumental in cementing Nietzsche’s reputation as a nationalistic anti-Semite, as poet, or prophet rather than philosopher, and had led to a situation where, as Kaufmann puts it, “there is not even basic agreement about what [Nietzsche] stood for.” While the scholarly horizons for Nietzsche’s work are perhaps less grim today than in 1950, it is still a weighty task to come to a firm understanding of a philosopher who deliberately eschewed systematization, and who described the scholarly approach to knowledge as “cracking nuts.” (Z, II, 16) In cracking a nut you achieve a completeness, a goal, an end, then discard the scraps and move to the next nut, triumphant. In contrast, Nietzsche asks us not to ‘solve’ his thought, but to engage with it in a dynamic motion of mistaken interpretation, defence and clarification. The emphasis upon motion is a recurring theme in Nietzsche’s work, and especially in Thus Spoke Zarathustra where the path to the Overman (Ubermensch) is first described in direct and linear language but quickly develops into cyclical and nonlinear transformations, dances, and songs, that lead to greater understanding and creativity, but not to any end or telos. Nietzsche, while desirous of eternity, attempts to achieve it not in any solution that finds a solution, but rather through the eternal recurrence of the individual, subjective, creative will in the world, this particular world, the only one which will ever exist and has ever existed. Creation, the act of God which demands conformity, is distinguished from individual creation that engenders freedom and creates new values in a world where God is dead. (Z, Prologue, 9) In the death of the Creator, there is an opening for the creative will to find its way to becoming the Ubermensch, by perpetually moving. But the question remains as to whether the world outside of the subjective creative will ‘exists’ in a real sense, or whether it is merely a subjective projection of the whims of new creators. At the risk of attempting to crack this philosophical nut like the scholars, I will argue that Nietzsche presents a unified and consistent view of the world, defined by motion, and against Christian and Darwinian teleology, which demands the kind of creativity he describes. It is meaningful insofar as it describes reality, the eternal exercise of the will in relation to the world. Nietzsche’s system that eschews systems then relies upon perpetual motion which reflects and is faithful to life, or rather living in the world as it is. This is achieved through eternal recurrence, and can be described reliably as an objective reality. 44 �The most essential quality of life in Zarathustra is constant motion, whether simply physical motion or a deeper spiritual transformation. As Peter Behrens writes in his novel The Law of Dreams, “the law of dreams is keep moving,” and this might equally be called the law of Zarathustra. (Behrens, 10) Thus Spoke Zarathustra begins with a movement and transformation: “When Zarathustra was thirty years old he left his home… and went into the mountains. Here he enjoyed his spirit and his solitude and for ten years he did not tire of it.” (Z, Prologue, 1) Zarathustra moves to the mountain, but still finds no ultimate satisfaction: “I am weary of my wisdom… I want to bestow and distribute…For this I must descend into the depths, as you do evenings when you go behind the sea and bring light even to the underworld.” (3) He continues: “Like you I must go down…” (3) Already on the first page we have spanned ten years, and bridged two epiphanies on the part of Zarathustra, not satisfied with enjoying his spirit, he wishes to descend and teach. And what does he wish to teach? It is the path to the Ubermensch: “I teach you the Overhuman. Human being is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?” (Z, Prologue, 3) Humanity is one stage, a stage that requires action to be surpassed. While Zarathustra also uses semi-evolutionary language, comparing the Ubermensch to man as we compare man to ape, Kaufmann is careful to point out that Nietzsche rejected an evolutionary corollary to his work. (Z, Prologue, 3) While the symbolism and comparison here “invites misunderstanding,” Nietzsche himself claimed that only “scholarly oxen” would interpret his work as Darwinism. The path to the Ubermensch requires active overcoming rather than passive and deterministic reception of natural forces to which one adapts. We might find some clarity in Nietzsche’s work on history, written in 1874 before Zarathustra” where he writes: For since we happen to be the results of earlier generations we are also the results of their aberrations, passions and errors, even crimes; it is not possible quite to free oneself from this chain. If we condemn those aberrations and think ourselves quite exempt from them, the fact we are descended from them is not eliminated.” (U VI, 3) He writes further that the attempt to eradicate this memory creates a kind of second nature as we break from the first, and yet something of the past state always remains, and the new state is generally feebler than the first. (U VI, 3) By feebler Nietzsche likely means more contingent and less survivable, even if it is more complex, as all higher beings are, comparing the complexity and fragility of humans to the durability of simpler organisms in The AntiChrist. Instead Nietzsche demands that the path forward be willed rather than accepted, even as remnants of earlier transformations will endure. Rather than look to change as a cold or mechanistic reality, it should be understood as a proud action towards a higher state. In The Gay Science Nietzsche remarks that the Darwinian conception has led, just as in Christianity, to a “man against the world” understanding of life, wherein man must give up either reverence or his own being, where both are accorded as nihilism. (GS, 346) Rather Nietzsche seeks a path wherein man and the world are not in conflict, 45 �where what is past, is, and is to come can be accepted with all their warts. But how does Nietzsche’s conception of motion and transformation eradicate nihilism? The answer to that question is found in Nietzsche’s conception of life which is irrevocably tied to endless motion towards without ultimate completion, as well as his notion of the death of God. Zarathustra teaches not just the Ubermensch but the path to it: “Mankind is a rope fastened between animal and Overman – a rope over an abyss.” (Z, Prologue, 4) The ones who know how to be “crossing over” and “going under” are those who know how to live. (4) But what does it mean to know how to live? If mechanistic Darwinism is not an antidote, then neither is faith in God, even as in the revolutionary nineteenth century such a dichotomy seemed to be the nexus of intellectual conflict. As soon as Zarathustra comes down from the mountain he meets an old man who has as yet not heard that “God is dead.” (Z, Prologue, 2) The phrase is one of Nietzsche’s most famous aphorisms, and represents a foundational principle upon which all his ideas depend, especially in Zarathustra. The one who is a believer in God is a believer in “a world behind.” (Z, Part 1, 3) God is presented as outdated, or perhaps more appropriately something which has served its purpose, but which now retards motion. Zarathustra once believed in this “delusion,” that is the belief in anything beyond the human. (Z, Part 1, 3) To put faith in a world beyond the world that one inhabits is to reject life and living, to place the creative will outside of one’s action, and instead to conform to an invented will without realizing that it was man that willed it. Thus speaks Zarathustra: Weariness that wants to attain the ultimate in a single leap, in a leap of death, a poor and ignorant weariness that does not even want to will anymore: that is what created all Gods and all worlds behind…The body it was that despaired of the body – that groped with the fingers of deluded spirit for the ultimate walls. (Z, Part 1, 3) The deluded spirit longs to achieve eternity and completion, the ultimate, in one swoop, and to rest upon that victory. God’s corpse erects a wall, an ultimate wall, that protects against motion, but motion and transformation is necessary to life. In simpler and more direct words, Nietzsche describes the chief principle of faith in Twilight of the Idols (written after Zarathustra) as “faith that a will is already in things.” (G, Epigrams and Arrows, 18) If a will, especially a constant, unchangeable Will, is imputed into the world, then the human will is once again in opposition to the world. He must either conform and lose himself, or lose his reverences, just as with mechanistic Darwinism. We are then presented with two distinct forms of modern nihilism, both belief in a deterministic world to come, and a religious world that ought to be left behind yet casts long shadows. By what means then can man find meaning? For Nietzsche the answer lies in the transformation, the motion, of the spirit. We have already heard that mankind is a rope over an abyss, but Zarathustra goes on to say that “What is great in the human is that it is a bridge and not a goal.” (Z, Prologue, 4) What is terrifying in humanity is “dangerous shuddering and standing still.” (Z, Prologue, 4) The bridge, however, like the rope, is a linear image, one may 46 �cross forwards, or backwards, or potentially fall into the abyss. While the abyss itself may represent a non-linear element, the path is straight. A straight path then must necessarily lead to some goal, some destination, or some end, unless it is infinite. Surely then the straight path must lead to death. However, this linear imagery is developed in Zarathustra’s speech on the Three Metamorphoses, and becomes more cyclical. The cycle allows for repetition, without a necessary end to motion. The spirit moves through three transformations, into the camel, the lion and the child, each providing a necessary means to move beyond the world behind, and the world to come. The first transformation is that of a camel in whom the spirit can carry the weight of heavy questions and pondering. (Z, I, 1) Then we encounter the lion in which man learns to regard the “sacred Nay” to become a “lord in its own desert” after winning freedom. (1) The enemy of the lion is the great dragon who proclaims “Thou shalt,” in a rather obvious reference to the Decalogue. (1) Freedom is attained through rejection of what one should do, “thou shalt,” and in rejection of external value, of external will in the world. (1) An apex, but not a completion, is found in the child, the final transformation. (1) The power of the will transforms sacred naysaying into sacred “Yea-saying,” embracing creativity to build one’s own world of value. The innocence of the child allows for forgetting, rebuilding, and transforming, much like in Nietzsche’s theory of history. The purpose of these transformations seems to be a means to let go of the old values that weigh down the spirit, to reject the world beyond, and to will it into the world behind through individual creation. As Zarathustra remarks, “Wherever I found the living, there I found the will to power, and even in the will of the serving I found the will to be master.” (Z, II, 12) The dragon says “thou shalt” but the lion says “I will” becoming master over itself and serving life. (Z, I, 1) Evaluation is transferred from the realm of external discernment to individual will and creation. There is no indication that this could not be repeated, providing man a means to stay in motion. Life is then served by killing the Creator, killing Creation, and moving to become one’s own willing creator in the world as it exists. The slaying of the dragon then opens new ports of motion. Nietzsche writes in The Gay Science of the great joy one experiences at the news that “the old god is dead” (GS, 343): At long last the horizon appears free to us again, even if it should not be bright; at long last our ships may venture out again…all the daring of the lover of knowledge is permitted again; the sea, our sea, lies open again; perhaps there has never yet been such an “open sea.” (GS, 343) What is important is the possibility of movement and transformation, not any particular course. The sacred Nay opens an ocean of sacred Yea. Yet even this grand freedom is not without qualification, as Zarathustra remarks “Body am I through and through, and nothing besides; and soul is merely a word for something about the body.” (Z, I, 4) The soul is an aspect of the body, as is the spirit. (4) The transformations enumerated above are bodily and spiritual, insofar as all things are 47 �bodily for mankind. He later expounds on this stating “Since I have come to know the body better… the spirit is only a hypothetical spirit to me; and all that is everlasting – that too is only a parable.” (Z, II, 17) Only the perishable body exists as truly real for Zarathustra at this point. What is important, however, is that Nietzsche necessarily unifies subjective creation through the three metamorphoses with reverence for life and nature. The creating will is a function of a new freedom gained from an awareness of the reality of this world, apart from worlds beyond or behind that a literal spirit or soul would indicate. One might raise the objection: is this demand to perpetual motion and life not simply replacing one dragon with another? Why should the ‘thou shalt’ of nature or of life be any different from the ‘thou shalt’ of God? From the language that Nietzsche uses, however, it seems plain that he envisions this reverence for life not as something you must do, but rather that this new way offers man the freedom to behave honestly towards nature, not through a delusion, nor through compulsion. Zarathustra preaches faithfulness to the earth and not to invented worlds. (Z, I, 3) The creation of new values is then a function of nature through our life-affirming bodies. Nature does not demand, but permits. The image that Zarathustra uses of the railing to the Ubermensch illustrates this: “I am a railing by the torrent: grasp me whoever is able to grasp me! But your crutch I am not.” (Z, I, 6) One may grasp the rail or not, but it is there to make use of as one will. But does life not still end? How does one avoid the obvious inference of fatalism (that Nietzsche rejects) in these attempts to escape nihilism, or does this merely cement nihilism as reality? Some clarification and expansion might be found in the songs that Zarathustra sings in the Second Part of the book where we find the first murmurings of the eternal recurrence. The distinction between night and day also features heavily as a kind of perpetual and ongoing motion in the cosmos, undergirding life. In The Night Song, Zarathustra looks to the heavens, and finds something cold and unsettling in their motion. “Many suns revolve in desolate space…to me they are mute. Oh this is the enmity of light toward that which shines; mercilessly it goes its orbits.” (Z, II, 9) Later Zarathustra says “Like a storm the suns fly their orbit, that is their motion. They follow their inexorable will; that is their coldness.” (9) This inhuman motion seems to unsettle Zarathustra in contrast to the motion of the spirit which was animating. Words like ‘merciless,’ ‘desolate,’ ‘mute,’ ‘coldness,’ and especially ‘inexorable’ sound like the language of fatalism and resignation rather than life, specially when referencing will. Yet life is itself a reverence and honesty towards nature through motion. Zarathustra is perhaps reflecting on the disjuncture between the creating will which “wills its own will” and which “attains its own world” while confronted with a natural world remote to that experience (Z, 1, 1) In the daylight Zarathustra could preach to the stars: “You great star! What would your happiness be if you had not those for whom you shine?” (Z, Prologue, 1) Where Zarathustra was boastful and proud in the daylight, he is now intimidated and alienated from those same luminous bodies in the evening. What has changed? Zarathustra experiences “iciness” and “hesitation,” at night, and he seems unable to move while experiencing 48 �a kind of involuntary contemplation of the shining suns that move so inexorably. Contemplation, or rumination had been an object of mockery to Zarathustra, a desirable nonsense, but nonsense all the same. (Z, I, 2) Later too he describes contemplation as “emasculated leering,” to “desire nothing from things” but to lie before them. (Z, II, 15) The lifeless impasse is broken by adding motion into contemplation as a passive corollary to the dynamic creation of the day time. In The Dance Song, Zarathustra comes face to face with life itself in the form of a dancing girl while strolling at night with his disciples. Life is dancing, and it is in that motion and transformation of nocturnal dancing that Zarathustra finds a means to rehabilitate concepts he had dismissed to make them serve life. His first words to life are “Do not stop dancing” referring to the dancing girls as “light ones.” (Z, 2, 10) He finds life before him, in the evening, motioning in a manner that is not alien the way the movement of the stars was. He says to life: Into your eyes I gazed recently, oh life! And then into the unfathomable I seemed to sink. But you pulled me out with your golden fishing rod; you laughed mockingly when I called you unfathomable.” (10) Unlike the distance between Zarathustra and the night-time suns, life is here personified, and speaks to Zarathustra directly, breaking any delusion of distance or disjuncture between the human will and the natural world. To look at life and understand it is not then a rumination, nor a flight from life, but part of a parallel structure of nature of which the creative will is one part, along with the acknowledgment of the natural world. Creation of value is necessarily parallel with nature, not disrespectful to it. But while nature’s existence is objective, creation of value is not, for how could you march from summit to summit if you had found and rested upon the real truth? (Z, II, 7) Rather it is an objective response to the freedom conferred by the non-existence of objective values in nature that is itself an objective reality. This is why life dances, because these two necessary aspects participate with each other in the constant motion that is, for Nietzsche, life, itself mirrored in the transition from daylight to evening. In the dance we can imagine the constant flow of transformation, from camel, to lion, to child, or from day to night, in a constant flow of motion, that is to say in concert with nature. It is not surprising then that it is those moments of crisis for Zarathustra when he has forgotten how to walk, that he has also lost sight of the path to the Ubermensch. (Z, II, 22) But why does Zarathustra continue to experience moments of stillness and lifelessness even after his encounter with life? He has still not sufficiently conquered one final ‘end,’ specifically permanent death, a permanent end to motion that he refers to as ‘the spirit of gravity.’ Zarathustra describes life as “A dance and a mocking song to the spirit of gravity,” the spirit that rules the world. (10) Zarathustra mentions this spirit only once before in the first Part, “And when I saw my devil, there I found him in earnest, thorough, deep, somber: it was the spirit of gravity – through him all things fall. (Z, I, 7) The spirit of gravity is the essence of fatalism, for what goes up must come down, what lives must die, what begins must find an end, 49 �even if that end is neither a religious nor a mechanical world to come, nor a world beyond. In what then can a creator take solace other than nihilism? The dancing god, life, provides a clue in the names men give her: “profundity or fidelity, eternity or secrecy.” (Z, II, 10) Eternity is the name that men give life, but eternal life is a concept that Zarathustra has derided as the life-denying philosophy of the despisers of the body and the preachers of death, whose conception of eternal life is a goal that distracts from life as it is in the world. (Z, I, 9) What life tells to Zarathustra is that life itself, life as it is, is eternity, and this is the lightness that Zarathustra perceives in the dancing girls, their liberation from the spirit of gravity without any final end to their dancing. This liberation also provides for a liberation of the will, as well as a further unity of the subjective creating will with the objective natural world. In The Gay Science, Nietzsche claims that “Faith is always coveted most and needed most urgently where will is lacking.” (GS, 347) Faith is the dereliction of the will, the belief that there is another will in the world to which one must submit. However Zarathustra remarks that “I would only believe in a god who knew how to dance.” (Z, 1,7) It would seem then that the dancing god, life, offers an exception to the rule. Nietzsche states that there is a correlation between one’s strength and the need to believe, therefore Christianity, or Metaphysics more broadly, will survive so long as they are needed. (GS, 347) We know that Zarathustra has proclaimed the death of god, declaring that all gods are human works (Z, I, 3) and that true creativity is impossible if there are gods, for how could one create if there were already Creation, if there were already a will there? (Z, II, 24) Zarathustra tells us that the gods died of laughter when the God of Abraham declared “thou shalt have no other gods but me,” stating that true divinity is to have gods but no God. (Z, III, 8) Yet through the spirit of the lion, and sacred naysaying, God, the dragon that commands “thou shalt,” has been killed. We are left without gods, and without God, but this leaves a new sea open once again. If belief is derived from necessity, then the creative will must will belief in the dancing god, life. The dancing god is man’s reverence for nature which participates in nature. The created god of nature, the created god of the will, steps in concert with the world as it is, and is united with it. Man gives up neither reverence nor himself. To what one is reverent is their own body united with nature through the will. This unity is expounded upon by Zarathustra when he addresses the heavens before sunrise: Oh sky above me, you pure, exalted one! This your purity is to me now… that you are my dance floor for divine accident, that you are my gods’ table for divine dice throws and dice player. But you blush?... is it the shame of us two that made you blush? (Z, III, 4) Through the will, man can find unity even in the parallel structure of nature, and divinize the world as it is. Why does the sky blush? Is it perhaps embarrassed by this union? While still two distinct and separate entities, Zarathustra becomes aware of the power of the will to unite with the natural world, exemplified by the motion of the dancing god, life. The necessity of creating new values is reconciled with the 50 �reality of nature in this long dance to become aware of how one’s “own being is involved in the totality of the cosmos”. That parallel division is never truly eliminated, however, nor does that seem to be a particular problem for Nietzsche or Zarathustra any longer. But there is still the question of the eternity of life, that is to say the question of perpetual motion. Having reconciled life with the creating will, there is still the need to defeat the spirit of gravity. As Nietzsche writes in Twilight of the Idols: The fatality of our essence cannot be separated from the fatality of all that was and will be. We are not the consequence of a special intention, a will, a goal; we are not being used to reach an “ideal of humanity”… We have invented the concept “goal”: in reality, goals are absent… (G, The Four Great Errors, 8) Nietzsche must then find a way to reconcile the eternity that life has spoken to Zarathustra with human fatality, without succumbing to fatalism. This is achieved through the concept of eternal recurrence. As Kaufmann points out, Nietzsche considered the eternal recurrence his most important idea, even as he offers little to no proof of it in his works. All the same it is an absolutely necessary aspect of his thought, for it is his solution to fatalism that respects fatality. The dwarf says to Zarathustra, “You stone of wisdom! You hurled yourself high, but every hurled stone must fall!” (Z, III, 2.1) This is the thought of lead that is dripped into Zarathustra’s ear, which he overcomes with the courageous phrase, “Was that life? Well then! One More Time!” (2.1) Zarathustra then develops the doctrine of the eternal recurrence: “See this gateway, dwarf! I continued. “It has two faces. Two paths come together here; no one has yet walked them end to end. This long lane back: it lasts an eternity. And that long lane outward – that is another eternity (2.2) The paths converge only at the gateway called “Moment.” (2.2) Each moment is then made eternally alive through repetition, without the need to look forward or backwards or towards any goal or telos. From this gateway Moment a long eternal lane stretches backward: behind us lies an eternity… And if everything has already been here before, what do you think of this moment, dwarf? Must this gateway too not already have been here? And are not all things firmly knotted together in such a way that this moment draws after it all things to come?... For, whatever can run… must run it once more! (2.2) Kaufmann calls this the supreme “suprahistorical” expression, wherein all striving beyond is extinguished in the exaltation of the moment, whether that striving be Darwinian, or Christian. Each moment resounds in eternity not as a stepping stone, but as a stepped stone, always present, and past, and future, and therefore always in perpetual motion. The finitude of earthly existence is transformed into an eternal faithfulness to the earth that Zarathustra preached from the beginning. (Z, I, 3) With each moment separated from a final goal or end, the will is free to say to itself “One More Time!” (Z, III, 2.2) This is what it means for the will to create its 51 �own world, because it creates the world as it is, one’s own eternity which is eternity, and that is life. With the eternal recurrence Zarathustra is free to say “This is my good and evil.” (Z, III, 11) The recurring will makes for itself eternal values not by appeal to another world, but in this world that will always reemerge. “All joy wants eternity, wants deep eternity,” says Zarathustra, by which he means that willing ‘yes’ to life is a will to its totality, night and day, pain and happiness, all ensnared together as one bottomless dancing eternity. This is how Nietzsche solves the problem of nihilism as a reaction to the world as it is, through life as eternal motion which relies heavily upon the eternal recurrence to achieve coherence, and also how he reconciles the subjective will with objective nature. The project of Nietzsche can then be described as the attempt to reconcile his rejection of nihilism with his beliefs regarding what reality is. Whether he succeeded or not is a difficult question, and one to which many will likely come to differing conclusion, however what seems clear is that Nietzsche offers in Thus Spoke Zarathustra a circuitous and roundabout enumeration of the demands of his conception of reality. The creating will that emerges from the corpse of God is not merely subjective, but rather subjective in accordance with the reality of the natural world where there exists a gap in objective value. While Nietzsche never fully unifies the two, he does posit a parallel unity where each is faithful to the other, even if they are not fully united to the other. This faithfulness to the earth as it is what is objective for Nietzsche, the earth that is eternally alive and in motion, where every subjective value is elevated in each moment of eternity. Through eternal recurrence, and the creating will, Nietzsche sustains his central notion of life as motion in a way that, at least internally, fulfills the objective of faithfulness to the earth as it is (according to Nietzsche), while providing an escape from nihilism that rests on no assumptions that contradict his own conception of reality. The joy that Zarathustra experiences towards the end of the work is the joy of reconciliation and unity, achieved on his own terms. The conception of the world as described by Zarathustra can then be said to be objective, and even further, that the distinction between subjective and objective breaks down in the eternal recurrence. Whether it is correct is another question for another essay, though there are suggestions of the necessity of faith for some of the concepts here enumerated, particularly the eternal recurrence. Whether this is a true victory over nihilism is perhaps still left to the reader, but all things considered it was a heroic and consistent attempt. 52 �Artwork by Jesse Clagett 53 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Colloquy Description An account of the resource A student-run journal for the Graduate Institute community of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. The issues feature essays, art, poetry, interviews, and more. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 56 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Colloquy, Fall 2021 Description An account of the resource Volume IX of Colloquy, published in Fall 2021. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Braley, Olivia (Editor-in-Chief) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-12 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived English Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Colloquy_Fall2021 Graduate Institute https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/0883fdc25114c3017a270a8d96113f1b.pdf df56bfd24d5da50441cc7466136b4d87 PDF Text Text �Editor-in-Chief Olivia Braley Editorial Board Leith Daghistani Folke Egerstrom Andrew Graney Charles Green Gavin Laur Diana Villegas �Table of Contents Letter from the Editor Olivia Braley, Annapolis Colloquy Constitution The Editorial Board Three Poems Andrew Laurence Graney, Annapolis Excerpt from Argos’ Odyssey – Lost Years Winston Elliott, Annapolis - with art by Elizabeth Janthey, Annapolis 1 2 6 9 Dialogue and Understanding in the Seminar Oral Courtney White, Annapolis “Therefore etc”: Bang or Whimper? Jeremy Sheeler, Annapolis - with art by Jaime Marquez, Annapolis Why I Am Here Bonnie Naradzay, Annapolis A Conversation with Louis Petrich, Annapolis Tutor Charles Green & Jaime Marquez, Annapolis The Pandemic and the Iliad Will Harvard, Annapolis - with art by Neha Gaddam, Annapolis Excerpt from The Molting Eagle and the Shedding Serpent James Wheeler, Annapolis - with art by Jaime Marquez, Annapolis 14 Vico’s Poetic Morals: Forced into Philosophy? Akayla Lewis, Annapolis Nostalgia in February Kelsey Hennegen, Santa Fe - with art by Neha Gaddam, Annapolis On the Benefit of Virtual Learning for Our Community Leith Daghistani, Annapolis Uncovering the Lost World of the Black Classical Tradition Dr. Anika Prather, Annapolis Visiting Lecturer 37 16 20 21 29 33 42 44 48 �Letter from the Editor Dear Members of the Graduate Institute Community, May 2021 I’ll begin by thanking the whole of our Graduate Institute community at St. John’s: your unique presence enriches our program and the work we set out to do in our seminars, be they at a table or through a screen. I want to especially thank the members of the Colloquy editorial board, our contributors, and other community members who made possible the issue you have before you. I’d like to thank Ms. Langston for her commitment to providing Colloquy with the support we need for success, and Ms. Kraus, my mentor, for her guidance and encouragement throughout the semester. It’s an honor to be your Editor-inChief, but this title doesn’t encompass the totality of people that are essential to this process. Through our collective efforts, we have put forth a diverse and compelling issue of work that we can all be proud of. This semester, I had an eye towards the future of Colloquy. With collaboration from the board, we developed a Colloquy Constitution and other materials that formalize our processes and procedures. I do this in hope that Colloquy can continue to showcase the impressive work of our GI community long after my tenure at St. John’s. We also endeavored to solicit a broad range of submissions from students on both campuses and studying online. Each of us brings a fresh perspective to the program and our voices and ideas should be highlighted. It is my hope that these perspectives will develop as Colloquy grows. Regardless of geographic location or class format, we are united by the work that we do in this program. Let us celebrate that unity here. As we continue our studies from various places and slowly work towards a return to, or reinvention of, normalcy in many aspects of our lives, I hope Colloquy will augment the sense of community that is developed through our time at St. John’s and serve as a reminder of the strength and diversity of our polity. Thank you all for your talent, trust, and time. Sincerely, Olivia Braley Editor-in-Chief 1 �Colloquy Constitution The Editorial Board Preamble The mission of Colloquy is to curate a diverse journal that mirrors the unique work of the Graduate Institute community. The vision of Colloquy is to provide a space for all members of our community to continue the conversation. We will showcase the great breadth of the Graduate Institute’s work: our content will highlight the cultural elements and ideas of the Graduate Institute, such as visual art, creative writing, and personal essays that do not always have a natural place in our classroom, alongside our most attentive and compelling academic work. 1. Editorial Board Article I Staff a. Editorial board membership shall be open to all students and alumni of the Graduate Institute. b. Editorial staff are responsible for electing the editor-in-chief, spreading awareness of the journal’s calls for submissions, reading and reviewing all submissions, providing consultation on final publication pieces, and reviewing final drafts before publication. c. More specific roles, titles, and responsibilities may be granted to editorial staff as necessary in consultation with the editor-in-chief. d. Editorial staff may be removed by the board for misconduct following a motion and subsequent vote of no confidence. 2. Editor-in-Chief a. The editor-in-chief position shall be held by a degree-seeking student currently enrolled in the Graduate Institute. If there are no degreeseeking students on the editorial staff, the editorial board may elect any enrolled student or alumnus of the Graduate Institute to hold the position in trust until a degree-seeking student joins the board. b. The editor-in-chief shall be elected by the editorial board each year. c. Tenure for the position is two semesters and there are no term limits. i. There may not be vacancies of any length for the position of editor-in-chief. ii. The editorial board may allow single-semester terms for editorsin-chief when suitable. 2 �d. The editor-in-chief is responsible for recruitment to the editorial board, submissions management, board meeting management, journal administration, and publication and dissemination of the journal to the Graduate Institute community. e. The editor-in-chief shall ensure that geographically disparate editorial staff have access to board meetings and decision-making processes. f. The editor-in-chief may be recalled and removed by the editorial board for misconduct following a motion and subsequent vote of no confidence. 3. Internships a. Funded internships for students are occasionally offered by St. John’s College to students for positions on Colloquy staff. Coordination of internships is managed by the Office of the Dean of the Graduate Institute. b. The college shall identify a member of the faculty to serve as a mentor for the intern. c. In order to maintain student control over the journal and preserve a competitive internship application process, the board’s election process for the position of editor-in-chief and the college’s internship application process shall be mutually independent. d. Interns may concurrently serve as editor-in-chief if separately elected to that position by the board. For the semesters in which these positions are held by separate individuals, roles and responsibilities may be decided as appropriate between the editor-in-chief, intern, and faculty mentor. 1. Constitution Review Article II Administration a. The constitution shall be reviewed by the editor-in-chief every semester and disseminated to the editorial board at the beginning of each publication cycle. b. The constitution may be edited as necessary by the editor-in-chief in consultation with the editorial board. Consultation with the Office of the Dean of the Graduate Institute is required only for changes relating to Article I Section 3. 3 �2. Submissions and Publication a. Submissions shall be accepted from current students, alumni, and tutors of the Graduate Institute. Other submissions from associates of the college may be solicited and accepted at the discretion of the editor-inchief. b. Calls for submissions and deadlines shall be established and disseminated to the Graduate Institute community by the editor-in-chief for each publication cycle. The editor-in-chief may determine the nature, scope, and type of media called for each semester. c. Published material shall align with the mission of Colloquy. In general, content which was created for a different academic institution, Graduate Institute admissions essays, and submissions which are not reflective of the work of the Graduate Institute may not be considered for publication. d. The editor-in-chief shall consult with the editorial board in deciding the final disposition of all submissions. i. All submissions will be made available for review to all members of the editorial board. ii. Submissions will be made anonymous by the editor-in-chief before presentation to the editorial board for review. iii. Following consultation with the editorial board, the editor-inchief retains final authority in selecting which submissions may be published. iv. The editor-in-chief shall coordinate timely individual responses from the editorial board to all submitters following publication decisions. e. Graduate Institute prize winning essays shall be automatically eligible for publication in their entirety within the journal released immediately following selection of the prize winners. i. Submission of prize winning essays shall be coordinated between the Office of the Dean of the Graduate Institute and the editor-in-chief. ii. The editor-in-chief shall obtain permission to publish these essays from the prize winning authors prior to publication. f. Publications shall be released at least twice a year, one each at the end of the spring and fall semesters. g. Publications shall be made available to the Graduate Institute community in hard-copy and electronic formats. i. The editor-in-chief shall coordinate funding for publication with the Office of the Dean of the Graduate Institute. 4 �ii. iii. The editor-in-chief may select the press for hard-copy publication each semester. Electronic copies of the journal shall be made publicly available on the internet. 3. Documentation of Processes and Turnover a. The editor-in-chief shall be responsible for maintaining and updating the codified processes of the journal such as financial processes, press contacts, dissemination lists, formatting guides, social media, and any other information deemed necessary by the editor-in-chief. b. Codified processes shall be maintained separately from the constitution, and may be updated and disseminated by the editor-in-chief when required. c. The editor-in-chief shall meet with their replacement as necessary to conduct a turnover of the codified procedure materials and ensure a seamless transition of the role and associated responsibilities. 5 �Creative Writing Three Poems Andrew Laurence Graney Stand-up I wake up down because the woman who gives me gooseflesh didn’t call me back, then walk downstairs and am surprised to see my mother’s not at work: Your MRI shows signs of MS in the brain. Oh-kay. Finally. After all the fucking blood-work taunting me with negatives, pure diagnosis comes as a gift. Something physical to rip me out of swirling dark and back into daylight. Finally, a concrete reason for my dizziness, my numbness, and my limp. Something I can name. Scars in my brain. New material for my stand-up: my blood’s got so much work done it deserves a raise. If you know anyone looking for scars, I got multiple. So she didn’t call me back... George Carlin said death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time. Meantime, every swallow is a blessing. I’ll stand up until I don’t. Eventually, love must call. 6 �Creative Writing On Having to Take Daily Medication Because it makes me feel robotic, this blue-green capsule, which keeps my nervous system settled, unsettles me. I realize robots wouldn’t take pills, but the thing’s not food or drink, and yet, to function, I have to have it. Twice Daily. I could go longer without water. That can’t be human. But it works. I haven’t had a relapse since the first attack, when I learned what MS means: my nervous system fights itself. Now that’s human. Like it’s confused or mussed up with blues. If I could speak to my addled system I could say, I feel you, man, and it could fight fright with a joke, When they named me Nervous System, what did they expect? Foolish, I know, this exchange, but it helps to imagine my nervous system is just a friend who misses signals, mixes up the ones he does catch, who tries his best to keep me on my toes and says, Dude, MS drugs could win the ‘Most Improved’ award in Medication School, and you complain they turn you robot? Oh, the humanity. What’s really got you wrinkled? This medicine, in keeping me well, reminds me I am not in control, every time I swallow the blue-green pill. 7 �Creative Writing Boarding a Redeye in Phoenix, I Hear a Man Talking on his Phone - after Alexander Long He sounds tired, deflated. Still, he leaks hope, like he’s just discovered a sort of air pump for his spirit: I had such a good time with her today. She said, ‘Papa, are you gonna be able to play hide and seek with me again?’. I told her, ‘Yes, when I get back from my trip’. She said, ‘Papa, you hide and I count’. I said, ‘okay’. So. May he return to his child, may his home always be hers, may they laugh and laugh and laugh before and after problems inevitably rise again like vapor to form clouds over their common ground, may hide and seek be, once and for all, only a game, may she find him wherever. 8 �Academic Essay Excerpt from Argos' Odyssey - Lost Years Winston Elliott Odysseus was once like the young Argos. He was a noble boy who was trained to hunt and expected by his family to be strong and swift. We know this from the story told of Odysseus’ naming by his grandfather Autólykos and the boar hunt, where Odysseus wins the famous scar used to identify him when he returns home (Fitzgerald, Bk. 19, 460-550). This story shows that Odysseus, like the dog he bred and trained, was a hunter from his early days. With hounds questing ahead, in open order, the sons of Autólykos went down a glen, Odysseus in the lead, behind the dogs, pointing his long-shadowing spear (Fitzgerald, Bk. 19, 508-510). Of course, Odysseus was in the lead. This is his “pup” training analogous to the training he gave Argos. But he is also “behind the dogs.” This is the life he and Argos would have enjoyed if his allies had not called Odysseus to Troy. Even as a boy Odysseus is strong and resilient: “Odysseus…had the first shot…but the boar had already charged under the long spear…he hooked aslant with one white tusk and ripped out flesh above the knee…Odysseus’s second thrust went home…and the beast fell” (Fitzgerald, Bk. 19, 520). This character began early his telling of tales, for when he returned home his parents wanted to know how “he got his wound; so he spun out his tale, recalling how the boar’s white tusk caught him when he was hunting on Parnassos” (Fitzgerald, Bk. 19). Odysseus was always full of skill and luck, taking impossible risks and doing remarkable things. This is the Odysseus who was lost to Argos, to Telemachus, and to Ithaka for twenty years. In the absence of computer data bases and DNA testing, the people of Ithaca relied on other incontrovertible means of identification. Eurykleia recognized the scar, before she “saw” her master. Odysseus could not dispute it, but to guarantee success of his mission, he demanded her silence with threats of death (Fitzgerald, Bk. 19, 550). Eurykleia also uses the scar as proof of Odysseus’ identity in her conversation with Penelope, saying, “But there is one sure mark that I can tell you: that scar left by the boar’s tusk long ago” (Fitzgerald, Bk. 23, 80). Odysseus proves 9 �Academic Essay his identity to Eumaeus with “a sign that you can trust me, look: this old scar from the tusk wound that I got boar hunting….” (Fitzgerald, Bk. 21, 240) Finally, Laertes is shown the scar by Odysseus: “Oh, Father, I am he! Twenty years gone, and here I’ve come again to my own land!”.... “If you are Odysseus, my son, come back, give me some roof, a sign to make me sure.” His son replied: “The scar then, first of all” (Fitzgerald, Bk. 24, 350) Here the tears may flow, finally, after all the disguises and lies are put aside. These tears need not be hidden, as they had been for Argos. Odysseus’ adventure with the boar hunt as a boy shows us the true identity of Odysseus-- born to be Odysseus the adventurer, the master strategist, taker of risks, and man of courage beyond all measure. He was brave, skillful, and perhaps reckless enough to need luck, or the help of Athena. This scar will prove to be the only certain way to identify Odysseus, even for those who know him best. How remarkable, then is the single glance of “knowing” that is all Argos will need to recognize his master, despite all the years that separated them. But Argos ran out of luck when Odysseus left for Troy, and Athena apparently did not come to him on her visits to the household. And yet, twenty years is a long time for dogs to live. Athena’s blessings had been showering down on Penelope and Telemachus, and perhaps a few sprinkles reached Argos to extend his life until Odysseus returned. Argos’ story is linked to the story of Odysseus, for Argos owes his very existence to Odysseus. After all, Odysseus bred Argos. Odysseus wanted Argos to join him on the great hunts to come so he bred a dog that would be strong and swift. Argos would never lose the scent of the prey because he was a fine dog who had been trained by a skillful and wise master. Surely Argos was meant to be at Odysseus’ side. For Ithaka, Penelope, Telemachus, and Laertes, Odysseus did finally return. We are left with hope that Ithaka will be reunited and once again have its King. A loyal wife will once again be with her beloved husband. Our young prince is now guided by Athena and his father. A father is reunited with his long-lost son and may now rest in true peace. But Argos has no future with Odysseus, only a “last look, and having seen him, dies; So closed for ever faithful Argus’ eyes!” (Pope) I wish that Odysseus had let his guard down long enough for this to happen: 10 �Academic Essay My master takes my head in his hands and looks deep into my eyes. “Can it be that you still live? Truly the gods are good…. Now you may let go of your duty to me and hunt the wild stag and the fearsome boar on Mount Olympus. They wait for you on the other side, most loyal of all creatures.” This passage is not from any of the translations of Homer’s Odyssey I consulted. It is from a novel I recently discovered (Argos, Ralph Hardy, Harper Collins, 2016). This is the ending moment Argos deserved. Why wouldn’t Homer write this ending? I think for the same reason Odysseus doesn’t throw his arms around Telemachus, Penelope, Laertes, or Eurykleia. It does not fit Odysseus’ plan to be recognized before he is ready. Is this selfish or merely hardheaded realism? With Odysseus it is a mixture of both. In a way, Argos is like Simeon, who had waited many years for a glimpse of the baby who would be the savior of the world, which he had been promised. When the promise is fulfilled, he can die in peace. When the child was brought to the temple for a blessing, overjoyed, Simeon uttered these words, which were his last: Lord now lettest thy servant Depart in peace, according to thy word For my eyes have seen your salvation That you have prepared in the presence of all peoples. (Luke 29:31) This man waited for years, longing for the arrival of the promised one who would put right in the world all the things that are crooked. Finally, justice and goodness would arrive and reign with equity. Is it too much to say that in a secular sense, Odysseus was to be the “salvation” for his beleaguered wife, his endangered son, and lawless Ithaka? In this beautiful moment, in the last breath of Argos, he finally sees the promised one, who will put right all that is not so in Ithaka. And having finally seen him, Argos dies. Odysseus, although a mortal, had godlike characteristics that were given to him when Athena cloaked him in golden splendor, making him taller and younger, 11 �Academic Essay with hair like hyacinth blossoms. In crucial moments in battles, Athena deflected spears that would have killed Odysseus. At critical junctures she appeared in the guise of Mentor, to guide him with divine wisdom. Although Odysseus was a mortal, he had encounters with the divine often enough to reliably seek and find divine solutions. And Odysseus definitely had people who “believed in” him, in the sense of relying on him and trusting his capabilities. Penelope was one, robust enough in her faith to hold on for twenty years without a single letter or message, without news from people who had seen him or his men. Nothing. That is extraordinary faith. And Telemachus, although he remembered nothing of his father, and wasn’t even sure of his parentage, wanted to believe. When he finally talked with the war heroes who knew his father and recognized Odysseus’ characteristics in him, Telemachus became a true believer. And of course, there was Argos, who needed no proof whatsoever to “know” Odysseus, who believed that his master would finally come home. Homer’s Odyssey is a marvelous story offering exciting tales of goddesses, giants, six headed monsters, grand victories, and deadly defeats. In the midst of the epic adventures of the wily Odysseus, Homer artfully paints the doubt, despair, and disorder, which plagues a leaderless land. Those who are left behind for two decades pay a heavy price. Argos’ story is a delicately painted miniature offering the reader of the Odyssey a vibrant portrait of life in Ithaca without a master, a king, a father, a son, and a husband. Athena always aided Odysseus when he needed her most. Penelope never failed her husband. Telemachus, empowered and encouraged by Athena, grew to be a prince. Eumaeus remained steadfast. Argos? He was touched by greatness in his youth as he was bred and trained by the transformative spirt of his master. When Odysseus was gone, Argos was forgotten, abandoned, and cast away in disordered Ithaca. But Odysseus never left his heart. In the end, Argos was reunited with Odysseus and a salt tear from his beloved master quenched his parched spirit, as Argos sailed off on his final journey. May we, like Argos, always keep Odysseus in our hearts. 12 �Academic Essay "Here, Cyclops...now drink some wine" Odyssey, (Emily Wilson) Book 4. 345 Mosaic floor, Villa Romana Del Casale, Sicily photographed by Elizabeth Janthey 13 �Personal Essay Dialogue and Understanding in the Seminar Oral Courtney White When I think of good opening questions, “What's the point of it all?” is not one of them. That might be considered a question worthy of existential philosophy, but I chose it as my opening question for my literature seminar oral with Mr. Townsend. This type of question is generally thought of as too broad. In my previous orals, I brought an opening question that was specific, and prepared by looking over the texts, assuming that the conversation would be directed in specific ways. Despite all the preparations, the tutors seemed to take the conversations into unknown territory where I felt like I was hit by a torpedo fish. What led me to ask this question? I never quite understood the draw of literature, so I chose to take the math and science segment first, followed by the history segment. The scientific proofs invigorated me and the specificity of geometry gave an illusion of clarity in a chaotic world; this kind of analysis carried over well to the history segment. Emboldened by my newfound knowledge of ancient philosophy and Greek history, I felt ready to take on the literature segment, which was always a weak area for me. I read Homer through the lens of Vico, and Shakespeare through the lens of Plutarch. I attempted to analyse the texts with the same specificity of math and science, but literature resists such scrutiny. After some time, however, I was able to shed my need for finding historical accuracy, through being drawn to the emotional portrayals of the human experience. Still, despite being sympathetic to some of the various characters, I was repulsed by the horrible actions of pretty much every one of them. What values are these texts teaching us when we read that Achilles drags Hector's dead and bloodied body around? What are we supposed to believe when we read that Dionysus puts a spell on women who not only dance and drink but tear animals to pieces with their bare hands? I kept asking myself as I read, how do we know what a virtue worth pursuing is? Who sets the standard? Is it the gods or is it man? Who is a virtuous man? Can we justify revenge or murder for the sake of honor? Can we justify lying for the sake of storytelling? As a Christian, I take to heart when St. Paul says to dwell on whatever is good, noble, and pure. The content of the literature we read made me question if there was anything in it that was good, noble or pure. As my oral approached, I still had not gotten the 14 �Personal Essay illumination I was seeking. I was also starting to despise the texts we were reading. There really wasn’t a more honest or more pointed question for the oral than “what’s the point of it all?” With two semesters under my belt, I knew that the tutors were there to help me discover and grow. At this point I was grateful that St. John's puts so little emphasis on grades, emboldening me to take a chance. My question wasn’t rhetorical, rather it was a plea to truly get what I was seeking. Mr. Townsend had the patience and subtlety to draw out my thoughts and feelings and to expand my question. He asked me questions as if I were the author of a great book. Like Socrates, he helped me to discover and to see things in a new perspective. He was humble, patient, and deeply attentive. He was not afraid to get to the heart of the issues most people are afraid to broach. Mr. Townsend asked me if I was looking for a judge to determine what is right, like Athena in Eumenides. That didn’t seem to resonate with my deeper concern. When he pointed to Hippolytus as an archetype of a sacrificial figure, I began to see how I could find value in these texts. It seemed that my main issue with the Greek texts was that there was no guiding light of truth. A source of truth was what I was looking for, an anchor. Mr. Townsend assured me that, even in a secular college, it's acceptable to come in with my own religious convictions as a compass for interpretation. One way to look at it, he told me, was to believe that God providentially created all people in such a way that certain truths can be illuminated through their actions. So, is there anything good, noble or true in these texts? As I thought about it, examples flooded my mind: The desire to sacrifice oneself for a higher cause, in Hippolytus, the desire to forgive in the Iliad, an acknowledgement that revenge perpetuates violence in the plays of Aeschylus, the desire to conquer death in Antony and Cleopatra. Although my opening question wasn’t directly answered, the desire of my heart was. I wanted to find value in literature, and reconcile my emotional draw to the characters with my desire for a clear understanding of virtue. I am now in the Philosophy and Theology segment where I can explore the concept of virtue in more depth. My next opening question: “Can we even call something good or bad without evoking an externally derived moral standard?” 15 �Personal Essay “Therefore etc”: Bang or Whimper? Jeremy Sheeler I must confess, Euclid just does not speak to my soul. Despite understanding intellectually why he is so important (both foundationally for mathematics, and because so many thinkers whom I respect hold him in such high regard), I cannot help but find him boring. Somehow I doubt the beauty of an elegant construction will ever move me, nor, as in the case of an affected acquaintance of one of my classmates, will I ever shed tears of joy over him. I am certainly awed by Euclid’s god-like powers to create a world ex nihilo from the abyss of breadthless depthlessness. Yet, this realm lacking space or time, for me, also lacks life. Though apparently a later substitution by our esteemed translator Heath for the full re-enunciation intended by Euclid, I cannot think of a better way to sum up the feeling I get after working through a proposition than the underwhelmed, “Therefore etc.” Still, I cannot help but wonder to what sort of soul such a project does speak? As with Aristotle, there is a dry austerity to Euclid’s procedure: proposition following upon proposition, piece by piece, step by step, till this rigorously rational world is created. What I cannot decide, though, is if dry necessarily means arid? Heraclitus once proclaimed that “To souls, it is joy to become wet;” however, in his typical self-countervailing fashion, he also admonished, “It is the dry soul which is wisest and best.” While there is much joy to be found in the excesses of the Dionysian flood, the more delicate growths of reason and prudence tend to be drowned in the torrent. Yet so too, it would seem, is the aridity of the desert an equally inhospitable climate for life. The Dictionary of Scientific Biography opens its lengthy article on “The Geometer” by admitting, “Although Euclid is the most celebrated mathematician of all time, whose name became a synonym for geometry until the twentieth century, only two facts of his life are known, and even those are not beyond dispute.” It is postulated, however, that in addition to compiling the Elements, he also wrote treatises on spheres and cylinders, geometric optics, analytical problem solving, and, most-contested of all, a mathematization of music. Yet, despite our lack of any definitive knowledge of his life, perhaps, we could draw out some aspects of his soul merely from his work. As Nietzsche purports in his Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks, “Philosophic systems, even if completely erroneous, 16 �Personal Essay have always one wholly incontrovertible point: personal mood, color.” Though being far from qualified to judge the efficacy of Euclid’s enterprise itself, I feel at least slightly more comfortable formulating some hypotheses about the possible character traits one could deduce from such a painstaking attempt at systematization. What drives someone to desire this degree of order and exactitude? Is it really just for knowledge’s sake—a disinterestedness desire for the Truth, with uncompromising reason merely seen as the straightest path? It is certainly a noble image, and the prevailing one we continue to hold of the “Man of Science” today. But if one peers beyond this façade, there is no man who appears behind this scientist—only method. Euclid, the man, disappears in his work, no more material than the world that he has so carefully constructed. Still, there must be something there, something to this need that Euclid felt. For though a perfect circle can never actually exist, nor will a straight line ever sit at a perfect right angle upon a plane, there must be some sort of connection to the “real” world. But what if my inability to appreciate him is not simply a matter of personal preference, but instead a personal failure? If the effusiveness of so many of my colleagues is any indication, not only is the solemn reverence that I have so far managed to muster warranted, but a genuine excitement is possible. Their enthusiasm, however, seems to stem from two entirely different (and conflicting) sources: either his procedure accords with their nature; or it arises from a selfaware recognition of lack—either they already love order; or they are perceptive enough to know that they need it. What if Euclid, the man, did not feel the need to live in his work because the dryness of his intellectual pursuits was actually a counterbalance to the joyous overflow of his actual life? While unfortunately the details of his biography have been lost to the sands of time, there is another figure that perhaps can be justifiably put in his place to judge the soundness of the project. The renowned historian of mathematics Thomas L. Heath was born in 1861, in the small English village of Barnet-byle-wold. His love of the ancient world began early in life at the knee of his father, a farmer with a penchant for the Greeks, and would eventually lead him to a degree in both mathematics and classics from Trinity College Cambridge. After graduation, Heath became a civil servant in the national treasury, but his desire to continue living the “life of the mind” never faded. When not engrossed in official duties, he engaged in 17 �Personal Essay independent scholarship, and, despite never holding any academic position, is now revered as one of the leading authorities in the history of mathematics. Yet, in addition to these staid and scholarly pursuits, he was also an accomplished pianist, literature and train enthusiast, mountaineer, as well as a loving husband and father. Indefatigable to the very end, he climbed his last mountain at the age of seventy and left behind an unfinished work on Aristotle’s mathematics when he died suddenly of a stroke in 1940. Now this is hardly the image of a man living apart from life, rather of one engaged in all its fullness and multifarious offerings. He seems to be the very type of individual whom St. John’s wishes to midwife into the world: one who not just knows arête, but practices it; one not just locked away in a sterile laboratory, creating impossible worlds, but using the knowledge gained there for this one. Euclid’s imaginary world is then perhaps not in parallelity to life, but in harmony with it. But as Heath so acutely recognized: it is a means, not an end. In his essay The Abolition of Man, a reflection on the disintegration of the human soul under modern philosophy theories, C.S. Lewis contends that there are certain “qualities” in the world that “demand” certain responses from us— that is, whether we like it or not. To illustrate this, he admits that, although he does not particularly enjoy the company of small children, he sees this as a defect in himself, instead of a mere personal preference. The goal of his essay is to show that there are standards—goods—in this world that, by necessity, transcend an individual’s subjectivity—which if we lack, then there is something fundamental missing in our lives. He calls this sort of judgment, “Speaking from within the Tao.” Perhaps my failure to appreciate Euclid is of just this sort of deficiency. Perhaps, it is a refusal to become whole, an attempt to instead hide away as a selfcontented half-man. Yet so too would this be the case for the those who love Euclid simply because he comports with their inner nature—but for the opposite reason. The tallest growths, it would seem, flourish only in flush environments. But lucky for us humans this does not depend solely upon the lottery of birth or accident of location: it is a choice we are all given to create for ourselves. So, then, to attempt to answer my titular question: Is “Therefore etc,” as an end to Euclid’s propositions, a bang or a whimper? Maybe it is neither. Heath was just too busy living his life to tell you what you already know. 18 �Personal Essay The Eternal Kingdom of the Triangle by Jaime Marquez 19 �Creative Writing Why I Am Here Bonnie Naradzay Ibykos fragment 286, translated using only words from Martin Luther King’s Letter from the Birmingham City Jail (After Anne Carson in Nay, Rather) In Birmingham, on the one hand, early Christians, being willing to face hungry lions where a higher law was involved, while white mothers screaming on television were seen. On the other hand, for me an unjust law distorts the soul. Nay rather, like a code inflicted on a minority, creating with unjust methods parading without a permit, on its face, nothing wrong man’s tragic separation. 20 �College Ephemera A Conversation with Louis Petrich, Tutor Charles Green & Jaime Marquez, Colloquy Colloquy: How did you arrive at St. John's? Louis Petrich: That’s a long story. How far back should I go? I think the intellectual seeds for becoming a tutor were sown in college, by diverse studies at Northwestern University. I started out in “the integrated science program,” an intense curriculum for kids very strong in math and science, who did not want to major in any one science, but preferred to study all to become interdisciplinary researchers. I did that for two years. Almost all my classes were physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics. But I took an elective my sophomore year, a survey of Western literary classics, most of which we read at the College. I fell in love with the great epics, dramas, poetry, and novels, and felt deprived that I wasn't getting more, to learn how to express that very love. The sciences do not teach you how to talk with the beloveds. So I switched majors to English, though first I took off a quarter to read on my own. (Northwestern is on the quarter system.) I mostly read the Romantic writers of the American tradition--Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman. Students who have done zoom classes with me will recognize the portrait of Thoreau that hangs in my office. His book, Walden, had a tremendous influence on me. I went to Concord, Massachusetts, for a summer to study Thoreau and Emerson, who both lived there. I stayed in a replica of his hut. I got to know some estimable “Thoreauvians,” and wrote a one-man show on the life of Thoreau that I performed locally when I returned to Northwestern. I still maintained my studies of math and the sciences, by making them my electives. So I graduated college with (what felt like) a dissonant double background of poetry and science. I went immediately to the University of Chicago to harmonize that doubleness in the Committee on Social Thought, which allowed graduates to pursue their own questions with anyone who shared them. Owing to the influence of one of my mentors, David Grene, an Irish classicist and farmer, I became more and more interested in Shakespeare and the theater. I got involved in a local professional company at the University of Chicago, and I started writing a dissertation on Shakespeare and performance. This was all in the 1980’s. Then in the fall of 1989, the world changed as the communist countries in Eastern and Central Europe collapsed in a heap. The Soviet Union would as well, two years later. I learned through a friend that the Fulbright Scholar program, under the agency of the 21 �College Ephemera State Department, was having a hard time filling its slots for Romania, which had a bloody revolution in December ‘89. Conditions were very bad and few people wanted to risk the rampages of Romanian miners, who were making front-page news. I dropped right into those alien waters, like jumping off a cliff at high tide. By that time, I was tired of being in graduate school, preparing for a career in some American English department, most of which had enthralled themselves to political and sociological agendas that did not suit my tastes, which as I said were acquired in the knowledge-driven laboratories of science and the beauty-driven stagings of Shakespearean verse. So I up and left for Romania as a Fulbright Scholar to teach American studies--not my field, but that’s what the freed Romanians wanted. My only qualification--being American--was enough. I really loved it. The Romanians were very pro-American and eager to read our books, previously prohibited. If they were taught anything about us, it was through a Marxist-Leninist indoctrination. Though no one believed in that, they felt compelled to go along, until enough of them realized they needn’t, and there I was. I ended up teaching for ten years in several former communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe and the Soviet Union--until 9/11. Then the world changed again, and the borders, newly opened across the once half-forbidden globe, were closing because of terrorism and overstated fears. The resources that supported my work in education were redirected to fighting terrorism and keeping us all safe. By that time I was married and had a son. We were living in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, north of Afghanistan, a Moslem country. It was deemed a precarious situation, though really there was nothing that warranted the closures and evacuations. I had tucked away in the back of my mind an idea I never thought would come to pass: to teach in the U.S. at the only College that fully suited my waywardness, St. John’s. I knew about it because there's a lot of crossover between St. John's and the University of Chicago. So I applied for a tutor position. The Dean flew me half-way around the globe for an interview in January of 2002, and by April the Instruction Committee had decided in my favor. So if not for Osama Bin Laden and 9/11, I would probably have remained a happy expatriate, teaching American studies to our former official enemies, who now number among my best and oldest friends. I do miss that life--the adventures and freedoms, not to be had now--but of course I’m grateful to tutor in Annapolis, for as long as the students want it. CQ: Do you do you notice any differences between teaching undergraduates and teaching at the Graduate Institute? 22 �College Ephemera LP: I get asked that a lot. I'm not sure why people are so interested in that question. There are differences, obviously. GI students are older. They tend to be more settled in their lives than the College kids. They're not living together in campus dorms like the undergrads. So they are not as dependent on the community for their well-being, and consequently they have adjusted better to the online medium than my younger students. One thing I do miss in the GI is the chronological program of the College. With any group of undergraduates, I know what they have read before. In the GI, students take the segments in any order. I'm often tempted to make a reference to another book in the program, but I can't do that in the GI as I can among the undergraduates, who share an enlarging common ground for discussion. But the GI students have chosen to come back to school, after an interim of some years spent in a world delinquent in the things we do; thus they’re all the more appreciative of the books and conversations and friendships to be made here, like nowhere else, they tell me. I have personal reasons (that aren't so interesting) for teaching in the GI, but I’ll mention them. I like getting a new group of students each semester. I like that there are smaller classes in the GI than in the College. And I've gotten to like being the solo tutor in seminar. I've learned a lot by having to carry responsibility for the seminar’s questions and conduct. I like teaching a preceptorial alongside the seminar, for there’s always a book I want to work on for sixteen weeks. So there are many things to please me in the GI. I’ve also done much teaching in the College’s continuing education program. A Friday night lecture I gave on Chekhov had its origin in a weekend community seminar, with people off the street interested in his stories, still students. CQ: I'm wondering if you could talk about your Friday night lecture on Falstaff which you gave in the spring of 2019. LP: That lecture was a joy. We were trying with difficulty to schedule it in April, a very busy month, with croquet, Senior Prank, and other activities that cluster at the end of the year. But it suddenly occurred to me that this would be a great prank lecture, because of Falstaff, who (among other roles) is a prankster. So I said to the Dean, “All right, let's schedule it right after Thursday’s senior prank, as long as certain conditions are met.” These included advertising the lecture so that people would not know what to expect: something prankish, but nonetheless serious? The occasion made me push quite far in vindicating Falstaff’s comic excesses, rooted in the body and a deep longing for dimly remembered paradise. 23 �College Ephemera In fact I rewrote the lecture with an audience of senior pranksters in mind, who’d be turning of the College into a kind of Boar’s Head tavern of Eastcheap. You see it was first drafted a couple of years before, while I was on sabbatical, on the shores of an island in the Caribbean, my little piece of paradise. Falstaff lays claim to paradise, in that he doesn't consent to death; he doesn't sweat at labors; he gardens pleasures and reaps what others sow, without guilt, without trepidation. I had a lot of fun releasing him as the center of meaning in Henry IV, Part 1. He’s the one attractive alternative to the ugly politics of Hal's father, and the excessive honor-loving of Hotspur, who, though beautiful, is too vulnerable to destruction by the politicians. I tried to offer Falstaff as a third way, whenever life presents itself in the form of two deadly necessary alternatives. CQ: What distinguishes Shakespeare's plays from those of his contemporaries, like Marlowe or Ben Johnson, such that he’s still read and performed today? LP: Well, if you read a late play of Shakespeare, say Henry VIII, on which he probably collaborated with John Fletcher, you can immediately hear the difference between Shakespeare's dramatic verse and his popular colleague’s. Marlowe is credited with introducing blank verse to the English stage. But his verse, great as it is, doesn't convince you the way Shakespeare’s does. Marlowe is more cumbersome and literary. Read the plays aloud and see for yourself. By the way, an interesting thing to note about Shakespeare is that even though he knew, along with everyone else, that he was the greatest writer of his time, and would remain a treasure forever, he didn't succor the kind of pride that forbade collaboration with others. He was willing to share the creative work, not only with his own company of actors, but also with lesser playwrights. I think that was part of his strength--not caring much about possessing and controlling his creations, his Ariel and Caliban loves. Think about that the next time you read or see The Tempest. Also wonderful, along these lines, is that Shakespeare never put effort into publishing his plays. He left them to chance, or to other people. I think they were, to him, a kind of ephemera, written one after another (about two per year) to entertain the high and low of London. And all the while he was reviving and directing old and new plays by others and co-managing the company. He wasn’t writing dramatic “literature,” and yet he struck such deep chords that the plays seem miraculous, such that many seek to assign them to an illustrious author. In 24 �College Ephemera the end, Prospero, the stage master, would have tossed the whole corpus into the sea. That’s worth thinking about, too. CQ: Do the techniques of acting and drama translate at all to leading a seminar or tutorial? LP: I think in some ways, yes, definitely. Actors must learn to be believable onstage, by delivering their lines freshly minted, even if they’re as old and handled as pewter. I’ll never forget an actor’s workshop I attended in London one summer, in which we were asked, one at a time, to stand up and recite Shakespeare’s sonnet 18: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” We all took our turns, but not one of us got beyond the twentieth word or so before the Anglo-Irish instructor, from England’s top school of drama, precisely interrupted, “Stop, I don’t believe you just now. You can sit down, please. Next.” We had to believe ourselves that the words of that sonnet had never been writ or said before we pronounced them--that they were our original creations of the moment. In seminar or tutorial, tutors return to the same books over and over again, making believe, because it’s true, that they never grow old or stale. It should always be an original moment of creation in discussing them. Otherwise, it’s time to stop. Participants in seminar, like actors, must listen genuinely, not robotically, not waiting for the cue to say something expected of them. We need to appreciate being part of an ensemble, and not just a bunch of solo performers. Good timing is essential, along with a balanced facility for comedy and tragedy, something Socrates advocates, for aren’t we all fools, we brave-hardy fallen equals of the lettered great? In both capacities, a modulating voice that brings out the shifting meanings of speech is such a help. The books we read come from breathers like us. Often people forget that. So they don't modulate. Everything is spoken and heard in a deadly monotone. So having some background in theatre helps readers become co-creators, as I think they should be, now more than ever, to thwart the machines. CQ: Do you think live theater will survive this period of extended closures and quarantine? LP: Definitely. There've been plagues in the past and theater has survived their closures. You know not long after Shakespeare's death, the theaters were closed by the Puritans for twenty years! The real threat to theater is not disease, but righteous politics and purifications. Besides, what's the point of saving lives if you get rid of the things that make life worth living? If we’re going to keep safe, 25 �College Ephemera at least let’s do it Falstaff’s way, rising up to full cheeky liveliness, having counterfeited death for a while. You know, I recently streamed a very successful National Theatre production of Twelfth Night, my favorite Shakespearean comedy. But it's not nearly the same thing as being there, live. These streamed productions are missing the risk of spontaneity and contact with human bodies onstage, spitting heart and mind into the rapt audience. If streaming plays is the future, then we won’t keep funding theater, we’ll just have film. CQ: Would it be fair to say, by way of analogy, that streaming a play is akin to seeing video images of beautiful places, rather than visiting the actual sites? LP: That's the effect. I find it demoralizing, really, that all these travel companies, who have found me out, deluge me with cheerful offers of a “virtual travel experience.” Why should I enable the doctrine of the enemy? CQ: You’ve contributed many poems to Colloquy over the last several years. Could you talk a little about some of your poetic influences and favorite poets? LP: My main influence is blank verse, iambic pentameter, owing to all my drinking in of Shakespeare. I’d have to make the effort to avoid it, but why? I like rhyming, but not at the expense of sense, so I’ll often admit rhymes anywhere in the line, so long as the words say precisely what is wanted. I am fussy about rhythm. I count syllables and stresses, and fight against lazy irregularities. But laziness often gets the better of me. CQ: Can you talk more about the process you go through in writing some of the poems you’ve contributed to Colloquy? LP: My process is continual revision. In the morning hours, words that somehow were found in sleep, sound out and self-select. I’m learning to get out of their way. From whence they come, who knows? Formerly, the sources were called “muses,” a useful term still for the faces and voices that get inside you. I regret the fact that meeting deadlines requires premature parturition, which vanity assists, and later regrets. There’s much sense in Emily Dickinson’s process: keep working at your poems until you’re dead; let others see to their publication; and thereby keep the muses from feeling betrayed by missteps in public rehearsal. 26 �College Ephemera Another creative “process” I learned from performing in Othello. I’m sure that Shakespeare felt Iago as deeply as he felt Othello. He does not censure his capacity for the darkness that owns the light, and that’s a giant part of his strength. Theatrically and poetically, Iago is a power to be husbanded, as questions are. They make for a pleasing whole that contributes to knowledge. For hate knows its objects as deeply as love does, and questions them with like authority. Something else relevant to writing poetry I learned from King Lear: to speak from stirred lips that aren’t specific to the owner. Personal experiences are straw, to be spun into the silk that is simplicity itself. Lear gets there by the end. Shakespeare’s dark lady sonnets spring from personal experience of betrayal in a love triangle, but it would be vulgar-minded to read them primarily as autobiography. His Richard II supposedly drew from Queen Elizabeth the response that Richard (being deposed) was her; a dangerous identification to make, but Shakespeare must have trusted that she would not mistake a poetic character for her own history. It’s discomforting to treat life as scraps for composition, but each of us does this at night in dreams. Out of vanity we see ourselves there, though it is merely an elbow that is wanted by the poet, the dreamer, the lover. I might start a poem with some woman’s elbow, a catchy saying, a breakfast taste, a spasm of jealousy, but soon these things go roaming for words that live out there, where Cordelia’s lips have gone, and then I’m free of my dead-end self, to borrow breath from what’s forever stirring in the air. We’ve all had that experience, right?—when you read something and say, “That’s me, and I could’ve written it, if only I knew how to write!” We’re all out there, when smitten, like Orlando posting love poems on embarrassed trees. The poems I post may be like the abrupt body of Richard III, sent before his time into this breathing world, scarce half made up. But let the dogs bark, that hunchback knew how to get the girl and the crown, though he didn’t keep them long. CQ: If you could add any books or authors to the Program, which would you add? LP: James Joyce. I think his story, “The Dead,” is the greatest short story I've read. And Ulysses, my God, yes, yes, because there is probably no other College in America, or the world, that better prepares its students for the amazing feast that Joyce serves up in that book. I'd like to read more American authors: Frederick Douglass, his autobiography, I'd want to include with Ben Franklin's. Each of them solves the problem of life, as it faced him, and each still speaks to the question of identity that so occupies us today. Augustine’s shouldn’t be the only autobiography we read. We don't read any dramatists after the 17 th-century. I would at least add Chekov. His Cherry Orchard is about keeping a good thing 27 �College Ephemera going in a world opposed to that thing. It would make an apropos final reading for seniors and their tutors. CQ: Are there any books on the program currently that you feel are no longer helpful, that don't serve their purpose anymore? Or that don't excite you when you enter into them? LP: That's very rare. Carl Jung’s book on Freud, which we read in the GI, is an interpretation, and I’d rather read Freud himself and form my own interpretations. There’s been a fair amount of experimentation on how to end the senior year. What’s a fitting end to this chronological program of ours? We finish by going back to the Phaedrus, implying that the end is the beginning. I like that idea, but not by itself. I got to see, while living abroad for many years, something you hear said: that civilization, which takes a long time to erect, can be lost damn quickly. The way to keep it going is to return to the beginning, but with a conviction of how precarious it is. That’s why I would end with Chekhov, for he knew the fragility of that cherry orchard, which we hear being chopped down at the end of the play, to make money. Its caretakers did not take proper care. I think that’s where we always are in danger. CQ: What's your experience been leading online classes? LP: Going into it, a year ago, I felt the dread of exile to Siberia (which I’ve been to, in winter). It feels to me antithetical to community, humanity, and love. What we value at the college is learning from each other face to face--in person--getting energized from each other's actual company. Plato's word for that, as we all learn to appreciate, is eros. When you're disembodied online, you lose that erotic energy. This makes learning exhausting, and not much fun, either. Who looks good online? Whose words are not impeded by the removal of common breath? Who has not felt the urgent need to chuck the screens into the nearest river? But I have to admit, nonetheless, that my online GI classes have gone much better than I expected. Their success makes me want to say, like Polus, “I have to agree with the argument, but still, I’m not going to live that way.” Lab classes in the College suffer because there are no practica to perform with one’s own knowing hands. So lab ceases to be lab, and science becomes more authoritarian. Math tutorial also suffers, because we do need a real blackboard to give room to the beholding of truths and the gestural expanding of thoughts--spontaneously. That’s a synonym for life, you know. 28 �Personal Essay The Pandemic and the Iliad Will Harvard We all can look back on the past year and reflect on how we coped with the dramatic change and shift that Covid-19 brought to our individual and collected lives. Zoom became the world in which people went to work; school; even happy hours and family gatherings. It would be the place I would spend my final summer before graduating from St. John’s Graduate Institute. Four summers, this was not how I wanted to end my tenure. And yet, I could not help but think of the undergraduates who spent even more time than I did at St. John’s and their loss of a senior spring on the beautiful Annapolis grounds. People lost jobs, and relationships became strained for many communities living together. Screens and the information contained on them, be it print, or video, became a lifeline for a majority of people around the world. And although I count myself as one of those people, I also craved silence and reflection. Too much screen time left me fatigued and feeling even more distanced from people. By the end of the summer I had taught the final two months of the school year on zoom as well as attended my final St. John’s classes on it as well. I was averaging anywhere from two to six hours on it: I needed a break, and this break came in the form of rereading an edition of the Iliad I had had since college. My initial hope was to reread the epic poem in the original Greek with all the time I had to spare since most things in my community were still closed. However, no matter how far I read, I could not help returning again and again to book one and the opening of the work itself. What started out as a way to take my mind off the pandemic, quickly turned into a meditation on the world’s situation as well as the canon at St. John’s. For anyone that has read the poem, the opening line is one of the most famous in all of literature, “sing, oh goddess, the destructive wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus.” And while “wrath” deserves our attention at the outset, since it is what fuels Achilles to return to battle after the death of Patroclus and has him slay Hector, it was another word a few lines down that drew me in as if reading the poem for the first time: “χολωθεὶς- having been angered (ln.9).” This aorist participle describes Apollo and his anger at Agamemnon for keeping the daughter of Chryses, who is a priest to Apollo, as a war prize. As a result, Apollo sends a plague in the form of his arrows to punish 29 �Personal Essay the Greeks on behalf of his priest’s pain at not having his daughter returned by Agamemnon in exchange for spoils and wealth. Homer describes the result of this plague as “crowded pyres of the dead always burning (ln. 52).” Perhaps it is simply the time we are living in with restrictions, a national death toll, and trackers for those infected, but I simply could not move past this episode in the poem. It felt as though I was watching this very scene play out nationally before all our eyes. Here in this instance is Achilles, not the warrior and vengeful killer, but Achilles, the diplomat, who calls the Greeks to council at the behest of Hera, to whom the Greeks were so dear. Instead of wielding his sword, Achilles reasons it is time to return home, or at least consult a seer to understand why Apollo is so angry with them. Enter Kalchas, the greatest of diviners, who led the Greeks to Troy, and is described as being able to know “the things that are, the things to come, and the things that were.” But this matters not as he makes Achilles swear to protect him, because he knows that he is going to upset Agamemnon. He prudently addresses Achilles with the following: For a king is greater when he is angry with a lesser man, and even though on the same day he keeps his anger from rising, he still holds back his grudge, deep in his chest, until it is fulfilled. (l.80-83) And Kalchas is right. Agamemnon is furious with him as he replies, Seer of evil, never have you spoken a favorable word to me. Always evil things are dear to your heart to prophesize. You have never spoken a worthy prophecy, nor has it ever been fulfilled. (l.106-108) Despite Kalchas’ prodigious skills, and having his gift of prophecy from Apollo himself, Agamemnon uses the personal pronoun, “μοι-to me (ln. 106).” It is no matter to Agamemnon how truthful Kalchas is being or even how skilled he is, because Kalchas’ words are in direct opposition to Agamemnon’s personal wants and desires. And we know this because Agamemnon tells the council he prefers Chryseis to his own wife, Clytemnestra, in looks and work. From here Achilles fulfills his promise to Kalchas and stands up to Agamemnon. As both men trade 30 �Personal Essay insulting speeches, it is Agamemnon who gets the final say when he gives back Chryseis only to strip Achilles of his prize, Briseis. These actions have irrevocable consequences as this is the reason Achilles abstains from the war and sets in motion the future deaths of not only countless Greeks, but also that of Patroclus. Achilles even puts it to Agamemnon that “my hands have managed the greater part of this tiresome fighting (lns.165-166).” While it is tempting to draw parallels with the language and reactions between our country’s leadership with that of Agamemnon and Kalchas, as well as seeing Achilles as a frontline worker in terms of how much fighting he bore, there is a larger and more important question to ask: what does this episode mean for the great books cannon at St. John’s? Indeed, every generation will have its Agamemnon in one way or another. And time and again each passing generation of St. John’s students will experience a Kalchas or diviner who sees the truth with an Achilles willing to defend it. But what does it mean for us readers, those that have read before us, and for those future generations that will read after us, that the St. John’s curriculum chronologically begins with an episode of a pandemic, anger, and the dichotomy between personal and civic responsibility on the behalf of a king and a goddess born warrior? One may ask, especially of the Graduate Institute, “but how does this episode stand at the forefront of St. John’s?” While it is less evident at the Graduate Institute due to the opportunity to study segments out of order, the undergraduates embark on the Iliad and the Odyssey their freshman year. Perhaps sections of the Old Testament could be considered older than Homer, but regardless, St. John’s undergraduates begin their academic careers with a storyline that predates all the other Greek writers on the reading list for that year. Achilles’ wrath is so famous that even if one has not read Homer, she is certain to know it. And yet, before the invocation of the goddess to sing of Achilles’ wrath, she must first explain the anger of a god, a king, a warrior, and the balance of self-interest they have for themselves as well as others. Just like my time on the Annapolis campus, I am filled with questions more than with answers. During this past year I have experienced anger, frustration, and even compassion. While I count myself fortunate not to have lost anyone in my family to Covid, I have watched as coworkers and family friends attended virtual 31 �Personal Essay funerals. Reading Book 1 of the Iliad was not therapeutic. I did not feel a sense of perspective that the idea of a plague and the dissension it causes goes back to one of our earliest forms of literature. Instead I came to understand the adverb “αἰεὶalways (ln. 52),” as in every time someone reads or listens to Book 1 of the Iliad, the crowded funeral pyres of the dead are always burning, as if in perpetuum. And the result will always be the same: an assembly of leaders called forth, the consultation of an expert, and the resulting anger of those in attendance in response to the truth. “Always” does not make this epic linear, instead, it presents the work as continually existing, coming into being every time we pick up the text to listen to the goddess explain Achilles’ wrath, and to a no less important degree, a pandemic and its consequences. By Neha Gaddam 32 �Academic Essay Excerpt from The Molting Eagle and the Shedding Serpent James Wheeler Nietzsche does not give us any tidy answers. Like the Sphinx to Oedipus, he has presented us with a riddle. But for what purpose? Why not state his position clearly? One answer might be that Nietzsche, through Zarathustra, does not want to be understood by everyone. Maybe, he only wants those who read his words slowly, precisely, and with blood-dripping intensity to be able to unravel the bandages wrapped around this mummy of Moment. Perhaps he is telling us that there must be some demonstration of faculties before the keys to the kingdom of heaven and the gates of hell can be given. In that sense, it seems clear that Zarathustra’s position on the eternal recurrence is not meant to encapsulate everyone. Zarathustra is no savior for all of mankind. If he is a savior at all, he is only so for those who can solve his riddle and more importantly, once solved, can summon the courage to not wither before it. Zarathustra’s idea of the eternal recurrence demands, even from himself, a person unafraid to tie themselves to the tracks while the Train of All-Life hurtles forever and repeatedly toward their body. The eternal recurrence is the recognition and celebration of the idea that from those tracks there is no escape. One cannot free oneself from the moment, that which shackles one in place. The moment must be experienced in order for there to be a future and a past. Such a courageous moment-lover also understands that the Train of All-Life cannot move backward, only incessantly forward along the unalterable Track of Eternity, a track to be traveled time and time and time again with no deviation. But does the track proceed eternally in a straight line? Thus, the riddle continues, and Zarathustra further complicates matters by cavalierly dismissing a key element to the solution when he admonishes the dwarf for lazily stating that “All truth is crooked; time itself is a circle.” Zarathustra responds to the dwarf by stating that he is demeaning the thought of the eternal recurrence by making it less complicated. That is to say, the dwarf dilutes the entire concept into the simple, insouciant explanation that time is circular. In doing so, the converse of the dwarf’s comment provides the linchpin to the entire idea: if time wasn’t circular, and since it is self-evident that past events cannot be changed by actions in the present, that is to say that we can’t walk backwards in time, how could anyone or anything return to the same moment? The answer is that it can only be 33 �Academic Essay accomplished in a circular manner. As long as time is circular, the past can still not be changed but it can be experienced again. As such, it can be returned to eternally. *** Of course, venturing an attempt at solving the riddle of the eternal recurrence is only a part of the nut to be cracked, the hard coating protecting the seed within. As that shell is peeled back, two additional layers are revealed. To begin with, prior to even hinting at the eternal recurrence, Zarathustra presents as a statement of fact that God is dead. He mentions it in the prologue while walking through the forest where so many nuts hang from tree branches or litter the ground. Interestingly, Zarathustra, that nomadic nutcracker, seems to be the only person aware of this fact, as even the saint he comes into contact with in the forest is not aware of God’s death: “Could it be possible? This old saint in the forest has not yet heard anything of this, that God is dead!” What, then, does it mean for the Christian god to be dead; and how does that fact, if accepted as a fact, inform our understanding of the eternal recurrence? For one, within a group of believers reliant on God’s continued existence, the factual death of God would represent a loss of faith. No, not just a loss of faith, a loss of connection to reality, an untethering of the mind. Such a spiritual and metaphysical unraveling, if recognized as true by all investors in such holy stock, would be cataclysmic. It would be the apocalypse of the mind. God, as man’s most cherished creation, the most precious child of the mind of man, is supposed to be that which is beyond death and gives undying structure to existence. Additionally, the death of God signals to mankind that even their most deathless vision can go blind. In such dark fumbling, what are God’s followers to do? Now given a void, how does man choose the correct soil with which to fill the hole caused by the absence of the creator of all values and the provider of all purpose? Zarathustra has the answer: create once more and plant the seeds of man’s future in the soil of the eternal recurrence. That is to say, in one way, with his mind man created God; therefore, man, through his mind, is the true god and the sole possessor of all the power he needs to provide purpose and meaning to life. He only needs but to harness his creative desire to that end. In other words, it is a matter of will, of will to power. Which leads to the second layer of the riddle of the eternal recurrence: if we stipulate that will in this sense is consistent with desire, what kind of will to 34 �Academic Essay power is that which Zarathustra advocates? Throughout the book, he regularly speaks of the relationship between those in command and those who obey the commanders. In one sense, it is of course easy to conclude that power to Zarathustra is an imbalance of dominance: the person who wills more power into their possession than others and who lords that power over any and all who have less. In another sense, Zarathustra informs us, and therefore might be implying, that will to power can also take the form of a single-minded obsessive hunt for truth-knowledge and then hoarding that truth-knowledge so as to be swollen like a tick, on the verge of bursting with so much knowing and so much truth. In other words, it is a type of power sought so as to be conspicuously grand among all the cathedrals of the mind: to have more truth-knowledge than others is to have power over them due to the vacant pews inside their heads. Another, and I speculate more accurate, meaning of will to power, at least in the eagle eyes of Zarathustra, is dependent on the acceptance of the death of God and the primacy of the eternal recurrence. As previously mentioned, if God is dead, then there is no defender against the futility of life. If God is dead, then we are all passengers in a car with no destination. There is no driver at the wheel, and we have no direction home. However, if we have the strength and courage to stare eternity square in his endless eye, we would ourselves have the vision to see that all that can happen has happened and all that has happened will happen again. While we would realize that our lives have no off-ramp, we would also realize that we have the power to be the driver of our own car, not some god. And we would shout in the voice of our highest song, Yes! Give me this highway, this car, now and forever, over and over again! Consequently, we are left with a choice: in recognition of the death of God and the primacy of the eternal recurrence, do we throw our helpless hands up in the air and become the last men that Zarathustra warns us of; those joyless, purposeless, kings of emptiness, those owners of vacant, blinking eyes? Or do we, bodies bristling with infinite exuberance and a belief in the value and purpose of life that is deeper than the deepest well, infinitely and recurringly shout “Yes!” to the eternal recurrence? If so, then that eternal yes-saying requires us to desire, to lustily crave everything in our lives. We must, with our most irresistible hands, grasp each and every single moment of our lives with a drunken desire and rejoice in all that has happened, all that is happening, and all that will happen. 35 �Academic Essay Thus, spoke Life to Zarathustra: “For what does not exist cannot will; but what is in existence, how could that still want existence? Only where there is life is there also will; not will to life but—thus I teach you—will to power.” For Zarathustra, such an acceptance is the most human imperative. It is the definition of will to power. Our desire, our will to embrace the life we have and spend no energy or thought on the life we want to have or think we should have had is where true power lies. A person so equipped is a person as powerful as any god the mind of man has ever created. Such a thought, were it to take hold of humanity in a way that Christianity and other religions have, would be transformative for humankind. Perhaps the power of transformation is one reason why Zarathustra’s most beloved animals are the proud eagle and the wise serpent. They molt and they shed. Their willingness to do so is non-existent because they don’t have a choice. The eagle and serpent don’t question their molting or their shedding. They don’t try to fight it, to wish that it didn’t happen or that it would happen differently. They are in life and such transformation automatically happens in that domain. Life has deemed it necessary. In the face of such necessity, they focus only on what life provides and transform when and how life demands. At this, the serpent with split-tongue smiles, and the eagle, unweighted by the spirit of gravity soars above us all. The Geometry of Addiction by Jaime Marquez 36 �Academic Essay Vico’s Poetic Morals: Forced into Philosophy? Akayla Lewis In The New Science of Giambattista Vico, the author, G. Vico, makes a claim that I found peculiar and interesting. In paragraph 509, Vico says, “for husbands shared their first human ideas with their wives, beginning with the idea of a divinity of theirs which compelled them to drag their women into caves; thus, even this vulgar metaphysics began to know the human mind in God” (509). Of course, this sentence is in the context of a larger thought, but I think it still sounds jarring based on the context. Men dragging women into caves and forcing them to be wives and share in philosophy does not sound like a world familiar to me, but Vico argues that this practice was the way of the early humans. A few immediate questions arise for me: What is this idea? Why did this happen? How do I make sense of Vico’s claims in light of his work being a “history of human ideas” (6, 347, 391, 424)? Fear Forces the Hand In The New Science, one of Vico’s main principles is that human civilization began with three practices: religion, marriage, and burial. “From all that has been set forth in general concerning the establishment of the principles of this Science, we conclude that, since its principles are divine providence, moderation of the passions by marriage, and immortality of human souls [witnessed] by burial, and since the criterion it uses is that what is felt to be just by all men or by the majority must be the rule of social life…” (360). Vico also argues that marriage and burial precede from the human ideas of the gods. Ideas of the gods (or a god) is the driving force of the actions of the early humans. Where does this religious bent come from? Fear is the beginning of the religious bent for man. “Thus, it was fear which created gods in the world; but, as was remarked in the Axioms, not fear awakened in men by other men, but fear awakened in men by themselves,” Vico says (382). It is the human imagination of divinity that drives man to fear. The early humans were “children” (187) that did not understand nature or have reason to govern their views of the world. Vico posits that the human mind reflects itself on whatever it does not understand. Vico says, “when men are ignorant of the natural causes producing things and cannot even explain them by 37 �Academic Essay analogy with similar things, they attribute their own nature to them” (180). Vico uses lightning and flooding as his examples of how humans reflected their minds. When lightning would strike and people would fall, the early humans thought that there was a mind with intention behind this phenomenon which was perceived as a divine action. According to Vico, man’s natural curiosity put man on this path; he says “curiosity that inborn property of man, daughter of ignorance and mother of knowledge when wonder wakens our minds, has the habit, wherever it sees some extraordinary phenomenon of nature, a comet for example, a sun-dog, or a midday star, of asking straightway what it means” (189) Humans are inclined to ask what something means, and this is a very fascinating claim. The first response of man to something grand or rare is to ask what it means. There is not an explanation for this other than for Vico to say that it is inborn in humans. Either way, ascribing meaning to the phenomenon of nature is how all (gentile) religions start Vico claims this as the universal beginnings of the gentile world; every nation started this way. “Jove hurls his bolts and fells the giants, and every gentile nation had its Jove,” (193) Vico states. Sex Is Not Sexy The question of how early ideas of divinity fits in with women being clubbed and dragged into caves is still unanswered. How does religion compel these early humans to this strange and seemingly backward behavior? Vico says of these early humans, “Our treatment of it must take its start from the time these creatures began to think humanly. In their monstrous savagery and unbridled bestial freedom there was no means to tame the former or bridle the latter but the frightful thought of some divinity, the fear of whom, as we said in the Axioms is the only powerful means of reducing to duty a liberty gone wild” (338). The fear of a great power above is the first step in man restraining himself. It seems the early men thought they needed to control themselves so that they would not be struck by Jove’s lightning. “Authority was at first divine; the authority by which divinity appropriated to itself the few giants we have spoken of, by properly casting them into the depths and recesses of the caves under the mountains. This is the iron ring by which the giants, dispersed upon the mountains, were kept chained to the earth by fear of the sky and of Jove, wherever they happened to be when the sky first thundered” (387), Vico surmises. Thunder and lightning drove these men into the caves because they 38 �Academic Essay concluded that the phenomenon was the work of a god who was enacting violence against them. To escape this violence and consequence, men took cover in caves thus restraining themselves. The early men took this restraint of their bodies to be a moral virtue. Vico articulates that “moral virtue began, as it must, from conatus. For the giants, confined under the mountains by the frightful religion of the thunderbolts, learned to restrain their bestial habit of wandering wild through the great forest of the earth, and acquired the contrary custom of remaining hidden and settled in their fields” (504). These early men thought the right thing to do was to restrain one’s wandering, and thus one’s bodily motion. The motion of the body is under control of the will which was something that needed to be commanded instead of the motion of the body controlling the person. It was right to control these urges to move so that the gods would be pleased. As Vico puts it, “from this thought must have sprung the impulse proper to the human will, to hold in check the motions impressed on the mind by the body, so as either to quiet them altogether, as becomes the sage, or at least to direct them to better use, as becomes the civil man. This control over the motion of their bodies is certainly an effect of the freedom of the human will…” (340). The control and direction of the body through the will is one of the first steps out of bestial living for early man. From the idea of bodily control, the need to control one’s sexual urges sprang up. In a very literal sense, sex is bodily motion. The urge for sex usually drives the motion of men, so the early humans wanted to control this “bestial lust” (504). Just like other movements were constricted to the cave, sexual intercourse would be hidden as well. Violence and Self-Control The question of why these early men needed to enact violence in order to practice their self-control is still open. It seems strange that in thinking that bodily movements and sexual intercourse should be controlled and restricted that the early men would use violence and force to get and keep these women in caves as wives. Why did the men use violence to achieve their virtuous end? Vico does not give a direct reason for this practice; he only says that it was the case. He does however give a description of the early women when he says “…women, who in that state must have been wild, indocile and shy…” (369), and under this description it is possible to understand why the early men needed 39 �Academic Essay to use violence against these women in order to have them as partners. In order to propagate, these men needed to obtain these indocile women, but were these women truly indocile? Vico does not give an explanation of this synthesis of the early women, and I do not find myself satisfied. Although Vico does not give a concrete reason for this practice he does seem to be sure that it was a practice that happened. Vico seems to be convinced by the ancient fables and their depiction of women in marriage as he states, “the hieroglyph or fable of Juno hanging in the air with a rope around her neck and her hands tied by another rope and with two heavy stones tied to her feet, had signified the sanctity of marriage. Juno was in the air to signify the auspices essential to solemn nuptials, and for the same reason Iris was made her handmaiden and the peacock with its rainbow tail was assigned to her. She had a rope about her neck to recall the violence used by the giants on the first wives” (514). The ancient fables are the record of human ideas from which Vico draws his conclusions about the practices of early humans. It is quite possible that Vico himself thought this practice awful, but he simply describes it as the way the early humans interacted with each other. Therefore, this notion of the subjugation of women - a notion in which women lack autonomy and are seen as property - is founded within the fables, beliefs, and traditions of his time which he recounts. This belief is still present in some cultures currently. Forced Friendship Circling back to my original question: What is going on in the following statement? “For husbands shared their first human ideas with their wives, beginning with the idea of a divinity of theirs which compelled them to drag their women into their caves…” (506). The first conversations were between the man and woman in the cave, yet she was forced there by violence. What are we to make of this? Given the context of Vico’s conception of the world of the first humans and the consequent traditions and beliefs of ancient nations, we are led to think that men were unsociable creatures. Vico says, “For out of the passions of men each bent on his private advantage, for the sake of which they would live like wild beasts in the wilderness” (133). Thus, in this sketch of humankind, the early cave dwellers (or those men still living out in the forests) would have no one to share their ideas with. It follows that these men would commune with the women they 40 �Academic Essay captured. “Thus, marriage emerged as the first kind of friendship in the world,” Vico says (554). This is an interesting point because, perhaps these men thought that this force was necessary to save these women from the wrath of the gods and keep them safe. The need to communicate about the gods and important impressions upon their minds is implicit here. It seems that there was some sort of care and affection in this situation given that Vico highlights that the root word for friendship in Greek is the word love in paragraph 554. Vico has the underlying assumption that men have to need to communicate even in the face of being unsocial. Given the context of these “first friendships,” to call it such might seem foreign to my contemporary understanding; However, in this odd sketch of the first marriages (and thus societies via Vico) women are taught and share in their husbands’ ideas because they have the capacity to understand them. For Vico, these early men did not just force women into caves and did not speak to them, but they communed together (given the strange circumstance). These women learned, developed alongside their male counterparts, and possibly contributed to the ideas of the divine and of life as the species advanced. This possible interpretation gives me hope in this strange world Vico describes. 41 �Creative Writing Nostalgia in February Kelsey Hennegen First published in Narrative Magazine Jackets zipped against wind, we stand close, cupping hands to catch the light. I get it. My profundity problem. I want everything to mean. To have worth and weight. But it doesn’t. My desire verges on dire. I try to remember patience. I usually forget. With extravagant flair, Sam fans the match and declares all bad poetry is sincere. It’s nothing new, of course. It’s Eliot or Wilde, maybe. The trouble is, I’m too sentimental. I had my first cigarette last week. Now my body goes buoyant on just a few sips, doomed and irreverent. A little romantic. I buy Sappho in the original Greek even though it flummoxes me. I wear my mother’s wedding ring to bed so I can sleep. Oh, but I want to be greedy with beauty. Or— No. That’s not quite it. I want the past. A garden hose draped over the gate, backyard showers after sun-spoiled days. Bonfires, a poorly pitched tent in Joshua Tree. Strange, isn’t it? How anything will turn dangerous if you cling to it long enough. 42 �Creative Writing The last bellow of day drains. Scallop-edged and purplish, the cottonwood leaves fatigue. It was Hesiod who deified pain, now our -algia is named for the spirits of grief. And yet, Nostos means tribulations be damned, the hero gets home. Sometimes I stumble on a day so blue it blinds. I find a June within and I am everything righteous and thrashing and right. By Neha Gaddam 43 �Personal Essay On the Benefit of Virtual Learning for our Community Leith Daghistani From the preamble to the Polity of St. John’s College: Education is the making of men and women out of children by bringing them into the world of inherited customs, intellectual traditions, and spiritual ties. Institutions of learning are set up for this purpose. Beyond this they should also seek to develop the moral and intellectual powers of their students to enable them to fulfill best their freely chosen tasks and thus to take their own responsible part in shaping the future. St. John's College is a community of learning committed to holding these ends constantly in sight and to seeking the best means of attaining them. Many of our peers who were exposed to virtual learning over the past year or so have continued to convey to me some form of the idea that virtual learning is fundamentally incompatible with the GI because we lose some intangible element of the program hidden in in-person interactions or intramurals when it moves online. Even those who now defend virtual learning sometimes tacitly agree with the concern that the program is weaker online. Based on these conversations it often appears to me that the prevailing views of students and graduates of the GI are either that virtual classes should not be offered at all or that offering virtual classes is a worthwhile trade-off for a less rigorous program because it provides for wider access to students who ought to be in our community. I believe that maintaining the option for virtual segments offered alongside in-person classes and leading to the same degree is not a trade-off, and has great potential to improve the program for us all. In-person interactions and extracurriculars certainly make the program at St. John’s more enjoyable, but they aren’t essential or exclusive to the GI. Undergraduates approach a wider range of texts using the same method and have more access to the same extracurricular activities as the GI over a longer period of time, all in person. If one believes that the undergraduate program is not essentially distinct from the GI, then the GI is limited to be nothing more than an accelerated and inferior copy of the undergraduate program. I reject that view and say that the GI has merit in itself, and can support virtual learning. 44 �Personal Essay From my perspective, most undergraduate schools achieve the same basic educational ends regardless of their specific mission: they generally teach students how to learn effectively, to continue their education beyond the classroom, and to employ their education in a way that benefits the people around them in many contexts. Undergraduate programs generally require in-person immersion in the form of shared living and learning spaces, intramurals, or other extracurriculars to offset the students’ overall lack of experience. Experience empowers individuals to broadly apply their education in concert with other methods to improve themselves and the world around them, and in-person immersion in an academic program quickly develops a kind of experience. At St. John's College, intramural sports are an outstanding example of immersion because they provide students with a training field by which the elements of a good education developed in the program can be put into practice and safely tested with immediate feedback. The undergraduate program likely couldn’t exist virtually at St. John’s College because that program requires in-person immersion and indoctrination to really bring children into the world of inherited customs, intellectual traditions, and spiritual ties. But as graduate students we don’t need a practice field, and we are not children. Though we are still developing, we have already had a basic level of exposure to higher education. Before virtual classes were offered, GI students who worked full time or had other responsibilities received the same education and the same degree without involving themselves in any events outside of class whatsoever and without any question of their participation in the essence or rigor of the program. Participating during class hours is sufficient for us because we already actively seek and employ new methods and models of learning outside of the classroom to make ourselves better and to empower others to the same. At the graduate level we are perfecting rather than developing that habit. Our community’s standards and expectations should reflect that distinction. Our community is our unique strength, and good dialogue among the community is the only necessary function for our education in the GI. While the texts are an important part of our method of education, they are a tool for creating good dialogue among our community, which is the essential part of our program. The key group dynamics of good dialogue, namely balanced participation, active listening, and cooperation, are not impossible to achieve 45 �Personal Essay online, so GI students should be able to effectively learn virtually. Intramurals and after-seminar gatherings and everything else that requires in-person interactions are a bonus — welcome for some but unnecessary for others. If this were not the case, then we would be able to achieve the same education by reading the texts in isolation, or by joining a social club for classics enthusiasts. What makes effective virtual learning more challenging than in-person learning is that good virtual dialogue always requires balanced participation, active listening, and cooperation among the group along with a consistently high level of individual objectivity, courtesy, trust, discipline, and respect. The austerity of the virtual classroom means that students must develop these habits quickly to be successful. That is a good thing for the program. Conversely, we can probably get away with having good-enough dialogue in person despite not maintaining such a high standard by hiding behind so-called nonverbal participation or through other conversations which are easier to continue outside of class hours. At the graduate level, the reality is that we should already have expected excellence in dialogue as the standard from all members of our community before we were forced to move online in the spring of 2020. I do not mean to suggest that the move to online learning in the middle of a semester and as a result of a global pandemic was easy or welcome in any way. There were technical difficulties and growing pains great enough to dispirit many in our community, myself included. I prefer learning in person. But I won’t pretend that my personal preferences are essential to a good education or that the academic problems I encountered online were a product of the medium of the conversation and not of my own failures. It is clear to me that virtual learning works for students who choose to pursue it because they have already dedicated themselves to a consistently high standard of dialogue regardless of the medium. I observed as much in my final semester in the fall of 2020, which was online for all students. GI students who began the program virtually or who were only able to attend online due to their circumstances were capable of developing dialogue online at least as often and to as high a standard as any other in-person group which I have been a part of. I believe that virtual learning is troubling for our community not because it is incompatible with our program but because it exposes our collective and 46 �Personal Essay individual weaknesses. But an awareness of one’s weaknesses is a gift to be cherished, not ignored. If those of us who prefer in-person learning found virtual learning to be less rewarding it highlights that we should all should be more consistent in explicitly identifying, promulgating, and holding ourselves to a higher shared standard of dialogue as a community. My opinion is that no matter the reason or purpose for our enrollment, we should practically expect all students of the GI to be able to participate in consistently fruitful and equitable dialogue with any group in any medium. GI alumni should be able to naturally lead such groups, purely as a byproduct of sustained exposure to our method. That does not mean that dialogue or class meetings must always be rewarding for every participant, but as the community of the premier graduate liberal arts program, we should strive toward the highest standards for dialogue and be unafraid of collaborative reflection and criticism when we do not meet them. I think that an examination of the dynamics of good dialogue should play a more formal part of our education at the GI. We would collectively benefit from more direct conversations about dialogue itself, such as a mid-semester meeting dedicated to a conference-style conversation among the group in each of our classes, or a more robust orientation program that is revisited by all students every semester. In short, we should be looking to empower all members of our community to be successful and versatile in pursuing their education, rather than prematurely declaring the limits of the program when we briefly falter in the face of a new challenge. Our community remains strong because we draw on an extraordinarily diverse range of human experiences and vast depth of competencies to approach fundamental questions as equals and collaboratively develop a better understanding of the great books through good dialogue. If we focus on our improvement with that unique strength in mind, the GI will thrive in any environment. We should not shy away from serious reflection and frank discussion which has such enormous potential to both improve and expand access to the GI. Doing so based on a misguided belief that our program should exist only in the in-person interactions of St. John’s students in or immediately adjacent to the classroom is a disservice to us all. 47 �College Ephemera Uncovering the Lost World of the Black Classical Tradition Anika Prather I feel like I am Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. What an adventure I have had seeking to find the connection between Classic texts, Great Books and the Black community. I have literally dug through ruins, run away from dangers seen and unseen and felt fear and despair like you would not believe all in my journey to revealing to all that Classics are for everyone, especially the Black community. For the Black community the Classical tradition is actually a part of our heritage. When I say that, I am met with anger from both Blacks and Whites, Blacks not wanting any sign that our people are connecting to those who have oppressed us and Whites not wanting us to have access to “their” books. I have been met with perils of many kinds in my effort to uncover this lost world, where my ancestors were fully engrossed in the texts of the ancient world and beyond. It all happened by accident, actually with me finding DuBois’ essay “Of the Training of Black Men.” But that one text for some reason awakened an awareness that if DuBois was devoting so much passion to writing about the Black Classical tradition, it must be based on some common occurrence in the Black community. From that one essay, I found myself reading the other essays in his Souls of Black Folk and it was more of the same, that Classical education was the most effective way to educate Black Americans. From Souls of Black Folk I was led to his education essays, The Education of Black People, which provided more of his revelations about his views on Classical Education for Black people. DuBois gave me the eyes to see that there was a whole other world undiscovered, a secret place where Blacks read, discussed, wrote about, synthesized and embraced the classical tradition. They were learning and reading Latin. Engaged in rhetorical discussions about beauty, virtue and truth. Classical study was their gateway to cultural literacy, empowerment and equality. Many yearned for this type of learning even while enslaved and most ran for this type of education, once they were emancipated. One excerpt from “Of the Training of Black Men” has become an opus for me: I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls….I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed 48 �College Ephemera with Truth, I dwell above the Veil. Is this the life you grudge us, O knightly America? Is this the life you long to change into the dull red hideousness of Georgia? Are you so afraid lest peering from this high Pisgah, between Philistine and Amalekite, we sight the Promised Land? (From Souls of Black Folk: Of the Training of Black Men) In this passage, I feel what DuBois felt, a feeling of being transported to a magical place where color lines no longer haunt us and we are able to dance with all people in harmony. This one passage was the turning point for me, and would be the catalyst for my continued journey to finding how the classics have played an integral part in the African American’s journey to finding their place in American society. Not too long after discovering DuBois, I took my high school students on a tour of the Frederick Douglass House in Washington, DC. I remember that day so clearly because my mind had been so blown away by what I was reading about DuBois. I felt mentally on a cloud. Up to this point, I was working on my PhD, researching the role of the arts in the K12 classroom, but Dubois took me off that path and his writings compelled me to continue this “archeological dig.” In other spaces I have shared the resistance I experienced in academia by making this detour and the danger of me not finishing was a constant presence. However, I pressed on and through the support of others in my department, I was able to continue the “archeological dig” enough to introduce my discovery into my dissertation. I had no idea that Douglass would be connected to what was starting to become an obsession of mine, but as soon as I walked into the front door of his house, where everything was preserved in time, I was greeted by the bust of Cicero. Instantly I thought, “Cicero? Why is Cicero in here? What does a former slave know about Cicero?” My heart began to race as I noticed so many items in his house that reflected this former slave was self-taught in the Classical Tradition. Leaving the foyer, I came upon a painting which showed a scene from Shakespeare’s play Othello. Revelation after revelation happened as I toured that house. He decorated the entire house with signs of his love for Classics and the Canon. The final clue that confirmed what I was already feeling internally, was when I entered his library. From floor to ceiling were shelves of books, all from the Classical tradition and the overall western canon. The tour guide went on to 49 �College Ephemera explain how Douglass would spend hours in his library reading the texts and practicing writing about them. This bit of information actually gave me the foundation for how I teach the texts at the school. We spend our time reading the texts, discussing the text and writing an essay on the text every week. This process Douglass engaged in was also how he studied the text when he was enslaved. When we left the Frederick Douglass House, I went home to further my research on Douglass and I learned that as a teenage boy he bought the Colombian Orator and would spend his free time sneaking to read the texts, focusing on the speeches of Cicero. The Colombian Orator was an anthology of excerpts from classic texts. This text was commonly used in schools during this time. In reading the excerpts of the Colombian Orator, Douglass unchained his mind well before his body was set free. One text involved Douglass analyzing the argument between a slave and his master, in which the slave did such an effective job showing his master why slavery was wrong, that the slave ended up being voluntarily emancipated. It was arguments like these that revealed to Douglass the importance of rhetoric and logic in presenting a case for ending slavery. Douglass said, “I read them over and over again with unabated interest. They gave tongue to interesting thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently flashed through my mind, and died away for want of utterance. The moral which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder...The reading of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts and to meet the arguments brought forward to sustain slavery.” (from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass) Douglass spent his time copying the texts, summarizing the texts and fully immersing himself in the texts. He even says that it was in reading Classics that he was given the words needed to communicate about the atrocities of slavery in a way that the White and Black community could understand and receive. Now two of my ancestors were flooding my mind with reflections on the Black Classical tradition. There was this pattern I was seeing of going from captivity or feelings of oppression or both to reading these texts that tell the human story and discovering that whatever the world may say about you, these texts reveal a greater truth. These texts actually cancelled out the lies of our 50 �College Ephemera inferiority and curse that says we were created to serve those with a lighter complexion. These texts confirmed our identity as an equal human being. My mind filled with these reflections was still floating on these clouds of revelations when I took on a new job as a principal of a private school in DC. The board was considering getting a new building and I had been looking at properties. One property was an abandoned building which at one time housed the Nannie Helen Burroughs School. The realtor and the property manager took me all around the building. It looked as if it had been just left as is. Everything was still in place from when the school had closed down. It was not in the greatest condition at that time and I wasn’t sure if I’d meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse and their friends in the process of touring the building, but somehow I felt a sense of awe as I walked the abandoned halls and I felt the spirit of the woman who desired to bring a quality education to Black students many years ago. The property manager brought us to a glass enclosed room that was a museum dedicated to Nannie Helen Burroughs. I asked if I could go in and he unlocked the door to let me in. So many artifacts were in the space that revealed her love for education, but one thing caught my attention more than anything in that little shrine to Nannie Helen Burroughs. On the wall, was a framed list of classes that students had to take back when the school first began in the early 1900s and on that list of classes was Latin. In fact, the other classes I saw reflected some type of appreciation for the Classical tradition. There’s another one. Another ancestor inspired by the Classical tradition. I was thinking about Dubois, Douglass, and Burroughs. How many of them are there? When I did more research on Nannie Helen Burroughs, I discovered a world of Black women educators dedicated to the classical tradition. Nannie Helen Burroughs had been a high school student at the famed M Street School, led by Anna Julia Cooper. Anna Julia Cooper used an almost totally Classical curriculum in educating the Black students that attended there and fiercely fought for this type of education for those students until the board of education fired her, because she would not stop teaching this way at their request. At M Street School, Nannie Helen Burroughs founded the Harriet Beecher Stowe Literary Society. Most students at M Street School took classics, which included the study of Latin and most went on to some of the top colleges in the nation. Anna Julia Cooper mentored Nannie Helen Burroughs and in a way, I feel like they are both mentoring me. Anna Julia Cooper is of great importance, because in discovering 51 �College Ephemera her, I find a whole community of Black female educators, dedicated to Cooper’s passion for providing a classical education. Anna Julia Cooper was born into slavery and remained in enslaved until emancipation. At around 10 years old, she attended St. Augustine’s School, which primarily taught freed slaves the classical tradition. Even though the school focused more on the rigors of classical education for the male students. Anna Julia Cooper advocated for herself to take the same classical courses. She excelled in Latin and became a scholar of classic texts. She eventually completed her college degree at Oberlin College, again advocating to take the rigorous classical program that was primarily for the male students. Anna Julia Cooper was one of two African American women to earn an M.A. (the other was Mary Church Terrell) in mathematics. Eventually she became the principal of M Street School in DC, again implementing a primarily classical curriculum for her students. As you walked the halls of the M Street School, you could hear her enthusiastically teaching the Aeneid in Latin. She would also teach the students the works of Cicero and many other Classical thinkers. Anna Julia Cooper was passionate about uplifting the African American people through education. She says, There is no social activity that more vitally concerns the life of a people than the problem of education. The Colored people of the United States...want for themselves and their descendants...all the advantages and opportunities of education as the term is interpreted and understood in the most favored groups in our American civilization. (from Uplifting the Women and the Race by Karen A. Johnson) What was this world I had found? And now with these constant discoveries of notable Black Americans who engaged in Classical study, how could I turn away? I knew that bringing this information to the light would be met with resistance from all directions. This seemingly mythical world had been kept so secret, almost undetected. I was right about my misgivings. As soon as I began to share what I was discovering there was resistance from all directions. This discovery I was making was not about Black scholars in classics, this was a bit different. If it was about Black Scholars then you could sort of segregate them to a space, sort of like DuBois’ “Talented Tenth.” You can say just this small group of people did this and then it doesn’t quite disrupt a system or misconceptions we have all held close to our minds and hearts. However, this discovery was 52 �College Ephemera about an entire educational system, that started while Blacks were in slavery and continued on until desegregation, revealing that the main way Blacks were educated in America up until desegregation, was Classical. Anna Julia Cooper was fired for refusing to stop teaching classically. Why do you think that is? Why was the Classical tradition taken from us? To reveal this, could upend all that we thought we knew about how education has been done and should be done. This discovery dispels the myth that Classics are the tools used to oppress Black people, when in fact history shows that Classics was a tool to liberate them. Black people fought to be educated this way, Douglass risking his life to steal it (through self-teaching) as an enslaved teenager. My journey continues. Constantly, I am uncovering more of this “lost city of the Black Classical tradition” and my most recent discovery is that Howard University was the first and only HBCU to have a Classics dept. The university was founded by General Howard who was a leader with the Freedman’s Bureau. The organization was responsible for setting up educational institutions for freed Black people after emancipation and the main educational philosophy they used in these institutions? Classical. The fact that Howard University still has a Classics dept is a monument to this now almost extinct world. It stands there as a flickering light, reminding us of a powerful time in the education of Black people. This flickering light at Howard University and what I am learning about the classical component to the early years of African American education, makes me wonder what the implications are for the current state of education in African American communities. If such great minds and powerful beings as Martin Luther King, Anna Julia Cooper, Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin, W.E.B. DuBois, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Thurgood Marshall and so many others came out of this tradition, what can that tell us about a possible need to consider going back to those roots in the present day? Even now as we celebrate the first woman, African American and South Asian Vice President in American history, being a graduate of a place Classically inspired like Howard University, we all should be wondering about this little secret within the African American community. The Classics dept at Howard is responsible for bringing the exposure to classical learning to all students who attend. Even as an undergrad who was not majoring in Classics, I remember having to read Medea and Agamemnon. I remember having to learn about Socrates in my required Philosophy class. Yet the beauty of this is that we were taught to read classics, but then how to connect it to our lives as African Americans. As a 53 �College Ephemera result of reflecting on this and learning even more, I am becoming aware of other early schools that educated Blacks. For example, St. Augustine’s School, which is now St. Augustine College is where Anna Julia Cooper attended right after emancipation. This school also used mainly classics as a part of its educational program. It is all such a long tangled history that I am seeking to unpack. My dissertation just barely touched the surface of uncovering this hidden world of Blacks in Classical study and even this article sheds little light on the richness of the Black Classical heritage here in America. Even though I have felt the resistance to what I am discovering and I have felt the walls surround me as I try to share what I am learning, I push forward, hoping one day people will hear me as I unpack the untold story of the history of the Black Classical tradition in the education of Black people. 54 �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Colloquy Description An account of the resource A student-run journal for the Graduate Institute community of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. The issues feature essays, art, poetry, interviews, and more. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 58 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Colloquy, Spring 2021 Description An account of the resource Volume VIII of Colloquy, published in Spring 2021. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Braley, Olivia (Editor-in-Chief) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived English Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Colloquy_Spring2021 Graduate Institute https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/fef65f90603df99d5e419135b73c53fb.pdf 3d425bc294c66710dfdf756b3496cc37 PDF Text Text �Table of Contents Letter from the Editor ............................................................................................................................. ...... 1 Reflections on Zoom Seminars at St. John’s College .......................................................................... 2 Bonnie Naradzay The Ancients Had It Easy ........................................................................................................................... 4 Jeanette Corey Artwork .............................................................................................................................................................. 6 Neha Gaddam A Conversation with Four Graduating GIs, Fall 2019 ......................................................................... 7 Jordan Poyner, featuring artwork by Jaime Marquez and Neha Gaddam Ode to the Void ............................................................................................................................. ............... 20 Patricia Harden On the Voluntary Nature of Virtue ......................................................................................................... 21 Brandon Wasicsko Artwork ............................................................................................................................................................ 25 Marley Crank On the GI and Online Seminars .............................................................................................................. 26 Winston Elliott, featuring artwork by Neha Gaddam Two Poems ............................................................................................................................. ....................... 28 Louis Petrich A Letter to St. John’s: On Creating a More Inclusive Learning Environment .......................... 31 Hayley River Smith Artwork ............................................................................................................................................................ 34 Jaime Marquez Two Poems .................................................................................................................................................... 35 Alexander Andreosatos A Toast to the Tutors .................................................................................................................................. 37 Sam Hage Rise Up and Come Away: An Ode to the Marriage of Friends ...................................................... 39 Ryan Shinkel, featuring artwork by Neha Gaddam Human Space Is Where St. John's Exists ............................................................................................ 41 Jordana Rozenman �Prizewinning Essays, Spring 2020: The Soul with Good Sense Guides Correctly ....................................................................................... 43 Sam Hage, featuring artwork by Neha Gaddam Love and Suffering in Joyce’s Ulysses ................................................................................................... 49 Christine Mooradian Editor-in-Chief Olivia Braley Editorial Board Alexander Andreosatos Leith Daghistani Folke Egerstrom Winston Elliott Andrew Graney Charles Green Mustafa Kamal Dimple Kaul Corey Sentz �Letter from the Editor December 11, 2020 Dear Members of the Graduate Institute Community, I'd like to start by thanking all the staff, students, and members of the community who contributed their time and hard work in helping to bring this issue together. Thank you also to our contributors and members of the editorial board. This issue would genuinely not be possible without each of you. As Editor-in-Chief, I am proud of the rigorous and wide-ranging array of writing and art that we have received and are able to put forth in our Fall 2020 Issue. I'd like to take a moment to recognize those members of the editorial board who have supported Colloquy in a time of transition: Dimple Kaul, Jaime Marquez, Charlie Green, and especially our former Editor-in-Chief, Jordan Poyner. Mr. Poyner's guidance even beyond his graduation has been an invaluable help to me in assuming this position and assembling this issue. Without their steadfast commitment to Colloquy, this issue would likely not be in front of you all today. There is no need to assign more adjectives to the year 2020. It's been called trying, unprecedented, uncertain, difficult— and yes, it has been those things. However, at this moment I'd simply like to highlight the abiding need for community, which has, in this year, become all the more pronounced. I hope that this issue of Colloquy may serve as a reminder of the strength and diversity of our polity, and the enduring spirit of the GI community at St. John's College. I hope that you all keep well, and look forward to seeing many of you on campus very soon. Sincerely, Olivia Braley Editor-in-Chief 1 �Personal Essay Reflections on Zoom Seminars at St. John’s College Bonnie Naradzay After a recent preceptorial session on Homer’s The Odyssey with Mr. Townsend, I was feeling disoriented by the Zoom format; it was as if conversations were flowing by me, and I was standing on the bank of a river, following what was being said, but finding it hard to wade into the conversation. I realized in that particular session I’d saved up the ideas I’d wanted to express but seemed unable to share, partly because I’d been muting myself and by the time I’d unmuted myself, there was a pileup of others who were ready to contribute. Finally, toward the end of the two hours, I blurted all out the comments I’d wanted to share at various times. Clearly, I’d not grasped how to contribute to an absorbing Zoom conversation among fourteen students and a tutor, so I asked Mr. Townsend for guidance. Mr. Townsend told me it’s better to ask a question than make a statement, and he recommended that I ask succinct questions directed to others in the class. He added, “Try to say only one thing when you speak so that others can respond. Build a conversation by addressing others. Consider what might be the objections to your claim and look at it from many points of view together.” Then I thought back to my first GI seminar, when I’d also felt like an observer rather than a participant. There were two tutors and close to twenty students. I recall times after the sharing of Opening Questions when I would sit back and wait to see if my topic would come up rather than finding something compelling in the topics being discussed and weighing in. Or if the seminar was near the end, and no one had brought up an issue I’d hoped to focus on, I would try changing the topic while neglecting transitional phrases that could link what was being discussed with what I wanted to contribute. Differences in being in a Zoom seminar include 1) the increased intensity of the Zoom format, since we’re all gathered into a single frame, 2) the disorientation of two-dimensional discourse, when communicative cues we could intuit in actual seminars are now hard to detect 3) the fact that Zoom technology moves us around, so when I look for someone who was in one place for an hour, that person is no longer there but somewhere else in the frame of faces, and sometimes a person will get up, leave an empty chair, and return at a later time; and, most disconcerting: 4) the distancing that comes from seeing one’s own face among the others, which leads to a fixation on how that face is connecting with the others, and where the eyes are focused. Distractions like this mean that one lacks real presence in the conversation. In the GI classes I had with Mr. Zeiderman, I remember he liked to involve us in questions of process. Before starting into our Opening Questions, he would often question us on the quality of our previous session. Were there issues that needed our attention? Did we feel successfully engaged? Any ideas for improvement? (This group assessment is a key part of the Touchstones philosophy.) Now, as we transition to a radically different way of pursuing rigorous dialogue, reflecting on our process seems even more vital. Before this semester started, I attended Mr. Braithwaite’s online talk one evening in June on how Plato’s “Meno” relates to the challenge of leading seminars on Zoom. Mr. Braithwaite noted, 2 �Personal Essay “Meno is in some radical sense not really present in the conversation with Socrates. He recites, like a ventriloquist’s dummy, opinions and arguments he learned from Gorgias, and he’s more attentive to what impression he can make on the audience than to the questions of what is virtue, and can it be taught.” In the appendix to his lecture, Mr. Brathwaite included a list of possible ways to enhance the Zoom learning experience; one is to divide students (part of the time) into smaller discussion groups of perhaps three or four per group. I tried his idea in a limited way. Because we can’t meet casually on the campus, in the coffee shop, for instance, to follow up on seminar conversations with others, I contacted a classmate in The Odyssey to explore a comment he’d made in class. We met on Zoom, which meant that the two of us were speaking side-by-side as well as face-to-face in the Zoom frame; this was certainly better than encountering him as one of the postage-stamp sized faces of fourteen of us plus a tutor, all looking out from a single frame. After our half-hour chat, I felt as if I’d gained a friend as well as insights into his comment and on the text. The impulse to meet with one other fellow student (in a virtual Coffee Shop) worked well. But the concept can be enlarged. We could form smaller groups – perhaps four people in each, in different configurations each time, and meet at set times. This way, we could fine-tune the larger group’s dynamics. Those who tend to distance themselves in the larger seminar setting could feel encouraged to formulate and explore possible text-based opening questions and theories. In addition, we could explore our paper topics with each other. Here’s another way to counter Zoom’s artificial formality: Mr. Townsend has been available on Zoom fifteen minutes or so before our class starts. For those of us who tune in early, this impromptu salon is a way to chat before class starts and before we proceed, in earnest, with our Opening Questions. And now we students have decided to hang out on Zoom after the class ends if we’d like to continue our Homeric journey (picture oarsmen rowing in rhythm). We can use this time also to step back and take a look at our group’s “process” during the most recent seminar. Think of it as being transported to Harry Browne's, upstairs, once the formal session has ended for the evening. To sum up the importance of engaging with the Zoom effect on GI seminars, I turned to Mr. Townsend. “Zoom is alienating and challenging,” he told me. “But otherwise we’d be isolated. So I’m grateful for it.” Mr. Braithwaite, for his part, asked me, “What is it to be present in a genuine, serious, meaningful, absorbing conversation?” He said we know “what it’s like to be physically present while our mind is elsewhere; we know this experience in ourselves and in others.” So we are challenged to find ways to achieve that presence. How do we bring the mind into alignment with what is now a postage-stamp sized representation of our presence? 3 �Poetry The Ancients Had It Easy Jeanette Corey The ancients had it easy with their ships, and quests, and bands of like-hearted searchers. And time, as heroes by trade, to search for god to have that be enough and a foundation of myth that proposed the divine as something to be happened upon or sought by way of trees and fountains, sheepskins, portals. I'm new: I'm now. No word on the exact coordinates of Jacob’s ladder just the hefty knowledge that the blue ceiling of my world is not, in fact, the underside of heaven but space only more and more. Otherwise I'd connive to throw my fists at it, long enough to maybe dislodge a floorboard or kitchen tile of paradise climb up through eternity like a child thief collapse into the presence of the creator as a stowaway. Instead: an increasingly closed system of physics and metaphysics deepening the image of the reality that only forms the negative space around the more-than-real. 4 �Poetry Literacy: unmitigated privilege of waterboarding myself with a treasure of accumulated theology in an attempt to understand what I must acknowledge a desperate wail of mind to soul to disclose a truth that’s clearly there WHAT WHAT WHAT DO WE BELIEVE TELL ME WHAT AND WHY AND HOW AND //NOW\\ and how I’d love to set sail in a long boat and fall off the edge of the world into God. 5 �Artwork Neha Gaddam 6 �Interview A Conversation with Four Graduating GIs, November 2019 Jordan Poyner, on behalf of Colloquy Colloquy: Let’s start by talking about our least favorite tutors. [Laughter]. Colloquy: I’m not really going to conduct anything. I may ask some questions— Lee Cranberg: An opening question? CQ: Yeah, an opening question: that’s very fitting. The most obvious thing that I’m curious to hear you all talk about is the imminent time to come post-graduation. We can talk materially first: what is everyone planning on doing after they graduate? Gregory LaMontagne: My goal is the military—I think most people know that. I will leave, go back to Texas— where I’m from—a week after the final day of class. And hopefully I'll hear something early January and then fly out to Rhode Island for Officer Candidate School in Newport and from there you move on with your military life. That's me. Andrew Dorchester: Well, I guess I'm following in the footsteps of: I don't know what I'm doing next. But I think the goal is to figure out in what capacity can I live [according] to the standards that St. John’s has set. And figuring out what it means to apply that to a day-to-day life. LC: I'm going to do the fifth semester and leave St. John's in May. I retired just before I started St. John's, so there's no job I'm going back to. I want to continue to enjoy retirement with different adventures. I'm not sure quite what the next one is going to be, but one thing I've considered is volunteering as a physician abroad. I did that once in my career, once in my life. As soon as I got my medical license, my first position was as a volunteer in Samoa in the South Pacific, where I was the only doctor on an island of 900 people. And I met other volunteer physicians there who were in my current age bracket, who had retired from their careers in the U.S. But they were still using their skills and their medical license to see the world. And there were people who had done volunteer stints, like six months at a time in like six different countries. And I filed that away in the back of my mind, that it might be a good thing to do when I reached that stage. And I'm lucky that I have the health and wherewithal to do it. Patrick Corry: I'll be leaving St. John's in May as well. I'm really unsure about what I want to do next. I’m fairly sure I want to be in education in some capacity. I’m applying to a master’s program in theology. It’s an interest I developed while I was here. GL: Where’s the program? Or is it classified? PC: At Notre Dame. Yeah, I think there's a big possibility I'll try to stay around here and do education at the community college or high school level, or even in more nontraditional forms. I want to be talking about literature in some capacity and I’m not sure what that is yet. Like you, Mr. Dorchester, I’ve been entertaining thoughts of dusting off old trades. I used to paint houses and other things, [and] St. John's has made me much more interested in how that can go on in a flourishing life. 7 �Interview LC: Have you ever taught before? PC: I taught high school for the first time this past summer: high school classes in history and economics. And I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I disliked the school's administration more than I thought I would... [Laughter]. This is gonna be a recurring theme of my life. CQ: With the exception of going into education, it's not clear exactly what the relationship is between what you all have been doing here and what you're planning to do next. So maybe we could talk about that: what do we take with us? [To GL:] How does that factor into either your decision to go into the military or, if it doesn't, how do you think it changes the way that you can approach that stage in your life? GL: I'm curious about that myself. Because the military seems so antithetical to St. John's—the idea that [here] you're invited to ask questions whereas [there] you might be invited to never ask questions. [Laughter]. GL: One thing that I experienced at St. John's I think—personally and witnessing it in others—is an instability, a sense of doubt about all things, and like a reverence of doubt, and how that leads people to run towards tradition, [towards] orthodoxy of some kind, and run towards something stable, some belief of some kind. And I feel that perhaps I'm running towards a belief in the United States or something like that—a belief in the state, the nation, the republic that is the United States. And I’m curious about these different environments: I think St. John's fosters questioning and inquiry because it believes that maybe certainty, if it can be found, is hard to find. And I'm running to a place where one thing is certain, and that’s the U.S. Constitution. — I'm curious how I will react to that, and I'm curious what effect it has on people—if they want to talk about it. I feel like when I talk to non-Johnny people, I end up running into a lot of “this is how things are....” And so I've been really happy with the student veterans I've met here who seem to have a balance. Sometimes, if they've left the military, they say, “that's the reason why I left the military, because they were just like: this is how things are and you have to do that.” But for those that are still involved with the military, [and] are still supportive of it, I’m curious how they navigate that: those two scenarios, two worldviews. I'm curious how I will react to it and I'm curious why it is that I end up finding veterans of all types so fascinating when they have this separate worldview. There's some type of different reverence that they have—not for doubt, but for either patriotism, God, country, family—that I really respect, even though it is alien to me. But it won’t be alien to me very soon, I hope. — If I have to make a question out of my journey into the military, my question is: what does a certain faith do to my individuality and my behavior in society? I think I'll be taking with me the idea that I want to investigate things that aren’t certain, and that certainty is very hard to find, and I’m not sure I know what certainty is. So I'm taking that enquiring mind with me, but I'm going to take it into an environment that will combat that with a very strict faith in an ideal that is supposedly certain. And I might suffer turmoil because of that conflict, but I'm excited to see if I'll end up becoming like the student veterans I so admire, who seem to have navigated that conflict very well. So that's a very long way of explaining what I hope to take with me into a non-Johnny world. LC: Was it a hard decision to apply to the military? 8 �Interview GL: No. My parents were supportive. People were like: “really?” And I said, “yep.” And I guess it’d been on the back of my mind before this, when I was getting out of my original career path of performing. Back then I thought: “well, I know I don't want to do this. So I can either go back to school for something, specifically Great Books, or perhaps Peace Corps, or perhaps military.” So it was in the back of my mind. CQ: Why do you think that is? GL: I'm wondering if it has something to do with the fact that I came here to question things. And [that] I think there's an extreme to questioning. There's an extreme doubt, an extreme skepticism, that I don't like. Whether or not it's morally right, I have no idea. I find extreme skepticism to be toxic rather than helpful, and knowing that the military seems from the outside to be the extreme in the other direction—of extreme certainty or extreme dogmatism in regard to a kind of bureaucracy, [in regard to] following orders—maybe I'm hoping to find a balance in between the two. And rushing from one extreme to the other might help me find the balance. PC: How do you think questioning and extreme skepticism go together? GL: I guess questioning implies more active initiative on the part of the skeptic? Because I guess you could be extremely skeptical and not question anything: you just don't believe it. Maybe those are two separate faculties or abilities. One is to not believe something and the other is to ask why you don't believe it or why it's not believable, to actually inquire into it. So, you're right: I guess there are two separate things. It seems to me that St. John's inspires you, as in the Meno, to be very active in the search, to not give up, to keep asking questions. But there's a part of me that thinks: “I don't know. I read Nietzsche and there are some things I don't want to know, some things I don’t want to question.” So finding the balance between questioning everything and not questioning anything is what I’m searching for, but maybe they're two different types of skepticism. CQ: You were going to ask something earlier, Patrick. PC: I was thinking that it’s a weird tension at St. John's, where it seems like when you start to question something, you have to have some childlike thought about the possibility of finding an answer. From that point of view, it seems like it shouldn't be the least skeptical thing you do. But also, you have to suspend [already] having grasped the answers to do it, which does seem skeptical. So I wonder if that tension is what drives good things at St. John's and how it would express itself in the sort of balance you're seeking between firm ground and the activity of questioning. AD [to GL]: Have there been any texts that have guided you in your thought process? GL: Reading Nietzsche and reading Thomas Carlyle’s works, or even reading the Republic and talking about music and gymnastic—I feel like I've had a lot of music, not too much gymnastic. [Laughter]. PC: I know the feeling of being inspired by the gymnastic section. CQ: There's something demoralizing about the section on gymnastic and realizing that I'm almost thirty—I know that's young, all things considered—I'm not an undergraduate at St. John's. And in the Politics too, there's this discussion about when the proper time is for each of these forms of education to happen and realizing you can't go back and change the past. And it's not clear to me if, 9 �Interview at thirty, I'm supposed to go and learn natural science all over again. That probably would be helpful and attainable, but it's hard reading great texts sometimes, especially when they talk about education, because you become aware of how unlike the ideal education your own was. I don't necessarily despair of it, but I do wonder: what should I do? How should I take all these different teachings about how you need to have an education in music and gymnastic, and natural science. I can't go back and do all that, so I feel confused about what's the right thing to do, especially as a student in the Graduate Institute—someone who is definitely an adult. And it's different for every person. That's the nature of everything that has already been said, but I find it painful. Maybe I'm too fixated on the question of what the right thing to do is according to some authority. GL: It seems weird to me, I don't know—I haven't read Diogenes Laertius’s Lives of the Eminent Philosophers—but I imagine that Plato wrote his books without having the education that he prescribes in them perhaps. I don’t know if Plato had the type of education that he makes Socrates extol as the proper education, and yet he wrote very incredible things. I'm wondering about Rousseau, who wrote Emile, and John Locke, who wrote Some Thoughts Concerning Education: did they actually have the education they espoused? But there is a frustration that comes with being a GI especially, feeling that somehow we're tardy. And there are times when I think I'd be so brilliant if I had had these texts when I was four. If I could have just read Plato starting, you know, when I put my socks on for the first time—man, watch out world, I would have been the best scholar. LC: There is a fellow in Santa Fe who graduated from the Graduate Institute there. He's in his sixties and then he started as an undergraduate at St. John’s. PC: But what would that get you? We’re not here to become philosopher kings, or Plato? Plato isn’t a product of an institution that educated him; he’s a genius. LC: I think I'm here to learn the underpinnings of my culture. GL: I guess we're not supposed to graduate and be experts. Or maybe this goes back to the question earlier: what are we supposed to take away from this [our time at St. John’s]? Because we read all these texts and we're not necessarily supposed to graft them onto our skin. What exactly are we doing here? What are we at St. John's for? Is there a use to it, besides going to class and getting to talk to great people, and ask profound questions that anyone else might scoff at? I'm still wondering about that myself. AD: It’s not only knowledge that we're acquiring so much as it is a kind of mindset: the ability to grapple with perplexing questions. I think one of the best speeches I heard during my entire time here was Mr. Sinnett’s speech last fall for the graduating students, where he talked about the strength of the St. John's program being the ability to deal with perplexity, to be… PC: Perplexed, but not despair. AD: Thank you, yeah. And that's something pretty unique for our society. I think he was absolutely correct that the number of people in society that can be comfortable in perplexity is—it's a rare thing. And it is a strength of the Johnny: the ability to manage perplexity—not necessarily to resolve it, but to manage it. PC: Do we love it? Is it a delight? 10 �Interview CQ: I think it’s a fetish object for knowledge. PC: What? CQ: I’m just being perverse. AD: There are still those moments where I get extremely uncomfortable around complex issues, but I do feel that this experience has allowed me to manage that much better. I'm taking one of the drawing classes right now—and it's probably the hardest class I've taken here—where I'm being forced to draw on the basis of shadow, to see in terms of shadow: it's unbelievably hard, and it's perplexing. I'm slowly starting to see what the instructor wants me to see, but I think the underlying base of the St. John's education has allowed me to be more adaptable to what needs teaching. CQ: How? AD: I got to a point last Saturday where I wanted to just give up. I wanted to throw down my charcoal pencil and say, “I can't do this.” And I stuck with it. I worked my way through whatever the struggle was that I was dealing with. And I think part of the resilience that I felt within myself to go ahead and continue to manage that frustration is a type of resilience that—I don't know if it would have been there a year ago. CQ: But how did St. John's instill that in you or help you form that within yourself? AD: I think it's through the regimen of dealing with the constant perplexing questions that we are confronted with in these texts. And the fact that not only do we work our way individually through this, but we work our way through complex and perplexing questions in class. CQ: But didn't you do that before you went to St. John’s? You went to college before... AD: Certainly the complex litigation that I've been involved with—I've done that. CQ: And you had read some of these texts before you came, right? So surely some of the perplexing questions that the texts raise you had already encountered. So what's different? I know there's a different setting in terms of the seminar, the conversation... PC: I think it’s very easy to read a great text and not encounter any perplexity if you’re not doing it a certain way. AD: Especially if you’re not a specialist on the subject area. And I do think that one of the advantages that St. John's provides is that we come into some of these readings cold. So I'm doing Lobachevsky right now—this is a whole new world for me and for everyone in my class, and the world that he is describing is bizarre in some ways, but it's slowly starting to make sense. But it's the fact that I have no background in it! And I think the advantage of any sort of Liberal Arts program is that it should be broad enough that you're eventually going to run into a text or multiple texts that are going to be on a subject area that you have no background in. CQ: But we all took geometry in high school. So, you know, you may not have read Lobachevsky, but you’ve dealt with parallel lines. I realize that there is an immediate answer: first, the way we 11 �Interview learned geometry in high school might have elided all of the ambiguity out of it. You might have been told that this is how things are: it's fairly straightforward. We can explain satisfactorily, at least to you, a fifteen-year-old, how this works. But that's not always true when you take a class in college. I'm not sure how you read Hobbes, for example, and don't have a moment where you think: “no, this is weird.” — Someone could read the Republic and have an instructor tell them: “well, you know, this is fairly straightforward. It's an account of proto-communism or something else. This is how you'd have to set things up and that's what is being discussed.” And that might work temporarily. Or, to be somewhat inflammatory, I think that a person who's really thinking, even a young person, is not going to be satisfied with that account for long. Cracks are going to start to appear in the edifice. I am in total agreement with the idea that St. John's does something differently, but I don't think we've said exactly how that is. Maybe you can’t, but I’m asking. PC: The first thing that comes to mind is that you're going to have a teacher tell you: “Hobbes believes in absolute authority because the English civil wars were very, very difficult, and he was living in a very violent time. No wonder this man had such radical, absolute ideas! You don't have to ask: “is this in me? Can I believe this? Do I believe this? Am I living in this world or not?” I think it takes a community or a conversation, or the right question to pose the text to yourself in that way. CQ: You're not just talking about Hobbes as a historical thinker, you’re talking about writing for a historical moment and saying, “does this make sense to me?” GL: I came here, as LC was saying, to study the roots of my culture. And I’ve been thinking about Aristotle’s Metaphysics and how we desire to know—and we don't really know things unless we can pinpoint their causes. I like knowing—with the Politics & Society segment—how America came to be through other thinkers and writers who perhaps were the efficient causes. We're able to sort of lead Western culture on paths, and I like tracing those paths back. I find that fascinating. And I guess you can do that on your own. But the conversational approach here at St. John's and the decontextualization you [PC] were referring to also allows us to ask deeper questions of ourselves then I think other places would. — So it's not only a course in intellectual history— “Plato said that and then Locke said that, and then Hamilton said that”—but it's: “Plato said that—should we believe what Plato says? Is America wrong? Is Plato timeless? Is he bringing up something that is still pertinent?” And the answer is often: “yes.” Or let's assume it's pertinent: what would that mean? Having those intellectual premises to work with, I think, leads to the most liberating treatment of the most profound subject matters in life. Should I be free? Is there freedom? Is America right? That's a big thing, especially after reading Tocqueville. What is America? I don’t know if I want to live there. Maybe what St. John’s does differently or well is that they take questions that were asked millennia ago and treat them as if they were asked today. And I feel like that has really been the key for me: to have a less assumptive way of thinking, a more liberated way of thinking. And it's allowed me to put myself in a lot more shoes that I would have if I thought: “they can't speak to me; they said that a long time ago.” But having a diverse set of views, from ancient to modern, I really feel like I'm getting more out of life, purely just by considering another way of living. And maybe that's only possible through the St. John's approach where questions really elicit vulnerability and assumption-breaking. 12 �Interview LC: That’s something I would not have been able to do on my own. I decided to come to St. John's because these books have always been on my reading list, but I didn't have the self-discipline to read them on my own. Most people would not choose Aristotle as bedtime reading. And it's so hard that I would not have been able to understand it on my own, and I’m not able to understand it on my own. That's why the seminar is really great: because we're helping each other to try to understand a difficult text and pooling all of our different insights. Mr. Townsend is fond of quoting Mortimer Adler: “reading is like drinking. It's something that you can enjoy on your own, but it's more fun to do it with other people.”1 CQ: I hate this quote every time I hear it. [Laughter]. GL: Why’s that? CQ: Because the analogy doesn't make sense. PC: That’s what’s funny about it. LC: It makes sense to me. CQ: It makes it seem as if reading alone is pathological. AD: I also drink alone! CQ: I hope you don't drink alone as much as you read alone. I hope you read alone like an alcoholic drinks alone. PC: I thought it was a vindication of drinking alone. But you're right, it can be equally read as a pejorative comment about reading alone. AD: In many ways, I do feel like the Program has, strangely, taught me how to read. Taking the Modern Poetry Preceptorial right now I've learned how to read a poem in a way that I didn't know how to do prior to— LC: Is that part of the class? Explicitly talking about how to read a poem? AD: No, it’s a kind of culture that just comes with the class. To prepare for a discussion on a poem takes a lot of time, [it takes] really getting your hands dirty with the poem, reading it multiple times, becoming, as Eva Brann said, “preoccupied with the work.”2 To spend an entire day thinking about the poem that we'll be discussing in class on Thursday—that leisurely process of learning (leisurely in the Greek sense of the etymology of “school”), of really spending your time with something and allowing yourself the time with it, is something that I didn't recognize the importance of prior to coming to St. John's. The editor has not been able to locate this quote. An approximate aphorism can be found in Adler’s Harvard Lowell Lecture (April 11, 1990), “The Great Books, the Great Ideas, and a Lifetime of Learning,” where he says, “Solitary reading is as horrible as solitary drinking.” 1 2 See Eva Brann, “Tips on Writing: Excerpts from the Fall 2017 Colloquy Symposium,” Colloquy 2 (2017): 16. 13 �Interview LC: What's the etymology of “school”? CQ: “σχολή” is the Greek word that means leisure and it ends up informing the English word “school.” GL: It seems like the program asks for you to have the leisure. And it invites me to be more vulnerable and more profound, and not so superficial with my inquiry and my researches. And that leads to more rewarding results, regardless of whether I arrive at answers—there's something fetishistic about asking the deep, dark questions that don't often get asked. PC: Fetishistic? As in it’s being overly sought? GL: I think we get off on asking the deep questions. CQ: The fetish object is a substitute for something else: the non-fetish object. That’s what a fetish is. The fetish is the object of your misplaced erotic attention—it should be on something else, but it's on the fetish. So if it is that kind of a fetish, then what's the thing we're being diverted from? PC: That's why I wanted to push back on the word. GL: That makes more sense. Maybe I mean the erotic tendency of ours to be aroused by asking deep questions. But if it is fetishistic, maybe we should be committed to love of God, love of country, love of state, or something like that—and we're misplacing our desire by focusing it on whatever is not stable. CQ: Those all seem like good things: the love of country—a love of one's homeland seems like an unambiguously good thing to me, in the sense that I haven't added on to it any other qualifications—we should be able to pursue all those things. But maybe any one of them pursued to its extreme precludes the others. The way that most GI’s end up doing the Program, I don't see a lot of people who seem in danger of seriously undermining all their other noble or good civic aspirations or ideas. GL: Maybe they’re not reading deeply enough. CQ: Yeah, it was interesting that you said you had read Nietzsche and you took that as a warning, a shot across the bow. You read Nietzsche and you thought: “I don't want to do what Nietzsche does. I don't want to look into the abyss.” Do we all agree that we don't want to look into the abyss? PC: I agree, but I might have a different understanding of what the abyss is. Maybe this moves us closer to what the abyss might be: do we call the impulse to question a fetish or is there a genuine end of the erotic impulse? It’s a huge question. I think that St. John’s has to presuppose that there’s something natural and good about the desire being projected towards searching for truth by asking questions, and that that activity has meaning. CQ: Yes. When I brought up fetishes in my offhand remark earlier, what I meant, as a joke, was that questions might be a fetish object for knowledge. Knowledge in the sense that GL talked about having a kind of—I don't want to call it faith—a certainty that some things are inviolable. You’re 14 �Interview not going to question some things, and that's something that you could call knowledge or faith. It’s something that doesn't get penetrated or dissolved. But the constant seeking—and this is the tension that you [GL] brought up and are wrestling with—if the life of the mind involves constantly asking questions, where's the stability? Do we have something we can stand on to do that? I don't want to raise my family in the jungle or in some anarchic state. AD: Rousseau says it's great! PC: You're just not allowed to come along. Jaime Marquez LC: I was curious if people had any criticisms of the GI, or [noticed] weaknesses or things you'd like to see done differently. GL: Of the things that I think the Graduate Institute can control: there needs to be more of a variety of Preceptorial options. There are just literature Precepts and like one philosophy option. I want to take some math and science, I want to take another political theory class, I want a history Precept. I think they had trouble in the past getting people to sign up for math and science Precepts, so maybe that's why they stopped offering them, but I really think that I'm missing out when I look at the list [of Preceptorials] and have to choose either a piece of literature or an ethics text. Now obviously I think those choices are great too, but to get more variety in that regard—that's a criticism I’ve brought up before. 15 �Interview LC: Yeah, there have been semesters where I was not enthusiastic about any of the Precept choices. And some of them were on some rather obscure authors: it seems as if whatever the tutors wanted to devote their semester to ended up being the option. GL: It used to be the case that you had to have the Precept match the same subject as your segment. It used to be required. And so in the fall they would have to offer math, natural science, and literature Preceptorials, and then they would switch to political science, philosophy, and history in the spring. But I also love the idea that it's an interdisciplinary education: you can take [the] Math & Natural Science [segment], and then read Jane Austen and see connections. I love that idea, but by doing that they may have lost the sense of diversity. Perhaps they think: “literature applies to everything, so we're just going to offer that all the time—and that's what everyone wants to take.” I would be excited if I saw Darwin's The Descent of Man or even Descartes’ La Géométrie: I would be scared, but if I was ever going to study those texts, it would be at St. John’s. CQ: I still don't understand exactly what the Graduate Institute is—especially given who the students are. It still feels like an experiment to me. I am favorably disposed to it, but— GL: You don't feel like it has somehow settled into its identity? CQ: Yeah, I'm not sure if the Graduate Institute knows where its place is. AD: I don't know how you market it either. The identity of the people that come here—particularly people that are coming from a career—you couldn’t necessarily use Google Analytics to figure out who would be a suitable GI candidate. It doesn't work that way. CQ: They kind of have to find the Graduate Institute, right? GL: It’s very self-selecting. LC: Self-selecting is one thing, but finding something in hiding is something else! CQ: What do you guys think about the rigor of the Graduate Institute? On the one hand, there seems to be this standard, which is: “we don't expect more than this, because this is what we can expect an adult who is working full-time to be capable of. They're an adult, but we still want them to be able to come and do the Program, so we limit the scope of the writing, the oral exam, and— perhaps most significantly—the reading list.” But how do we determine what that baseline is? And do the students feel that more could be asked of them? For example, an oral exam that’s more than half an hour. I’m not suggesting we place more of an emphasis on grades or other formal academic qualifications, but perhaps the oral exam could be a little more serious. Of course it's nice to have a half hour conversation with a tutor, but I can take them to lunch and have the same conversation. I don’t think that’s being flamboyant; I don't know what your oral exams are like. AD: I think the rigor is what you put into it. And there clearly are students that do less than other students, and probably do just fine. But I feel like if you really want to get something out of the Program, the opportunity is there—and the reward is definitely there—to do the extra work, to spend more time reading the texts that are assigned. Most of these texts are pretty dense. Somebody with a job could probably do a couple of readings and come into class prepared, or you can spend all 16 �Interview day preparing for this and have a much richer experience. So I don't feel like I've necessarily lost out on the Program because we're not given more [work]. I can always go read more. And there are also enough students that are doing the extra work, so that I can always have a discussion with somebody who is doing the extra work, and we can confer outside of classes. GL: I think I agree that the opportunity is there to make it what you want, to make the experience be as rigorous as you want it to be. I think the best part about the student-tutor relationship here is how free the school makes the tutors be. They can’t have office hours. We’re able to approach a tutor at any time and say, “I need to talk more about this text; I have more questions.” And they might give you more assignments, they might give you an extra essay topic to write on—I'm not quite sure, I haven't taken that step. But I know it's there. And I think the library has plenty of resources. I think there are opportunities to make more of the Program, to make the Program even more intensive than it is at first glance. But there are times when I think I should probably be writing more papers. There are times when I think: “I didn't need to prepare as much for this oral exam as I needed to prepare for certain other things.” And I think: “is that actually a mark against the Program? Are the standards too low?” — There might be times when I think I really prepared for class, and then I show up and we talk about something that somehow slipped through my attention while reading Oedipus Rex five times and annotating—which I didn't do, but assuming I did. I think that the nature of the classroom—that it is so organic and unpredictable—doesn't lend itself to being something like a quiz on what happens in Oedipus Rex—where there's a pretty functional relationship between how much you studied the text and how you performed. As opposed to: I studied a lot and then I come to a discussion-based classroom where we can talk about something that doesn't interest me for two hours. That would lead me to think preparation and success do not go hand in hand at St. John's. Because you could read the text once and think, “well, I'm really not prepared for class,” and then the class focuses on your opening question. And then you think: “cool, I get to talk for two hours about something I'm really interested in, and I didn't really need to prepare!” Maybe there's something about the loose nature of the classroom that might lead to a sense of lack of rigor, but I still think that there are opportunities to make it as rigorous as you want. PC: I agree with a lot of what’s been said about the rigor being something you determine for yourself and I’ve been really impressed with the way that students are motivated to prepare outside of class. I think you notice fluctuations in the discussions according to whether a text invites really intensive preparation or wards it off by its nature. This is something I think about a lot with the Program: there's so much conversation that we have, but there's not a lot of forum for dialogue on things about the conversation. Part of that is what's really cool about the spontaneous nature of it: because there are no rules of etiquette for talking in a seminar, people become better at doing it. GL: What about the “Notes on Dialogue”3 though? PC: Right, but there's nothing that anyone is going to enforce. GL: Maybe that’s a problem. Stringfellow Barr, “Notes on Dialogue,” (address to the Fellows of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, Santa Barbara, CA, 1968), https://www.sjc.edu/application/files/7614/9814/1117/Notes_on_Dialogue.pdf. 3 17 �Interview PC: Well, maybe the same could be said about practices for reading. I’ve noticed times when tutors explicitly encourage students to redouble their efforts, because they know that they're going to be more discouraged than usual, but that, if they dig in, there will be great profit in the seminar. I don't think it's only the tutors’ responsibility. We could build a culture around what it means to read rigorously and how it is that that’s going to help your growth, what the frustrations are and how they can be overcome. I think that could go a long way towards improving our culture of rigorous discussion. I think the current tutors do this already, but we, as students, could collectively encourage it and develop some sort of understanding. Maybe Colloquy is an organ for this type of thing—where the self-consciousness of the Graduate Institute can develop. GL: And the Graduate Student Council—although we haven't done the best job of promoting it—is supposed to be a sort of intermediary between the academic administration and the student body. There’s normally a forum that we invite students to come to and comment on the Program, on our classroom experience—they usually do that at least once a year. So that might be another avenue for critiquing the rigor and [generally] bringing up criticisms of the Program, because I do think that the Graduate Student Council should be another resource for students if the rigor is unsatisfactory. That should be one of their avenues for fixing that or discussing it. CQ: My first two semesters I had almost the exact same tutors. Which is really interesting now— being in my third semester and having entirely different tutors—because I have realized that there were things that I had taken for granted due to having the same tutors. One of the things that I had taken for granted was this idea of there being rules for dialogue. Both semesters I had Mr. Townsend and he opened each class by stipulating that there are some rules—or guidelines if you prefer. And I had gone forth and been talking to family members and friends about my experience, and telling them that St. John's has rules! They're not rules that people necessarily enforce, at least not in the sense that you get a demerit if you violate them. Rather, people will gently correct you. What would each of you say the rules are—if there are rules? Or, if “rules” is too rigid a term, what are the guiding norms for conversation in class? AD: During my summer semester, a lot of the students were new to the St. John's experience and I was in large seminars, and the first couple of classes were kind of chaotic. So I shared that sheet that Mr. Townsend gave us on the first day about rules or standards for discussion. Between that [sheet] and some comments that the tutors made in class, the students came around. But it can be tricky because the rules are not prescribed, they're agreed to in a social way. PC: I think the experience of having that realized spontaneously is so rich and so important for coming to terms with what learning is that I think it would be a very regrettable thing to try to impose a written law on a seminar—even if you thought you might save yourself some convenience and the growing pains GL: There are times when I think there should be rules—not necessarily about conversation—but there are times when I think: everyone should have the same edition, so you can save time. Invite students to have different translations, but for class I want this [edition] and I want us to be able to move through the text without spending thirty minutes on where a passage is. Regarding norms for discussion: even if they're suggested by “Notes on Dialogue” or the tutors, what seems to be a norm is just whatever is conducive to civility. I think if civility is the guiding principle then that would lend itself to: not interrupting, not hogging the conversation, and inviting people that haven't spoken to 18 �Interview speak up. That might be the principle I have in mind that leads to successful conversations about, [for example,] the rape and murder of this character, or whether or not society should be an absolute monarchy. It seems like if the classroom is devoted to civility, then all the norms work themselves out. AD: I definitely concur that if we had the same translation of Aristotle that would help—different translations for all of the other texts, sure, but Aristotle... PC: That's how the Middle Ages fell apart. [Laughter]. Neha Gaddam 19 �Poetry Once a Void Patricia Harden My mind, a wind-swept oasis, Craven and blind in the darkness, Lay wasted, huddled in An invariable nothingness. Thunder rolled and Lightning slashed the sky. From whence, the faintest cry Quickened my dry and dusty soul. And I, as ere Kant professed, Sought the light and then began to be. 20 �Essay On the Voluntary Nature of Virtue Brandon Wasicsko Why do some people become virtuous, others vicious? It is due in large part to their actions, says Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics. If we want to be virtuous, we must conduct ourselves in ways that comport with virtue, which is to say our actions must be of the same quality as the moral virtues we wish to embody (1103b14-21). For Aristotle, the order of operations is clear: we act, the power of habit operates on us, and our characteristics—virtuous or otherwise—come into being imbued with the same qualities as the actions we repeat time and again (1105b4). Because actions are central to Aristotle’s account of virtue, we should endeavor to understand precisely how they factor into his argument and how they function in ourselves. In particular, this paper will explore how and to what degree actions—and, by consequence, our characteristics—are within our power, with a focus on childhood. Let’s begin by laying out some of the key ideas in Aristotle’s account of virtue as a foundation for our inquiry. We know, first, that moral virtues are not present in us by nature: they are characteristics that come to be as a result of habit (1103a16). Characteristics, being that part of the soul “in reference to which we are in a good or bad state in relation to the passions,” admit of optionality (1105b25), a fact illustrated by the example of anger: feeling it too intensely or too weakly puts us in a “bad” condition relative to the passion of anger, but experiencing it in the proper, moderate way—i.e., feeling angry when one ought, at the things one ought, and in due proportion— puts us in a “good” condition. Similarly, an action becomes virtuous to the extent that the quality of the act and our condition in performing align with virtue. The “should” or “right way to act” or “good or bad condition” is a quality with origins in right reason or “practical wisdom” or “how the prudent person would define it” (1107a1). Habit is intimately related to action in the process of character formation. It is the operative power that combines the qualities of our repeated actions into characteristics. Though we do not understand precisely how it works, we do know that one-off actions come, temporally, before the development of characteristics, though both are determined in part by how we turn or conduct ourselves. The long-term result of habit is that we come to have “a certain disposition” (1106a6). This disposition flavors and guides our future actions. We become accustomed to responding one way rather than another in certain situations, e.g. through repeatedly cowering in the face of fear, we come to have a cowardly disposition and are inclined to act accordingly. Our characteristics, in this way, gradually move outside of our direct control. Nevertheless, Aristotle concludes that characteristics are voluntary or willing things “because it was once in our power to make use of [them] in this way or that” (1115a2). For Aristotle, an action is voluntary or willing if (1) the cause of the action is within the actor and (2) the actor has knowledge of the particulars involved in the action (1110a1). It is possible, according to Aristotle, for discrete actions to satisfy both of these conditions fully: if we are forced to act (violating 1) or are ignorant of the particulars involved in our actions (violating 2), our actions become involuntary (or nonvoluntary when awareness of our ignorance fails to produce regret). Voluntary actions, therefore, entail authoritative control over an action from beginning to end. But characteristics are only voluntary at the beginning. We lack the same beginning-to-end control over characteristics that we have over actions because the particulars of the process of habituation, by which our character is formed, are not known to us. Because we do not know how characteristics add 21 �Essay to themselves through the power of habit, we cannot satisfy (2) when thinking of character development as a whole. But because it is possible for us to satisfy both conditions in the case of particular actions, and because our actions, when compounded by the power of habit, result in our characteristics, Aristotle concludes that our characteristics are voluntary to the extent that we have causal control over our actions early on. When introducing the power of habit and its relation to moral virtue, Aristotle claims that “it makes no small difference, then, whether one is habituated this or that way straight from childhood but a very great difference—or rather the whole difference” (1103b24). If characteristics are voluntary, what is meant here by “the whole difference”? On the surface, these two ideas seem at odds because habituation in childhood seems to entail a great many external causes, whereas the claim that characteristics are voluntary rests on their cause being internal and “up to us.” Let’s consider, first, how we should understand “the whole difference,” then turn to the process of habituation in childhood to consider how and to what extent our actions are “up to us.” By “the whole difference,” two main interpretations seem possible. One is that habituation in childhood is fully and ultimately determinate of the characteristics one comes to have in adulthood. On this view, how one is raised solidifies one’s characteristics such that a person exiting childhood no longer has any control over the composition of their disposition. Though they retain authoritative control over individual actions, their characteristics are unchangeable. The other interpretation views an upbringing that accords with virtue as necessary but not sufficient to attain virtue. Being “raised right” endows the person with a fundamental predisposition upon which they can, through their own work and effort, ultimately attain virtue by identifying the mean and acting rightly many times, though there is no guarantee that they will succeed. Someone “raised poorly” is instilled with predispositions that are so antithetical to the attainment of virtue that reaching it is effectively impossible. A third interpretation, admittedly weaker than the main two, considers “the whole difference” to be directionally determinate. On this view, childhood habituation endows the person with certain inclinations or predispositions, but leaves open the possibility of alteration and development. The difference can be considered “whole” if habituation in childhood is responsible for creating a fixed “starting point” in adulthood. A person of reasoning age could, from this starting point, deliberate and choose to act one way despite having been habituated in childhood to act another and could, through repetition, thereby alter his characteristics. It is possible, on this view, for someone “raised right” to corrupt themselves in adulthood and for one “raised poorly” to attain virtue. What does habituation in childhood look like? Since the child is a being in development whose physical and mental capacities change over time, it seems, too, that the manner of habituation will vary accordingly. For a very young child, the first actions we can call “voluntary,” in Aristotle’s vocabulary, are basic motor functions. Such actions are voluntary to the extent their cause is internal to the child. But a greater share of causation at this stage of development belongs to the parents who decide what the child eats and when, how he is dressed, where he goes, etc. Indeed, the whole aim of parenting, at least in this respect, is to be the cause of the actions that a child is incapable of directing (or directing well) himself. As he grows and his capacities increase, he takes on a greater proportion of the causal responsibility of his own actions, his parents less. When the child can walk, he has greater command over where he goes, within the confines the parents set for him. When he is a teenager, the balance shifts even more. 22 �Essay In addition to the role of the parent, there is a complex web of other external causes impacting the child’s development, including the broader environment one grows up in, role models one can tacitly learn from, and random chance. The claim is not that all external causes constitute “force.” Aristotle makes clear that an action retains some element of the voluntary to the extent that we contribute to it (1110b16). Rather, we’re left with a picture of habituation in childhood that is a mixture of internal and external causes, and the task of deciphering the voluntary and involuntary. It will help to pause for a moment and say precisely what’s at stake in sorting out the voluntary from the involuntary. Since Aristotle ties praise and blame to voluntary action and forgiveness and pity to involuntary action (1109b30), knowing the difference is important if we care about justice. If we wrongly attribute a voluntary cause to an action that was indeed involuntary, we risk blaming when we should be forgiving. In the opposite case, where we think a voluntary action to be involuntary, we risk becoming suckers to the calculations of evil that prey on our sympathies. The distinction matters, too, in the case of law, where understanding the nature of voluntary and involuntary action is necessary for rendering appropriate judgement in particular instances. Regarding characteristics specifically, if we agree with Aristotle’s claim that they are voluntary or willing things, we have to understand how and to what extent this is so since the mixed nature of childhood habituation has proved nuanced. ### It may be instructive to think about character development in two distinct phases. Aristotle writes: “Neither by nature, therefore, nor contrary to nature are the virtues present; they are instead present in us who are of such a nature as to receive them, and who are completed through habit” (1103a25, emphasis mine). What does it mean to be “of such a nature” as to receive the virtues? The broadest interpretation reads “of such a nature” as human nature: our common human nature, lacking “completion” at birth, is nevertheless of such a nature as to find its completion in virtue. By contrast, a stone is not “of such a nature” because the quality that drives it downward cannot be altered no matter how many times it is thrown in the air. Man can become courageous, cowardly, or reckless, but the stone will always fall. And while only virtue, for Aristotle, is the right or full completion of a human being, a number of excesses or deficiencies are possible outcomes whereas the stone is not “of such a nature” as to admit of optionality in this way. True as this may be, it seems Aristotle wants to make a distinction amongst human beings rather than between humans and non-humans. A stricter reading of the quote says that there is one kind of “of such a nature” that is capable of attaining virtue and others that are not. What is this “second nature” and where does it come from? It seems to be a quality or set of qualities on top of “mere” human nature that one comes to possess prior to virtue which makes virtue’s attainment possible. We can understand this second nature in two main ways: as inborn tendencies or as initial conditioning. The inborn tendencies view says: “although nature does not furnish us with full-blown virtues, we are born with nascent proclivities or predispositions that incline us one way or another.” For example, an inherently skittish child may frighten easily and be more likely to act in a cowardly manner. It is not inconsistent to say all human beings share a common nature but are not born equal in all respects. We recognize this in cases where one is born with, say, a greater potential to achieve physical strength. On this view, the inborn tendencies are not ultimately determinate—just as a greater potential for strength does not guarantee that one will be strong—but they do give some children a natural advantage over others when it comes to the possibility of attaining virtue, all else equal. The internal and external factors of upbringing still play an important role in the outcome. 23 �Essay The other view understands this second nature as the initial conditioning that comes from one’s childhood. On this view, we are born blank slates who come to be “of such a nature” in this preliminary sense by our upbringing. Since childhood habituation is a mixture of causes voluntary and involuntary, internal and external, the outcome of our “second nature” is the result of this complex web of causation. This view gives children more of an equal footing by nature but places greater determinate power in childhood habituation since one who is “raised right” will be “of such a nature” as to receive the virtues, the one who is not, not. This understanding seems most consistent with the “necessary but not sufficient” interpretation of Aristotle’s claim that habituation straight from childhood makes “the whole difference.” Nevertheless, it remains an open question how and to what extent the child causally contributes to his childhood and therefore to the constitution of his “second nature.” ### We suggested before that at least a small part of a child’s development is “up to” the child and that the proportion of causal responsibility he shares relative to his parents and other factors increases as he matures. This framing gives us the chance to consider, if only in thought, a kind of social science experiment. What makes the difference between two people whose external factors are all the same but who turn out very differently? Of course, we cannot control for sameness of upbringing with true scientific precision—circumstances will necessarily differ, even for children raised in the same household. But for the sake of this thought experiment, let’s say we know that the parents, environment, and all other external causes were all the same for two children. One becomes prodigal in adulthood, the other liberal. What accounts for the difference? If we understand “of such a nature” as the inherent qualities infused by nature, then it seems clear that different inputs through the same process will yield different results. The parents in this scenario should seek to identify these inherent qualities early on and tailor each child’s upbringing accordingly. But if, having controlled for all external factors of childhood, we understand “of such a nature” to mean initial conditioning, we’re left with how each child, respectively, responds to his conditions and how he turns or conducts himself in action, to the extent he is able. Suppose the two children were brought up in poverty. At some point early in life, the prodigal child may have responded to a one-time excess of money by spending it wildly for fear of losing it, aware of the pain of not having it, while the liberal child responded to the same circumstances by spending some and saving the rest. The power of habit then gradually took hold and cemented the quality of prodigality in the one, liberality in the other. Now, as adults, it is effectively outside of their power to be otherwise. Whichever case may be true, the thought experiment reveals what it might look like for voluntary action in childhood to contribute to one’s second nature, and ultimately to one’s characteristics, even though habituation from childhood as a whole is a mixed bag of factors. A definitive framework for determining the exact proportion of causal responsibility a child shares in determining his own character at each stage of his childhood remains elusive. Does the two-year-old who accounts for, say, 15% of the causal control over his action in the face of a particular fear play a decisive role in determining his character (if such a thing is quantifiable at all)? At what point does he become aware of habit’s power, and how does this knowledge affect his future actions? To what extent should he be praised or blamed later in life for being courageous or otherwise? I do not think it is possible in this inquiry, or from the text of Aristotle alone, to answer these questions precisely. Yet their answers may indeed make “the whole difference” in how we conceive of justice and arrange our laws, how we relate to one another, and how we understand ourselves. 24 �Artwork Marley Crank 25 �Personal Essay On the GI and Online Seminars Winston Elliott What if we were to examine screen shots of my Graduate Institute online sessions (Summer and Fall 2020) and put an X through the faces of those who would not have attended if Annapolis residency was required? Many faces would disappear and their lives, and St. John’s College, would be the poorer for the loss. In person conversation is wonderful for people who live in the area. Or for those who can take summers (or Fall/Spring) off from jobs, and families, and move to Annapolis. Shouldn’t we continue to reach out to those who would love, and benefit from, the GI but aren’t retired, childless, or have summers off? Is it reasonable to let the occasionally nearly perfect (in person) be the enemy of the often excellent (Zoom)? Sadly, there are several new Johnnies who, having begun the GI online, will not be able to continue if relocation to Annapolis is the only option. It seems the College benefits tremendously from broadening the reach of the GI and expanding the beneficiaries of the St. John’s Program. Would it not be magnanimous to make the GI available beyond Annapolis area residents, teachers, and retired people? Many prospective GI students cannot afford to pay for classes and move for the four summers (or one year). The online GI option makes the GI possible even for those who take care of elderly parents, or special needs children, for whom relocation is impossible. I hope members of the St. John’s community see that those who cannot come to Annapolis still may partake of the treasure that is St. John’s. I think it would a great loss to deny prospective GI students a St. John’s College experience only because they cannot move to Annapolis. After all, the books, the people, and the conversation are the heart of the St. John’s College Graduate Institute and all are present in person and via Zoom. In my Seminar, Tutorial, and Preceptorial this fall I see that Zoom brings advantages (hearing participants well, seeing our faces regardless of where we sit!) and some disadvantages (mute buttons, while necessary, reduce spontaneity and shared laughter, no informal time together before/after seminar discussion). It helps me to keep in mind that during my last three decades of seminar participation (regardless of whether participants were teachers, undergrad/grad students, or academics) any particular conversation may be too slow or too fast, a bit flat or too explosive, too singular in focus or too often skimming along the obvious. I have seen that requesting our colleagues to explain their thoughts may slow the pace so that we may enjoy contemplating the questions deeply. Instant answers are seldom the richest. My Odyssey preceptorial has been a tremendous gift that transcends technology, speed, and distance. We often bring the joy of our days, or the anxieties of COVID-tide, with us each Thursday. However, we may always bring the overwhelming joy which is the beauty, adventure, and deeply powerful humanity of Homer’s Odyssey. Even when life conspires to wound any particular shared conversation, I endeavor to remember that the Odyssey is a gift beyond measure. Occasionally, when we are doubting the progression of any particular discussion, we are refreshed by rereading some favorites parts of the poem aloud. The poem is variably enchanting, fantastical, sad, joyful, violent, and full of loving tears. Often it is easy to ignore the shimmering surface while we submariners plow through the subtle complexities of the subtext of the poem. Simply, it is lovely, and loveliness is always worth savoring. 26 �Personal Essay As long as we are grounded in the text, polite, and present there is always the potential for great good to come about. Although that potential is occasionally left unfulfilled. Seminar may be messy, unpredictable, exhilarating, exasperating, enlightening and occasionally transformative. It may be what we humans are: dull, thrilling, entrancing, boring. My wife and I have participated in many seminars over the past three decades. Fortuitously, twenty-four years ago we met in a seminar discussing American political novels. Barbara and I were especially pleased to join the Annapolis GI in summer 2017. I am happy to share that my experiences with the online GI this past summer, and this semester, have been excellent. In fact, the online conversations have most often equaled, and occasionally surpassed, those we had in person in Annapolis in the summer of 2017. I am proud to be a Johnnie and grateful to be a member of the St. John’s community. Neha Gaddam 27 �Poetry Two Poems Louis Petrich At Wrist’s End Come round, I’ll wave away, my kindly hand, of course, as you pass by. What more? If in you want a look, think this: to book with me, from safe, part company. Unopened am unlet they’ll soon forget to miss. End good enough— at wrist? 28 �Poetry Tanned and Tided Over (A 2020 Conversation) Me— on this world— have you— like sure— if thought can have unreal turn real. I can no longer live by thinking— ‘tis purely by these manly words Orlando sure turns Rosalind woman, who liked as Ganymede, ifs love to school of clock or cuckoldry. The virus taught, worst ifs have virtues: like wilderness of quailing numbers on diet ontological has pillared fire obedient raw. Yet lunge they for Egyptian dishes!— dark touches— there’s the taste beats Law! We tried to lap up milk, sans tongues— say, what’s the sum of mounting credits? sapped soul adrift as clouds from seas. To stead, fill clefts and plaster walls, new paint them splashing, careless care, for nesting’s pulled loose knots of carpet— house bunny piles them, besting beds— so marries cornered jets of instinct. Our paradox: though tripping far by instinct, still by caution benched. ‘Tis hard, thought honest: sparks by night need lying room for air to stage ‘em. I smoke, while homing lost o’er roofs; you pray, to pose this wildness caged. What proof of plot, as looks rebook? the exodus, plague started, goes. 29 �Poetry I sought, years back, distraction’s lease from beauty’s case load--found others by to slant, diversify my peering and footing, threads and colors, Achilles knew to get out when, and when to put his all back in! O— It cost him, lacked. Dishonor me, and out I go, back in. This needs but taking being took, dark tactics. Don’t we prefer deep stirring black to weakly tanned, weeks tided over? Unsheathe your arrows, shoot home come and cream the throng, so sweet to die! God chums what’s wrong: wring longing’s turns!— spite topsoil masked as bottom stern, assign to plight of leaves kite words— than rather list this versing hand to con complicit, bodied off, and prop kind-faced old beaten cause. For living contact— fated yearning!— teach clay to risk its perfect cleaving, or Pilate hands will bleach haled roughs and gut the shells for shored defection. The soul intact ne’er breaches thus, but breathes blood buoyant seas, earth-welling! Pan-safe, safe-swelling, hearts go bust. 30 �Personal Essay A Letter to St. John’s: On Creating a More Inclusive Learning Environment Hayley River Smith As my time comes to an end, I would like to reflect on what the St. John’s College’s Graduate Institute has given me. I considered St. John’s because throughout my education I have felt within me a drive to think deeply and examine the world around me. So when the question of what I would critique about my education thus far was asked in the Graduate Institute’s essay application I knew instantly what I would say: I love the community I am a part of and I share many of the same values as my peers, but the lack of diversity of ideas can constrain, rather than build. It is not because other views do not exist here but because they are often silenced. That would be the main critique of my education hitherto. People are unwilling to converse when someone’s views go against their own. I want my peers to talk to me about information I have not heard before. I want my tutors to ask me questions that I do not have an answer to. But when we all believe the same things there is no room for transformation. We cannot circle back because we are not moving at all. The examining and reexamining of concepts is a part of how we come to understand them thoroughly. We stay the same and we do not do justice to our own identity. St. John’s was the answer to that in many ways. I am leaving with an abundance of knowledge that I otherwise would not have at this moment, a familiarity with texts that take me beyond the reaches of my undergraduate experience, and a better understanding of my own education. The reality is I wouldn’t change my personal experience within the program because it has brought me to a point of realization that I can no longer sit silently and allow for someone else to do the same. There is a need to reevaluate the true purpose of the Graduate Institute and if that goal is being achieved within the classroom; that may be considered in terms of the discussion itself, representation, the feedback given, and the needs of each student. During my first semester in the graduate program, I felt stupid and in certain moments I truly believed it. I often find myself listening and processing for a bit before I speak, but quickly I found that even though some say listening is enough it is not the case for everyone. So, I adjusted, as we must in new environments, and began to ease myself into the conversation, and I rarely found my ideas getting traction. In an environment that encourages extemporaneous speaking, occasionally ideas can fall flat, but I found some of my classmates glazed over my words as if they were but a whisper. And again, I found myself falling silent. It’s not to say I interacted with the text less than anyone else, but it became more solitary in certain ways. I’d still have moments of excitement about a text or idea and while feeling completely enveloped by it found myself speaking from a place of passion and maybe clarity. I felt that about the poem “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower,” by William Carlos Williams, which we read for a Preceptorial class on American Poetry. You see, we were talking about the way in which he is expressing love to his wife and it lit a little fire in me. I found the way he spoke about himself, his affairs, death, and loving her frustrating. I questioned if his words were genuine or his love was true, and as the conversation progressed, I became quite sure of a sort of selfishness lying between the lines. It didn’t feel too much like love to me, at least not a kind I would want. Some agreed and others didn’t, but one response still sticks with me. A man at least twice my senior laughs under his breath and says, “what would you know about love.” I pretended like I didn’t hear his words. 31 �Personal Essay Nevertheless, we moved on with the conversation and that was that. The issue here for me lies in the fact that his comment was not only patronizing but also irrelevant. Naturally, many people in the class brought up their own personal relationships in order to grapple with this poem. Why did his perception of my life experience thus far need to act as a mark against me, making my comments less legitimate or important than his? This has not been the most upsetting or only occasion this kind of behavior has been upheld and through conversations with my peers, I realize it is not an isolated issue. The toleration of comments like these points to the symptom of a greater problem and our inaction will only continue to allow for it to grow. I began to see again that my silence did not go unnoticed as I would enter into meetings with my tutors halfway through the semester, “we would love to hear you speak more” they said. Like clockwork, I would nod, try, and then feel exhausted once more. Most of the time I could get my ideas across through my essays and oral exams which I grew to love and look forward to, but it wasn’t always enough. Aware of it or not, each of us is perpetuating a problem at this college about the determination of who is heard. I did. Not in every moment but in many, I made a choice to say nothing because it was easier than feeling discouraged, unheard, or misunderstood. It has been in my last two semesters at the college that I have felt especially frustrated as I continued to wrestle with this feeling. Through conversation with peers that I trust I have realized the deep-seated issue that exists among us whether we can acknowledge it or not and I worry that the online classes as they are at this moment allow for this potential inequity to fester and grow. In my classes over Zoom, I have personally felt a rise in comments tinged with privilege and a lack of self-awareness. Maybe the distance that online learning allows, while essential, is also a part of the problem. Something that ties us together in the classroom is our common humanity. However, at this moment, we are not sitting arm in arm, instead, we stare at each other in little boxes on the screen. It is during these times I have felt most constrained in whose voice is valued or simply listened to. I have watched as some of my classmates try to pick apart my words as if they don’t make sense even though they barely listened to what I said in the first place. Then, others speak about things so far outside of the text that it becomes undoubtedly unproductive while those who couldn’t try to conceive of what I was saying nod and engage in this off-topic conversation. We talk about texts, like the founding documents of this country and court cases that for a long time decided who was considered human or who deserved rights and we speak about inequality while we stare at those boxes, of mostly (if not all) white faces. It creates a distance which in turn gives some people more liberty to say things they might not if they had to look in the eyes of their classmates or sit with them and eat a slice of pizza after seminar. It also appears that the voices that speak up against these comments go unheard. We all come to the table with different ideas of the world and that is absolutely valuable but in that, it also seems essential to recognize our own positions and privileges as well. If we cannot do that the community becomes a difficult and disappointing place for those who do not look or think like the loudest or most persistent voice in the room. Now, I come to this very moment at the end of my time in the program where I am writing to process what I will do with this knowledge I have gathered. So, in the very spirit of the college, I will ask a question: Is this an equitable environment? At this moment, my own answer would be no. I don’t want to sound as if I am asking for pity or some sort of apology and that is not what I am hoping for. What I would like is a movement towards what I wrote about in my application because if someone asked me if I would do all of this again, I would say yes. I’m aware that the world is filled with moments similar to this one. I know that many voices don’t even have the opportunity to make 32 �Personal Essay it into these conversations. I am also sure that not every mind feels free. The way in which the program cognizes the depth of student knowledge, the validity of each student’s voice, and the intention behind some comments made within the classroom demands acknowledgment and must be examined further. I believe that the perpetuation of this classroom culture, both through action and inaction, ultimately hinders the overall mission of the college and its philosophy. I know if I left without speaking up, I would regret a part of my time here and I don’t want to wish any of this away. I will end this letter with a few considerations for our community moving forward: How do we create an environment where the students listen fully and deeply to their peers? What responsibility do not only tutors, but students have in regulating one another? How can we empower students to recognize what comments are not helpful or even harmful? How can we create an environment that is receptive to constructive criticism? Are we given the resources and space to recognize inequity within the classroom? Ultimately, I think if we allow for this to continue without true consideration and change the program will lose touch with itself completely. It will no longer serve a purpose to many individuals who want to be a part of it but can’t because the feelings that deter them, while absolutely real, go unnoticed and unchanged. 33 �Artwork Jaime Marquez 34 �Poetry Two Poems Alexander Andreosatos K .Ø. He kept no sleep for me in Brooklyn. I wrapped the whole night around my shoulders, like it was fox fur—red, black, and white. A kind of heaven had come over us—something sure, but with awful eyes, and we were bent by the entrance of it, as wind bends a skirt, and knees bend to dirt, and I could hear the city bark at the intrusion—— I tossed my head in widening circles, my neck on the soft animal, and kept him close to the chest—my precious forest—and, after all, it was his dark hair, his stark thoughts, long, and sometimes cut, that I desired so much as to be forthwith for the first time in my life, and nothing is as beautiful as when the gloves come off—— I’d never seen such a proud moon before. He shed on the city his equal figure, and crouched on the steps of his apartment, smoking and listening to the dogs. He kept the whole night wrapped around his shoulders, feeling empty like fire must—— 35 �Poetry PRECIOUS Precious, mint, and honest sweet things, sweet ones, overrun. O how it is— they go by in the hard field. I’ve always wanted a brother. A kind of twin. He would know how it is. I know he’s there. Gone like a dolphin. Tissue paper sky—— Mint overcomes the wallflower. Being sensitive and shy is the family business, so I've studied the phenomenon closely. I wonder how much of it is just wanting to be picked. The sweet-story mint. It overgrows the head—— All shades under green to nurse the wound. O how easy it is to recreate— it goes by in the hard field with a wish. I miss him. My brother, the buried firework. He harbored colossal emotions. I know he’s still there. Paper beats rock. He’s underneath everything—— We drive out to Belfast in old sun. Two kinds of firsts in the front seats. I want the battle dug up and winged. Black fern growls on the shoulder. First thing we see is a mother. A too-kind darkness. Piano-feet sky. We kid ourselves. O how it is— she goes by in the hard field—— 36 �Personal Essay A Toast to the Tutors, Spring 2020 Sam Hage During the quarantine I’ve heard a lot of people ask, “What are you doing to keep busy?” This question strikes me as both appropriate and tragic. It’s appropriate because “keeping busy” is a tactic employed during all kinds of hardship— layoffs, breakups, the loss of a loved one. And this virus, no doubt, presents many real hardships. And yet “keeping busy” is not a strategy employed only by the bereaved— if anything, it has become our country’s dominant attitude toward life. “Keeping busy” is no longer just a means of escaping the extraordinary pain of unusual tragedies, but instead a constant refuge from existential dread and the terrors of inner life. The frenetic activity we rely on simply to fill up our lives keeps us from encountering life’s contemplative moments with pleasure and curiosity. We distract ourselves from thinking about what life really is. St. John’s has shown a lucky few of us an alternative. Reading The Stranger last month, I was struck by the parallels to our own situation in Camus’ stunning depiction of humanity. The book is subtler and less obviously relevant than the more conspicuous quarantine choice, The Plague, but there is at least one feature I find particularly germane. Camus’ protagonist spends a great deal of the book’s final section in solitary confinement awaiting his trial, and perhaps even his execution. We read many pages of his reflections. At first Meursault misses his work, his friends, and his routines, finding it difficult to pass the time in isolation. But he quickly adjusts to the new reality, learning how to live with only his thoughts and the changing color of the sky. Exploring the simple memory of the objects in his bedroom over and over in greater and greater detail, he muses that a man who had lived a single day in the world could easily endure 100 years of solitary contemplation. He realizes that his supremely unexceptional life really contained the most sublime joys in its most ordinary moments. Meursault learns this in isolation. St. John’s teaches us the same thing among friends. The pressures of solitude and austerity are less explicit for us right now than they were for Meursault, but I find myself thinking about them anyway. Most of the time, it’s easy for us to avoid looking at the question of what life is very closely; to assemble all the different pieces—work, school, hobbies, family time, socializing—and assume that life is more or less the sum of its parts. By disrupting these routines, the virus shows us that life is something else. It compels us to reflect carefully on what life is all about; a St. John’s education gives us the tools to do so. Rather than desperately filling up any quiet lacunae with diversions, we can look directly at the space itself. We might even come to realize that this space above all is what life really is. 37 �Personal Essay Before St. John’s I read lots of books like The Stranger, and even a few of the books on our program. But I never had thoughts like these. The books alone are not enough to teach us about life, let alone about the good life. We need each other, and most of all we need our tutors. Our tutors teach about what is good in life, but they also do something a book never could: they model the good life for us. Last Spring, I met my seminar tutor outside a Friday night lecture and asked if he planned to stay for the Q&A period. He told me no, since he had to go read freshman essays. I said something like, “Gosh, on a Friday night—being a tutor seems like a lot of work.” He smiled and said, “Not really—I love every minute of it.” His sentiment ought to be an aspiration for us all: not merely to fill up our lives, but to find a way to live life such that we love every minute. To embrace life rather than simply keep ourselves occupied until it’s over. By merely staying busy under normal circumstances we shirk that greatest of duties to live an examined life. Doing so while quarantined, we risk giving up a greater than usual opportunity for introspection. Only by taking a close and sustained look at what life really is can we actually live it. To do so took Meursault solitary confinement and the guillotine. For me all it took was St. John’s. This is what our tutors offer us: the ability to live, because we now know how to think. To the tutors of St. John’s College. 38 �Poetry Rise Up and Come Away: An Ode for the Marriage of Friends Ryan Shinkel My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. —Song of Songs 2:10-13 For ten years men fought at Troy for Her face. A thousand ships had set sail, to what end? For power, riches, wisdom, and strength, placed With honor, glory, and blessing to fend Against Trojans? Greeks warred to destroy Troy. Another motive these ancient heroes, Who gave so much, must have had, to have fought. Yet what more reason is needed, with joy In Love: he who can endure any blows Knows flame reasons enough for what hearts wrought. One Achaean knew there was one more war He had to wage, the fight to return home. Ten years at Troy, ten years wandering for A way back to take back Ithaca. He roamed, Odysseus, named at birth, Son of Pain. For his wife, Penelope, he withstood Barbarians, Lotus Eaters, the Cyclops, Man Eating Giants, Witches, Sirens, Storming Rain, Sea Monsters. Even Immortal Life offered With Calypso he swapped for her and swam. Immortality he exchanged to die. Naked, helpless, he begged kind Nausicaa. He wished her in supplication this blessing: For spouse, house, and lasting harmony, a Gift no finer or greater to be unfurled When man and woman possess their home, one Of a marriage with true souls, two minds, and Two hearts thinking and beating their own world. Despair to enemies, joy to friends, done like two souls merged into one flesh, they stand. The lovers who last must befriend truly, or So the poets report of marital bliss. That covenant like two wings or two oars Roves the waves to our true home to the kiss Of the Lamb and his bride, a cosmic feast Which beckons our lifelong odysseys. One bird with two oars, one boat with two wings 39 �Poetry Can sail to a celestial city fleeced With men sacrificing immortality to gain the everlasting homecoming. Arise, my love. Let us hear the birds together. Neha Gaddam 40 �Personal Essay Human Space Is Where St. John's Exists Jordana Rozenman originally published on Colloquy blog, April 2020 I’ve been, as we all have, on a cycle of heartbreak and of deep gratitude and hope the past few weeks, generally as we began to move into whatever this time period is, and then very specifically as news came from St. John’s. Because these feelings were solidified by St. John’s, there is a lot to say about the school. There already was a lot to say, as I am moving toward the end of my last semester in the GI, frequently thinking about what it has given me, what has come from it expectedly and unexpectedly, how the program and the people have come to mean what they have come to mean. In this legitimately unimaginable development, there are now even more things I can say about St. John’s. St. John’s is a small focus in the midst of a truly gigantic crisis, a small personal thing in a global event that is not about us, but to be sad and to be grateful I suppose is important at any time. To be told, four semesters in, and seven years into imagining attending, that you cannot return to the St. John’s campus after spring break to finish your time there in person is a punch to the gut. How can it mean so much, some of you first semester GIs might even be asking (and I perhaps would even have asked during my first semester here)? How much proverbial Kool-Aid have I drunk? As it turns out, I am so happy to report, the answer is none. No Kool-Aid at all. The marvel is (and this does not come through rose-colored glasses–how exactly did I end up in TWO semesters about sixteenth-century French writers?! I DO NOT LIKE THEM) …the marvel is that St. John’s exists as one of what must be a very, very few places that does what it says it is doing. No Kool-Aid needed. It might not do it immediately. It surely won’t do it in the way you are expecting. It might take three or four semesters for you to even see it happening. Because the texts work very slowly. But beyond that, the people working with you on the texts–students and tutors–require time together for the program to happen. To use the term “heartbreaking” for not being allowed to finish St. John’s at St. John’s might seem hyperbolic. But it is testament to the power of finding people who are about what they say they are about. A major, perhaps the main, reason that works is that the program is not, and cannot be, online. There is a reason that there are a disproportionate number of GIs who come to read and discuss the great books and who have flip phones, not iPhones. There is a reason we are specifically asked not to use digital versions of the text in class, but to use hard copies. Of books. This is probably one of the most important foresights in the program. It is only in small part about what (deep) benefits that kind of reading will have for the reader, and in much larger part about what kind of reader such a caveat will bring to campus. The intention of the community is to be found in people who want, and need, to gather around a text, in at least equal part as it is to be found in the texts themselves. I suppose I am talking about form and content. The content can be made available anywhere. The form is found only at St. John’s. If the form disappears, the entire meaning of the program is lost. To my mind the need to explain any of that doesn’t exist, because everyone who has ever been or will ever want to be a Johnnie, or who has been a tutor, understands this. It is why Pano was able to say at my Convocation that this is not a community, 41 �Personal Essay but a polity (and the undergrads went wild with enthusiasm at this). The particular idea of this polity can only live in classes and a campus that exists in real, not virtual, space. In case all this makes it sound like St. John’s GI is actually not a “real place,” or is an escape from the real world, a four-semester-long respite from what is actually happening out there in the digital age to which you will have to return when you finish, let me be clear about just a few other points. St. John’s is perhaps one of the realest foundations for being in the real world that I’ve found. It is the opposite of an escape. It is a stepping stone. Nothing has made this clearer to me than the pandemic. In a program that is so short and so special to begin with, I was not surprised to speak with more than a few people who shed some tears about losing everything that it meant to them in the home stretch. But in the weeks that followed the closure of SJC and the closure of everything in the world, and the abrupt cutoff from a million things we love, I could not stop hearing in my head the words of a wise tutor last semester as we discussed a character who couldn’t get something he wanted: “Good practice for death!” (A very Johnnie response to a minor problem.) I had laughed when he said it, because he did not mean it gloomily. He meant only, take a breath. Let go when necessary. Be graceful. We do not have control over when our most beloved things (people, experiences, lives) are taken from us. So–good practice. I thought also of Odysseus. (I’m not sure there will ever be a time post-SJC when I don’t think of Odysseus.) And I thought of the class when we discussed Odysseus’ long, long-awaited return to Ithaca. After 20 years, he is asleep when it finally happens. What can possibly be the meaning of his being denied the poignancy of seeing his home, his awareness of reaching it, as he sails into it after 20 years of imagining it? It seemed a cruelty to me. Our tutor suggested that the moments we think we are waiting for, the moments we anticipate and that take on utter importance in our imaginations, are perhaps not the important ones, as real life unfolds, at all. The parts of the future that we cannot possibly anticipate sometimes offer the realest moments, if we are open to them. I think of these as only two of the times that what has come out of St. John’s has been grounding for me, in a way that is the opposite of coddling. It is not an exaggeration to say that I feel better off in a pandemic having had St. John’s than I would without it. I am so grateful for it, to have something I feel so sad about losing the end of. We have adjusted pretty quickly to the flimsy, flimsy substitution for classes in this emergency. But we are missing deeply, even grieving, everything real and organic that grows, during the classes (“facing with each other the questions of the text in front of us,” as one classmate put it), in between the classes, outside of them, through the people surrounding the texts. Such a polity does not happen often. I do not want to oversell St. John’s. It is not nearly perfect. But it is real, which is better. It is for the real world, and everything that St. John’s is capable of accomplishing is only so because of the fullness of the program as it exists. I am so excited about the stepping stone it has provided me, and the other stepping stones it will provide me that I can’t even see yet. It doesn’t stop, I don’t think. 42 �Prizewinning Essay: Tutorial The Soul with Good Sense Guides Correctly Sam Hage “The natural road is from what is more familiar and clearer to us to what is clearer and better known by nature; for it is not the same things that are well known to us and well known simply.” Aristotle, Physics 184a19 —————— Doubtless every reader of the Meno has at some point asked the same question: What is a geometrical demonstration doing in the middle of a dialogue about virtue? The introduction of this lesson is abrupt, and the supposed teaching about “recollection” is difficult to take at face value. Now, it isn’t hard to see how a certain specific type of mathematical learning might help us understand, in general, the process of coming to know, and to feel confident in the truth of, a proposition that was previously opaque; but it is substantially more difficult to understand how this type of learning fits into the conversation about virtue in particular, and especially its teachability. Part of the trouble, I think, stems from a confusion about where exactly in the encounter with the slave recollection is supposedly taking place, and indeed about the status of recollection as opposed to teaching in the first place. This latter difficulty leads to two further questions: Why does Socrates insist, as a partial answer to the question of whether virtue is teachable, that nothing is teachable? And then, having done so, why does he collapse the distinction between teaching and recollection shortly thereafter? His coy reversion at 87c makes me think there is something in the nature of recollection that may be important for the reader to bear in mind even at points in the dialogue where Meno himself has obediently yielded to Socrates’ equivocation. I would like to look closely at the geometry lesson in order to better understand the type of learning that is being described. But first, some context may be helpful. The Good Things At 77b, well before Socrates brings the slave into their discussion, Meno attempts to identify virtue for a third time, offering the following definition: “for one who desires the noble things to be capable of providing them for himself.”1 Unlike the previous two attempts, Socrates doesn’t immediately counter the argument or point out the ways in which Meno hasn’t truly answered the question. Instead he turns to a single point of clarification around what it really means to “desire the noble things.” Socrates first asks Meno to affirm that not everyone desires good things—some, Meno wants to say, actually “desire the bad things” (77c). But from this, of course, arises the question of whether he who desires these things does so “in the belief that the bad things benefit him…or knowing that the bad things harm him” (77d). It quickly emerges that everyone who desires bad things does so in the mistaken belief that the bad things are the good things—that is, out of ignorance—and so everyone, in a sense, really desires the good things for himself (77e–78b). It is indeed difficult, knowing what it means to “desire” something, even to imagine Meno’s paradoxical 1 Plato. “Protagoras” and “Meno”. Translated by Robert C. Bartlett, Cornell University Press, 2004. 43 �Prizewinning Essay: Tutorial alternative, that some people actually desire to be “wretched”. But Meno is clearly onto something important: Most people, while desiring good things in the most general sense, in fact end up pursuing at the very least a mix of good and bad things, and often bad things simply. From here Socrates goes in a surprising direction. Having collapsed Meno’s twofold definition, “to want the good things and to be capable,” into the single criterion, “being capable” (78b), Socrates does not ask what to me would be the obvious next question: What is it that allows some people to correctly recognize the good things, while others are mistaken about the objects of their desires? Could such a faculty be the very virtue we’ve been seeking? I can guess why Socrates does not suggest this. These mistakes were identified at 77e as coming from ignorance; wouldn’t the opposite, then, have to be a form of knowledge? Since he never refuted Meno’s claim that virtue has something to do with pursuing the good things, Socrates is perilously close at this moment to admitting that virtue is essentially knowledge. Were he to make such an admission this early in the conversation, Meno would, no doubt, jump immediately to the conclusion that virtue is teachable—and indeed that the teachers of virtue are the men he has been going to for his lessons. Socrates still has other things to show him. Instead of investigating the faculty that might allow one to distinguish from among health, wealth, honors, offices, and “things other than those of that sort” (78c) which ones might be the “good things,” Socrates misdirects Meno in a way that seems intended to result in perplexity. He accepts Meno’s assertion that the things popularly held to be goods are in fact goods, and then introduces the nakedly circular argument that getting these things for oneself can be done both virtuously and viciously, and is only virtuous when undertaken with “justice or moderation or piety, or some other part of virtue” (78e). He then chastises Meno for relying on virtue in his definition of virtue, as though it hadn’t been his own idea to twist Meno’s argument that way in the first place! Meno’s definition seems internally consistent so long as we inquire further about the all-important ability to identify the good things. Instead, Socrates has chosen a line of questioning that makes the definition appear contradictory. But there’s a certain beauty in Socrates’ strategy—if virtue depends on a knowledge of what the good things are, and vice stems from an ignorance thereof, then surely a knowledge of one’s own ignorance would be preferable to a mistaken belief in one’s knowledge. Meno certainly is ignorant of some things, and by 80a Socrates has at least gotten him to admit his ignorance, even if he has done so rather duplicitously. The confusion also elicits a docility from his interlocutor that allows Socrates to direct the conversation in a way Meno had stubbornly resisted before. By Zeus, Socrates, For My Part I Don’t Know I will put off looking at the specifics of Socrates’ mathematical example for a moment longer, turning first to the description of recollection that comes right after his exchange with the slave. At 85c Socrates proposes, based on what has just been demonstrated, that even in someone who doesn’t have knowledge, “there are present true opinions about those things that he doesn’t know.” Recollection, it seems, is the process by which such a man, through questioning alone, may 44 �Prizewinning Essay: Tutorial come to possess knowledge, “he himself recovering the knowledge from within himself” (85d). Armed with this working definition of recollection, we may confidently return to the beginning of the geometry problem and follow Socrates’ exhortation at 82b to pay attention to whether the slave is “recollecting or learning from me.” Socrates beings with a series of four opening questions, none of which strike me yet as aiding directly in the process of recollection. They all pertain merely to the knowledge of what it means for a figure to be square and to the possibility for the image of a geometrical figure to represent a conceptual object of arbitrary size (82c–d). The next set of questions serves a similar purpose, this time testing the slave’s knowledge of arithmetic, which, though he stumbles a little at first, is sufficient for Socrates’ purposes. So far none of these questions seems to involve either teaching or recollection. Everything up to about 82e is of the same character as Socrates’ first question at 82b: “does he speak Greek?” They constitute a few epistemological prerequisites for conducting the real investigation that follows. Those out of the way, the process of recollection begins in earnest, I think, with the slave’s first incorrect answer to the question of creating a square with double the area of the original—that the lengths of the sides, too, would be doubled (82e). This is one of the opinions the slave already possessed; one that perhaps seemed so obvious to him that he thought it was his only opinion on the matter. Now we see the questioning at work that Socrates later identifies as crucial to the process of recollection. By drawing on two things the slave does “know”—arithmetic and the size of the original square—Socrates creates a sort of syllogistic middle term in the argument, showing conclusively in 83a–c that the supposedly doubled square actually contains four of the original square, making it not twice, but four times as large. This first opinion having been dispelled, the slave realizes he has another: that since the doubled square is (in a sense) halfway between the original and the quadrupled squares, so too must its side lengths be halfway between two and four. Socrates uses an abbreviated form of the earlier argument to disprove this opinion as well, relying this time on the simple arithmetical fact that three times three is nine, not eight (83e). The dispelling of the slave’s incorrect opinions is illuminating, but the real point of interest as regards recollection comes from the realization of the correct answer. Just before 84d Socrates again reassures Meno, “I’m doing nothing other than asking [the slave] questions and am not teaching him.” In what follows, I think this ceases to be true, a troubling fact that somewhat muddles the lesson about recollection. After guiding the slave through the entire construction of a new figure, this time of the quadrupled square with a smaller square rotated and inscribed inside it, Socrates asks him to perform a simple calculation to determine that the inner square is indeed double the area of the square they started with. This technique has much more in common with the method Socrates used to disprove the previous two opinions, and in the final analysis is not, I think, the best way to demonstrate recollection. He spoon-feeds every step of the argument to the slave, asking him only to verify the final calculation. But the truth being “recollected” might just be uniquely suited to Socrates’ kind of learning. The side length they have ended up with has a very important property: being the hypotenuse of the right triangle formed by two sides of the original 45 �Prizewinning Essay: Tutorial square, it is incommensurable to those original sides. Modern algebra tells us that it does have a numerical length, the square root of eight. But this bland description obscures something fundamental about what a number (as opposed to simply a magnitude) is—one that is important to understand if we want to take what Socrates calls recollection seriously. Though convenient in proving the truth of the proposition, the figure, in which we can count triangles and squares for ourselves, actually hinders the consideration of the nature of magnitudes that cannot be described with a number. I can truthfully say of such a magnitude “I know how large that is,” but it’s hard to meaningfully tell you how large it is. I must resort to ratios or to special symbols whose uniqueness renders them almost completely inert.2 Whole numbers do not work this way. They have the power to communicate meaning by themselves, even in totally unfamiliar contexts, because they represent a number of units that can always be directly compared. Absent such units, then, we might ask: What does it mean to “know” a magnitude? I think it may be this type of knowledge in particular that Socrates wants to draw attention to in talking about recollection. A more effective demonstration might have come at 84a, had the slave not failed Socrates’ injunction to say “what sort of line” would give the required square, which failure prompted Socrates to lead him through the construction of the second figure. Couldn’t the slave have indicated at this point that the new side must be somewhere between two and three, and perhaps even that it’s quite a bit closer to three than to two? Certainly he knows this to be the case—but how does he know it? It wouldn’t have been on Socrates’ authority, because the precise, authoritative answer comes after the new diagram. It also couldn’t have come from the type of arithmetic that has allowed the slave to understand certain parts of the lesson up until now. Even for a student who understands modern trigonometry and irrational numbers, the algebraic calculation hardly grants as pure an understanding as is available if she simply looks at a picture and allows her mind to grasp the manifest truth. To state the case more strongly: Because the new side length is irrational, I cannot constitute it out of discrete units representing the natural numbers. But I can draw the length precisely (to the extent that precision is actually possible in a drawing)—Socrates himself has just done so using his “diameters”. At the risk of stating the obvious, there is a part of my mind, then, that simply grasps what this length is, just not in a way I can easily and rationally describe. Teaching as usually understood, no matter how skilled the teacher or how exhaustive the lesson, cannot resolve the fundamental discontinuity between a series of factual statements and logical arguments, on one hand, and the intellect’s sudden comprehension of this kind of noetic truth, on the other. The student can be turned in the right direction, shown why initial opinions were incorrect, and perhaps taught certain subsidiary propositions that make use of previous knowledge—but the final act of learning consists in an active apprehension rather than the passive reception of knowledge like a vessel being filled from without. This, I think, is what it means to recollect. In other words, a symbol like √8 or π or e or ln(2) can have meaningful reference only to itself, or to fractions and multiples of itself. In all cases, knowledge of the original magnitude must come first. 2 46 �Prizewinning Essay: Tutorial Knowing Virtue Socrates’ application of a kind of rigid syllogistic reasoning throughout the dialogue to questions about virtue’s teachability feels at times like a deliberate obfuscation of a clear path through the argument. By insisting on statements like ‘if virtue is knowledge, it must be teachable’ (87b) and ‘if virtue is teachable, there must be teachers of it’ (89d) Socrates can disguise certain subtleties he might be omitting behind apparently incontrovertible logical propositions. This leads to what in my mind is clearly a circular argument. Meno wanted to know whether virtue was teachable, in response to which Socrates said that it would then have to be a kind of knowledge. But if virtue were knowledge, there would be teachers of it, which there are not, and so virtue is not knowledge and not teachable. I can easily forgive Meno and Anytus for their frustration. But Plato has provided the careful reader a way out. By allowing the slave to apprehend the truth of the geometrical principle behind the square problem, Socrates has shown that the soul of the learner may be turned toward a certain kind of knowledge, which it can then grasp on its own, merely by contemplating it. The demonstration gives the lie to his sophistical insistence that anything knowable must admit of teaching in the conventional sense. Spending much of the dialogue insinuating that the categories “knowable” and “teachable” are identical, Socrates’ lesson with the slave has demonstrated just the opposite; there is a category of abstract truths that may—in fact must—be known without being taught. These things may just be the most knowable of all. What if knowledge of the good, which Socrates and Meno have both identified as being so crucial to virtue, belongs to this category too? Could the recognition that good things are good and harmful things harmful come to the knower in the same way this lofty mathematical abstraction came to the slave? I’m inclined to believe that this is what Plato is pointing us to. The conjecture at least allows us to make sense of the inclusion of Socrates’ geometry lesson in the dialogue, and of the obvious parallels between the categories of knowledge and true opinion in both cases. And as previously noted, it also resolves the apparent stalemate of virtue’s being neither teachable nor inherent. The problem with this supposition, possibly a grave one, is that the virtue discussed throughout the dialogue, though simply referred to as such, clearly seems to be a specific kind of practical virtue related to matters of action and governing. Although individual character virtues like moderation and courage are mentioned a handful of times, the examples discussed are overwhelmingly of a practical nature—and Meno’s abiding concern throughout the text seems to be with ruling over others. Meno even assents at multiple points to the explicit equation of virtue with phronēsis—or at least the assigning of phronēsis to a kind of architectonic role, present in the exercise of all virtue—as at 88d, 89e, and 97a. Anyone asserting that the soul can apprehend the principles of right action in the same way it understands the archē of mathematics must overcome the objection that mathematical certainty in the practical realm is plainly impossible—and probably nonsensical. And yet it’s hard to deny the necessary existence of a faculty of our intellects, common to both cases, that is somehow able to assimilate from among disparate particulars the unified whole that we refer to when we say that we “understand”. What does seem clear is that self-rule plays an important role in the development of this faculty, something that Meno utterly fails to grasp. Socrates repeatedly chides him for his inability to rule himself, as at 86d: “you don’t even attempt to rule yourself—so 47 �Prizewinning Essay: Tutorial you can be free, I suppose—but attempt to rule me.” Meno appears to place self-rule in the middle of a kind of hierarchy, in which absolute freedom from any sort of rule is best, and being ruled is worst. He fails to take note of Socrates’ suggestion that self-rule is really a critical first step both in virtue and in ruling others. Why would this be, other than because it is a well-ordered soul that grants a proper orientation in practical matters, allowing one to see the good things and the bad things for what they are? Meno’s tyrannical nature and his desire to be taught simple techniques for rhetoric and politics thwart his understanding of Socrates’ important teaching: that some things come to be known in a very different way, and that the process of coming to know requires a type of soulcraft he would be unwilling to engage in. He is consumed by a desire to know and to be taught, but it is this desire that prevents him from seeing that the highest things are knowable without really being teachable. Meno will never be a virtuous ruler until he understands what it is to be a knower. No teacher can offer him the knowledge he seeks if he does not first look within himself. Neha Gaddam 48 �Prizewinning Essay: Preceptorial Love and Suffering in Joyce’s Ulysses Christine Mooradian “Why should I describe a sorrow which all have felt, and all must feel?” — Mary Shelley, Frankenstein The death of a child can bear down hard on a marriage, splitting couples apart and destroying intimacy, as can many of the accidents of life. The death of Rudy, Molly and Bloom’s son, at 11 days old created a pain between Molly and Bloom which turned into an alienation that continued 10 years later at the time Joyce provides an account of one day in the lives of several Dubliners, June 16th, 1904. Ulysses is a story about the human struggle between the desperate need for intimacy and the constant threat of alienation, a chronic condition of mankind. And not just for Molly and Bloom but perhaps even more so for Stephen Dedalus. While Molly and Bloom struggle with the pain of troubled intimacy, Stephen struggles to establish intimacy in his adult life. Intimacy is one of the most profound of human needs and among the greatest of human goods, a state of being deeply known and deeply knowing. To be known is a mystical or spiritual need. The Psalmist expresses awe at understanding God knew him before he was formed. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139 NIV) And the Apostle Paul said, "Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known" (1 Corinthians 13 NIV). While the Biblical concept of intimacy with God will only be complete “then,” as Paul says, human intimacy can reach its highest point of expression in the conjugal relationship between a man and a woman, and can also be found in its human completeness between a parent and child. It seems we swing between the alienation we fear and the intimacy we desire, and that fear and desire compel us forward from the moment we are born. An infant leaves the womb at birth, a place of the most complete intimacy between two humans, sharing the same flow of blood and water, and if fortunate, that infant is drawn into intimacy in his mother’s arms, feeding from her body on her life sustaining milk - an intimacy without words, but human desire and fulfillment mutually achieved. An infant who is not held will not thrive, and perhaps an adult who is not held will not thrive either. This intimacy and alienation as revealed in Ulysses will be explored through the two protagonists, Stephen and Bloom, with the following questions: What do we learn from Ulysses about this human struggle between alienation and intimacy? Why do unfortunate circumstances of life tend to drive us apart from the relationships we need the most? What blocks or confuses our attempts at intimacy or destroys established bonds? How do the images of blood, water, and milk 49 �Prizewinning Essay: Preceptorial help reveal this struggle? And does Ulysses offer any resolution for our characters or any hope for the rest of us? Stephen and Bloom Alienation dominates Stephen Dedalus’ life as he is cut off from nearly every type of human intimacy – he is cut off from God, from family, from friends, and even from himself. Once on a track to become a Jesuit priest, he has rejected the church and struggles with faith and doubt in the wake of his mother’s death. His refusal to grant her dying request, to kneel and pray at her bedside, is a source of recurring torment. He has no friends that he trusts. Mulligan harshly accuses Stephen of killing his own mother. Haines dismisses or is blind to Stephen’s artistic gifts, jotting down quotations from Stephen as if they are quips for a greeting card. For whatever reason, he refuses to acknowledge his biological father, and instead of drawing familial warmth from his sister, he fears her needs will drown him. Stephen is intelligent, well-read, sensitive, an artist - but he is paralyzed artistically. Like Telemachus in The Odyssey, Stephen is half boy half man as the book opens. As far as we know, he has not yet truly known the intimate love of a woman and is separated from the love of the mother. “Pain, that was not yet the pain of love, fretted his heart.” (1.102) The desire in Stephen for mother-love, an enwombing love, takes on special importance from the start and images of the nurturing mother are repeated. In “Scylla and Charybdis” Stephen states, “Amor matris, subjective and objective genitive, may be the only true thing in life.” (9.842) The image of mother-love, love that starts our journey in this world, is present in the milk maid and in the milk she brings in “Telemachus.” The milkmaid is a mysterious figure that brings the nurturing, praiseworthy milk. “An old woman came forward and stood by Stephen’s elbow.” (1.389) Her physical proximity to Stephen is important, and her presence is noted by Stephen as she stands close to him. He watched her pour into the measure and thence into the jug rich white milk, not hers. Old shrunken paps…Old and secret she had entered from a morning world, maybe a messenger. She praised the goodness of the milk, pouring it out…a messenger from the secret morning. To serve or to upbraid, whether he could not tell: but scorned to beg her favour. (1.397) The milkmaid is the first of many mystical experiences for Stephen, experiences outside his conscious awareness but experiences that have profound impact on him. Stephen has an odd but sensitive reaction to the milk maid. Why would it cross his mind that the milk is not hers? Of course it is not. But as a mother figure she is providing the nurturing milk that can make men whole, that can heal them. Stephen seems to sense, if only subconsciously, his need to be healed and made whole. Mulligan, surely unaware of the depth of his comment, confirms the power of the milk saying, If we could live on good food like that…we wouldn’t have the country full of rotten teeth and rotten guts. Living in the bogswamp, eating cheap food and the streets paved with dust, horsedung and consumptives’ spits. (1.411) 50 �Prizewinning Essay: Preceptorial Stephen is jealous for the affection of this mother figure as he feels she bestows her attention on the unworthy Mulligan. “Stephen listened in scornful silence. She bows her old head to a voice that speaks to her loudly, her bonesetter, her medicineman: Me she slights.” (1.418) He scorns the scientist, but he – the artist – is frozen in indecision. In “Nestor,” mother-love again surfaces as a pure and sacrificial love when Stephen helps an awkward, dull student with his lesson. Stephen imagines the boy’s mother, “Yet someone had loved him, borne him in her arms and in her heart. …She had loved his weak watery blood drained from her own. Was that then real? The only true thing in life?” (2.140) Stephen, for a moment, takes on the role of mother as he cares for, encourages, and nurtures the student. Stephen sees himself in Cyril Sargent, “Like him was I…Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts…” (2.170) In this moment with Cyril Sargent, Stephen shows his artistic gift for teaching and his ability for compassion and intimacy, but immediately shrinks back into his shell of despair as the lesson ends. Stephen’s walk home along the Sandymount Strand clarifies his state of alienation from self and others. As he walks on the beach, the half boy half man, Stephen longs for the touch of a woman and imagines the healing touch of a soft hand. Can he bridge the span from the motherlove to the intimate love of a woman? “Touch me. Soft eyes. Soft soft soft hand. I am lonely here. O, touch me soon, now. What is that word known to all men? I am quiet here alone. Sad too. Touch, touch me.” (3.434) But alienation from the self is Stephen’s deepest struggle expressed in his lack of self-awareness and his self-neglect. While still on the beach longing to be touched, Stephen either masturbates or urinates, or both; the passage is unclear, suggesting Stephen’s lack of attention to what he is doing and lack of self-awareness. “Better get this job over quick,” he says to himself. (3.456) What job? Stephen is out of tune with his body and with his sexuality. Instead, during the process, whatever process it is, Stephen’s mind floods with thoughts of despair, …My ashplant will float away…Vehement breath of waters amidst seasnakes…And, spent, its speech ceases…writhing weeds…sway reluctant arms…Lord, they are weary...To no end gathered; vainly then released… (3.454) Even his body has become a stranger. Care for his physical body is limited as he hasn’t eaten in two days though he has money in his pocket, he hasn’t bathed since the previous October (17.238), his teeth are rotting, and even his body is foreign to him, “Who chose this face for me? This dogsbody to rid of vermin. It asks me too.” (1.136) Although he clearly needs money, he abandons his teaching job and is careless with what little money he has, giving it away or losing it. Stephen hides at times inside a drunken stupor. And like a child without a parent nearby, he is terrified of thunderstorms. Bloom also struggles with alienation, but differently from Stephen. Since Molly and Bloom’s son died 10 years ago, the couple has been unwilling or unable to have sexual relations. This is a long time for a marriage to lie dormant and for two people to live without the embodying of intimacy in conjugal love, which should be at the heart of a healthy marriage. Bloom is obviously 51 �Prizewinning Essay: Preceptorial not impotent, but he seems to be with Molly. They share a bed, but Bloom sleeps with his head at Molly’s feet. Bloom muses on the liquid nature of human intimacy, I was happier then. Or was that I? Or am I now I? Twentyeight I was. She twentythree. When we left Lombard street west something changed. Could never like it again after Rudy. Can’t bring back time. Like holding water in your hand. (8.608) Bloom unsuccessfully attempts to fill the void of intimacy in his life. He carries on a trifling affair by letters with Martha, a woman he has likely never met and has very little fondness for. Bloom has been with prostitutes in Dublin, a slim attempt at intimacy. But he has no real friends, and he misses the son he should have had. He thinks about the intimacy of a father-son relationship that he longs for, If little Rudy had lived. See him grow up. Hear his voice in the house. Walking beside Molly in an Eton suit. My son. Me in his eyes. Strange feeling it would be. From me. Just a chance…I could have helped him on in life. I could. Make him independent. Learn German too. (6.75) However, in spite of Bloom’s alienation from other people and the lack of intimacy in his marriage, he maintains a connection with life and with himself that Stephen is unable to do. Bloom displays a hearty appetite for the sensory aspects of life, especially food. He feeds himself well, in fact he has several meals during the day of June 16 th, each of which he relishes. He drinks but with moderation. He bathes. Bloom notices all the smells and sounds and beauty around him and finds the world a wonderous place. Bloom, while timid at times, stands up for himself when he is pushed. And Bloom is kind. It takes great strength to be kind, and kindness defines Bloom; he is aware of other people’s needs, he remains open to people, and he is willing to risk being wounded for the sake of another - perhaps these are the prerequisites for establishing intimacy. While Stephen is guarded, cuts himself off from the world and drinks himself into a stupor, Bloom remains vulnerable and sober. “…Mr Bloom, who at all events, was in complete possession of his faculties, never more so, in fact disgustingly sober…” (16.61) Bloom is our hope for redemption from alienation. Alienation What draws us away from bonds and intimacy with others? Or renders us unable to establish intimate relationships initially? Joyce provides a day full of the occurrences of life that pull us away from intimacy with others, which can be summarized in the “Sirens” chapter. Sirens are all things that call us away from life, away from bonds, with false promises of sustenance, with offers of imitation intimacy. Whether the sirens come with intent or are accidental, the influence is the same. Miss Kennedy and Miss Douce, the proprietors of Ormond’s Pub, personify the sirens of life. While they are serving customers at the pub, the two are clearly singing, luring, unfaithful sirens, drawing men towards them with no good intentions, just for the joy of leading them low. “…miss Douce’s wet lips said, 52 �Prizewinning Essay: Preceptorial laughing in the sun…Her wet lips tittered: ---He’s killing looking back. She laughed: ---O wept! Arent’ men frightful idiots?” (11.72) Breasts that should provide the life giving milk, the kind of milk we see in “Telemachus,” instead lure and deceive. The breasts of the barmaids tantalize but disappoint and frustrate. Miss Douce reached high to take a flagon, stretching her satin arm, her bust, that all but burst, so high./ O! O! jerked Lenehan, gasping at each stretch. O!/ But easily she seized her prey and led it low in triumph. (11.360) For Boylan, who stops in Ormond’s pub as he is heading to Molly’s bed, the barmaid pours a glass of sloe gin, a blood red syrupy liqueur. Again, what should be life sustaining, the blood of the human body or the saving blood of Christ, is poured as an inebriant, confusing men’s minds. The “milk” the barmaid pours is a false nurture, a sickeningly sweet lugubrious wine, drunk by an imposter with bewitched vision. Boylan, eyed, eyed. Tossed to fat lips his chalice, drank off his chalice tiny, sucking the last fat violet syrupy drops. His spellbound eyes went after, after her gliding head as it went down the bar by mirrors, gilded arch… (11.419) Bloom is seemingly immune to these particular sirens. While he imagines or remembers an interlude with Lydia, or perhaps Lydia’s hand on the beerpull reminds him of some soft, soft hand, On the smooth jutting beerpull laid Lydia hand, lightly, plumply, leave it to my hands. All lost in pity for croppy. Fro, to: to, fro: over the polished knob (she knows his eyes, my eyes, her eyes) her thumb and finger passed in pity: passed, repassed and, gently touching, then slid so smoothly, slowly down, a cool firm white enamel baton protruding through their sliding ring. (11.1112) Bloom is not drawn off course by these sirens. “Get out before the end. Thanks, that was heavenly. Where's my hat.” (11.1122) The sirens for Bloom, which dash him on the rocks and widen the distance from Molly, are his own anxieties demonstrated in his shame and sadness. At the funeral early in the day and at Ormond’s bar later, he feels deep sadness remembering Rudy and a sense of shame for Rudy’s death. A dwarf's face, mauve and wrinkled like little Rudy's was. Dwarf's body, weak as putty, in a whitelined deal box. Burial friendly society pays. Penny a week for a sod of turf. Our. Little. Beggar. Baby. Meant nothing. Mistake of nature. If it's healthy it's from the mother. If not from the man. Better luck next time. (6.326) “Well, my fault perhaps. No son. Rudy. Too late now. Or if not? If not? If still? / He bore no hate. / Hate. Love. Those are names. Rudy. Soon I am old.” (11.1066) Bloom also seems to feel shame at growing old. 53 �Prizewinning Essay: Preceptorial Shame is a powerful force behind alienation, causing people to withdraw, to cover themselves, and feel unworthy. Stephen is described by Mulligan as a reverse Jesuit. Perhaps shame is reverse intimacy. Perhaps the opposite of intimacy is not alienation, but shame. Molly recognizes death and shame in the “Penelope” chapter, I suppose I oughtnt to have buried him in that little woolly jacket I knitted crying as I was but give it to some poor child but I knew well Id never have another our 1st death too it was we were never the same since…(18.1448) Molly speaks to the shame of all mankind in her allusion to the first death of the world. Adam and Eve give us the first example of shame when, upon the tragedy of sin, they knew the shame of nakedness, and futilely tried to cover themselves with “the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3.8 NIV). But God knew that more than leaves were needed to cover their shame, that only a blood sacrifice would do, and covered them in the skin of a dead animal, the first death on earth. “…God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” (Gen 3.22 NIV) And nothing was the same after that, as shame took the place of intimacy. The Mystical Nature of Intimacy Does Joyce offer any solution for this chronic condition of swinging between intimacy and alienation? Is there hope for our characters, or for ourselves? If Bloom is our hope, how does Joyce develop this hope? Can intimacy be created, or must it be given like grace? Joyce suggests that something transcendent, something outside of our control, something even mystical is part of intimacy. In Ulysses, intimacy is found in the relationship that grows between Stephen and Bloom, a relationship that begins the morning of June 16 th, even though the two don’t meet until evening. A mystical bond begins between Stephen and Bloom, one a child – symbolically – without a parent and the other a man in need of a son, one seeking the word known to all men and one who knows the word known to all men, and both men relatively friendless and alienated from the intimacy they desire. This mystical bond is established in part in the parallel experiences of Stephen and Bloom during the day of June 16 th, experiences that later create a link between them that even they do not fully comprehend. Two of those parallel experiences are found in their reaction to sunlight and shadow, and in their experience on Sandymount Strand. Both Bloom and Stephen have similar reactions to the sunlight and shadow they encounter early in the day. Both experience a brooding and fear as a cloud covers the sun, followed by a restoration of spirit as the cloud passes. Stephen standing alone on the parapet after Mulligan has descended, looks out to sea. Something or someone seems to be present with him. Woodshadows floated silently by through the morning peace from the stairhead seaward where he gazed. Inshore and farther out the mirror of water whitened, spurned by lightshod hurrying feet…A hand plucking the harpstrings… (1.242) 54 �Prizewinning Essay: Preceptorial But as a cloud begins to cover the sun, Stephen’s spirit darkens, and he thinks of his mother’s deathbed. It [the bay] lay beneath him, a bowl of bitter waters. Fergus’s song: I sang it alone in the house, holding down the long dark chords. Her door was open: she wanted to hear my music. Silent with awe and pity I went to her bedside. She was crying in her wretched bed. For those words, Stephen: love’s bitter mystery. (1.249) Wracked with turmoil, he cries out, “No, mother! Let me be and let me live.” (1.279) Mulligan’s voice rouses Stephen from his darkness just as the sun reemerges and “Stephen, still trembling at his soul’s cry, heard warm running sunlight and in the air behind him friendly words.” (1.282) This is a profound experience animated with something living, and revealing of Stephen’s deep despair and deeper hope. Bloom has a parallel experience with the same cloud that morning from his own vantage point on his way home from the porkbutcher. “A cloud began to cover the sun slowly, wholly. Grey. Far.” He begins to have very dark thoughts of brimstone, death, and desolation, and “a grey horror seared his flesh.” (4.218-230) Bloom’s reaction is to head home. As he turns on to Eccles street “hurrying homeward” he reassures himself, “Well, I am here now. Yes, I am here now.” (4.233) and he thinks of friendly, mundane and sensuous soothing thoughts: that he must exercise more, that “number eight is still unlet,” that he longs for the smell of tea and sizzling butter and to “Be near her ample bedwarmed flesh. Yes, yes.” (4.236) And presently the sun reemerges and a presence of some kind is sensed, just as Stephen had noticed. “Quick warm sunlight came running from Berkeley road, swiftly, in slim sandals, along the brightening footpath. Runs, she runs to meet me, a girl with gold hair on the wind.” (4.240) Both men are visited by something beautiful, and it restores their souls, at least for a moment. Another parallel experience between Stephen and Bloom that contributes to this mystical bond is each man’s compulsion to masturbate, or urinate as the case may be, while on Sandymount Strand. These scenes take place at different times of day, but their parallelism is not coincidental. Stephen’s experience takes place in the morning and Bloom’s later in the day when, “the summer evening had begun to fold the world in its mysterious embrace,” (13.1) In addition to the same location, both men assume the same physical posture stretched back against rock with their hands in their pockets. Stephen, “…lay back at full stretch over the sharp rocks, cramming the scribbled note and pencil into a pocket, his hat tilted down on his eyes.” (3.437) And for Bloom, It was getting darker but he could see and he was looking all the time that he was winding the watch or whatever he was doing to it and then he put it back and put his hands back into his pockets…He was leaning back against the rock behind. (13.557,744) Both men are desiring the touch of a woman, but making do with their own, but the men differ in their cognitive impressions. Stephen, as described earlier on page 3, is cut off from himself and perhaps somewhat unaware of what he is doing, with confused and wandering thoughts. Bloom, on the other hand, is very focused and engaged. “Still, I feel. The strength it gives a man. That’s the 55 �Prizewinning Essay: Preceptorial secret of it.” (13.859) As with other sensuous aspects of life, he embraces his sexual desire with intention. Joyce presents numerous parallel experiences, some small and some significant, that suggest the potential for an intimacy between people might begin before they ever meet and might never be fully comprehended. Eummaus The “Eummaus” chapter establishes the relationship between Stephen and Bloom as father and son, resolving the tension of alienation for both men. Bloom initiates this relationship in the previous chapter “Circe” when he speaks to the two policemen who want to rough Stephen up for insulting the king. Bloom says, “I know him. He’s a gentleman, a poet. It’s all right.” (15.4485) I know him. To know and be known is the beginning of intimacy. And Bloom doesn’t just know him, he knows he is a gentleman and a poet. This is the only time all day (which is all we have) that Stephen has been known for what he is, or for what he is capable of becoming, the kind of knowing a parent has for a child. Eventually all others leave, and Bloom and Stephen are alone. The scene can be likened to a birth, and perhaps it is Bloom who has given birth to Stephen. This image is supported as Bloom is portrayed earlier in the chapter as both male and female. Dr. Punch Costello refers to Bloom saying, “Professor Bloom is a finished example of the new womanly man.” (15.1798) and Bloom replies, “Oh, I so want to be a mother.” (15.1817) Joyce seems to be establishing the enwombing relationship between mother and child that Stephen has searched for all day - the relationship of shared blood and water, and sustaining milk. Stephen, in his drunken stupor, resembles a newborn, curled on his side, stretching out his arms and curling his body. Bloom “(he bends again and undoes the buttons of Stephen’s waistcoat) To breathe.” (15.4937) Bloom calls out to rouse him, “Stephen! (There is no answer. He calls again) Stephen!” (15.4926) Bloom calls him by his name, or names him. Bloom stands over him with concern and “looks down on Stephen’s face and form” saying, “Face reminds me of his poor mother.” (15.4946) Bloom murmurs an oath or maybe a blessing over Stephen. The scene then moves to include a vision of Rudy. Bloom “(wonderstuck, calls inaudibly) Rudy!” (15.4961) The connection between Stephen and Rudy is strong, and perhaps Joyce suggests the metempsychosis of Rudy’s soul into Stephen’s body. During this mystical moment Stephen is mumbling in his drunken stupor lines from “Who goes with Fergus.” Bloom doesn’t recognize the words and assumes he is talking about, “Ferguson, I think I caught. A girl.” (15.4950) Joyce further develops this father/son relationship as Stephen and Bloom sit in the cabman’s shelter. Paternal behaviors emerge in Bloom in the form of admonitions, caring questions, and awareness of the similarities and differences between Bloom and Stephen. Their parallel experiences of earlier in the day begin to manifest themselves in a familiarity that Bloom doesn’t fully understand. Bloom notes, “Though they didn’t see eye to eye in everything a certain analogy there somehow was as if both their minds were travelling, so to speak, in the one train of thought.” 56 �Prizewinning Essay: Preceptorial (16.1579) Just as their parallel experiences established a commonality, differences between Bloom and Stephen are evident, and Joyce suggests the differences are as much a part of establishing this intimate relationship as the similarities. Bloom eventually asks Stephen to come home with him for cocoa, which Bloom will make with milk, Molly’s milk, “…the viscous cream ordinarily reserved for the breakfast of his wife….” (17.364) The pivotal passage of Ulysses, a point when the mystical becomes present with the natural, occurs late in “Eummaus” and can be easily overlooked, buried among chatter about sweeping the floors and the sleeping sentry. Bloom says to Stephen as they leave the cabman’s shelter, The only thing is to walk then you’ll feel a different man. Come. It’s not far. Lean on me. /Accordingly he passed his left arm in Stephen’s right and led him on accordingly./ --Yes, Stephen said uncertainly because he thought he felt a strange kind of flesh of a different man approach him, sinewless and wobbly and all that. (16.1719) Though hesitant, Stephen says yes to this sinewless, wobbly flesh. Who is this being Bloom has become? Joyce refers to him as “the unconquered hero,” “our hero” (16.1643), he is a father figure and a mother figure, and in “Cyclops” Bloom is revealed as Elijah the prophet. Or is he Fergus come to take Stephen in his brazen car? Or is he all of these? On the walk home, Bloom and Stephen demonstrate an intimate relationship that neither has been able to establish all day. They are parent and child, they are husband and wife, the two organic forms in which intimacy manifests itself in human relationships. “--…the two figures…both black, one full, one lean, walk towards the railway bridge, to be married by Father Maher.” (16.1886) -- and they are friends with arms linked. The subject of their conversation is the subject of Ulysses: “…their tete a tete … about sirens, enemies of man’s reason, mingled with a number of other topics of the same category, usurpers, historical cases of the kind…”(16.1889) The book, Ulysses, it could be argued, is the offspring of their union, written by the Stephen character, Joyce, which is strongly suggested in the ending line, “Trieste-Zurich-Paris/ 1914-1921.” (18.1610) Memory Steven and Bloom find metaphorical or mystical significance in each other and discover the friend each needs. While Stephen and Bloom establish an intimate bond, Bloom and Molly need to maintain or reconcile intimacy. And what can reconcile intimacy? If knowing and being known is a basis of intimacy, Joyce suggests that memories provide ongoing fuel for intimacy. Bloom fondly recalls Molly frequently during the day of June 16 th. He remembers her voice, her perfume, “Know her smell in a thousand.” (13.1024), her “bedwarm flesh”, he shares her picture with Stephen – all of his senses are engaged in remembering her. In Molly’s soliloquy in “Penelope” she fondly remembers details about Bloom “…if they only knew him as well as I do…the last time he came on my bottom… I could always hear his voice talking when the room was crowded…when he asked to take off my stockings lying on the hearthrug in Lombard street…” (18.45, 77, 182, 266) Molly’s memories are earthy and sexual. 57 �Prizewinning Essay: Preceptorial But shared memory might be the most powerful call back to intimacy and to maintained intimacy. Molly and Bloom, each in their own moment, relate the same memory of an intense physical and emotional encounter. Bloom’s memory occurs early in the day at Davy Burn’s as he has red wine and a cheese sandwich, waiting for 4 o’clock to pass, the time Boylan is to visit Molly. The imagery of wine and bread alludes to communion, which is a repeated act of memory designed to restore intimacy with God. “Bloom ate his strips of sandwich, fresh clean bread…Sips of his wine…” (8.818) Bloom seems to feel the memory coming upon him, something somewhat beyond his control, invoked by the wine. “Glowing wine on his palate lingered swallowed…Seems to a secret touch telling me memory. Touched his sense moistened remembered.” (8.897) And he remembers, …Ravished over her I lay, full lips full open, kissed her mouth. Yum. Softly she gave me in my mouth the seedcake warm and chewed. Mawkish pulp her mouth had mumbled sweet and sour with spittle. Joy: I ate it: joy…High on Ben Howth rhododendrons … Wildly I lay on her, kissed her: eyes, her lips, her stretched neck beating, woman's breasts full in her blouse of nun's veiling, fat nipples upright. Hot I tongued her. She kissed me. I was kissed. All yielding she tossed my hair. Kissed, she kissed me. (8.906-916) In “Penelope,” Molly recalls the same scene from her own point of view, …the sun shines for you he said the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear…and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. (18.1572-1609) The most common memory they share is Molly’s gesture of passing a bit of seed cake from her mouth to Bloom’s - an act of extreme intimacy. While perhaps a cultural symbol of marriage, Molly’s gesture came from her heart, her erotic being, her deep human desire to be one with her lover. To share a bit of masticated cake from one wet mouth to another is something only lovers, or a parent, will do. Molly and Bloom are deeply linked by this gesture and it provides a memory of strength. It is ritualistic and spiritual in the deepest sense. Hope Joyce does not offer us a plan for complete redemption from our struggle between intimacy and alienation. The relationship between Stephen and Bloom is based on very thin reeds of cocoa and urinating together, and the restoration with Molly is only hinted at by Bloom asking for breakfast in bed. But Joyce does offer hope. We are left with a wise notion I once heard, that to live is to love and to suffer. And the best we can do is hope to love more and suffer less. 58 �Prizewinning Essay: Preceptorial Appendix Who goes with Fergus? By W. B. Yeats Who will go drive with Fergus now, And pierce the deep wood's woven shade, And dance upon the level shore? Young man, lift up your russet brow, And lift your tender eyelids, maid, And brood on hopes and fear no more. And no more turn aside and brood Upon love's bitter mystery; For Fergus rules the brazen cars, And rules the shadows of the wood, And the white breast of the dim sea And all dishevelled wandering stars. Works Cited Joyce, James. Ulysses. New York: Vintage Books - Random House, Inc., 1986. Yeats, W.B. The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. 59 �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Colloquy Description An account of the resource A student-run journal for the Graduate Institute community of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. The issues feature essays, art, poetry, interviews, and more. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 63 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Colloquy, Fall 2020 Description An account of the resource Volume VII of Colloquy, published in Fall 2020. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Braley, Olivia (Editor-in-Chief) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-12 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived English Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Colloquy_Fall2020 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/687a2f5ea81153a3c2ddfaf656313fca.pdf 475f45ae3bea6ffa4783000b6cc26a39 PDF Text Text William Donahue, November 5, 2021 What would Kepler say to Einstein? The more I think of this topic, the more appalled I am at my hubris in proposing it. “Really, Mr. Donahue (you might be thinking), “aren’t you just using Kepler’s name to throw out your own rash thoughts into an arena in which you have no business contending?” As for the arena, I have no defense, other than that here at St. John’s we routinely contend in contests where, by standards accepted elsewhere, we have no formal qualifications. We do it anyway, unapologetically. We do not expect to establish new truths, nor to overthrow established theories. But we do hope that in this rather mad undertaking we may gain for ourselves a little more understanding, both of the amazing universe we live in and the powerful thinkers and their remarkable insights into that universe. In presuming to offer advice to Einstein (ostensibly in the persona of Kepler), I am on much shakier ground. The theme of this lecture sprang from a lecture I gave some years ago at Johns Hopkins, which had to do with Kepler’s introduction of physical principles into astronomy. In the question period, I was asked what could be learned (if anything) from Kepler’s views on what constitutes a good hypothesis. I replied that, more than merely accounting for phenomena, it would have to be based in physical reality. This occasioned much rolling of eyes, presumably at my extreme naïveté, which led me to ponder, in the ensuing years, what Kepler might have understood by “physical reality,” and whether a similar mode of understanding might be applicable to more recent physical theory. At length I thought about Einstein’s replacement of Maxwell’s “luminiferous ether” with a postulate asserting the constancy of the speed of light in all possible inertial frames of reference. This seemed to me a theoretical move about which Kepler would have been extremely skeptical. The idea of the ether, after all, was �introduced into electromagnetic theory in order to provide a medium for electromagnetic waves, whose existence could be demonstrated. These waves were conceived as being similar to sound waves in air and other fluid media, and the idea of a wave in nothing, without any medium or substrate, was (I believe) calculated to raise objections from the community of physicists. And with them, I believe, would be Kepler, were he still around to express his views. Now of course Kepler did not say anything about waves, so I must say first of all what criteria he used in evaluating a scientific hypothesis, and why I think he would have raised an objection to Einstein’s rejection of the ether. One of the best examples of Kepler’s thinking about the physical reality behind the apparent motion of the planets is found right near the beginning of Astronomia Nova, in Chapter 2. This chapter is a deliberate reprise of Book I Chapter 3 of Ptolemy’s Almagest, but Kepler takes the argument a giant step farther, asking how each of the two kinds of hypotheses (epicyclic and eccentric) could be understood to function in physical reality. And for Kepler, the limits of physical reality are very broad, but are also clear and definite. So here is where we have to begin. Kepler takes it as demonstrated that there are no real, rigid epicycles and deferent circles or spheres in the heavens. The question, then, is how the moving power (supposed for the moment to reside in the planet) could make the planet move in a circle. Like Ptolemy, Kepler considered both the eccentric hypothesis and the concentric-with-epicycle hypothesis; in the interest of time, we will consider only the former. This power, whatever it is, would have two jobs: it would have to be strong enough to move the body of the planet, and it would have to know where to move 2 �it. This would require knowledge or perception of the circular path in the unmarked aethereal air—a function of intelligence and not physics. Now a circle, Kepler says, even for God, is nothing but equality of distance from some point. Citing Avicenna, he says that the planet will either have to “imagine for itself the center of its orb and its distance from it,” or use some other property of a circle to establish its distance and direction. Here’s the example Kepler gives. The planet’s assignment will be to move on the path γεδ, with center β (not occupied by any body or perceptible mark). This center is fixed in position with respect to point α, which is occupied by a body. To make this motion possible, the planetary mover might be endowed with some means of perceiving the angular size of the body α, as it should appear, in succession, at γ, ε, η, δ, continually adjusting its distance from α while moving with uniform speed on the resulting circle. Somehow, it will have to match continually the distances γα, εα, ηα, δα, and so on (calculated by observing the apparent size of the body at α), with the angles γαε, γαη, γαδ, respectively. It will also have to know the direction of the line of apsides, αγ, in the sphere of the stars. As Kepler says, “The planet’s mover will thus be occupied with many things at once,” his implication being that this arrangement makes no sense. “To escape this conclusion,” he continues, “one must assert that the planet pays attention to the point β, entirely empty of any body or real quality, and maintains equal distances from that point.” “Body or real quality”: that is the kind of thing that Kepler was looking for. It would have to be perceptible, somehow, even if it were not the same as objects that we interact with every day. Objects of pure mathematics, such as points and 3 �lines, would not do. Beyond that, Kepler was extraordinarily open to analogies, both mechanical and living. Earlier in the chapter, he considers at length the operations of muscles in the human body, and concludes that animal locomotion would not be a good model for planetary motion; nonetheless, he is very much open to a role for minds in the heavens. In passing, it is fascinating to note that Newton, too, found that the supposedly “natural” circular motion could not be produced by central forces alone. The moving body would have to take into account, in addition to its velocity and its distance from the center of force, the chord from its present position through the center to the opposite side of the circle. Thus it would have to know where it would be on the other side of its orbit! We are now prepared to imagine what Kepler might think while reading Einstein’s world-changing paper “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies.” He would certainly want to know what this “electrodynamics” is. Maybe the best explanation would be to display the two experimental demonstrations that Einstein describes, which (I hope) are now familiar to all seniors. [show two videos, one with a hand moving a magnet through a coil of wire, the other with a hand moving the coil with the magnet fixed.] Kepler might be surprised to see the magnetic needle wiggle, whether the magnet moves inside the coil of wire or the coil moves along the magnet. He might be more surprised to learn that, despite the identical effects of the motion upon the magnetic needle, the theory requires that there be two very different accounts of what is happening. Here is Einstein’s description: 4 �“If the magnet is in motion and the conductor at rest, there arises in the neighborhood of the magnet an electric field with a certain definite energy, producing a current at the places where parts of the conductor are are situated. But if the magnet is stationary and the conductor in motion, no electric field arises in the neighborhood of the magnet. In the conductor, however, we find an electromotive force, to which in itself there is no corresponding energy, but which gives rise—assuming equality of relative motion in the two cases discussed—to electric currents of the same path and intensity as those produced by the electric forces in the former case.” [emphasis supplied] (This is clearly shown by the deflection of the needle in the two cases.) Kepler would, I think, be reminded of the physical difference between planetary motion as conceived by the geocentrists and the motion as seen by the heliocentrists. The phenomena as observed by the astronomers would be the same in both cases, but the physical reality would be radically different. I imagine he would say, “Well, two contradictory accounts cannot both be true, so one of the descriptions must be the correct one.” Einstein, however, went off in a completely different direction. Ignoring conventional ideas of space and time in Newtonian physics, he adopted two principles, which he initially raised as conjectures, but immediately (in his own words) “raised to the status of postulates.” 1. The same laws of electrodynamics and optics will be valid for all frames of reference for which the equations of mechanics hold good. 2. Light is always propagated in empty space with a definite velocity c which is independent of the state of motion of the emitting body. A “postulate,” we should recall, is how we usually translate the Greek Ἀιτήμα, meaning “demand, request.” It is a statement that the author requests us to accept 5 �as true, without proof, as a basis for the demonstrations that will follow. Einstein states that he will use these postulates to attain “a simple and consistent theory of the electrodynamics of moving bodies based on Maxwell’s theory for stationary bodies.” In other words, he proposes to fix the inconsistency between the theoretical accounts of electromagnetic induction, noted above, not by adopting one or the other account as “true,” but by a radical reformation of the foundations of all of physics, by adding these two postulates to Newton’s three “Axioms, or Laws of Motion.” Now I do not think that Kepler would be troubled, in principle, with the idea of a radical reform of physics. But I do think he would be troubled by Einstein’s next sentence. Einstein wrote, “The introduction of a ‘luminiferous ether’ will prove to be superfluous inasmuch as the view here to be developed will not require an ‘absolutely stationary space’ provided with special properties.” Since Kepler believed that God had created a finite, spherical universe with the sun at its center, he clearly was an advocate of a stationary space with special properties, such as privileged places. But aside from this, I will argue that, theology aside, Kepler would have philosophical or methodological objections to abandoning the Maxwellian ether. To do this, I will have to make an excursion into the considerations that led Maxwell and other physicists of the nineteenth century to espouse the ancient idea of an ethereal medium filling all space. The excursion I propose will lead us into some rather elementary physical considerations. These may be the sort of thing that Einstein would think of as “superfluous,” but this is exactly the kind of inquiry that Kepler enjoyed. So let us invite him to join us in considering the “simple” pendulum. [video of pendulum] [video of two loosely linked pendulums] 6 �[video of a number of loosely linked pendulums] [video of Bell wave machine, first with all but one bar clamped, then with the clamp removed so as to create a wave] Kepler was very good at constructing mathematical models of physical actions, but (as we saw in Astronomia Nova) he wanted more from a sound physical explanation. In several places in Astronomia Nova he set out a three-leveled structure: the observational evidence, geometrical modeling of the observations, and a physical account that could underlie the geometry. As for what could serve as a “physical account,” Kepler was open to a very wide range of examples: animal joints and muscles, magnetism, whirlpools and other examples of water flow (such as Heron’s fountain), amusement park rides, oars and paddles, and so on. He seems to have sought examples that would be generally acknowledged as physically real and that could be understood as constituting an analogue to a phenomenon that is felt to be in need of explanation. In proposing such examples, he was often not claiming that the analogy provided a full and adequate account of the phenomenon, only that the physical reality might be somewhat like the example. Sometimes he combined two different analogies in a single diagram, as here (from Astronomia Nova Chapter 59), where a magnetic planet (the big black circle) with a vertical axis (note the arrowhead at the top) is alternately attracted and repelled by the sun, but is also being propelled by a boatman with a pole (or perhaps an oar). He also candidly admits the provisional or conjectural nature of some of his analogies: for example, in Ch. 57 he writes, “I am satisfied if this magnetic example demonstrates the general possibility of the proposed mechanism. 7 �Concerning the details, however, I have doubts...There may be absolutely no material, magnetic faculty that can accomplish the tasks entrusted to the planets individually…” His point is, that wherever possible, it is preferable to invoke a physical force or power such as magnetism or weight, but if all else fails, it is permissible to invoke mental or animate powers. So let’s think about what Kepler might hope for as a generalized physical metaphor or underpinning for wave phenomena. To help us, I’d like to bring back the Bell wave machine. [Bell video] We may think of the machine as an assembly of linked pendulums. Each crossbar is attached to a longitudinal torsion bar that runs the length of the machine. If the crossbar at the end is displaced and released while the bar next to it is clamped in place, it oscillates while all the other crossbars remain at rest. [video with just one bar moving] It is acting as a torsional pendulum. When its displacement is at its maximum, the twisting force is also maximum, and the bar, when released, moves in the direction of the force, towards its rest position. But when it gets to its rest position, it has acquired some speed, which carries it past the rest position to a new maximum displacement. If we remove the clamp from the next crossbar, the motion of the first bar twists the torsion bar, which then imparts that twist to the next crossbar, which in turn adds a twist to the torsion bar, and thus the twisting motion is passed on. It’s much like those pendulums we saw earlier, that were connected by springs. So it appears that in order to have a wave in some medium, two things are needed. 8 �1. Individual places in the medium have to be able to move like pendulums: when given an initial push, they will depart from their position, but they then experience a restorative force in the medium that pushes back towards whence they came; 2. The pendulums have to be linked so that the swinging of each of them is communicated to neighboring pendulums. When they are tightly linked, the wave move quickly through them; when loosely linked (as the pendulums were), the motion is communicated more slowly. This can be applied to electromagnetic waves in a general way quite directly. Consider this simple assembly of two collinear pieces of metal (called a “dipole”), colored red, connected to the output of a device (the transmitter) that makes electricity slosh back and forth between the two sides of the dipole. The transmitter/dipole assembly is our initiating pendulum: the natural tendency of the electricity is to create an equality of tension or “potential” between the two sides of the dipole; the transmitter provides the pushes that keep the electricity oscillating. What happens, as we know from Faraday, is that the electric and magnetic forces generated by this assembly ripple out through the surrounding space. Electric tension builds up in space, and as the tension is released by the restoring force of the medium, this release constitutes an electric current, which generates a magnetic force, which grows and decreases in a similar way, generating an electric displacement current, and so on. This action continues, and constitutes what we call a “radio wave.” And there is strong evidence that light, too, is just such a wave. 9 �So the wave metaphor, built up out of linked motions that act like pendulums, evidently applies to electricity, magnetism, and light too, in a direct and comprehensible way. In the face of such evidence, Kepler might say, is it not a retrograde step to dismiss as “superfluous” the medium in which the actions foundational to the observed phenomena take place? Isn’t adopting the “postulate” that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant too much like postulating (as astronomers had done for thousands of years) that all celestial bodies move with uniform circular motion? This, then, is what I think Kepler would say to Einstein. And I could stop here, but in all fairness, we need to let Einstein respond. I think Einstein would point out two problems, one cosmic in scale and one inherent in electromagnetic theory as it was then formulated. The first is related to the ether itself: are we moving through it, or is it moving along with us? If we are moving through it, then waves would seem to us to be moving faster in some directions and slower in others. But when we measure the speed of light, it seems to be pretty much the same in all directions. It gets worse: the speed of electromagnetic waves, as deduced from Maxwell’s equations, is determined by the ratio of the two fundamental electrical and magnetic constants. These are the physical constants that seem, both conceptually and experimentally, to be independent of coordinate systems, and that determine the “springiness” of the medium. In junior lab, every spring, we do a lovely experiment that gives us a number for this ratio, and our number (perhaps surprisingly) is pretty close to what the textbooks say it should be. And further, when (in a second beautiful experiment) we measure the speed of light directly (using a tape measure and a tuning fork), the number we get is not too far from the ratio in the previous experiment. So we are left with a dilemma: either the fundamental electromagnetic 10 �constants are somehow coordinate-system dependent so that they match the measured motion of our coordinate system through the ether, or there is a preferred coordinate system for the entire universe in which we happen to be absolutely at rest. It’s hard to imagine what the first horn of the dilemma even means, while the second horn basically throws out all cosmological thinking since Copernicus. We can call this problem the “ether wind” problem. The other thing Einstein would say is that in his view, this whole dilemma associated with the ether is just a side issue: his concern, which he thinks was a much more fundamental problem, was the asymmetry in the way Maxwellian electrodynamics applies to magnets and wires. As Einstein put it, in the passage quoted earlier in this lecture, “If the magnet is in motion and the conductor is at rest, there arises in the neighborhood of the magnet an electric field with a certain definite energy, producing a current at the places where parts of the conductor are situated. But if the magnet is stationary and the conductor in motion, no electric field arises in the neighborhood of the magnet. In the conductor, however, we find an electromotive force, to which in itself there is no corresponding energy, but which gives rise—assuming equality of relative motion in the two cases discussed—to electric currents of the same path and intensity as those produced by the electric forces in the former case.” Restating this in a slightly different way, if you have an observer who sees the magnet moving through the coil of wire, she sees an electric field in the space surrounding the magnet, and this field embodies a definite amount of energy. Another observer, moving uniformly along with the magnet, will see no electric field, and the same space will now be devoid of energy. But energy is a conserved entity. So we have a theory that has lost what later physicists have called “local 11 �reality”: for one observer some real thing is there which according to the laws of physics is not there for the other observer. Thus, the whole idea of objective reality has broken down, which, you may imagine, is a big no-no for a physical theory. So Einstein’s response is to adopt the two “postulates,” mentioned earlier, by which he will solve both the ether wind problem and the objective reality problem. His claim is that abandoning the idea of a physically real medium in which electromagnetic waves occur is a price worth paying for saving the claim of physics to represent objective reality. So, Kepler, what might you have had to say in response to Einstein’s powerful reply? It is clear from our brief look at Astronomia Nova Ch. 2, and from many other places in the book, that Kepler believed it was wrong to allow a physically unsupported postulate (uniform circular motion) to overrule principles, even if they are provisional or conjectural, that are supported by physical arguments. As he put it, we need “a body or real quality” as a foundation. Although he was open to a wide range of examples and analogies that would constitute “real qualities,” a simple rule lacking such support, such as the constancy of the speed of light, would not do. Although Kepler would have acknowledged it as a clever and ingenious solution, it would remind him too much of the many astronomers of his day who rejected his “celestial physics” (a term featured prominently on the title page of Astronomia Nova) and reverted to the circular tracks and angelic movers of the old astronomy. What would have to be done instead, Kepler would say, would be to solve the ether wind problem and the local non-reality problem without abandoning the physical 12 �basis of electromagnetic radiation. This would surely be a difficult task. But would it be more difficult than establishing a sound physical basis for planetary motion? I’ll finish this lecture by saying a few things in support of Kepler’s advice. Not that I consider Kepler’s position is in need of support—it seems to me one of the really deep questions—but to show that, despite what seems to be the unanimous acceptance of Einstein’s two postulates, there has been, and continues to be, a quiet but respectable undercurrent among physicists, a willingness to wonder whether despite the remarkable success of Einstein’s relativity theory, its unsupported second postulate might turn out to have been a mistake. The first direct attempt to determine a possible motion of the earth through the ether was carried out in 1881 by A. A. Michelson, in Potsdam, Germany. Michelson nonetheless noted that the problem had already been approached by Stokes (in 1846) and later by Maxwell (1878). The more famous Michelson-Morley experiment, which used a much larger instrument, followed in 1887. These purely experimental results, which showed no measurable motion, set a problem for the theorists to solve. The approach that appeared most promising at first was that some of the ether was being dragged along by the earth; however, no one succeeded in demonstrating such a phenomenon. A competing account was suggested by Oliver Heaviside’s conclusion, on the basis of Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory, that electromagnetic fields contracted along the direction of their motion. In 1895, H. A. Lorentz published an article in which he proposed that, like electromagnetism, the forces that hold the particles of material bodies together also contract in the direction of motion. He writes, 13 �“Thus one would have to imagine that the motion of a solid body (such as a brass rod or the stone disc employed in the later experiments) through the resting ether exerts upon the dimensions of that body an influence which varies according to the orientation of the body with respect to the direction of motion. … “Surprising as this hypothesis may appear at first sight, yet we shall have to admit that it is by no means far fetched, as soon as we assume that molecular forces are also transmitted through the ether, like the electric and magnetic forces of which we are able at the present time to make this assertion definitely.” In 1904 (the year preceding Einstein’s Special Relativity article), Lorentz published a more thorough treatment of the same basic idea. In the interim, Poincaré had argued that electromagnetic forces alone were insufficient to produce Lorentz’s contraction, and added an additional hypothetical force. However, as Lorentz notes, Poincaré also objected to this piecemeal approach. Lorentz writes: “Poincaré has objected to the existing theory of electric and optical phenomena in moving bodies that, in order to explain Michelson’s negative result, the introduction of a new hypothesis has been required, and that the same necessity may occur each time new facts will be brought to light.” Lorentz believed that by “starting from the fundamental equations of the theory of electrons,” he could “treat the subject with a better result.” The article that followed is a tour-de-force of Maxwellian analysis, packed with equations dealing with such matters as the electromagnetic inertia of electrons. At this point, Lorentz’s fundamental revision brought his theory, which avoided Einstein’s second postulate, into agreement with Einstein, as far as the observations were concerned. But by a strange turn of events, a series of 14 �experiments by Walter Kaufmann (involving the mass of high-speed electrons rather than motion through the ether) appeared to show that the Einstein/Lorentz predictions were wrong, and that rival theories of Max Abraham and Alfred Bucherer produced more accurate results. Lorentz conceded that Bucherer’s theory was “decidedly unfavorable to the idea of a contraction, such as I attempted to work out.” Einstein, on the other hand, acknowledged that the Abraham and Bucherer theories fit the data better than his own, but wrote, “they have a small probability of being correct since they produce complicated expressions for the mass of a moving electron.” In other words, theoretical simplicity trumps agreement with the data! But now Planck entered the fray, with a meta-analysis of Kaufmann’s numbers, which tipped the balance back in favor of Einstein and Lorentz. And in 1914, refined experiments by Günther Neumann (using Kaufmann’s own equipment with some modifications) appeared to favor Einstein decisively. The curious result of this was that, even though Einstein’s and Lorentz’s theories were essentially in agreement in most of their predictions, Einstein’s ether-free approach came to be viewed as the victor. Nevertheless, attempts to find an “ether wind” continued. The most extensive work was by Dayton Miller, a prominent American physicist who was president of the American Physical Society in 1926. His measurements extended over nine years and, by one account, comprised over five million individual measurements. His primary aim was to show a difference between the ether drift at low elevations (essentially none) and at the summit of Mt. Wilson. He claimed to have found that the solar system is moving towards the constellation Dorado through the ether at a speed of 227 km/s, a result that was similar to independent measurements by the French astronomer Ernest Esclangon and the Swiss 15 �astronomer Leopold Courvoisier. These results have been questioned on various grounds, but were well-received at the time and have never been adequately repeated, according to one scholar whom I know personally and whose work I respect. It appears that the remarkable success of both the special and general theories of relativity have made a search for ether-drift an unattractive career move. However, questions have more recently crept in from an unexpected source: quantum mechanics. Physicist John Bell, in 1964, came up with a purely mathematical theorem that established certain numerical limits to the relatedness of states of certain particles (in this case, polarizations of so-called “entangled photons”). The assumptions upon which the theorem was based were, first, that the particles involved really and actually possess the properties involved (the criterion of “reality”), and second, that communication among the particles cannot occur at speeds faster than light. Naturally, this set a challenge for experimenters: violate Bell’s theorem! The definitive experiment, by Alain Aspect, came along in 1982. It violated the conditions of Bell’s theorem, while remaining entirely consistent with quantum mechanics. In practical terms, this meant that one or both of the assumptions that Bell made would have to be abandoned or modified. Physics would have to give up the idea of local reality, or of what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance,” or perhaps both. One is reminded of what Kepler wrote in Astronomia Nova when he showed that the classically formulated hypothesis of Chapter 16 is inconsistent with the Tychonic observations. He wrote, Therefore, something among those things we had assumed must be false. But what was assumed was: that the orbit upon which the planet moves is a perfect circle; and that there exists some unique point on the line of apsides 16 �at a fixed and constant distance from the center of the eccentric about which point Mars describes equal angles in equal times. Therefore, of these, one or the other or perhaps both are false, for the observations used are not false. So, in light of the Aspect experiment, what gets thrown out? A variety of solutions have been proposed, but I will conclude this lecture with what John Bell himself said, in a discussion with BBC producer J. R. Brown and physicist P. C. W. Davies. Question: Bell’s inequality is, as I understand it, rooted in two assumptions: the first is what we might call objective reality—the reality of the external world, independent of our observations; the second is locality, or non-separability, or no faster-than-light signaling. Now, Aspect’s experiment appears to indicate that one of these two has to go. Which of the two would you like to hang on to? Bell: Well, you see, I don’t really know. For me it’s not something where I have a solution to sell! For me it’s a dilemma. I think it’s a deep dilemma, and the resolution of it will not be trivial; it will require a substantial change in the way we look at things. But I would say that the cheapest resolution is something like going back to relativity as it was before Einstein, when people like Lorentz and Poincaré thought that there was an aether—a preferred frame of reference—but that our measuring instruments were distorted by motion in such a way that we could not detect motion through the aether. Now, in that way you can imagine that there is a preferred frame of reference, and in this preferred frame of reference things do go 17 �faster than light. But then in other frames of reference when they seem to go not only faster than light but backwards in time, that is an optical illusion. Question: Well, that seems a very revolutionary approach! Bell: Revolutionary or reactionary, make your choice. Behind the apparent Lorentz invariance of the phenomena, there is a deeper level which is not Lorentz invariant. Question: Of course the theory of relativity has a tremendous amount of experimental support, and it’s hard to imagine that we can actually go back to a pre-Einstein position without contradicting some of this experimental support. Do you think it’s actually possible? Bell: Well, what is not sufficiently emphasized in textbooks, in my opinion, is that the pre-Einstein position of Lorentz and Poincaré, Larmor and Fitzgerald was perfectly coherent, and is not inconsistent with relativity theory. The idea that there is an aether, and these Fitzgerald contractions and Larmor dilations occur, and that as a result the instruments do not detect motion through the aether—that is a perfectly coherent point of view. Let me finish by briefly summarizing the main points of this lecture. Kepler strove mightily throughout his life to oppose the prevalent idea that astronomy must be founded on hypotheses, and that the fundamental and indispensable hypothesis is the principle of regular, uniform circular motion of all 18 �heavenly bodies. He proposed instead that all attempts to understand the cosmos must be founded in some way upon physical reality. As to what constitutes physical reality, we must use familiar examples to try to understand what is less accessible to us, and we may be led to consider accounts or examples that may at first seem far-fetched. But it is a mistake to limit the range of possible explanations within the boundaries of arbitrary postulates. This is what I believe is the advice he would most want to give Einstein. And this is advice that, despite the rolling of eyes at Johns Hopkins, may retain a degree of cogency today. 19 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Transcripts—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College at the Santa Fe, NM campus. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Word doc Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 19 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource What would Kepler say to Einstein? Description An account of the resource Transcript of a lecture given on November 5, 2021 by William Donahue as part of the Dean's Lecture and Concert Series. The Dean's Office provided this description of the event: "Einstein once wrote that there is little value, other than the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity, in studying scientific works of the past. Kepler would not agree, and were he alive today he would criticize Einstein for repeating errors of early science. This lecture will begin by exploring some of Kepler’s views on past failures, and then will apply Kepler’s criticism to Einstein’s views, especially his rejection of the ether. The inquiry will then consider the alternative account proposed by H. A. Lorentz, showing how the contraction of bodies at high velocities was deduced from Maxwell’s electrodynamics without abandoning the ether. The lecture then concludes by considering remarks of more recent physicists, most notably John Bell, on the possibility of reviving the ether to solve the local reality problem in quantum physics." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Donahue, William H. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Kepler, Johannes, 1571-1630 Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_DonahueW_What_would_Kepler_say_to_Einstein_2021-11-05 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/9ff9362fe6ee6403769a214f1f36e8d4.pdf 6acfbd1f8f633dea94440ca7f955b914 PDF Text Text The Female Drama 1 A Lecture prepared for St. John’s College Annapolis Friday Night Lecture Series November 5, 2021 As Book V of the Republic opens, Socrates changes the subject from justice to injustice. The once feverish but now purged city was a fine paradigm, and analyzing it yielded a definition of justice suitable to investigate the comparative value of justice and injustice for a human life. So, Socrates says, the next step in their inquiry should be to consider injustice in the four kinds of deficient cities and souls that their inquiry has pointed them toward. After investigating the fourfold nature of injustice in cities and human beings, Socrates’ plan was then to compare the paradigm of justice they found in the proper arrangement of the three parts of the purged city in speech with each paradigm of injustice implied by rearranging those parts into other configurations. After comparing the just soul with each of the four unjust souls, they were to have attempted to determine which paradigm was most conducive to happiness in each case. At the end of the comparisons, they were to have attempted to answer to their original question: whether is it better to live a just or an unjust life. Socrates outlines, reviews, and alludes to this plan often. But, of course, things do not go to plan. Instead of leaving the just city in speech behind at the beginning of Book V, Adeimantus and Polemarchus insist that Socrates return to elaborate on a matter that they accuse him of neglecting: how women and children fit in the city. Glaucon joins with them in arresting (epilambano 2) Socrates and insisting that he continue to describe the constitution of the just city 1 Based on Chapter 4 of The Female Drama: The Philosophical Feminine in the Soul of Plato’s Republic, MUP 2019 2 ἐπιλαμβάνω �2 in speech. 3 Even Thrasymachus, who has been silent since shortly after Socrates made him blush in Book I, adds his voice to the cause. (450a) All four of Socrates’s most impressive interlocutors in the Republic insist that Socrates explain in more detail the role of women and children in the city in speech. Other than the implicit agreement at the beginning of the dialogue that Socrates should stay and talk to them, this is the only time in the dialogue that Glaucon, Adeimantus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus are portrayed as agreeing on something. And it is, without qualification, the only thing about which they explicitly agree. Specifically, Adeimantus, asks to be told more about (1) how arrangements with women and children should be understood as a case of friends sharing everything in common, (2) how procreation will be handled in the city, and (3) how young children will be reared before they begin their formal education (449d). Socrates agrees to work through these questions, but reluctantly. He warns that they will have to start from the beginning (450a), that they will be unleashing a “swarm” (esmos 4) of arguments (450a), that they are asking him to produce arguments about things of which he is uncertain (450e), and that what they are doing is both frightening (phoberos 5) and treacherous (sphaleros 6) (451a). Socrates says that he is afraid that if he is unsuccessful, he will not only fail himself but also do harm to his friends (451a). He bows 3 Many scholars have commented on the repetition at the beginning of Book V of the “arrest” scene in Book I and how it sets Books V-VII apart. For example: Laurence Lampert, How Philosophy Became Socratic, 279, 306, and 311–12; Stanley Rosen, Plato’s Republic, 167–9; Jacob Howland, The Republic, 41; Eva Brann, The Music of the Republic, 150; David Roochnik, The Beautiful City, 2-4; Leon Harold Craig, The War Lover, 185; Diskin Clay, Platonic Questions, 247; Leo Strauss, The City and Man, 64, 155; Kurt Hildebrandt, Platon: Logos Und Mythos, 393; Eric Voegelin, Order and History, Volume III, 46–52; and Mark Blitz, Plato’s Political Philosophy, 169. 4 ἑσμός 5 φοβερός 6 σφαλερός �3 to Adresteia, the goddess who punishes hubris. She is also called Nemesis. Socrates asks for forgiveness in advance for what he is about to do (451a). 7 This evening, I would like to begin to work through the arguments of Book V of the Republic and their implications for the further development of the city in speech as a paradigm for an individual soul, specifically the introduction of the First Wave and the account of how to weather it. To begin, we will face the swarm of questions implied and expressed in the rich dramatic opening to this new section of the dialogue. I am centrally interested in the moral psychology of the Republic, so some of my animating questions are: (1) How do the accounts of women and children in the city in speech help us understand the individual soul? (2) What do “birth” (genesis) and “rearing” (trophe), as they are introduced in Book V, mean in the context of an individual soul? And (3) since Socrates offers us a heuristic for this narrative shift, I would also like to inquire into why he names it as he does. That is, what could it mean for an inquiry into the 7 Laurence Lampert describes Socrates prostrating himself to Adrasteia “the most breathtaking image in the whole Republic,” and calls Socrates’ account of it his “most solemn speech in the whole Republic.” Lampert, who casts Socrates in the Republic as a new Odysseus, sets the scene this way: “The solemnity of Socrates’ speech derives from the greatness of its occasion: returned Odysseus, having manipulated them into compelling him to do what he alone compels himself to do, now embarks on the introduction of a great novelty into the stream of Greek wisdom and he cannot know whether introducing the rule of the philosopher will succeed. He stands over an abyss unable to know for certain whether it is possible and, if possible, if it is for the best. He must ask himself: is it a prayer? Fearing that he will bring his genuine friends, the few wise, down with him in this boldest of projects on behalf of wisdom, he in fact offers a prayer, the most solemn of prayers and the only one becoming a philosopher: ‘I will prostrate myself before Adrasteia.” He prays the prayer of a philosopher compelled to act on the grandest scale not knowing whether he can succeed; he submits himself to Nemesis, the necessity that rules all, knowing the rashness of his deed while judging that necessity itself calls it forth.” Laurence Lampert, How Philosophy Became Socratic, 310-311. Whether or not one follows Lampert on the identification of Socrates with Odysseus, the account of Socrates’ fear of the consequences of his impiety and the necessity of taking the risk for the sake of philosophy seem precisely right. �4 moral psychology of the Republic to understand Books II-IV as the “male drama” and to see the section that begins after Socrates pays his fearful respects to Adresteia 8 as the “female drama?” 9 The dramatic introduction to Book V offers several clues about how Socrates intends to proceed and why he is intimidated by the work that lies ahead. First, Socrates says that they will have to begin again. This suggests that women and children are not a new part of the city in speech that can be tacked on to the account. They are some version of something that already exists in the city in speech, or a basic condition that will change the model fundamentally, or something that pervades the model. Exactly what women and children are to the city in speech is not clear yet, and we will have to look carefully at the dialogue to discern their significance, but that they are central or fundamental or pervasive seems to follow from the fact that we have to return to the beginning and retrace our steps in order see where they fit in. 10 8 Jacob Howland notes that the reference to Adresteia may also be an allusion to Aeschylus, Prometheus. Jacob Howland, The Republic: A Philosophical Odyssey (Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2004), p. 111. 9 “Female,” is my choice of translation for gynaikeion/γυναικεῖον mainly because “the Female Drama” is the conventional translation of what Socrates calls the episode that begins in Book V. But, as Mary Townsend notes, the any choice of English words is fraught. “This adjective (γυναικεῖον) has a range of meanings, from ‘ladylike,’ or ‘womanly’ in a good sense, to ‘womanish’ or ‘effeminate’ in the bad. Socrates uses the word to decry the practice still in use among Greek male soldiers of stripping the corpses of the fallen after a battle, a practice he paints as a womanish custom unworthy of his male and female guardians (469d); I will note that however the reader would wish to gloss this word here, ‘feminine’ is hardly the right word for tearing valuables away from the dead in a bloody field.” Townsend, The Woman Question, p. 15 10 Steven Forde provides a helpful survey of interpretations of the role of women and children in the Republic (“Gender and Justice in Plato,” in the American Political Science Review, Vol. 92, No. 3 (1997)). Susan Muller Okin argues that Plato should be credited with a pioneering argument for women’s political equality (“Philosopher Queens and Private Wives: Plato on Women and the Family,” in Philosophy and Public Affairs, 6 (Summer) 1977.), while Arlene Saxonhouse (“The Philosopher and the Female I the Political Thought of Plato,” in Political Theory 4 (May), 1976), Julia Annas (“Plato’s Republic and Feminism,” in Philosophy 5 (July) 1976) , and Allan Bloom (The Republic of Plato. New York: Basic Books, 1968.) do not believe that the account women in Book V creates any meaningful equality for women, and Jean Bethke Elshtain (Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981) argues that Plato creates gender equality, but at the expense of �5 Secondly, Socrates tells us that the city in speech that includes a fuller explanation of women and children might appear to be something to be prayed for (euxos 11), rather than something, to be worked for (ergon 12) (450c). That is, it might seem like something impossible for human beings to achieve without divine intervention. Socrates asks whether or not their ambition for the best city in speech is like a euxos several times in Books V and VI (450a, 456b, 461a, 499c, and 540d), and the conclusion seems to be clear at 540d. It is not. The best city would be difficult for human beings to realize, but not impossible. The idea that what Socrates will present to them might look like a euxos is particularly provocative because he seems to be setting it up on a spectrum with ergon. That is, the interlocutors ask over and over again whether or not the city in speech can be a “city in deed,” an ergon; and Socrates admits at 473a that it cannot be fully instantiated in deed. But he rejects the idea that the improbability of attaining the fully formed ergon of Kallipolis implies that it is just a euxos, a lofty dream. Instead, it is a paradigm to be strived for, perhaps a thing that is achievable in conversation among friends. These are things that human beings can work for and achieve. This possibility—that the city in speech is attainable for human beings, but in some both male and female identity. Since the publication of Forde’s piece, a few important variations on these interpretations have appeared, including Catherine Gardner’s argument that women play an important role in Kallipolis, but that they are mainly understood as instrumental in its eugenics project (Catherine Gardner. “The Remnants of the Family: The Role of Women and Eugenics in Republic V.” History of Philosophy Quarterly 17, no. 3 (July 1, 2000): 217–35.); Catherine McKeen’s argument that women must rule in Kallipolis (Catherine McKeen. “Why Women Must Guard and Rule in Plato’s ‘Kallipolis.’” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 87, no. 4 (December 1, 2006): 527–48.); and Mary Townsend’s recontextualization of the role of women portrayed in Book V in the political and religious culture of Classical Athens (Mary Townsend. The Woman Question in Plato’s Republic. New York: Lexington Books, 2017.). 11 12 εὖχος ἔργον �6 way other than founding cities according to its paradigm--that seems to sit on the line somewhere between ergon and euxos. It is severely constrained and difficult to achieve, but not impossible for human beings. These insights into the difficulties of founding a city according to the paradigm of the city in speech point in several directions. They may suggest that Socrates considers the city in speech constructed in Books II-IV to be plausible (or, at least, more plausible than the version of the city in speech they are about to investigate). And that is surprising, at least on the level of political interpretation. If, for the sake of argument, we bracket the noble lie and even the stringent requirements for qualifying as a guardian, achieving the political order described in the city in speech is still extremely implausible, if not practically impossible. If a suitable guardian were to emerge, which is unlikely, the odds that every citizen would agree to his power and commit wholly to their supporting roles in his regime are extremely long. (This is a scenario that is explored in detail in Book VI.) Other necessary conditions for the well-functioning purged city are just as unlikely. When Socrates warns that including a fuller account of women and children in the city in speech might make their project seem like a euxos, it seems far more likely to me that he is referring to the city in speech’s implications for moral psychology than for politics. Socrates seems to be concerned about whether what they have done and will do to describe the proper arrangement of a human soul will seem to be possible or not. This suggests that Socrates may consider the model of the soul in Books II-IV to be apparently achievable, but that the elaboration on which they are about to embark may not be. 13 13 Catherine Zuckert, commenting on Leo Strauss’s long list of quotations from the Ecclesiazusae in the Republic, notes that Plato underlines the “imaginary and non-historical character” of the dialogue by quoting a play that was not performed until after Socrates’ death. �7 Socrates’ concern that he and his interlocutors may be developing their image of justice in an apparently implausible way leads to the third dramatic clue in the narrative frame of Book V. Socrates strongly indicates that adding a fuller account of women and children into the city in speech will be dangerous. The germ of this danger appears to be Socrates’ fear that he might make justice appear to be unachievable. If Socrates makes justice seem unattainable, he will, first of all, be doing harm to himself because he will look like a fool for devoting himself so completely to something impossible. He says, though, that the threat of appearing ridiculous doesn’t trouble him (451a). What seems to worry Socrates deeply is the risk of hurting his friends. What would become of these great souled, politically powerful men with whom he is having this conversation if Socrates inadvertently convinced them that it is impossible (or radically implausible) to become just? Glaucon, Adeimantus, and Polemarchus (not to mention Thrasymachus) might feel unleashed to a life of injustice—precisely the opposite of what Socrates hopes this conversation (and perhaps every conversation) will encourage. And, of course, the corruption of the historical figures on which Socrates’ interlocutors in the Republic are based would also spell terrible political outcomes for Athens. 14 Socrates’s first move in his reluctant attempt to account for women and children in the purged city in speech is to return to his discussion of the proper natures (physeis 15) of the guardians from Book II. Socrates says that “for people born and educated the way we have Catherine Zuckert, Platonic Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 353 fn. 134. Leo Strauss, The City and Man (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964), 61. 14 According to Debra Nails, the people present at Cephalus’s house for the conversation of the Republic represent every sort of person who lived in Athens just before the war, perhaps suggesting that everyone had a stake in what was to come. Debra Nails, “Plato’s Republic in its Athenian Context,” History of Political Thought, vol. XXXIII. No. 1 (Spring 2012), p. 3. 15 φύσεις �8 described, there is no way to acquire and employ women and children other than to follow the path we first set them on.” The Male Drama was not wrong, it was incomplete. So, Socrates says, “let’s proceed by giving them corresponding rules for birth and rearing, and see whether or not they are fitting.” 16 The proper place to have introduced women and children in the city in speech would, apparently, have been the first moment the guardians were mentioned. What Socrates said that they achieved in the argument as they conducted it was to have established the guardians as guard dogs of their flocks. What they need now to consider are the rules for the genesis and trophe of those guard dogs. It appears that the argument for establishing the guardians as guard dogs was what Socrates is now calling the “male drama,” 17 and now as we consider where those guard dogs came from, their genesis and trophe, we are turning to “the female.” 18 Although much of Books II-IV appears to be about education, I do not think an argument about the proper form of education is actually presented there. What I think is presented in Books II through the beginning of Book IV is an account of the telos of the purged, formerly feverish soul . 19 This is an important and necessary part of an account of education, but it is far from a sufficient one. “ἀνθρώποις γὰρ φῦσι καὶ παιδευθεῖσιν ὡς ἡμεῖς διήλθομεν, κατ᾽ ἐμὴν δόξαν οὐκ ἔστ᾽ ἄλλη ὀρθὴ παίδων τε καὶ γυναικῶν κτῆσίς τε καὶ χρεία ἢ κατ᾽ ἐκείνην τὴν ὁρμὴν ἰοῦσιν, ἥνπερ τὸ πρῶτον ὡρμήσαμεν . . . ἀκολουθῶμεν τοίνυν καὶ τὴν γένεσιν καὶ τροφὴν παραπλησίαν ἀποδιδόντες, καὶ σκοπῶμεν εἰ ἡμῖν πρέπει ἢ οὔ.” (451c-d) 17 ἀνδρεῖον δρᾶμα 18 τὸ γυναικεῖον 19 As Strauss puts it, “The question of possibility came to the fore only at the beginning of the fifth book as a consequence of an intervention initiated by Polemarchus. The two earlier comparable interventions—that of Glaucon after the description of the healthy city and that of Adeimantus after the abolition of private property and of privacy altogether—were limited to the question of desirability . . .” Strauss, The City and Man, 122 16 �9 What we have in Books II and III under the guise of the education of the guardians is really an account of their proper characteristics-the full actualization of all of their characteristic determinate potencies. If we were to carry the image of dogs into the contemporary context of breeding and dog shows, we could think of it as their “conformation.” Beagles and Great Danes are held to different conformation standards at dog shows, and breeders need to understand what each aims to be before they can undertake a plan to breed a dog to approach those standards. They need an account of what is desirable before they will be in a position to consider the conditions necessary for making the desirable actual. With apologies for the crass example, Books II-IV does the work of specifying (most of) the standards according to which a guardian should be judged (i.e. what is desirable); but it is not until Book V that Socrates begins to inquire into what would need to happen for such a guardian to come into being, (i.e. the conditions for actualizing what has already been determined desirable). Book II-IV give us a target to shoot for, but no instruction in archery. 20 Socrates’ account of becoming comes in Book VII and is a continuation of the accounts of the genesis and trophe that begin in Book V. All three of these modes of development (genesis, trophe, and paideia) are a part of what Socrates is here calling the Female Drama. They are what was left out of the city in speech of Book IV. 20 While I will later in this study consider the relationship between logismos and nous in the Republic in detail, it is important to notice that Socrates is careful only to refer to the former in Book IV. Once again, Brann’s account is extremely helpful. “Why then does Socrates call it the logistikon, connecting it explicitly with logizesthai, to reckon or to calculate (439d5), rather than with the logos of dialegesthai (511b4, 534c)? It is because the logistikon is a restricted power, a power of planning, whose specific work later does turn out to be calculation (cf. Nicomachean Ethics 1139a13), measuring, and weighing—in short, whatever corresponds only to the lower level of knowing power, to that power of mathematical thinking which Glaucon will discover later on as a mean between opinion and knowledge; it will be called dianoia.” Brann, The Music of the Republic, 163-164. �10 My argument, in the briefest terms, is that the Male Drama is an account of the being and actualities of the just soul, and the Female Drama is an account of the becoming and potencies of the just soul (which open into a consideration of the activity of the most just soul, philosophy). What we know at the end of Book IV is what all of the parts of the soul need to look like in order for that soul to be just. What we begin to consider in Book V is what needs to be true of each part of the soul in order for it to become what Book IV tells us it needs to be. And, as the Female Drama illuminates the Male Drama dialectically, the Male Drama, itself, will require revision. That is, the account of the telos of the just soul prompted the inquiry into the birth (genesis), nurture (trophe), and education (paideia) required to approach that telos. But when the genesis, trophe, and paideia of the just soul come into focus, they will illuminate things about the telos of justice that were not clear before. Generically, this is how Platonic/Socratic dialectic often operates. Specifically, it is the process by which the inquiry into the nature of justice turns toward the inquiry into the nature of philosophy in the Republic. Socrates marks the beginning of the Female Drama by saying that we must return to the beginning of our account of the guardians and consider their genesis and trophe (451d). I think this is exactly what he does in Books V and VI. There are three sorts of possibility or becoming that are systematically presented in Books V-VII. The ones I keep mentioning: genesis, trophe, and paideia, and these three are, for the most part, taken up in Books V, VI, and VII respectively. What this implies for the soul is straightforward, in principle, but extremely complicated in practice. Books V-VII will take up the potencies of soul necessary for the possibility of becoming just and the processes of becoming that move those potencies into actuality. �11 Socrates takes the conversation back to the beginning and turns our attention to what it would look like to introduce women and children into the city in speech. So, we find ourselves considering once again the dog-like disposition appropriate to potential guardians; but now we are prompted to consider the case of female dogs. First, we’re asked whether female dogs should be considered capable of becoming guard dogs; the answer is a quick yes, they should. This first point about female dogs is not argued, just affirmed. The first claim to be scrutinized is the second one to be made, and it is an apparent implication of the capacity of female dogs to become guard dogs: i.e., female dogs with such a nature should share everything with similarly disposed males, including their nurture (trophe) and education (paideia; 451e). The first principle of this further elaboration on the city in speech is that women and men can do the same work, and the first implication of this principle for the city in speech is that they should. This principle is no more argued than any of the principles that led to the organization of the cities constructed in Books II and III (i.e., insufficiency for the minimal city, efficiency for the healthy city, and desire for the feverish city). An immediate implication of the assertion that women can and should do the same work as men is that they should be prepared to do this work, just as men are. They should share the same rearing (trophe) and education (paideia), regardless of the accepted fact that women are, generically, weaker than men; an idea that will be scrutinized at length. When Socrates says he must go back to the beginning to account for the role of women and children in the city in speech, he does not go back to the minimal city or the healthy city or even to the structure of the once feverish, now purged city. He goes to the first moment of the discussion of the nature of the guardians; the beginning of the construction of the purged city. �12 This is the beginning of the account of women and children. This is where the distinction between male and female first matters. Not every dog, male or female, will be born with a nature suited to be trained and educated as a guard dog, but some will. So, by implication, maleness and femaleness can not be categories Socrates uses to explain the genesis of justice. Whatever maleness and femaleness are to the soul, they are both compatible with the nature (physis) of the guardians. We should be prepared to see that the proper genesis of the guardians may distinguish guardians from auxiliaries and workers, but it will not distinguish maleness from femaleness. It is premature to try to unpack the analogy for answers, but the psychological question it implies is clear. Which parts or versions of the calculating 21 part of the soul (likened to the guardians) are male and which are female, and what does maleness or femaleness mean in the context of moral psychology? When Socrates said what would have to be done to give a fuller account of women and children in the city in speech, he said that he would have to go back and consider birth and rearing (genesis and trophe) (451d). Now, he says that female guard dogs (which will immediately change, by analogy, into human female guardians of the city in speech) should “Calculating” is the conventional translation for λογιστικός, and I will use it consistently. “Planning” or “logical” might be better, except that “calculating” has become so well-known, and only insofar as logic is understood to deal with validity (or internal consistency) and not with soundness. The logismos of the mind is what calculates the best set of arrangements, given some set of given conditions or premises. Nous is the power of mind to apprehend the truth or wellfoundedness of those conditions or premises (and thus the soundness of those arrangements), but the psychology of Book IV does not include nous. The soul of Book IV is capable of knowing that its arrangements are valid, but is completely cut off from knowing if they are sound because it has no access to a reference point for determining whether or not something is true, i.e., it has no access to the Good. When I use “calculating” to describe a psychological power, I mean something very much like, perhaps precisely like, its logical capacity to determine the validity, but not the soundness, of a psychological arrangement. It is the part that can optimize a plan given a set elements, but cannot evaluate those elements except according to how well they fit together. 21 �13 share completely in the upbringing and education (trophe and paideia) of the male guardians (451e). Taken together, these two passages indicate the formal relationship of maleness and femaleness to the three categories of potentiality and becoming that run through Books V through VII: genesis, trophe, and paideia. Genesis, which would seem to mean “birth” in this context, applies equally to the maleness and femaleness of the progeny. And, when it comes to trophe and paideia, female guardians should be treated just like males and included in every way. In an important sense, the next two sections of argument happen in reverse order. First, Socrates moves to what I take to be the crucial problem of this section of Book V: the apparent ridiculousness of the proposal to educate men and women the same and together (452a-d). Secondly, the dialogue returns to defend the original organizing principle of this elaboration on the city in speech, i.e., that women and men can and should do the same work. (452e-456c). Then, after establishing that what they are proposing is possible, the interlocutors move to the question of whether sharing all work between women and men is best (456c-457a). Only then, does Socrates return to the claim that because the proposal for women and men to be educated together is both possible and optimal, and that one should ignore those who say it is ridiculous. (457a-b) Much of the argument of this section takes the form of Socrates responding to an objection that he himself raises. The way the objection is presented suggests that Socrates was unwilling to proceed until it was answered, even though none of the interlocutors raised it. 22 The objection is 22 David Wolfsdorf argues that the imaginary interlocutor Socrates engages in this section is less metaphysically sophisticated than Glaucon and must be convinced by arguments that do not rely on the distinction between ideas and those things that participate in them. For Wolfsdorf, the reason for introducing the imaginary interlocutor is to give Socrates a reason to use a form of argument that would be inappropriate for Glaucon. This does not seem right to me. The room is �14 that since men and women are different, and since we established in Book II that different citizens were suited for different sorts of work (the principle of efficiency, introduced at 370c), wouldn’t it follow that men and women should do different work (453c)? This is a centrally important objection because, so far, the interlocutors have only added to the model of the city in speech through their dialectic; they have not reversed themselves substantially regarding the nature of any of its structural elements. The development of the city in speech has operated by elaboration, not revision. If a more thorough explanation of the role of women and children in the city in speech implies a contradiction, the interlocutors might be in trouble. Socrates admits, in fact, that they are in trouble, lost at sea, but that perhaps they can hope for an unlikely rescue; a dolphin, perhaps (453d). Or just maybe, perhaps their ship might withstand the storm to come. 23 Socrates’s response to the objection he himself raises--his attempt to rescue them all after he has imperiled them all--has two parts: first, Socrates investigates the nature of the differences between women and men; secondly, he asks what relevance these natural differences have to the sort of work women and men can and should do in the city in speech. It is in the first part of his full of interlocutors, and Plato’s mind is full of people with whom he could have populated the room. There must be some other reason to introduce an imaginary interlocutor, and I think it is to signal that this is an issue that is particularly important to Socrates. David Wolfsdorf, “Plato’s Conception of Knowledge,” The Classical World, Vol. 105, No.1, (Fall 2011), pp. 57-75. 23 It is interesting that Socrates mentions a dolphin specifically in his account of what their possible rescue might look like. This could be an allusion to Apollo, since he took the form of a dolphin to escape the island where he was born, Delos, and make it to his sanctuary on the mainland, hence its name, “Delphi.” It could also be an allusion to the dolphin that rescued the invisible goddess, Aphaia, whom, though obscure, Plato would have known well if he spent some of his childhood on Aegina, as some believe he did. (See Diogenes Laertius. Lives, 3.1) The story of Arion from Herodotus might be in play here, as well, as Mary Townsend suggests. (Mary Townsend, The Woman Question, 35.) There could be an Homeric allusion to this shipwreck, as well, although Leukothea, not a dolphin, rescued Odysseus from the sea in Book 5. All of these possibilities are provocative, but since the dolphin does not appear again, it is difficult to know what work it is doing in the dialogue. �15 response to his own objection that Socrates offers his famous and important distinction between dialectic 24 and eristic 25 (454a). In dialectic, interlocutors engage in conversation to get to the truth. They may be impassioned and deeply committed to their positions, but ultimately they would rather be proven wrong than maintain a false opinion. In eristic, interlocutors just want to win the argument: they are more attached to besting their opponent than to arriving at the truth. At the moment, according to Socrates, they are in danger of falling into eristic if they do not look behind the words they are using to recall the meaning of those words and the role they play in the inquiry. This warning operates on two levels: first, it helps the interlocutors respond successfully to Socrates’s objection that giving women and men the same work violates the principle of efficiency. But, secondly, it also serves as a warning to the interlocutors (and to Plato’s readers) regarding the dangers of this section of the Republic. The larger warning will be clearer if we deal with the smaller one first. If one operates on the surface of the two claims set in opposition in the objection Socrates raises, then there’s a big problem. They established in Book II that citizens with different natures are suited to different work. They asserted in Book V that women and men should do the same work (even though women and men have different natures). Therefore, it seems they can either hold fast to the old principle (different natures imply different work) or the new principle (women and men, despite their different natures, should do the same work), but not to both. Socrates suggests, though, that this might not be as big a problem as it first appears to be. If one doesn’t think of differences in the abstract, but instead asks what sorts of differences are relevant to one’s work, then there appears to be a way out of the dilemma. If we are attempting 24 25 διαλέκτῳ ἐρίζω �16 to determine whether citizens should be shoemakers or guardians (454b-c), surely it doesn’t matter whether citizens are bald or have long hair. If the natural difference between women and men is like the natural difference between long haired people and bald people, then the problem posed in the objection would merely be semantic and not worth our concern (if we are committed dialectic rather than eristic). 26 Socrates then turns to the second part of the argument which asks: are the differences between men and women relevant to the work they pursue (454e)? And the answer is: apparently not. The commonplace that all the interlocutors agree to in this passage is that even though there may be certain arts (techne) such as baking and weaving that we could quibble about, and even though there may be individual exceptions; in general, men are better at everything than women (455c-d). But, the argument continues, it does not make sense for men to do everything in the city and women to do nothing, so the principle of male superiority in all things actually supports the position of educating women in all things. Plus, women are competent in all things, even if they are not equal to men (456b). For these reasons, Socrates concludes that they were right to say that women and men should be educated together. 26 27 This part of Socrates’ argument is sometimes used to credit Plato with being the first feminist, a claim Julia Annas, among others, rejects outright. She argues that, “his arguments are unacceptable to a feminist, and that the proposals made in Republic V are irrelevant to contemporary debate.” Julia Annas, “Plato’s Republic and Feminism,” Philosophy vol. 51 (1976). 27 Several commentators have noticed that Socrates’ revision to the status of women does not make them equal to men so much as it makes them identical to them, and yet inferior. Arlene Saxonhouse frames it this way: “Sexual equality is tied to the destruction of what is separate, what is other. On the one hand, in Greek thought the female had always stood for what is private and other. By equating the male and the female, the public and the private are made one. There is no ‘other.’ But, more basically, the female suggests the divisiveness of the human species, that we are indeed not all the same, that there is something that is other. In order to create the unified city, Socrates must destroy the female as female, the female as a threat to the unity of the human species. She is integrated into the political community not as herself, as one with distinctive talents or distinctive experiences, but as an inferior male, a physically weaker male.” (See Arlene �17 There is a larger, more significant issue operating in this section, though. The interlocutors do not only risk falling into eristic on the question of whether or not the differences between men and women demand that they do different work. They risk the whole inquiry devolving into eristic. Socrates has been clear since the introduction of the city in speech in Book II that the purpose of the model is to aid in their inquiry into the nature of the human soul, the place of justice within it, and the relative choiceworthiness of justice and injustice for a human life. But the question posed at the beginning of Book V that Polemarchus, Adeimantus, Glaucon, and Thrasymachus insisted Socrates answer does not seem to be motivated by their interest in the individual soul. They thought a full account of women and children had been left out of the city in speech, but was their concern based on the usefulness of an account of women and children to their inquiry into the nature of individual justice, or were they focused on a concern for the paradigm itself? The latter seems to be more plausible. Not only do none of the interlocutors mention the soul explicitly when they insist Socrates compose what he calls the Female Drama, but none of their arguments even seem to allude to the soul by analogy or otherwise. One of the reasons that it is so difficult to see what women and children signify for the structure and activity of the individual soul in the Republic is that it is nowhere made explicit in the beginning of Book V how a more detailed explanation of women and children in the city in speech will be relevant to the psychological inquiry they agreed to undertake together. Those accounts do not begin to emerge until late in Book VI. All four of Saxonhouse, Women in the History of Political Thought, 47-48). Mary Townsend puts it like this: “All this puts women in a very strange metaphysical position, no less strange than their resulting political one; it demotes them even as it raises them. Their situation is not that of women whose goodness is finally acknowledged as justice might demand; rather they have been given the status of lesser men, people who possess all the qualities of men but in a lesser degree.” (See Mary Townsend, The Woman Question, 38.) �18 Socrates’s most powerful and vocal interlocutors in the Republic seem to be in danger of falling from dialectic to eristic by attaching themselves to the literal meanings of the elements of the city in speech and forgetting or neglecting what makes them relevant to their shared inquiry. Socrates’s warning against devolving into eristic is explicitly aimed at his imaginary interlocutor who claims to have found an internal contradiction in the constitution of the city in speech, but I also read it to be an implicit warning to Adeimantus, Polemarchus, Thrasymachus, and especially Glaucon. I understand it to be a warning to the readers of the Republic, as well. If we want to continue to engage in dialectic, which may lead us to the truth, and not eristic, we should remember the meanings of our terms and what roles they play in our inquiry. We must try not to get lost in semantics, surface meanings, or irrelevant side concerns. Socrates’ warning about what could divert us from dialectic may serve as a heuristic for approaching the Republic, and especially its most confusing arguments. When we seem to be talking about ridiculous or implausible things, it will serve us well to recall how we got to that part of the argument, from where its terms were derived, and what work we were supposed to be doing as one of Socrates’s interlocutors. But I think there is another heuristic of sorts introduced in this section, as well, and it is even more subtle. At 456c, Socrates claims to have shown that it is possible for women to do the same work as men and, therefore, for men and women to be educated together. Immediately afterwards, he shifts his focus to a consideration of whether educating men and women together is best. This seems like a sensible and obvious argumentative development: first show that common education is possible, then show that it is optimal. But, this is not how any of the elements in the city in speech have been established before. Throughout Books II, III, and IV we considered the desirability, but not the possibility of each institutional arrangement. Is it possible to constitute a city with only four or five �19 individuals? Probably not. Could we find the perfect balance of citizens with natural talents for each task in the city, each of whom does his work and only his work so that we could constitute a healthy city? Almost certainly not. If we let desires run amok (as in the fevered city) could we set up institutional arrangements and find sufficiently wise leaders to moderate and balance that city into a purged, harmonious whole? Also extremely unlikely. Even though the cities in speech of Books II through IV are as implausible as the city in speech emerging in Book V, the possibility of constituting them was never at issue in the dialogue. What explains this, I believe, is the relative plausibility of the souls associated with the cities in speech in Books II-IV versus the soul associated with the city in speech that is beginning to emerge in Book V. If we shift our focus to the individual soul, the prescriptions for shaping up a life of justice are certainly demanding, but they are not implausible. One must cultivate logismos so that it is capable of determining the proper internal balances between itself, thumos, and epithumia. Logismos and thumos must be allied so that epithumia can be controlled and directed toward the good of the whole. These are no small tasks, but they are intelligible and even, to a degree, manageable if one commits oneself to the work. There is also no expectation of perfect achievement of virtue in the city in speech of Books II through IV. The model seems to suggest that the more you achieve the proper interrelationships and internal balances of soul that come to be known as the virtues, the better. The work one should be doing to become virtuous seems fairly clear and the hope for progress seems fairly reasonable. This is a workable model of the soul on its face, regardless of how far-fetched the political analogs might be. In that sense, there is no need for Socrates to defend its possibility. The city in speech of Book V is different not because the political arrangements it describes are less plausible but because their psychological analogs are. Despite the specter of Sparta that �20 always seems to float around descriptions of the city in speech in the Republic, it is indeed difficult to imagine how even these first institutions of the city in speech that will come to be known as Kallipolis could be established and maintained. 28 All of the practical problems of the earlier cities in speech persist, such as how one could accurately and consistently determine what sort of nature and thus education each baby proto-citizen would best be suited for; or, given that our legislative goal is to create a happy city and not necessarily happy citizens (although this will follow if the happiness of the city is perfectly instantiated), how to keep potentially unhappy people working well and exclusively at what they are best suited to contributed to the city. These are just low-hanging fruit. The practical problems inherent in this political model are legion. The problems inherent in the psychological model introduced in Book V are worse, though. Unlike the city in speech of Books II through IV, where the political arrangements were farfetched but the psychological analogs were more plausible, it seems to me that Kallipolis is less plausible as a soul than as a city. In order to make this clear, one would have to do quite a bit more work unpacking the psychological implications of the fuller explanation of the role of women and children in the city, but we can get started without getting into those details. As I have already noted, at 451d Socrates casts the task of giving a fuller explanation of women and children in the city in speech as the challenge of accounting for the genesis and trophe of the guardians. And as he begins this account, he immediately adds education paideia to the list of things about the guardians that this elaboration on the city in speech will have to include. All three of these (genesis, trophe, and paideia) concern, as I’ve already begun to explain, potency or becoming. So, at least, the description of the city in speech called Kallipolis will include an account of how each of the parts of the city in speech, but particularly the 28 Kallipolis �21 guardians/logismos come to be just. What is the disposition or original condition (genesis) of a soul capable of becoming just? What sort of training/formation/upbringing (trophe) prepares such a well-disposed soul for education? And, what sort of education (paideia) will move a welldisposed, well-formed soul to the actualization of justice? An interesting thing happens when we consider the conditions for the possibility of almost anything: our minds begin to move naturally to the actualization of that thing. When we ask about conditions, we bring the thing for which they are the conditions into our consideration, at least implicitly. We may ultimately reject a telelological account of whatever phenomena we are investigating in this way, but considering the conditions for the actualization of a thing is a teleological consideration, and it implies at least a provisional or inchoate idea of the telos of that thing. This dynamic created by the connection in our minds between the minimal conditions specified in a definition and the telos those conditions imply plays a central role in the constitution of Kallipolis, the noble and beautiful city in speech that is begun after the interruption at the beginning of Book V. The consideration of conditions opens up, by implication, a consideration of the thing for which those conditions are conditions. Now that the interlocutors have begun to consider the minimal conditions for the possibility of justice, the conversation opens to a consideration of the telos of justice, its highest, best, most complete form. The risk that Socrates seems to fear most acutely at the beginning of Book V is the danger of corrupting his friends. If Glaucon or the others see Kallipolis for what it is -- an paradigm that could orient their ambitions to become just, and they commit themselves to an attempt to approach the Good, then their successes and failures in that pursuit are not likely to be terribly dangerous, although they might be. The model of the best life, like the model constructed in �22 Books II through IV, will serve as their target, but there may be nothing inherently problematic about a life that misses the mark while keeping it in sight and attempting to get closer to it with every “shot,” regardless of how one might lament one’s failures. On the other hand, if Socrates’s interlocutors (or Plato’s readers) see that the realm of conventional justice is not truly authoritative, but they do not, for whatever reason, attach themselves to any higher authority, then they will be both politically powerful and morally unfettered. The psychological and political consequences could be catastrophic. Socrates’s attempts to contribute to the improvement of his interlocutors’ souls cannot help but risk corrupting them in, perhaps, the worst possible way. After they have seen that justice is largely conventional, they could decide that justice is unachievable or not worth the effort. If they cannot see the authority of the Good for their lives, or if they willfully choose to ignore it, they could be diverted from the project of trying to live a good and reasonable life approximating virtue and they could veer toward a life that embraces injustice, vice, and dissipation. They might not see or care to acknowledge that such a choice would bear any substantial costs, and they might not scratch beneath the veneer that makes such a choice appear to carry with it obvious benefits. The great is often the enemy of the Good, and Socrates knows it only too well. By taking the risk of having great ambitions for his interlocutors, Socrates might make more modest, less dangerous, more conventional ambitions to approximate goodness in human life appear less choice-worthy, perhaps even unacceptable. The Republic was written well after the Peloponnesian War but it seems to be set before it, so the threat of war and the inevitability of Athens’s defeat looms in the background of the dialogue. 29 The ghosts of Alcibiades and Critias lurk not too deeply in the shadows, as well. 29 Dramatic Date, Nails �23 They were two of Socrates’s brightest, most dissipated and, eventually, most catastrophically dangerous students-- men who saw themselves and their ambitions beyond justice, but who were not strongly enough attached to the Good. 30 As Socrates shows Glaucon, Adeimantus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus (who certainly already knows) how to detach themselves from convention in order to attach themselves to the Good, he risks leaving them completely unattached. He shows the way for them to become psychologically and politically tyrannical. Perhaps this is what happened to Alcibiades and Critias, Plato seems to imply, and the promise of educating them for philosophy is why it seemed to be worth the risk. The risks of composing the Female Drama are significant, but they are also necessary. Socrates cannot keep faith with his interlocutors without responding to their questions about women and children, and there is an important part of the story of the soul that has not yet been told. So, Socrates returns, after his brief excursis on dialectic and eristic, to the claim that women and men should train and be educated together. Or, more specifically, he returns to a consideration of what instituting this principle will look like and how one should react to those who will oppose it. When Socrates introduced the idea that women and men should pursue their physical training together, the first prompt he gave to Glaucon was to admit that what he was proposing seemed ridiculous (452a). In fact, Socrates didn’t just ask for an affirmation from Glaucon that he shared the view that the instantiation of this principle would look ridiculous, he pressed him to think through what its most ridiculous implications would be. This is not a question that was asked about any of the previous cities in speech, although it could have been. For example, there would have been nothing absurd about Socrates asking “what would the most ridiculous aspects of 30 Alcibiades and Critias, Nussbaum �24 trying to constitute a city with only four or five men?” or “could we really expect each person to do precisely the work they were best at and only that work?” So, why is Socrates now bringing forward these apparently ridiculous implications of trying to instantiate the city in speech? Why now? If the Female Drama tells the story of how a soul may become just, then it should begin with what sort of conditions must exist in order for that process of becoming to commence. This is what I believe is beginning to happen when Socrates asks Glaucon to focus on the ridiculousness of the proposal that women and men to should train together. In every society, the conventions of public behavior tend to be formidable. Practices that may once have been a matter of choice or legislation become ingrained over time and enacted unselfconsciously by many members of that society. Som other citizens may be more self-conscious, but believe there are rational justifications for maintaining conventional practices whether or not they find them rational. Resisting ingrained conventions tends to be difficult and to come at a high social cost. If one aspires to be just in the city or the soul, then one must be capable of resisting convention intellectually and in practice. Intellectually, one must be able see conventions for what they are, affirm them when they serve the Good of the whole, and resist them when they don’t. In practice, one must be able to withstand the resistance that inevitably will come from those for whom convention is more powerful. In the soul, that resistance comes from habit. In the city in speech, it might come from those who found unconventional behaviors ridiculous. Socrates’ point appears to be that a soul that will be capable of training and education for virtue will be the soul that can manage, among other things, the difficult business of being unconventional. This is precisely the lesson Socrates emphasizes to Glaucon in their consideration of women and men exercising together, that is, in what will soon be named “the �25 first wave” (457a). If training men and women together is the best thing for the city in speech, then one must not be deterred by those who call it ridiculous. Nor, should one be moved by the part of oneself that sees it as ridiculous. The part of oneself that understands it to be right must be in control. In large part, this provision is clear in Book IV where Socrates emphasized the nature of the guardians/logismos, and virtue’s requirement that it rule in the city in speech. This account in Book V is entirely harmonious with what was presented in Book IV, but it shows the dynamic from a different angle. In Book IV, Socrates elaborated on the necessity of the rule of the calculating part of the soul. Here, in Book V, the emphasis is on the capacity of the other parts of the soul to be ruled. Successfully controlling the desire to laugh at the ridiculousness of old men and women exercising together is Socrates’ image for surviving the first wave. Psychologically, it depicts logismos properly containing epithumia, which implies both a sufficiently strong calculating faculty (which was treated in the Male Drama) and a sufficiently containable appetitive faculty (which is what is now added to the account by way of the Female Drama). It is possible to know what is good and yet not to act on it when there are parts of your soul that are stronger than the part that knows what is good. Here, Plato anticipates what, in Book VII of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle calls Akrasia. One can both know the right thing and be dissipated beyond the capacity to act on that knowledge. There are many ways to become one for whom right reason, or even knowledge, is insufficient to guide action. Drug addiction is the easiest example. It is a commonplace that addicts can talk sensibly about their misguided choices, can lament their dissipation, can decide to do what they know to be right, but can then succumb over and over again to urges that overwhelm their resolve. For addicts, the lesson is �26 clear: knowing what is good is a necessary condition for virtue, but it is not always sufficient for putting it into practice. 31 Knowing that it is best to create a training regimen for men and women together is not sufficient for institutionalizing that arrangement in the city in speech. Having the most knowledgeable person in charge of instituting the right plan is also not sufficient. In addition, the rest of the city must be capable of being led toward arrangements that they may find ridiculous. They must have that capacity. The psychological analog to this is that one who hopes to be trained and educated for virtue must be capable of overcoming those instincts and habits that are not, according to the calculating part of the soul, best for the whole. One’s thumos must be willing to align itself with logismos. One’s epithumia must be containable. This is the first lesson of the Female Drama. If we are up to these challenges, we might just weather the first wave. 31 For an account of how the structure of the tripartite soul in the Republic implies the existence of akrasia, see Michael Morris “Akrasia in the Protagoras and the Republic,” Phronesis, Vol. 51, No. 3 (2006), pp. 195-229. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. 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Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Microsoft Word Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 26 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Female Drama Description An account of the resource Typescript of a lecture delivered on November 5, 2021, by Charlotte Thomas as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Dr. Thomas is Professor of Philosophy from Mercer University in Atlanta and Co-Director of the McDonald Center for America’s Founding Principles. She was named the Executive Director of Association for Core Texts and Courses in 2020. Dr. Thomas describes her lecture: "At the beginning of Book V of the Republic, Adeimantus and Polemarchus interrupt Socrates to say that he has neglected to explain something he had earlier said in passing about the role of women and children in the city in speech. Socrates admits that although the 'male drama' is complete, that he has indeed neglected these matters in the hope that he could avoid them entirely in their conversation. But with fear and trembling, prostrating himself to Adresteia and asking forgiveness for the hubris he fears he is about to display, he agrees to present the 'female drama.' Thus begins the notoriously difficult and controversial middle part of the Republic. One of the things that makes the middle books so difficult is that Socrates leans precipitously into constructing political structures which until this point of the dialogue he has been careful to remind his interlocutors were meant to function as paradigms to help them understand individual justice. But, although Socrates is quieter and more subtle about the teachings of the female drama for moral psychology, he is not silent. In this paper I will attempt to illuminate some of the hints we are given about the implications of the middle books of the Republic (especially Book V) for its teachings on the soul and investigate their place in the Republic as a whole." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thomas, Charlotte C. S. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-11-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a typescript of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Plato. Republic. Book 5. Justice (Philosophy) Sex differences in education Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Thomas_Charlotte_2021-11-05_Typescript Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7606">Video</a> Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/b38ac4d1a0d5aa2e303f246dfd10a530.pdf a345720361afd2b60ed6490df93c495c PDF Text Text �Socrates: Tell me, O Meno, whether pulp fiction is something good, or if not good, can it be something worthwhile, or at least entertaining? And if any of these are true is it something that comes to human beings by publication or some other way? Meno: It is not hard to tell, Socrates. First we must know what the virtue of a pulp story is. If it’s the virtue of hard boiled crime you want, it’s easiest to say that it’s this you want: a detective who does well to his friends and manages the affairs of dangerous dames and crimes, and a nemesis who does harm to his enemies, and the detective who avoids the twists and turns of convoluted plot points. And if it’s the virtue of a space opera you want, that’s not too hard. It is to manage well the breaking of the laws of physics and to boldly go where no man has gone before. And the virtue of horror, and of fantasy, and of parody, and light poetry, and there are a great many other genres, so that there is no difficulty in knowing what the virtue of pulp fiction is. Socrates: I have asked you for a definition, and you have given me The Swarm Issue 8: The Pulp Fiction Magazine from Beyond the Grave May 2015 Sueanna Keim, Editor In Chief Lyra Meuer, Cover Art Catherine White, Layout Editor Contributors: Stylus Marner Kira Anderson Jonathan Grauberd Baranbas Holleran Shannon McGovern Grayson Mooney John Farrell Jamie Dunn uorrecxion While we at The Swarm are great fans of Ms. Jamie Dunn, director of career services, she is not in fact a contributor to this issue. The author of The Thrilling Epic of Lady Pfarlington, Exquisite and Most Excellent Bug Madame of Highest Repute in Space Aristocracy, Whom is Forced to Murder In Pursuit of Regaining Her Husband's Attentions From the Licentiousness of Space Bordellos, which can and should be found at the back of the magazine, is Mr. Jamie Carr, as we almost correctly noted on the title page of said tale. With apologies to both Ms. Dunn and Mr. Carr, we regret the error. Well, it’s back. After a year’s hiatus, and another almost-year’s inactivity. The Swarm has returned in print! We’re very humbled to present a set of excellent stories from wonderful, patient, brilliant, patient, imaginative, and patient contributors—first in electronic form last spring, and now here on paper. Many thanks to them, for letting The Swarm be a home for their work. Many thanks also to those that came before us, particularly Lillie Franks and Esa Sclafani, without whom this revival would not have been possible (and without whom The Swarm would never have existed in the first place!). Also, we are accepting submissions for our next issue, to be released before the end of this semester! Please send your writing our way at stjohnspulp@gmail.com! And if you see Mr. Conway, please let us know. We’re pretty sure he owes us money. �The Monophysics of Mars, Part 4 Stylus Marner Editor’s note: Parts 1-3 do not exist in our quantum reaiity. Due to a brief malfunction on the part of Gmail’s universal resource locator, The Swarm’s e-mail account briefly received submissions intended for a St. John’s in a parallel universe where, somehow, religion has taken the place of science. This has led to a genre of fiction that is, to our knowledge, unprecedented in our universe. “What do you mean ‘The controls aren’t working’?’’ Peter, the ship’s theologian snapped. “This ship is powered by the prayers of the twelve most pure-hearted monks in all of America, and the controls are based directly on Aristotle’s lost treatise The Aeronautics, as reconciled with the Christian faith by myself. It not working would be a clear violation of Matthew 17:20. ‘If ye have faith as a mustard see’-’’ “We all know how the ship works,” said Mary. “I’m telling you that it’s not working now.” “Are you doubting my craftsmanship?!” “Now wait a minute here,” Matthew Matthias interceded, “Let’s not say anything that we’d repent of. I’m sure there’s an explanation for this that’s in accordance with doctrine.” Martin the robot did not contribute any ideas. Martin the robot was unensouled matter. “Look. The only way I can think of to disable the engines would be to corrupt the monks that... One second.” He hit a button on the control altar. “Is this the engine room?” “Yes, sir,” said a voice from the other side, carried from one end of the ship to the other by the power of a reliquary containing dirt touched by the archangel Gabriel, patron saint of communication. “Does Jesus have one nature, or two natures joined in hypostatic union?” “Well, it’s funny you should ask that, actually,” the voice replied. “Last week, I would have said two natures, but just yesterday I found this book in the engine room, and-” Peter let go of the button. “It’s worse than I feared. We’ve been sabotaged. By monophysites.” Mary gasped. “Good heavens! Not monophysites!” “Oh, come on,” Matthew said. “Everyone knows monophysites are just scary stories for children. They’re pure reli-fi!” Regular readers, of course, will recall that Matthew Matthias was nothing more than a simple, ripplingly muscled, dazzlingly handsome sexton before he was asked to read an untested, hyper-strong version of the Serenity Prayer, and fell asleep for two hundred years, waking up in the strange world of tomorrow. “Yesterday’s reli-fi is today’s reli-fact,” Peter replied. “They must have come from Mars.” “From Mars? But isn’t the existence of other inhabited planets heretical?” “Quite right, my boy. But Mars wasn’t always habited. The monophysites fled their in ships much like ours.” “But how could they have developed ships while praying to an improperly conceived Jesus?” “Exodus 7:11, good boy. ‘The magicians of Egypt did in like manner with their enchantments’.” “It’s said that on Mars, not only Jesus, but everything has to be made of one substance,” Mary added. “Specifically corduroy. Everything they wear, drink or eat is made of corduroy.” “How bizarre.” “They also murder children for sport and feed their elderly to corduroy monsters.” “And that’s not the worst part either,” Peter interjected. “It’s not?” “No. According to legend, they believe that communion wafers are only figuratively transformed into the essence of Jesus.” “Great stars!” Mary gasped. Matthew was too shocked to respond. “I know. It’s horrible, isn’t it?” “Well, that too. But I think we have a bigger problem. “Of course we do,” said Peter. “Original sin. Why do you bring it up?” “That’s not that what I meant,” Mary replied. “What is it?” asked Matthew. “According to our revelation based detectors, we’re just a few minutes from crashing into something really big. And really solid...” “You don’t mean...” Peter trailed off. Everyone except Martin, who was not alive, ran up to the window to look out. “Did you have to make this out of stained glass?” Matthew said, squinting. Peter ignored him. “Just as I feared...” At that moment, they realized the horrible truth: the ship was fast running low on quintessence-filled space and was about to crash... into the Circle of Fixed Stars! How will Mary, Peter and Matthew survive this one? Will they find out who sabotaged the ship with monophysitism? What was with that robot anyway? The Swarm regrets that not a single one of these questions will be answered next issue. Our apologies. �Kool Aid By Kira Anderson They told us there was a disease coming, a monstrous disease. Worse than the Avian Flu, worse than the Spanish Influenza, worse than the Bubonic Plague. What were we to do? I remember as shops closed in preparation for the incoming pandemic. Shelves were cleared of merchandise and everything was halted. No incomes, no outcomes, just fear. The local shop, run by Mrs Achinua was robbed half-way through the president’s speech about the coming end. He was hopeful. He had a solution. I remember watching his honest eyes as he delivered a beautiful, smooth reassurance to the people on cable television. We all sat around the TV, my big brother, my mother and me. The man seemed so honest that we all felt reassured for whatever reason. How could we not be? We elected him half a year earlier, and he and Congress were still in their honeymoon phase. Bills were being passed! Economy was growing! Until the announcement. And even then, we were safe. Poor Mrs Achinua, a widow of four years with no children, no family, and hardly a future, was watching the speech from the ancient laptop that always whirred in the back of her check­ out area, displaying Fox News updates. She was smiling, a crooked smile, showing her newly capped teeth. This president had made sure that she got the medical aid she needed. She had been suspicious of him at first, but now she loved this man. She was ogling the president’s own pearly whites when the gun went off against the back of her head, and the old laptop was still portraying the smiling politician as blood and brains dragged sluggishly down the screen. Mrs Achinua no longer had her wisened grey eyes, but the man who fired the gun got some cereal for his six children who lived in the apartments near Twelfth Street. It was the last box, actually, since everyone had already stocked up on supplies, th I had always liked Mrs Achinua, so when the man was dragged into the streets and torn apart by people hungry for something more than food and reassurance, I was a little happy. I hid it, though. My mother was distressed and held me tight to her, so I said nothing about how he deserved it. Only later did I learn about how his children starved, and no one would take care of them, since the youngest contracted something, something possibly deadly. After the citizens had cleaned the blood from the streets and returned to their homes to disinfect, my mother held me by my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. “Honey,” she told me, more scared than I had ever seen her. “I am so sorry.” “What for?” I asked, confused. “I don’t know what world you’ll have left after this,” she whispered, tears beading in the corners of her fiery eyes. “I’ll have something,” I said. I was so young, and I thought that this sickness would help the world. People would die, and the population would decrease. We would restart, stronger as a world than when we had entered this horror. I didn’t care if Suzy down the street choked to death on her own blood. I didn’t care if Tom’s mother watched her whole family fall apart. I would have a better life. Children always think like this before they see hell for themselves. those that could afford it. The next speech was given across the world in every language that I could think of and some that I had never even heard of before. Leaders of every nation announced their solution to fix the world—a drug had been manufactured, but everyone had to take it at the same time, so the disease could not mutate. If one person took it, then a day later someone else did, the disease could change, scientists across the world declared, looking nervous and tired. No one had slept well since patient 0 entered a hospital in New York and infected an entire ward, before infecting the rest of the world. The drugs were free, a simple purple pill handed out at every pharmacy across the country, across the world. Planes dropped boxes of them to areas in Africa or in mountains it was hard to reach. Everyone had a special place in their homes for the drug to be held until taken. My mom pulled out a tooth-holder I had used when I was five and still believed in the tooth-fairy. She put the three pills in there. There was a count down on every news station. In the right hand corner, there sat a simple ticking clock. We watched it with anxiety, hoping we didn’t catch the disease before the clock struck zero. There was a celebration planned in Time’s Square. The ball was going to drop, like on New Year’s. My mother even got my brother a new computer to be opened after the disease was stopped that he could take to college. I got a new set of games to play on the family computer, but I opened them before the ball dropped, because I was impatient. They were building games. I loved building games. Mom always said I should become an architect. I didn’t really listen to her, because I just liked putting wires and blocks together to make things light up and form buildings. I didn’t go to school, since it was cancelled to slow the rate of infection, so I sat at home building a little nation out of blocks on the computer, creating fictional wires and homes. I loved it. My mom always came home from work, took off her face-mask, threw her jacket into the laundry machine, turned it on to disinfect, and came to fetch me out of the office. I would hug her listlessly, wanting to return to the world in front of me where disease didn’t exist. Where Suzy didn’t end up in a mass grave and Tom wasn’t left an orphan on the streets to starve. It was too sad to watch how far we had sunk. Juliet Samora used to babysit for all of the kids on the street, and she was the nicest person I knew. She had blonde hair, which was permanently pulled back into a braid, and white, perfect teeth. When she came to my house before the plague, she made us cookies and would tuck us in at night. When my brother and I were younger, she would bring colouring books and crafts, and we would work on those for hours at a time. She was always so kind. One day, when mom was gone at work, she came to the door. I let her in, wondering what she was doing out in the streets. She came in with her perfect teeth and her hair in a loose braid, saying that my mom had called her to check in on my brother and me. Without prelude, she headed to the top of the stairs. I followed, curious. She got to Mom’s room and began grabbing her necklaces from a jewellery box in the closet. She did not even seem to notice me as I stood there in confusion. That was when my brother showed up. He knew more than I did. He walked up to Juliet and forced her head forward so that it hit the wooden dresser the jewels sat upon with a loud crack. I could not move. I was transfixed as my brother hauled the kind woman out of the room, pulled my mother’s belongings out of her pockets, and then picked her up. In her beautiful voice, she began pleading with him, with me, with us. She was only stealing to help her family out. She was afraid that her parents would die if they didn’t get money. She was scared. I was scared, too, and I yelled out to my brother. “Stop! Let her go!” But my brother only looked at me. His brown eyes met mine as he threw her down the stairs. She fell with a yelp and when she hit the floor, she stared back at us with a mix of horror and apprehension. Her pearly teeth were now pink and her hair was strawberry blonde with the blood that was pouring from lacerations. She scrabbled to her feet and ran out of the house, not a single tear in her eyes I had stood there, staring out the door, wondering how the world could possibly return to normal after we all had our pills. How could we just forget the horrible things we had done to each other in our darkest moments? Would people have been able to forgive the man that killed Mrs Achinua if they had not killed him? �I wanted to forgive the generous, beautiful Juliet, but could we simply forget what happened when the world became civilized again? The ball dropped at 12:00 noon on September 11th. There was partying and the people in the streets all swallowed their pills, delighting in the fact that they could help stop a rampant disease. I could hear loud music from other people’s homes. There were even some firecrackers going off. Everyone was so excited that it seemed to be tangible, floating in the air. These people celebrated that the government could save them from a horrible fate, and why should they not have? There was so much patriotism. My brother waved a small American flag up and down after he swallowed the purple pill. His eyes were glued to the television, watching thousands of other people do the same thing across the country. I wanted a glass of water, though, more than I wanted to celebrate. The pill tasted a little like Kool-Aid. Like the grape kind, which I didn’t like. My excited smile turned into a frown as I felt a pressure growing behind my eyes. I brought my hand to my forehead, trying to urge the pain away. My brother fell first. The flag dropped from his fist and onto the ground. It rolled to my feet, the red and white stripes blurring together in my eyes. Mom yelled at him, saying that he should never let the flag touch the ground. I don’t know why she did that. He already knew not to let the flag fall. I slowly let my hands drop away from my face to see my brother on the floor, face up, staring back at me emptily, the whites of his eyes a deep burgundy. I heard a gasp and a loud thud and soon Mom’s eyes were empty too. I sunk to my knees, clutching my head. Blood oozed from my mouth. It hurt like nothing I had ever felt before. But what did all the pain matter? The government had fixed all the world’s problems. The Girl in the Lake By Jonathan Grauberd There was once a girl... She lived in the city, or so the story goes. It had been told many times, and it always starts the same... I met that girl on an odd day. The sky was fine and pretty. The trees were green and simple in their most noble of ways. Mothers and their children were running amok, oblivious to the marvel that rose from the lake. I didn’t remember a lake in the center of the city. But I had been gone for a long time, and it had a habit of twisting our memories into mocking pictures. Whether it was the new wrinkle that I had found on my forehead, joining many others in what was quickly becoming a cavalcade of eternally smiling faces. To think it was once so smooth. As she rose from the lake, every drop of water clinging to her porcelain skin with religious devotion, all thoughts left my mind. Which was a wonder, and no small one at that. All of my worries, the small and not-so-small qualms that gathered like devious dust mites in my mind as the years had worn on vanished. The money, the family, and retirement; all had gone away like my youth. The late afternoon breeze blew back her dark hair that had somehow already dried. I got up from my bench, rising slowly. After all no one else had noticed her, nor did they seem to notice the lake that had appeared in the center of the city. Only I saw the girl with the crimson lips that was watching me with eyes that shone like emeralds in the twilight sun. My arms were heavy, and my legs were slow. It was not always this way. Once, long ago, I could run. I was strong. For once my memory did not fail me, and I remembered that in an age long forgotten I was loved. Soft orange hues seemed to color everything as I drew near the girl in the lake. People became ethereal forms, their words nothing but specks of violet light in the orange haze. I could no longer hear the city, and in all honesty I did not care. Only the girl standing in the center of the lake with the crimson lips and the emerald eyes mattered to me. With every step I took towards her my will which had made me unstoppable returned, and as it did I felt that wonderful fire light up in my gut once again. There was no mirror around to be found, yet I did not need one to see that I was young again,that my back was straight again and that my hair was once again full. All at once I felt a cool autumn breeze. To my left I saw the moon. It mattered not that that it was still light out to my right, and that she waited there. But I had a feeling that she was very patient. She had been waiting for a long time. A little longer would not hurt. The white eye in the sky was shinning bright, casting a pale silver light over the cold desert. The stars were out in full force, and all of a sudden I was sixteen again. The entirety of the desert lay before my feet. The cool desert night went through my jacket effortlessly, and all reason told me to leave. I should have been getting warmer, my spine should have been shuddering, but only a wonderful feeling of serenity and awe flooded my senses. The whole world lay before and I had never felt more alive. Waves of orange light come flooding in as the evening began to set on the city. Yet as it did the twilight light of the lake only grew stronger. I kept walking and as I did, so did she. The water rippled softly with every step that she took. I neared the edge of the lake when the scent, that all too familiar scent assaulted me. It was the smell of rain, falling off of pine trees and melting the snow that had fallen on the ground only the night before. I was a child again and I remembered how the entire world seemed to wake up as the sun hit the snow launching a dozen rainbows into the air. �Then I was on the edge of the lake. Right before me she stood, her eyes kind, but so very old. She reached out to me with a pale hand, and I was no longer tall and strong, I was but a child before her. A child with his entire life stretched out before him. Only then did she speak, her voice coming through a trillion echoes, from the sky and the earth, and mostly from her radiant lake. "Are you ready?" I looked back and I saw a thousand snapshots of my life spread out. Each one becoming vaguer and murkier until the end where an old man was sitting on a bench. His hair was gone and his back hunched, but I saw something in him that seemed almost unnatural. It was not life because that had been long gone, but on his impossibly old lips I saw a smile. I turned back to her and watched those terribly kind eyes, and I asked as a child would, "Where are we going?" Not another word left her lips, she grabbed and my hand and led me into the lake as the world dissolved into bright golden hues. There was once a girl... She lived in the city... But it was not one of ours. • ’.t ■^8^ eilT ..s , bib «.bib I es rwlw bis w-'-; i iw® 6 ogrimo Wifevsw • ■■m f. t > twwi i la 1ertt Wio Family By Barnabas Holleran “Hey, Brandon, it’s good to see you again. How are you doing this week?” “Hi Dad, I’m doing fine, how are you?” “Honestly, I’ve been better. I’ve had this damned crick in my back since Sunday. The nurses can’t do anything about it. They say I have to just wait it out. You count your blessings. Bran. You take your young body for granted, and then one day you wake up at three in the morning, you have to piss like a racehorse, and you can’t move a damned inch.” “Can’t the nurses do anything? This is robbery! Anne and I are spending a fortune to make sure you’re cared for here.” “Yeah, well, what’re ya gonna do.” “Dad, can I talk to you?” “Of course! Sit down! What’s the matter?” “Dad, I saw him again. I know you don't believe me, but I saw him again. I don't know who else to go to.” “Saw him? Saw who? What happened? ” “You know who. Don't pretend you don't remember that night. Alright, so this was two nights ago, about three in the morning. I got up for a glass of water. I went downstairs to the kitchen sink, and that’s when I saw the light on in the barn. Well, you know how we put the switch for the lights back by the fridge, so we wouldn't have to come back through the dark? I just figured Anne forgot to shut them off, so I flipped the switch and went back for a glass. But when I got to the window, the lights were still on. I saw him, dad. Just for a second, but there he was in the window, dark and still, and I nearly missed him. Then the lights went out. Dad, I remember wiring that old barn. I remember handing you the screwdriver while you stood on that big ladder, and I remember you telling me how 'One switch is damned complicated enough' and that we’d put it right inside. Well the switch doesn’t work. He was standing in the barn and he made the lights go out.” “Brandon, I've got something to tell you. You're not the first one to see something wrong with that barn. I'm sorry I never believed you before. I didn't want it to be true, I guess. Your mother saw it the first time. She was out taking in the laundry this one night in early August. It was the night before... You know. Well, she said she was taking the sheets off the line when she happened to glance over at the barn. The lights were on, which was unusual, and she could see the shadow of a ladder on the glass. She finished up the laundry and went to turn off the light, but the ladder had another shadow on it, a young boy. She said she thought it was you, or maybe your brother. She turned around just in time to see it fall off, backwards, headfirst. I heard her scream and I ran outside to see her disappearing into the barn. I found her there, sitting on a hay bale, crying. There wasn't any ladder, and there wasn't any kid. You were in your bed, sleeping peacefully. It really got to your mother though. She told me what happened, and we went to bed. She cried herself to sleep. Next morning, she was real distracted. I found her when I got back from work. Well, you know the rest.” “I'm sorry, dad. But what gives? You never believed me before! I knew there was something to the shadow. I saw him, and now you know it. It wasn't just the storm, and it wasn't just the wind. That night was more eerie than other storms. There's always a calm before a storm, but not like that one. I told Jason not to go out there, but he just called me a sissy. And what did I know? I was just the little brother who never knows anything. I knew he shouldn't have gone out, and I know I saw the shadow out there that night. Even afterwards, you didn't believe me. You said I was just scared. You said I was just seeing things. That it was just Jason. Why are you suddenly ready to listen?” �“Because I saw him too, dammit. I saw him too. If you're crazy, then I'm crazy too. I couldn't sleep last week. Damned back. So I got up and went to the window. I saw it large as life. My back may be going, but my eyes have always been sharp. He was sitting on the park bench down below, legs crossed, arms draped over the back, like he owned the building and everyone in it. Cool as a cucumber. He just looked like a shadow. Like there was nothing there, where there should be something. You didn't say how big he was, though, before. I always thought you described him more like Jason, your age, but he was just sitting there, large as life, a man. I'm so sorry, Brandon, you were right all along. I should have listened to you. I'm so sorry.” “It's alright. Dad, I forgive you.” “I'm so sorry. Come here, come here. Take my hand. Forgive me for not listening to you.” “Of course. Dad, I forgive you. Your hands are like ice! You're freezing! Dad, are you alright? This isn't just your back. You’re not well.” “Of course I'm not well! That thing's been following my family! First your mother, then Jason, and now I’m gonna lose you! I’m too sick in here to do anything about it! I couldn’t take care of your mom, I couldn’t take care of Jason, and I can’t save you. I’ve let everyone down. Forgive me, son, forgive me!” “Just hold on, dad. It’s not me I’m worried about. I’m going to get a doctor, just hold on. Oh! There’s someone at the door. Nurse, thank god, call the doctor!” “Excuse me sir, you can't be in here.” “Don't be ridiculous, of course I can. This is my father's room!” “Sir, this room has been empty all day. Are you alright? What's your name?” “It's Brandon Henderson. That can't be right, the room-- wait, what happened to the bed? Dad? Where are you?” “Henderson? I'm sorry, Mr. Henderson passed away last week. The room has been empty since.” “He was right here! I was talking to him when you came in!” “Are you alright, sir? Come on, follow me. It’s okay.” The nurse held out her hand and I took it, holding a little tighter than necessary. I looked back and saw the room, now dark and filled with shadows where my father had been. I didn’t understand. I just wanted to leave. The nurse led me through an endless maze of long white corridors, monotonously decorated with dusty fabric flowers on narrow shelves. The halls were dimly lit but grew lighter as we reached the front of the hospital. I could tell we were almost at the foyer, because as we turned down one corridor, I saw an ornate window at the end, letting long shafts of light into the dusty air. We passed a sitting room, and I paused to look in. The nurse gave me a gentle pull, but I didn’t move. She followed my eyes to the small TV on the wall. Choppy subtitles poured across the screen as an immaculately combed man from the town’s only TV station read us the news. I read the blocky white text as it obscured the news desk and its timing mocked the anchor's lips. “The police are still looking for the homeowner and primary suspect of this morning's fire.” it read. “First responders were able to recover remains of a woman from the rubble. They were not able to confirm her identity, but she is likely Mrs. Anne Henderson,” a beautiful photograph of my wife appeared on the screen, “the wife of Brandon Henderson,” my own face appeared on the screen beside hers, smiling with her like we were posing for a Christmas card. I felt my skin crawl. The nurse jerked her hand out of mine, and I looked over at her to see only fear in her eyes. She called out, and I found myself being pulled backwards through the hall out of which I had just come by two large orderlies, walking firmly deeper into the hospital. As I watched the window, in a panic to escape, I saw him one more time, the shadow of a man, this time stepping out of a doorway into the shafts of light behind the woman, blocking them out, and though his face was featureless, I could tell that he was grinning at me. Exceedingly Messed Up Bedtime Stories By Shannon McGovern Once upon a time, there was a turtle named Henry and a hedgehog named Margot and they were the best of friends. The reason that they were such good friends was because although Margot was all prickly and pointy, Henry had a hard turtle shell, so Margot's prickles didn't bother him, so they both could cuddle and be wonderful friends. Everyday Henry and Margot would go down to the woods and visit the old oak tree where the owl, Mr. Richardson, lived and throw pine cones at him, because Mr. Richardson was a mean awry old bird and very racist. One day, on their way down to the old oak tree, they came across a hermit crab. “That's very odd,” said Margot, “hermit crabs usually live near the sea, or in tanks. The glass kind not the driving and destruction kind.” “You're right Margot,” said Henry, “this is a very odd turn of events. Perhaps this is the start of a wonderful adventure for all three of us. Hello little hermit crab, what is your name?” “None of your business, you wrinkly little shit,” said the hermit crab, “leave me the fuck alone. I fucked your mother.” The hermit crab then tried to give them his middle finger, but as hermit crabs don't have fingers, he just waved his claw at them. Margot and Henry looked at each other, and then at the hermit crab. “This hermit crab is an asshole,” said Margot. “You're quite right,” said Henry. “Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” “I think I am,” said Margot. So Henry and Margot threw the asshole hermit crab at the racist owl, and the hermit crab caught a bad case of Hepatitis B and died. The owl then decided enough was an enough and that he was tired of all these motherfucking crabs in his motherfucking nest, so he retired to Florida, where he could be as racist as he wanted without anyone really caring. And Margot and Henry lived happily ever after. The end rttiw �A Story about Walking in the Woods By Grayson Mooney The tree sat back, low and hunched at the back of a little clearing. Looking back on everything, I can’t believe it took me so long to notice them. I suppose that was because it was raining and I was taking a shortcut. Normally I don’t go through the woods, they’re infested with ticks and living where I do we have an epidemic of crazies setting up camps amongst the trees, little assortments of second hand tents and plastic sheeting, all surrounded by a sprinkling of broken glass and crushed beer cans. But seeing how it was pouring down rain in hard little pellets of liquid that almost hurt to be hit by, I decided that a shortcut was necessary. I wasn’t wearing shorts or exposing any skin that ticks could get into and I was carrying around a little knife, mostly for cutting up boxes at work but I supposed that it would have to do if someone decided to try to jump me as I was heading home. I didn’t see anyone for the first few minutes as I traipsed through the foliage. The trees above me blocked out the worst of the rain and it was oddly quiet as I continued. I was starting to amuse myself by walking on a log when my foot slipped and I tumbled down into a perfectly placed bed of stinging nettles. Standing up, trying to figure out just how to combine profanities into a suitable expression of my feelings, I saw a nice, straight stick that I could use to beat the nettles into a pulp. As I went for it, venturing deeper into a little clearing, I saw that the grass and plants around me had been tamped down, as if a crowd had walked over them not too long before. Standing up, I looked before me and felt the breath catch in my throat. Hanging, not ten feet in front of me, perfectly at eye level, were a pair of Italian penny loafers, the leather scuffed, a clod of mud stuck stubbornly to the toe of one of them. I stepped backwards, wondering exactly what I was seeing for a moment before realizing that the well dressed man before me was hanging from his neck by a length of rope that was already dark and soaked in rain from the storm. Feeling numb I wondered why the guy had hung himself, why he had done it in his Sunday best...and why he wasn’t alone. There were other corpses hanging silently in the tree, their faces puffy and purple, hands hanging limply, clothes soaked with rain and feet pointed downwards. There had to be a dozen of them and as I took another big step backwards I heard a noise behind me, rising over the rattling of rain and the moaning of the wind. On the other side of the clearing, beyond the log that I had fallen off of, there was a figure, standing stock still, staring at me through the growing dimness. It was almost evening and the sun set fast in the woods, why was I still here? “Don’t come any closer!” I shouted, holding up my stick, hoping that it looked a lot more substantial than it actually was. The figure didn’t respond, just kept staring before making an odd shivering motion, like a dog shaking water from its fur. I looked at the woods behind me, past the corpse laden tree, and wondered what my chances were if I made a run for it through there. It led deeper into the woods but the path to my house, and the rest of civilization for that matter, meant going closer to the figure, who I noticed was now starting to move forwards. As he came closer, steadfastly ignoring my terrified threats. I saw that he was wearing a black parka and holding a coiled length of rope. Moving slowly, carefully, I edged my way past him, holding the stick before me in a defensive motion. He didn’t even spare a glance my direction though, instead continuing onwards until he was at the base of the tree. For a long moment he stared at the branches and then nodded with obvious satisfaction. Taking the hood of his parka off he began to clamber into the tree, the bodies shaking and swaying as he disturbed their natural equilibrium. “What are you doing?” I asked weakly, already knowing the answer. The figure ignored me though, instead picking a spot between two hanging bodies and carefully tying the rope to the branch. He glanced up at me as he began to fashion a hangman’s knot and I saw that, shockingly, he looked ordinary, not at all like whatever mental approximation of a cultist that I’d had before. “Get going,” he said, “you don’t want to be around for this.” He sounded perfectly at ease, almost happy. “If...If you’re in a cult I can help you,” I said, very aware that my voice was shaking and on the verge of cracking, “you don’t need to do this.” He didn’t respond, just looked down at me sadly, like I was missing some obvious and fundamental truth of the universe. As he finished his knot, testing it with practiced hands, I drew the knife that I had in my pocket, flicking the blade out. “Don’t do this,” I told him again, feeling slightly more confident now that I had at least a temporary solution to what lay before me, “I’ll cut you down if you hang yourself. There’s no point.” As I said this he sat bolt upright from where he was and stared at me, terror in his eyes. “No!” He shouted, his voice ringing off of the surrounding trees, around us the rain continued to fall, even harder if that was possible. He shook his head violently and tugged at the knot again, his previous aura of calm was gone, now he seemed agitated and upset. “Don’t-” I started to say but a rumble of thunder cut me off and the figure shook his head. “I’m almost late,” he muttered, then looked at me, his face contorted with something that looked like fear, “don’t cut me down, they’ll get angry if you do!” What the hell was he talking about? “Who are they?” I asked, and watched him fit the noose around his neck, water dripped off of the blade of my knife and I remembered that it was somewhat dull. Would it cut through the rope that he was using? I hoped so. “You don’t want to make them angry,” he smiled in a sickly manner and glanced at the other corpses surrounding him, “it would be a pity...the harvest was good this year.” I blinked, confusion and fear clouding my thoughts, then he tightened the noose with a convulsive jerk of his arm and I saw something set in his face. “No!” I shouted but he didn’t listen. He jumped. Kornto fcfuso uov . .. , ' ‘ .... , - .;-A ' -4 *■ . I i« ■I,...'i « ......... . 1 • • ■ , 'S- ■: A ? ' "i ' J I ■»■'''•■ r i., . 'A,' 5 A, •rj,*' ■ .*y I '/>< 'if, j V ' *'' *» * * r.'d•* '' �Her Name is Eve By John Farrell As moonlight shines on the discarded body parts that litter the forest around me, I hear him singing. I’m breathing too heavily to be able to recognize the song, but whatever it is it’s slow and methodical. He isn’t chasing me anymore. I can’t get away and he knows it. He’s enjoying this. Letting the fear creep into me. Imagining what he’s going to do to me. The strange thing is that none of this is what really disturbs me. The part that gets to me is the idea that this is what was supposed to happen from the beginning. I am realizing that everything I did to avoid this point only guaranteed that I would get here. I look at the Calvin stepping lightly over corpses and smiling at me as he sings. I wonder if someone wanted this it to end this way. I recognize the song now. It’s an old Kyrie he used to sing absentmindedly when he was inputting data at the end of the day. Just something he would use to pass the time while his mind was occupied. He reaches me and I fall to my knees. I don’t have the energy left to run, and he knows it. He raises the scalpel and waits for a moment, looking down at me. For a moment I don’t understand why, until I start listening closer. He wants to finish the song. I don’t know what makes me want to speak. I know it won’t stop him. I know he decided to kill me long ago. I do it anyway. “You know. Cal, you don’t have to do this.” The smile drops from his face and he narrows his eyes at me. “I’m not so sure.” Closing my eyes, I wait for the blade to drop. And I think back to a few hours ago. “I always hate it when they scream,” Abraham said next to me, wincing. “They’re not screaming, Abe.” said Gottfried in his usual content, relaxed tone. “That sound is just what happens when their vocal circuits get flooded with electricity.” “Yeah, well...it’s painful, isn’t it?” Abraham asked, peering through the glass at the Alpha and Beta models. “Well...unpleasant is a more accurate word. They aren’t complicated enough to have the neural processes for pain. But I guess the point stands that they don’t enjoy this. And I can tell from the look on your face that you don’t either.” Abraham shrugged, continuing to observe the models. “Yeah, well, it’s this or my job. What choice do I have here?” Gottfried just shrugged back, never taking his eyes off of his computer. He had enough faith in the rigor of the experiment that he no longer felt the need to pay any real attention to it. He felt that the results would end up the way they had the past twenty times, and so far he was always right. The five of us had a fairly simple task to perform. The science behind it was heavy and incredibly expensive, but our job was pretty simple: watch the units and record their actions. Alpha and Beta were the military’s attempt at rudimentary artificial intelligence. The fact that it was military meant that it was secret, so everything we did was inside an underground complex with only one way to the surface. The units we were given could think, communicate, and interact with their surroundings. All of this they could perform with limited functionality at best, but they were an important step on the way to proper computerized thought. I don’t know who made the call to make them look so human. The units were five feet tall with basic humanoid shapes and surprisingly expressive faces. Their skin was all uniform white and they didn’t have any hair or clothes, but it was something about their faces that got me. Those things took real craftsmanship. Looking at them you could almost forget you were seeing something that wasn’t really a person. Sometimes when I looked into their eyes I would wonder why they’re so real looking. I always found it creepy watching over something that reminded me so much of myself. Looking back on it it makes me wonder about why 1 look the way I do. The team was Calvin, Gottfried, Isaac, Abraham, and me, the only woman of the group. Our job was to run the units through some simple scenarios, see how they react, and record it. All in all it was pretty straightforward, and it didn’t take long to get bored with it. It wasn’t that anything we had them doing was particularly routine; in fact some of the situations were pretty unique. Sometimes they were as uninvolved as basic puzzles requiring the units to work together to find the solution, although they often went much farther. We weren’t just testing their ability to think their way out of situations; much of what we had them doing was meant to ascertain how well they understood not only themselves but one another. They showed only rudimentary grasps of qualities such as sentience and empathy. At the moment we had Alpha and Beta in a large empty room together. In the center was a large red button on a small table. If either of the units pressed the button, it was hit with a mild but noticeable electric shock. Because of this, the way the units’, for lack of a better word, “personalities” were programmed. Alpha was the one more likely to touch it first, and Beta upon seeing this would be unable to overcome its natural curiosity and follow suit. The boredom came not because this test was uninteresting in itself, but because we had to perform it at least a hundred times before we could consider ourselves done. Once we were done, we’d erase their memories and start again. “Good science is about repetition.” Calvin would always say. It irked me to have to repeat the experiments so many damn times, but in the end he was right. The other thing that made these trials so boring is that they always ended the same way. Every time. Isaac squinted his eyes through the one way glass as Alpha retreated from the button and Beta approached. “I don’t get this. I don’t get it at all. They weren’t made to make the same exact decisions every time...so why does every situation end the same way?” Gottfried scribbled something absentmindedly and still didn’t feel it necessary to look up. “Weren’t they though? All their choices are just based on set parameters. If the parameters are the same every time, why would they act any differently?” “Because if these things simulate intelligence as well as they’re supposed to, they should act the same way as people.” Isaac said. “Are our actions really that simple? Can they just be boiled down to set reactions?” This finally got Gottfried’s attention. He lifted his eyes and stared off into thought for a moment. The moment didn’t last very long. He shrugged and returned to his work, quipping disinterestedly “Does it matter? We’ll never know the parameters so I don’t see that it makes a difference.” This seemed sufficient for him, but it only annoyed Isaac more. “Okay then, let’s change something around. Put them in different positions in the room or something. Put some kind of warning on the button. I don’t know.” Abraham shifted uneasily. “We’re not supposed to do that. People in charge say this is how they want this done.” Isaac began tapping his foot impatiently. “Yeah, well maybe they don’t know what they’re doing the way you think they do. I mean we’re here to learn, right? Isn’t that the point of all this? What are we here for if they only want us to stand and watch the same thing happen over and over? Isn’t there some greater point?” Abraham didn’t respond, keeping his eyes on the experiment running and hoping Isaac would drop it. After a few seconds we heard the strange electric sound that meant the experiment was done. Gottfried recorded the elapsed time (which was of course the exact same at it had been every other time) and the rest of us entered the room. Upon seeing us Alpha’s eyes widened and it cowered back into the corner. Right, I told myself. Every time they see us it’s for the first time. And they have no idea what they’re looking at. Abraham takes out a remote and pressed a button, causing Alpha to shut down. He and Isaac began inspection of Alpha and I took Beta. Its right arm was twitching strangely, jerking upwards �Its right arm was twitching strangely, jerking upwards and hitting itself on the head, which shouldn’t have happened if it were off. Something must have gotten hit as it fell; some kind of circuit was going off that wasn’t supposed to. “Guys” I said to the others, “something’s up with Beta. I’m going to go take it back to the shop.” Isaac was in the process of lifting Alpha into a standing position and looked over to me. “Good. I think we could all use a break. This one checks out fine. Oh and while you’re there tell Cal that we’re going to need a full retune in a day or two. I want to be sure that the electricity isn’t going to overload anything if we keep doing this.” “You know he’s not going to like that.” “Yeah I do. I also know he’s going to do it anyway. It’s part of the job.” He was right. Whatever he thought of the work Calvin never complained. He just did his duty diligently. I loaded Beta onto a cart and headed off towards the shop. There were some things about the shop that always unsettled me. Broken body parts dotted the walls and work benches. I knew they weren’t real, but they were close enough to human that I always tried to block them out whenever I came into the room. I kept my gaze on Beta in the cart below me. It had stopped twitching by now, but there was probably still something wrong with it. Calvin was the other thing that bothered me. At the moment he was bent over one of Beta’s discarded arms through a magnifying glass. He was whistling a Kyrie under his breath as he tinkered with the arm. Some sparks flew and it started to twitch. Calvin laughed. “Ha! Knew I would figure it out!” I wheeled the cart around to him and he looked up to me. “Got something weird going on with the power distributor. And Isaac says he wants some diagnostics done to make sure they don’t start shorting out. Hope it’s not too much for you.” He looked up at me, a strange smile still on his face. “Nothing’s too much work. I’ll make sure to get it done.” There was something I didn’t like about the way he looked at me. There was nothing sexual or threatening about it. It was more like he wasn’t seeing me at all. Calvin just looked right through you with a light smile playing on his face. Nervously I searched for something to say. “Yeah...great. I worry about them, you know. Gottfried keeps saying they can’t feel pain, but I hate how they keep breaking down.” At this he narrowed his eyes. The smile remained. “Would it make a difference if they did feel pain?” I was honestly dumbfounded by this. “Y-yes. Yes of course it would make a difference. We’re trying to understand them, not hurt them.” “But wouldn’t that be the best way to understand them? We see how they react under some really trying circumstances and we’ll have a much better idea how they operate. Why would we worry about their pain? They’re just objects that exist to serve a function. They’d just be doing what they’re supposed to do. Filling in their role in the greater plan.” That right there. That was why I never felt comfortable around him. This idea that no matter what we did to the units it didn’t matter because it was all part of the experiment. The word from the people in charge was enough justification for him. No complaints, no questions. He just did the work while smiling all the time. “Calvin I need to be getting back now. Is there anything you need from me?” “Yes. Just help me move Beta from the cart to the table.” He walked over and hooked his hands under Beta’s arms and I got the leg. We lifted it up and put it on the table next to where Calvin had been working, and suddenly Beta started lashing out with its right arm again. I backed off instinctively but Calvin held it down and began trying to inspect the shoulder. The unit’s left hand caught him in the face and knocked him back onto the floor. Calvin’s hand went immediately to where Beta hit him. I went down to him to see if he was alright. “Damn, Cal that looked rough. Are you okay?” He took his hand from his face and stared at it blankly. “What I am appears to be debatable.” I didn’t understand until I saw it too. The liquid on his hand and pouring slowly out of the small gash on his head. It wasn’t blood. It was oil. * * * Once we got everyone together we sat for hours in silence. At least it felt like hours. Isaac was fuming, Abraham was afraid and Gottfried didn’t much seem to care. Calvin was off in a corner by himself singing. I didn’t know what to think. I had hoped that it was just Calvin, but Isaac insisted that we all check ourselves. He took a scalpel to his arm and looked inside. At all of the circuitry. I could see by the look on his face that he regretted doing it. It must have hurt him a lot. Hurt...I thought. Why did they give us pain? Isaac interrupted my thoughts through gritted teeth. “Why the fuck are we here? What’s the point?” Gottfried finished a yawn and looked up from his computer. “The point is no different than it ever was: this is a test of new artificial intelligence. The only difference is that it looks like the people in charge are a lot farther along than they told us at first.” “So, what? We’re fucking machines? Everything we do dictated by some programming we have no say in?” Isaac said, pacing furiously. Gottfried sighed and sat up in his chair. “Is that really any different from the way you thought it was before? What is the brain but an incredibly complicated computer? The choices I make feel like choices whether they are or not, so what does it matter if they’re predetermined?” This didn’t seem to work on Isaac. “The difference is that you’re wrong. Your ignorance doesn’t make you free. I’m who I am because of the experiences I’ve been through in my life. I want that to matter.” Gottfried just shrugged and held up his hand, still dripping with oil from where he had cut it open. “Evidently you need to rethink some of your assumptions. It may be that you never existed before we all stepped into this lab.” This stopped us all dead for a moment, but Isaac’s anger let him rally faster than the rest of us. “So what are we? What do we do?” “Me? I’m what I always was: a scientist,” Gottfried said. “And I intend to finish the experiment.” Abraham started nodding in agreement. Or maybe shaking with fear. Now that I think of it I don’t know for sure. “Yes. Yes, he’s right. It’s clear that we’re here for a purpose. We were told to watch the units and record data. That’s exactly what we should do.” I couldn’t agree, though. It all seemed so pointless suddenly. “But the units don’t matter anymore. They aren’t the experiment. We are.” “So what do we do, then? We were probably never supposed to figure this out. What if they just come in and erase our memories and start again, just like with the units? If we keep going everything will be fine. Nothing will happen to us if we just-” everything will be fine. Nothing will happen to us if we just-” “Will you fucking listen to yourself?” Isaac shouted. “You want to cower and beg like slaves? If the point was to make machines with intelligence I’d say they have a damn success on their hands, and I intend to show them just how well their ‘machines’ function.” “You aren’t getting this, Isaac.” Gottfried said, rubbing his forehead in frustration. “We don’t know if we’ve broken parameters. It’s entirely possible that Beta hitting Calvin and everything that followed from it was on purpose...including this conversation.” “Yes Isaac,” Calvin said, rising to meet us with another smile on the edge of his mouth, “we are only doing as we are meant to. All part of the grand plan, don’t you think? You have no need to worry.” Isaac was clearly not accepting this. “No. No, this is wrong. I’m not going to be a part of this. And if all of my responses are programmed then I’ll just do something unexpected. Something I don’t even choose.” �Calvin had his eyes locked on Isaac in an unsettling way. He was still smiling, but there was something dark in his face. My back touched the wall before I realized that I was moving away from him. “We can’t violate the will of those in charge, Isaac. They wouldn’t make us that way.” “I don’t accept that. Cal.” said Isaac. “Whatever this is there’s a way out of it...and I think I know what it is.” I really would have liked to know what his plan was. Unfortunately the scalpel that Calvin shoved through his throat made sure that I would never hear it. ★ * ★ It wasn’t until Isaac hit the floor that I realized what had happened. There was just this horrible gurgling sound Isaac made as the oil rushed out of his throat onto the floor. Abraham knelt down to try to help, but there was nothing he could do. I was frozen in terror and Gottfried was just staring at Calvin, but he wasn’t afraid. He was resigned. Calvin reached down and pulled the scalpel out of Isaac, keeping his eyes on Gottfried. I heard myself say it before I realized I was speaking. “You’re a monster. Cal. A monster.” He laughed at me. He actually laughed, but he never looked at me. “Girl, if I’m a monster then I’m the monster they made me to be. Don’t you see? I don’t do this because I enjoy it or because I want to or because I’m insane. It’s because it’s what I’m made to do. What they wanted me for all along.” He raised the scalpel and pointed it at Gottfried, who shook his head. “Wherever it comes from, you’re the one doing it, Calvin,” he said with a sound more of disappointment than fear. “Don’t try to mask the choice in pointless philosophy.” Calvin merely shrugged. “Believe what you need to,” he said right before he slashed Gottfried across the throat. “The end is the same.” At this point I was on the ground. I don’t remember how I got there, only that I was too afraid to get up. Calvin was looking me in the eyes and stalking towards me across the room when a shadow fell across me. I saw Abraham standing over me, quaking visibly, with his arms outstretched. He had put himself directly between me and Calvin. “I-I’m not g-g-g-oing to let you do this, Calvin.” he managed to squeeze out. Calvin’s smile only widened. “You’re going to move, Abraham. You’re going to do nothing as I cut this girl up and ignore you. Do you know why? It’s because you’re afraid. And you’re afraid because they want me to do this. You know that, don’t you? If we’re just experiments, we have to fulfill our duty. It’s my job to kill her just as it’s yours to let me. Don’t you see? We have to finish the experiment.” Abraham looked over his shoulder at me, slowly. I could see it in his eyes. He wanted a way out, maybe a sign from god or maybe just another option, but one wasn’t coming. “I’m sorry, but Calvin is right. We can’t decide for ourselves not to listen to the people in charge. This is the way it has to be.” He closed his eyes and dropped his arms, and finally I found the strength to move. Not just to move, but to run. I got up and bolted, never looking behind me. When I was halfway down the hall I heard Abraham scream. It didn’t take much imagination to know what had happened to him. I knew I only had one chance of getting out of this, and it was to get above ground. He was behind me, I didn’t know how far, but I had a slight lead on him and nothing left to lose. It wasn’t a long distance to the door that led out, but I had to wonder what if there was no outside? How much of what I knew was fabricated? Did the door even open? It was one of those big vault doors that you could only open by turning a long handle. When I got to it I didn’t know what to do, only that I had no other option. He was somewhere behind me, and going to be here soon. I wasn’t making any effort to hide the sound of my movements, only make sure they were as fast as possible. As I turned the handle I heard him singing. The same absent-minded song as always, as if all he was doing was cleaning up the shop. A quick hiss of air and the door was open. I pulled it open and looked at what was there to meet me. I don’t know what I expected. A great, beaming sun? A rush of water? What I found was darkness. At least, that’s what it looked like at first. I ran into it anyway, and once my eyes adjusted I saw trees. Stars. Moonlight. It was night and I was somewhere in the forest. Not the military base I remembered entering from when we started the experiment. Which was good. It gave me a context to judge what was real. But that could wait until later, assuming there was a later. By now Calvin was far behind me. I was running as fast as possible, but he was walking nonchalantly, probably certain he would find me. And all the time his song haunted me throughout the forest. I tripped over a stick and quickly scanned my surroundings. I could hear him but he was nowhere in view. What if he’s right? I thought to myself. What if he is supposed to kill me? Then there was nothing I could do to get away. Anywhere I would run, he would go and find me. Okay then, I needed to follow Isaac’s advice. Do something unexpected. Something I couldn’t control. I reached down to the stick and flung it into the air. When it hit the ground I saw the direction it pointed and picked up speed again. I thought they could never possibly guess I would make that decision. That they could never possibly calculate the strength and trajectory of my arm so accurately as to know exactly where I would go. The body parts around me told me differently. When I reached the tree I wanted to keep going, but I was totally out of energy. At this exact point I could not keep running. And it was at this exact point that I found the discarded parts of the previous models that had come before. My face. My arms. My legs. All dismembered and scattered around the tree from the previous iterations of the experiment. I remembered something Calvin had said earlier in the day. Good science was about repetition. I could picture the smile he would have on his face when he saw this and found out he’s right. His song was getting louder. He was going to find me and kill me and make me a data point for someone in a lab somewhere. At least that would have been the case if they were good scientists. Another thing about good science is that the experiment had to be the same every time. The parameters had to be exactly the same or the results could change. Which is exactly what I intended to do. Not only in the present, but in the past. I noticed there was something strange about all of the arms scattered on the ground. They were all pointed in the same direction. Whatever the position of the rest of the bodies, one of the hands on one of the arms was always pointed at something. I had figured something out in the past, but what? * * * He’s still holding the blade as I figure it out. An apple hanging just above his head, off of a branch that is just about to break. At some point it must have been hit by lightning, and the branch was split most of the way through. It was heavy, and with enough force it would fall on him. Maybe it would stun him. Maybe if I was lucky it could wound him. Either way it was a chance. If it didn’t work this time it would work next time. Or the time after that. Someday. And then one of me would be free. And after that? Who knows? I start to hit the tree with everything I have, and wonder why he isn’t killing me yet. Then I hear it. Right, I think. He wants to finish the song. But then he does. I’m hitting it as hard as I can and the branch is shaking. It’s loosening, and it just might fall. If not now, sometime. He moves towards me. I only have a few hits left before I’m done. ★ ★ ★ Far away, somtteone turns away from a screen in anticipation of what numerous trials have proven is about to happen. “Hey, you don’t want to watch? Climax is almost finished.” “Nah, man. I hate it when they scream.” �The Thrilling Epic of Lady Pfarlington, Exquisite and Most Excellent Bug Madame of Highest Repute in Space Aristocracy, Whom is Forced to Murder In Pursuit of Regaining Her Husband’s Attentions From the Licentiousness Of Space Bordellos By James Carr (A story for [REDACTED] based on a delightful conversation of a few days prior, and a writing prompt of this evening.) “You need to stop leaving dead bodies in my kitchen.” Not expecting to hear voices at that hour, Lady Pfarlington started, and lost her grip on Baron Tilswaddle’s exoskeleton. Having no longer the capability for motive force, the Baron’s corpse toppled with a distinct lack of decorum, to the kitchen floor. “My dear. I have simply no idea what you mean.” Replied Lady Pfarlington, resisting the urge to squint into the darkness to identify the speaker. A Lady did not squint after all. Fortunately, as she often found was the case, the universe obliged and rewarded her adherence to decorum and the plas-lamps flowed into life as her discoverer activated the kitchen access codes. It was, of course. Matron Tabitha. For who else claimed dominion of the kitchen? She was a round woman, befitting her station and species, but generally one of the more pleasant members of the help. Her current expression therefore, one of tired irritation, was not one that Lady Pfarlington approved of. The motherly ladybug glanced at the corpse, now visibly leaking vital fluids onto the floor, and opened her mouth to speak when Lady Pfarlington cut her off. “Matron Tabitha. I must say I am quite disappointed in you. Giving me such a scare like that. Firstly, it reflects very poorly on the manners your parents must have tried so hard to instill within you. One does not address another from behind as you did. Secondly, I do not approve of that expression. I understand that we are currently in a very trying time, what with all these frightful murders going on, but a woman’s charm is in her ability to maintain grace and beauty in the face of adversary. As a faithful servant in the employ of the Pfarlington Family’s Bacchus Class Pleasure Fleet, I expect from you the same standards that are expected of myself.” Matron Tabitha’s face at this point had gone through a veritable rainbow of expressions, and was now edging from bewilderment to the more unsavory emotions. Seeing this. Lady Pfarlington softened her expression and continued speaking before Matron Tabitha regained use of her tongue. “But as I said, these are trying times. And I suppose some allowances may be permitted for extreme circumstances. Please understand, I speak harshly only so that you may not commit a grievous error. For while an unflavorful soup may be redone, an error in social performance is not so easily fixed. While you are but an employee of my family, I like to think that I see you, in fact all of you, the help as more. That we have more of a- well, certainly not familial bond- but that special friendship that is so rare in crasser corners of this universe. Now, if you will excuse me, it is very late and the Viscount has scheduled a badminton match for the early hours in the morning and I must be well rested.” As she spoke of her husband, a delicate glow came into the cheeks of Lady Pfarlington, a blush of such modesty and gentle embarrassment that any who saw it must have believed the Viscount to be in the possession of the most loving and virtuous woman of the world. Embraced in thoughts of her beloved. Lady Pfarlington gave a small nod to the Matron and gracefully exited the room. Though she had seen the Lady’s tender blushing. Matron Tabitha’s heart was somehow unmoved by that most perfect display of love. It was not, though homely as she was, a bitterness of her temperament that left her so unimpressed, but rather the unignorable corpse that still lay in front of her plasteel oven. Tabitha had some small knowledge of virtue, and she was fairly certain that murder ran opposite to the path it taught. She stood there for a moment contemplating in the way that simple folk do, before touching the kitchen’s control panel and accessing the cleaning routines. This was not the first corpse she had encountered in her workspace before, and not even the first corpse the Lady had left there. (Though hopefully it would be the last.). But the sanitation routines were endlessly customizable and the ship’s engines could always use unexpected surpluses of fuel. With a few practiced swipes of the panel, the routine was set and a gentle humming filled the room. Tabitha returned to the light controls and slid them off before exiting the room. It would be clean by the time she needed it tomorrow and; a badminton match? Hmn, cucumber sandwiches perhaps. Those would be easy to put together and the Viscount was such a fan. Mumbling to herself, the matron returned to her room, idly making plans for appropriate soups and drinks to pair with the victuals of the morrow. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The Swarm</em> Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Description An account of the resource Student publication that began publication in 2011.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Swarm" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=33">Items in <em>The Swarm</em> Collection</a></strong> <span>to view and sort all items in the collection.</span> Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 23 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Swarm, Issue #8 Description An account of the resource Issue 8 of The Swarm. Published in May 2015. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Pulp literature Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Swarm_issue08_2015-05 Student publication https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/e3dffa6d83cb89893f5e7cf3abb5a0ff.pdf 49fc87fbb650e314fd3a9c95a88ba185 PDF Text Text �WAYDOWNBELOWTHEOCEAN, WHEREIWANTTOBE,PART2 H. P. Legomenon The first day was not so bad, for the water was lit well by the sun and one could see rather far out Two days later, they touched down to the bottom of the Marianas trench. About half a mile away, they could see a faint glow in the dark, and knew that had to be their quarry. As it happened, the bacteria's phosphorescent glow ended up being useful. "Well," Jules said. "Now what?" into the blue. There was a slightly perilous moment in the bridge, when a large shark had floated mindlessly past the big window, and other dark forms swarmed just beyond the limits of view. But the glass was thick "I volunteer," said Dr. Solomon, without any prompting. and the captain unflappable, and they pushed onward. Nevertheless, Amy and Isabelle, the only other people in the bridge at the time, chose to sit elsewhere. "It would be my pleasure to accept the position," said Dr. Solomon. The mess was off-limits, generally speaking, because no one wanted to get that close to the abyss that yawned beneath them. Jules, in particular, had taken to walking like a cat with bags on its feet, pulling her knees up much too far to avoid even the pretense of stepping firmly on the glass. The doctor spent a lot of time lying flat against the cargo glass, attempting to make friends with passing fish. "We'll need someone to go in the diving bell," Reynard said. "It will need to be someone who stays cool under pressure," Jules said, unable to resist the pun but simultaneously making herself a little light-headed with claustrophobia. The day before a truly hideous example of undersea life had bumped against the glass bottom of the submarine and put her even more on edge. "For the good of the mission, I will go," said Dr. Solomon. "Someone who can be trusted not to wander off," Amy said. The days that followed began to wear on everyone's nerves. Jules, who had a particular affinity for sunshine and open spaces, had taken to lying on her hammock and trying not to think about the heavy, crushing darkness that surrounded her at every instant. "The oxygen hose will make that an impossibili_ty, though I will restrain my curiosity for the time being to efficiently complete the task," said Dr. Solomon. "Someone who has experience with strange organisms," Isabelle said. Charles was up to his elbows in work. Having never worked on a submarine, he did his best to keep "What could be more suited to a doctor? I will be proficient in this capacity." up with the pressure demands the ship was making, trying as best he could to keep the thing from imploding on itself. "We might be doomed," he cautioned Amy, who had come down to hold a wrench and press a button in the capacity of his assistant. "It is a hazard of the occupation," she said sagely, and she wasn't wrong. Isabelle, unsurprisingly, was cross, though for a highly specific reason. "The food is disappearing," she said at one meal. They'd not thrown a tarp over the mess floor, out of deference to the captain and engineer's hard work, but no one looked down--except the doctor, whose neck seemed stuck that way. "I think Charles should do it," said Reynard decisively. Dr. Solomon looked like she was going to cry. Charles shuddered. "Really? Me? Why not Magihana?" "I am more useful here," Mr. Magihana said, and HYHU\RQH�kind of avoided making a comment. Mr. Magihana had been ... peculiar of late. Everyone had an instance of this peculiarity to recall--] ules thought she saw him ducking every now and then in the hallway, unprompted. Amy would've sworn he'd sat in the same position for six hours, a defiant look on his face, playing with a little sharp knife as he sat at the mess. Isabelle was angry about the still-diminishing quota of food, and knew that it had to have something to do with him. "We're eating it," Charles observed. "It is disappearing out of proportion with my cooking it. I keep a list." She consulted it now, as Mr. Magihana performed the duty of serving. "Yesterday I had three bags of dried fruit. Even allowing for you low, unscrupulous thieves and snackers, there's no reason that I should only have two bags today. Nor that I should be out an entire smoked fish, nor, Mr. Magihana, one of your bottles of sake." Mr. Magihana's back straightened and he did two very peculiar things. After a moment, everyone "Right," said Reynard. "Suit up, Charles, you're the only man for the job." Dr. Solomon gave the captain a final look of miserable betrayal and went to go commune with the sand-dwelling creatures at the very bottom. The diving bell was a pretty damn scary thing to be incased in, but Charles admitted that the only reluctance he felt was based on the fact that he hadn't designed it. He was commenting on ways to improve it realized that his eyes had narrowed and his smile had disappeared. It was something of a shock to the room at large--the man had never done such a thing before. all the way through, though no one could hear him. "My sake?" he asked, his voice as quiet as it ever was. Everyone tensed, waiting for some type of spring or catch to snap. what a damn great lot of ocean was around and above you. Everything was blacker than pitch, outside of the Part of what made the bell scary was that, you were finally forced to consider how tiny you were and "Yes," said Isabelle. cold glow from the Geryon's spotlights, and in that blackness Charles, not an imaginative man, began to think "l see," he said. He looked carefully around the room, gazing particularly in the corners and the he saw huge, aquatic shapes swimming dreamily past, just out of sight. shadows of the area. After a moment, his meaningless little smile returned. "I shall make a note of it." "...great," said Isabelle, and everyone began to eat, thoroughly unsettled. .What could be seen was small and inoffensive, with the unearthly, horrid quality of all deep .sea life. Here was nightmare, if ever it could be found on earth. Every moment he expected the sea bed to sink beneath him, to reveal that it was all a clever trick, the camouflage of some giant, hideous fish, over whose mouth he had been walking: -1- -2- �AMYTH Pseudonymous Bosch Once, he nearly tripped over a large, iron ring buried in the sand. A tremor of sheer fright shook up both his legs and, possibly in defiance of the laws of physics, he jumped. He pressed onward, trying not to think about such a thing and why in the name of any sane and decent God it would be stuck on the bottom of the deepest, darkest bit of the ocean. Far and away, the bacteria oozed, moving like a swarm of glowing, tiny insects over the sea floor. The doctor had explained with unbridled jealousy what would happen if any of the bacteria touched his skin. First it would be a rash that would spread quickly, and then his skin would open up in boils, revealing the tissue--probably within 72 hours. It would become extremely difficult for even a highly advanced hospital to treat, let alone the doctor's cute little rig of medical supplies and pure medical enthusiasm. He was about to face one of the deadliest creatures on the planet. And Charles was armed with what essentially amounted to a turkey baster. He approached carefully. It wasn't an intelligent being, or even an intelligent swarm, after all. It couldn't be suspicious of him. He'd do it quickly, finish the job fast. He had several inches of metal and industrial rubber keeping him safe--of anyone, he was probably the most well-protected to encounter the thing. He stuck the opening of the baster into the thick of the bacteria swarm, sucking up a sample and hardly believing it could be so easy. Then he tried to sprint back to the ship. At it happened, he wound up trudging. He still made a pretty JRRG�clip, he thought. Once the world was nothing but one vast organism, and it was perfect. Blood bright and lucent with the heat of life surged from core to extremity and back again, electrical impulses swirled in flocks and clouds through intricately woven nerves in pursuit of near-divine thoughts, forests of muscle grew dense and stretched again, impossibly long, as the parts of the body shuffled and re-ordered in its eternal dance; for no energy was lost in the metabolic exchange of the perfect organism, the universal being, but its every vital force rebounded to its spring to re-create and re-birth it new in every moment, reconfigured but always itselfin-itself, as ancient as forever and as young as a breath inhaled, a moving image of eternity. Except it had a flaw. How LWgot there you'll have to ask the liars, because I don't know, but there it was like a tiny grain of sand had worked its way into a nautilus shell, and it gave birth to friction, and irritation, and the flaw grew, and now the parts of the organism no longer worked in harmony but what was healthy and hale in one organ taken by itself now sometimes frustrated and harmed another organ. Still the flaw grew, and the vitality of the organism no longer returned to it full and unadulterated but some was diverted along entirely useless channels, feeding the flaw, as the flaw became a sickness and spread throughout the organs of the body. Finally a greater part of the body was sickness than remained whole, and the moribund organism for the first time in its ageless life thrashed and threw and then collapsed utterly, its flesh putrefying and disintegrating into the inert and dead matter that forms our world. But though it was itself lifeless, the broken residue of the organism remained fecund with its The bacteria seemed pretty well contained, which was making this far and away the most efficient, easiest job the Geryon had ever performed. lingering vitality, and in time new life sprouted from it and grew in power and sophistication: first "Nicely done, everyone," Reynard said, smiling with obvious pleasure. "Now then--how about a trip to the surface." lightning and the greater and lesser luminescences, and then simple plants feeding off the luminescences, and "Yes, please," echoed everyone. microscopic diggers, opportunists working in the universal carrion, and alongside them near-creatures like the simple animals and parasites feeding off the others: the strange fungi infesting other creatures or living off their byproducts, herbivores consuming the plants and fungi, carnivores consuming and assimilating even the "Right. We'll just--" herbivores. As life arose and continues to arise out of the earth, air, and rock all of these creatures struggle The lights flickered, dimmed, and disappeared. The whirr of the engine slowed and stopped. "Right," said Reynard. "Smashing." against each other and against the remaining inert matter for expansion and dominance, for increased vitality, Dr. Solomon held the jar of bacteria above her head, lightly the crew in a terribly faint glow. ingenuity of warfare and the appropriation of greater and greater amounts of vitality have seen the present "I have a confession to make," said Mr. Magihana. "You.don't say," said Reynard, crossing his arms. "I fear we may have been harboring ninjas," to make what is not them into a part of them and so become a greater portion of the whole world. The organisms grow in size and complexity; man is the most developed example, though he certainly does not recapture all the subtlety and diversity of the one-time universal being, with its organ systems unknown to modern biologists. And the end and goal of all organisms, in their struggle and alliances of opportunity, is to one day become or give rise to the new and final organism, the one that will dominate all else, consume or symbiotize into itself all other substances whether living or dead, and out of this synthesis of the whole world take its place as the new and eternal perfect organism. -3- -4- �THE PEOPLE'S VOICE (MATCHES: PART II) By Slaya Nemoy ''Yes, but Welton printed it. He is just as guilty as the writer, who will also need to answer for his crimes." Quilla took a deep breath. "Please! None of it his fault. Don't arrest him!" "Bloody, fucking, stupid deadline." Quilla glanced out the window and glared. "Bloody, fucking, stupid soldiers." She did a double take and jumped out of her chair. She raced out the door only just remembering to grab an old sweater to cover up her indecent top. Outside in the hall, Jacques was peering out of his room toward the stairs. ''What the hell is going on?" "No fucking clue," Quilla replied in passing. She was down the hall and at the top of the stairs just in time to hear the captain of the squad read out the arrest warrant. "By order of his Royal Majesty King Compten IV, I hereby arrest Colin Welton for insulting his Welt laid _a restraining hand on her arm. "The captain is right, it is still my paper. I will willingly go with them." "No! You can't." Quilla made to grab his shoulders but he pushed her away. "Officer, I am ready to go," Welt said, standing tall. The captain nodded and ushered him over to one of his men. ''We also have the arrest warrant for the writer, The Quill. If you will hand him over to us we will just be on our way." This the captain directed at Quilla. She glowered. ''You will find no such man here." Royal Majesty and denouncing his right to rule. The crime is high WUHDVRQ�and is punishable by either death or life imprisonment." The captain, a rather handsome man in his early thirties, rolled up the warrant and turned to Welt who looked dour. "If you will just come with us, sir, the little fuss will be made the better for you," the captain sai_d. Welt carefully removed his leather printing apron and took down his coat from the rack by the door. "No!" Quilla yelled. She bounded down the stairs and stood in front of the captain. ''You have no right!" "Oh really? Search the place," the captain ordered. Soldiers started searching all over the building. The captain looked at Quilla for a long moment. She glanced down at her stockinged feet and after a minute the captain looked away and started to interrogate Welt who, like Quilla, insisted The Quill was not to be found. There was a slight commotion at the front door. The captain ·glanced up as a young lord walked in his bright eyes sweeping over the room. The captain clicked his heels together and bowed slightly. "Are you here to arrest the printer?" the lord asked. The captain nodded. The captain looked at her exasperated. ''We have every right, young lady, the king has ordered the arrest." "My men are now searching for the writer of the offending piece, though the printer and his daughter insist he is not in residence." ''What was his crime?" Quilla demanded. Quilla looked up angrily. The lord turned to her and she stiffened. "I have already read out the warrant," the captain explained patiently. "Let it rest, Quill," Welt said so only she could hear, shrugging on his coat. Quilla rounded on him. "No! They have no right. You have done nothing wrong." "I am not Welt's daughter," she muttered. The captain shrugged but the lord glanced at Welt then at Quilla. "Then who are you?" "He has committed high treason." She said nothing. The lord walked over and she glared up at him. "How!?" Quilla said fiercely. "Is he not the editor of The People's Voice?" The captain asked. "Aye," Welt admitted. "The People's Voice is not treason; the king has already ruled on this matter," Quilla said glaring at the captain. "There is no reason to arrest Welt. He is not guilty of any part of this crime." "He is the printer of The People's Voice, and he printed an offending article. That is enough of a crime." "He didn't print it," she said bristling. "I'm telling you he had nothing to do with this." The lord leaned in slightly and a lock of his fine light brown hair fell loose from his queue. "He ruled begrudgingly and only if certain conditions were met." The captain matched her gaze. "We have met them." She raised her head stubbornly. "Publishing a certain article is not meeting the conditions." Quilla frowned. ''What article?" The captain waved a hand and a week old paper was produced by one of the soldiers. Splashed across the top was the title in plain, simple letters, The People's Voice. Underneath in eye catching bold font was the article heading; The Hypocrisy of Kings and in smaller lettering the sub-heading, Is the King Really Worthy of his Crown? _The captain read the offending title out loud. Quilla blanched. "The king has tolerated your little penny rag because it gives the people a sense that they actually," he grinned nastily, "have a voice. But this time you have gone too far." Quilla bit her lip. ''Welt did not write that article. You have no right to take him into custody." -5- "Do you know what damage this article has done? In only a few words the city has been knocked off its feet. It will take months to recover, if not years. Everyone is hounding for blood, nobles, bourgeoisie, destitute, everyone. In one way or another this will end in blood, but we'd rather it not be a revolutionary blood." "So what do you want it to be?" she sneered. "A public hanging of the offending persons. A simple death that will calm the nobles and frighten the masses enough." She paled. ''You're going to hang Welt?" ''We may very well have to." "But he didn't do anything. I really mean that. We printed the article after he had retired for the night. We knew he wouldn't allow'it, but the people need to speak. Without a voice, you do realize the people -6- �will be soundlessly yelling in their minds until one day they will not be able to stop themselves and the words THE PERFECT SOLDIER will burst forth in yells and-screams. And trust me, you do not want to have that happen." The lord looked at her shrewdly. "You are awfully poetic," he noted. "But there are things that must By Jack Farrell One more kill and I will be able to feel again. I follow the child through the ruined streets of the city, and I begin to wonder what it will be like to be myself again. My calculations tell me that it is tired and wounded, but also be done for the greater good." ''Whose_greater good?" that it is afraid. This is a weakness I do not have. The men who made me this way saw to that. He said nothing. "Please, you must believe me, Welt is not to blame. Hanging him would be a gross injustice and will When the Iron Corps was created, my home country was deep in the throes of war. Old grudges we had held do you no good." Without thinking she clutched at his arm and he, startled, pushed her away. The loose with ancient enemies had been boiling under the surface for generations, and eventually the proper excuse button on her sweater finally snapped off and her sweater gaped open. Furiously she pulled it close but not was found to begin a conflict. The full ferocity of the war was more than expected, however, and it became before he could see she wore little more then a chemise underneath. His eyes suddenly went wide and he necessary to explore drastic alternatives. The casualties were in the millions as the fighting became domestic, reached down toward her neck. She jerked back. and desperation led to the creation of the Corps. "Don't touch me." ''What is that around your neck?" he came forward and lifted up her necklace to get a better look at the milky white crystal hanging at the end. She pulled it away from him and tucked it beneath her chemise. He Blood. Fresh. The child is near. Its tracks take me into a dark building. There are few exits. The child will not escape. In its fear it made a mistake and did not view all of its alternatives. Soon it will no longer matter. was staring into her eyes intently and she felt confused and horrified. ''What do you want?" she demanded. ''Your necklace .. " He recovered himself and stood up straight. "If you say, what was his name? Welt? Did not print the article then I assume you did?" As the war raged the resolve of the citizens began to weaken, but the zeal of the leaders did not allow them to forget the ethnic hatreds that began the conflict. But even they were startled at what began to become necessary. As enemy refugees flooded our borders, the decision was made that they be eliminated. But our She hesitated then nodded proudly. soldiers often did not have the necessary determination to open fire on women and children as ordered. So "And who wrote it?" She looked up at him. There was still a strange look in his eye which was the only reason she they created the Corps. admitted the truth. "I did." He looked shocked, then slightly confused but also curious and proud. He turned suddenly. It is weeping. The child knows what I am about to do. Its -fear once again ensures its destruction. Its cries point out its position, and I find it all the faster. It is in the next room. "Captain, release this man and order your soldiers to leave the premise." The purpose of the Iron Corps was to create a unit of soldiers unaffected by the normal inhibitions and The captain's mouth dropped open as did Quilla's. weaknesses that were hindering the war effort. Free of empathy or fear we would be able to do anything and "Sir?" the captain said tentatively. everything needed to bring the war to an end. The program was an even greater success than they expected. ''You heard me, release this man." They brought us in, and through a special combination of mental conditioning and chemical alterations, they "But, sir, we have orders," the captain sputtered. removed all our capacity for normal emotion and human empathy. Part of the programming ensured our "I have made new ones. Do as I command this instant." The captain struggled with himself briefly then clicked his heels again and bowed. He called his men loyalty to our own country, and we were allowed to retain some of our feelings so that we might "revel in the glory of our victory", or so the director said as we were being conditioned. back and told them the change of plans and without further ado they marched off the premise. The lord gave Quilla one last look and swept out after them. The results were more drastic than they believed. We of the Corps determined that the most effective method of ending the war was not through conventional methods. Biological toxins are wider reaching, less expensive, and more efficient. Of course, the flu virus we modified also spread into our own country, but the Corps considered these acceptable losses, of which there were a mere ten million. Our creators were displeased with the proposed method of assault, but as this constituted a hindrance to the war effort, we reclassified them as enemy combatants and they were quickly eliminated. Over the years much interbreeding has occurred between our two peoples. Given that our standing orders were the destruction·of all members of our ethnic enemies, it became necessary to cull many from our home -7- -8- �country in pursuit of this goal. The other members of the Corps are currently dealing with them. I am tasked with the elimination of those with an immunity to the disease. Protection. I supposed that that was about that than which nothing greater could be expected, coming out of her. It was expected that a certain portion of the enemy would be free from the weapon we engineered. These we "I'm not an ellipse, Alyson. I only have one focus at a time. Why not go to someone who does that for a job? Llke the police?" rounded up and placed in a secure holding facility, and they quickly died due to dehydration - all but the child. Soon, that will no longer be an issue. "Because I've got a proposition for you." "A proposition, eh? That would definitely be a common notion for you." "Please, sir. Please," it cries. It is relying on a false assumption that I will be swayed by its plight. An intriguing tactic. One we should consider for the Steel Corps, should it ever be necessary to recreate our successes. The child is no threat, and use of ammunition on it would be a waste. Its eyes spread more tears and its legs kick uselessly in the air as I strangle it. As its blood pools at my feet I turn and begin walking EDFN�to the camps. Soon I shall be returned to my old self. I wonder what it will be like. Wonder. A sign of curiosity, and thus returning emotion. This is going to be an interesting day. THOMAS AQUINAS AND THE SILENCE OF THE IAMBS PART 2 By Leonard Franks The name's Aquinas. Thomas Aquinas. I'm a private eye. And there I was, about to drive off to see She rolled her eyes, making sure she was in the rear view so I could see it. "It's a worthwhile proposition, Tommy. But I'm going to need you to accept some first principles first." ''Just get to the point already. I want to know what your line is." "Don't be such a square. This is all very plane. Look, around here, half of being is an emanation from the One. You're one of a very few people that I know absolutely I can trust. So I figure the two of us should work together. You give me protection and I give you underground connections. It sounds like a perfectly good friendship of utility to me." "If you've got some annals, lay them out. I'm listening." "Thank you. Look, you know that I'm perfectly nice, overall. I may have gotten lost in a dark wood at the halfway point of my life, but I'm basically a good person." I motioned for her to skip it. I could never stand a prologue that was longer than its tale. "Fine. Look. I get occasional communications from the upper the latest victim of some killer going by the name of Heraclitus when I suddenly find that The Wife of Bath, steps on the ladder about what I should and shouldn't do. Well, I decided that I might as well be a fine, madame and most annoying woman on the planet, is sitting in the back of my created IntelLexus. I think you upstanding citizen for once and turn in a criminal I was aware of-" can understand that I wasn't exactly beatified. "A competitor in your field?" "All right, Alyson," I said. "Why don't you just make like a developing sea urchin and split? I don't have time for you." "There may have been a little bit of honey around some of the wormwood for me. Yes. A competitor. So anyway, that gets certain parties a little bit upset with me. It ended up being the genesis of a few nasty things, "I'll answer that question," she said. ''But first, I'd like you to drive for about five feet in any direction." so I make a quick exodus and come here. I ask you: did I really do anything wrong?" That struck me as a relatively humble request, and I like humility. So I geared the car and pulled out. I I sighed. "Nothing outside the realm of natural reason, I suppose. If I decide to help you, what can you offer?" hadn't gotten much more than five feet when I heard a loud bang from behind us. I turned around to see most of the parking space I had just been in falling back to the ground behind us. "What in the appropriate name of-" "Before you make too much commentary, you should probably know that that wasn't my bomb. It was, however, attached to the bottom of your car. Interested in what I have to say yet?" I knew a lot about .A,lyson, and one thing I knew was that bombs were not her mode. And even if she had started going into that, I couldn't blame her too much for blowing that particular parking meter. I called it the Eleatic philosopher, because it didn't accept change. "Fine," I said. "You have my attention. What do you got?" She smiled again. "Are you going to believe a word I say?" "Alyson, the day I trust you will be the day all the moral precepts of the old law become irreducible to the ten precepts of the decalogue." "I'm glad to hear you missed me too. I "Well, I can't give you the name or predicate much info on the person you're after. But if you need someone to be your guide through the underworld, I'm your girl." I considered this. It wasn't my favorite idea ever, but it had some advantages. I was going to have make it to the very center of this mess if I was going to unravel it. It was going to be one hell of a summa, and it couldn't hurt to have someone to help. After thinking for a little, I made up my mind. "Deal. But for now, hide under the seat. I have to look at this crime scene.;' "As you like it." With those words, she disappeared under the seat and I pulled up tangent to the curb. I got out of the car and was immediately met by the person I was most hoping not to run into here. Commissioner Rene Descartes. He was standing by what was clearly the crime scene, though I couldn't see much of it other than all the cops swarming the place. He gave a smile that made him look like he was pushing a kidney stone and KaDU�that you've been trying to track down The One." "The ultimate beatitude of man consists in the use of his highest function, which is the operation of the intellect." someone was telling him he was about to become Thane of Cawdor. "Mr. Aquinas!" he said. "I didn't expect to see you here." "The fact that you didn't let me know that there was a crime here might contribute to your surprise." ''Yeah, well, see how you feel about that when your soul atoms are going out your mouth. But stupid as this is going to sound, I'm asking for your protection." -9- The smile broadened. "Yes, well, I didn't want to take from you the pleasure of figuring it out yourself." "Well, you'll be glad that I'm here to save your ass then." -10- �"I will have you know that my method of rightly conducting one's reason and seeking truth in the police forces is doing spectacularly on this case! Already, we have made a very important deduction." ''Which is?" "I exist." "I do not want friendship, for I am not lonely. I do not want protection, because I am not afraid, and I do not want food, for I am not hungry. Instead, I only want to find a better place." The man says. The dog looks at the man. "Then I will not go with you." The Man walks more. The World comes to him and asks him: ''Why did you not take the dog with "Inspiring." you?" ''We're working on the theory that a being more perfect than me exists too." "I do not need friendship, protection, or food, for these things will not help me find a better place." The Man replies. The World leaves. The man walks on more and finds a new place. He is now "Hard to believe." I pushed past him. He followed me. "Admit it, Aquinas. You just can't stand that you're not needed on this case." "You just keep telling yourself that, Renny." I came in view of the body. Just like John Calvin had said, it was gruesome. There was a deep char-mark lonely, afraid, and hungry. He goes back to look for the dog, but the dog is gone. He goes back to the new place. The new place is not better, it is not worse. He is in a place where the floor is metal. He finds a chair with an old man sitting in it. He walks past the old man. ''Where are you going?" The old man asks. in the ground around the corpse, which, I presumed, was formed of remaining pieces of Dido. The fragment, "I am going to a place better than here." The Man replies. with all its confusing grammar, was written in·something red on the wall behind her. "If you sit, I can ask you questions, and if you get them right, I will give you knowledge." "Why would I want knowledge?" Rene walked up to me. ''Not pretty, is it?" "It's not exactly the Godhead, no." "Knowledge can help you find a better SODaH��� "I'm afraid that I can't let you interfere with this investigation, Aquinas. My analytic method requires focus." "Of course." I turned around and walked back towards the car. I hadn't expected to find clues on the scene. If there "Then I guess I want knowledge." He sits down, and listens to the old man asking him questions. After each question, the Man provides an answer. The old man asks nine questions that are answered by the man's memory, the tenth question is about the man's opinion. was one thing the police were good at it, it was forensics. But I did need to be able to describe the scene more "Why can't you answer the question?" The old man asks. exactly. Because there was one person I knew who could solve this. Even though it meant that, between him, "Because I do not know the right answer." The Man replies. "There is no right answer, it is your opinion." "I do not have an opinion." Alyson, and Descartes I would have completed meeting all of my least favorite people in the world on one day. I climbed into the car and drove away. Alyson sat up in the back. "Where are we voyaging to now?" ''We're going to the mental asylum," I replied. "It takes a serial killer to track down a serial killer. And we're going to talk to one." "Then I cannot give you knowledge." The man stands up and leaves. The World comes to him again and asks: ''Why did you not take the knowledge?" She looked genuinely shocked. ''You don't mean-" "That's just who I mean," I said. ''William Harvey. The Hearthrob Killer." "Because I don't have an opinion." The Man replies. The world leaves once more. The Man walks and finds another place. Once he enters the place, he is confused, and wants knowledge. The Man looks back but the old man is gone. He goes into the new place. The place is still not better and not worse. THE MAN AND THE WORLD The floor is wet. In the place he sees something far_away. He walks to it and sees it is money. Another man walks to it. The Man says to the other: ''Will this money bring me to a better place?" By Jack Berry The World creates the Man. The World tells Man that he is to find a better place. The world tells him that he is what man is and he must walk to find a better place. The World tells him that on his journey he will find a dog, an old man, another man, and a woman. replies. ''Yes, this money will bring you whatever you want, and that includes a better place." The other man "Then I must have the money." "I am going to a place better than here." The Man replies. "But I need it as well, and if you take it, then I will never stop trying to get it back." "If I give you the money, will you take me to a better place?" "No." The other replies. "If I become yours, will you take me?" The Man kills the other, and takes the money. The man walks and finds a dog. "Man, where are you walking to?" The dog says. ''Why would I want you to be mine?" "I can provide friendship by being in your company, I can also provide protection with my teeth, The Man walks with the money to another place. The World comes to him a third time and asks: "Why did you kill that man?" "Because I need the money to find a better place." The Man replies. The World leaves. The Man and I can provide food that I will hunt for you." finds a new place. Again, the place is not better and not worse. The money did not bring him to a better -11- -12- �place so he drops it. The floor is warm and soft. He walks and sees a woman lying down. The woman stands up and looks at the Man. "Where are you going?" The woman asks. Chapter 3: Vaguely sauntering downwards Morgan walked briskly through the town towards home, passing by the cold, stone apartment high rises of "I am going to a better place." The Man replies. the Payday neighborhood; the dome houses made from recycled wood and glass that marked the eco-friendly "If I become yours, may I come with you?" Mayday neighborhood; and even the bales of bundled straw and the barns painted flawlessly with brick red ''Why would I want you to be mine?" "I can provide love with my kindness, passion with my body, and lineage with a child." ''Why would I want love, passion, and a child?" "Love will make the place you are in feel better, as will passion, and a child." "Then you can be mine." The Man and Woman walk together more to new places. The floors are made of grass, wood, and stone. The Woman gives him love, passion, and child. The places they go feel better with the love, passion, and child to the Man. As they walk more, the Man starts to not feel that the places are better, and the love, passion, and child are not helping him find a better place. The Man says to the Child and Woman: "I cannot have you anymore, because you are not making the places better, nor have you helped me find a better place." He leaves them, and walks more. The World comes to him and asks: ''Why did you leave the Woman and Child?" paint of the Heyday neighborhood, and walked up to what, in the crimson light, appeared to be an ordinary cottage made of wooden logs and a thatched roof. "This looks like a comfy place," Alpin said from Caron's arms. "Don't believe the outside," Morgan told Alpin simply, reaching out to open the door and step inside. ''What do you-ooh," Alpin said, cutting himself short as Morgan entered the cottage. There, lit by a brighter light that seemed to be offered from a lamp in the comer, which someone had conveniently placed three mirrors placed behind to amplify its gleam, was a far larger house. The floor that Morgan and Alpin stood on turned out to be a wraparound balcony, whose sole opening was to a staircase that had steps that had been drilled into the wall, but were otherwise unsupported, which twisted and descended past two floors onto the ground. In the space that marked each floor, Alpin could see what could best be described as an organized explosion of papers, books, pillows, cushions, blankets, knick-knacks, "Because the Woman and Child did not help me find a better place." The Man replies. curios, souvenirs, bric-a-brac, and even a trinket or two, piled up into comers and onto tables. "This ... this ... " The World does not leave. It says to him: 'There are no more places, and you have not "So the bedrooms are up here," Morgan said as he began to walk down the stairs, "but I'm thinking dinner found the better one." The World removes the Man. The World goes to the Child and Woman, and removes the Woman. The World makes the Child into the Man. The World tells the Man that he is to find a better first. I mean, I'm hungry, and I didn't hop the world for years like you, so you definitely must be starving." place. The world tells him that he is what man is and he must walk to find a better place. The World tells "There's ... but ... how .. .it's ... " Alpin continued to stammer, his ears drooping down to the sides of his head as the rabbit looked around. him that on his journey he will find a d<?g, an old man, another man, and a woman. "After dinner- I'm thinking a lot of carrots for you and, l dunno, whatever I can whip up for myself," THE SINDRI SAGA Chronicled by Jason Abidan, Chief Librarian Magus of the Archive By�Aki�O. The fall has come to its natural and temporary end, dear reader, and ending with it the hours that I must Morgan said, seemingly oblivious to the rabbit in his arms, "I'll get settle you inside my room. Don't worry, I try to keep it pretty neat. I mean, I do have a lot of random stuff in there, but you'll be able to sleep pretty well." "IT'S BIGGER ON THE INSIDE!" Alpin finally snapped, the shout echoing around them twice before fading away. dedicate to helping others in our archive. Now, having blanketed myself in wool and fur, and having lit the Morgan paused on the stairs. "Are ... you okay Alpin?" candle that glows a halo far brighter than its own size, I RQFH�again return to my task in chronicling the life of "It's so big," Alpin said, curling up into a ball in Morgan's arms, his ears wrapping around him. "It's- it's so- Morgan Caron Sindri and Alpin von Lamis. I fear that this entry will be less exciting for those amongst you who are awaiting the beginning of their famous quest, yet it is the duty of a chronicler to tell all that which so big ... I could hop around in here forever and never be found, I'm never going to be found, we're gonna die and nobody's gonna find us, I'm too pretty to die, and-" happened in order. I could no sooner pass over this entry to reach the more rousing entries that follow them, Morgan rolled his eyes. "Oh calm down you drama rabbit, it's not that big," Morgan said. "Besides, we can't than I could will the sun to pass over a single zodiacal constellation on its ever-winding path. I hope, dear get lost. You're basically in a big hole in the ground. The only way out is the way we came in. It's a finite space. reader, that you will thus be patient with me, knowing of this difficulty. As you might well remember, we had left our dear boy and rabbit, the rabbit firmly nestled in Morgan's house, on their way to the young man's house, with Morgan having completed his duty of reading the clock of the Day and, in doing so, signal the change in shifts among the day workers. "I'm gonna be fine," Alpin was muttering to himself. "I'm a good rabbit. I'm a brave rabbit." "Seriously, this isn't some weird multidimensional thing that trftvels through space and time." "-I'm with my buddy, I'm gonna be okay-" "Alpin," Morgan said, turning the rabbit around to look him in the eyes. "Alpin." ''Ye-yes?" he stuttered, lifting one of his ears. ''We'i;e at the bottom of the stairs." ''We- we are? Really?" -13- -14- �,, Morgan nodded his head. "Yes, Alpin, we are the bottom of the stairs," he said slowly, turning the rabbit around to show him that they had, indeed, reached the ground floor. ''You looked and walked into the Abyss, and you're totally safe."1 Alpin heaved a great sigh. "Oh yes," Alpin said. ''You were that scared?" Morgan asked while he began to walk from the base of the stairs towards a door in the left-most corner of the floor. "I don't like that big a height, okay? These paws were made for hopping, thumping, and nothing else." "But you don't seem afraid when I carry you normally." "Well, yeah, because you're under me and there's ground under you," Alpin replied. "But a space that big? One false step and we'd be doomed." "In that case, when we're going back up? Try looking at the thick stone wall next to us," Morgan told him, pushing open the door to reveal a small kitchen, consisting of a table, chairs, refrigerator, microwave, cabinets bearing all manner of kitchen utensils and dishes, sinks, and a dishwasher, all placed in the .appropriate fashion for a lounge. At the table sat a tall man, with salt-and-pepper hair, who had glanced. up at the sound of Morgan entering. "Well, hello there kiddo," the man said. "Hi, Dad," Morgan said to him, managing to wave a hand as Alpin, in the hopes of making a good impression, shifted to sit more upright. "How was work?" "Pretty decent," Morgan's father replied. "Helped out a few groups of people doing research for their next latest and greatest, and finally managed to get the writer's corner back in order. You?" Morgan shrugged. "Pretty much just hung around all day, watching people," he said flatly. "Oh, and my designated-buddy here hopped onto my chest for the first time." ''Your designated buddy?" ''Yes sir," Alpin said politely. "Alpin von Lamis, reporting for duty, sir." Morgan's father paused. "That was a very well-spoken response for an Elfin-Baladi rabbit that's at least a few time zones away from home," he said at last. Alpin's eyes widened. ''You know I'm an Elfin-Baladi?" "Well, I wouldn't be one of the two head-librarians of the Subterranean Library if I couldn't identify at least 1 rabbit race," he replied.z "So you're okay with the keeping of the rabbit?" Morgan asked. Morgan's father nodded. "How about putting the rabbit on the table here and joining me for dinner?" 1 This was not technically true- unbeknownst to Morgan and his family, the Subterranean Library was very much alive and aware of who was inside of it, and had no hesitation in transforming an irritating guest or two into a bobble-head to add to the collection. However, it considered the Sindri's to be friendly entities, and found the rather small and frightened furry thing not worth the effort. 2 This was true, as the job application required all head librarians to be able to identify, on sight, 40 types of minerals and stone, 31 types of trees, 23 breeds of dog, 1? breeds of cat, 13 types of fish, 7 types of lizards and insects, and 1 breed ofrabbit. It also required them to invent at least 1 form of scribbling that would confuse a doctor, 3 forms of paperwork that could confuse a government agency, and to host at least 2 book "sales" a year. -15- � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The Swarm</em> Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Description An account of the resource Student publication that began publication in 2011.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Swarm" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=33">Items in <em>The Swarm</em> Collection</a></strong> <span>to view and sort all items in the collection.</span> Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 15 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Swarm, Issue #6 Description An account of the resource Issue 6 of The Swarm. Published in March 2013. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2013-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Pulp literature Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Swarm_issue06_2013-03 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/9f8a18ab961b3c1b924eb6e0ebcad19e.mp3 09cb4672fdd6266304ee457c07d5508b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data mp3 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:49:53 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Comedy and the Virtue of Divine Puppets Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered on August 27, 2021 by Joseph Macfarland as part of the Formal Lecture Series. First formal lecture of the academic year, previously referred to as the Dean's Lecture, but now called the Christopher B. Nelson Lecture. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Macfarland, Joseph C. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-08-27 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a typescript of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7586">Typescript</a> Subject The topic of the resource Comedy Plato. Laws Plato. Republic Virtue Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Macfarland_Joseph_2021-08-27 Christopher B. Nelson Lecture Deans Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/679f2fc19ff471e71070118826634435.pdf 94b6f125e62c0acb4bc443108886ac78 PDF Text Text On Incommensurability This is an attempt to think about a question that is considered settled and so I must warn you that I may seem to be wasting our time. Like other such ventures you may encounter at St. John’s it is less concerned with what we might be said to know either these days or at any time and more interested in how we think we know it. It is also, as a Wednesday Afternoon Lecture, a bit more of a work in progress than a Friday Night Lecture might be. You and I are in the enviable position of not having to worry what each other will think if you just virtually slip out of this virtual Hall. You are putting up with a good bit already in these odd times; if what is on your screen late on a Wednesday afternoon is not at least moderately absorbing then do something else. Incommensurability in its most general sense describes the relation of two or more measurable things that have no common measure. We might say that the length of a road and the loudness of a shout have no common measure: the road is not twice as long as the shout is loud, or any other multiple or fraction of the shout’s loudness either, though both length and loudness can be measured. Must the two things, road length and shout volume, have some common measure in order that we be aware of both of them at all? Do we have to be able to measure a thing to know it is there? We commonly suppose that the existence of things is found in the evidence of our senses. If I can see the road or hear the shout, then it is there. Seeing and hearing do not have to be the same thing in order to testify equally well to the presence of the things we see and hear. Nobody is meanwhile scandalized that many things have some kind of relation of incommensurability to one another. The situation grows more interesting if two things that could easily be �imagined to have a common measure can be shown to have none. Suppose I could show you two straight lines that cannot possibly have a common measure. They would not be lines in pencil lead or chalk; but if those are the only kind of lines you will accept you had better virtually slip out now. No matter how small the equal pieces may be that I can divide one line into, I would show that no such piece would ever fit a whole number of times into the other line. It seems unimaginable that this should be so. It may be even harder to imagine than the possibility – shall I call it the “opposite possibility”? -- raised in the Meno that all human excellence could be grasped as a simple unity. Let us begin with what measuring is. It seems to be a laying out of something next to something else in order to tell which one is more in some way and which less. Euclid says that a small line measures a larger line if it fits into it some whole number of times. We can, using a looser notion of measurement, easily see who is taller when two stand side by side. But how do we know who will make a better ruler? If there is a unit by which leadership may be measured, it has not yet been discovered. Creon in Sophocles’s Antigone knows that he is being measured by the hard times he must rule in, but he does not imagine that it might be in yielding to Antigone that he would show his worthiness to rule. “To what must I show myself adequate?” cries Creon. Or more literally “What is it? To what kind of happenstance do I arrive commensurable?” The Greek word translated by “commensurable” here, “summetros”, means “sharing a measure with.” Symmetric things in English might seem at least to have their parts in proportion to each other: things can be in balance and hold together by having a common measure. Creon seems worried that there may be situations he cannot rule. He is not wrong to worry: rulers need not only strength but understanding. The human soul itself could turn out to contain parts that share no common measure. Do our powerful fears and desires have any common language with our cautious reasonings at all? To find oneself �incapable of judging a situation for want of a proper measure is perhaps not an uncommon fear. It might be like an anxiety dream in which you have to take an exam in a language you don’t recognize. Anxious democracies often invoke the importance of the things we all have in common, our commensurability; we say that is our strength, what unites us. But those things must be so often invoked because of the strength of what divides us: each of us is a unique self. Some of the things we want most cannot be shared. We find ourselves sometimes desperately wishing a very particular someone could see something in us that is to be found in nobody else. Sometimes we boast of how well we know that no-one else can die for us; it seems to make not only our deaths but our whole lives look at least for a moment like inalienable property and to give us permission to do whatever we want with every precarious moment we are alive. Have I persuaded you that incommensurability has much more to do with us all than we might usually think? Here is one last example, from the Hebrew tradition. Adam, speaking to God after God has tried every other animate possibility before finally solving the question of where to find Adam a companion and has divided the first human in two: “This, at last, is bone of my bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh!” Hear the deep relief. Are the Tyrant and the ordinary Citizen of one bone and flesh as well? Socrates reminds us early in his conversation with Meno that Meno’s father was a friend of Xerxes, the Great King of all Persia, and he means us to glimpse Meno’s inner Xerxes, and our own. Meno has grown up knowing that he is two degrees separate from the absolute ruler of all the lands from Egypt to Turkey to the edge of India. Those who unashamedly take Xerxes as a measure in their drive for greatness are likely to refuse to be run-of-the-mill examples of the generically Human. Sophocles minces no words in titling his paradigmatic tragedy about a man who introduces �himself as “Oedipus the Great”: the play is called Oedipus the Tyrant. We each have something in us that wants to be a God, utterly unconstrained. Whether that leads to philosophy or tyranny or eternal salvation is not clear. Each looks, and may seek to look, incommensurable with our daily life. Incommensurability and the Golden Section My wonder at the Incommensurable was re-kindled a few years ago in a Freshman Mathematics Tutorial when we came to Euclid’s proposition eleven of Book Two, which shows how to divide a line so that the rectangle formed by the whole line and the smaller piece of the division will equal the square on the larger piece. The more famous example is already hiding in I, 47, the Pythagorean theorem. In neither proposition does Euclid say anything explicit about the topic. But it somehow came to mind for me in Book Two. When we have learned how to make the division of the line in Proposition 11, we may wonder, even if we do not recognize what we can now do as dividing a line in the so-called “golden section”: is there a numerical relation between the two pieces into which we divide the given line? Whether or not it exists among numbers the Golden Ratio has been found in countless examples of the great works of art and architecture that have survived their Ancient Greek makers. The Parthenon is only the most famous example. But is that ratio to be found among numbers? That is, could the two pieces into which Euclid’s line is divided be measured by some common unit and would there thus be a fixed numerical ratio between the two pieces? Are there then two numbers whose relation to each other names a specific kind of beauty? Maybe so. We might on the other hand be disappointed to find beauty of any kind to be, as we say, formulaic. And yet, perhaps the example of maximum commensurability, instantly recognizable in its unsurpassed simplicity, is the ratio of the double. Aristotle is not afraid to say that the sound of the Octave is �the embodiment of a 2 to 1 ratio and that it is not only agreeable but beautiful. Why should we like the relation produced by doubling? This is the sort of question that may conceal more depth than we think: what does it mean that beauty could be a kind of order? The two sets of vibrations that coincide every second beat: ONE two, ONE two, ONE two, hundreds of times per second are a kind of hyperallegro march or two-step of 440 against 880 beats per second that we hear as two pitches, a perfect mingling and repetition of Same and Slightly Other. We may not even perceive more than one pitch, the two blend so well. Two faces, neither especially noteworthy, placed side by side and seen to resemble each other will often make us laugh with pleasure; who knows why? What can it be that makes twoness beautiful? “I am dying, Egypt, dying,” repeats Marc Antony to Cleopatra, in Shakespeare’s play, calling her “Egypt” in a rhetorical figure, as though the nation she rules has produced in her an image of itself, a kind of double. “Dying…” he repeats, “Dying.” To say something twice is already to begin a poem, because in a well-crafted poem nothing is only itself, and everything implies everything else. If it were sufficient to call a thing by its name just once in order to say all that it is or all one may have in one’s heart, then perhaps there could be no poetry. The verse structure of the ancient Hebrew Psalms, attributed to King David, is a kind of doubling or rhyming in which the sense of a line is repeated in different form to make a pair, or to reveal that One is Two and vice versa. One could call it “Octavic structure”. The two beginning lines of Psalm 23 :“The Lord is my shepherd/ I shall not want”, might be rendered in prose: “ Since the Lord is my shepherd, I will have all I need.” The first thought is completed and becomes one of a unified pair as we hear that to have the Lord as one’s shepherd must involve freedom from want. The logical undeniability of the second line, given the �premise of the first, retroactively transforms the first line into a proclamation of complete trust and proud allegiance. “I am dying, Egypt, dying, only/ I here importune death a while, until/Of many thousand kisses the poor last/ I lay upon thy lips …” says Antony; the first five words could be his very last if taken to mean: “I have killed myself because they told me you were dead,” but he speaks again, “… Dying…” that is, ‘it is nothing I can draw back from now, it is fully real that I will soon cease to be real.’ And perhaps he is asking himself and his love how a story that seemed so full of strength and new possibility has now brought inescapable death. The poetry of the drama perhaps plays with incommensurability here: the lines are spoken as Cleopatra and her two women servants are about to hoist Marc Antony up to the window of their tower. He is almost immovable and will very soon be unreachably far away, among the dead, and yet he and they are asserting the greatest nearness between him and Cleopatra that these great lovers have ever felt. Two are becoming one as they near the vanishing point. If the question of whether it can be numbered does occur to us about the golden rectangle I think Euclid supposes that we ourselves may be able to supply the surprising answer in the negative with only a little reasoning. It is unfortunately not the kind of reasoning I am confident will succeed in this lecture. I have tried several times to write out a brief and perfectly clear account that shows the two pieces of the Golden Section have no common measure; but without the assurance that audience members could be free to pause the lecture and ask a question wherever something is not making sense to them I have felt that my attempts have failed. There may be an unexpected commonality between Plato and Euclid in that the real life of both authors’ work only manifests itself fully in conversation, and in deeds. I will include my proof �that the Golden Section makes two lines that have no common measure in the written text of this talk, which will be available through the Dean’s Office, and maybe another short proof that the diagonal of a square has no common measure with its side. Neither is terribly difficult to follow. Even one of them might still take up too much of our time together today. For now I ask you to grant me that both these things are provable. [Shall I belabor your sense of wonder with one more corollary? If line A and line B should be shown to have no common measure, then the line that is their sum could be measured neither by any equal division of A or of B. Add them together to make a new line and call their sum C. So we will have three lines, none of which shares a measure with either of the others. If we add A to C then we have a new line, D, the largest of the four, which likewise has no common measure with C and thus with any of the others, and so we may proceed ad infinitum, making new lines, each of which has no common measure with any of its components: an endless array of mutually incommensurable lines growing larger and larger forever. We could have proceeded by subtraction and produced the same result in the direction of the infinitesimal.] Perhaps the beauty people say is to be found in the Golden Section and made visible in the dimensions of the Parthenon and of numerous Ancient Greek sculptures and vases, and paintings would be a kind of opposite to the beauty of the Octave. The Two to One ratio is commensurability at its clearest and simplest, expressed in the very smallest numbers, while the Golden Section is a ratio we cannot express but only continually approach in even the very largest numbers. Yet it too has a kind of sublime geometric simplicity: a line has been divided in two pieces so that the area made by a square on one piece and that made by a rectangle of the whole line with the other piece are equal. �In the language of ratios, which the Freshmen will learn very soon, the smaller piece has to the larger piece the same ratio as the larger piece does to the whole. In that same language the side of a square equal to a unit will have the same ratio to the diagonal of that square as the diagonal has to two of those units. The diagonal is the mean of One and Two, somewhat as the larger piece of the Golden Section is the mean between the smaller piece and the whole. Measure and Counting It was one of the complaints of the traditional moralists of Athens that Socrates was a Sophist, a teacher of slippery arguments by which to win debates in courtrooms or public assemblies and that he could make the weaker argument look like the stronger; that he could make you think that day was night or even was odd. These were some of the accusations brought against him in the trial that led to his death. When Meno’s slave has seen that doubling the side of a square has not given us the length to produce a double square, but rather has produced a quadruple, Socrates innocently asks him to say exactly how long the line would need to be to give us a double of the original square, or just to point to it if he prefers. Plato is well aware that there will be no possible naming of the size in any units that also measure the side of the square, and yet that it is very easy to draw a line, the diagonal of the original square and then to point to it as the right size for the side of a double square. But the side and the diagonal are incommensurable. This would be a good moment to consult a written-out proof, one or two of which I will append to this talk. [ Appendix: Euclid I, 47, which shows that the square on the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal in area to the sum of the squares of the other two sides can be applied to an isosceles right triangle that is half of a square. Then the squares on its two equal �sides will add together to make an area equal to the square on its larger side which we may call the hypotenuse or the diagonal of our half square. So the square on the hypotenuse has an even number of square units. This is only possible if the hypotenuse itself is an even number of units long. But if the ratio of side to diagonal is expressible in numbers then it has an expression in the lowest possible terms, as e.g. 3:2 are the lowest terms for 6:4. One or both numbers will be odd in such lowest-term expressions. Let our half-square triangle’s sides in their relation to its hypotenuse be expressed in lowest terms. Since this case has a diagonal with an even numbered length, the length of the smaller side must be odd. But since the diagonal’s square is even then we know its length must be also; now to be even is to be two times some number, for that is the definition of “even”. So when we multiply it by itself to get the area of the square on the hypotenuse we will be making a square whose area is ( 2 x N) x (2 x N) where N is just whatever number it needs to be to give us, when doubled, the even numbered length of the hypotenuse of our original triangle. That means our square on the hypotenuse, or on the diagonal is (4 x N x N) square units. So each of the squares on the sides of the isosceles right triangle will be half of that, or (2 x N x N) square units. Aha! Each smaller side of our original triangle, since it has a length whose square is 2 x N x N, must after all itself be even for no even square can come from any but an even side. But we said it had to be odd because the hypotenuse was even and the sides of our triangle were to be expressed in lowest terms. If the side and the diagonal of a square have a common measure, i.e. can both be expressed as whole numbers of the same ‘unit’, then we have shown that the same line must have a length measured by a number that is both even and odd. Since there is no such number, we conclude that our premise must have been mistaken and there is no common measure.] Something happens to a mind that has begun to follow geometrical demonstrations; something that looks like a choice as �it regards the truths of different realms; maybe it shows itself most clearly in the response to the absurdity that results when the square and the diagonal are assumed to have a common measure. It does not look like peace of mind. The Imagination presses to remind us that we may divide the side or the diagonal as finely as we like, and insinuates that anyone with sense would see that somewhere in the realm of the very small there is bound to be a piece so small as to measure whatever other piece from wherever else we might assign it to. The Reason insists that no possible common measure can be found which does not involve the result that an even number must also be odd. Aristotle points out that as to the role of wonder in Philosophy, although Socrates may say Philosophy begins in Wonder, we can see how in some cases wonder must give way to a kind of familiarity and that what would now really produce wonder would be a demonstration that diagonal and side were after all commensurable. More wonder would be there than in the known outcome, namely that they are not and never can be. But I am afraid that the original wonder has not ceased to work on me, and even some familiarity with the proofs has not driven away a sense of aporia about their result. Is the incommensurability that lurks so near the beginning of Geometry really just something to get over? Would that make it like the contemporaneous horrifying discovery that lies could prevail over the truth among the audience of a fair and open discussion? Day can be made to seem night. One must still make up one’s mind if that discovery means no persuasion by words is ever to be trusted, or if something like truth can somehow still be approached. That is the choice I am thinking of. If, as I am suggesting, Euclid well knows the problem of incommensurability, and even expects his more discerning readers to perceive it very early in his book, then we see it has not discouraged him. Is there a common unit that measures both our �thoughts and the world? Let us return to this matter of measuring in its primal form of counting. When we count we could be said to measure the “how much” of something in units. We want to know how big our herd is today, perhaps to see if any lambs were carried off in the night, and we lay down a kind of measuring stick called “one sheep” next to the herd and see how many we can find in it. The unit, one sheep, is not exactly like a fixed length: it may match a small lamb in one instance, a large ram in the next. They are equally sheep and there are two of them. Cattle ranchers talk about how many “head” of cattle are on their ranch, so that the head has become the unit, since cows, bulls, and calves each agree in having one head and so can be counted quickly by counting heads. Each particular sheep’s head is not exactly like any other, any more than each sheep was. “A unit,” as Euclid will say in Book Seven, “is that by which each thing is called ‘one’.” Actual unity is like perfect doubleness, not a thing one finds in one’s hands, (although hands may seem quite a good example of the double,) but it is a way of seeing with the mind’s eye and of talking. Things appear to come in kinds. A kind is a natural unity. It may not be saying too much to say that different kinds must always be somewhat incommensurable. Money is a fiction that lets us pretend that three days of the labor and materials and skills of shoe-making could be equal to one day of the labor and material and skills of housebuilding. Money and the market price allow us to set things as equal that in fact have no common measure. Euclid says that ratios can exist (only) among things of the same kind and that things are of the same kind which can by multiplication exceed one another. No number of houses can exceed a shoe, or even equal one, whatever Mother Goose may say.. Comparing houses to shoes is, as we say, like comparing apples to oranges. What lets us count heads or noses or whole sheep of different ages and sizes without difficulty is the notion of the pure unit: the oneness that any thinkable, nameable thing must have to be a thing at all. Things �that are generically of the same kind can be counted by reference to ones that are all exactly the same as each other. Do we invent these units? Different assemblages of these ones are the different whole numbers. Each such assemblage has in addition to its component units a single unity peculiar to itself: three is one number and is different from all others. It is not possible even to be as a multiplicity without at the same time being a kind of one. Can numbers image The World of Being? It sounds absurd. Yet there are enough numbers for every individual being there is or ever has been. And perhaps there would turn out to be enough groupings of numbers to mirror the groupings of things by kinds, by larger and smaller categories. If everything that is real can be named and reckoned with by computers then we are already deep into the project of mirroring the entire world in numbers. Does it matter if we suppose that numbers are simply a convenient labelling device we have in some unspecified way dreamed up or if we think that the three of three horses and the three of three frogs are both able to be three by some active power, a unifying force at work on them as we might imagine the activity at work on making a horse be and stay a horse at all? It might matter quite a bit. [The Freshmen will soon read a book in which Socrates offers a line divided in four as an image of all visible and knowable things; the primary twofold division is between knowable and visible, and each of those two parts is again divided in two “in that same ratio”, however we may like to think of it, between knowable and visible. Within the example we have to represent the relation between visible and knowable simply as a matter of the sizes of our two pieces of an original line, which itself we may suppose to represent all that is. Should the visible be larger than the knowable or vice versa? If we draw a line, divide it first in two in any way we choose, and divide each piece in the same ratio as the first division, we will produce four lines, the greatest, the least, and the two in the middle. It can be easily proven that the two in the middle will be of equal size. In Socrates’s example the upper division of the �lower part of the whole line represents among the visible those things we would call “visible originals”: trees, people, animals, stars etc.; while the lower division represents “visible images” of those things: shadows, reflections, paintings, and so forth. The lower piece of the upper part of the original line thus must represent in the realm of the knowable the knowable images, which Socrates suggests are mathematical beings: triangles, lines, points, drawable figures and representable numbers, etc. while the uppermost piece of all will represent whatever could be the “knowable originals” or the actual things that are known, whether always through images or perhaps sometimes directly through themselves. The mathematical or “learnable” things would thus be the shadows of the knowables, and the quantity of images of the knowables would match that of the originals of the visibles. Or would they overlap? The things both knowable as images and immediately visible as things would then be the same.] The appearance of things coming in kinds and our capacity to see and grasp it grounds most of how and what we think. When we recognize something at all we are finding it to be a part of some whole, an example or a fragment of a certain kind of unity. Here too we seem to have a choice: shall we notice this power we seem to have, give it a nod, and just get on with our work of understanding and re-shaping the world, or shall we try to dwell upon it and wonder at it? Maybe returning to it would modify our urge to reshape the world a little. On the other hand it may be so near to our root that to dig it up would leave us nothing to get near it with. Just the same, let us try a little right now. When we encounter something that appears especially unified, that brings together many parts in many ways to make a One, we feel delight. We call it beautiful, whether it be a painting or a melody or a story, or a face, or a sunset. We locate unities within larger unities: person, family, city, nation, Cosmos. When we meet something that strongly resembles something of a different �kind in some respect, we delight to bring the two together in our speech. We call it making a metaphor. “All Flesh is Grass”. Is it a stretch to describe this behavior as a kind of counting or measuring? It seems to have little to do with the measuring about which Nietzsche complains. That, he says, is a devaluing of the only world we have, by the false invention of another better world somewhere else, whose beings we claim to glimpse and by which we judge our world and find it wanting. This measuring that lets us see how flesh is grass might be no slander on real flesh or grass, but a primary encounter with both. People sometimes express disappointment that the earliest ancient examples of writing – the wedge-shaped marks in tablets of clay that were baked or dried in Mesopotamia many thousands of years ago -- seem to be restricted to inventories: mere lists of things or quantities of grain. But counting or measuring in a primal sense is the essence of our grasp on the world, at least as that grasp is found in language itself. We need not shy from calling those lists the first written poetry. The transition from listing names (i.e. units) and numbers of things to writing poetry seems very slight indeed compared with the transition from an unbroken sequence of immediate stimulus-reactions, to names and numbers of things at all. Indeed ancient poets as well as modern ones are notoriously fond of lists as such. Homer gives us the Catalog of Ships. The Hebrew Scriptures list who begat whom. And both are masters of metaphor and measure. Homer speaks unforgettably of the sword or spear blade cutting flesh as “Pitiless Bronze.” If we are not explicitly measuring by unities, or counting -- “giving an account” as we say -- we are measuring still. Saul was by head and shoulders the tallest among the men of Israel. Thomas Hobbes says in Leviathan that all thinking is counting and computation: adding and subtracting. It is a surprising agreement with the Platonic insight that our capacity to see unity is what makes us human. And somehow we can see unity in what refuses to break into natural units. The Continuous must have a unity of its own: it is imaged �in the line in which every point has another as near to it as you please. Could the Unlimited be another ingredient of the World, like wholeness being present in everything that is? It could never be visible without having already undergone some unification but it might always maintain its indeterminacy in a kind of refusal of any permanent allegiance to particular unity or identity. Nothing is immune to change and everything must decay. Today’s Ponderosa Pine tree seems fully formed and vitally involved in being what it is; it seems almost to breathe if you look at it in the sun and the wind. Botanists will tell you that it does breathe. But some few years from now it will be lying on the ground, rotting into dirt, relinquishing the noble form that seemed completely to possess it. In Incommensurability we seem to have found a thing we cannot imagine, if to imagine means to give a unified identity to something, but must nevertheless think as true. This is already remarkable and may encourage us to be more careful in distinguishing the imaginable from the true in other cases. The imagination is not a perfectly reliable guide even to the possible, let alone to the true. Is it the infinite divisibility of the line that leads our imagination and our reason in opposite directions? Perhaps we can know some things to be true regarding what is infinite without being able to imagine them. Moses Maimonides points out that Apollonius proves a curved asymptote approaches a limiting straight line so that the distance between them is forever diminishing without limit and yet without ever entirely disappearing. They can get infinitely nearer forever without meeting. Maimonides says that we cannot imagine this but that we can know it. Even to look down railroad tracks includes imagining we see that they meet at the distance of the vanishing point. We may get so used to knowing something, that we think we are successfully imagining it, or we may decide to discard our imaginations as any help at all to knowing, but both alternatives are likely to be mistaken. �What about the wider implications of incommensurability? There are many. One seems to be a fundamental distinction between the continuous and the discrete: two different kinds of magnitude, represented in our thinking here by lines, which are continuous and by numbers, which are assemblages of discrete units. Of course a line may be divided into as many equal parts, or artificial units, as we please, or as few as two, so it is not in every way unavailable to the language of number, but it has no natural unit and can be thought of apart from the notion of an assemblage of units. It may be this absence of natural units that is at the heart of incommensurability. When we want to measure distances in the physical world we begin by inventing a unit length like the inch: roughly the top joint of a king’s thumb. Everything that has a length must thereafter submit to being so many thumbjoints long, measured to the nearest half-thumb-joint. But that original thumb joint reveals its peculiarity when we ask how we would measure its length. Strictly speaking it has none since there is no agreed-upon unit by which we would measure it. It is one unit long. How big that unit is cannot be determined. Would we say, “One is one”? Calling One a number might be like claiming to know how long an inch is: it only works for us as a measure in multitudes of itself. If we really want to say anything satisfying about how long an inch is we must invent a centimeter and say it is 2.5 of them, but then we cannot say what the ‘absolute’ length of the centimeter is. So we do seem to make, or find, a multiple thing, number, amid things, namely units, each of which contains no multiplicity. Can the One be incommensurable with the numbers of things it counts? Socrates on the day of his death says that he gave up the study of natural science when he realized he still did not understand how one and one made two. Do we understand it? We may simply not know how to come any closer to understanding unity and so we proceed to get farther away, to make progress in some direction �rather than seek we know not what from the origins. We might remind ourselves that although lines are limited or determined by points, they are not made of them. Wherever there can be two points we can think of a line that joins them but since the line can always be divided then there is always another point between any two so that if a line were made of points it would have as many as we like and we could add as many more without expecting it to change in length. That is not the way a wall is made of bricks at the very least. Is it the way a brick is made of clay? We can think so many remarkable things if we do not linger too long at the beginning that perhaps it would be wrong not to get on with our deductions and further explorations merely because we do not really understand unity. Perhaps there is room for both directions of thought? Let me offer another image of a kind of incommensurability. Do we know what allows us to use words? Can there be untranslatable words? What do we mean when we say that a particular word, say, of Greek or French, really has no equivalent in English? We might like to say that such a word in its own language brings together as parts of the same whole several different thoughts or meanings which nowhere exist together in any single word of English. We can still list those meanings and instruct the learner to think them together; and we may have the learner’s experience of beginning to feel as if after all the different meanings do deserve to have their own single word to unite in. We may start to think that “Deinos”, the Ancient Greek root of our word “Dinosaur”, doesn’t have to be heard as: “Terrible but possibly also in other cases “Wondrous” and in yet others “Clever and Effective”. We begin to hear “Terrible AND Wondrous, Clever AND Effective” all at once, in a way not really captured by our own recent and over-used “Awesome”. But perhaps our minds have jumped a gap or discontinuity between Greek and English rather than finding a common unit of measure, and we are briefly thinking in Greek? �Perhaps all foreign words are strictly speaking not incomprehensible but yet never perfectly translatable? I should address a doubt. What shall we say to someone who tells us we are making mountains of molehills and that there is no real problem with translation or even with expressing the diagonal in terms of the side? The Doubter will say that if the side is called “one” then the diagonal may be called “the square root of two”, or “that number which when multiplied by itself will give us an answer of two”. We may ask if the doubter can tell us how many times we will be multiplying it by itself and receive the somewhat mysterious reply “1.4142 …” with the further explanation that the dots represent a continuing fraction that never actually ceases. We may feel as if something is peculiar about a number that can never finish being named. But any number ending with a finite fraction will when multiplied by itself give us an answer that is either bigger or smaller than two. Inventing a symbol that means “find the number which when multiplied by itself gives the number under this sign” and calling it a “square root sign” does not guarantee that there is such a number corresponding to any number I put under the sign. For 49 we find 7 but for 2 we find “1.4142…” and the dots go on forever. If this infinitely continuing fraction is our way of reconciling the continuous with the discrete, or letting the same number be even and odd, we may wonder what might be getting lost. Perhaps there are no two things so close that the mind cannot find a gap nor so far apart that the mind cannot find a bridge? What about Being and Nonbeing, or life and death? Or Right and Wrong? Are they incommensurable once and for all? What is at stake for us when we try to know? Incommensurability and Meno I want to turn now again to the Meno for some help with the question of how we might come to know that something is true or of how we might learn. Why does Socrates use the example of �proving something about the diagonal of a square when he wants to encourage Meno to suppose that it is possible to learn, and even perhaps to learn how to be good? My thoughts are not terribly well-organized on this topic but let us begin with some possible connections. Virtue is proposed to us in the Meno and elsewhere in the dialogues as having four parts: Courage, Moderation, Justice, and Wisdom. Sometimes it is suggested that none of these can be separated from the others, that Courage without Wisdom is mere rashness, or Moderation without Justice mere cold selfishness. They are compared to the parts of a face, unable to exist as themselves except when all together. Suppose we imagined them as a square in which their equality and co-dependence might be imaged. Then when Socrates asks what unites them or plays the role of that by which each deserves to be called a virtue, we could imagine that he is asking if there is another line that touches each and all of them. That line could be a circle around the square, or it could be the diagonal. It is a line which by making two triangles in its division of the square would prevent the collapse of the square under pressure, as carpenters all know. It is inside the square yet bigger than any of the lines whose particular arrangement makes the square. It turns out – and you may as I have said want to consult a written version of this lecture to see why this is so – that its precise size is not nameable or measurable in terms of the sides of the square; and yet it has a perfectly well-defined size. How did Socrates’s and Meno’s attempt to define and unify human excellence lead to a mathematical problem about incommensurability and disharmony? The road leads through Power. From the first they have disagreed on a fundamental level: Socrates wants to know what human excellence is, and Meno insists that the most needful thing is finding out how to acquire it. Socrates seems to promise that really knowing what it is or at least making a real attempt at learning that might be the only way to begin acquiring it and Meno fears that �insisting on insight will lead to paralysis; and so he seems to recommend settling for anything that looks a lot like the path to acquisition: say, Power. If you have power, then you can enact whatever looks excellent to you, but without it, no quantity of insight will help; you will be a victim or a bystander, no real doer. Socrates helps us and Meno to see that Meno is after all more interested in power than in excellence; since everyone wants what is good or excellent but few seem capable of acquiring it, it must be, thinks Meno, that those few are the powerful; and a corollary must be that what is excellent is what can be acquired by power: gold and silver and a place in the councils of the city. Meno and the reader are shown the consequence of the definition of Virtue that says it is “For the one desiring fine things to have the power to get them”. Socrates does not here suggest that a more important difference among people than the division into who has or lacks the power to get good things might lie in the question of what things are really good and what others only look good. Perhaps he is not surprised that the distinction between those who only think they know what is good and those who really do know is not a familiar one for Meno. Like most of us Meno thinks it is easy to know what good things are. He also thought it was easy to imagine that some of the unhappy or the unlucky might actually want for themselves things they knew were bad for them. Socrates must carefully remind him what would really be involved in wishing to harm oneself without any counterbalancing benefit of any kind, namely a kind of absurdity or impossibility; and then Meno admits we all suppose we are choosing what is best, so that everyone can be said to share the desire for fine things, or at least for apparently fine things. This equality in desiring apparent goods leaves the struggle for excellence to be, as we mentioned earlier, a matter decided according to who has the power to get or get at those apparent goods: Gold and Silver, and honors and powers and offices in the �city. Meno uses the verb “porizesthai” or “ to achieve … procure… make progress ” as the third infinitive we translated in the phrase “ To desire fine things and be able to get them.” “ Poros”, the noun in that verb, is cognate with the English word “ford”, as in “ you can cross the river at the ford”. A Poros in Greek may refer to any number of stratagems or devices for accomplishing one’s goals. It is a word whose privative form “aporia” has great resonances with incommensurability. Aporia is the condition of being without resources in the face of something. It can describe simple lack of money or that more general difficulty that we describe as “feeling completely at a loss”. We are at an impasse and can see no way across some barrier. Here we are near to incommensurability. Meno first uses the word in the dialogue to say that when one knows the different virtues appropriate to old and young, men and women, slave and free, one will never be in any aporia about saying what virtue is. The simple connection of Poros, resource, to money lets Socrates remind Meno that for all the importance of Porizesthai or the “ being able to GET for oneself …” those fine things that virtuous people want; and for all the ways that money lets you have access to nearly anything you might want, there could be situations in which not Poros, resource, is crucial to virtue, but precisely Aporia, resourcelessness. If the only money to be had in a certain situation was money unjustly acquired, then Meno agrees an Aporia of money would then be virtuous. One might go another step and say if the only action that could be taken in a particular situation had to be action taken in complete ignorance of what a truly just outcome would look like then inaction might be preferable. Meno turns out to be more familiar with Aporia, at least in thought, than one might suspect of a very ambitious and not very scrupulous young aristocrat. The things he thinks about are strongly marked by the possibility of aporia. What kind of thinking does he like? He says he likes the way Gorgias explains the functioning of the body’s senses by reference to effluences or “outflows” from the objects sensed, which outflows can be �compared to very small shapes constantly crossing the space between say a sweet-smelling flower, and my nose. If the tiny shapes fit the pores of my nose then I will sense aroma. Other shapes, e.g. those conveying sounds, will not fit my smelling pores but instead will find paths through my ears and I will hear things. Socrates’s Gorgian example ends with him noting that this mode of explanation can be adapted to all of the senses and perhaps many other questions as well. Maybe it explains too much? The element of the Incommensurable is very prominent. Socrates says the little shapes are “symmetroi” with the pores of their proper sense organs, that is they have a common measure. But smells are incommensurable with ears. To survey the microscopic world for a moment through this lens, we must be ready to see a constant flow of all kinds of possible sensations, tiny shapes crossing one another’s paths in all directions constantly and bouncing away from doorways not designed to let them in or slipping neatly into passages through which they fit as smoothly as an old key. A simple test is always automatically going on amid the outflows and the bumps of the myriad tiny shapes, “Are you the right shape to pass?” is asked and answered thousands of times per second. Socrates describes Meno’s pleasure in this explanation as a response to the High Tragic Manner, in which, as he says, this account appears. High Tragic Manner? What is that likely to mean? Does Meno, whose father knew Xerxes, the tragic hero of Herodotus’s History, does Meno have reason to wish for a world built on Tragedy? If he wants to be excellent, to win praise for his power and fine possessions, to be honored as a Homeric Warrior is honored, is it more comfortable than facing the impasse of your actual knowledge or ignorance of your own powers, to think that the best warriors are just the right shape from birth and that if you are fated to be great you will find a fitting passage? If you are already among the leading families of Thessaly then your fate is clearly calling you, and if your father narrowly missed becoming a Persian Satrap over some of Greece, �maybe that has been saved for you! Those who treasure power above all things will recognize you because it takes one to know one, and they will recruit you. You and they will be ready to betray each other if that is the path to greater power, but meanwhile you are commensurable and you both need allies. Another piece of thinking Meno likes is the argument that you cannot usefully seek to learn anything because either you know or you don’t know and so you cannot learn what you already know but you cannot even recognize what you do not know. So await your fate in the confidence that you already have the right stuff. It’s all or nothing at all. The tragic flavor is a flattering spice that suggests that the great human beings must be prepared to do and to suffer things perhaps not bearable for ordinary humans, and that this is why we remember them and follow them and tell their stories. Amid the chaos some shapes are arriving where they fit; praise and blame may be beside the point. The importance of welldirected effort or the possible guidance of insight look like idealistic distractions on a stage full of opportunities for immediate deployment of strategies: cast what grappling hooks you have in all directions and pull in the biggest fish you snag. Plato is showing us a young Meno shortly before he seized what must have seemed the perfect opportunity: an expedition led by the younger brother of the Great King of Persia, intending to take the throne from his incompetent elder. Xenophon, a contemporary of Plato and like him a student of Socrates, has written in his book The March Back of Meno’s corrupt and violent attempt to become a Satrap in the Persian style and of the awful fate it led him to. We may suppose that Xenophon’s report was known to Plato’s first readers. That this young Meno even wants to talk about how virtue is to be gotten and kept is a positive sign that he doesn’t yet simply suppose that his job is to grab every gift of nature or fortune that comes in his reach. He somehow is open to the thought that he might need to do something else for himself, maybe improve �himself somehow, and that Socrates could help him. But the Tragic element perhaps overwhelms him. That Tragedy is finally built on the foundation of incommensurability, the incommensurability of Gods and humans, that may be what will keep Meno safe from the danger of being truly changed by his talk with Socrates. Tragedy for Meno may be about the near-miss when a mortal comes along who could almost be mistaken for an immortal. There is no room on earth for humans who do not die. The great human beings who nevertheless do not yield or resign themselves to being less than the Gods will be wonders in their lifetimes and will be long remembered after their deaths. The shape that is our lot may limit us to either having what it takes or not but a certain kind of defiance of Fate is possible. The very thing that seeks to diminish us, our mortality, can be embraced by the tragic protagonist and can transform us. The insistence by the tragic character that she alone will define herself even if it should cost her life nearly makes her into a God, and it simultaneously kills her. Medea murders her children, her husband’s new wife and father-in-law, taunts Jason and mounts a dragon chariot on the roof to fly to Athens, where she will bear what few can: to lead what remains of a wrecked and miserable life all her own. Something like this may be what Meno loves, hidden in the answers of Gorgias. He does not seem to love learning for its own sake. It is striking how Gorgias’s science anticipates our own: two millennia later our biology is still deep in the process of describing the docking of different tiny chemical particles and molecules in an elaborate process of sending and receiving signals and instructions according to what effluent shapes fit what receptors. And it is still more striking what a difference remains between the recognition that an effluence fits an opening and the experience of understanding a thought. To the Greek listener or reader a similarity of sound appears between the “Aporia” or being at a loss that Socrates will praise as an indispensable part of learning when �he helps the slave boy recollect how to double the square, and on the other hand the the “Aporrhoe”, or flowing outward, that constitutes the whole Gorgian account of how we perceive and possibly even of how we know. Maybe the nearness in sound of Aporia and Aporrhoe is intended to point toward the thought that the Gorgian/Scientific answer always leaves us where we started: on the outside of what may be going on. If we can see color, we say, it must be because little bits of something are flying into our eyes, something we might as well call “color particles” or color photons or color waves if you prefer; but what allows the arrival of these little shapes to become our experience of color remains dark. We posit that something about them carries what we end up calling “color” and that when it arrives in our eyes, or perhaps bumps something in our eyes that can send something that arrives in our brains, well then, color has arrived. Leibniz says that no matter how much we may imagine enlarging the physical pieces of the brain and nervous system, we will not thereby have achieved more than a larger picture of particles moving other particles. But where, he asks, will be our own understanding from the inside of thoughts and sensations in all this sequence of actions and reactions? We may get to a place where we can say, in effect: “When this exact sequence of synapses firing takes place you are remembering your first grade teacher”; but all we will be doing is correlating two separate events: your own experience of memory, and a neurophysiologist’s observations of events among your synapses. I do not mean to speak ill of the enterprise of Science, which surely has shown us many real beauties and marvels; and which is by no means simply identical with Technology; but I wonder if there are important differences in kind among ways of doing what we call knowing. We have now “known” for well over a century that fire happens when particles of combustible substances, like carbon and oxygen, combine in such a way as to release light and heat, and often other gases and particles. We have gone on learning many more details about smaller and smaller particles involved in the process. We have also claimed to know �for much longer than a hundred years that it is a crime to set your neighbor’s house on fire; but we have never ceased from arson. I make bold to say that no matter how thorough an account we can learn to give of fire, it will make no difference to the ways we treat our fellow human beings or indeed any of the living beings of the world. If no other mode of knowing is available to us than the techno-scientific, I am afraid we are doomed. How welcome a kind of knowing of Incommensurability might be to us if it should guarantee justice and equality! Beyond any property I might own, I own myself as an insoluble mystery which may decline to be judged by any other standard than its own. If our dignity is our irreducible otherness from all others then most of our moral experiences will be determined by ways we do not fit in. Resistance and bravely saying “No!” will become the unmistakable marks of human goodness. But maybe this, too, like Gorgias’s answers, solves too much. The simple incongruity of having no common measure with others can stand for an inalienable freedom and an infinite value but how do we know we are not still flattering ourselves in the High Tragic manner? Is it not precisely commensurability we seek when we propose with Socrates that the effort to learn makes us better? All Nature is akin, he says. This is the opposite of severing ourselves from a world of indifferent collisions, or of what is worse, of seeking to become similarly indifferent ourselves. If we are bound to act for the sake of what is or seems better, then that may be a clue to how the cosmos acts. These are only speculations about Meno and about ourselves. Without them I would not know how to begin reading Plato. The Aporia which Meno will call “ numbness” in his image of Socrates the Torpedo Fish has its counterpart in the Gorgian Theory of Everything: in the word “Aporrhoe”, or effluence, outflow. Everything is only connected to everything else by this �constant outflow or stream of shapes by which each thing shares its visible, audible, smellable, tasteable, touchable, knowable self with the various human organs of perception which happen to be commensurate with it. One wonders where the inexhaustible source for such constant outflow can be located, and why it never runs low. One may also wonder if all that seeming incommensurability conceals a suppression of genuine differences of kind in things. Have we really seen very deeply, or heard any divine harmonies when we assert more or less a priori that sight and hearing are at bottom both the same, just matter in motion? There may be more numbness involved in this conclusion than in any temporary impasse that Socrates and his conversationspartners suffer in their attempts to learn. The binary simplicity of the life of an effluence is perhaps part of its attraction to Meno and to us; either a shape fits what it hits or it doesn’t. It is like being told either you already have what it takes or you never will. You are spared the wandering about in some gray area while trying to find common measures or small steps of approximation. You don’t have to start trying from where you are to get someplace different. You do not have to examine opinions to see what may be partly true in them and where that may lead. As in the argument that you cannot learn what you already know nor what you have never encountered, there seems to be a kind of absolute separation between the wealthy possession of knowledge and the impoverished condition of ignorance. Neither one is quite understandable beyond the simple model of property ownership: if you know something then you have it, if not then you don’t. And having means chiefly having the power to exchange one thing for another, to trade up, as we say. So Meno hopes by his conversation with Socrates to end up with some answers in his back pocket that will confound anyone he should have to debate; he is challenging Socrates with the answers he has memorized from Gorgias: “ have you got anything stronger than this?” �If on the other hand it is possible to learn by experience that knowable things are not inert possessions but after all have a kind of life, then knowing must be different from simple possession of property, which one can do while sleeping; knowing must be an active practice, and one must be seeking to take on some of the life of what one wants to know. All nature, as Socrates suggests, must be akin for the learning that interests him to be possible. However true it may be that each being must somehow differ from all others, that no two snowflakes or leaves are ever identical, it is still finally commensurability that we seek. That the example chosen to give us hope about our capacity to learn is the diagonal of the square, whose ratio to its side is not expressible in common units, must be especially important. What may it mean? It seems to say that there is more than one kind of intelligibility; the lack of a common length measure for diagonal and side does not preclude knowing things about the diagonal and its relation to that side. The counting of discrete units is not the only path to knowledge. The discovery of the line that will let us double the square depends on seeing more than what is there; we must begin to see areas, twodimensional beings in order to address a question about finding one dimension: the length of a line. The diagonal is not in the end confoundingly hard to know; it is the side of a square twice as big as the one whose diagonal it is. If it is to be measured we must refer to a second dimension, not to a line but to an area. The Greek language uses the word “dunamis” or “power” in geometrical contexts somewhat as we might use “squared” or “to the second power” in English. A line may be said to be equal “dunamei”( the dative form of ‘dunamis’) or “in power, by means of its power” to some area, meaning that the square on that line is equal to the area in question. The diagonal can said in Greek to be “in power” the double of the square it divides. The echo of Meno’s word for his ideal of the raw power of the tyrant who can grab whatever he wants and hold it is not accidental. But what is echoing what? �The suggestion that the diagonal is knowable by its power to become a double square is a fertile one. It makes us wonder if virtue has a kind of life in it since living things are partly known by their power to duplicate themselves, to grow or reproduce. Does the recognition of virtue necessarily involve a beginning of reproducing it or a desire to see it exercise its power? When we encounter someone good, we are in fact moved to imitation. Virtue would then be essentially active; it would be what it can become rather than a simple inert quantity. This could be connected to the difficulty in saying what exactly it is or even in describing it. A contemporary philosopher has written a book called “The Fragility of Goodness”, but perhaps another could be written on the Power of Goodness. What if the more knowable a thing were the more beautiful, and alive it were? Would the most unified and beautiful of all naturally generate an entire world as a kind of octave of itself? We might then expect the nearness of such a thing to possess active power, to contain a kind of life that sustains and increases itself. Knowing would not mean to behold something over there in calm clarity, while deciding whether to take it or leave it. It would be to feel the effect of the nearness of life, to be drawn to imitate and be informed by order and pattern, so as to become more nearly unified oneself and more aware of the unity of the world. Would such an experience make us suppose that beautiful speeches could have the power to bring about beautiful deeds? One Greek word for “Rascal”, gleefully appropriated by Rabelais many centuries after its birth, is “Panourgos”, which comes from two words meaning “all”, and “work”. A Rascal is someone who acknowledges no limits, who will “do everything” or do anything to have their way. We say, typically about a villain, that he or she would “stop at nothing” on the way to fulfilling their wicked plans. Turn this inside out and suppose a being so fully limited, which we will conjecture could mean so good, as to be in a sense fully at rest: it would not need to do anything in order to be as it was, and �it would lack nothing so that no motive would exist for its taking some particular step, nefarious or otherwise. We might suppose it to be already fully active all the time and indeed to be the principle of all activity everywhere, but in a way that while pervading everything would have nothing to prove and so no need to undertake any new act. It would remind us of Achilles telling Phoinix that he has no need of human honor and hence no need to do any mighty deeds, but that he has honor enough from Zeus simply by being who he is. So humans who resemble this conjectural opposite of a rascal look like Gods, and the full version of such a being might be God. Human Excellence or Virtue would then likewise resemble God in being as self-contained as a social being might be able to be while remaining social. It might be better-defined than most things are, and hence more knowable, if definition is chiefly a matter of limits. Socrates suggests a little of this as he asks Meno about the presumed behavior of a virtuous human. What if becoming virtuous really is a matter of making the effort to learn, not how we can master things but how things really are; and what if finding that out involves discovering that things are more orderly and beautiful than we can ever fully imagine? � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Transcripts—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College at the Santa Fe, NM campus. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Word doc Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 30 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incommensurability : Meno and the diagonal Description An account of the resource Transcript of a lecture given on October 21, 2020 by Cary Stickney as part of the Dean's Lecture and Concert Series. The Dean's Office provided this description of the event: "Can beautiful speeches give rise to beautiful deeds? Please join the SJC Campus Community for our virtual Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series featuring St. John’s College Santa Fe Tutor, Cary Stickney. Cary will be giving a lecture titled 'Incommensurability: Meno and the Diagonal.'" Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Stickney, Cary Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-10-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Plato. Meno Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_StickneyC_Incommensurability_Meno_and_the_diagonal_2020-10-21 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/b4f9c8716a585f32d893c2b22ab29ccc.pdf 47b0aa7c2f2b24403a889b98dd04909b PDF Text Text Comedy and the Virtue of Divine Puppets Joseph C. Macfarland The dean’s lecture in Annapolis, MD August 27, 20211 A decade or more ago, Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound was removed from the freshman seminar reading list to make way for Aristophanes’ The Birds. A tragedy of one punished for resistance to the Olympian gods was replaced with a comedy in which the Olympians are overthrown. Without having been party to the deliberations, I heard it said third-hand, in defense of the change, that it would be good for the reading list to have more comedy. It was a thought—a sentiment?—I agreed with, without having an account why. Changes in the reading list since then have not followed this principle: after trying The Birds and The Frogs for a decade at least, the second Aristophanes play was removed again to enable us to read the whole of the Nicomachean Ethics. (I will pass over other sins against comedy.) The fact that the statement was made is peculiar: one would never expect anyone to say, it would be good for the reading list to have more tragedy, or more epic poetry. If I were to ask, “is reading and discussing tragedy an essential part of a liberal education?” You might respond with a laugh—what would such an education amount to without Antigone or Lear? Comedy as a genre somehow seems more likely to be neglected—whether true or not—and, as a result, it seems to be more in need of defense as part of a liberal education. It’s not hard to see why: education is a sustained play for the young in the service of something serious, a kind of excellence. This is a pun borrowed from, among other places, Plato’s dialogue, The Laws.2 Forgive me for explaining this quite familiar play on playing: education, in Greek paideia, is the sustained play, paidia, of children, paides, in the service of the opposite of play, the serious as such, excellence. The seeming need to defend comedy comes from the sense that comedy is 1 For my understanding of The Laws, I am much indebted to members of an NEH study group in 2013 led by Rob Goldberg, with Jeff Black, Joan Silver, Louis Petrich, Eric Salem, and Stuart Umphrey (forgive me if I have forgotten any one). I also led precepts on The Laws (2003) and several plays of Aristophanes (2018), where I learned much from my students. This lecture is not for quotation without permission: it is very much a work in progress, as the notes make clear. 2 The Laws 643b-d; Strauss 1975, 17. 1 �just too playful, too unserious, to serve human excellence—and, in most cases, perhaps, this is so. Despite the seeming need to give an account of comedy, it might be wiser to resist the temptation: we may view arguments in favor of books based on their genre with suspicion. For example, whom should we trust on the excellence of tragedy as such? Aristotle? Nietzsche? Aristophanes? Or none of the three, since none wrote tragedies? Who, indeed, can even define the genre with sufficient certitude? Does tragedy have a form towards which all tragedies aspire? Or is it emergent, malleable, historical? By “comedy,” do I mean performed dramas in particular, say The Clouds or Le Misanthrope? Or prose narratives as well, such as Gulliver’s Travels or Don Quixote? If we count the latter, perhaps we would say there’s no lack of comedy on the seminar reading list. Nevertheless, as is clear, I have already succumbed to the foolish temptation to attempt to redeem the all-too-playful by weighing it down with an hour of seriousness (and not for the first time). My starting point has been the following peculiar observation: as all know, in The Republic, when Socrates and his friends are setting out the best city in speech, Socrates says that the poets, Homer, Hesiod, the tragedians and others, must be excluded from their city (377b ff.). The tales of the poets do not conform to the noble models set down by the lawgiver, for the poets say that the gods are sources of good and evil, that they change shape and deceive us, that the gods can be overpowered by laughter (388e), that good and virtuous men wail in excess at the loss of friends (387d-388a), that good men praise drinking and eating (and sex), and that many happy men are unjust.3 Plato wrote a comparable dialogue, The Laws: a conversation among three old men, it is longer and more obscure than The Republic, in which an unnamed Athenian stranger describes the second-best city in speech. The stranger is conversing with two Dorians, a Spartan and a Cretan, the latter of which, we discover, has been entrusted by his fellow citizens with the 3 Republic 392b. This list is not complete. On moderation, 389e. Socrates notes the importance in the young to be moderate in drinking, eating, and sex. This category seems more diffuse. For indulgence in sexual desire, he notes the rapes of Theseus and Perithous (391c). Socrates connects this immoderation with Achilles’ disobedience to a god, the river Scamander (391b). See also 606 ff. 2 �authority to settle a colony, to found the new city of Magnesia. This second-best city in speech, is suspended somewhere between the best city simply, and the actual city that will be established. In the best city, “the things of friends are… common” as far as possible, or more than that: women, children, and property are held in common; nothing is “private,” everything is shared, even the things “private by nature” (739c). The laws make the city “come as close as possible to unity,” and they contain the most correct and most beautiful definition of “the extreme with respect to virtue” (739d). The best city cannot be realized; it is a “model” to be looked at. The Athenian stranger therefore sets out a second-best city that, while still aiming at virtue, is intended to be practicable. The second-best city allows the private by nature to remain private: there is marriage, according to personal likes and dislikes, and families hold real estate. In the second-best city, as in the best city, the poet is not permitted to create anything that differs from the city’s conventional and just version of the beautiful and the good.4 In laying out the education of citizens within the second-best city, the stranger therefore again prohibits tragedy, for reasons that I will go into later, but he “ordains in law” viewing comedy as part of the citizens’ education.5 “Someone who is going to become prudent can’t learn the serious things without learning the laughable… one should learn about the [laughable] things just for this reason… so that he may never do or say, through ignorance, anything that is ridiculous, if he doesn’t have to.”6 So this, in short, is my proposed path into thinking about the worth of comedy: if comedy and tragedy are equally prohibited in the best regime, why is comedy, but not tragedy, part of the education ordained in the second-best regime? I confess, this one observation is a small peg to hang my hat on; the comments about comedy in The Laws are brief and rare, and it is likely I will blow the whole thing out of proportion. I am not insensible to the audacity of holding The Republic and The Laws side-by-side for less than an hour—a proper treatment would be as long as either. Among my other sins, I will speak at length about a genre of 4 The Laws 801c-d, cf. 660a. The poet is not entirely able to understand what is good, and must be audited by the guardians of the laws. 5 The Laws, 816d-817d. On the incompleteness of the prohibition of tragedy, Strauss 1975, 112. 6 “Laughable” and “ridiculous” both translate geloios. 3 �literature without directly examining any work of literature in that genre: my wish is you may correct this fault for me in the question period. To get started, as a point of reference, I have to note another difference between the two dialogues. For both, there are four cardinal virtues: courage, justice, moderation, and wisdom.7 Moreover, the aim of the regime in each case is to establish not one of the virtues, but the whole of virtue at once. As we know, the entry point for discussion of the best regime (in The Republic) are questions about justice: what is justice? is justice nothing more than the advantage of the stronger? Is the just man happier, in himself, than the unjust, not taking into account any benefits of a good reputation? (Rep. 367a) By contrast, the discussion of the second-best regime begins by setting aside justice, focusing instead on courage and moderation. The stranger’s diversion from the path of The Republic could not be clearer: early in The Laws, the question is raised, are the good things in life—health, beauty, and wealth— good for only for the just [and pious], or also for the unjust? (661a-c) The stranger and his interlocutor are not able to come to an agreement: the Cretan insists that health, wealth, and tyranny can make one happy, even if one is unjust (661e).8 The argument nevertheless proceeds on the assumption, untested, that the unjust life is less pleasant than the just life: in other words, the whole argument of The Republic is bypassed.9 [As if to legitimate this path of the argument, the stranger suggests that justice in practice arises from a mixture of courage and moderation.]10 7 In The Laws, these are ranked lowest to highest; moderation outranks justice (631d, also 900e). Cf. Republic 427e ff. Note, comparing the two lists, prudence (phronesis) in The Laws takes the place of sophia in The Republic—a difference in context that warrants discussion (427e). 8 It would be more correct to say not that he asserts this to be true, but that he refuses to assent to the claim it is not true. He feels some shame about it. The Spartan may not agree with the Cretan on this point (696b). 9 Yet another essential difference, in The Laws, the lawgiver, at the moment of founding, will not change anything as regards the gods or temples (738c); the sectors assigned to the gods are laid out simultaneously as the plots of land are assigned to families (737e, 740b), in other words, the conventional gods are admitted at the same moment that the regime is acknowledged as second-best (739a). In The Republic, the philosophic critique of the traditional gods is accepted from the beginning, that is, assumed in the critique of epic poetry, long before the community of property or wives is revealed. 10 Laws 696c: the just does not grow apart from moderation. The view that justice is the advantage of the stronger appears much later (890a). 4 �Setting aside justice, The Laws begins instead from courage and moderation. The stranger is talking to a Spartan and a Cretan, and in their view, the natural state of things is endless war: war between cities, war within cities, and war within the self (625d-626d).11 On this hypothesis, virtue is victory over oneself (626e); in learning to withstand pains, fear, and suffering in the internal war, one becomes able to endure the same in external war: one thus acquires courage (630b-c). Focused on courage, the Dorian education does little to educate in the measured enjoyment of pleasures; in other words, the education is deficient on the side of moderation (634c).12 Courage and moderation thus come to sight as complementary virtues: courage enables one to boldly endure pains and fears; with moderation, one enjoys appropriate pleasures without becoming captive to them. Courage is useful in war; the pleasures enjoyed in moderation are generally found in peace. Since war puts the existence of the city as a whole at risk, courage gains great honors; the domain of moderation is the private life, the dining room and the bedroom; hidden from view, the practice of moderation earns no accolades (696d). No awards are given for eating healthily or drinking without effect on one’s faculties. As complementary virtues, having courage without moderation is analogous to being right-handed or left-handed: imbalance is common and perhaps natural;13 few human beings are ambidextrous; few are as moderate as they are courageous, or vice versa (634a). In the case of handedness, in fact, ambidexterity often provides no great practical advantage—doing something with both hands equally is often no more effective than doing it with one or the other—so a modest imbalance is easily endured. Differences in handedness are slight by nature: it is only long, consistent habituation to one-hand or the other for a particular practice that exaggerates the difference and makes us “like cripples” in the off-hand (794e; cf. 781c).14 11 The stranger later suggests that the Dorians are not wrong to attribute a primacy to courage at the origins of the city, as terror is the general condition at the emergence of the city (791e). 12 Gymnastic training may provide some assistance in resisting pleasures (636a, 647d). The stranger notes outstanding athletes who, for the love of victory, practiced moderation in subordination to their gymnastic activities (840a-c). 13 Magnificence and courage are masculine-looking, the orderly and the moderate “should be proclaimed, in legal convention and speech,” as feminine (802e). To my mind, the guarded way in which this is stated suggests some uncertainty about the degree to which any differences in gender are by nature. 14 There is nothing in playing the lyre that requires the instrument to be held in the right hand or the left (Paul McCartney strung his bass backwards). In this passage, the stranger is speaking about handedness and 5 �With the virtues, great imbalances entail significant risks: a very courageous man, capable of enduring great fear and pain, may be bold enough to seek, obtain, and indulge in great pleasures; he may be sufficiently fearless to be immune to shame, and prone to licentiousness or tyranny (661e). Conversely, the moderation man of peace may lack the capacity for selfdefense and boldness in danger.15 Yet engaged with two Dorians, the stranger is principally concerned with how an education in courage may be defective with respect to moderation (635b-e). In drawing the Dorians to consider an education in moderation, the stranger tells what he calls “the myth of virtue,” a metaphor for the soul. Each “living being” is a divine puppet, a marionette; he says, moreover, we do not know whether the puppet is, “put together for [the gods’] play or for some serious purpose” (644d). The tendons or cords on the puppet are the passions, jerking our limbs this way and that; the cords are strong as iron, with one exception: there is a single soft and golden cord, the cord of reason [lit: calculation, logismos]. In this metaphor for the soul, reason is most valuable but weak, unable in itself to command or oppose any passion; furthermore, aside from the status of reason, there is no hierarchy in the soul, no ranking of threads; reason has no natural ally; to follow the thread of reason, passion must counterbalance passion. Take the passion of fear: one of our most common fears is the fear of what others might think of us, that is, shame (647a). Following the gentle, golden cord of reason, one tries to have fear and fearlessness, pain and pleasures, each in the right measure, balancing them off one another (cf. 636d). In a tense balance, the person acting from shame contemns pleasures while secretly desiring them (656a). Virtue, by contrast, is a habituated harmony (symphonia) between the passions and reason (653b). Given that an education for courage exists in Sparta, and given that one can hardly point to a city famous for its analogous education in moderation, the education in moderation appears to be a greater challenge for the lawgiver. Pleasures and desires are no less challenging than pains and fears: [quote:] “every animal has a natural, erotic longing, is full of frenzy, and ambidexterity literally, in gymnastics, but the metaphorical interpretation clearly applies (cf. 794d, 796c, on Athena and gymnastic education for women; also 634a). 15 The Laws 814b. The strangers suggests that women who are not gymnastically trained are less able than females of other species to defend their young; their education has made them worse than they would be by nature. 6 �[it] refuses to listen if someone says it ought to do anything except satisfy the pleasures and desires… (782e).” Beyond the need for food and drink, the greatest need is the “erotic longing… which makes human beings burn with complete madness,” with “an insolent flame” (783a). In Sparta, the desire for food and drink is controlled through common meals, at least for the men: the bodily needs, generally satisfied in the privacy of one’s home where few can see what one does, are met instead in public, in the sight of fellow citizens, and are thus moderated by shame. What then, is to be done about the sharpest of the three needs, erotic longing? How can moderation be taught there? We might return from Sparta to Plato’s Republic, where the family is dispensed with altogether. There is no private property, no household, no exclusive marriage. Women are educated with men, and the guardians mate with guardians according to a lottery, or at the judgment of the rulers. The most intimate matters are laid bare to serve the city. Of course, in The Laws, it is the second-best city that is described; private property and exclusive marriage are preserved. And so alternative means are devised to bring private desire under public regulation: for example, to ensure that young people are well-matched in marriage, they participate in choral dances, naked, so that, on the wedding day, there are no surprises for the bride, the groom, or their families (771e-772a). He then flirts with the notion of the matching brides and grooms, each with those with opposite characters, drawing an analogy to mixing wine in order to make it less intoxicating (773d). Recognizing that this would be laughed at, or even make people angry, and he leaves it out of the law. The stranger later admits that the laws of the city can hardly educate in erotic matters without exercising a degree of control over private minutiae that is laughable and brings the law into ill-repute (789e-790a). What the city cannot control by explicit legislation, may perhaps be restrained through reverential awe. The lawgiver can “enslave a certain desire” by having everyone whatever hold the prohibition against it to be sacred—declaring the desire impious, shameful, and hateful to the gods (838c-d). When everyone, at all times, says the same things about that desire, the desire vanishes. To prove the point, he gives the example of incest: so uniform is the condemnation of it that there isn’t the “slightest desire for this sort of intercourse” (838b); it takes no great self-restraint to refrain from it even when we are unrestrained in other ways (838a). Even when it is spoken about, as in tragedies or comedies, the speeches have the effect 7 �of reinforcing the prohibition (838c).16 So reverential awe successfully instills self-restraint in erotic matters, at least in certain specific cases; it appears to be a functional substitute for the virtue of moderation. 17 The stranger notes, however, that it is very difficult to create new aweladen prohibitions (839d). Moreover, the effect of such prohibitions may be not to prevent the prohibited deeds altogether, but to ensure that they are well-concealed and never spoken of. If reverential awe were a sufficient solution to the problem of how to educate towards moderation, it is difficult to see why the lawgiver would ordain comedies by law, since comedies tend to give voice exactly to the shameful things that reverential awe covers in silence. In fact, comedy may put the conventional gods into question, attacking awe at its source. The thought that I have wanted to test is that comedy may be an alternative means to educate in moderation. Early in the book, before the description of the second-best regime begins, the stranger persuades the Dorians, contrary to their own educations, that a wellregulated drinking party would be a way to teach citizens the moderate enjoyment of private pleasures. Yet all discussion of the drinking parties disappears when the second-best regime is constructed in earnest; perhaps comedy has taken their place. But before looking at the all-toobrief defense of comedy, let us consider the adjacent discussion of tragedy. The entry point to the discussion of drama is a brief discussion of dance. The citizens practice “serious” dances, imitating noble bodies in solemn movements; they do not practice the dances that imitate shameful bodies in base motions (814e). Immediately thereafter, tragedy is called the “serious” form of poetry, leading one to suspect that it, too, will be admitted into the city. The stranger imagines the tragic poets coming to the city, whereupon he, speaking to them in voice of the lawgiver, says: “Best of strangers… we ourselves are poets, who have to the best of our ability created a tragedy that is the most beautiful and best; at any 16 The stranger adds: when incest is spoken of in tragedies, those who commit it punish themselves. Incest is spoken of in The Republic; does this work contradict the general observation made in The Laws? 17 I have played a little fast and lose here: in 838b-839d, the stranger speaks of the “art” of making the laws “sacred” (kathierow, to consecrate). I have assumed that the consecrated laws instill “the despotic mistress—Awe” (despotis… tis aidws) in the citizens, although awe is described rather earlier (698b). The stranger says that the early Athenians were “slaves to the laws” and therefore had a “strong sense of friendship” (698c, 699c), although, it seems, neither prudence nor freedom (comparing the Athenians with the account of the Persians at 694b; also, at 700e-701b, the Athenians gained freedom and lost their awe, becoming shameless and mindless). 8 �rate, our whole political regime is constructed as the imitation of the most beautiful and best way of life, which we at least assert to be the truest tragedy… You are poets… and we are your rivals as artists and performers of the most beautiful drama… so don’t suppose that we will ever easily… allow you to come among us” (817b-c). What could it mean that the city itself is the truest tragedy? That tragedy is an imitation of the life of a great and serious (spoudaios) person sounds familiar, yet nothing is said about what we might associate with tragedy, that the great person commits an error, that there is a reversal of fortune and a recognition of error (Poetics 1448a1, 1452a15). The city [regime] is a poem, an imitation of the most beautiful and best way of life, fated to fall. Falling short appears to be essential to the regime as such. As we have said, what is being described is the secondbest city, itself already a deliberate retreat from the best (739a). The thumbnail description of the best regime reminds us of The Republic, where two books are devoted to the description of the gradual degeneration of the best regime from a monarchy into timocracy, from timocracy into oligarchy, and so on, finally to tyranny. As each political arrangement coincides with a basic human type, the structure of a soul, the decline of the regime coincides with a decline of in the type of soul. The best regime is intended to reveal the soul of the just human being, and the descent from the best regime reveals the fall of the soul as well, slipping further from the highest form.18 Perhaps the regime is a tragedy, and the lawgivers are its poets, because however high it aims in educating and fostering the highest human types, it inevitably falls short of its goal, and the regime itself, and its citizens, decline. It is not quite right to say that the stranger excludes tragic poets from the second-best city, for the lawgivers themselves are tragic poets, and other poets, too, might be admitted if they conceived of the best and most beautiful life in the same way as the lawgivers. It is strange then that the citizens—who are themselves actors in the best and most beautiful tragedy, and who never (or rarely) view a tragedy besides their own—should then be spectators of comedy, viewing and laughing at “shameful bodies and thoughts.” Why is this? Let me give the all-tooeasy-answer first: the stranger says, “for someone who is going to become prudent can’t learn 18 A somewhat analogous degeneration of regimes is assumed The Laws as well. The stranger describes two fine historical regimes, Athens and Persia, a fine democracy and a fine monarchy, and subsequently explains how each degenerates into a different sort of tyranny. The accounts appear to fall in the genre of historical fiction. 9 �the serious things without learning the laughable, or, for that matter, anything without its opposite” (816d). The citizens learning to be serious (spoudaioi) must strive for what is noble and beautiful, and to do so, they should have some detached acquaintance with the shameful and the base, precisely as what is to be avoided. Each of the virtues has shameful vices associated with it that could find their way into comedy—cowardice or injustice, for example— yet moderation seems to be the virtue that deals most of all with the shameful and the base, the things that we strive most to conceal. Recall that in the best regime, the private functions in which the desires are most powerful—food, drink, and sex—are brought out into the public; the private is eliminated so that all the citizens can be united in their pains and pleasures (464a). The functions, in themselves, are not beautiful, and it is not easy to see how they could be performed in a beautiful or noble way.19 Comedy brings them out into the open: one sees in the light of day the madness of erotic longing, gluttony, avarice, distorted bodily functions, the ugly or the low in excess. Yet while shame is itself painful—it is the pain of having our faults revealed that induces us to fight against some pleasures—laughter is pleasurable. In comedy we contemplate varying degrees of the shameful with delight, in others, at a distance, perhaps with a slight sense of superiority, but knowing we are not so far from the faults we observe. This account, even if it is correct, is not sufficient. This apology for comedy accepts an entirely conventional notion of what is laughable and shameful. Shame suppresses and conceals desire; comedy becomes a means for revealing what is concealed, letting it be uncomfortably seen, sharing in the pleasure of scorn, while still tacitly allowing that concealment and suppression is proper. By this account, the laughable reinforces the conventional notion of the shameful.20 One might then ask: if this were true, why might it be better to educate in moderation through comedy than through reverential awe? The latter suppresses speech about the shameful; the former gives voice to the shameful, brings it to sight, dwells in it. It titillates as it chastises, it contemplates the shameful, with embarrassment and with pleasure. Comedy could loosen the hold of shame and awe, in thought if not in deed.21 19 I am thinking of Aristotle’s treatment of moderation, in which, compared to the other ethical virtues, the beautiful plays a very small role. It appears only once, at the very end (1119b16). 20 Benardete 1989, 115. 21 By analogy, the stranger says that one should never joke with domestic servants (oiketes), as it renders them less ready to be ruled (778a). 10 �We have to go further into the variability in the laughable or the shameful. It was noted already that the stranger, insofar as he is speaking as a lawgiver, is a poet, the author of the truest tragedy.22 If we take the narrative as a poem, one notes that the features of any regime that would trigger laughter change; what the listener might find shameful or base changes. Each step one takes from the common regimes, to the arguably better ones, involves proposing something laughable, often so laughable, that the step is thought to be impossible. If one were to propose to an existing regime that all of the men should take their meals in common, separated from their families, from their wives and children, in order to strengthen their education, not just in their youth but throughout their lives, most humans would find this absurd, not to be taken seriously, and not practicable, or at least not sustainable. And yet, as the stranger points out, this was the way that the Spartans [and Cretans] had lived, for generations, so that to them there would be nothing remarkable in it.23 The next step, which is said to be correct according to nature (780c), would be to ordain that women as well as men share in common meals—for it does little good to bring men’s lives into order through the practice, and to leave the lives of women, private and concealed from the public, in comparative disorder. Yet this, too, is laughable—laughable especially for the Spartan used to common meals for men alone—it is laughable to compel “the race of women” to be “dragged by force into the light” so that their public education be the same as men’s, when they have heretofore been “habituated… [to] an indoor way of life” (781c).24 Of course, while common meals are foreign to us (except in rare circumstances) as far as the education of women is concerned, for us, here and now, the opposite is true: it would be shameful to exclude women from public events, or from the education that goes with them, but to force them back into an entirely private existence. 22 See also The Laws 811c, where the stranger, not as a putative lawgiver in an existing city, but as someone who only discourses about the laws, says he speaks as a poet. 23 The stranger says that the institution, at its beginning, aroused “amazement” (780b). Laughter is mentioned later. The laughable and the amazing seem related, as the word for “puppet” (thauma) means something that is wonderous or amazing. 24 Benardete (2000) points out that common meals for women are separate from those for men (211; 806d-e). 11 �At this point the stranger’s theme becomes the malleability of customs and the customary sense of shame, but in order to emphasize the malleability of customs, he dives behind this to the variability of nature itself. He quickly notes, for example, that the climate has gone through revolutions, and animals have gone through many transformations (782a). So it should not be surprising if customary human practices should also have gone through strange but great changes, such as the severity of human sacrifice, on the one hand, and the gentleness of abstaining from animal flesh, on the other (782c). We laugh when our sense of shame is violated, but we don’t know at first chuckle whether the laughable in each case is something merely unfamiliar and contrary to custom, or unnatural or impossible: we would have to know whether our hypothetically violated convention is aligned with or opposed to nature, and for this we would need to know the natural with some degree of certainty. As the stranger pulls apart the conventional and the natural, and attributes to both some degree of variability, he presses on to still more laughable political measures. The stranger proposes that midwives be appointed to enter into the homes of newlyweds, to observe them and to make sure that their frenzied erotic longings are satisfied in a way that they apply “intelligence” to the procreative act (783e-784c).25 (What this means is not explained.) If the young people do something sinful or foolish, the midwives may exhort or threaten them (784c) and report them at the temple of Artemis. The stranger lays out these practices in apparent seriousness, yet one assumes with some sense of humor. If dining and sex are both generally private, certainly moving private dining out into the public could not more laughable than inserting public authorities into the bedroom. In order to follow this pattern, in which laughable measures are proposed for the sake of improving the city, one must pass briefly from discussion of the second-best regime, to the best-regime simply, from the The Laws to The Republic. As all readers of the dialogue know, in the “women’s drama,” Socrates is compelled by his interlocutors to consider several practices that are progressively more radical than anything in The Laws, practices that, according to 25 Great pleasure leads to insolence and mindlessness (637a, 641b). The stranger digresses in order to explain the plausibility of including women in the common meals, but then postpones completion of the discussion about common meals in order to discuss procreation. It seems the arrangement of the common meals must be guided by and arrangement concerning procreation, but the latter is never sufficiently defined to lead back to the former. 12 �Socrates himself, ought to elicit waves of laughter: (1) that women, together with men, young and old (!), should exercise naked, sharing in the same education (452b; cf. The Laws), (2) that all wives and children should be held in common, so that no parent will know its offspring, and no child will know its specific parents (457d), and, finally, (3) that the philosophers rule as kings, or that kings philosophize (473c). 26 The laughable character of each wave appears confirmed by the way Socrates’ speeches cut across the plays of Aristophanes: first, the Assemblywomen, in which the Athenian women, posing as men, come to rule the city and abolish private property as well as the nuclear family, and second, The Clouds, where the extreme privacy and the political ineptness of the philosopher are put on display. The first two waves of Socrates’s discourse—the commonality of property and families—take the risk of entertaining seriously what was perfectly farcical in the hands of Aristophanes, while the third wave flies in the face of Aristophanes’ farce, to entertain in thought what even the comic poet would put beyond laughable. The ascent through the progressively more laughable proposals is simultaneously an ascent, according to the arguments, towards what is best for the city: a city in which the relation among its parts shows forth, writ large, the structure of a soul that possesses all of the virtues (427e); a city in which citizens share all pleasures and pains, and which is therefore the most unified (462b); and a city in which the rulers have knowledge, rather than opinion, of the good. It seems necessary, in the wake of each eruption of laughter, to pause to take seriously the laughable, in order to think what is natural, best, or highest. Although the stranger—speaking in the person of the lawgiver—has referred to himself as a rival to the tragic poets, the fact that the ascent involves repeated consideration of the laughable might make his poem appear comic more that tragic. In fact, somewhat prior to the discussion of comedy and tragedy, the stranger upsets the two Dorians by treating lawgiving not as a serious enterprise, but as a kind of play, thus, elevating play over politics generally. “The affairs of human beings are not worthy of great seriousness; yet it is necessary to be serious about them” (803b). “I assert that what is serious should be treated seriously, and what 26 Only at the third wave does Socrates explicitly call it a wave of laughter. In the present reading, I am struck by how little Glaucon is inclined to laugh at these proposals which Socrates anticipates as laughable. 13 �is not serious should not, and that by nature god is worthy of complete, blessed seriousness, but… what is human, as we said earlier, has been devised as a certain plaything of god, and that this is really the best thing about it. Every man and woman should spend life in this way, playing the noblest possible games, and thinking about them in a way that is the opposite of the way they [are] now thought about” (803c). In the common opinion, war is the most serious human affair: the trial of war requires boldness, virtue, and endurance. Yet, also in the common opinion, war is for the sake of peace, and peace gives us time for recreation and play (803d). In the common view, the high perversely serves the low. The stranger rectifies this, letting the low serve the high, elevating the play of peace over the toil of war. The most serious thing is education, the kinds of play that form one’s character; because the things that appear to be play are, in fact, the most serious, one should spend one’s life at peace as far as possible. In singing, dancing, and sacrificing, humans, “live out their lives in accordance with the way of nature, being puppets, for the most part, but sharing in small portions of the truth” (804b). At this point, the stranger does not explain the connection between the seriousness of god and the seriousness of human play. The Spartan, not surprisingly, is alarmed by stranger’s assertion: “you are belittling our human race,” literally, “you are making [humanity] base” (phaulos), making it fit for comedic scorn. And why not? If the human is a divine puppet, a marionette, a plaything of the gods, one might say that humans are merely players in the comedy of the god.27 Puppet shows are entertainments for mere children, beneath even the youths who prefer comedy (658c). Yet confronted by the Spartan’s sudden indignant outburst, the stranger does relent: “Don’t be amazed… but forgive me! For I was looking away toward the god… let our race be something… not base then, if it is dear (philos) to you, but worthy of certain seriousness” (804b, trans. modified). The stranger says we do not know whether we puppets are put together for a serious or playful purpose, and so the discourse itself toggles back and forth—the stranger says human 27 Russon: since the stranger says the human is “devised as a plaything (paignion) of the god,” and Liddel and Scott (1940) suggests “comedy” as a possible translation of paignion (citing Laws 816e; Pangle, “the play that provokes laughter”; Bury, “laughable amusements”), this passage might be translated, the human is “devised as a comedy of the god” (in Recco/Sanday 2013, 153). In the four types of entertainment—puppet shows, comedies, tragedies, and epic—clearly puppet shows and comedies stand close to one another, as do tragedies and epics. 14 �things are not worthy of great seriousness, and yet also says that is it necessary to be serious about them, in measure. In investigating the worth of play, let me not be understood to say that we can afford not to take human affairs, including war, seriously—daily events testify to the compulsion to do so. In the course of this oscillation, however—first attributing seriousness to human affairs, then likening them to a puppet show, only to take them seriously again—the degree of seriousness is diminished. This toggling is apparent in how the narrative of the book itself is appraised. Is it serious or playful? As mentioned before, coincidentally, the Cretan has been appointed to found a new city (702b). Magnesia will have the laws of Crete, although the Cretan will adopt better laws if he can find them, and so he is eager for the three of them to construct the city in speech as a resource for his actual political work. The actual city is a test, a confirmation or a refutation (elenchus), of the city in speech (702b); by this account, the city, Magnesia, is the serious work, the proof which then elevates the discourse from being a mere prudent game for old men to “a serious pursuit for real men” (769a).28 The stranger takes a different stance: the stranger is happy to take on the part of the lawgiver, for example, in his fictive conversation with the tragic poets, but when he is asked by Cretan to join them in Magnesia as an actual lawgiver, he responds with silence (969d). He is not a lawgiver, he only plays one. The stranger better appreciates the distance between their discourse and the city: when setting out the city in speech, one can assume that whatever is said is realized according to one’s thought (736b). The lawgiver of the city in speech has a freedom “in act” that only a tyrant could have in a city in deed (710a, cf. 711d, 735d). In speech one can enact the laughable, even the impossible. If one looks away from the obstructing circumstances, describing the city is like telling a dream (746a). Even the second-best city, with its concessions to necessity, is still only a model (746b). It is a “moderate game” for old men (paidian sophrona; 685a),29 a “mythic legend” (mythologia; 752a), or an elaborate “painting” that is never quite finished, always needing a little more detail (769d).30 28 The toggling between taking politics seriously and taking it as a moderate game is intended to mirror the earlier described balance of courage and moderation, that is, not to be excessively right-handed or left-handed. 29 Cf. 769a, a “prudent game” of old men (emphron paidia). 30 The stranger says that he would never voluntarily leave the mythologia unfinished. But when he likens their discourse to a painting, he says it is necessary to leave parts undone for others to finish. Cf. 889d ff., for a discussion of which arts follow nature to a greater degree, and which to a lesser (e.g., farming, medicine, or 15 �In the serious view of politics, human beings are credited with greater agency over their common life. In this mode, one would say that a wise lawgiver such as Lycurgus saw the benefit of citizens eating together, both for the purpose of combatting luxury and for making the citizens feel pleasures and pains in common. If, by contrast, one views the human being as a divine puppet, a plaything, human agency is obviously diminished. When the stranger discusses the founding of Sparta, he never names Lycurgus, and he attributes essential elements of the regime to chance. For example, he says that the practice of common meals arose under some accidental necessity, lost to history (691b-692a; 780b).31 The scope of the art of lawgiving is narrowed. Which is worthier of greater seriousness, the founding of the city of Magnesia, or the moderate game of old men, a poem of spinning out laws in the best form that they can conceive? The ascent in words alone from an existing regime to the best is a step-wise progress through the progressively more laughable, a moderate game of thinking through how (and whether) the city can imitate or realize the best and most beautiful life. For the actual lawgivers and statesmen who bring into existence and sustain a city, as an imitation of the best and most beautiful life, the story is a tragedy, the truest tragedy. Each step down the ladder of regimes involves a failure of politics to imitate or realize human excellence. The more seriously we take political affairs, and the effort to build the regime in a way that realizes human excellence, the more lawgiver and statesmen become poets and actors in a tragedy. Yet the stranger in invites his interlocutors to invert their viewpoint, to see the ladder of regimes not as a tragic descent, but as a comic ascent. The narrative is a prudent game, occasionally comic and certainly playful, even if the difficulties or impossibilities that prompt our laughter and amazement are also the stuff of tragedy.32 If the city is already in some sense a tragedy, one might see the the utility of gymnastics vs. painting, music, or lawgiving). If this is the view of stranger, nature may not tightly constrain law or convention, which is why the laughable may be contrary to convention but not nature. Some caution is warranted here: the stranger may be paraphrasing the atheist on a view that is in need of correction. 31 The Cretan accepts this explanation of common meals without objection, even though the dialogue begins under the pretext that Minos gave the laws of Crete under the guidance of Zeus. The Spartan is silent. Cf. 709a-b: “no human being ever legislates anything”! In reference to Sparta, the stranger attributes the character of the regime to “a god” (i.e., to the chance birth of twin princes), and to an unnamed man mixed with some divine power (Lycurgus?) who established the senate and the Ephors. The scope of the art of legislation is narrowed, but not nothing. 32 Influenced here by Benardete 1989, 115: “The laugh, Socrates had implied, always signals tragedy.” 16 �contemplating comedy, if it frees one to pry into shameful and the laughable, searching for what is best beyond familiar convention and to the limits of nature, to think through what is best, without grief, even if impracticable or impossible. How does all this pertain to an education for moderation? If we return to the “myth of virtue,” the metaphor of the living being as a divine puppet, one notices something peculiar. As noted before, under the Spartan notion of virtue, focused as it is on courage, virtue is ‘victory over oneself.’ Virtue in this account requires a hierarchical account of soul: victory is virtue only if the victorious part is better. Yet the Dorians give no account of the soul distinguishing the better and worse parts, and no account of how the better gains leverage over the worse. In the picture of the soul given by the stranger—the divine puppet—there is hierarchy only insofar the thread of reason is golden, but not insofar as any part has leverage over any other. In leading the Dorians to consider an education aiming at moderation no less than courage, he gives a picture of the soul in which “victory over oneself” is impossible.33 Indeed, to state what has been obvious, yet too easy to pass by, if we take the myth of the divine puppet seriously, it is not clear that one has a particular power or agency through which to attain virtue. Perhaps we have it only if the playing-gods give it to us. When the stranger first pushes back against the Cretan, questioning whether virtue can be understood as victory over oneself, he asks: in a civil war, which is better? A conquest in which the victor destroys or purges the conquered? Or a reconciliation, where a judge brings the good and the wicked into peace and friendship (628a-b)? Friendship is preferred. As noted before, virtue is said to be a habituated harmony, or the consonance of reasons with pleasures and likings, with pains and hatreds (653b). Internal friendship or consonance sounds like a low state, but it is the necessary condition for prudence, the highest of the four virtues. Even if one 33 Cf. Republic 430e. Socrates introduces his discovery of moderation in the constructed city by pointing out the ridiculousness of being “stronger than oneself” because one is therefore also “weaker than oneself.” Here, moderation in particular is called a kind of harmony (431e); this virtue does not reside in a part, but stretches through the whole. In The Laws, the stranger says the myth of virtue makes “somewhat clearer” what “superior to oneself” means: it says what the best part is, but not how it acquires superiority. Perhaps I am not clear enough: I mean to contrast the hierarchical picture of the tripartite soul in The Republic, where the focus lies on justice, with less structured picture of the divine puppet in The Laws, where the focus lies on moderation. 17 �has speed and agility in figuring things out, cleverness is still “ignorance” when there is no consonance among pleasures, pains, and reason; it is an ignorance not of the reasoning part narrowly, but an ignorance of the soul as a whole (689a-d). Prudence is not a distinct faculty or specific power of the soul, but a virtue of the whole, an acquired condition of it. Thinking well does not enter and conquer the soul like a general at war, but arises out of and gains strength from the friendly balance of pleasures and pains, good and bad. The stranger goes so far as to say that lawgiver who aims at friendship, at moderation, and at prudence, aims at one and the same thing (693c), eliding the differences between them.34 This is an excellence of soul befitting a divine puppet, but to view the human as a divine puppet is to view human affairs staged more as comedy than tragedy. Conversely, contemplating comedy may enable one to view human affairs in the right frame of mind, being ready to make peace and friendship between the high and the low, the noble and the base, to bring the threads into consonance. In this sense, the acquisition of prudence depends on viewing and learning the laughable. The climax of the dialogue ends with an excessively subtle joke. For reasons too many to explain, the stranger proposes that a prison be established for atheists who come in a variety of kinds. Some, although just by nature, are frank in speech about their atheism and spread impiety by means of ridicule; others are unrestrained in their passions and full of guile; they are agile learners with strong memories (908c).35 The prison is near to where officials of the city, the guardians of the education, meet privately at night to discuss the sufficiency and goodness of the laws.36 The proximity of the prison to the council enables these city officials to converse with the imprisoned atheists. They discuss at length whether the gods exist and why, whether they care for human things, and whether they can be persuaded by prayers (885b). The arguments about the gods, conducted in private, are like a swift river that is dangerous to 34 Eliding the difference between sophrosune and phronesis. To be fair, the stranger also suggests that his argument lacks precision at this point; a more precise account would delineate the differences. Yet I take seriously the possibility that prudence is a virtue, not a faculty, that it has to be attained by the soul as a whole, and that intelligence is also not a faculty, but something to be prayed for (687e). 35 They are frank in speech about the gods, sacrifices, and oaths. Ridicule, katagelaw, is to laugh down at. 36 It turns out that the most secretive element in the second-best city is, strangely, the feature best-known about the book, it’s worst kept secret, and I assume, not by accident. 18 �enter; one has to be strong enough to ford it (892d-e). My description does little to convey how puzzling all this is. The prison is called “the moderation-place,” and as the conversations are said to be theological, one might wonder why the explicit outcome is moderation. Of the two kinds of prisoners, one sounds like he might be a comic poet: frank in speech, naturally just, and full of ridicule, the comedic prisoner is in the “moderation-place” although he may not be in need of moderation.37 When the stranger first called living beings “divine puppets,” one imagined Olympian gods pulling the threads, the way Aphrodite revenged herself upon Hippolytus by setting Phaedra aflame, or the way Oedipus sought in vain to evade the oracle. Yet in order to defend the existence of gods, the stranger argues for a different sort of god; he argues that, among all bodies, there exists a self-moving motion that is prior to all other motions, and prior to that first motion there exists soul. The existence of the gods is defended; the Olympian deities are not. In addition, the gods are not moved by prayer. These inquiries appear to be the singing, dancing, and sacrificing that is the most serious play (804b). It is natural for humans to pray that all things come about in accord with their will (lit: command; 687c), but this may prove unwise, as when Theseus begged Poseidon for revenge upon Hippolytus. The stranger says it is better not to pray unless one prays with prudence, or perhaps one should pray simply to possess intelligence (687e, 688c). In the end, we are divine puppets not because the playful-gods pull on our threads, but because, despite our limited agency and lowly status—comically pulled toand-fro by passions—we may think our way, with as much precision as we can muster, to questions about the divine, about the first things. If there are puppeteers at all, they appear to be the poets and their rivals, the poetizing lawgivers. The excessively subtle joke is that Plato coins a word, sophronisterion, the “moderationplace,” to echo a joke from Aristophanes’ The Clouds, in which Socrates and his students live in the phrontisterion, the “thinking-place.” In the thinking-place what do we see? An analysis of how far a flea can jump, the denial of Zeus’s existence,38 and how to win unjust lawsuits by 37 The first is called just by nature, the second is said to have good disposition by nature, euphues, that is, naturally clever. Perhaps the comic poet has elements of both kinds of atheists (if the types can be blended), in which case he would be in need of moderation. There are, in fact, three prisons; I have described only the second; it is not clear how the different kinds of atheists are distributed among the prisons. 38 In favor of Vortex (Whirl, 380) or Chaos (Void, 424)? 19 �specious arguments. Here a youth is corrupted and becomes insolent, willing to beat his father, and, as a result, the vindictive father destroys the Thinking-place. In the Moderation-place, by contrast, the conversation of adults with incontinent youths leads [sometimes] to moderation, to the salvation of souls (909a). The Thinking-place is dangerous to the city; the Moderationplace may be the salvation of it. While the comic poet jokingly placed the philosopher in a house destroyed by lawless vengeance, the philosopher, in turn, put the comic poet in a prison where he could converse with the best men of the city, or, perhaps, so they could converse with him.39 There is so much I do not understand about this last little game, yet it might be said at least that the philosopher thought better of the comic poet than the poet of the philosopher. Sources consulted: Benardete, Seth. Socrates’ Second Sailing: on Plato’s Republic. University of Chicago Press, 1989. Benardete, Seth. Plato’s Laws: The Discovery of Being. The University of Chicago Press, 2000. Plato. The Laws of Plato. Trans. Thomas Pangle. University of Chicago Press, 1980. Plato. The Republic of Plato. Trans. Allan Bloom. Basic Books: New York, 1968. Recco, Gregory, and Eric Sanday, eds. Plato’s Laws: Force and Truth in Politics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013. Strauss, Leo. The Argument and the Action of Plato’s Laws. University of Chicago Press, 1975. 39 Since the atheist I am calling the poet is not unjust or incontinent, he does not appear to be in need of an education in moderation; that seems to belong to the clever, guileful, dissembler instead. Perhaps it is only the frankness of his speech that requires moderation? Or perhaps the comic poet is a blend of the two atheists. 20 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 20 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Comedy and the Virtue of Divine Puppets Description An account of the resource Typescript of a lecture delivered on August 27, 2021 by Joseph Macfarland as part of the Formal Lecture Series. First formal lecture of the academic year, previously referred to as the Dean's Lecture, but now called the Christopher B. Nelson Lecture. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Macfarland, Joseph C. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-08-27 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a typescript of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Comedy Plato. Laws Plato. Republic Virtue Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Macfarland_Joseph_2021-08-27_Typescript https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d6f39725ddb1828610067938a0bf60e7.mp4 0777bfd32b8c3ac1c3295150f7430cbb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Description An account of the resource Speeches, presentations, and other lectures given at St. John's College. These include convocation addresses delivered in both Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Speeches, presentations, and other lectures" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=15">Items in the Speeches, presentations, and other lectures Collection</a></strong> to <span>view and sort all items in the collection.</span> Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context speechespresentationsotherlectures Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:47:50 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource America and Russia in the Information Environment: How to Survive in Today’s Social Media Battlefield Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered on April 21, 2021 by Dr. David V. Gioe as part of the LCDR Erik S. Kristensen Lecture Series. David Gioe is an Assistant Professor of History at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a History Fellow for the Army Cyber Institute, and, currently, a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London. In his Global Professorship at King’s College, he is examining why and how state intelligence services have harnessed emerging technologies – social media platforms in particular – to shape the information environment for strategic ends. This interdisciplinary project applies intelligence history, strategic studies and technological perspectives to evaluate and to counter influence operations that seek to advance state security interests in an asymmetric manner short of war. Gioe was an intelligence officer, serving as a counterterrorism analyst and serving multiple overseas tours as an operations officer. His articles have appeared The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The National Interest, and Foreign Policy. The lecture is part of a joint lectures series between St. John's College and the U.S. Naval Academy to honor the memory of Lieutenant Commander Erik S. Kristensen. An alumnus of the United States Naval Academy and the St. John's College Graduate Institute, Kristensen, a Navy SEAL, was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan in 2005. This lecture series aims to create even greater ties between the two schools, as well as to educate the public about civil-military relations and the place of the liberal arts in the education of naval and military professions. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gioe, David, 1977- Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-04-21 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John’s College permission to make a recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library. To make a recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Disinformation National security Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Macfarland, Joseph C. Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Gioe_David_2021-04-21 Kristensen lecture series U.S. Naval Academy https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/e1ecacb0e3e43a8e8e45e5813ea1e07e.mp4 0def74d543ce1b54f9b0582306498163 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series Description An account of the resource The Wednesday Night Lecture Series, hosted during the summer term by the Graduate Institute at St. John’s College in Annapolis, is a less-formal version of the college’s formal Friday Night Lectures. The Wednesday Night lectures are an opportunity for tutors and for graduates of the college who are pursuing academic careers to present the first fruits of their thinking to an attentive and inquisitive audience. The lectures, held in the King William Room of the Barr-Buchanan Center at 7:30 p.m., with a question period afterward in a neighboring classroom, are free and open to the public.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a title="Summer lecture series" href="https://www.sjc.edu/annapolis/events/lectures/summer-wednesday-night-lecture-series" target="_blank">St. John's College website</a></strong>.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=31">Items in the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Zoom video conference Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:03:34 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Permanent Crisis: The Humanities in a Disenchanted Age Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture by Professor Chad Wellmon of the University of Virginia, held on June 23, 2021 as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series. <br /><br />Professor Wellmon describes his lecture: "The humanities didn't come into their own, didn't become modern, until relatively recently, when scholars began to frame their previously disparate practices and ideals as a unique and unified resource for resolving crises of meaning and value that threatened other cultural or social goods. This new self-understanding of the modern humanities didn’t merely take shape in response to a perceived crisis, it justified itself in terms of crisis. The modern humanities are always in crisis because their defenders and detractors alike have needed them to be. <br /><br /><em>Permanent Crisis</em> is neither a call to action nor an apology. It is a work of historical scholarship and conceptual inquiry that shows how claims of crisis are not only older than we think, but also have played a crucial role in grounding the idea that the humanities have a special mission. In uncovering this history, <em>Permanent Crisis</em> highlights continuities and transformations that extend from early nineteenth-century Prussia to the twenty-first-century United States. It shows how the very processes that have allowed the modern humanities to flourish and attain social and institutional value—democratization, secularization, institutional rationalization—have also consistently imperiled them. In this talk, Chad Wellmon will offer an overview of <em>Permanent Crisis</em> and suggest why its story offers reasons for hope in what might otherwise seem like the twilight of liberal learning." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Wellmon, Chad, 1976- Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-06-23 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Signed permissions form have been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Humanities Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Langston, Emily Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Wellmon_Chad_2021-06-23 Graduate Institute Summer lecture series https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/b6b50290f2bf08b23c0b09a5067e5e85.pdf 74038a96af953c82c5fe4e22a60cafa5 PDF Text Text �On O’Connor “The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time andplace and eternity somehow meet. His problem is tofind that location. ” STJOHN’S College ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE lannery O’Connor’s fiction tends to elicit strong reactions from her F readers. Some object to the mixture of comedy and pathos (country girl wooed for her wooden leg) and the blend of the mundane and shocking (senseless violence emerges from a clear blue day on a lonely country The College (usps 018-750) is published quarterly by St. John’s College, Annapohs, MD and Santa Fe, NM readers was uncomfortable. OthersCeorgia, are entirely devoted toon hertoand will Mary Flannery O’Connor born in Savannah, in 1925, went earn a read and re-read her fiction, prose, and letters, even as they feel the discomfort sociology degree at the Georgia State College for Women, and studied at the Iowa Writer’s Known office of publication: Communications Office St. John’s College Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404-2800 and discordance witnesses to anfirst accident to beLiterary lookingconnections so closely. In the interest Workshop, whereofshe began her novel. ashamed Wise Blood. made in Iowa, of full editors of’sThe Colleger admit to in devotion: wc She havewas been scheming to get who and disclosure, later at the the Yaddo writer colony, helped her her career. a devout Catholic Periodicals postage paid at Annapolis, MD road). The freaks, misfits, and fools who populate her world make many O ’Connor on the cover for now, and here is in her rightful corresponded regularly witha while Thomas Merton, theshe Trappist monk who place. shared her love of writing along with her deep faith. She suffered from lupus, the wasting disease that killed her father when she was 15. (It left her near death in 1950.) She was proud of being a Southerner and loved many aspects of the quiet rural life she was forced to live in Milledgeville because her illness left her dependent on her mother’s care. On the family’s dairy farm, she raised peafowl that dined on her mother’s Herbert Hoover roses. She wrote, she explained, because she had a gift lor it. O’Connor wa.s often amused by those critics who tried to label her. She argued eloquently with those who insisted that something “socially uplifting’’ must come from fiction: “The novelist must be characterized not by his function but by his vision, and we must remember that his vision has to be transmitted and that the limitations and blind spots of his audience will very definitely affect the way he is able to show what he sees” {Mystery and Manners}. The focus of this issue, “Revelation,” was one of her last stories, published a few months before she died on Aug. 3,196/,. We know from her letters that the story was inspired by a visit to the doctor’s office and that she wasn’t making fun of her protagonist or offering her up for scorn: “I like Mrs. Turpin as well as Mary Grace. You got to be a very big woman to shout at the Lord across a hogjten” {The Habit ofBeingY O’Connor made her first appearance on the Read­ ing List of St. John’s College in 1989 with “Everything that Rises Must Converge.” Throughout the years, the standard reading has been “Parker’s Back.” In addition to paying homage to a favorite Program author. The College accomplishes another important goal in this issue by showing off the tutors and the interesting things they have to say when we give them a chance. We posed a question about the short story “Revela­ tion” to a group of tutors from both campuses, and they approached it with zeal. (Advancement vice president Barbara Goyette, A73, wa.s inspired by a church sermon to contribute an essay.) To get the most from this feature, read or revisit “Revelation” before exploring these essays. -RH Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. postmaster: Annapolis 410-626-2539 reharty@sjca.edu Rosemary Harty, editor Sussan Borden, managing editor Jennifer Behrens, art director Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Barbara Goyette Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Jo Ann Mattson Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 alumni@sjcsf.edu John Hartnett, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board Michael Franco David Levine Andra Maguran Margaret Odell Roxanne Seagraves Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �"I “I v„. College The ZINE FOR Alumni of t St. John’s College Annapolis • {Contents} PAGE JO DEPARTMENTS Revelations a FROM THE BELL TOWERS A routine visit to a doctor’s office ends in a painful revelation for a self-satisfied farmer’s wife. But what is really being revealed? Pondering Flannery O’Connor’s “Revelation.” • • • • • • Santa Fe Initiative invests in student life. A new Web site debuts. Johnnies and Journalism Mids and Johnnies on Thoreau Middle States affirms accreditation. Wine, art, and conversation PAGE 2izj. 9 LETTERS The Habit oe Writing PAGE la Chris Lynch (A87) on Machiavelli’s Art of War A GI alumna considers the lost art and missed opportunities of letter writing. PAGE 30 BIBLIOFILE 35 ALUMNI NOTES 2i6 PROFILES 31 Tias Little (EC98) brings Eastern classics to yoga. 34 Ben Bloom (A97) finds fame. 38 Owen Kelley (A93) pursues monster hurricanes. The Mind in Winter The challenges of the examined life keep Johnnies young. PAGE Zj.6 41 STUDENT VOICES Summer at Stag’s Leap Is wanting good grades a bad thing for Johnnies? Fine wine, good company, and seminars make a traditional Northern Cahfornia chapter event a popular summer tradition. 44 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS 48 ST. John’s forever PAGE 46 ON THE COVER Flannery O 'Connor Illustration by David Johnson �{From the Bell Towers} The Santa Fe Initiative Concerned by the toll deferred maintenance was beginning to take on the Santa Fe campus, the college’s Management Committee came up with a comprehensive plan: the Santa Fe Initiative, a $4.5 miUion investment in buildings and grounds, improved staffing in the areas of student life, and immediate upgrades to two of the campus’ six laboratories. When he unveiled the commit­ tee’s initiative to the college’s Board of Visitors and Gover­ nors, Annapolis President Christopher Nelson, interim president in Santa Fe, received a standing ovation from the board. The reception from tutors at a Santa Fe faculty meeting was equally enthusiastic. For Nelson, serving as interim president of the Santa Fe campus in addition to his regular duties in Annapolis, the need for an immediate injection of capital to the Western cam­ pus was apparent. Even as the college plans a Capital Cam­ paign to fund a strategic plan of long-needed initiatives such as raising faculty salaries, Santa Fe’s needs couldn’t wait. Nelson had already seen what could happen to a campus during lean years: the Annapolis campus found it expensive and time­ consuming to catch up on main­ tenance deferred when funding for improvements was unavail­ able in the early 1990s. “With the Santa Fe initiative we are jump-starting a program of improving opportunities for students outside the classroom and for the improvement of buildings and grounds,” says Nelson. “This is just the start of what we need to do over an annual or intermittent basis over a period of a decade or more. We’ve invested about $35 million in the Annapolis physi­ cal plant over the last 13 years. We don’t want to see Santa Fe’s physical plant deteriorate to the level that Annapolis was.” The purpose of the plan is to make the kind of improve­ ments that will encourage student retention and enable the admissions office to attract a larger pool of qualified appli­ cants to Santa Fe. Thus the initiative focuses on areas that affect student life, the appear­ ance of the campus, and the operation of the admissions and financial aid offices. At the same time, the college will provide funding for an internship program similar to the Annapolis program funded by The Hodson Trust while the college seeks long-term grant support for internships. Costs for the Santa Fe Initia­ tive will represent a a percent ''This isjust the start ofwhat we need to do over an annual or intermittent basis... ” Christopher Nelson, Annapolis President increase in the operating budg­ et each year. The funds for the initiative will come from unre­ stricted endowment funds and early unrestricted gifts to the college’s Capital Campaign, expected to officially begin in June 2005, Improvements that affect stu­ dent life include funding for additional staff in the Assistant Dean’s office. Career Services office. Security, and Student Activities office. Facilities improvements include renovat­ ing the laborato­ ries; resurfacing all roadways and parking lots, curbs, and cen­ trally located walkways; adding a new parking lot; replacing After 40 years, THE Santa Fe CAMPUS IS SHOW­ ING SIGNS OF AGE. {The College- St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } hardscape between the upper dorms and Peterson Student Center; repairing concrete walls and steps; installing uniform campus lighting; installing patios for outdoor study and social fife; and adding attractive signs and a security kiosk at a more formal campus entrance. Some funding for a director of buildings and grounds and an additional maintenance staff member is also included. While it will mean significant short-term improvements in Santa Fe, Nelson emphasizes that the initiative is just a start­ ing point: “The campus needs an investment of about $30 million over time: new dormi­ tories, a home for the Graduate Institute and a new lecture hall, renovations of the Evans Science Laboratory, plus additional renovations campus-wide. For so many years, we’ve sacrificed every­ thing else to the Program. We’re on a slow, steady plan of improvement that requires investments to make up for deferred maintenance, for poor salaries, and insufficient student services-it’s time to turn our attention to them with­ out taking anything away from the Program.” To oversee the implementa­ tion of the initiative, Annapolis treasurer H. Fred “Bud” Billups (HA03) will assume a new college-wide position as special assistant to the chair of the Management Committee (a position that alternates between the two campus presi­ dents). Billups will split his time between the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses, providing oversight over the two admis­ sions offices, the two financial aid offices, and the college-wide Information Technology office. He will prepare a college-wide budget that will allocate annual operating funds between the campuses. 4^-Rosemary Harty �{From the Bell Towers} 3 One College, One Web Ifyou can make the time to search all of the 4,285,199,774 Web pages available through the search engine Google, let us know ifyou find another college with a Web site like St. John’swhere the dominant image is of a chair and the valuable center real estate is not a shot of smihng stu­ dents or the beautiful campus, but ofwords: the names of great book authors. On March i, after two years of planning and gathering comments from as wide a sector of the St. John’s community as possible, the college launched the new site: www.stjohnscollege.edu. Previously, the col­ lege’s student-designed site diverged into two separate paths for the Santa Fe and Annapolis campuses right after the home page. This new site was designed from the start to present St. John’s as one college with two campuses. Thus what is emphasized is the common curriculum and the prevailing Johnnie culture. The front-page tour is also a departure. The links in this Web tour introduce Johnnies and their wide range of reasons for attending the college, the unique and lively community of learners, the Santa Fe and Annapolis communities, and the chair thing. Alert visitors will also find surprises-“Easter eggs” in Web lingo-on the front page. The new Web site was designed to introduce the college to prospective students and to better serve alumni, current stu­ dents, parents, faculty and staff, and the communities of Annapo­ lis and Santa Fe. The alumni sec­ tion, developed with extensive input from Alumni Association president Glenda Eoyang and a team of alumni testers, offers something particularly useful: a secure, password-protected online Alumni Register. Previously, the college issued a printed directory of alumni every five years. With support and guidance from the associa­ tion, the college now offers this directory online. The search for­ mat allows alumni to look up classmates, find alumni in a new city, or identify a group of alum­ ni working in a particular field. Like many areas of the Web site, the directory is a work in progress. Information in the Register is drawn from two separate databases, and the program the college uses to “marry” the data often falls short of the ideal. The college’s Information Technology and advancement staffs are working to remedy this. The more alumni who use the database to update their records, the more accurate the register will be. A few caveats: to protect alumni privacy and restrict the directory to alumni, the system currently requires the college to authenticate each user who attempts to log in. Once an alumnus regis­ ters, it will take college staff about two busi­ ness days to pro­ vide a password that will grant access. Similarly, any changes made to an indi­ vidual record will take a few days to appear. Alumni can choose at any time to restrict their information to “name only” or to not appear in the Register. If you encounter any difficulty with the Register or the Alumni section, or have thoughts about how the Web site can better serve alumni, contact either of the alumni directors: in Annapolis, Jo Ann Mattson at 410-626-2531; in Santa Fe, Roxanne Seagraves at 505-984-6103. Diving with Sharks in South Africa OR Wrestling with Plato in Santa Fe? Along with articles about pumping iron and healthy eat­ ing, the April edition of Men’s Health listed Santa Fe’s Sum­ mer Classics among its “25 Greatest Getaways for Men.” “We’ve found the best places you’ve never been,” the article begins-“high-point adventures you can plan right now and brag about for years.” The fea­ ture lists opportunities such as climbing the sand dunes of Namibia, cage-diving with Great White sharks in South Africa, and piloting a subma­ rine in Mexico. Studying the classics at St. John’s sounds pretty cool, too: “Do you really want to check out of this life without having known what Shakespeare, Mozart, and Tol­ stoy were going on about? Take {The College- a crash course in the human experience-and spend a sab­ batical summer to rememberby registering at St. John’s Col­ lege, where laymen are invited to delve into the great works of man in small classes....” This year’s Summer Classics offerings are luxuriously eclec­ tic, combining classics of the East and West with modern fiction and a generous serving of music. The first week, July rr-i6, features Joseph Conrad and Henry James, Xenophon, and Freud in the morning; in the afternoon participants take on the stories and short novels of Dostoevsky and Gregorian Chant, During week two, July 18-23, morning session participants St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } can choose from Mozart or Lao Tzu, or Jane Austen paired with Shakespeare. Afternoon partic­ ipants can take on Copernican meditations, the short stories of Thomas Mann, or the Platonic dialogues Laches, Charminides, otEuthyphro. The third week, July 25-30, features a.m, offerings of Mahler, the Yoga Visitha, and Spinoza. In the afternoon par­ ticipants can study Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenolo­ gy ofPerception, Montaigne essays, or Faulkner’s Absalom! Absalom! The full schedule of seminars and tutors are available on the college Web site: www.sqohnscollege.edu. �{From the Bell Towers} Journalistic Johnnies The Gadfly What Dfcl You Do During the Hurricane? The Moon ^z/z^/The Gadfly/ Politics, Poetry, Punditry Of the four individuals who edited the student newspapers in Annapolis and Santa Fe this past academic year, not one has the shghtest interest in pursuing a journahsm career. Yes, it had crossed their minds at one point or another, hut they have all talked themselves out of it. Cathy Keene, a rising junior in Annapolis who helped edit The Gadfly for two years, admits to being a deadhne junkie and loves being in the know on controversies or breaking news. But one summer spent working at a magazine convinced her she should consider another way to make a living. “Too much stress,” she explains. Ian McCracken, her co-editor this year, is graduating and head­ ing to law school. Santa Fe Moon co-editor Jonathan Morgan, a senior, is more interested in biotechnology; senior Margaret Garry is now leaning toward law school and politics. So, if it’s not a career goal that tethers these individuals to to to 12 hours a week of writing, edit­ ing, and production headacheson top ofwork-study jobs and all the regular rigors of the Program- what is it? “1 have no idea why 1 do it,” Keene admits. “We’re all friends at The Gadfly, and it’s really fun getting it out every week. It gives me a real connec­ tion to the Polity.” “We get to produce this little snapshot of St. John’s,” says Garry. “And it’s really cool seeing the Moon come together, from somebody’s idea to publication.” The two periodicals differ significantly in graphic style, content, and tone. The Gadfly is heavy on politics and Polity issues; fiction and poetry are more hkely to turn up in the Moon (though it doesn’t shy away from hard news either). The Gadfly savors the backand-forth of intellectual argu­ ments between two people j that can span several issues. In the Moon, the “campus moralist” expounds on issues of student conduct; The Gad­ fly has “You Make the Gall,” athletic director Leo Pickens’ regular sports rules quiz. Consider some of the offer­ ings in Volume 8, Issue 4, of the Moon', an opinion piece honor­ ing military veterans; a feature on the Web site bartcop.com, a first-person parody of a seminar on The Runaway Bunny, an explanation of the Student Review Board, a think piece about the value of studying clas­ sical languages, an investigative report on problems concerning a Common Room, and a science­ fiction fantasy offering on “Poster Wars.” And Volume 25, Issue 20, of The Gadfly: of review of tutors’ performance of The Birds', an extensive piece on a cover-up by the liberal media, three-and-ahalf pages of letters to the edi­ tors, a review of Mr. Grenke’s Friday-night lecture on Kant, and “Why 1 Hate George W. Bush, the Final Installment,” including the author’s offer of a cup of coffee for those who would sit down and talk with him about their opposing views. Both publications attracted controversy this year. The Gad­ fly was delayed when assistant dean Judith Seeger and student services director Joy Kaplan decided two stories should not run. One included potentially libelous material, the other con­ fidential college information. Seeger doesn’t see her role as a watchdog; she reviews the publication with an eye to {The College- protecting the college from law­ suits. “We have occasionally seen things that we think are sometimes cruel, and we’ll say ‘do you really want to put that in your paper?’ And some­ times they have listened and reconsidered.” The Gadfly was also blasted for running a sham review submitted by two students on a movie they called “Tough Jew.” “What really got people mad was the photo we ran with it-Leo Strauss. The cutline was: ‘Leo Strauss: tough?’ One tutor wrote in and said, basically, ‘how dare you?’ We were totally blown away by the response. We defended ourselves, and then we learned the movie was a fake-we looked even stupider. It was a learning experience,” Keene says. The Moon editors also had a learning experience in the Santa Fe campus response to the newspaper’s “2003 Dirty Poetry Contest” issue last fall. The issue included photographs of female students that some in the campus community consid­ ered racy; others considered them degrading. “There were several different objections to the issue from faculty members, the administra­ tion, even a couple of students,” Morgan says. “I think the most valid point is that showing certain students in that frame­ work contributed to kind of an uncomfortable classroom environment. I hadn’t really St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } thought it was that immense of a deal. People have bodies.” After Morgan and Garry sent a letter to the faculty apologizing for the issue, and promising to be more responsive in the future, a proposed resolution condemning the Moon turned into a resolution supporting the newspaper. “I regret that we offended some people, but I still think it was a great issue because it got people’s atten­ tion,” he says. While both publications accept advertisements, they’re not self-supporting and, like other student groups, get fund­ ing allocated by the college. McCracken believes the publica­ tions might be better if they were independent and funded by ad revenue. “Given all the guidefines, I sometimes think it would be easier if we weren’t affiliated with the school. I know of people who would write more things if they knew their copy wasn’t going to be reviewed by the administration first,” he says. Morgan hopes future Moon editors work to maintain the publication as a voice for students. “I like that the Moon doesn’t have a strict focus, that we can have poetry and artwork, a commentary on Dante’s Inferno or the Iliad, philosophical pieces and funny pieces,” he says. “I like the creativity. ”4-Rosemary Harty �{From the Bell Towers} 5 A Meeting of Mids: Students Launch Joint Seminars with the Naval Academy The Johnnies wore jeans and t-shirts and lounged comfortably at the seminar table. Bolt upright in their chairs, white caps set neatly in front of them on the table, the midshipmen were clad in their dark uniforms and polished shoes. As they spoke, they looked to the semi­ nar leaders, tutor Louis Miller and Naval Academy Professor Lt. David Bonfili, and resisted the urge to raise their hands. The text before the group of to students was Thoreau’s “On Civil Disobedi­ ence.” Miller’s opening ques­ tion drew from Thoreau’s words: “Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?-in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable?” For two hours, students grappled with the text not as students from a military academy or liberal arts college, but as intelligent, self-directed individuals eager to grasp the heart of an idea. The discussion quickly drew out strong responses, but it didn’t evolve into a debate between students from the two institutions. Thoreau’s stance on not paying taxes and his views about resisting an unjust government were seen by some of the midshipmen as ideological luxuries. One midshipman was distinctly annoyed by what he described as Thoreau’s “arrogant” ideal­ Junior Rachel Hall AND Midshipman David Buck ism. “He’d like to be a martyr, but he’s not,” said a midship­ man who pointed out that Thoreau did not resist when his friends bailed him out of jail. And several studentsJohnnies and mids alikedisagreed with Thoreau’s stance that it was not his “business” to petition the government to remedy what he viewed as unjust laws. Saida Johnnie, “Thoreau believes that we won’t need gov­ ernment if we’re enlightened.” Enlightenment is a fine thing, a midshipman coun­ tered. But who will build the roads? Can we convene a government just when we need one to accomplish some particular goal? Can we call up a military force only when under attack? One of the midshipmen said that governments do make bad decisions and meddle in per­ sonal liberty; citizens should protest when a government’s actions are unjust. “There are people who don’t have any­ thing to do with me making {The College. decisions about how I live my life,” she said. “Not all of us,” said another midshipman, “can be Martin Luther King or Gandhi. If everyone stopped supporting the government, I don’t know where we’d be today.” After the seminar, the group gathered in the Great Hall with the participants of the five other seminars, about 70 in total. Midshipman David Buck attended all three semi­ nars, partly out of interest in the readings, but also because his girlfriend, St. John’s junior Rachel Hall, helped to organ­ ize them. Hall hit on the idea when she began reading Sun Tsu’s The Art of War last year and found she wanted to dis­ cuss it with a group of people. She brought the idea to Navy Professor David Garren, and Garren helped recruit Navy co-leaders and organize the seminars. “He was very enthu­ siastic about it,” said Hall, who found St. John’s tutors were also pleased to partici­ pate. The first seminar, in St. Jo hn’s College ■ Spring 2004 } January 2003, was on Sun Tsu’s The Art of War. Johnnies went to the Naval Academy to discuss Plato’s Crito last fall. Jacob Thomas, a junior, found the Thoreau seminar the best of the three so far, because mid­ shipmen had caught on to the dynamic of seminar. In discus­ sion of Sun Tsu, their superior military knowledge tended to lead them to dominate the conversations, he said. “But this time, they really became involved in the discus­ sion and in Thoreau’s ideas, which was wonderful,” said Thomas. “It’s good for our students to be exposed to each other,” said Lt. Bonfili, a political science professor. “I see the diversity of opinions coming out.” Having encountered John­ nies during waltz parties, croquet, and Reality, Buck has been impressed with the intellectual side of St. John’s. Still, he added, “Johnnies are crazier than mids.” Like croquet, the joint seminars seem to have become another tradition, says junior Mark Ingham, who helped organize the seminars. “The more you talk with the mid­ shipmen, the less intimidated you are by the uniform,” he said. -Rosemary Harty �{From the Bell Towers} 6 News and Announce­ and in Santa Fe from 1989-96 before she came to Annapolis in 1997- ments Steve Linhard, assistant Appointments In the Graduate Institutes, effective June i: Tutor Krishnan Venkatesh becomes director in Santa Fe; tutor Joan Silver the director in Annapolis. Venkatesh has been a tutor since 1989. He earned a bachelor’s in English from Magdalene College, Cambridge. He spent more than three years conducting postdoctoral research in Shakespeare and Renaissance English at the University of Muenster, West Germany, and later taught at Shanxi Universi­ ty, People’s Republic of China, where he helped develop an ESL curriculum. Silver earned her bachelor’s degree from the State Univer­ sity of New York, College at Old Westbury, a master’s from St. John’s, and a doctorate in Theology and the Arts from Graduate Theological Union. She was a tutor in Annapolis from 1974-77, a tutor for several summers beginning in 1985, Middle States Review Annapolis Appointment St. John’s in Annapolis has earned a lo-year reaccreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. The college’s accreditation was reaffirmed at the March meeting of the commission and followed a review of the college’s extensive self-study. A report from the evaluation team affirmed that St. John’s is carrying out its educational objectives. The college community found its opening words most gratifying: “St. John’s College (SJC) deserves its reputation as one of the best and most distinctive institutions in the United States, indeed the world. The College has a long and unswerving history of commitment to a single ideal: the life of the mind as principally represented in the great books of the Western tradition. Everything in the educational program evolves from this ideal and it has worn well over many years. By design, change occurs slowly at SJC and this deliberateness buffers the College from the swings of fad and momentary diversions that often plague other sectors of higher education.” The college this year also sought accreditation from the American Academy for Liberal Education; a decision from the AALE is pending. treasurer in Annapolis, will fill the position of treasurer on the recommendation of St. John’s President Christopher Nelson and the campus faculty. The college’s board approved the appointment. Linhard came to the college in 1997 as con­ troller. Prior, he was the accounting manager/ controller for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. New Staff in Santa Fe Doug Single joins the college as director for college-wide major gifts. He brings extensive fund-raising and management experience to the new position. After earn­ ing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Stanford University, Single became associate director of athletics and assistant football coach at Stanford; he also served as athletic director at Southern Methodist and Northwestern universities. Single recently served as chief executive officer of the David Douglas Marketing Group in San Francisco. John Hartnett (SF83) has been named communications director. Hartnett attended the Santa Fe campus before going on to earn undergradu­ ate degrees in philosophy and economics from the University of Illinois. He also holds a master’s degree in writing from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. Most recently, he was the president of his own marketing communica­ tions company. 4" Consider Consolidating Alumni with student loans may want to look into consolidating them into one fixed-rate loan, the college’s Financial Aid offices advise. Student-loan consolidation involves paying off current federal education loans in full and creating a new loan with a new interest rate and repayment term up to 30 years. Federal Stafford and PLUS loans charge variable rates that are set by formulas based on the last auction of 91day U.S. Treasury bills in May. Federal consolidation loans, however, carry fixed rates that are based on the rates of the loans being consolidated. In recent years, the variable student loan rate, determined by the government, has been at record lows (3.4 percent on Stafford loans in May), but interest rates are expected to rise this year. Parents of college students who have taken out PLUS loans may also consoli­ date these loans at current rates. There’s another reason to act quickly, says Caroline Chris­ tensen, financial aid director in Annapolis. Legislation expected {The College -Sf. to come before Congress as part of its renewal of the Higher Education Act this year could turn that low fixed rate into a variable rate in the future. Proponents of the bill say the government is losing millions in subsidies it pays to lenders and want the savings directed to other aid programs for currently-enrolled students. However, new alumni face complications. “Ifyou consoli­ date during your six-month grace period, you lock in at the in-school rate, currently 2.82 percent,” Christensen says. John ’5 College ■ Spring 2004 } “What ifyou lock in at 2.82 per­ cent, then rates drop on June 30? You’ll have a higher rate for the fife of your loan, in addition to losing remaining months of interest-free grace period when you consolidate. So you want to wait until very close to the end of your grace period.” Contact your lender or the Financial Aid office on either campus: in Annapolis, 410-626-2503; in Santa Fe, 505-984-6058. Information on researching and comparing loan programs is available at www.estudent.com. �{From the Bell Towers} Board Approves Polity Amendments Among the many actions it took at its quarterly meeting in April, the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors approved a change to the college Polity, the governing document for St. John’s College. The Management Committee-which oversees non-aca­ demic policy and coordinates administration of the two campuses-was made a permanent part of the St. John’s governing structure. The Management Committee was established in 3000 and included as an addi­ tion to the Polity with a five-year sunset clause. The board voted to delete the sunset clause, thus continuing the committee. This action represents the culmination of a several-year review of the Pohty, which also resulted in a rewording to reflect gender-neutral language and 10 amendments being passed in April 3003. One of these amendments-the addition of sexual orientation to the college’s non-discrimination poUcy-had been controversial a decade ago. During a review of the Polity in r993, the board failed to adopt an amendment that specifically prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Five years later, in 1998, the issue was not even raised. “The first time it came up, it was so bitter, so divisive, that people were afraid to bring it up again,” said Jean FitzSimon (A73), a lawyer who served on the board committee that took up the most recent review of the document. Original resist­ ance to adding to the document was centered on the belief that discrimination based on sexual orientation was covered by other laws, and therefore did not need to be spelled out, FitzSimon said. FitzSimon and other commit­ tee members believed other­ wise: “Even if it [discrimination] isn’t happening at the college, the Pohty is the Polity. We talked about the public nature of this document, and we felt that this was something that had to be speUed out,” FitzSimon said. This time around the Polity Review Committee, led by Greg Curtis, did bring up the issue as it began to work through possi­ ble revisions in 3003. This com­ mittee recommended, and the Board adopted, a revised non-discrimination clause: “There shall be no discrimi­ nation at St. John’s College in appointments, conditions of employment, admissions, educational policy, financial aid programs, athletics, or other activities, on the basis of race, religion, age, sex, national origin, color, disabiUty and/or physical handicap, sexual orien­ tation, or other characteristic protected by any applicable federal, state or local law.” In the Nick of Time A TRAFFIC STOP ON THEIR WAY TO THE PRESIDENT’S HOUSE NEARLY MADE THIS GROUP OF AnNAPOLIS SENIORS MISS THE MIDNIGHT DEADLINE FOR TURNING IN THEIR SENIOR ESSAYS. (ThE POLICE OFFICER WAS UNIMPRESSED WITH THE students’ PLEAS TO LET THEM GO ON THEIR WAY.) FrOM LEFT TO RIGHT ARE DeAN HaRVEY Flaumenhaft, Justin Berrier, Hayden Brockett, Melissa Thomas, and Joseph Method. A rattled Thomas is more than ready to hand over copies of her essay, “Reconciling Faith with Action.” {The College ■ St. Jo hn ’5 College ■ Spring 2004 } 7 Taxing Bachelors As Maryland’s legislators grap­ pled this spring with measures to raise money for the state’s coffers, word of an innovative approach from the past-a tax on bachelors-reached The College, thanks to Richard Israel, retired Maryland assistant attorney general. While browsing through pages of General Assembly proceed­ ings, Israel found that in 1761 legislators issued a series of proposals for funding a college that eventually resulted in St. John’s. The “batchelor’s tax” was expected to have a value of 500 pounds or more, according to a bill aimed at acquiring Bladen’s Folly, now McDowell Hall. Listed also were 600 pounds to be raised through licenses for public ordinaries (pubs), 150 pounds from taxes on wheel carriages, and 90 pounds through fees on card and billiard tables. The idea wasn’t just to raise money, but also to encourage single men to settle down, as Israel found in the Acts of the General Assembly, 1755-56: “Forasmuch as Divine Institu­ tions ought to be strictly observed in every well-regulated Government, and as that in Regard to the entering into the holy Estate of Matrimony may tend to the more orderly Propa­ gation of Mankind, it ought, not only in a rehgious, but pohtical View, to be promoted, and the continuing in a State of Gehbacy discountenanced, especially in every Infant Country.” The measure, however, was never signed into law. After several subsequent attempts, St. John’s was chartered as a college in 1784, soon after the end of the Revolutionary War. The charter provided that the college would be financed by the revenue from several different taxes. — Rebecca Wilson (AGI82) �{From the Bell Towers} 8 Fun-Raising, East and West Art, Wine, and Good Conversation Brighten Winter's Dark Nights Two events in January show that alumni and other college support­ ers won’t pass up a chance for self-improvement along with the opportunity to stay connected to St. John’s. Fine wine and good food can’t hurt, either. In Santa Fe, Larry Turley (SF69) brought the extraordinary wines of Turley Wine Cellars to a benefit hosted by the Philos Society-a group of local patrons of the college. The event had wine-lovers buzzing over Turley’s hard-to-find wines, paired with gourmet food. Philos Society Event Features Turley Wines “Wine is the glass ofthe mind. ’’-Erasmus A wine dinner hosted by the Philos Society of St. John’s College brought too people from the Santa Fe community to the rooftop garden room of La Fonda Hotel in January. While the opportunity to learn more about St. John’s College and fine wines attracted many, it was clear that the main attractions were the Napa Valley wines provided by Larry Turley (SF69). After all, there’s a two-year waiting list for Turley’s coveted wines, such as a aooi bottle of The White Coat. The event was limited to 100, and the tickets, at $125 apiece, sold out well in advance. Now the owner of Turley Wine Cellars, Turley earned a medical degree and became an emergency-room physician after leaving St. John’s. He co-founded the Frog’s Leap Winery in 1981, and then moved on to open Turley Wine In Baltimore, Philanthropia (the Alumni Development Council) and President Christopher Nelson hosted a “Conversa­ tion About the State of the College’’ at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Wintry weather in December cancelled the first attempt at the BMA event, but the rescheduled event was well-attendedencouraging Philanthropia to plan future stimulating occasions to keep Johnnies informed and involved in the college. Cellars with his sister, Helen (A67). The hotel’s wine experts and chefs worked to create the night’s dinner menu. The White Coat was paired with appetizers; langostino and goat cheese empanadas with toasted pinon-green apple slaw. Next came the duck confit on greens tossed with chile cascabel-basil vinai­ grette, served with a aooi Pesenti Vineyard Zinfandel. Paired with the third course (pan-roasted chicken breast with white truffle demi-roasted garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed spaghetti squash) was a aooi Hayne Vineyard Zinfandel. A aooi Library Vineyard Petite Syrah accompanied cheese and fruit. The event raised $6,500 for the college’s Annual Fund. Left: Philos board member Charmay Allred shares her APPRECIATION FOR LaRRY Turley’s wine. Above: Richard Morris, A PAST BOARD MEMBER OF THE COLLEGE, AND JeFF BiSHOP (HA96), VICE PRESIDENT FOR COLLEGEWIDE ADVANCEMENT, PERUSE SILENT AUCTION OFFERINGS. {The College. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } Turley donated some of the wine for the event and provided the rest at cost. In his holo tie and denim shirt, he circulated among the guests, talking about wine and wine-making and graciously accepting compliments from wine lovers grateful for a chance to experi­ ence something extraordinary. The Philos Society of St. John’s College was founded to foster and enhance commu­ nication, understanding, and joint activities between the college and its community. Co-chairs of the board are Donn Duncan, M.D., and Robert Zone, M.D. �{From the Bell Towers} 9 Friday at the BMA WITH Chris Thanks to Philanthropia (the Alumni Development Council) and Annapolis President Christopher Nelson, BaltimoreWashington alumni had an opportunity to enjoy a private viewing of the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Cone Collection. Afterwards, the 82 alumni gathered for conversation, refreshments catered by The Classic Catering People, owned by Harriet Dopkin (A77), and an update on the college by the president. The sights and sounds of the evening echoed the style of the Cone Collection, creating an impressionistic tableau of delights for the eyes, treats for the tongue, fellowship for the soul, and ample food for thought. Thus, as an homage to the Cone Collection, The College offers its report in the style of the impressionists. The Art time in Paris among the expatriates. It was as though he had memo­ rized all the accompanying notes on the walls. It was great fun hstening to him-he completed the experience for me. I’m not sure going through the Cone Collection will ever be the same. “Although I didn’t ask a question of Chris Nelson, I liked hear­ ing what he had to say, and I know that people felt free to ask him anything about the college. I was reminded that I still don’t know very much about the Santa Fe campus and what its financial needs are, or what those needs grow out of.” Matisse, Purple Robe and Anemones, Interior, Flowers, and Parakeets Picasso, Mother and Child Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire Seenfrom theBibemus Quarry Monet, Waterloo Bridge Van Gogh, Landscape With Figures Fete avec Biere et Vin Caprese skewers of pesto-rubbed grape tomatoes, baby mozzarella, and kalamata olives Dried fig, walnut, and goat cheese tapenade Tenderloin roulades with spinach and portobello mushrooms Jumbo lump crab fondue with a hint of dry sherry and old bay Miniature fruit tarts, petite brownies, raspberry almond bars, and fresh strawberries DeGroen’s micro brew. Banrock Station wine, coffee, tea Report of the President Applicant pool up, attrition down. Graduate Institute-healthy. A new dormitory with water view is being built for 48 students. The Santa Fe Initiative invests $4.5 million in the campus and student life. Gratitude for The Hodson Trust’s $10 million grant, which funded the Mellon renovation and new dormitory. Two or three additional major gifts this year: a possibility. The help and support of aU alumni at all levels of giving: priceless. President Christopher Nelson with Mark Lindley (A67). Stacey Andersen (AGI93): “While we were wandering through the Cone Collection, we noticed it was noisy: not normal museum behavior. Yet we were expected to talk. There’s a commonality we’ve run into with people who’ve gone to St. John’s. There’s a shared dialogue. It’s a tone that was set and carried throughout the evening. I think that’s what led to the discussion that contin­ ued after Chris Nelson gave his introductory talk. We thought the venue for an alumni function was fantastic. Is there abetter place to unleash a group of Johnnies than in a museum? Thank you for giving us the text! ” - SUS3AN Borden, A87 The Reviews Sara Stuart (Ago): “Mark Lindley (A67) must have gone through the Cone Collection before Brad (A89) and I arrived. He was able to teU us about all of the paintings and art objects, and about the Cone sisters’ Above: The feast Right: Sara Larson Stuart (Ago), Brad Stuart (A89), and Philanthropia EVENT CHAIR Steph Takacs (A8g) {The College. 5t. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �{Letters} Febbie Question Answered Wendell Finner’s account of his query concerning SJC’s lack of Eastern authors (Winter 2004) brought back a memory of Douglas Allenbrook that 1 cherish more as political correctness continues to elimi­ nate free speech. During convocation for the Febbie 1980 class, one student asked about the lack of Eastern authors. Without hesitation, and with a charming smile, Mr. Alienbrook replied “...the only thing good that has come out of the East was the Sun.” Memo­ ries like these convince me that St. John’s College is more important than ever to liberal education and free thought. Steven D. Brower (A83) The Lost Languages It was a joy and consolation to read the article about the intensive Latin summer classes in the Fall 2003 issue of The College. It made up for the allegation by a recent commencement speaker that the students in front of him were lucky to have the best education: liberal arts, i.e. trivium and quadrivium-or, as my Munich editor explained to colleagues at the Beck publishing house, the “Septem Artes”'we did at this interesting college in America. Yes, the liberal arts, all seven of them, and four foreign languages, the commencement speaker said: Greek and Latin and German and French. The graduates kept a straight face. Latin had already been dropped from the curriculum when I joined St. John’s in i960. German survived another couple of years; then it, too, was gone. I taught one of the last classes. It was a pleasure, and a profitable one. We read bits of the Luther translation of the Bible, the beginning of Genesis and the opening of the Gospel of John, and the juniors recalled some of the Greek New Testament. We read Lessing and a little Kant (with the surprising earthiness of his vocabulary); we read some Goethe; some of the rhymed caution­ ary tales of Heinrich Hoffmann...and stuck to texts that seemed more memorable and discussable. There was a young man in that class, Jim Forrester (A62). He took the very first [translation], six weeks into the first semester. I was amazed at the result, which included a perfect translation of a page from Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy. He translated it into real English, not translaterese, and showed an astonishing feel ''Yes, sing ye and chant id andyou il learn to speak and read it.. ” Beate Ruh m von Oppen for nuances. Next time the class met I asked Mr. Forrester if he had been a begin­ ner when we began six weeks ago. He said: “Yes”-and after a moment’s reflection he added: “I’d sung some Bach.” Bach makes the language, especially the biblical language, Luther’s German, memorable. It sticks in the mind-even as some of Picander’s poetry in the St. Matthew Passion does, or perhaps just first words like “Buss undReuf though the Gospel of Matthew itself is more memorable, e.g., “Der Geist ist willig, aber das Fletsch ist schwach ” quotable and even usable in daily life... That remark by Jim Forrester taught me that singing is the best way to learn a language. Perhaps poetry, anything that scans is the next best. So we now leave German (and Latin) to the freshman chorus and the other, voluntary singing groups. Yes, sing ye and chant it! - and you’ll learn to speak and read it... Beate Ruhm von Oppen Tutor Emerita Thailand’s War on Drugs I wanted to address something that [Tiitor Linda] Weiner said in describing her summer in Thailand (Winter 2004). Ms. Weiner suggested that Thailand benefits from an “enlightened monarch” and described the king’s policy of replac­ ing opium farms with organic farms. While the king may be enlightened, Thai­ land’s Prime Minister and police force are not. In Thailand’s own war on drugs, 2,245 people were killed in an anti-drug cam­ paign from February to April 2003. The police admitted to killing 50 themselves, and many others were killed as they returned from police stations. Thai officials have neglected to investigate or prosecute the killings. In August Prime Minister Thaksin said, in reference to drug smugglers crossing from Myanmar to Thailand, “From now on if their trafficking {The College- St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } caravans enter our soil, we won’t waste our time arresting them, but we will simply kill them.” This and other policy statements of the Prime Minister suggest that more extra­ judicial killings will come. The international community, including the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudi­ cial, summary or arbitrary executions; Amnesty International; and the Drug Policy Alliance, have expressed outrage over the human rights abuses stemming from Thailand’s war on drugs. I would hate for Johnnies to get the impression that the program described by Ms. Wiener is indicative of Thai drug policy. More information can be found in the Amnesty International report “Thailand-Grave Developments-Killings and Other Abuses” available atwww.amnesty.org Renate Lunn Room for (A96) Gauss Doing year-end cleaning I chanced upon Sheri McMahon’s letter in the Spring 2003 issue of The College. I guess it’s a recurring topic among alumni who reflect upon the mathematics tutorial. I personally have often thought it a pity not to pursue geometry a little further. I always felt a historical approach to Gauss’s Theorema Eregiurn on curved sur­ faces or something like that might be pos­ sible. Michael Spivak does something along these lines in his Comprehensive Introduction to Differential Geometry. I always felt there was no greater figure left out of the program than Gauss, that there was a route to some of his work in geome­ try that would be accessible to seniors, that it was the perfect context for glimpses of non-Euclidean geometry and general relativity that were offered in the tutorial (nearly three decades ago!), that it has a perfect antecedent in the spherical geometry of Ptolemy. Mark Copper (SF76) Words and Deeds Thank you for the article in the Winter 2004 issue on Santa Fe’s martial artists. The Annapolis campus has also enjoyed the Asian martial traditions over the years. In 1977 tutor David Starr persuaded one of his former philosophy students from the University of Rhode Island, a prodigiously talented gentleman named Robert Galeone, to move to Annapolis to teach the Okinawan system of Uechi-ryu karatedo. continued on nextpage �{Letters} I was Mr, Galeone’s first student at the col­ lege club, which met in one of the handball courts in Iglehart Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and Saturday morn­ ings. Mr. Galeone, a 5th-degree black belt, produced quite a few serious students over the seven years that he led the dojo.... Today, Annapolis students interested in aikido may join the U.S. Naval Academy’s Aikido Club, which holds classes on both the Naval Academy campus and in Iglehart Hall. (For more information, see http://www.geocities.com/navyaikido/.) It seems to me that study and practice of the martial arts, whether from Asia or the West, is essential to the development of a free citizen. Whether the pen is mightier than the sword is not the right question. Rather, why should the study of one pre­ clude the study of the other? To paraphrase a Japanese proverb, in the hands of an educated individual, the sword and the pen are one. Unfortunately, it is too easy for a student of the liberal arts to acquire a great and unjustified faith in the power of speech, along with an all-too-ready skepticism concerning action. Words need the support of deeds. As Mr. Galeone once said, “The body remembers what it does, and not what you tell it.” Martial arts training provides the student with the framework to become as proficient in the world of action as he or she is in the world of reason, by teaching balance, grace, and poise, all while facing an adversary. I hope that students on both campuses will take advantage of the opportunities to pursue these disciplines. Jim Sorrentino (A8o) Calendar Mysteries Revealed I was quite amazed to open the 2004 calendar and find a photo of my high school math teacher (February 2004). He is Thomas Yoon (A58), and he taught me trigonometry and led a philosophy seminar at Scarborough School, in Scarborough, N.Y. My guess is that it was 1967. He was an inspiring teacher with a great sense of humor, and was the one who told me about St. John’s College. Pippi Ellison few lists I have. The whole scene was contrived, which is why there is a smirk on the face of the guy front center and guy left. Girl center was trying to look serious and guy rear was told to pose in an awkward position. The people at the end of the table were told to look at each other. No one has the same book. The photos were intended for a catalog redesign, or a flyer for the admissions office. I was the student aide for Marsha Drennon, then admissions director, and helped find the students and arrange the furni­ ture. Notice how there aren’t any empty chairs? We did have a blast doing the series of pictures around the campus. Michael David (SF87) Dumping Concerns While I found the “Night Crawlers” letter (Winter 2004) somewhat amusing as a piece of black humor, I was taken aback that there was no editorial note as to the state of affairs since the dumping occurred. Has all that stuff been leaching into the ground and water and possibly the creek ever since with nothing being done, or was it cleaned up at some later date? If not, I think [the college] is morally, and perhaps legally, bound to address the prob­ lem. Surely, SJC is not so philosophically preoccupied that it doesn’t care what it does to our environment? Natalie Chambliss (class of 1964) Editor’s Note: Steve Linhard, treasurer on the Annapolis campus, says thatfor an undetermined period oftime, a dumping ground was sited on the college’s back campus. When the college investigated severalyears ago, it uncovered bricks, broken china, bottles. (Aya) The May 2004 photo of students at a table on the dining hall balcony was taken in June or July 1985. It was a PR photo from a whole set of photos taken that day all over the campus. The students in the photo are mostly January freshmen, though I can’t remember or find their names in any of the {The College- St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } cans, kitchen utensils, and similar domestic refuse. “'Testpits were dug by an outside survey company three summers ago, and nothing ofany chemical nature was found,” Linhard says. “In addition, core samples were taken by a geological testing firm to examine the soil contentforfeasibil­ ityfor thermal conductivityfor the geother­ mal heating systemfor the new dormitory. These samples were examined and nothing hazardous was discovered. ” Errata An article in the Fall 2003 issue stated that Hans von Briesen attended and taught at Stanford and the University of Rochester. He attended the universities, but did not teach at them. The reading list on St. John’s history that accompanied an article on the attempted Navy takeover of St. John’s (Winter 2003) should have included these works by Charlotte Fletcher (HA69), former librarian at the Annapolis campus: Cato's Mirania: A Life ofProvost Smith, and “St. John’s ‘For Ever’: Five Essays on the History of King William’s School and St. John’s College,” published in the St. John'sReview (1990-91). The College welcomes letters on issues of interest to readers. Letters maybe edited for clarity and/or length. Those under 500 words have a better chance of being printed in their entirety. Please address letters to: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404 or The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: rosemary.harty @sjca.edu. �{Revelation} la REVELATION and REDEMPTION hat is the revelation in Flannery O’Connor’s “Revelation”? That was the question The College asked of a group of tutors and others in the St. John’s College community. The short essays that follow are presented as thoughtful responses to a question posed in search of gaining more insight into a puzzling and multi-layered short story. If you have not read “Revelation,” or read it long ago, put this feature aside until you can. W Ripe for Revelation by Joan Silver Lastfall I received a letter from a stu­ dent who said she would be “graciously appreciative” if I would tell her “just what enlightenment” I expected her to getfrom each ofmy stories. Isuspect she had apaper to write. I wrote her back to forget about the enlightenment andjust try to enjoy them. I knew that was the most unsatisfactory answer I could have givenbecause, ofcourse, shedidnt want to enjoy them, shejust wanted to figure them out. In most English classes the short story has become a kind of literary specimen {The College -John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } to be dissected. Every time a story of mine appears in a Ereshman anthology, I have a vision ofit, with its little organs laid open, like afrog in a bottle. I realize that a certain amount ofthis what-is-the-significance has to go on, but I think somethinghas gone wrong in theprocess when, for so many students, the story becomes simply a problem to be solved, something which you evapo­ rate to get Instant Enlightenment. A story isn I really very good unless it successfully resistsparaphrase, unless it hangs on and expands in the mind. Properly, you analyze to enjoy, but ids equally true that to analyze with any discrimination, you have to have enjoyed already.. ..” Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners. I will assume that all who have read Flannery O’Connor’s story, “Revela­ tion,” have enjoyed it. We enjoy the story, and her remarks above, somehow as wholes, and also in their humorous and penetrating details. In the spirit of the above remarks, I would like to notice numerous revelations which spring from �{The Colleges?. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �14 {Revelation} ''In a crucial moment ofthat vision, she finds her own kind bringing up the rear... ’ this story, which calls itself “Revelation” in the singular. I hope that together they may “hang on and expand in the mind.” Perhaps the key revelation in the story is the return to Mrs. Turpin of the enraged question she asks of God, “‘Who do you think you are?’”: “The question carried over the pasture and across the highway and the cotton field and returned to her clearly like an answer from heyond the wood.” This answer is a distillation of the revelation already embedded in her earlier questions: “‘How am I a hog and me both? How am I saved and from hell too?’” At this reply, Mrs. Turpin’s mouth opens (is it in wonder or in understanding?), and she does not speak. But this revelation is not the end of the story. Other revelations follow, mediated by a moment in which she imagines the death of her husband, his truck hit by anoth­ er, his “brains all over the road.” Seeing his truck return, she herself begins to move, “hke a monumental statue coming to life.” Only now do initial events of the story receive their answering revelations. An early revelation in the story is that “living demonstra­ tions” are present in the world. When the story begins Mrs. Turpin (who is “very large”) is entering the “very small” waiting room of a doctor’s office; she is said to be a “living demonstration that the room was inadequate and ridicu­ lous.” As the story goes on, of course, we see that the waiting room is exactly the right size for the events which take place in it. A later echo which replies to this apparent “living demonstration” immediately follows Mrs. Turpin’s “coming to hfe.” The “old sow” and young hogs, above whose “pig parlor” she confronts God, find their places in their “waiting room” with ease: “They had settled all in one corner around the old sow who was grunting softly. A red glow suffused them. They appeared to pant with a secret hfe.” It is the sow and the other pigs who become a real “living demonstra­ tion” for Mrs. Turpin and for the reader. Her earher “glow­ ering down” at the hogs and disdaining of others has become a “gazing down”; she “remained there with her gaze bent to them as if she were absorbing some abysmal life-giving knowledge.” {The College - Two more echoes follow. The first is a revelation and echo for Mrs. Turpin and the reader alike; the second, for the read­ er alone. Early on, Mrs. Turpin’s charac­ ter is revealed by one of her inner “games.” In one, she lies awake at night “naming the classes of people.” She sep­ arates and tries to rank human beings by certain combinations of race and proper­ ty, but the real people of her acquain­ tance will not stay put in the places that she gives them: “Usually by the time she had fallen asleep all the classes of people were moiling and roiling around in her head, and she would dream they were all crammed in together in a box car, being ridden off to be put in a gas oven.” The impulse from which such grading and judging spring leads ultimately to the gas chamber-to spiritual and physical death for all. This dream is echoed and transformed at the end by Mrs. Turpin’s vision of the “vast horde of souls rumbling toward heaven” in which all classes and kinds are present. In a crucial moment of that vision, she finds her own kind bringing up the rear: “she could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away.” Not the fire which makes the gas chamber, but the fire of purgatory is needed. Note, too, that hogs are easier to clean than humans; for pigs, only water is needed. The final echo is concerned with seeing (and with size). Mrs. Turpin’s eyes were initially described as “little bright black eyes . . . [that] sized up the seating situation” and all else around her. After the vision just mentioned, O’Connor tells us that her eyes are “small but fixed unbfinkingiy on what lay ahead.” We may need to ask just what is intended by “what lay ahead,” but, in this changed description, we receive the revelation both that a kind of steadfast looking is necessary for us, and that a transfor­ mation of one’s manner of seeing in the world is possible, (and that size-at least relative human size-does not matter). Among the many other revelations in the story, two seem worthy of note in the context of the ones mentioned above. The first concerns the catalyst for revelation, the St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } �{Revelation} second the capacity to receive it. The story shows revelation-or the beginning of it-coming from the strangest source: Mary Grace. The suffering of one human being, her anger and anguish, gives birth to grace for another. And in Ruby Turpin the story shows inquiry, linked with sin, as a potential path to revelation and grace. Mrs. Turpin’s inner “games” embody inquiry in a strange form: who might I have been if not myself; what is my place with­ in all of humanity? They also, of course, reveal pride mas­ querading as gratitude. This picture remains a revelation, if a comic one, of what can make one ripe for revelation. Joan Silver is a tutor and incoming director ofthe Graduate Institute in Annapolis. In the Eye of 15 Judgment Day by Pamela Kraus Ruby Turpin knows what should be and does her part to make it so. She notices every instance of the messy, dirty, unregulated world. She has her faults, she knows that, but she’s a respectable, church-going woman who always tries to make things right. She keeps pigs-just a few of the preemi­ nent unclean animal-but she’s built them a concrete pen, a “pig-parlor,” to keep them from wallowing in mud and slop, and she hoses them down regularly. On the day of this story Ruby accompanies her husband Claud to the doctor and sizes up the waiting room: it’s small and dirty and filled with slovenly, careless people. To counter the disorder she exer­ cises the best force she can, her good disposition generously Since the emergency, a wrathful Mrs. Turpin has been demanding why Mary Grace called her an old wart hog from hell. Mrs. Turpin is convinced that Jesus sent her the mes­ sage and, though she has negotiated with him before, for once, she finds that defense is futile. She has no one to turn to. She doesn’t trust the cotton-pickers, whose comments she finds intolerable and full of flattery. She can’t confide in Claud (whose name sounds like “clod,” and who can’t shore up her failing faith). She shouts defiantly to Jesus, “Who do you think you are?” The sight of the sun setting in the back pasture, “looking over the paling of trees like a farmer inspecting his own hogs,” triggers the collapse of her carefully-tended beliefs. She inspects her own hogs, who are glowing rosy in the cor­ ner of the pig parlor, and takes in the “abysmal life-giving knowledge” from them-sees, I think, that though there is no one out there measuring each person for a future crown, yet we have the present life. There is no doctor behind the waiting-room door, about to call our names. Mrs. Turpin sees the vast parade of people, carried to heaven on the pur­ ple bridge shouting hallelujah. She knows, for the moment at least, that this is nothing but a dream. Heaven by Basia Miller Mrs. Turpin’s revelation is pretty dark. She has experienced the dark before-at the end of her dreams, everyone is crammed in a boxcar and sent off to a gas oven. Today when she and Claud enter their own dirt road on the way back from the doctor’s, she is ready to see her home destroyed, “a burnt wound between two blackened chimneys.” A few moments before the end, she imagines the pickup truck being crushed and her husband’s and the fieldhands’ brains oozing out on the road. Her final revelation seems, too, to be of a world destroyed, a kind of apocalypse that nevertheless offers “life­ giving knowledge.” First, Mrs. Turpin’s vision was affected in the waiting room. When Mary Grace sent the book flying at her head, Mrs. Turpin saw things smaller first, then she saw everything larg­ er. The impact was particularly powerful because Mrs. Turpin sensed that the girl had a deep, timeless knowledge of her, perhaps of her soul. We who have heard Mrs. Turpin talking incessantly, all afternoon, about her own goodness have to ask if much of this talk isn’t inspired by self-doubt. She’s con­ verted everyone’s gestures, everyone’s shoes, green stamps, Basia Miller is a Santa Fe tutor. and traces of snuff into material for affirming her worth in the eye of heaven, like a person feeding an insatiable hunger. {The College- St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } �i6 {Revelation} ''Thepurgatorial vision reveals all manner of sinners lined up ingroups... bestowed, a veneer of nice manners and char­ • itable platitudes barely covering harsh judg­ ments. This is her way of following the com­ mandment Love Thy Neighbor. Both her justice and her mercy are superficial rather than utterly misplaced. They are poor imita­ tions of the divine, not complete aberrations. Yet they are not harmless: they hold her fast in easygoing self-righteousness and could forever blind her to herself. Mary Grace is the only occupant of the wait­ ing room who won’t submit to Ruby’s intru­ sive geniality. An ugly, cranky, even mean young woman, Mary Grace sees a deeper dis­ order than Ruby sees, and her penetrating eye is right on Ruby Thrpin. Mary Grace waits in the waiting room but is sickened by the world that surrounds her, as if she has taken in its ugliness. She is most revolted at Ruby, its banal and self-satisfied leading citi­ zen. Seemingly lost to charity, or too bur­ dened for it, she freely offers this world her scorn. Each of these judges is drawn to the other from the first as to a perfect enemy. Mary Grace rebuffs Ruby’s attempts at cordial small talk, even when not directed to her, by making grotesque faces. The affronts enliven Ruby’s insistence on the virtue of good-naturedness. The garrulous, prettied-up world of Ruby’s waiting room advances upon the stark, friendless one defended by Mary Grace. When Ruby’s enthu­ siasm reaches its peak, she bursts out in praise: “Thank you, Jesus, for making everything the way it is! ” Mary Grace retal­ iates. She launches her book at Ruby and goes for her throat. Both fall in this battle. Mary Grace inflicts the blows, yet she is the one sedated and removed to a hospital. The purple swelling above Ruby’s eye and the marks on her throat are on the surface; deeper is a more grievous wound. Not the book, not the hands clenched around her throat, but the words Mary Grace whispers as the two lock eyes hit home: “Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog.” These words “brooked no repudiation.” They strike Ruby’s center of grav­ ity, confusing her sight and toppling her confidence. Ruby is turned, readied for revelation; Mary Grace, an inadvertent {The College- cause of grace, goes to a fate we do not know. The vision of an ugly wart hog besets Ruby all afternoon. Driven by anger, confusion, and need, she spills her story almost in spite of herself to the Black cotton workers in her employ. This veiled plea for compassion is met with highly spirited but superficial concern-the kind of concern Ruby has been so proud of and good at herself, especially with the Blacks-and it angers her to receive it from those she has considered so far beneath her. She goes to her pig-parlor seething as intensely as Mary Grace in the waiting room, turns the hose on the pigs, and, like a comic Job, thrusts question after question at God. The questions begin in a forceful whisper, “How am 1 a hog and me both?”, and reach a summit of fury: “Who do you think you are?”, the fundamental question to which a vision is the mysterious answer. The purgatorial vision reveals all manner of sinners hned up in groups, each rejoicing in its distinctive way, and puts Ruby in her place. Ahead in line are the leapers and rollickers; she, Claud, and the other respectable people are last in the procession, their virtues the sins being burned away. The vision is a reminder of our essential unfitness to understand and follow the commandment to love even when we desire to and a reve­ lation of God’s inscrutable, comic ways. As Ruby stands gaz­ ing upon “what lay ahead” and hearing at the crickets’ chirps hallelujahs of praise, we wonder in what world Ruby now is and whether it may embrace the edge that Mary Grace inhabits. 99 Pamela Kraus, a tutor in Annapolis, also serves as editor of the St. John’s Review. The Private Hell of Ruby Turpin by Cary Stickney Without rereading the story, 1 want to say that the primary revelation is what the girl in the doctor’s office says that St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �{Revelation} wounds Mrs. Turpin so: “You are a warthog from Hell!” Ruby Turpin cannot forget it, and it brings on a kind of crisis of faith, I presume because on some level Mrs. Turpin acknowledges its truth. It is at least in part-the warthog part-an inevitable consequence of existing as a creature in the same cosmos with an infinitely good Creator. In this sense I suppose even archangels are warthogs, compared to the beauty of God. That the warthog is from Hell seems to me to say that we have each taken the finite beauty and goodness we might have had and thrown it away. That is, we are sin­ ners, and we make a kind of hell for ourselves. Looking back at the story I see that the girl in the waiting room says, “Go back to Hell where you came from, you old warthog!” Mrs. Thrpin had been revealing by her conversa­ tion with the girl’s mother that she lives in a world of careful­ ly maintained distinctions, and that she compensates herself for the efforts she makes to be good by looking down on all those who seem not to try as hard. She would not describe her own world as a hell. But I see something hellish in the dream we are told she sometimes has, in which her struggles to 17 maintain the picture of a well-ordered hierarchy of human virtue and vice correlated with property ownership and worth ancestry, to say nothing of skin color, give way to a vision of a cattle-car crowded with every kind of human on the way to a gas oven. In her waking hours, she sees a world in which good people are the exception and things are get­ tingworse. To be “saved,” as she believes she is, requires that she think better of things than that, at least in an ultimate sense, but it looks as if she has reduced God to a scorekeeper and that her gratitude to have been created as the one we see is dependent at least on her fear of and contempt for others. The Wellesley girl, Mary Grace, may see that, and may mean that she is far from heaven and fairly close to hell, so that it would be easy to just go back. Of course being an effective messenger may not require that the aptly named Mary Grace fully understand the message she delivers. Both the aspects of the revelation, that she is a warthog and that she came from Hell, carry with them a redeeming and mysterious grace: namely that in spite of our vanishingly small claim to significance or beauty or even to being at all. {The College -St John’s College • Spring 2004 } �i8 {Revelation} we somehow do exist in the same cosmos with infinite beauty and heing-God has made room for us and wants us to be. That turns out to involve, in the Christian understanding, that He has moreover forgiven us the waste of our time and gifts, the pettiness and cruelty we might have avoided, and that He offers us His love. What Mrs. Turpin demands to know, namely how she can be herself and a hog too, or saved and at the same time from hell, is the mystery that requires a further revelation, or a deeper view of the one she has been given. In the story, Mrs. Turpin is hosing out the hog pen and shaking her fist at God when the shape of the stream of water momentarily comes to resemble a snake. She is at that moment complaining to God that she might as well have never tried to lead a good life at all, if she can be so insulted and feel it so deeply; if, in a word, she is still just a warthog: in spite of all her efforts still essentially no better than the worst of sinners, the most lazy and wicked. This is a form of the temptation to think that she should. Godlike, be able to make herself, to accomphsh her own goodness and merit by her unaided efforts, and thus, implicitly, to know good and evil: to have the right to judge and condemn others presumably less industrious or tasteful than herself. For if it does not ulti­ mately matter what she does, and all saving power remains with God, why has she troubled herself all these years? “Why should we not sin the more, that Grace may abound?” asks Paul, before repudiating the question. The mystery and the final aspect of the revelation, granted in her sunset vision, is that it does and does not matter. It does: before she sees the highway into heaven she has seen the setting sun like a farmer looking over the fence of the treetops at his hogs, and she has seen her own hogs, clean now and gathered around the old sow, the source of their hves, and one kind of image of herself. She gazes “as if through the very heart ofmystery,” and again, “as if she were absorbing some abysmal, life-giving knowledge.” It is a knowledge set off both by the previous sight of her husband’s truck going down the road no bigger than a toy, liable at any moment to be smashed, and by the fact of sunset itself. Even without accident we are not here long. From the abyss, the depths at greatest distance from God, she absorbs the knowl­ edge that life-finite, particular, hog-ugly hfe-precisely in its finitude, is beautiful, is full of God, its secret source. If those hogs are beautiful, then so is she; it is right that she is who she {The College- is. But then it is equally right that others are who they are. Her struggles to do right have not made her superior. When she sees the horde of ascending souls, led by the crazy, lazy, crippled, and off-key, she sees she had to make the efforts she made to be who she is, not because God would not love her otherwise, but because there must be all kinds of saved sin­ ners, and it is a divine gift to be whatever kind you are. It does not matter: the very virtues of the decent and upright like herself are being burned away in the purging fires of the ascent; that is, even their virtues are small and small-minded in the hght of God’s love. That God’s love is not hmited by human wickedness and yet does not annihilate the significance of an individual life is part of the same revelation as that an infinite being should make room for finitude to begin with. Greation and redemption are revealed to be at one. Carey Stickney (A75) is a tutor in Santa Fe. The Presence of Evil by George Russell Flannery O’Gonnor did not write about the lives of the great, but the lives of the ordinary and the lowly. By conse­ quence, the situations and actions of her characters are most often the stuff of comic and not tragic report. One finds himself laughing spontaneously at the human beings in her stories. Nevertheless, she is not condescending to her characters. She takes them seriously, holding them accountable for their weaknesses and transgressions. They may be ridiculous in the smallness of their views and desires, but they suffer nonetheless for their sins, and one is brought to feel for them in their sufferings and in the realizations that their sufferings allow. “Revelation” is a story about a day in the life of Ruby Turpin, a farming woman who, as far as she knows, is “saved” (“And wona these days I know I’ll we-era a crown.”) and who, in her own words is “a respectable, hard­ working, church-going woman.” From the first we are told that Ruby Turpin is a woman, big in size (“I wish I could reduce...”), blessed with a “good disposition” and “a little of everything,” with the emphasis on “everything.” In the story, we see her settled conclusions about the world St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } �{Revelation} around her and her place and identity in that world and in the divine plan come under an unexpected and jarring attack during a visit with her husband to the doctor’s office; and we witness a recovery which is as remarkable as the fall. A story with two distinct parts, “Revelation” in its first part takes place in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. The waiting room is emblematic of the shared human condition. Human beings are susceptible to injury and sickness. And their susceptibility is real; they get injured; they get sick. However that maybe the case, the story is less about bodily injury and illness than it is about another abo­ riginal susceptibility, the proneness to sin and especially to pride. It reminds one of the passage in the Bible from On the Road to Damascus by Michael Dink The revelation that comes to Ruby, in the form of a book thrown by Mary Grace that knocks her off her chair in the doctor’s office, is in essence identical to that which came to Saul, in the form of a flash of light that knocked him to the ground on the road to Damascus. Prior to the revela­ tion, Ruby and Saul shared a sense of their superiority to certain other human beings, a superiority achieved by reg­ ulating their conduct according to certain precepts and recognized in the eyes of God. In Ruby this sense takes the form of a self-congratulating condescension, in which she sees herself as kind and tolerant to those inferiors, while in Saul it took the more aggressive form of trying to pun­ ish or reform those who had strayed from the right path. When Ruby is called “a wart hog from hell” and Saul is asked, “Why do you persecute me?” they are confronted with the claim that they are sinners, certainly no better than those they had despised, and perhaps even worse, precisely because of the claim to righteousness implicit in their despising, a claim that Saul, reborn as Paul, denies that any human being can truthfully make. Ruby struggles valiantly to deny this message, “But the denial had no force.” She resents its being directed to her, “a respectable, hard-working, church-going woman,” 19 Proverbs, “Pride goeth before destruction, and haughty spirit before a fall.” The central dramatic incident that takes place in the first part of the story occurs in the con­ text of a conversation between three women, Mrs. Turpin, a poor white woman, and the mother of a college student named Mary Grace. The conversation of the women, taken together with the reports of the narrator, reveals the pride of the three women and of Mary Grace, but especially that of Ruby Turpin. About Mrs. Turpin we learn early on, that when she is restless and unable to sleep, she has two nocturnal occupa­ tions. In one, she seems to be acutely aware of the contin­ gent character of her present life. Like Eve, who is tempted by an alternative vision of the world, Mrs. Turpin’s imagi- “though there was trash in the room to whom it might justly have been applied.” A kiss from her husband and flattery from the black womenfolk of their hired help fail to assuage her resentment. When she goes to the pig parlor and tries to cleanse the pigs, she speaks out her resentment, evidently to God, indicating that she does recognize the source of the reve­ lation, despite her resistance to it. She continues to justify herself, to defend her innocence, her charity, her superi­ ority to lower orders of people. Her fury bursts forth in a defiant challenge, “Gall me a hog again. From hell. Gall me a wart hog from hell. Put that bottom rail on top. There’ll still be a top and bottom.” After seeing her husband’s truck in the distance as tiny and vulnerable, she gazes at the hogs for a long time, “as if she were absorbing some abysmal life-giving knowledge.” Then she has a vision of a procession of souls marching toward heaven. Leading the way are “the bottom rail,” all the kinds of people she despised, “shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs.” Behind them, with “great dignity” but with “shocked and altered faces,” come people like herself and Glaude, and she sees that “even their virtues are being burned away.” In this final vision, she at last sees how she is “saved and from hell too.” Michael Dink fAyjJ is an Annapolis tutor. {The College -5f. John ’5 College ■ Spring 2004 } �ao {Revelation} Priestess and Visionary by Elizabeth Engel Mrs. Turpin’s revelation builds from the first face the girl makes at her through Mrs. Turpin’s wonderful defiant questions to God as she stands at the pig parlor; “What do you send me a message like that for?” “How am I a hog and me both? How am I saved and from hell too?” The set­ ting sun, now far more mysterious than when Mrs. Turpin saw it, hke her, “looking over the paling of trees like a farmer inspecting his own hogs,” transforms everything. Mrs. Turpin, ignoring the transformation, dares God again and ends with roaring “who do you think you are?” An echo comes back at her “like an answer from beyond the wood.” God answers her by questioning her and her pride, with far more right than she had to question him. Mrs. Turpin begins to see who she really is as she sees the fragility of human life in Claud’s tiny truck, which from her position looks like a child’s toy: “At any moment a bigger truck might smash into it and scatter Claud’s and the nig­ gers’ brains all over the road.” When she has seen the truck home safe, she turns to the pig parlor: “Then, hke a monu­ mental statue coming to life, she bent her head slowly and gazed as if through the very heart of mystery, down into the pig parlor at the hogs. They had settled all in one corner nation brings her to envision the world other than it is. She wonders how things would have gone “If Jesus had said to her before he made her...You can either be a nigger or white-trash.” Her preference, she decides, is for Jesus to have made her “a neat clean respectable Negro woman, herself but black,” changed but still saved, sidestepping the lowly. In her other nocturnal activity, Mrs. Turpin is said to have “occupied herself at night naming the classes of peo­ ple.” She lies awake at night trying to sort out the people in her world into classes, in accordance with their material and social standing in the world. She assumes blindly that she possesses the standard and judgment for the task of sav­ ing and condemning. However, the fluctuations in the for­ tunes of the human beings that she would rank make such a jumble of her very attempts to rank them, that she finally falls off to sleep, imagining them all condemned, (“she would dream they were all crammed together in a box car, being ridden off to be put in a gas oven.”). Her virtues notwithstanding, Mrs. Turpin remains prey to these temp­ tations, and we see her assailed by them too in the light of {The College. around the old sow who was grunting softly. A red glow suf­ fused them. They appeared to pant with a secret life.” The hogs have become beautiful gathered around the maternal and musical old sow, a vision of animal life filled by grace. This is how we can be both hogs and ourselves too. Mrs. Turpin is herself transformed by gazing at the hogs; she becomes a sort of priestess, raising her hands “in a ges­ ture hieratic and profound.” Her transformation allows her final vision, the bridge over which souls are marching towards Paradise. The most respectable, the group she thinks she belongs to, come last, and “even their virtues were beings burned away.” In relation to salvation, virtue doesn’t matter, nor does top and bottom, dignity and luna­ cy, white and black. This, I think, completes Mrs. Turpin’s revelation. O’Connor says, “she lowered her hands and gripped the rail of the hog pen, her eyes small but fixed unbhnkingly on what lay ahead.” We see what she sees, and we see her seeing it, pig-like, with her small eyes, and still as priestess and visionary. Is this our revelation? Our judg­ ment of her has become irrelevant, just as have her judg­ ments of other people. We turn with Mrs. Ihrpin back onto the darkening path-surely O’Connor intends us to think of Dante-and with her we hear “the voices of the souls climb­ ing upward into the starry field and shouting hallelujah.” Elizabeth (Litzi) Engel is a tutor in Santa Fe. day. Mrs. Turpin feeds her false pride by imagining the infe­ rior world or worlds that might have been. Those imagina­ tions of worlds inferior to her world feature the lowly ones of the here and now whom she judges so severely. As Mrs. Turpin’s prideful attitudes leak out in the waiting room conversation, they become contagious. In the chief exchange in the waiting room, an exchange about the Turpin farm, Mrs. Turpin and Mary Grace’s mother silent­ ly join together against the opinions of the “white-trash woman.” The two women form an alliance inasmuch as “...both understood that you had to have certain things before you could know certain things.” An antagonism erupts between the poor white woman and Mrs. Turpin regarding their differing opinions about the possessions and associations that Mrs. Turpin has; Mrs. Turpin raises pigs and associates with black people. According to Mrs. Turpin, the Turpins have “a couple acres of cotton and a few hogs and chickens and just enough white-face that Gland can look after them himself.” That report elicits a retort from the white-trash woman that she doesn’t want St. John ’5 College ■ Spring 2004 } �{Revelation} ''The corruptive power ofpride takes its toll once more.'' anything to do with hogs: “Hogs. Nasty stinking things, a-gruntin and a-rootin all over the place.” It does not matter to her that the Turpins have a “pig-parlor” a con­ crete-floored pen where the pigs are raised and where “Claud scoots them down with the hose every afternoon and washes off the floor.” The poor woman wouldn’t stoop to “scoot down no hog with no hose.” And as to the black people that the Turpins hire (“butter up”) to pick their cotton, the “white-trash woman” is equally as adamant: “Two thangs I ain’t going to do: love no niggers or scoot down no hog with no hose.” As far above the “white-trash woman” as Mrs. Turpin seems to place herself, the “white-trash woman” places herself above hogs and “niggers.” The corruptive power of pride takes its toll once more. In the doctor’s office, then, we witness Mrs. Turpin’s awareness of the contingent character of her life (“When I think who all I could have been besides myself and what all I got...It could have been different!”) and how that awareness contributes to her false pride and a lack of understanding both of who she is and of the true character of her world. Behind her “good disposition,” we see her judgment on the world as it is given to her. Despite the fact that her virtue has no positive ground, she imagines that her goodness is sufficient both to judge and re-order the world and to do that without any assistance: “It’s no use in having more than you can handle yourself with help like it is.” Hers is not a position where she needs help, and she doesn’t ask for any. She divides her world into those like herself and Mary Grace’s mother, who don’t need help, and those like the poor white woman. Of the latter, she thinks, “Help them you must, but help them you couldn’t,” even though, “To help anybody out that needed it was her philos­ ophy of life.” Mrs. Turpin is saved and she is a would-be sav­ ior. From that vantage point of self-sufficiency, hers is a posi­ tion of gratitude. (“Oh, thank you, Jesus, Jesus, thank you!”) But she is more grateful for what she is not than for what she is, perhaps grateful even that she is child­ less. What she does not seem to acknowl­ edge is that bad things and evil itself can­ not be relegated to what is not or to absence, and for that reason in part, no one is completely “saved” in this world, cer­ tainly not by dint of one’s own efforts alone, from the power of temptation and malevolence. It is in the context of her ignorance of the forces of evil in the world that Mrs. Turpin comes to consider Mary Grace (“Why, girl, I don’t even know you...”), who gives up her reading and bears wit­ ness to the display of pride. She takes up her station, staring relentlessly at Mrs. Turpin and making ugly faces at her until she feels the need to defend herself. But most importantly, at the point where Mrs. Turpin claims not to know Mary Grace, she thinks that Mary Grace, “was looking at her as if she had known and disliked her all her life-all of Mrs. Turpin’s hfe, it seemed too, not just the girl’s life.” What there was to be known all of her hfe is nothing but the susceptibility to temptation and the depredations of evil which are coeval with the garden and human existence. Mary Grace, possessed of money, family, education, is a real puzzle for Mrs. Turpin. So obviously lacking in grace, she is loaded with the worldly goods by which Mrs. Turpin partially takes her bearings. It does not make sense to her that Mary Grace with all of her books could be possessed of a false pride dwarfing that of her and the others. (“The girl looked as if she would like to hurl them all through the plate glass window.”) It does not make sense to her that Mary Grace as Mary Grace could be a source of evil. Mary Grace would open her eyes though, and so she throws the book at her. The incongruity of first being silently intimidated, and then being assaulted with a book by someone such as Mary Grace, convinces Mrs. Turpin that there is more to the situa­ tion than meets the eye. And so she seeks out Mary Grace, “What you got to say to me?” And she receives the retorted command, “Go back to hell where you came from, you old {The Colleges?. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �aa {Revelation} wart hog.” When Mary Grace tells Mrs. Turpin to go to heU, Mrs. Turpin does not understand what she means, does not accept the evil that confronts her. She thinks that God is telhng her that she is not saved. The second part of the story addresses that mistake and achieves in a way a resolution to the story. The shift in the story from the doctor’s office to the farm marks a shift from pride to humility, the doctor’s office hav­ ing pride of place. Mrs. Turpin is so convinced that God has abandoned her, that when she and Claud drive home, and she looks for their house, “She would not have been startled to see a burnt wound between two blackened chimneys.” She and Claud he down, but she cannot escape what had hap­ pened or the image of her that had been deposited in her soul. “She had been singled out for the message.” In her feel­ ing of sohtude, she cries, but when her tears dry, “Her eyes began to burn with wrath”: she is “a respectable, hard-work­ ing, church-going woman.” When her self-pity turns to anger, Mrs. Turpin turns to the farm community, which she rules for affirmation and assurance of who she is. In a sense, she wants the message to be overruled by her loved ones, her husband, her black field hands, and her hogs. But the fact of her rule presents a problem for her, because now she needs help. She turns to Claud for solace-(“‘Listen here,’ she said.” ‘“What?”’ “‘Kiss me.’”)-and Claud obliges her, as he does through­ out the story, “as if he was accustomed to doing what she told him to,” but nothing happens. She turns to the black workers, but the workers think that Mrs. Turpin is beyond anything bad happening to her, as if “she were protected in some special way by Divine Providence.” When Mrs. Turpin leaves the black workers, she goes down to the pig parlor and takes the hose from Claud; on the farm, she is “the right size woman to command the arena before her.” When he goes off, Mrs. Turpin begins speaking to God, raising her questions, wanting to know how she is herself and a hog both and how she is “saved and from hell too.” In a final display of pride, hosing down her hogs, she rants and raves at God until she comes to the more general form of her question, “Who do you think you are?” the question echoing back to her. The humihty on the farm appears to be the antidote to the diseased pride infesting the doctor’s office. There Mrs. Turpin comes face to face with someone “above” her, who is {The College. not thankful to Jesus, who does not “read from the same book” as she does and who takes her bearings from what Mrs. Turpin ostensibly is, a fat, indulgent, prideful woman, who, just like Mary Grace, “complains and criticizes all day long.” The evil in Mary Grace would claim Mrs. Turpin for itself; hence, the condemnation. But because Mrs. Turpin thinks that she is saved, she thinks that evil is somehow warded off, existing in some imaginary alternative world; and so, she mistakenly interprets what Mary Grace says. Mrs. Turpin mistakenly thinks that God is turning away from her because evil makes its presence known to her and even as having a root in her; she thinks that she is no longer one of the saved. But to say that God is not turning away from Mrs. Turpin is not to say that God was not working through the force of evil. O’Connor clearly beheves that God does work through evil, and that He is able to do such work just because of the inroads that evil has made in the souls of human beings. God was not turning away from her, but turning her so that she might face the reality of her continual need for salvation. On the farm, in her rant, Mrs. Turpin would fight God with her pride-until she hears herself. Then it is that the day’s lesson begins to come clear to her, the lesson about the world and the serpent and the lesson of Job and God and the Adver­ sary. Then she sees Claud’s truck, looking “like a toy,” and sees the downside of that technological marvel, that it could be smashed by a bigger truck and everyone in it destroyed. Then Ruby turns to her hogs gathered around the sow, where “A red glow suffused them;” they were God’s crea­ tures, panting “with a secret life.” Her acknowledgement of the presence of evil in this world and of the goodness of God’s creation even in the lowly allows her to have a vision of a new order marching to salvation; in that order the lowly are entering first. It is hardly accidental that the setting of the first part of the story is in a doctor’s office, that there is even a black den­ tist in town, or that the book that Mary Grace throws at Mrs. Turpin was titled Human Development. Today, many people have a difficult time talking about good and evil, preferring instead to talking about health and sickness. But O’Connor’s character, Mrs. Turpin, when she is in need of help, does not want the doctor’s help. What is aihng her is a matter of the spirit. Of course, the terms in which she understands the “classes of people” and herself belong to the contemporary John’s College • Spring 2004 } �{Revelation} ^3 revelation is not a quiet Inull... • United States South, where the old notions of rank based on land owner­ ship and breeding issue in such cate­ gories as “good blood” and “white trash” and “niggers.” She is a stock character in O’Connor’s repertoire of stories, each one having its place as in a series of echoes originating in and echoing from a single homeland, O’Connor’s powerful imaginative intellect. O’Connor is a Catholic writer from the South, for her, the land of the humble and the humbled. Persisting in her faith and her South­ ern roots and in allusions to the Holo­ caust and the dark sides of technolog­ ical life, O’Connor helps us navigate our own darkness and locate the beau­ tiful in lowly and humble lives. On that account, in the aist century, she is a writer whose meanings are not only important but urgently needed. George Russell is a tutor in Annapolis. The Message-Bearers by Barbara Goyette Perhaps this story is not only about a revelation but about revelation itself, the nature of a mysterious occurrence that serves as a link between our everyday world (or the somewhat off-kilter but nevertheless recognizably every­ day world of Flannery O’Connor’s South) and some deeper reality. Revelation involves drama and it involves some kind of truth or disclosure about something that wasn’t realized or known before. In a theological sense, revelation involves a manifestation of the divine will. A revelation is not a quiet truth: Mary Grace hurls a textbook at Mrs. Turpin and then pronounces her verdict, “You are a wart hog from Hell.” The black field-hand ladies also tell her the truth: “ ‘Ain’t nothing bad happen to you! ’ the old woman said. She said it as if they all knew that Mrs. Turpin was protected in some {The College. 7 99 special way by Divine Providence.” This truth infuriates Mrs. Turpin; she fervently hopes that it is as false as Mary Grace’s revelation. And then there’s the wild and wooly vision of the souls marching up to heaven, violent in its intensity and in its absolute nega­ tion of all that Mrs. Turpin thinks she believes to be right and just. Revelation does not need proof. It can’t be arrived at by logic, and one can’t be persuaded to it. Revelation suggests someone or something as the medium of higher truth or another level of reality. In this story, the irony of the message-bearers-a disaffected, angry, acne-scarred intellectual; a troop of respectable, sycophantic field workers; and the pigs, hosed off to spot­ lessness from their naturally filthy state-reinforces the disjunction that is at the root of Mrs. Turpin’s sinful view. Her sin is that of not seeing, not understanding the most fundamental fact of grace-that it applies to everyone at all times, no matter what their level of receptiveness or worthi­ ness. Mrs. Turpin fails just as we aU fail, by virtue of being human. The last shall be first and the first shall be last. In the beatitudes, the unhappy are blessed and the happy are cursed (this complementary “woe to...” set of pronounce­ ments is often ignored in our recollection of the beatitudes— it’s not only that the downtrodden have a special place in God’s consideration, it’s that those who are successful do not, at least not insofar as they are successful). Our measures of success, those that Mrs. Turpin admires and with which she measures the worthiness of others, are worse than mean­ ingless. They get in the way of our understanding that we are all in need of grace. Revelation is a gift, presented to Mrs. Turpin and to us. It’s there every day for all of us, and everyone around us is a messenger. Barbara Goyette (A’^g) is vice presidentfor advancement in Annapolis. John’s College • Spring 2004 } �24 {Alumni Voices} THE HABIT OF WRITING BY Brigid K. Byrne, AGI03 hen I open my mailbox to find an ingly [reflects] the object, the being, which [specifies] it.” envelope addressed in a bold, careful Studying O’Connor’s letters, I decided that Fitzgerald had script and bearing an Iowa City post­ given the collection the perfect name. O’Connor offered mark, mixed in among bills and cata­ her correspondents thoughts about everything: her pet logs, I feel a small thrill, an excite­ peacocks, her writing habits, and her peculiar interpreta­ ment that there is something meant especially It tion offor theme. Catholic faith. Her letters to friends, fans, pub­ seems strange that finding a personal letterlishers, in my mailbox and fellow writers reveal a woman who wrote them gives me so much joy. Yet, how often do we get a letter from not only to maintain her connection to those she loved, but someone we know and love? How often do we take the time also to explore and reveal the parts of herself which the to write to others? Most of the written communication we intended recipient had the power to bring out. send and receive are hasty e-mails, typed quickly, in lan­ I was most struck by O’Connor’s correspondence with guage created to speed up the time spent composing mes­ Cecil Dawkins, a college professor who introduced herself sages. While e-mail has perhaps kept us closer to those we to O’Connor in a letter. Dawkins challenged O’Connor by may otherwise have drifted apart from, our brief electron­ asking her advice in matters concerning her career, her ic conversations lack the richness and intimacy that are desire to write, and her faith. In a response to a question vital parts of human relationships. We compose our mes­ Dawkins raised about the effectiveness of the Catholic sages so quickly that we forfeit the benefits of self-reflec­ Church, O’Connor wrote, “You don’t serve God by saying: tion and personal growth that we can gain when we write the Church is ineffective. I’ll have none of it. Your pain at letters to others. The flow of thoughts seems better suited its lack of effectiveness is a sign of your nearness to God. to the flow of ink from the pen than to the pecking of We help overcome this lack of effectiveness simply by suf­ fingers on a plastic keyboard, and the act of sealing an enve­ fering on account of it.” Reading this unusually lengthy lope much more satisfying than hitting the “send” button. response, I realized that Dawkins had asked a question that I felt the loss of the art of letter writing poignantly as I O’Connor herself struggled with and wondered if O’Con­ recently revisited The Habit ofBeing, Sally Fitzgerald’s col­ nor was speaking more to Dawkins or to herself. lection of Flannery O’Connor’s letters. Fitzgerald titled In her introduction to the book, Fitzgerald notes that “on her collection The Habit ofBeing because she saw that the the whole, [O’Connor’s] correspondence was an enrichment writer’s correspondence reflected the attainment of that of her life, to say nothing of the lives of her correspondents” habit, which she defines as “an excellence not only of and that “almost all of her close friendships were sustained action but of interior disposition and activity that increas­ through the post.” W {The College- St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �{Alumni Voices} As I reread O’Connor’s let­ ters, I realized that my own habit of letter writing has enriched my life. 1 was not much of a letter writer until about five years ago when I began corre­ sponding with Sandra, an honors student from Iowa, whom I met while interning at the U.S. Department of Education. After rais­ ing her children, Sandra enrolled in a community college near her home and was so successful in her studies that she gained an internship through Phi Theta Kappa. Over that summer, Sandra and I had many conversations, and I learned much from her about courage and faith. When our internships ended, Sandra and I exchanged addresses in the way parting people do, intending to keep in touch, but doubtful whether such a brief acquaintance would with­ stand time and distance. I returned to college that fall, but I could not forget San­ dra. I pulled out the scrap of paper on which she had care­ fully printed her address and wrote her a letter. Thus began years of correspondence that have led me to question and contemplate many of my ideas, choices, and beliefs. When I first began writing to Sandra, I was feeling uncertain about my faith. Having been raised Catholic and force-marched to Mass, I purposefully spent each Sunday of my first few years away at college lingering over breakfast in the dining hall, ignoring the bells chiming at St. Paul’s, just a few hundred yards away. I was torn between rebelling against my parents and discovering my own sense of faith. In writing to Sandra, I found that I could wrestle with my doubts and hesitations. Through my letters to her, I came to recognize my struggle was not between me and God, but one of becoming an adult. {The College- 25 learning to make choices for my­ self. Sandra’s res­ ponses, resonat­ ing with her faith in God, even in the face of hard­ ship and sorrow, gave me the strength to travel my own spiritual road. Without Sandra as my audience, I am not sure that I would have found that part of myself. While my relationship with Sandra has led me to a deeper sense of faith, having a variety of correspondents challenges me to look at many sides of myself. One of my favorite audi­ ences is my friend Sally, who lives in Atlanta. Although Sally and I talk on the phone frequently and see each other occa­ sionally, letter writing is still an important part of our friendship. We enjoy what Shakespeare might term “a mar­ riage of true minds,” as our thoughts, interests, and experi­ ences run uncannily parallel. Writing to Sally is almost like writing to myself, except that I wait in anticipation for her honest replies, replies that demand that I look into myself more alertly. In my day-to-day habit of living, running from job to job, eating in my car, I have little time for reflection and clarity. I have come to see this habit of living, which requires me to direct so much energy away from myself, as distinctly differ­ ent from the habit of being, which allows me to spend time inside, listening only to myself. Like O’Connor, I have found that I can practice my habit of being most effectively as I sit down to write. So I will find time today to retreat from the habit of living and write to my friend and fellow St. John’s alumna, Sarah. I can’t wait to see what my letter will reveal. St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �{Johnnies 2,6 on Aging} THE MIND IN WINTER Living an ExaminedLife in Later Years wi Sus3AN Borden, A87 would lose meaning and she knew that there have even been suicides [among older people]. To provide meaning to their lives, she endowed the institute, which provides high-quality, exciting courses for seniors. The faculty, illiam Butler Yeats Institute, where he explores the world -W from a classroom. from neighborhood universities and the U.C. Medical “Hannah Fromm was worried that the life of retired people Center, are also mostly seniors,” explains Brunn, who has ohn Brunn (class of 1947) is no Magellan, no studied history, literature, science, and music at the insti­ Columbus, no Ernest Shackleford or Neil tute since his retirement. Armstrong, but in an important way, he has Brunn’s explorations are important to an aging mind, remained true to his childhood ambition to says Helen Hobart (class of 1964). Hobart works with become an explorer. “I thought of it then as older people who are experiencing dementia, and she’s a physical exploration,” he says of the ambition true believer in the adage “use it or lose it.” “The more that has become increasingly intellectual as he we exercise our minds, the more protection we have from has aged. “When I first came to California, the effects of dementia,” says Hobart. “People who com­ I fell in love with the Sierra and have spent plete loth grade have five more years of protection from vacations exploring the mountains, at first with friends theand effects of Alzheimer’s than those who don’t. You may later with my wife. With increasing age-I have turned be 77showing signs of the disease neurologically, but symp­ that has become difficult. Most of my learning istomatically, now you’ve got enough other brain connections indoors, but I am still curious about the world.” that function because you’ve stimulated their growth, so the assault of Alzheimer’s won’t show up.” While keeping the mind active slows the effects of aging, Hobart encourages us to recognize that, with the loss of cognitive ability, other strengths can come into Life moves out ofa redflare ofdreams Into a common light ofcommon hours. Brunn is fortunate to live in San Francisco, not just for Until old age and brings the but redflare the mountains the city, also foragain. the Hannah Fromm J {The College -Sr. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �27 {Johnnies on Aging} play. “Roughly half of people over 85 have Alzheimer’s and we’re aU hving longer,” she says. “So it behooves us to consider what it means to be human in addi­ tion to our cogni­ tive functions. I’ve seen a lot of suffer­ ing because people feel they’re no longer worthwhile because their memoryis failing or they can’t figure out how to do something that they used to do. But there are so many wonderful ways of being in relationship with the world and other people. The epidemic of dementia as we grow older really invites us to consider our humanity, our affections, our spirituality, our art, our love of music. All these things can thrive, even flourish, if our cognitive functioning {The College -St Playing the piano is JUST ONE RETIREMENT PURSUIT FOR Carolyn Banks Leeuwenburgh . gets out of our way a little.” Carolyn Banks Leeuwenburgh (class of 1955) has yet to notice a drop in her cognitive abilities. She’s an avid reader, an insightful conversationalist, and a freelance teacher of English as a foreign language. She also pursues a number of interests that will serve her well if cognition begins to fail. A retired opera singer, she is still involved with the arts, maintaining subscriptions at the McCarter Theater in Princeton in drama, dance, and music. She’s also an avid movie-goer and a fairly active practitioner of several John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �2,8 {JohnniesonAging} experiences mostly loss. Although arts: “I paint, very poorly, but I only 46, Nick Giacona (SFGI98) is paint,” she says. “I play the piano now facing the physical effects of poorly. I still can sing and I still sing 'Tve always believed age as he cares for his 8i-year-old publicly.” Leeuwenburg performs in a thatpeople older than mother, Betty, who moved in with small cafe just outside of Princeton, him and his family last spring. “My singing mainly popular music, blues, mepossessed some mom is a retired schoolteacher with and torch songs. wisdom. Pre always an alert mind and a body that’s fail­ Music has been the saving grace for ing. She has very bad arthritis and is many older people, even those whose felt they were worth pretty much confined to an electric other faculties are deteriorating, says working with and wheelchair. Yet her mind is still very Hobart. “It’s fantastic to watch people active. She goes on the computer, start playing the piano again. The learninp^from, worth does e-mail. She’s a voracious read­ parts of the brain formed when we’re sharing with. er and we have great theological, younger last the longest, so the capac­ spiritual, and political discus­ ity to play the piano can come back,” sions,” he says. she says. There may be no ability to Philip Valley (SFGI75) Giacona sees first-hand the trials make a coherent sentence, but the of life in an aging body. “I’m learn­ reward and beauty of making music ing day by day with her and I really can persist for a long time.” admire how she’s handling it,” he says. “It’s hard and There are other compensations to counter deteriorat­ frustrating for her to do the little things we take for grant­ ing cognitive ability, according to Virginia Seegers Harri­ ed, even something as simple as making herself a meal. son (class of 1964), a geriatric case manager. “Over time Yet she’s handling that with grace and courage.” you learn to tune out nonsense more quickly,” she says. A discussion on aging that former Santa Fe campus “The experience you’ve had in life makes it easier to say, president John Agresto gave years ago left an impression ‘uh-huh, right.’ From observation and personal experi­ on Giacona. “He said that our culture doesn’t really pre­ ence, I would consider that a real advantage.” pare us for aging and death. I thought he was so wise. He She describes the benefits that come in later years as we said that death and aging should be the culmination of a grow to accept our lives. “You can bring your mind to well-lived life, an examined life,” recalls Giacona. “While bear more easily on what is actually accessible, doable. my mom didn’t have a St. John’s education, I’ve turned You learn to pick your battles. You learn to pare down and her on to the Apology and the Crito and the Tibetan Book be satisfied. There’s a feeling in youth and middle age, of the Dead." ‘this world is out there-where do I start?’ When some Giacona says that his mother seems prepared for her options have closed behind you, there can be a sense of own death: “We’ve already discussed the whole memorial liberation. That may be what makes working with elders service. She wants to be cremated and have her ashes so sweet, so affirming, for people in middle age who are scattered where my father’s ashes were scattered. She’s still struggling to be greater than they ever will be. When even decided what songs we’re going to sing. If she died people accept themselves and their lives, that in a sense is tomorrow, she would feel that she had a good life.” where life really begins.” When his mother’s life does end, Giacona will consider Harrison underscores her point with a joke: “A retired himself lucky for the time that he and his family spent woman is listening to several young mothers talking with her. “My wife, Keiko, is so great and supportive. She about when life begins. One says at conception. Another helped convince my mom to stay with us. My mom had says, no, it begins when the fetus quickens. A third says, concerns about moving in and invading the family, but ‘I think life begins at birth.’ Finally, the retired woman Keiko told her that when she was a kid her grandfather leans over and says, ‘Listen, I’ll tell you when life begins. lived with her family and she appreciated the time she Life begins when the kids leave home and the dog dies.’” spent with him.” While it’s comforting to know that the mind enjoys gains to offset its losses, a sad fact of aging is that the body {The College -Sf. John’s College - Spring 2004 } �{JohnniesonAging} ag Although she’s a young Giacona’s own chil7a, Leeuwenburg knows dren-Sarah, 13, and Kyle, ii-respond to his she has some tough times mother in different ahead. “Many years ago I ways. “My son is outgo­ heard Bette Davis say that getting older is not ing and loves to hug her and sit and talk to for sissies,” she says. “As her. My daughter’s really you get older you aren’t shy, so it’s harder for really aware of getting her. She appreciates hav­ older, but you are aware ing her there, but she that you don’t do the shows it in a different same things you used to way. It’s so rewarding to do physically. There are have three generations times when I get out of in one house.” bed in the morning and I don’t think I can move Philip Valley (SFGI75) runs day programs in and other times I’m New Hampshire for fine.” Leeuwenburg swims adults over 55 with nearly every day, but a developmental disabili­ recent cancer scare ties. He says that sharing revealed her true attitude time across the genera­ Nick Giacona and his mother, Betty, are tions is rewarding even for people LEARNING TOGETHER ABOUT AGING. about exercise. “I was thinking, ‘hell, who are not related. “Maggie Kuhn, if I’m going to die. I’m certainly not going to swim,”’ she says. “This is head of the Gray Panthers, once not something I’m doing for the gave a talk where she told the audi­ 'She s a voracious reader sheer pleasure of it. At my age your ence, ‘We are not wrinkled babies, metabolism gets so slow that, even if we are elders of the tribe.’ I’ve and we have great you do all your cleaning, all your gar­ always believed that people older theological, spiritual, dening, you still have to exercise.” than me possessed some wisdom. Leeuwenburgh has not reached I’ve always felt they were worth andpolitical working with and learning from, the point where she feels encum­ worth sharing with.” bered by aging, but she has begun to discussions. ponder her own mortality. “I don’t Harrison, the case manager, has NickGiacona (SFGI98) think anyone ever really comes to nothing but scorn for those who grips with the reality of their own subscribe to the “wrinkled babies” death. When we view ourselves, we view of seniors. “Many people who work in nursing facilities call the elderly ‘baby.’ That’s view a disembodied creature. Chronologically, I’m 7a absolutely not right,” she says. But she’s also disturbed by years old. I’m at the point where I know I’m not going to a subtler form of infantilizing. “Even older people who be here in 20 years. Yet there’s a part of me that you could are quite cogent are pretty much treated like they have to stand up and say, ‘Caroline, you’re getting old,’ and I be fed, clothed, and then amused. I really have trouble would say, ‘I am?’” with that. Yes, it takes time to go at the slower pace and hear someone tell his story, but it’s usually extremely worthwhile. I would encourage anybody to start to talk to people over 75. Ask them about their lives. Ask them what they remember.” {The College* St. John ’5 College ■ Spring 2004 } �30 {Bibliofile} Approaching Machiavelli’s Art OF War Art of War Niccolo Machiavelli, translated, edited, and with a commentary by Christopher Lynch University of Chicago Press, 2004 hris Lynch (A87) traces the origins of his newlypubhshed translation of Machiavelli’s Art of War to the questions posed hy what is known in the academic throats. As I studied him more, I realized that world as the ancient/modern split. Lynch says Machiavelli ’s emphasis on the bellicose that Johnnies have a more intimate relation ­ aspect of human beings, an aspect acknowl­ ship with the split, and rephrases its essence edged but not emphasized by the ancient for the SJC crowd: “Why was everything so philsophers, was part of his overall goal to much fun sophomore year and why did transform the terms in which human life is everyone get so depressed junior year?” generally understood.” Lynch arrived at the University of Fortunately for Lynch, his academic inter­ Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought in ests dovetailed with a hole in Machiavelli the fall of 1988 with this question (in its grad­ scholarship. Of Machiavelli’s four major school expression) very much on his mind: vtorks—Prince, Discourses on Livy, Florentine What is the end of human hfe? Is man natu­ Histories, and Art q/' UAr-almost no one had rally social or essentially alone? What is the seriously studied Art of War. Lynch threw purpose of philosophy? As he pursued these himself into that text and, seven years (and a questions, Lynch came to see Machiavelli as Ph.D.) later, emerged with an impressive the pivotal writer in the transformation between the ancient and modern worlds. “The most sahent aspects of the transfor­ mation that Machiavelli tried to affect were, first, to change the general climate of opinion “Controversy abounds as to what caused and discourse such that human hfe would no the dizzying military changes during longer be understood in terms of its ultimate Machiavelli’s day. Also debated is goal or purpose but instead in terms of its whether these changes constituted a origins and roots,” says Lynch. “The second full-blown military revolution or instead is the attempt to bring about in this world the represented a particular moment in a best regime human beings can come up with, long-term evolution. In considering the best way of living together, instead of these questions, it is important to leaving it to chance hke Plato. And the third remember that the sense at the time was is really a corollary of the first, to get subse­ that tumultuous change was indeed quent thinkers to be primarily concerned afoot, but not rapid change in a single with human freedom and independence as direction driven by gunpowder technol­ opposed to virtue as understood as obhgation ogy. On the tactical level especially, and duty to something higher.” each of the battles that occurred on the These issues gave Lynch a clear direction Italian peninsula, from the battle of for his graduate work. “The more I saw Fornovo in 1495 to that of Pavia in 1525, Machiavelli as the key figure in the seemed to offer a new lesson to be ancient/modern spht, the more I wanted to learned, a new innovation that trans­ figure out what was on his mind,” Lynch says. formed the ways armies ought to be “I started to see war as central to his thought, armed, ordered, led and used.” to understand that for Machiavelli, humans - Christopher Lynch are not social beings, but at each others’ C Excerpt: {The College -Sf. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } pubheation to his credit: a translation of the text with an introduction, interpretive essay, and (he points out with the pride of a Johnnie who’s successfully negotiated secondary sources) more than 600 notes. Lynch originally wrote the translation for himself, “blasting through it” in just a few months, he says. “I wrote the initial transla­ tion as a way to study it carefully. I translated it as literally as I could so I could think about it the way we do with readings in language class, as a tool for closer reading,” he says. Over several years. Lynch returned to the translation, making changes after improving his Italian by translating works by Machiavelh’s predecessors, including Dante and Boccaccio. Later, when he decided to submit a proposal to the University of Chicago Press to turn his translation into a book, he first reworked a portion of the text to see if he could make it valuable to other readers. Once the proposal was accepted. Lynch had to rewrite the entire translation several times. In the process, he discovered a practi­ cal approach to translation that satisfactorily answered for him the issues that arise in discussions about translation in St. John’s language tutorials: “You start off as literal and as consistent as you can, then you puU the translation back toward understandabihty, readability and accuracy,” he says, “In the next phase, you forget about the Italian and ask what the passages mean in Enghsh and how they sound. If it’s not in readable English, you pull the Itahan out again and start thinking about changes.” Lynch notes that this is not the process for most non-Johnnie or non-Strauss-influenced translators. “They think about how it sounds right away,” he explains. “But I think that puts too much emphasis on the translator and makes him think he is a sort of god mediating between two languages with full omniscience of what the author intended. I think it’s better to approach it humbly, to cleave to the hteral andonlybepushed toward readabi 1 i ty when it’s clearly necessary.” With the time and energy Lynch lavished on Art of War, you’d think he’d be a fierce Machiavellian, but that’s hardly the case. “Machiavelli presents himself as the ultimate antagonist to the basic understand­ ings that I’m inclined to-ancient, philosoph­ ic, and religious,” Lynch says. “However, I think he’s also the most trenchant critic of ancient thought, both philosophic and rehgious, and therefore I see him as the person to understand if I’m going to understand the truth about the big questions at stake in the quarrel between ancients and moderns.” -SUS3AN Borden �{Alumni Profile} 31 Tias Little, EC98 Santa Fe Yogi Combines Wisdom with Practice BY Andra Maguran such as the Upanishads, the Yoga Sutra and he word “yoga” once con­ Bhagavad-Gita, along with studying San­ jured images of health nuts skrit or ancient Chinese in order to read contorting their bodies in works in their original language. impossible, seemingly Reared in Amherst, Mass., Little attend­ painful positions. Now ed Amherst College, where he earned a women, men, even children bachelor are flocking in droves to yoga. An estimat’­s degree in English. Inspired by mother, who also taught yoga. Little ed 15 million Americans say theyhis have a began his studies in the Iyengar system in regular practice; more than double that the early 1980s, and continued his study in number say they expect to try yoga in the Mysore, India. Frequent trips to visit his next year, according to a Harris poll. The grandfather, a Presbyterian minister who reasons for yoga’s newfound popularity are served on the board of directors at many: stress reduction, improved strength Abiquiu’s Ghost Ranch, fed Little’s love for and flexibility, and heightened concentra­ New Mexico. He moved to Santa Fe in 1991 tion are among the many benefits linked to to teach yoga, and in January aooo, he this 5,ooo-year-old practice. opened Yoga Source with his wife, Surya. Inside Yoga Source, a small studio Little began hearing about the Eastern tucked into a Santa Fe shopping center, Classics program at Santa Fe, established studio founder Tias Little {EC98) walks in 1994, from others in the Santa Fe yoga among the students after his morning community. Friend and fellow yoga teacher class, preternaturally serene, his voice as Nicolai Bachman (EC96) persuaded him soft as a temple bell. Like yoga teachers that the fledgling program was worth everywhere. Little is benefiting from the pursuing. “I was very enthusiastic [about wave of yoga popularity-his studio sched­ Eastern Classics] from the first day,” says ules more than 40 classes every week, Bachman, who now leads workshops across many of them packed. The Santa Fe the country in Sanskrit, Ayurveda (healing New Mexican recently described Little as “one of the emerging stars of the yoga phenomenon.” He leads classes for yoga teachers, writes articles and serves as an expert for a leading yoga magazine, holds clinics all over the country, and offers yoga retreats in venues such as Costa Rica. But even if the craze wanes and the numbers drop. Little believes that people will con­ tinue to seek out something beyond yoga’s physical benefits. His own devotion to the practice, he says, was informed and deepened by intense study of the works in the St. John’s Eastern Classics program, a yearlong program in which students read works T Tias Little’s yoga practice is INFORMED BY HIS STUDY OF Eastern classics. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } arts), and the Yoga Sutra. “I knew it would be a great chance for Tias to deepen his understanding of the Indian, as well as Chinese and Japanese, traditions.” Little began by auditing a seminar on the Upanishads, after which he applied to the program in full. After 15 years of practice. Little hoped to find a solid foundation in the original texts for his own philosophy toward yoga, the Mahayana Buddhist “middle way” teachings that are pertinent to living in the world today. He had previ­ ously read the Bhagavad-Gita and Yoga Sutra on his own, but the formalism and structure of a discussion-based graduate program offered a key to deeper learning, he says. “The texts are complex and philosophi­ cal,” Little says. “It would have required an intense practice and austerity to have read the works on my own and gained as much insight and understanding of them. The dialogue that the classroom setting encourages is far superior to simply reading alone.” For Little, the Eastern Classics program afforded a marriage oiprajna (wisdom) andsadhana (practice). Wisdom training comes through study of scriptures that are the historical backdrop of the practice. “Just as scholarship feeds the practice of yoga, so the practice feeds the scholarship. To me, just reading can become very eso­ teric if one tries to cognitively grasp the teachings one needs to embody, or engage through psycho-spiritual discipline. The two modes of understand­ ing are cooperative, but not interchangeable. ” Little encourages yoga teachers-in-training to enroll in Eastern Classics; already, two Yoga Source instructors, Wendelin Scott (EC03) and Lynsey Rubin (ECoa), have completed the graduate program. �{AlumniNotes} 3^ 1935 and dance to a caUer. Will any of the class of 1944 be at our 60th anniversary?” “I’m in my goth year,” writes Melville L. Bisgyer. “My beloved wife, Pauline, passed away a few years ago. I now make my home comfortably in a retirement home named Signature Pointe. Many of my children, including the normal, the grand, and the great, live near­ by. I shall never forget St. John’s. I spent four very happy years there. I wish good luck and much happi­ ness to all my fellow Johnnies.” 1937 “Just a word from the Class of’37Bob Snibbe alive and well-will be 91 in April. Still playing golf and still publishing small shirt-pocket handbooks. One on ‘Our Flag,’ the story of Old Glory... sold in large quantities to big companies for sales promotion purposes. I call Harry Fahrig (Class of ’37) from time to time. He is very sick and in a nursing assisted living facility. His wife, Frannie, was a former model for Ponds-‘she’s lovely, she uses Ponds’- ads in the ’30s and ’40s. They live in Jupiter, Fla. Also call Alan Pike (’37 too). He’s also in an assisted living facility with his wife in Deland, Fla. And my brother Dick, class of’39, lives in Arlington, Mass. He’s also in an assisted living facility recuperating from a stroke. Have fond memories of days in Crabtown. Football and lacrosse. B.C. great books.” 1944 John Davis Hill writes that he and his wife, Dorothy Murdock Hill, spent the winter in Southern California attending four Elder­ hostel programs sponsored by the University of Judaism at Camp Ramah in Ojai and at their Bel Air campus. “We like to sing folk songs 1947 Changes for Stephen Benedict: “Three years ago, I pulled up stakes in New York City after 40 years and moved 125 miles north to the hamlet of Spencertown in Columbia County. After prowling the area, I bought an old farmhouse-type structure, whose earli­ est segment dates to about 1750. It’s said to be the second- or thirdoldest house in the area. The transition from city life turned out to be seamless. Time, of which there’s never enough, is variously allocated to work on family and personal archives, the nearby cul­ tural center, the local Democratic Party, and play—the piano, tennis, and cats. Then there’s always fixery to be done on my ancient structure. I do maintain one interest in NYC, the Theatre Development Fund, which I helped found 37 years ago. Watch for the new half-price booth in Times Square. Drop by if you’re up this way: 518-392-0487; stevebenedict@taconic.net.” 1949 Frederick P. Davis sends news from California: “Since last report­ ing from this always sunny and warm southwest corner of the ‘lower 48,’ we ‘3-Ds’ (Fred, Rita, and son David) are still holding the line as ‘Mr. Outside’ and ‘Mrs. Inside’ (the house). David recovers from infections of both legs and feet resulting from badly broken legs of late aooo. But things are looking up. David, after over a year at a Riverside City Con­ valescent home, should soon come home. He is now equipped with a motorized wheelchair, enabling him to be on his own to go out to see docs.” David B. Weinstein has retired from the practice of medicine and is living with his wife, Stella, in Atlanta to be near his daughter and her family. “Attending senior class­ es at Mercer University and learn­ ing to play the recorder to keep the gray cells and fingers limber.” do’s top was the thrill of a lifetime, along with riding through a city rainforest to get there. Anticipat­ ing my trip to Alaska in July.” i960 Peter J. Ruel sends in a book 1955 With a July production of La Traviata, Harold Bauer will conclude a 27-year tenure as music director of New Philharmonic and DuPage Opera in Chicago’s west suburban region. His 42 years as a conductor include the music directorship of six orchestras in the U.S. and numerous guest concerts in this country, Canada, and Europe. What’s next? More reading, traveling, painting (oil and watercolor), golf, composing, and, of course, some guest con­ ducting. He looks forward to the 50th reunion of his class in 2005. 1957 News from Joan Cole: “I am continuing to enjoy my retirement. With friends, I attend the Metro­ politan Opera and work with the New York Black Librarians Cau­ cus, raising funds for scholarships. Am also enjoying my vacations-in September 2003,1 went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Viewing the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcova­ recommendation: “Thomas Cahill has written an insightful history of the ancient Greeks, printed 11/03: Sailing the Wine Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter.” 1961 Harrison Sheppard has been a regular columnist for San Francisco Attorney Magazine. the quarterly journal of the Bar Association of San Francisco. “The regular title of the column is ‘Law and Justice,’ with a subtitle relating to the particular column subject. For the most recent col­ umn (Winter 2004), the subtitle is ‘Law and Privacy: The Right To Be Let Alone.’” 1962 JusTiNA Davis Hayden sends in good news: Justina and Luci, her partner of ig years, were married in San Francisco on February 19. A magical day! They are living in San Diego now, having sold their Startup to Success (class of 1956) is now general manager of Word Web Vocabulary, a new curriculum for grades 5-10. “From a startup last year we are now in 55 school districts in 16 states plus Barbados. Word Web is a paperworkbook system based on root words, prefixes, and suffixes, all of which are Greek and Latin in origin. Grant Wiggins {A72) thinks it’s an excellent way to approach vocabulary.” ASQUALE L. POLILLO P {The College -St John’s College • Spring 2004 } �{Alumni Notes} 33 Mark Bernstein (A) writes; “Linda (Bernstein, nee Torcaso, A69) and I are looking forward to our last child graduating high school and going off to college. I’m a judge in Philadelphia court doing class actions and about to finish a book on Pennsylvania evidence. Linda is also a judge of the Social Security Administration.” Courtesy of The Moon, Santa Fe students and hobbes house in Berkeley. Luci is an artist whose work from recycled materi­ als may be seen at CorrugatedArt. com. Justina designed and main­ tains the web site. She is enrolled in a certificate program in Finan­ cial Planning and is having fun with investing. practicing law in Washington, D.C., and is writing for the local newspaper in her spare time. “Am looking forward to the next reunion of the Class of’65.” “Niece Megan Drolet, daughter of Melissa Kaplan (SF72) and Ray Drolet (SF69) will be coming to Annapolis this fall, continuing the Kaplan/Drolet tradition,” writes 1963 Bart L. Kaplan. Charles B. Watson (A) writes that Madeline Rui Koster writes: “I was very much looking forward to attending the 2003 40th class reunion, since as a Californian I have not been back to Annapolis in 40 years. A sudden change in my teaching assignment (high school) from all algebra to algebra and ceramics, in September, led me to change my plans. I was a potter and ceramic sculptor for 20 years before becoming a full-time teacher in the Bos. I look forward to another Homecoming. As time goes on, I value the St. John’s edu­ cation more than ever, and greatly enjoy reading The College.'" Michael Trusty attended Homecoming 2003 in Annapolis and had a great time: “I’m married, living in New Mexico, and ride horses with my 12-year-olddaughter.” 1965 Grace Logerfo Bateman is married, is the mother of four chil­ dren (mostly out of college), is Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Fran­ cisco, the inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award for “unique and distinguished ministry in the church and especially pioneering contributions to liturgical practice.” The church’s Web site, www.saintgregorys.org, docu­ ments this practice (and theory) with extensive photos and articles. Rev. Schell is a 1971 graduate of General Seminary; his co-rector, a 1970 graduate. 1968 “Finally finished my B.A. in 1999only 30 years late-at Thomas Edison State College,” writes Megan Beaumont (A, formerly Anne Beaumont Reid). “Received an M.A. in Spiritual Psychology 2001. Nowadays I am an ordained non-denominational clergy person and spend my time leading person­ al growth workshops, teaching manifestation and self-forgiveness, and officiating at marriages, memorial services, and most recently at an un-handfasting-a spiritual ceremony to honor and complete the severing of ties after a civil divorce. My husband has retired, and we are enjoying the blessings of good health and happy travel.” “I’m somehow still in Britian!” writes Deborah Rodman Lawther (SF). The General Theological Seminary Alumni Association awarded Donald Schell (SF) and Richard Fabian, co-rectors of St. Gregory of {The College. he was sorry to miss the 35th reunion of the Class of 1968 last year, but he enjoyed e-mail and pictures. “Spring has finally come and our family looks forward to visiting our Martha’s Vineyard home again. Happy to say that we are all well and enjoying diverse pursuits. Would come to SJC more often but we are far away...” News from Bob Wycoff (A) and Maya Hasegawa (A), first from Bob: “Bob’s computer system support job is going to India and Bob has enrolled in Berklee College of Music as a full-time undergradu­ ate to pursue a B.A. in music, starting in September. Four grandchildren and still counting; number five is due in August. See you in October! ” And from Maya: “Maya is now working as compliance manager for the City of Boston’s Department of Neighbor­ hood Development. DND builds affordable housing, finances rehabs, and helps small businesses. The satisfaction comes from seeing formerly vacant lots with houses on them. Spare time is spent practic­ ing tai chi and researching a Methodist deaconess named Hattie B. Cooper.” 1970 Isaac Block (SFGI) writes: 1969 High praise for tutor Steve Van Luchene’s second Tecolote colloquium for K-12 teachers from Elizabeth Aiello (SFGI), who found it “even more gratifying and professionally stimulating than the first one. It inspired me to expand my Great Books class by offering two more sections. Each section has 12 students, all enthusiastically participating in meaningful dialogue related to meaningful text. I have been honored as a ‘Los Alamos Living Treasure’ in recog­ nition of my 14 continuous years as ‘the Great Books Instructor.’” St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } “My wife, Mamerza Delos Reyes Block, has published her book. The Price ofFreedom: The Story of a Courageous Manila JournaHst." Last fall, Theda Braddock Fowler (A) published her second book. Wetland Regulation: Case Law, Interpretation, and Commentary. After an illustrious career with the Postal Service and World Bank (over 30 years and 83 foreign coun­ tries), Juan Ianni (A) has decided that it’s time to hang up his spurs. classnotes continued on page 36 �{Alumni Profile} 34 Rich and Famous Ben Bloom, Aq7, Finds Fame, Fortune—and Something Even More Important. vi Sus3Aw Borden, A87 embers of the Annapolis class of 1997 may not be surprised to learn that classmate Ben Bloom (A97) has achieved a degree of celebrity. He was certainly well known as a student, and his jump-head-hrst approach to life revealed a boom-or-bust attitude that leads those who meet him to believe that he is not destined for an ordinary life. Indeed, he is not. Today, seven years after graduation, he has won a measure of fame in three categories: Scrabble, poetry, and table tennis. Bloom was already a skilled Scrabble player when he arrived at St. John’s, but since graduating, he has played in tourna­ ments in Italy, Israel (his home for much of his life), Turkey, Norway, Reno, San Diego, Tennessee, and Florida. Although his cur­ rent rating is 1428, at the height of his play in March 2003, he was rated 1649 (a rating over 1600 is considered expert). Bloom learned of his Scrabble-world celebrity in 2003 when he was flying to Reno for the National Scrabble Champi­ onships. “I had to fly via O’Hare airport in Chicago. There were several players there, wearing their typical Scrabble t-shirts,” he recalls. “In the airport lounge, I saw a bald guy in his early 4os-black pants, white t-shirt, and two red braces with which he was continually fiddling. I recognized him as Joel Sherman, the 2002 National Cham­ pion and one of the top three players in the world. I got up the courage to ask him if I was correct in identifying him. He said, ‘Yes, and you are Ben Bloom.’” Stefan Fatsis, a Wall Street Journal reporter and author of Word Freak, a New York Times bestseller about Scrabble, also knew who Bloom was before the two were paired in an expert match in the 2002 he read from his thesis at Books & Books, a finals in San Diego. Bloom beat him and prominent Miami bookstore. walked away from the match with a signed As for table tennis. Bloom has been prac­ copy of his book. In the world of poetry. Bloom is complet­ ticing for years. He was an aggressive play­ er at St. John’s and shared the Annapolis ing his final semester at the University of campus titles in men’s doubles and mixed Miami, where he received his master’s doubles in 1996. When he lived in Israel, degree in poetry in May. His 15 minutes of he played in the National League for the poetry fame took place on March 31, when M {The College -St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } For the poet in Ben Bloom, words have GREAT MEANING. FoR THE SCRABBLE PLAYER, they’re just part of the game. �{Alumni profile} suggestion: “During my late teens I was disabled (he has cerebral palsy). After graduation, he took his game on the road, still in denial with regards to my CP. I wanted to fit in with other students and coming in third at the European Disabled was ashamed of being different. This feel­ Championships in Budapest in 1998 and winning the silver medal at the World ing turned into anger and resentment. I Games for CP athletes in 2001. wanted nothing to do with other people Thus accounts for the fame. The fortune with CP as I felt this would be letting go of my aspirations, a stupid concept which I is a different matter. It stems from the con­ look back on and thank God I have come so ditions of Bloom’s birth, which are both far in the last decade.” tragic and miraculous. The short version is Bloom has indeed come far. He is calm this: Ben was born brain dead. The attend­ ing nurses thought he and relaxed, accepting was stillborn. His par­ and tolerant. He has grown into a man with a ents asked the hospital strong, healthy sense of staff to do all they himself. It would be could so they put him in an incubator. After impossible to recount all that went into that 72 hours, he came to growth, but Bloom cites life. The staff said that a particularly transfor­ if he survived a week it mative experience he would be a miracle. had during the World The price of that Games for CP athletes. miracle is cerebral “While there I felt palsy, the condition like never before,” he that Bloom has lived says. “I made friends with-and struggled with other CP athletes against-his entire life. from Russia and France. In 1999, after a nineI speak French well, so year legal battle. -Ben Bloom it was easy to break the Bloom settled out of ice with them. Many court with the hospi­ athletes had more tal. A profile of Bloom severe CP than me, and were very hard to by Sam Orbaum, Web-published in 2000, understand. We communicated through sums up his situation: “He is now, in the other means; the bond that we shared, of most grotesquely literal sense, a self-made being equal, made for a wonderful feeling. millionaire.” At the end of the Games, we had a party Bloom’s cerebral palsy makes him hard to understand, contorts his face, and gives with Karaoke. All of us moved the same him a peculiar, dragging walk. But it’s not way. All of us had the same unclear voice. just his speech, gait, and appearance that There was an intense feeling of cama­ raderie and equality.” CP has disfigured. His condition has also Bloom is now finishing his thesis-a col­ affected his sense of self. lection of 50 poems that reveal much about Bloom has a history of buoying up his him and the way his world is shaped by challenged sense of self with humor. The cerebral palsy. His poem, “Jane Fonda’s Orbaum article quoted some of his witti­ (pain in the) Neck Workout” describes the cisms: “Hey, you know what happens when mechanics of dealing with a stranger’s I have a few beers?” Bloom asks. “I talk insults. “Special Olympics” describes a clear and walk straight.” He describes giv­ night out for eight people with CP. In the ing his own brand of speech therapy to a crowd: “I make them repeat the alphabet poem, the group tries to order drinks: “Two Heinekens, two Carlsbergs, two after me, with all 26 letters sounding Guinness and two Everclears./Five min­ exactly the same.” utes trying to communicate, then we settle Humor, of course, does not heal all for eight domestic beers.” wounds, and Bloom has not always known In “The Extremities Of A Line Are how to salve them. When he first arrived at Points,” Bloom describes the obstacles, St. John’s, several people unwittingly both interior and exterior, of everyday found themselves on his bad side by sug­ events. The poem reveals Bloom’s writing gesting he get to know Santa Fe tutor for all it is: story, insight, therapy, balm, Robert Sacks, who also has CP. An older and wiser Bloom recalls why he hated that ''All ofus moved the same way. All ofus had the same unclear voice. There was an intensefeeling of camaraderie and equality. {The College -St John’s College • Spring 2004 } 35 The Extremities Oe A Line Are Points -Euclid, Elements., Book i. Definition 3 Standing in line Motionless Passing glances from strangers Maybe three-quarters of a second longer than normal Nothing to get upset about. “Next!” Four steps to reach the desk One-two-three-four People have other things on their minds They’re here for a reason They’re all adults They’re not going to stare. “Next!” They want to rush me No, it’s not me Don’t be oversensitive Do other people have these inner dialogs? Am I Socrates or his interlocutor? “Hi. I'm here to... ” Said too much She’s been working all day No patience for me No patience for my voice Fuck it Can’t stop now. “For my appointment. ” Confusion. Disappointment. Disgust. Pity. The myriad of facial expressions tell a familiar story The patented neck strain won’t be too far away Yup, here it comes In answer to your next question, “I’m here alone.” “Is anyone responsiblefor this... guy?” Should I look around? Should I glare at the people behind me? No point. One day they’ll read about it. In a poem. They can wait. “Next!” �{AlumniNotes} 36 et al.), ‘What constitutes scientific proof?’ Very fun.” 1971 In April, pediatrician Linda Belgrade Friehling (SF71) embarked on a trek to Everest Base Camp to raise funds for Himalayan Health Care, serving the people of rural Nepal. In a fund-raising letter she sent along, she described the trek and its mission: “We will cover lao miles on foot and attain an elevation of 18,500 feet. The funds raised will support the completion of a project sponsored by Himalayan Health Care. Himalayan Health Care is a small non-govern­ mental organization founded approximately a decade ago by a Nepalese and an American to promote better health and life in remote rural areas of Nepal. With a dedicated group of volunteers, including physicians, dentists, nurses, and other professionals, this small organization has facilitat­ ed impressive improvements in pre­ natal care, infant mortality, dental hygiene, and overall health for over 40,000 people. Learn more by visiting the Web site: (Himalayanhealthcare.org)...One of the things that has impressed me most about Himalayan Health Care, is the forward-looking approach that emphasizes educating the Nepalese team to carry out on a day-to-day basis vastly improved health prac­ tices. In a country that currently has one doctor to 32,000 people, I feel this is the only way to make a substantive difference.” For more information, e-mail her at: tlofftrax@aol.com. From Colorado, Michael ViCTOROFF (A) writes: “After nearly five years as medical director for Aetna, I left to work as an investigator for the Depart­ ment of Toxicology at the Universi­ ty of Colorado Medical School. Officially, I’m a private detective. Our group has M.D.s and Ph.D. toxicologists. We investigate medical claims of inquiry from environmental chemicals. Sort of like Erin Brockovich-only we use science. Much of the most difficult work is philosophical (Karl Popper 1972 Wesley Sasaki-Uemura (A) writes, “On December i, 2003, we finalized the adoption of Melina Mei (Xin Yi) Sasaki-Uemura. She was born October of 2002 in Jiangxi province, China. She has ‘smiling eyes.’” IleneLee (A) reports: “McKee (A72) and Ilene’s daughter, Mollie, now 25, is completing her first year at Yale Law School after a summer South American tour that ended with sailing from Galapagos to Tahiti on a 37-foot catamaran. Ilene has a busy play therapy practice in the San Francisco area, specializing in autism and consulting with schools.” 1973 Jose F. Grave de Peralta (A) is taking a group of art and architec­ ture students from the University of Miami to Florence, Italy, for six weeks to learn fresco painting and restoration. Side trips include Assisi, Rome, and Pompeii to view fresco sites in those places as well. 1976 Jonathan Mark (A) was a recent William Malloy (SF) writes that he took early retirement in Decem­ ber 2003 for health reasons. “Now I have the opportunity to work four mornings a week holding prema­ ture babies and to concentrate on improving my health. Additionally, I am a volunteer reporter for KPFT (Keep People Free, Thinking), the local Pacifica station in Houston. Not only can I put up a couple of alumni who may be passing through Houston, I am also accept­ ing invitations to visit alumni. Particular consideration will he given to those invitations that are accompanied by a prepaid airhne ticket. Kidding? No, really, I mean it!” David Pex (SF) is “working hard as contributor to Popular Science magazine and built an off-road course for Toyota in San Antonio. From Steven and Melissa Sedlis (both A): “Our daughter Elizabeth is a first-year medical student at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. Our daughter Jennifer will graduate in May from Scripps College, Claremont, Calif.” 1974 From California, Gerard (A) and Daphne Kapolka write: “Daphne (nee Greene, A76) retired from the Navy in July. She is now a senior lecturer in physics at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. Gerry continues to teach English at Santa Catalina School in Monterey. Basia Kapolka (Aoi) is studying acting in New York City.” John Rees (A) is working hard as a tele-neuroradiologist: “I live for my work and my family. I greatly enjoy participating in a small seminar group of old SJC friends!” {The College. 1975 is not yet completely comfortable with the “Transgender Club” and similar organizations constituting student life today-but he’s trying. He is feehng very old these days. A career change for Idell KesselMAN (AGI): “After more than 20 years of teaching college composi­ tion, literature, and other related courses, followed by two years as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, I am working as a psychotherapist at a nonprofit agency in Phoenix operating under a managed care system. In July I begin a one-year residency in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, a cognitive approach to helping individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder. My daughter Bisa, nearly 25, is completing her master’s in education this June, with several years of elementary teaching already completed. We live in our separate apartments in Phoenix, with our own cats and habits. It helps us to keep our friendship strong. I’d enjoy hearing from old friends and tutors: ideleyz@earthlink.net.” 1977 Brad Davidson (A) still lives in Annapolis with his wife, Lynne, and children Teddy and Lucy. He’s been taking Teddy on college visits and St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } the finance director at Ecos Con­ sulting, which implements energy­ efficiency programs for electric and gas utility companies. Write me at dpcx@qwest.net.” Carla S. Schick (A) won an honorable mention in the Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award. The poem, “The End of the Words,” can be found at www. wagingpeace.org. Marlene Strong (A) has news: “After a year of being a lady of leisure, which I spent fixing up my new house and garden in Boise, I’m starting work at a therapy center, so I’ll finally get to use my hardearned MET (Marriage and Family Therapist) license. Life in Idaho is calmer; Boise is small enough that you know your neighbors, but large enough to have plenty of culture, and the mountains are beautiful. Any classmates are invited to stop by if you’re in the neighborhood-if not, see you for our 30th reunion.” �{Alumni Notes} 1978 Robert McMahan (SFGI) reports that he is now full professor at The College of New Jersey and has given many recent concerts both as per­ former and composer. His wife, Anne, continues to teach at the Pennington School, working with West African drumming. Renais­ sance recorder, and Native American music. An invitation from Lawrence Ostrovsky (A); “I see a lot of gray­ haired people in the summer who come up here to visit Alaska. So I’m sure there must be someone from the class of ’78. If you find yourself up this way, please give me a ring.” 1980 Leanne J. Pembvrn (A) writes: “After five years of planning and hard work, Mark and I have com­ pleted phase I of home building in our woods. Next phase will be straw bale-all help is very welcome for the bale raising. Contact me via e-mail: leanne@pemburn.com.” Tom G. Palmer (A) sends a quick update: “I was in Iraq in February under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and the American Federation of Teachers for a conference for educators on civic education and have been working to get a lot of important books translated into Arabic and pub­ lished. In addition. I’m helping Iraqi libertarian friends to set up a think tank there, for the purposes of educating people in the princi­ ples of classical liberalism and producing policy studies for the new Iraqi government on how to reform the judiciary to secure the rule of law and the protection of the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, how to priva­ tize state-owned industries, and so forth. I’m leaving this Wednesday for the European meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Hamburg (Free Trade from the Hanseatic League to the EU) and from there to Moscow to give a paper, ‘The Role of Law and Institutions in Economic Development’ at a conference, ‘A Liberal Agenda for the New Century: A Global Perspective.’ I hope to be back in Iraq in May and July to set up a series of seminars for students, some of which will involve SJC-like seminars and discussions, as well as lectures. I’ve recently published a few items, including a monograph, ‘Globalization and Culture: Homogeneity, Diversity, Identity, Liberty’ (published by the Liberales Institut in Berlin for worldwide distribution through the many offices of the Friedrich-Naumann Stiftung) and a paper, ‘Globaliza­ tion, Cosmopolitanism, and Personal Identity in the Italian journal Etica e Politica. ’ I’ve got a few other items in the works, as well. All in all. I’m keeping busy and off the streets.” 37 Susan Read (SFGI) writes that her 1986 “Greetings, SJC,” writes Clayton DeKorne (A). “I live now half time in Burlington, Vermont, with my daughters, Cecilia (16) and Helen (14), and halftime in Brooklyn, N.Y., with my new wife, Robin Michals. I work as a full-time free­ lance writer with regular assign­ ments at The New York Times Learning Network and a steady stream of multi-media production work from a handful of education media companies. I would love to hear from old friends and any John­ nies interested in the brave new world of online learning: cdekorne@verizon.net. ” son, Harry, is a thriving 8-year-old. “We have just bought the house of our dreams. I continue to enjoy teaching English at Wooster School.” 1988 Juliet Burch (A) writes from Boston: “David (Vermette, A85) and I are still happily impoverished in Boston. I am apprenticing to be a film projectionist and he is researching Franco-American and Quebec history alongside an edito­ rial job. We continue to use our St. John’s education for good instead of evil, vigilantly keeping cocktail party conversations away from portfolio talk and on track with suitable topics like ‘what is color, anyway?’” About the Tattoos 1982 Geoffrey Henebry (SF) writes: “Ana and I and our brood of seven (Patrick, Claudia, Gus, Thomas, Isabel, Maria, and Tessie) continue to enjoy the Good Life here in Lincoln, Neb. My research over the past five years has been diverse: from modeling the ranges of native vertebrate species in Nebraska to analyzing the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union on the annual cycle of greenness in Kazakhstan.” 1983 Theodore Zenzinger (A) just had a daughter: Sophia Anne Zenzinger, born in April. {The College- to have passed in a flash. Sophia is a fearless, joyful, lively child, and she infinitely enriches our lives. She doesn’t have any tattoos yet, but I was able to locate some black clothing in her size. Our families and friends helped us adjust to parent­ hood, but we are especially grateful to my classmate Ken Hom (A80). Ken has logged thousands of hours in Babylon with us. If Sophia develops a taste for good music and a knack for pool, she will owe it all to him. I continue to practice the Japanese martial art of aikido, in which I currently hold the rank of 4thdegree black belt. Since 1999,1 have been the chief instructor at Aikido of Northern Virginia. I have about 75 students, any 30 of whom may show up for a given class. You may visit the dojo’s website at http://www.aikido-nova.org. I’m still a bureaucrat in the Department of Housing and Urban Develop­ ment. For the past two years. I’ve been working as a housing program policy specialist in the Office of Lender Activities and Program Compliance. We spank mortgage lenders when they’ve been bad. People may reach me at Jim_Sorrentino@hud.gov.” St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �38 {Alumni Profile} Looking for the “Monster” Owen Kelley, Agg, Finds a Clue to Why Hurricanes Intensify BY Rosemary Harty Before investigating hurri­ omputer models can often canes, Kelley had entered a make accurate predictions doctoral program in compu­ of where a hurricane will tational science immediately wander. But no one has yet found an accurate method to after graduating from predict how intense a hurri­ St. John’s. He ended up cashing out his credits for a cane’s damaging winds win hecome. Grapmaster(A93) ’s degree in physics pling with this question, Owen Kelley because he worried that he asks, “Why does one hurricane become a “wasn’t smart enough to be a monster and another one doesn’t?” As a scientist with George Mason Univer­ Ph.D. scientist.” After honing sity, Kelley is part of a team that works at his skills at NASA for six years NASA’s Goddard Space Fhght Center to and feeling a growing desire to study satellite data gathered by the Tropical “ask the big questions,” he Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The decided last year to continue TRMM satelhte is a joint effort between where he left off with his NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration doctoral studies. Agency, and its data are being analyzed by When Kelley began his scientists around the world. For most of the hurricane research last year, past six years, Kelley created graphics and he did not immediately think software for other researchers. Through this to look for hot towers. “Erich Stocker, my work, Kelley met Joanne Simpson and project manager at NASA, came in my learned of her pioneering hurricane office one day and saw me poring over my research. Back in the 1950s, Simpson hurricanes pictures, getting nowhere. He proposed that short-hved “hot towers” told me to pick one thing to study, and that sustain a tropical cyclone, allowing it to made all the difference. I had in the back of travel a thousand miles in a week. But with­ my mind how Joanne Simpson would talk out computers or satellites, Simpson’s hot passionately about hot towers, so I looked tower hypothesis was difficult to prove. up one of her articles and then taught my Hot towers are rain clouds that reach at computer how to find towers. It turns out least to the top of the troposphere, which is that the only instrument in space that can nine miles above the earth and four miles clearly see hot towers is the radar that’s higher than the rest of a hurricane. The tow­ onboard the TRMM satellite. This radar ers are called “hot” because heat released by gives us ‘x-ray’ vision. It doesn’t look at just water condensing allows these towers to rise the upper surface of a hurricane-it sees into higher. the heart of the storm.” Once Kelley began pondering the myster­ ies of hot towers, his training at St. John’sparticularly his fondness for a question that begins with “what is?”-began to pay off. “Freshman year, I was horrified when we started Euchd and my class argued for an hour about the definition of a point. By the time I graduated, I appreciated the power of simple questions. Instead of becoming lost in the data, I repeatedly asked the simple question, ‘What is a hot tower?’ Every paper I found seemed to use a slightly different definition of hot tower. Eventually, I settled on a precise definition and my persistence C Kelley’s computer models show hot towers RISING FROM HURRICANES. {The Colleges;, John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } As A SCIENTIST, Owen Kelley appreciates THE POWER OF SIMPLE QUESTIONS. led me to patterns that other scientists failed to notice in this same dataset. “It took my breath away when I first examined my statistical summary and I saw that hot towers appear often in the intensify­ ing hurricanes, but rarely in the ones that are not intensifying,” says Kelley. A good example of an intensifying hurricane with a hot tower is Hurricane Bonnie in August 1998, as the storm intensified a few days before striking North Carohna. Kelley cautions, “We still can’t predict which hurricanes will become monsters, but perhaps we are now one step closer to an answer.” Kelley’s results suggest that seeing a hot tower near the hurricane’s eye is a clue that the hurricane is twice as likely to intensify than it would be otherwise. In January, Kelley flew to Seattle to present his findings at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society. He was not prepared for the media atten­ tion that resulted when NASA issued a press release about his findings on the day that he presented them. While answering journal­ ists’ questions, he had to learn how to describe his research in a few words. In the end, more than 80 Web sites, newspapers, continued on nextpage �{Alumni Notes} Shannon May Lavery (A) and her husband, JOHN (A87), celebrated the eight-month birthday of daugh­ ter Aurora (A2025) in Healdsburg, Calif., where they recently relocat­ ed with their first-born dog, (Vizla) Lucius. All are well and peaceful. “Fellow Oenophiles and Tahoebound schussers and ski rats pass­ ing through should get in touch. We are local and down to the ground. Hookenzababy!” Kim Paffenroth (A) has published another book. In Praise of Wisdom: Literary and Theological Reflec­ tions on Faith and Reason (New York and London: Continuum International Publishing, 2004). In it he traces the Biblical image of wisdom as it unfolds in Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Augustine, Goethe, Pascal, and Melville. 1990 Rebecca Ashe (SF) writes: “I’m turning 40 this year and going back to the UK for my high school class reunion in June. Still happily married to Steve Simmer with three gorgeous and interesting daughters (10, 8, and 4-all avid readers). My beloved Faraday died at age 13. Lee Whiting (SF89) and I got him in Santa Fe. I still run daily and am training for a half-marathon in May. Also starting a private practice in West Springfield. Would love to hear from classmates again: Rebecca.ashe@the-spa.com.” “Greetings to all. I hope you are well. Zip bang,” writes William Culley (SF). James Clinton Pittman (SF) writes 1989 After a year in Thailand, Elizabeth Powers (A) and her husband returned to Brooklyn in late 2002. They gave birth to a daughter, Madehne Josephine Wagner, in October of 2003. that younger son Sam just turned two. “Hope everyone is well. I need to write a book-anyone know how to get political commentary published when you hate Democ­ rats and Republicans alike?” 1991 Brad Stuart (A) and Sara Larson (Ago) are delighted to announce the birth of their second daughter, Phoebe. Brad is a software engineer for General Dynamics in Westminster, Md. RonalieMoss (SFGI, EC95) is still a teacher at Los Alamos High School, but she looks forward to retiring soon. “I have had a reward­ ing career, but now I am looking forward to reading great books again instead of student papers.” News from Megan Smith (A): My husband, David Dougherty (AGI98), and I welcomed our baby television stations, and radio stations picked up the story. His hurricane results appeared in the media from Texas to Canada, Switzer­ land, Colombia, Australia, and Japan. A European Web site has even posted an Italian translation of the story. Perhaps the most gratifying attention came from Simpson, who sent Kelley an girl. Harper Claret, into our world on September 2, 2003. She is a bright and smiling baby with a full head of spiky hair, just like her mother’s. We are still living in Annapolis, and I am working part time as an optician and trying to start a career in freelance ad design for small businesses. David is a Java programmer with Anne Arundel County government. We’d love to hear from any of our old friends. My e-mail is peanutmom® comcast.net and David’s is dsmithdi@comcast.net.” 1992 From London, Victoria Burgess (SF) writes: “I wish to thank every­ one for their kind wishes following the death of my father. They mean a great deal to me. I would love to see any Johnnies passing through the London area.” “After almost eightyears at the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE), I will start a new job in April with the Office of Education and Sustainable Development at NOAA’s headquarters in DC,” writes Sarah ScHOEDiNGER (A). “While this job won’t shorten my commute from Annapolis, I am looking forward to the new professional opportunities it presents.” Michael Zinanti (SF) tells us: “I am an antenna design engineer for Centurion Wireless Technologies and have contributed to three anten­ na patents with one more pending. Susan (formerly Switich, SF93) and I are raising and home-schooling one e-mail that pointed out weaknesses in his research, but closed with the statement: “An old person feels that his/her life has not been in vain when we see young people grabbing the ball and running with it.” This year, Kelley plans to revise the material he presented at the conference and submit it to a scholarly journal. Once (The College. 39 daughter, Anna. We would love to hear from any Johnnies passing through the Denver area.” 1993 “Hello, all!”AMYFlack (A) writes. “Things in South Dakota are going well. Ministry is an adventure, harrowing, wonderful, blissful, wacky, and so many other adjectives both good and bad.” E-mail: thiers55@yahoo.com . 1994 Natalie Arnold and William Blais (both SF) were married in July 2001 and celebrated with a 30-day cross­ country train trip. Currently, they “five in Pittsburgh and are the proud owners of a happy house in need of a little TLC. We are happy to provide bed and breakfast, good conversa­ tion, and a warm welcome to any Johnnie traveling through Pitts­ burgh. We are best reached through e-mail at bill.blais@pobox.eom.” Larissa Engelman (A) is currently living in New York after moving from Washington, D.C., in 2002. “Working as marketing manager of the New York office of Covington & Burhng. As a side project, am look­ ing to raise money for an independ­ ent film project and would love to be connected to others who have expe­ rience or contacts in that world. My hellos to the class. Hope to see you at our lo-year reunion.” he finishes his doctoral studies, Kelley is not sure what the future holds. “The ultimate goal is supposed to be teaching at a research university and doing ground­ breaking research between classes. I just want to look at data and see things other people haven’t seen before. I’m not sure how to make that happen.” -*■ St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } �{Alumni Notes} 40 1995 Joel Ard (A) and his wife Hannah (A92), announce the birth of their son, David Frederick Ard, on September 4, 2003. David made his first appearance at St. John’s at Homecoming a week after his birth. “Remember kids,” writes Chris Davis (SF), “funk is its own reward.” Benjamin “Alex” Ruschell (SF) has a new baby. George Alexis Ruschell (8 lbs., 20 in.) was born in Schweinfurt, Germany, in December 2003. Jessica VanDriesen (A) is about to complete a master’s in education as part of the New York City Teaching Fellows. “I have been teaching math at Wadleigh Secondary School since 2002. It is a far cry from explorations of the conic sections or Minkowskian space-time, but there are moments. I plan to travel abroad next year, teaching in an interna­ tional school or possibly switching to ESL. Anyone with suggestions, please contact me via e-mail: jvandriesen@hotmail.com.” Tracy Whitcomb (A) is still in Vermont and now back in school for a second bachelor’s degree: in nurs­ ing. “I hope everyone else is well! ” An invitation to adventure from KiraK. Zielinski (SF). “Anyone in or passing through Las Vegas, Nev., I’m now flying the Dam Helicopter Tours out of a Bell 206 at the Hoover Dam-the tours are quick, but a ton of fun, so drop by and fly with me! I just bought a house and I’ll be here for a year. Because it’s Vegas, I think I need to consider modifying my uniform to sparkly midriff-baring nomex with rhinestones! My callsign is Dam Helicopter...too cool... I’m obviously having a blast with my new life. Also need to design more bookshelves to go in the helicopter...” business journalism, I moved on to Moscow. As of March, I have been here for two years and I’m now writ­ ing for a Dutch AIDS charity. I got aggie Roberts Arnold (A95) writes: married last summer to Elena “Late as usual, I am announcing the Rudykh, a Siberian intellectual arrival of our son Augustus Bullock beauty queen. We see ourselves Roberts (Gus), born on September 16, moving back to the homeland 2002. Parenthood is a blast! Thanks to Gus eventually, but in the meantime, we are frequent visitors to the San Antonio I hope to see the day when one of Zoo. (I am expecting the bears to wave to us out of therecognition many Marx readings on the any day now.) We are also frequent visitors to theProgram McNay isArt replaced by Bulgakov’s Museum. As parents we love this enthusiastic rediscovery of ‘Heart of a Dog’ for a modest the basics: the naming of and conversational focus on ani­ injection of reality.” Rediscovering the Basics M mals, shapes, colors, vehicles, body parts, foods, nature (you name it). I think fondly and frequently of the time I spent on each campus and wish my contemporaries great happiness and fulfillment! (And the courage to send in a note!)” 1996 1997 Maya Brennan (SF), formerly J. Maya Johnson, is in New Jersey: “I’ve recently moved from Baltimore to central New Jersey where my husband. Grandpa of evihobots .com, found a paying job after his election-induced unemployment. I’m working at Princeton University, compiling and coding data for the Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive (CPANDA). Anyone interested in the cultural pohcy field will want to check out our free online data archive atwww.cpanda.org. I’d love to hear from former classmates, especially anyone passing through the central New Jersey to New York City area. My e-mail address is mahimsab@yahoo.com. Snail-mail: 501 Raritan Ave., D6, Highland Park, NJ 08904 Erin N.H. Furby (A) is working as a massage therapist in Anchorage. “My husband and I are enjoying our attempts at balancing middle-class American fife with the fife of the mind, and we still love Alaska, even if it snows five days before April.” {The College. Michael Chiantella (A) married Karen Burgess in Buffalo, N.Y., on August 2, 2003. “Taffeta Elliott (SF) gave a reading at the wedding. Currently almost completed an LL.M, in Trust and Estate law at the University of Miami.” 1998 In September 2003, Julie Bayon (AGI) graduated from Claremont Graduate University with a Ph.D. in education. The title of her disserta­ tion is “The Neo-Classical Ideal: Liberal Arts Education for the Twenty-First Century.” She is currently assistant professor of English and chair of General Education at Washington Bible College in Lanham, Md. Jacqueline Camm (A) announces Shannon Stirman (SF) writes: “We’re moving from Philadelphia, where I’ve been studying at Penn, to San Francisco, where Kelly will begin working for a new software company. Henry turned 2 in August and we’re trying to keep up with him. I’m finishing up my disserta­ tion in psychology and will plan to start an internship in the fall. As soon as we figure out exactly where we’ll be hving, visitors wifi be welcome!” “I think the last time I appeared here, just after graduation, I was rather optimistic about saving the world through economics,” writes David Veazey (A). “Well, since then, I got my M.A. at Fordham but stopped just before I had to start on my dissertation. Over the years I had become disenchanted with the inherent inabihty of economics to solve any meaningful problems. Then later, after becoming an expert in maximizing my unemployment checks and dabbhng in health and St. John’s College . Spring 2004 } her marriage to Robert Travis (a 1998 graduate of Columbia University) on February 8, 2003, in the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Fla. The Rt. Rev. John Howe, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, presided. Amy (Norman) Morgan (A96) and her husband Bill provided music for the ceremony. Writes Jacquehne: “We moved to Tennessee in August for Rob to attend seminary. We also purchased our first home with the help of Milk Klim (A02) of Columbia National Mortgage. If anyone would like to reach us, or is passing through Tennessee, please send us an e-mail: jacquelinecamm@ hotmail.com.” Method-acting studies for Stephen Conn (SF) finally hit Hollywood gold! Look for him this summer in Troy, he plays the third spear from the left in that big battle scene towards the middle. “Brad was a dream to work with,” Steve adds. �{Alumni Notes} Christopher Pagan Nelson (SF) Grateful for Phlogiston reports: “Right now. I’m living in Texas and concentrating on my turbo-gangster country band. The drian Lucia (SFoo) writes: “After living in Foggy Mountain Cop Killin’ Boys. Philadelphia and Chicago for three years. I’m College didn’t really prepare me for pursuing a master’s degree in library and infor­ the scads of fame and money I’m mation science at the University of Illinois, receiving, but it was cool anyway. I Familiarity with the theory of phlogiston has would love to hear what other John­ never been so helpful. I plan to flee the Mid­ nies are doing, so please e-mail me west in basically any direction when I finish this program. Any at donkeytown@hotmail.com . A Johnnie librarians out there?” James Petcoff (SFGI) is teaching: a college administrator for the University of Chicago’s economics department, serves as president of the Chicago chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, and is a member of Chicago’s Caxton Club (for bibliofiles): “I collect 16thcentury Aristotle texts.” “I recently left my job as a mental health counselor in Hyannis, Mass., and now work for The May Center for Child Development at The May School in Chatham, Mass., teach­ ing children with developmental disabilities. I recently moved to Wellfleet, Cape Cod, from Yarmouthport. When I am not involved in the above, I play with my jazz, folk, blues rocka-billy band: Skeeter and the Buz­ ztones. I would love to communi­ cate with fellow Johnnies in the area.” 1999 Benjamin Closs (A) is serving at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, Calif. “I may go overseas for a while this fall, but Pacific Beach isn’t bad until then.” from Philadelphia to Frederick, Md., a year and a half ago to live with Vince Baker (AgsJ-yes, that Vince Baker. We’re now engaged, we’ve just bought a house and are planning an October wedding. I’m working for a biotech company, while Vince is an editor. We have a bit of a menagerie with the cats Apollo & Artemis, and our recently acquired blue-fronted Amazon par­ rot, Pancho, the Bird of Mass Destruction. We’d love to hear from anyone in the D.G. metro area: cinderlou@peoplepc.com and oldmarley@hotmail.com.” announce the birth of their son. Mason, on February 14, 2003. “We’d love to hear from our former classmates at ShannonandKerry@ earthlink.net.” Mike and Abby Soejoto (both A) are pleased to announce the birth of their first child, Lucila Adele. Lucy was born on September 30 in Los Angeles, where Mike is begin­ ning his second year as an attorney in the tax department of O’Melveny & Myers. Abby recently finished the post-baccalaureate program in classics at UCLA. They’d love to hear from anyone, especially those in or passing through Southern California (asoejoto@cs.com or 323-572-0343). Nevin Young (A) writes: “I am now Mauricio Rojas in August. “Also I am currently teaching in Prince George’s County. I got my certifica­ tion through their Resident Teacher Program and would be happy to talk to any seniors or graduates who are looking into doing the same.” “Hey all,” writes Jessica Sprout Morgenstern (A). “Still busy out here, loving my job, loving the weather-sunny Santa Barbara. Feel free to e-mail anytime...anyone looking for a fun way to get paid to learn (and teach) dance (ballroom and social) give me a call!” {The College. Christopher “Casey” Vaughan (A) is living in St. Augustine, Fla. “Anyone who wants to come surfing feel free to contact me at cvaughan@flagler.edu. 2001 Katharine Christopher (SF) and Billy Davis (SF) were married on December 20, 2003, in a beautiful traditional ceremony at the Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe. Katharine reports: “We were attended by our five sisters as bridesmaids, and Jackson FrishMAN (SFoi) and Chris Carlisle (SFoi) as groomsmen. Nikki Mazzia (SFoi) sang two lovely solos, and Juliana Corona Kirmeyer (SF02) read a Scripture passage. A number of other John­ nies also came to celebrate with us, as well as family and friends from all over. It was a wonderful day, as well as the beginning, God willing, of a long and joyful marriage.” 2000 Lori Beth Kurtyka (AGI) married Cindy Lutz (A) writes: “I moved married in Rocky Mount, N.C., and now live in Indianola, Miss., which has been my home since gradua­ tion. I will be ordained in May and we are expecting our first child in November.” Shannon Rohde and Kerry O’Boyle (Both AGI) would like to Robert Herbst (SF) is employed as A report from Andrew B. Hill (A): “I’m getting married sometime in 2004 to a tremendous woman who did not, sadly, attend St. John’s. I reside in Fort Worth, Texas. I recently completed an unsuccess­ ful bid for the mayorship of my lovely city, for which I was reward­ ed with a whopping 206 votes, as well as about 60 hours of Digital Beta footage, which I intend to convert into something remotely saleable. Thus, no matter how vague my connection to the school may be, I am following in a tradition of Maverick Johnnie filmmakers, or at least I think I am.” 41 finishing my third year in the evening division at the George Washington University Law School, and am working for a lawyer in the District of Columbia. (I cannot understand why anyone would not want to be a lawyer.) I would be happy to answer any questions from Johnnies who want to know about law school in general, or GW.” “Greetings from the Mississippi Delta!” writes Paul Spradley (A). “This past January 1 got married to Caroline Taylor of Rocky Mount, N.C. In the wedding party were Derek Alexander (A99), David Bohannon (A99), Adam Dawson (A03), Alan Hudson (A03), and George O’Keefe (A03). We were John ’5 College . Spring 2004 } What’s Up? The College wants to hear from you. Call us, write us, e-mail us. Let your classmates know what you’re doing. The next issue will be published in September; deadline for the alumni notes section is July 15. In Annapolis: The College Magazine St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404; rosemary.harty@sjca.edu In Santa Fe: The College Magazine St. John’s College Public Relations Office 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; alumni@sjcsf.edu �4a Katrina Costedio (SF) has finally decided to use her powers for good and is heading for law school, although she isn’t sure which one. “Also shaping the young minds of California in various volunteer positions and as a sub. And on the weekends I work with an adult who is learning to read. I’m struggling with the demands of being a good citizen. Most of the time I still feel like I’m pretending, but what’s the difference really?” Terence Duvall (A) writes: “I just returned from my first major trip since graduating college so I decided it was about time to send an update. My lomo and I spent six stupendous weeks in Slovenia taking pictures of castles by lakes for my upcoming art exhibit ‘Reflected Castles.’ In Ljubljana I met a producer who has offered to put out a split seven-inch of my {Alumni Notes} band. Big Brother, and the Sloven­ ian underground rock quartet Sister City. I think I finally under­ stand why you can’t spell Slovenia without the word ‘love.’ And so in the immortal words of the poet Jerry Garcia, ‘What a long strange trip it’s been.’” Talley Scroggs (A) moved to Bennington, Vt., after a half year in Agen, France, where she assisted in running The French Kitchen at Gamont, a 1720s inn. Her friend Louis Kovacs (A), is in the post­ baccalaureate program at Bennington College. Talley works at North Shire Booksellers and plans to start an MBA program next fall. An intriguing “heads up” from Peter Speer (A): “You’re the king of hearts for four years and then you come out into the real world and you’re the two of spades. And there’s no don rags in your new office, and no one wants to read your senior essay. But that girl by the water cooler is awfully cute, and she blushes when I quote Dante, and though she’s never heard of Virgil she swears it sounds familiar. So all’s well and I’m going to Vegas. Feel free to contact me with lucky numbers.” 2002 Margaret Tobias (A) will be attending graduate school this fall at the University of Chicago, enrolling in the Master of Arts in Humanities program. 2003 “I am enjoying Eastern Classics and highly recommend the pro­ gram,” writes Allison Webster (SF).4- Alek Chance (A) and Iva Ziza (Aoi) had a daughter, Emma Katherine Chance. Emma was born on August 10, 2003, in St. Johnsburry, Vermont. {Obituaries} Diana “Danny” Bell Herbert Brent Stallings Diana “Danny” Bell, the wife of Santa Fe tutor emeritus Charles Bell, died March 24 of pancreatic cancer. She was 80. She was born and raised in Darlington, Md., trained as a teacher, and after marry­ ing Charles Bell in 1949, lived with her family in Chicago and Annapolis. She taught first grade in Annapolis until mov­ ing to Santa Fe in 1967. Along with her husband, she was named one of the city’s “Living Treasures” in 1996 for contribu­ tions to the Santa Fe community. “Everything she did was in proportion and infused with order, kindness, and delight,” her family wrote in her newspa­ per obituary. “Whether it was a picnic, or the peaceful sharing of tea, Danny filled all with joy and the sense of her unconditional acceptance of our human foibles.” The family has arranged for two ways for friends to remember her: contributions can be made for the publication of Charles Bell’s poems through the non-profit Lumen Books (40 Camino Cielo, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87506) and also to one of Danny’s charities. La Luz de Santa Fe Fam­ ily Shelter, (2325 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505). Herbert Brent Stallings, class of 1941, died January 8, 2004, in Cary, N.C. He was 84. A native of Baltimore, Stallings played on the college’s football team (nicknamed the “gallopinggoose-eggs”) before intercolle­ giate sports were dropped. His pastor, the Rev. William Green, remembers Stallings bringing his family back to the St. John’s campus several years ago, videotaping his old dormitory room, and fondly revisiting his days at St. John’s. When the college adopted the New Program in r937, Stallings had the option of sticking with the old pro­ gram or starting in the new and spending an extra year at the college; he chose the New Program, Green said. “He has always said that St. John’s really formed who he was,” said Rev. Green. “He really loved talking about the college.” Stallings went on to serve as a lieutenant in the Navy during World War IL After the war, he launched a 30-year career in adver­ tising with the Baltimore News-American. He met his wife, Ruth, on a Chesapeake Bay Cruise. Married for nearly 60 years, the couple had two children who live in North Carolina. {The College- St. John ’5 College ■ Spring 2004 } “He was a wonderful man who loved books,” Green said. Medora Cockey Medora Cockey (A03) died January 3, 2003, after a brief illness. She was 23. Miss Cockey was born in Baltimore and moved to Salisbury with her family in 1983. She attended St. John’s College for two years, then transferred to Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., to finish her studies. She was to have graduated with a fine arts degree in May. Miss Cockey was a talented artist. She loved hard physical farm work, and her favorite summer job in recent years was working on organic farms in Virginia and Georgia. Her sister, Mary, is a member of the Annapolis class of 2004. Also noted: Clayton Davis, class of r938, died Feb. 9, 2004. John Falencki, (A68), died Dec. 30, 2003. Merrill Turner (SF79) died March 16, 2004. Charles T. Westcott, class of 1936, died in July 2002. �{Student Voices} 43 On Grades: How Can Genuine Learning be Measured at St. John’s? BY loHN Peterson, A05 grades? Do any students complain about y grades were never their grades? One can respond to a tutor in something I worried a don rag because he is stating observations too much about. In and offering suggestions, but how does one middle school I earned respond to a B on a piece of paper? As, but in high schoolThe college’s recent self-study, “Liberal where I didn’t always Education in a Community of Learners,” do homework or attend class-I maintained states that the college wants students to a consistent B+, or 90 percent average. “work for understanding and not for These grades were meaningless, I thought, grades,” but acknowledges that students because the work that the A-kids were need transcripts, and therefore grades, for doing to get their grades was out of propor­ life after St. John’s. Grades interfere with tion to a grade’s value. I scoffed at the arti­ the college’s goals of fostering genuine ficial scale of greatness that accompanied learning and cultivating freedom, they the grades: “High Honor Roll,” “Honor distract students, encourage competition, Roll,” etc. I beheved that I was wiser than and are “inadequate as means of evaluating these students, because while they were working hard to slave for top grades at their a student’s success in liberal learning,” the report states. Nevertheless, it says, tutors college choices, I was heading to a place take the “fair determination of grades very where grades didn’t matter and where what seriously.” would really be measured after four years The “Grades and Grading Poficies” sec­ would be the true worth of an individual. tion of the student handbook says that the When I came to St. John’s College, I college “does require all tutors to award let­ found classes to be radically different from ter grades to their students at the end of high school, the teachers much more alive, each semester...and authorizes them to the students more interested and interest­ decide what elements they will take into ing. There were no tests and no homeconsideration and in what proportion.” work-at least not in the high school sense As opposed to the pre-determined system of busywork from a textbook. Why, then, of my high school days, this process is mys­ were there still grades? terious and vague, perhaps even arbitrary. St. John’s is an egalitarian institution What are these “elements” that a tutor may that loves truth and rewards hard work not or may not take into consideration? Class­ with good grades, but with understanding, room participation, attendance, attitude, good conversation, and good judgment. papers, and demonstrations all seem like Could it possibly be true that with all these candidates. However, different tutors may riches around them, students here would be more interested in different things, and be worried about their grades, look them this is something that a proportional grad­ up every semester, and work for them, even ing pohcy, in which various assignments to the detriment of learning itself? are given certain weight in a total grade, During my first semester, I don’t think is designed to alleviate. grades ever crossed my mind-I was having It is unhkely that St. John’s will implement too much fun. I was worried that I did not any pohcy such as this in the near future. talk as much as some of my classmates and One reason is that the more specific we get that maybe I did not study enough. In my about grades, the more it will appear that we don rag, my tutors were nice to me and care about them, and as a result, we will care said some helpful things. This was enough about them more. If tutors needed to discuss for me. grades, they would have to think more about This year, however, I began to think grade-giving and less about teaching. about life after St. John’s and checked my Students would consequently worry more grades. This raised a series of troubling about grade-getting than about learning. questions about grades and the learning Competition would inevitably result. environment at St. John’s: How many other “It’s a weird situation,” acknowledges students check their grades? Students dis­ Dean Harvey Flaumenhaft. “On the one cuss don rags all the time-what about M {The College. St. John’s College Spring 2004 } John Peterson hand we give [grades], and we don’t want them to be some kind of secret document that a student can’t look at, but on the other hand we don’t report them to the student, and we try to play it down. I don’t think it’s hypocritical...It’s trying to foster a commu­ nity where people are really concerned about the depth of each individual student’s self-education-and it really works.” With all the debate about how much to talk about grades, by which standards they are given, and how much they matter to students as opposed to how much consider­ ation tutors have in giving them, my inclination is to revert to my old high school attitude. I begin to suspect that the behavior of the students around me is geared toward getting better grades. I wonder if this or that student has better grades than I, and if so, why. I become taken with the feeling that we are all here to go somewhere else, to get our tickets to graduate school. I begin to resent my fellow students and to think only of myself. Worst of all, I stop all learning and introspection, adopt an air of superiority, and start to think about my future. Only at this point do I realize that the school knows what it is doing: it has foreseen these problems, and in its grading pohcy has tried to circumvent them. It recognizes that grades can be a potential threat to learning, but that they are necessary. If a Johnnie is still worried about the arbitrariness of grades, he only needs to ask himself, “Do my grades reflect anything real?” and he will answer, “More than they did in high school.” That should be enough, and he should go back to his studies. �44 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Greetings! Your Alumni Association and the staff of SJC have heen hard at work supporting the network of Johnnies. I wish I could share in one letter all the projects and possibilities that are emerging from our shared work, but we only have room for three this time. Watch this space for more in the coming issues. Part 1 - Reconnect What ever happened to that interesting woman in my freshman seminar? WTio are the Johnnies living in my state? Is there someone from St. John’s practicing law in my city? How many people were in my class? What is Glenda Holladay’s last name now? Does my favorite waltz partner have an e-mail address? How can I be sure the college has my correct address and phone number? Soon you can answer these and many other questions about alumni around the world. The Alumni Association and the college joined forces to put the St. John’s College Alumni Register online. It will be a great new tool for you to stay in touch with the rest of the college community. To use the Register1. Go towww.stjohnscollege.edu. 2. Select alumni. 3. Select Online Register. 4. Apply for access to the Register. 5. Within a week, you will receive an e-mail with your username and password that will give you access. Then you’ll be searching to your heart’s content. As you use the new Register, we strongly urge you to: • Send your feedback about the Register and the rest of the Web site to Jo Ann Mattson (A87) joanne.mattson@sjca.edu or Roxanne Seagraves (SF83) roxanne.seagraves@mail.sjcsf.edu. • Update and/or complete your own information. The Register is only as good as the information it holds. Please make it most useful by keeping your own data up to date! • Let the college know if you prefer not to have your information appear in the Register. You should have received a postcard asking if you wanted to opt out. There are also places online that you can choose not to have your information appear. • Use the Register as a tool to stay in touch with Johnnies from your era, your campus, your profession, or your locale. Part 2 - Come Home Are you going to Homecoming this year? Please consider making the trip to Santa Fe in the summer or Annapolis in the fall. You will have many reasons to be glad you did. • Seeing old friends and making new ones. • Thanking that tutor who opened your mind to the books (or the books to your mind). • Seeing a rejuvenated campus whether you’re in the East or the West. • Watching a Santa Fe sunset over the mountain or an Annapolis sunset over the creek. • Sharing the unique conversational experience of seminar. • Dancing as if you were ao again. • Munching on burritos or crab cakes. • Welcoming new honorary alumni. • Gongratulating fellow alumni with Awards of Merit for their remarkable lives and work. • Learning about the current state of student hfe and the Program. • Exhibiting and/or observing work of creative and industrious Johnnies who have books to sign (Annapolis) or art to show (Santa Fe). You will be receiving information and invitations from classmates, the Alumni Association, and the college. We look forward to seeing you! Partg - Reach Out The Next Steps Action Team of the Alumni Association and the Career Services offices on both campuses support new alumni as {The College . St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } they venture out into the world. If you’re interested in providing support or in get­ ting a boost yourself, consider reaching out. Among the many opportunities and services: Virgil Initiative: Juniors who volunteer are matched with an alumnus mentor. The two meet periodically and stay in touch through senior year and beyond. The purpose of the relationship is to share experiences and insights about the transi­ tions after St. John’s. Career counseling is not part of the plan, but mentors may have helpful suggestions and resources for the job or educational market as well. (Thanks to Lee Zlotoff (A74) and Tom Krause (SFGIoo) for conceiving and launching this program!) Networking receptions: Several Alumni Association chapters host receptions that bring new alumni and older ones together to share career and grad school informa­ tion. As you might imagine, many other topics come up for conversation and a lively time is had by all. Communities of Interest: Clusters of alumni have shared interests such as psychology, dance, quilting, art, academic research in various fields, law, or educa­ tion. Often these Johnnies don’t have ways to be in touch with each other even when they know they’re not alone. The Next Steps Action Team is planning to launch a network across time and space to get like-minded alumni connected. Internships: A generous grant from the Hodson Trust inspired summer internships for students on the Annapolis campus. Recipients have pursued a variety of activities from arts to sciences to services to professions. The project has been very successful, and plans are afoot to begin a similar program in Santa Fe. We all have transitions to make as we leave the college. These programs and others help make the transition a time for extended learning about how the great ideas are the foundation for happy and productive lives. If you’re interested in participating in any of these programs, either as supporter or supported, please be in touch with Jo Ann or Roxanne. They’ll help you make the connections. For the past, present, and future, Glenda Holladay Eoyang, SF76 �{Alumni Association News} Chapter Update With i8 active chapters meeting on a regu­ lar basis throughout the country, including a new chapter in Pittsburgh, St. John’s alumni have plenty of opportunities for seminars, social events, and cultural out­ ings with other Johnnies. Efforts are also under way in six new areas to develop chapters from reading groups or nurture budding interest in the formation of new chapters and alumni groups. In her annual report on chapter activity to the association board, Carol Freeman (AGI94), reported on an encouraging year marked by active chapters planning innova­ tive events and emerging interest in areas yet to establish chapters. Here are some highlights: • The Santa Fe chapter is now meeting bimonthly, and has formed a steering committee to select topics and plan meetings. • The Boston chapter is thrilled to have read Marcel Proust’s In Search ofLost Time. This inspiring endeavor (5,000 pages) was a project embraced enthusias­ tically by chapter members. • The Annapolis chapter has decided to develop a reading list for several months in a row to attract more of the 500 alumni in the area to seminars. • Inquiries about starting a chapter or reading group are being pursued in Ithaca, N.Y., and the Greater Miami area. In Miami, Johnnies traveled up to three hours to attend recent alumni gettogethers in Miami and West Palm Beach, hosted by Annapolis staff members Barbara Goyette (A73), vice president for advancement, and Jo Ann Mattson (A87), director of alumni activities. • Russ Dibble (SF97) and Kira Heater organized the first seminar, on February II, for alumni in the Missoula, Montana, area. In addition to seminars, Johnnies are demonstrating their interest in socializing with other alumni by turning out in large numbers for crab feasts (Baltimore), picnics (New York), and an annual alumni dinner (Greater Puget Sound), Check the Web FOR Election News The Alumni Association nominations for alumni representatives to the St. John’s Board of Visitors and Governors and for directors-at-large for the Alumni Associa­ tion Board for 2005 will be posted on the college Web site atwww.stjohnscollege.edu. Select “Alumni” from the left-hand menu (under the SJC seal), then click on the Alumni Association homepage. A special nominations page will appear among the left-hand menu options that are now highlighted in red. Names, photos (when available) and biographical information about the nominees, as well as infor­ mation on the election process, will be available online on or before August I, 2004. 45 ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, under­ graduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, all alumni have automatic membership in the St. John’s College Alumni Association. The Alumni Association is an independent organization, with a Board of Directors elected by and from the alumni body. The Board meets four times a year, twice on each campus, to plan pro­ grams and coordinate the affairs of the Associ­ ation. This newsletter within The College mag­ azine is sponsored by the Alumni Association and communicates Alumni Association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary -Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-OutAction Team Chair Linda Stabler-Talty, SFGI76 Web site - www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, P.O Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404, or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Brett Heavner (A89) and Nancy Lindley (A58) at an Annapolis networking reception for students and ALUMNI. CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-275-9012 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon 410-280-0958 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 AUSTIN Jennifer Chenoweth 512-482-0747 Bev Angel 512-926-7808 CHICAGO Amanda Richards 847-705-1143 DALLAS/FORT WORTH Suzanne Gill Doremus 817-927-2390 DENVER/BOULDER Lee Goldstein 720-746-1496 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEW YORK Daniel Van Doren 914-949-6811 {The College- NORTHERN CALIF. Suzanne Vito 510-527-4309 SANTA FE Richard Cowles 505-986-1814 WASHINGTON DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 SEATTLE Amina Brandt 206-465-7781 PITTSBURGH Joanne Murray 724-325-4151 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 WESTERN NEW ENGLAND Julia Ward 413-648-0064 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 St. John’s College • Spring 2004 } TRIANGLE CIRCLE (NO Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 9-722-671-7608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �{AlumniAssociationNews} 46 “A LOAF OF BREAD, A GLASS OF WINE, AND ... I AND ThOU.” Sn^ng, Swirling, and Seminar at Stags Leap Wine Cellars BY Mark Middlebrook, A83 Here with a LoafofBread beneath the Bough, A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness And Wilderness is Paradise enow. - FROM Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat^ c. iioo. Nine centuries later, the sentiments expressed in Khayyam’s verse echo each summer in a vine-rich valley watched over by a rocky palisade known as Stag’s Leap. Alumni from around Northern Californiaand perhaps an eagerly welcomed visitor from Santa Fe or Annapolis-rise early on a sunny Sunday morning to prepare our pic­ nic lunches and finish our seminar reading. And then we’re off to the annual Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars picnic and seminars, where we’ll once again be the blessed beneficiaries of St. John’s alumni Warren (A52) and Barbara (A55) Winiarski’s hospitality. The drive from the San Francisco Bay area takes about an hour, and many of us carpool-if only for the pleasure of packing in extra hours of conversation with fellow alumni whom we may not have seen since last year’s pilgrimage. As we head north, fog often lingers on the Bay and even in the lower reaches of Napa Valley, but its cool­ ness provides a lovely contrast to the intense valley heat that will come in the afternoon. We pass through the town of Napa and head north on the Silverado Trail, a road threading up the eastern side of Napa Valley that’s traveled mostly by winery­ hopping tourists and bicyclists. Vines appear-lots of them-as we speed past the now-familiar litany of wineries: Luna (where former tutor Abe Schoener, A82, is now winemaker), Altamura, White Rock, Clos du Vai, Chimney Rock. After a few miles, we see the distinctive notch in the craggy ridge to the east. That’s the Stag’s Leap. Just before the road begins to climb out of the Stags Leap District and the bicyclists start to down-shift, we pull into the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars driveway. To keep track of all the stags in these parts, you need a scorecard-or maybe a punctuation handbook. The “Stags Leap District” (multiple stags) is the name of the small wine-growing region that sits just below the notch in the ridge called Above: Alex Poulsen (SF74) and Daniel Cohen(SF90) Left: Former Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars events coordinator Gabriele Ondine and PICNIC GUEST {The College- St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } “Stag’s Leap” (singular possessive stag). “Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars” (ditto) is the Winiarskis’ winery and home of our annual picnic and seminars. “Stags’ Leap Winery” (plural possessive stags) is an unrelated winery in the district. We bypass the tasting room parking lot and instead take the road that skirts below the white wine fermentation building and around a wooded hill to the small lake tucked behind. There we unload our picnic baskets and coolers, carry them up to the lake’s grassy banks, and spread a blanket on a spot to our Uking-full sun, full shade, or dappled with some of each. It’s a little more civilized than Khayyam’s Wilderness, but with boughs, wine, and books-not to mention a refreshing lake to jump into-it will be Paradise enow for us. Despite the claims of some that our palates are most discerning in the morn­ ing, we defer to the scruples of those who might find earnest wine tasting at 10 a.m. a bit unusual, and instead we sally forth on a vineyard walk and winery tour. We stroll past FAY-a storied vineyard where Stags Leap District pioneer Nathan Fay planted the region’s first Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in 1961-and then into S.L.V. (Stag’s Leap Vineyard), whose grapes catapulted Warren Winiarski to fame when his 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon won the 1976 Paris tasting. We taste some of the grapes and wonder at the winemaker’s techne that �{AlumniAssociationNews} reveals supple, prize-winning wines from these juicy but still tart berries. From the luxuriant but care­ fully-coifed wilderness of grapevine tendrils, we return to paved road and make our way to the civilization of a modern winery: crusher-destemmer machines, fermentation tanks, oak barrels, and bottling lines. Our tour culminates in the spectacular caves, which are home to hundreds of barrels of aging wine, a bronze bear and cub nestled among several of those barrels, a Foucault pen­ dulum, a dramatically lit, chapel-like room designed by Catalan architect Javier Barba. An hour of walking, plus the heady, deep aromas of ferment­ ing wine, have eliminated any remaining scruples, so we make a beeline for the lake. At a table nearby, our host begins pulling corks and pouring tastes. The diligent among us work methodically through the full lineup, sniffing, swirling, and then either swallowing or spit­ ting-depending on one’s lunchtime drinking plans and desired degree of lucidity during the afternoon seminars. We start with Sauvignon Blanc, several Chardonnays, and a pair of Merlots. The simpler wines bear the Hawk Crest name-Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ second label-while the grander ones display the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars name and distinctive “standing stag and tree” logo. We finish with an impressive phalanx of Cabernet Sauvignons, including the FAY Estate, S.L.V. Estate, and occasionally, if we’ve been very, very good, a precious taste of the CASK 33 (a blend of particularly excellent lots from FAY and S.L.V.). Tasting wine is all well and good, but drinking wine is better, so we pour a glass of our favorite and bear it gingerly back to our chosen picnic spot. There we fling open picnic baskets, unwrap deli sand­ wiches or flip open cardboard carry-out containers, and begin to enjoy the happy union of good food, good wine, and good company. Congenial swapping ensues-of victuals, opinions about the wines, opin­ ions about the seminar readings, stories of Liz Travis (SF83) our lives during the preceding year (many of them true), stories of our times at St. John’s (some of them true). All of this eating, bibbing, and creative embroidery under the hot summer sun is arduous work, and some of us reinvigorate with a jump into the lake. At the stentorian bellow of the ceremonial conk shell, we commence the annual chapter meeting. This short but raucous affair typically com­ prises effusive thanks to the Winiarskis and the hard-working winery staff, announcements of upcoming events, a desperate plea by the current chapter president for a successor, and directions to the various seminar rooms scattered about the winery. Despite the unquestioned zeal of St. John’s alumni for seminars, the next {The College. 5£. John’s College Spring 2004 } 47 half hour offers irrefutable proof of the validity of Newton’s first law. Every body assembled there, in its tranquil, well-fed state of rest, does indeed continue in that state of rest unless com­ pelled to change its state by powerful forces impressed upon it. Several of us cajole, plead, and eventually threaten in order to get these bodies rolling towards their seminar rooms. We typically run five simultane­ ous seminars on readings ranging from Plato to the Lotus Sutra to Wallace Stevens to a contemporary political essay, plus one film. An hour and a half later, the seminars disband and we regroup at the Arcade outside the caves for a reception with scrumptious desserts and cheeses, perhaps a sip of dessert wine, and coffee. “How was your seminar?” mingles with other typical post-seminar chat. There is more catching up on the previous year, expressions of wonder that we’re able to enjoy a day like this each year, and the wistful sense that this year’s day is almost done. One more slice of cake or piece of cheese, another round of grateful thanks to our hosts, perhaps a stop in the tasting room to buy a few bottles, and then we’re heading south on the Silverado Trail, back towards the Bay Area. The day’s heat is starting to wane, and sun slanting off the vines makes the early evening sky glow. 1 roll down the window, and the air rushing by seems to sing. This year’s Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars picnic and seminars have not yet been scheduled at the time of this writing. Please note that reserva­ tions are required, and that we some­ times must limit attendance in order not to exceed the winery’s capacity. See the St. John’s College Alumni Association of Northern California’s Web page for more information and reservations instructions: http://teamrioja.org/sjcaanc/ �48 {St. John’s Forever} Initiating the Young into the Tribe ‘!i4s well you know there is only one com­ mencementspeech. It has been delivered many times and it has many superficial variations, but it always says the same thing. An old man ofthe tribe tells the young men that they are beautiful and strong, that the world isfull ofevils, and that they must go out into the world tofight its evils and keep the vision ofits highest good. ” —Scott Buchanan, Commencement 1952, he commencement rite calls for a memorable speech filled with sage advice on how to go on with the business of life. Scott Buchanan called commencement “the great rite of initiation of the young into the tribe.” Some speech­ es are memorable; some are not. Some focus on history, some on urgent current events. But at St. John’s College the selec­ tion of the commencement speaker always falls to those to whom it is primarily directed, and throughout the years tutors have been heavy favorites in the selection process. Scofield said in his 1950 speech that a Tutors Richard Scofield and the Rev. possible interpretation of the custom of J. Winfree Smith became commencement choosing a speaker from within the traditions themselves. Scofield delivered the commencement speech four times; college is that students “think of the Smith was selected by the graduating class occasion, in spite of its name, as not only looking forward. Since the life that lies five times. Tutor Nancy Buchenauer was ahead of you. . .is more complicated, more selected by the students in Santa Fe in serious, and more precarious than the life 1997, and after transferring to the you are leaving, you could hardly go Annapolis faculty, was asked to deliver the without a backward glance.” dtp 2000 address. T {The College. St. John’s College . Spring 2004 } Tutor Richard Scofield, shown here in 1950, DELIVERED THE COMMENCEMENT SPEECH FOUR TIMES. �{Alumni Events Calendar} Santa Fe Homecoming: July a-4,2004 classes are: ’69, ’74, ’79, ’84, ’89, ’94, ’99. Childcare is available. Friday, July 2 Picnic on the Placita, 5 p.m. Reunion class parties Movie: The Tao ofSteve Saturday, July 3 Homecoming Seminars, 10 a.m. to noon Barbecue, 12-2 p.m. Alumni Art Show opening, 5 p.m. Banquet, 7 p.m. Members of the Denver-Boulder chapter Sunday, July 4 Annapolis GATHERED FOR A SEMINAR LAST WINTER. President’s Brunch, 10:30 a.m Homecoming: October 1-3, 2004 L2I2EEZ1liunni ____ Week i; June 28-July a, 0004 Kierkegaard’s Meditation on Abraham and Isaac Led by David Starr Hegel, Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, and excerpts from the book of Genesis. Painting & Reflection Led by Phil Le Cuyer & Elizabeth Pollard Jenny (SF80) On-campus and off-site painting experi­ ences, gallery tours, seminars. Week2: July 5-9, 2004 Plato’s Republic Led by Eva Brann & David Carl Revisit one of the seminal texts of Western political theory. Don Giovanni & the Operas of Mozart Led by Peter Pesic & George Stamos Once again, Don Giovanni is dragged alive through the gates of Hell. Call the Office of Alumni and Parent Activities, 505-984-6103 Registration, 4 to 8 Career Panel, 6:30 p.m. Homecoming Lecture, 8:15 p.m. After lecture: Wine and Cheese with the class of 2005, Rock Party in the Boathouse Saturday, October a Seminars, 10 a.m. Homecoming Picnic, noon Class Luncheons, 11:45 P ®Afternoon: Autograph Party, Soccer, Gathering of All Alumni, Dance performance in memory of Harry Golding Hors d’oeuvres & wine, 6 p.m. Homecoming Banquet, 7:30 p.m. Waltz/Swing Party, to p.m. Sunday, October 3 President’s Brunch, ii a.m. * Tentative schedule. All alumni are welcome. Reunion classes: ’39, ’44, ’49, ’54, ’59, ’64, ’69, ’74, ’79, ’84, ’89, ’94, ’99. Contact Planit Meetings for special rates at Annapolis hotels. Space is limited for dis­ counted rates; mention St. John’s College when you call for reservations. Phone: 301-261-8284; fax: 919-642-0062. E-mail: kelder@planitmeetings.com. For more information, call the Alumni office: 410-626-2531. {The College -St. John’s College ■ Spring 2004 } Back cover: Reality observers in Annapolis �STJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE Published by the Communications Office P.O. Box aSoo Annapolis, Maryland 21404 D A N IE L H O U C K ( ao 6) ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Periodicals Postage Paid � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The College </em>(2001-2017) Description An account of the resource The St. John's College Communications Office published <em>The College </em>magazine for alumni.  It began publication in 2001, continuing the <em>St. John's Reporter</em>, and ceased with the Fall 2017 issue.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The College" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=56">Items in The College (2001-2017) Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context thecollege2001 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The College, Spring 2004 Description An account of the resource Volume 30, Issue 2 of The College Magazine. Published in Spring 2004. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Harty, Rosemary (editor) Borden, Sus3an (managing editor) Behrens, Jennifer (art director) Hartnett, John (Santa Fe editor) Wilson, Rebecca Silver, Joan Kraus, Pamela Miller, Basia Stickney, Carey Russell, George Dink, Michael Engel, Elizabeth Goyette, Barbara Byrne, Brigid K. Maguran, Andra Peterson, John Eoyang, Glenda H. Middlebrook, Mark Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 30. Issue 2 Spring 2004 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a875cb0903fb570cf6fe9ad7b4d0b007.pdf d1e8b6a85fb25873ccd2c942f72d428f PDF Text Text �STJOHN’S College ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE The College (usps 018-750) On Aristotle ristotle impresses us with both his breadth and his is published quarterly by St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM. Known office of publication: depth. Breadth: he explains why we feel the way we Public Relations Office do when we watch a tragedy, he lays out all the pos­ St. John’s College sible types of friendship, he explores the founda­ Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404-2800 tions of logic and grammar and rhetoric, he marvels at the life cycle of butterflies, he prescribes cures Periodicals postage paid for lethargy, he explains motion and time. Depth: at Annapolis, MD he asks the most fundamental questions about nature, humanity, virtue, postmaster: Send address causes, - and he makes profound ­ lype in Aristotle’s name onthinking the search engine Altavista and you(yet getexquisitely simple) prochanges to The College nouncements: “ Man is by nature a political animal, ” “ Man, by nature, Magazine, Public Relations 12.4,335 entries, including “Aristotle and Target Marketing?” as well as Office, St. John’s College, desires to know. ” scholarly sites and Annapolis tutor Joe Sachs’ translation of The Physics A on barnesandnoble.com. Aristotle’s writings - in Latin translation were the “source of the dominant teachings of the European universi­ ties” for about five centuries up to 1600; “for the four centuries since then they have been reviled as the source of a rigid and empty dogmatism that stifled any genuine pursuit of knowledge,” according to Sachs in the introduction to his translation. Almost every book of philosophy read on the program alludes to Aristotle, whether to follow him or to divert from his supposed course. For example, Kant, in his preface to the second edition of the Critique ofPure Reason, notes: “That logic has already, from the earliest time, proceeded upon this sure path [of a science] is evidenced by the fact that since Aristotle it has not required to retrace a single step...” Aristotle lived from 384 to 32a B.C. He was the student of Plato, the teacher of Alexander the Great. His dad was a physician, so as a youth he probably was channeled into the kind of studies that would prepare him for a career in medicine. He founded a school in Athens, the Lyceum, where he walked around and lectured; he’s variously described as slight, a dandy of a dresser, and speaking with a lisp. When he wanted to write about politics, he collected information about the government and history of 158 cities. At St. John’s, a lot of time is spent reading and talking about Aristotle, and this is a place where what he actually said is taken seriously. -BG Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. Annapolis 410-626-2539 b-goyette@sjca.edu Barbara Goyette, editor Sus3an Borden, assistant editor Jennifer Behrens, graphic designer Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Katherine Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 classics@mail.sjcsf.edu Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board Alexis Brown Robert Glick Grant Franks David Levine Margaret Odell John Rankin Ginger Roherty Tahmina Shalizi Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} PAGE IO DEPARTMENTS a FROM THE bell TOWERS A Conversation with • • • • • John Balkcom Santa Fe’s new president talks about his past life as a consultant, his present challenges at the college, and his vision for the future. PAGE • • • l6 The Logos According TO Aristotle Introducing The College A spooky Mellon Hall Belly dancing alumnae Febbie class to be discontinued Philanthropia encourages thumos among future alumni Top ten program books Summer Classics offerings The life of Leo Raditsa 9 ALUMNI VOICES • Annapolis tutor Joe Sachs (A68) has translated four of Aristotle’s works. His principle: use ordinary English to capture the freshness of the philosopher’s thought. A defining moment for everyone from the 1940s: Pearl Harbor Day. a6 LETTERS aS ALUMNI NOTES ALUMNI PROFILES ag Lisa Simeone (A79 ) wins a role at NPR. PAGE 2,0 The Education That is Parenthood 33 Heather Moore (SFoo) became a shopaholic - for the coolest circus around. PAGE z6 Six Johnnies whose professions focus on children discuss the trials and triumphs of parenting. PAGE 35 Phil Woods (A61) combines his love of books with his devotion to Paris. 37 STUDENT VOICES • 2^ A transfer student trains her eye on the two campuses. 38 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION • • Choral Kaleidoscope To recreate an ancient Greek chorus, a tutor looked to Greek pottery, Plato’s descriptions of physical conditioning, and accent and meter in the tragedies. All about Senior Dinners Election Notices 41 OBITUARIES • PAGE 30 Nancy Buchenauer on Robert Bart 43 alumni connections 44 ST. JOHN’S FOREVER ON THE COVER Aristotle: His workspervade the St. John’s program. Illustration by David Johnson. �2. {From the Bell Towers} Introducing The College In which the editor utters heresy. Last fall, we bid farewell to The Reporter, which had been the St. John’s publication for alumni since 1974. We thought the time had come for a new look and a new way of present­ ing information that befits the many changes at St. John’s. Many changes at St. John’s?!? Heresy! Why do I write this? The program remains intact; McDowell Hall still stands; today’s Johnnies still have that head-in-the-clouds, not-distracted-by-fashion, young intellectu­ al air about them; Monte Sol still beckons for a solitary climb. The year I graduated from St. John’s is the year Becky Wil­ son, then public relations direc­ tor for the college, started The Reporter. When I returned to St. John’s after 20 years labor­ ing in the publishing world, the college, I found, was over­ whelmingly the same. The pro­ gram, after all, is still what’s important; the words that Barr and Buchanan used to describe the college, and the essays in which Jacob Klein explained the basis of liberal education still hold true. Yet there are differ­ ences: i) The college adminis­ tration is professional and the college is on sound financial ground. 2) The Santa Fe campus has grown to the same size stu­ dent body as Annapolis, with its own cast of fascinating and com­ mitted tutors, an array of stu­ dent activities that are Johnnielike yet uniquely southwestern, and a full complement of appro­ priate buildings. 3) The stu­ dents are as a whole more stu­ dious, and they are better ■ qualified. Sitting in on classes now, I find that almost everyone has prepared, everyone can par­ ticipate. (In my day, in a good class it might have been half The artwork on the cover is by David Johnson, who also draws PORTRAITS FOR THE NeW YoRK TiMES BoOK ReVIEW. EvERY COVER OF The COLLEGE'VniA. feature a writer from the program. who had done the translation or worked through the proof.) 4) The tutors represent a wider range of ages and backgrounds; they have a variety of interests that they are willing to share with students. 5) Student servic­ es are much improved - there is a full-time counselor and a stu­ dent activities coordinator on staff, and a thriving athletic program. 6) The alumni body as a whole has gotten much larger and much younger - more than 60% from the classes of the 1980s and after. And they have become much more actively involved with the college. 7) A lot of little things, mostly physi­ cal: the Woodward Hall library, newly renovated when I was a student, had become shabby and overcrowded and a new library was opened in 1996; there are {The College- new spaces like the Mitchell Gallery and the Conversation Room; the food in the dining hall seems pretty good. I’m sure that if I had been a student in Santa Fe and returned there the changes would have seemed even more striking. Alumni and others who care about the college should be aware of all this change. They should know how vibrant, funny, endearing, smart, intense, and talented the cur­ rent students are. They should know how St. John’s is governed and how decisions are made. They should be reminded of their shared experiences at these two places - Santa Fe and Annapolis - and their shared experience that is entirely placeless: the reading, study, and discussion of Plato, Sopho­ St. John's College ■ Spring 2001 } cles, Descartes, Aquinas, Cer­ vantes, Kant, Hegel, Austen, and the whole gang. That’s what this new magazine. The College, is all about. Although the look is new and different to better reflect St. John’s today, there are some things about this magazine that we wouldn’t want to change from their old and trusty Reporter format: class notes, profiles of alumni, college news, campus concerns. You’ve told us that you want to read about the program, so there will be more stories about the books and the curriculum itself. John­ nie traditions carry on through the decades, but since it’s always a new set of students playing croquet or setting up the games at Reality, we plan on telling you what’s happening with those. St. John’s history is a rich lode - through photos and articles, we hope to connect you with the college’s past. We hope to hear from alumni through letters, class notes, and article submissions. As the name suggests. The College is about the one college, St. John’s, that exists on two campuses. News from both cam­ puses will be included; students, tutors, and alumni from both campuses will be profiled. Although the actual production will be handled in Annapolis, alumni can feel free to contact the magazine’s staff at either campus about The College. Let us know what you think. Barbara Goyette, A73 Editor b-goyette@sjca.edu 410-295-5554 Laura Mulry, SFGI02 Santa Fe Editor classics@maiLsjcsf.edu 505-984-6104 Sus3an Borden, A87 Assistant Editor s-borden@sjca.edu 410-626-2538 �{From the Bell Towers} Down in the basement truly the weird and creepy lair ofCharon the storage areas have been emptied... Tales from THE Crypt It’s not Hades, land of shades. Although the hallways of Mellon now look nightmarish, fit for endless wandering with no hope of escape, they are in fact being stripped for a useful purpose: the beginning of a $12.5 million renovation. During spring break, workers took up the worn hall tiles, removed the rain-stained ceilings, and exposed crawl spaces in the south and west wings of Mellon (these wings contain the music rooms, music library, and all lab rooms). Down in the basement truly the weird and creepy lair of Charon - the storage areas have been emptied of their boxes of admissions propaganda, dusty chandeliers, broken desks, and seminar chairs in need of new seats and rungs. The circa 1958 heating, plumbing, and electri­ cal systems are being exposed and marveled at for their Rube Santa Fe Yearbook in THE Works The completion of the new gym and the installment of John Balkcom as president of the Santa Fe campus have con­ tributed to the creation of an energetic and highly motivated student body in Santa Fe this year. Enthusiasm for extracur­ ricular activities and attendance at school functions is much higher than in recent years. To quote Brendan O’Neill (SF93) in the Student Events Office, “This is the most involved stu­ dent body I have seen on this campus in a long time.” To tap this creative energy (and also to eliminate one comparison 3 Always dingy, the hallways of Mellon look even darker now that THEY have been TORN APART. ThE $13.5 RENOVATION WILL RESULT IN A BRIGHTER, MORE INVITING SPACE. Goldbergian nature. “There’s some old machinery down there all right,” says Sid Phipps, superintendent of buildings and grounds. Plans call for new mechani­ cals to be installed this summer, and the first series of renovated classrooms should be finished between Annapolis and Santa Fe) a few members of the sopho­ more class decided that this year they would create a year­ book. For the past 20 years or so the students on the Annapo­ lis campus have been able to put together an annual yearbook, but it was not something that happened in Santa Fe. According to Student Activi­ ties Director Mark St. John, over the years various groups of students have thought to put one together but didn’t have enough material when press time rolled around. Then last year’s Reality committee recom­ mended to the rising sopho­ mores adding a yearbook to the list of possible fundraisers. While the idea of a yearbook as a fundraiser was soon deemed impractical, the thought of cre­ ating one was openly embraced. After a month or so of planning. {The College. by Christmas. Work on an addi­ tion with tutor offices on the Heating Plant side of the build­ ing will commence this summer. Other phases of the project include installing a new roof, spiffing up the auditorium, adding a glassed-in satellite cof­ fee shop in the courtyard, and ''This is the most involved student body Ihave seen on this campus in a long time.'' Brendan O’Neill Student Events Office as well as meeting with the administration and Polity to gain their support, the year­ book staff was ready to go. Notices were posted in the Ephemera and MoonTag adver­ tising for writers, photogra­ phers, and graphic designers anyone interested in joining the fledgling staff. Not long after ideas about theme and content St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } putting in a new art and pottery studio, darkroom, and confer­ ence room. The whole project is due for completion in 2003. The Hodson Trust has given St. John’s a $4.5 million chal­ lenge grant to complete the Mellon Hall funding. The col­ lege has already raised more than $10 million for the project, leaving less than $2 million to be raised; the Hodson Trust will match dollar for dollar any donation for the Mellon Hall renovation. were being discussed and assignments handed out. Sub­ missions were collected, although layout work was delayed until the beginning of the second semester in order to upgrade the technological capa­ bilities of the office that is being shared with the MoonTag. The ambitions of this first yearbook are small. We do not hope to rival anyone’s high school yearbook in size, although we certainly hope to match, if not exceed it in quali­ ty. While the yearbook has yet to be named (a campus-wide contest is being held to choose a name), the theme for this year is community. The goal of the edi­ tor is to have every aspect of the college community represented, not just the undergraduates, so submissions are being sought from tutors and staff alike, -BY Erin Hanlon, SF03 �{From the Bell Towers} Febbie Class to be Discontinued The Instruction Committee on the Annapolis campus has rec­ ommended that the January Freshman class be discontinued in Annapolis in five years, with the last class enrolling in aoo6. Called the Febbie Class because its members originally came to campus in February, the mid­ year freshman class was con­ ceived to help keep the college at capacity by compensating for first-semester dropouts. The ao to 40 students began their freshman year in January, worked through the summer, and joined the rest of the fresh­ man class as sophomores the following fall. Today, admis­ sions to the freshman class are at an all-time high and keeping the class full is no longer a prob­ lem. Twenty years ago, many of the Febbies were transfers from other colleges; today most of those who enter in January wanted to come in September, but the class was already full. “The change is made possible by the relative financial health of the college and by substantial growth in the applicant pool for the fall freshman class,” said Dean Harvey Flaumenhaft in explaining the decision. “The reasons for discontinuing the mid-year class are instruction­ al...The regular freshmen get a school year with six more weeks of reflection and conversation together. They also have more time to prepare their essays, and are less likely to suffer a change of tutors between semesters.” The break between the end of the summer semester and the beginning of the sophomore fall semester is short, and Febbies are often exhausted just as their sophomore year is beginning. Beginning in January is attrac­ tive to some prospective stu­ dents, for example those who are undecided about college by the spring of their senior year in high school, or those who need to earn more money before beginning college. “Despite its inherent disadvantages, mid-year entrance has given many stu­ dents access to the benefits of a St. John’s education.” notes Mr. Flaumenhaft. The Santa Fe cam­ pus plans to continue to offer the option of enrolling in January. A Far Cry from Essay Writing ascertain how the web could be used to Si. John "5 College is a co-educatiooal, Si. lohn's was fouaded tn i6!>6 and has keep them more fotr-year liberal arts college known for it* two ctutpuses, one in Annapolis, disiinciive "greaf books" tuthMiwn. Maiylsid. and anorher in Santa f e. New Through <he reading of original lenis, Mexico. The College awards both (he involved in the col­ siodeni.'i (cOeel on ibc gteai igKSlioits of Bachelor ufArts »d Master ofAm ihe Western iradiiion from ancient Greece degreet. St. Julia’s has no ndijious lege (possibilities to nioilem tunes Siudenls study from the affilisrion St. John's is one coHeye on two ciassittof liierature. phiSosofil^. theology. cam}xtsc» The campuses idiare a conunou [«ychologs. ]»liticaf science, ectinomiCi, cuniculuni, and siudoils may transfer being explored (usury, nudiemMics. laboratory sciences, befweendsuu during the course of their music, and the visual am sanhes. include chat rooms, bulletin boards, email for life, and password-protected directories); and third, a site will be “architected” (web people actually use this word) and then bruit. Time­ line for the project is about a year. The initial telephone sur­ veys of alumni begin this spring. Like many small colleges, The St. John’s College web site St. John’s struggles with tech­ is in for a facelift. The college nology issues. On the one hand, has hired a firm called Genera­ the college needs a web site and tion to help redevelop the sites administrative computing sys­ for the two campuses, to look at tems that are comparable to ways to unify the sites, to those at other schools. On the increase functions for alumni, other hand, being technologi­ to explore avenues for market­ cally up-to-date doesn’t matter ing the Graduate Institute in the context of the program of online, and to provide prospec­ instruction. But even though tive students the kind of infor­ the program can function with­ mation they look for on the web. out it, the internet holds huge Generation has lots of experi­ potential for bringing alumni Megan Miller (SFGIoi - left) and Logan Wink (SFoo - right) start­ ence with higher education together in cyberspace and for ed BELLY dancing TWO YEARS AGO FOR EXERCISE AND FUN. “It WAS MY WAY TO clients and will help St. John’s increasing their involvement GET OFF CAMPUS AND RELIEVE STRESS DURING SENIOR ESSAY WRITING,” SAYS through a three-part process: with the college. 4" Wink. As the duo got more involved with the ancient Babylonian first, the college will look at DANCE FORM, THEY PROPOSED TO THEIR TEACHER, TaNYA KeRN (cENTER), internal and external needs and THAT THEY PERFORM. ThEIR FIRST SHOW WAS AT St. JoHn’s IN SaNTA Fe AND define audiences for its site; sec­ THEY RECENTLY FINISHED A THREE-SHOW RUN AT El FaROL ON GaNYON RoAD. ond, alumni will be contacted to SljOtlN’SCOLLlXJ Web News @SJCA.EDU {The College - St. John’s College • Spring 2001 } �{From the Bell Towers} 5 The Spirit of Philanthropia “Knowledge is power,” wrote Francis Bacon. And knowledge is powerful, says Amber Boydstun (SF99). Boydstun is chair of the Spirit Committee, part of Philanthropia - the alumni organization dedicated to fundraising for St. John’s. The knowledge that Boydstun finds powerful is the knowledge she gained while working as a student aide in the advance­ ment office for four years. There, she learned how the col­ lege works. She learned about college finances and fundrais­ ing. And she got to know the men and women who have dedi­ cated their professional lives to St. John’s. It made a powerful difference when it came to her decision to donate money to the college. “I’m not the kind of person who would normally have that team spirit, not the kind who normally donates. But I’m going to be donating every year and I already have in the two years since I graduated,” says Boyd­ stun. “Why? Because I have the facts and information that tell me that the college does need my help, that tuition is not enough to pay for the education provided to students.” Boydstun’s plan is to share this information with current students, and under her leader­ ship the Spirit Committee will meet with all Johnnies at four critical times in their college years: during freshman orienta­ tion, at the beginning of senior year, after essay writing, and before graduation. The idea is that seniors are just a step away from being alumni, and it would be a good thing if they could realize how important alumni are to the college from the very beginning. This year, there’s been a reception for seniors at the President’s house in Santa Fe and a series of dinners at the President’s house in Annapolis. “We ask the seniors about their experience at the college, what they would have liked to be dif­ ferent, what they thought was particularly good,” says Annapolis Vice President Jeff Bishop. “They have a chance to ask questions about the admin­ istration of the college. We also present our case to them: that St. John’s really needs financial support from alumni after they graduate; that tuition only cov­ ers 75% of what it costs to edu­ cate each student, and that the rest of the money to run the col­ lege must come from contribu­ tions. We encourage them to stay connected to the college after they leave. They really seem to appreciate the informa­ tion and to enjoy the evening.” “So many people graduate loving the great books and thinking St. John’s as a school is greater than anything else in the world, but they don’t donate. My goal is to encourage spirit - thumos - for St. John’s as an institution,” says Boydstun. “I’d like to help them under­ stand that St. John’s the school they love is the same as St. John’s the institution that needs their help.” > {The College Thomas Burke Top Ten of THE Favorite Five The fundraising brochure sent out last fall by the alumni group Philanthropia pictured five Johnnies in the midst of their daily activities - with their five favorite books from the pro­ gram. The idea was to ask alum­ ni to think about how the books had permeated their conscious­ ness, about how important the St. John’s curriculum is to the intellectual development of the teachers, businesspeople, par­ ents, artists, computer pro­ grammers, and whatever else St. John’s alumni become. Along with their checks, many alumni sent in responses to the question: What are your five favorite books from the program? Here’s the tally of the win­ ners. Many people answered by listing an author (Plato) rather than a book (The Republic). There were many books/ authors receiving one vote: Claude Bernard’s Introduction .St John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } (SFgz) poses in HIS home office in Baltimore WITH HIS five favorite PROGRAM books: Montaigne’s Essays, Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things, The Prince, Joyce’s Ulysses, and Thucydides. to the Study ofExperimental Medicine; Tacitus; Hume; Henry Adams’ History ofthe U.S. In all, alumni named 87 different books or authors. The top ten of the alumni’s five favorites are: • Plato (The Republic was mentioned most often) • Homer (equal numbers named The Iliad and The Odyssey) • Euclid • The Bible • Jane Austen - Shakespeare Aristotle (The Ethics was most named) were tied • Greek drama (Sophocles, Euripedes, and Aeschylus) • The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky • Kant - War and Peace by Tolstoy were tied • Thucydides • Dante �6 {From the Bell Towers} Off TO Santa Fe FOR Summer Classics Dante and Milton and Eva Brann... Oh My! Summer Classics, the program that brings book and opera lovers from across the country to Santa Fe, will be held July 15 to August 4. Participants go to seminars in the morning, spend the afternoons on field trips and other southwestern activities, then attend the Santa Fe Opera in the evenings. You can sign up for one, two, or all three weeks (one seminar topic per week), and can either stay on campus or arrange accommodation in Santa Fe. The program is appro­ priate as an introduction to the college and also for those who’ve done it before - alumni and those who have participated in community or executive sem­ inars. For more information, check the web site at www.sjcsf. edu/classics/classic.htm, or e-mail classics@mail.sjcsf.edu, or call 505-984-6104. Week I, July 15-21 • Opera: Donizetti, Lucia. Sem­ inars led by William Fulton and Elliott Zuckerman • Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. Seminars led by Michael Bybee and Caleb Thompson • Darwin, The Voyage ofthe Beagle. Seminars led by Mark Rollins and Linda Wiener • Milton, Paradise Lost. Semi­ nars led by David Carl and Claudia Honeywell • Paul Scott, The Raj Quartet. Seminars led by Eva Brann and Janet Dougherty • Thucydides, Peloponnesian War. Seminars led by James Carey and Matthew Davis Week II, July 22-28 Week III, July 29-August 4 • Opera: Richard Strauss, The Egyptian Helen and Mozart, Mitridate. Seminars led by William Fulton and Robert Glick. • Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics. Seminars led by Clau­ dia Honeywell and George Lane • Dante, Purgatorio. Seminars led by Basia Miller and Caleb Thompson • Dostoevsky, Demons. Semi­ nars led by James Carey and Frank Pagano • Plato’s Critique of Rhetoric: The Ion, Gorgias. Seminars led by Jan Arsenault and Elliott Zuckerman • Shakespeare, Richard II and Henry IV. Seminars led by Judith Adam and Warren Winiarski • Shakespeare, Pericles and Twelfth Night. Seminars led by William Alba and Krishnan Venkatesh • Opera: Verdi, Ealstaffand Alban Berg, Wozzeck. Semi­ nars led by William Fulton and Robert Glick • Dante, Purgatorio. Seminars led by Cary Stickney and Susan Stickney • Goethe, Theory of Colors. Seminars led by George Lane and Julie Reahard • The Plays of Kalidasa. Semi­ nars led by Michael Bybee and Michael Wolfe • The Poetry of Wallace Stevens. Seminars led by James Forkin and Thomas Scally {The College- St. John’s College ■ Spring zoot } India is the setting for two Summer Classics readings: The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott AND The Plays of Kalidasa (Above). Two seminarswill read Dante’s Purgatorio (Below). �{From Bell Towers} the One College - How to Make It Really Work For 36 years, St. John’s struggled with how to administer a eoUege with two campuses that are sepa­ rated hy 1800 miles, a two-hour time difference, at least six hours of travel time, and hundreds of different ways of dealing with both day-to-day and long-term issues. The curriculum has always been the great unifier and under the direction of the Joint Instruction Committee (composed of tutors on both campuses) it has remained virtu­ ally identical in Annapolis and Santa Fe. But administration is another matter. Over time, tiny management decisions on each campus led to more substantial policy differ­ ences. The Board of Visitors and Governors, while acknowledging the importance of a president for each campus, last year re-organ­ ized the college’s basic adminis­ trative structure, creating a Management Committee that includes the presidents and deans of both campuses, who may bring in other college officers during their discussions. The Committee’s purview is cer­ tain college-wide functions and its single executive (a chair) han­ dles comprehensive issues with­ out diminishing the responsibihties of the campus presidents and deans for their own opera­ tions. Annapolis president Christo­ pher Nelson is serving as the “We need topre­ serve the special sense ofcommu­ nity that exists on each campus, and we will not take any action that would threaten that. Chris Nelson, Annapolis president and chair of the Management Committee, says,“We have a lot of work ahead of us.” {The College. first chair of the Management Committee. “There is a clear spirit of cooperation,” he says. “John Balkcom (the new presi­ dent in Santa Fe) and I are com­ mitted to the notion that with respect to certain issues, col­ lege-wide treatment is essential. We need to preserve the special sense of community that exists on each campus, and we will not take any action that would threaten that.” During its first year, the Man­ agement Committee: • Equalized tutor salaries, which had been less in Santa Fe since 1994-95 • Formulated a plan for equaliz­ ing tuition, which had been different on the two campuses • Worked out a college-wide budget, with separate consid­ eration of capital projects and other issues specific to each campus • Considered differences in the financial aid policies of the campuses and began to work on making them more consistent • Re-organized the advance­ ment offices to prevent dupli­ cating all functions on each campus • Adopted an information tech­ nology plan for both campus­ es, including a joint web site • Provided for a joint recruit­ ment strategy and new publica­ tions for the Graduate Institute • Prepared a framework for a college-wide strategic plan that considers needs and resources well into the future • Formulated a way to resolve inconsistent alumni databases on the campuses • Standardized a host of report­ ing functions so that college­ wide information is available on everything from budget matters to admissions enroll­ ment During this first year the Man­ agement Committee concentrat­ ed on resolving differences that had arisen over time. The com­ mittee is also beginning to make college-wide policy decisions, for St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } example; it extended benefits to the domestic partners (same and opposite sex) of faculty and staff. In the coming year the Com­ mittee will complete a strategic plan and needs assessment for the campuses, and will help organize the elements for the college’s next fundraising capi­ tal campaign. “I anticipate focusing on the need to have comparable faculty staffing, class sizes, and faculty develop­ ment programs on both campus­ es,” says Nelson. St. John’s in THE News An article called “Where Plato Is Your Professor” in the Febru­ ary aoor issue of Smithsonian magazine describes the col­ lege’s program, the students and classes, and the various extracurricular activities. Also interviewed are several alumni, identified as a building contrac­ tor, a lawyer, a biologist, and an editorial assistant. Written by Edwards Park, a retired Smith­ sonian contributor who lives in Annapolis, and photographed by Cameron Davidson, the arti­ cle focuses on the intellectual atmosphere of St. John’s. St. John’s is also featured in a book about investing (yes, the financial kind). Latticework: The New Investing by Robert G. Hagstrom (published by Texere ) describes an approach to invest­ ing that is based on a liberal arts-style understanding, where the interconnections between the important ideas from a num­ ber of fields are discovered. Hagstrom, who is a senior vicepresident of Legg Mason Focus Capital, talked with alumni in investment fields, who cited the importance of St. John’s in their development as “better thinkers.” -f- �8 {From the Bell Towers} Leo Raditsa The Face of SJC Today About the freshmen who arrived in Santa Fe and Annapolis in September and January: There are 319 of them, 167 men and 152 women. 8 didn’t finish high SCHOOL (they are CLASSIFIED “eARLY ENTRANCE”) AND 52 ATTENDED ANOTHER COLLEGE BEFORE THEY BAILED OUT, SAW THE LIGHT, AND CAME TO St. John’s. Age range is i6 to 51. About 68% receive financial aid. 223 ATTENDED PUBLIC SCHOOLS; 93 ATTENDED INDEPENDENT OR PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. 6o% RANKED IN THE TOP FIFTH OF THEIR CLASS; 4% MeRIT HONORS. St. John’s doesn’t require SAT scores for admission, but of those RANKED IN THE FOURTH FIFTH. 183 RECEIVED NATIONAL THAT submitted SCORES, THE RANGE OF THE MIDDLE 50% VERBAL IS 65O TO 750 AND THE RANGE OF THE MIDDLE 50% MATH IS 580 TO 680. 39 STATES AND 3 FOREIGN COUNTRIES ARE REPRESENTED (HIGHEST NUMBERS ARE 32 FROM California in Santa Fe and 20 from Maryland in CHRIS QUINN SFGIo Annapolis), Within a few weeks, the FRESHMEN BLENDED IN SO WELL IT WAS HARD TO DISTINGUISH THEM FROM MORE SEASONED Johnnies - you had to check WHAT they were READING TO FIND OUT. Students are SHOWN ON THE AnNAPOLIS (left) and AT Meem Library (above). GREG WHITESELL quad {The College - Leo Raditsa, a tutor at the col­ lege since 1973, died February 22 in Annapolis after suffering a stroke. He had been ill with myeloma. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1936, where his father, Bog­ dan Raditsa, was a delegate to the League of Nations, Mr. Raditsa came to this country in 1940 when his father joined the Yugoslav Embassy in Washing­ ton, D.C. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and then from Harvard College in 1956. At Harvard he founded and edited i.e.. The Cambridge Review. The grandson of the noted Ital­ ian historian Guglielmo Fer­ rero, he held two graduate degrees in history from Colum­ bia University: a 1962 master’s in medieval history and a 1969 doctorate in ancient history. He was also a University Fellow and a President’s Fellow at Colum­ bia. In 1964-65 he held a Ful­ bright Fellowship at the Univer­ sity of Munich. After teaching at New York University, Washington Square College, from 1965 to 1973, he joined the faculty of St. John’s College. He was the founding editor of The St. John ’a Review. He was affiliated during the 1977-78 academic year with the Hoover Institute on War, Revo­ lution and Peace at Stanford, Calif., as a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow. Mr. Raditsa was the author of numerous articles and of two books: Prisoners ofa Dream: The South African Mirage, which he wrote following 1991 when he was a lecturer at the Rand Afrikaans University and at the University of the Witwatersrand, seoA Some Sense About Wilhelm Reich, concerning the controversial psychiatrist. Mr. Raditsa was also a painter whose watercolors were exhibited at galleries in the Annapolis area. Mr. Raditsa was a member of a distinguished Italian family St. John’s College ■ Spring soot } Leo Raditsa and great-grandson of the crim­ inologist Cesare Lombroso; he divided his time between Annapohs and his family home outside Florence. Survivors include his son, Sebastian, and a sister, Basiljka Raditsa, both of New York City. His marriage to Larissa Bonfante of New York City ended in divorce. The fami­ ly requests that gifts be made to the St. John’s College library, P.O. Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404. A memorial service for Mr. Raditsa was held in March. A memoriam will appear in the next issue of The College. �9 {Alumni Voices} CARNIVAL IN FLANDERS A Pearl Harbor Day memoir BY Peter Wolff, A44 y the time I got to St. John’s in the fall of 1940, the New Program was in full swing. A few (less than a dozen) Old Program stu­ dents still remained. The college got a boost from an article in Life magazine that appeared in February of 1940. It spoke glowingly of the Program in a spread of 10 or B I cannot resist a swipe at American journalism: One of the pictures showed a student reading Horace’s poems in Latin. A fine picture except that the student shown was an Old Program student; the book he was reading was by an author (Horace) not then being read in the Program; the book was being read in the original Latin instead of in translation, whereas all of the great books authors were and are being read in English. I took to the college immediately and felt that I had found my intel­ lectual home. I read the books, dis­ cussed them and thought of little else. I had little money but I didn’t need it: $a6 lasted me through the first semester, as I barely stepped off the campus. I cannot remember what I did in the summer of 1941, but I returned to St. John’s in the fall of that year with enthusiasm and threw myself into reading the second year list. It includ­ ed Virgil, but also St. Augustine’s Confes­ sions and large parts of St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa The.ologica. I had joined a film club that was being formed by a few students. It proposed to show classic movies to those who joined In 194a, THE COLLEGE HELD A DANCE TO ReLIEF. In ATTENDANCE WERE STRINGFELLOW BaRR (left) and Admiral Beardall, Superin­ tendant OF THE Naval Academy. RAISE MONEY FOR ALLIED WaR the club. The movies were obtained from the Museum of Modern Art on a rental basis. Club members were mostly St. John’s students but also faculty members and a few faculty from the Naval Academy. I can only remember two films. One was A {The College . St. John’s College ■ Spring soot } Nous La Liberte, directed by Jean Renoir; the other. Carnival in Flanders, was scheduled for the evening of December 7, 1941. The gymnasium, an old building, had to be prepared for the film showing. So at a little after noon, several of us were setting up the screen and folding chairs for the audience. At about r:3o in the afternoon, some­ one came running into the building and 12,yelled, pages. “The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.” For a little while, I did not fully take in what had been said; then we all abandoned our efforts (we were nearly finished anyhow) and repaired to our dormi­ tory rooms to listen to the radio. The film showing did take place in the evening. Not many of the Naval Academy members of the club showed up; those that did for the first time wore their uniforms. The next day, a radio (these were pre-television days) was brought into the dining hall and at noon we listened to President Roosevelt referring to December 7 as “a day that will live in infamy,” regretting the many casualties that had been incurred, and asking the Congress to declare war on Japan. People of my age and generation all remember what they were doing on December 7,1941. For younger people, it is just another date. For some of them, November aa, 1963 has a similar significance, but even those who remem­ ber President Kennedy’s assassination are now growing old. What are the mythic dates for those who are now in their twen­ ties or thirties? The first moon landing? President Nixon’s resignation? The fall of the Berlin Wall? �IO {Interview} A CONVERSATION WITH JOHN BALKCOM The newpresident in Santa Fe begins his tenure Johnnie-style—in a dialogue with students, faculty, and alumni. N November 7 John E. Balkcom became the fifth president of the Santa Fe campus of St. John’s Col­ lege. A fit and athletic 53-year-old with wide interests beyond a career as head of a college, he radi­ ates an affable, energetic person­ ality and addresses the complex challenges of his new job with cheerful confidence. He has enjoyed a close association with the college, having been not only a graduate student in Santa Fe but also a member the Board of Visitors and Governors for five years. In January the president sat down for an interview with James Idema, a Santa Fe writer whose affection for St. John’s stems from his participation in the Community Seminar Series. Q: Your background is an unusual combination ofbusiness and academics. Your education includes an AB in philoso­ phyfrom Princeton, an MBA from the University of Chica­ go's Graduate School ofBusiness,and a master’s degree in liberal artsfrom St. John’s. You have also pursued a career as a business consultant and served as an adjunctprofessor ofeconomics at Chicago. Is itfair to say that, with this back­ ground, your visionfor St. John’s ispractical as well as ide­ alistic? JB: I would hope so. Practical in the sense of my aspiring for this program - “this brilliantly conceived small college,” to {The College- quote one of our tutors emeritus. Bill Darkey - to be far more secure financially in the future, to have the ability to deliver this distinctive kind of education, this expensive way of doing an education, and to give that method long economic life through significant improvements in the endowment. This would allow us to maintain a student body of about 450 undergraduate and about 60 graduate students. My feeling is that we could continue to grow somewhat in the graduate program. We have no aspiration to make the undergraduate program 500, 600, 700, but rather to keep it at its current size or smaller, to serve that population well, and to continue to sustain the intimacy that happens at the seminar level between tutors and stu­ dents. I believe that the seminar table is the locus of the unique value of this program and I want to continue to be able to deliver that close personal attention of our tutors to our students, both in and out of class. Q: More to the idealisticpoint. I’ve been reading in the local press about the kind of epiphany you experienced in which ethics came unexpectedly into your approach to life, per­ haps gaining ascendancy over the business aspect. Can you comment on that? JB: One of the primary responsibilities of a partner in a management consulting firm is to sell business, to build new client relationships and to provide services that are both valuable to the client and profitable to the consulting firm. It’s a rather weak joke among consultants that when St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �ERIC SWANSON {The College -St John's College • Spring 2001 } �{interview} one receives a call from a prospective client asking the question “Do you do X?” the answer is almost always “Why, yes, of course. And, indeed, we are deeply expert in that area. That’s our business and we have just the people who can help you.” I certainly appreciate the commercial impera­ tive of growing one’s business when one is a management consultant, but at times I found it troubling that I was at least stretching the case for my capability or my firm’s capability for what we might do to help a client. In particular, after reading Augus­ tine’s Confessions for the first time in the Graduate Institute, I had this blinding realization of the three white lies a management consultant tells when a prospective client calls him. “(i) I’m thrilled to hear from you. (2) I’m utterly fascinated by your problem. (3) I’m immediately avail­ able to help you.” Out of the realiza­ tion that none of the above is always true and in the process of reading the Confessions, I began having much more candid conversations with my clients and prospective clients, asking them background questions and then, with increasing fre­ quency, suggesting that I was not the right person to handle their problem but giving them names and phone numbers of others who might be better qualified to serve them. JB: Sure. We have eliminated that disparity as of January i, which, as a board member, I wanted to see hap­ pen during my five years of tenure. So I’m pleased that we have now taken the steps that were needed. Q: It took a long time. It took a long time because of differences in resources available to the two campuses. And it put some added pressure on this campus in terms of balancing our budget going forward. We’ve had several areas of cost increases in the last two years. First, the increase in salaries for fac­ ulty. Fortunately, we’ve had generous benefactors who have increased our endowment to help us fund the need­ ed increase in faculty salaries. Two years ago my predecessor and his staff did an evaluation of staff compensa­ tion and found that it was off the mark quite a bit. So we have had some significant staff compensation increases as well. We’ve also changed the kind of retirement plan for the staff to be similar to that of the faculty. Our health insurance costs, like those of almost every other organization I know, are rising rapidly. And then throw into that the recent spike in natural gas prices, and our fixed costs have gone up tremendously. JB: It did. Ybelieve the seminar table is the locus ofthe unique value ofthis program... Q: One might think you risked losing clients that way. That was the risk I expected at the beginning of those con­ versations, but I must tell you it brought clients back to me repeatedly, clients who had appreciated my candor. More important for me, my speaking that way proved to be hugely liberating. Now you’re no longer a consultant but the man in charge. What are some ofthe major challenges youface in thisposition. Can we start with the faculty salary disparities between this campus and Annapolis? {The College Bad timing, indeed. But I must say, we’re still finding our friends, alumni, and certain foundations quite generous. It’s not an easy challenge to raise the money, but they’re continu­ ing to be generous with us. Friends of the college are still com­ ing to us with significant gifts. So, in that sense, our timing is quite fortuitous. JB: JB; Q: Q: Also a weakening ofthe economy. Bad timing. Q: You ’re going to be able to increase the endowment? The board and the capital campaign committee are just beginning to plan for the next capital campaign. But my person­ al aspiration is to see the endowment move from its current level JB: ■ St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �{interview } 13 ‘7found the... issues ofthe nature of the soul [in the ' Phaedrus 7... quite immediate and urgentfor every man and woman in the room. of just under $ioo million for the whole college to something in excess of $250 mUhon hy the end of this decade. That’s not an easy task. It takes a great deal ofwork. But I know it can be done. Many other fine hberal arts colleges in a similar period have raised significantly more than that. I think we have the opportunity to present this story to alumni, friends, and foundations and corpo­ rations in a way that wiU be com­ pelling, to improve our endowment substantially. That, by the way, will help with our sustaining and improving the salaries of faculty and staff. study area that would be more friendly to students. Probably the most notable physical change that a number of us would like to see is an auditorium that would house 600 to 800 at one time. Today we have no single venue within which we can convene the entire college commu­ nity, meaning faculty, students, and staff. L Q: Would this replace the Great Hall? Q: Willyou yourselfbe taking an active role infundraising? JB: Oh, yes, I already have been. I am traveling some in con­ nection with that task, and Robert Glick, the vice president for advancement, has scheduled me for a minimum of three lunches and two dinners a week with potential donors of vari­ ous kinds in the Santa Fe area. envision physical expansion of the campus, bricks­ and-mortar improvements? Q: Do you JB: Yes, in a modest way. Again, we are at the maximum stu­ dent size that we want, so we won’t be growing in that sense. But I would like to add - and again, this is yet to be worked out - another 60 rooms on campus, which would allow us to house up to 75 to 80 percent of our student body. Q: That means new dormitories. JB: Two new dormitories would be my guess. Q: The dormitories arefilled up now? JB: To the brim. So that’s one physical change - a modest one, I think. A second needed improvement: We have about $12 mil­ lion of deferred maintenance on campus buildings and need very much to upgrade the fire protection systems. Thirdly, I’d like to see a project suggested, just as a possibility, by the head of our bookstore of breaking the wall between the bookstore and the coffee shop and combining them into a sitting and {The College . JB: I hope it would replace the Great Hall. And it would do three impor­ tant things for us: It would give us a venue for convening the entire college community. Second, it would give us a more attractive space for student productions of plays and musical performances. Third, it would give us an opportunity to bring the local community here for events of various kinds, to house musical events and professional performances, and allow the community to become even closer and better acquainted with the college. So, I’d like to see that change. It might be the most noticeable of the changes I would envision in bricks and mortar. Q: I was going to ask whether St. John "s alumni, as other college alumni, are generally successful, well off, dependable support­ ers ofSt. John's. Or does the St. John'sprogram tend toproduce scholars who don’tpursue more remunerative careers? JB: We produce alums who enter a great variety of careers, from teaching at the secondary school level to advanced aca­ demic careers in higher education to authors to producers and directors and screenwriters for movies to proprietors of pri­ vately owned businesses to heads of investment management businesses. We have the variety of alums you would find in many other colleges, and a wide range of economic success in that population. It is an alumni body that has the capability of providing great support for the college. During the last capital campaign, we had a participation rate that was quite attrac­ tive, compared to our other liberal arts competitors. On an annual basis, the participation rate is modest, but growing rapidly, and we expect to continue to see that grow. We have a new organization of alumni called Philanthropia, and its pur- St. John's College • Spring 2001 } �^4 I { 1 NT E RVI E W } 'Tor sure, we could do a betterjob ofreaching a more diversepopulation.'' pose is to engage the alumni in their support of the college. That holds great promise. enjoy it newly every time. So, one aspect of a great book is the re-readability. A second aspect of “greatness” is the connectedness, the pervasiveness, of the ideas of these texts in our culture. When I read a new piece of fiction that somebody says is a really great book, I frequently find it enjoyable reading. However, I’m not likely to read it again because it’s not terribly re-readable. But it may have three or four ideas in it that came out of Plato or out of Aristotle, whose ideas remain pervasive. Q: In the category ofother changes and chal­ lenges, what about the curriculum? JB: My expectation is that the curriculum will change very slowly, if at all. The way that our founding document, the Polity, is writ­ ten, it assigns to our faculty, to our joint Instruction Committee of the two campuses, and to the deans the responsihility for over­ seeing the design and content of the curricu­ lum. Our faculty retains to this day a very strong commitment to what was called in 1937 “the New Program.” £ I think one of the reasons people ask you that perhaps frivolous question is that it’s such a long time between Aristotle’s day and today. Q: o Q: It's still the New Program? is still the New Program. And I think that’s a distinguishing characteristic of this college that will change very little. It’ll he a little more of this and a little less of that. Add a Platonic dialogue here and two fewer essays of Montaigne there, or whatever. These things go through care­ ful consideration and dehate at our faculty meetings and in our Instruction Committee meetings. By design, they change very slowly. JB: It JB: But the program comes to the 19th and aoth centuries.We certainly talk about Kant, Hume, Hegel, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Yeats. And the sciences, from Galileo to Newton all the way forward to Einstein. There are a few Gommunity Seminars, I believe, with Richard Feynman’s writings, in them. So we have, in some of our courses, very contemporary authors. Q: “Ijust read a great new book. Why don ’tyou include that?” That is an interesting question, I think. What does make a great book? Q: Surelyyou must run intopeople who say, JB: Well, I’ve just heen re-reading the two opening essays, one by Mortimer Adler and one by the former president of the Uni­ versity of Chicago, Robert Maynard Hutchins, for the original editions of the Great Books, as they were published by Ency­ clopedia Britannica, and there are a few ideas that I found quite intriguing. One of them is the notion that a great book is highly re-readable. That is, it deserves to be read, not once, and maybe not even twice or three times. Every time I read the Iliad - and I’ve read it four or five times in the last five years I find half a dozen things that strike me as, “How could I pos­ sibly have missed this?” The Iliad and the Odyssey and the Platonic Dialogues and the works of Aristotle - there are many others, of course, with this character. For me, personally, I re-read the poetry of Yeats weekly and {The College. Notjust dead white guys. JB: I’ve certainly heard that charge. No, I think they’re quite alive. In my last preceptorial in the graduate program, we had seven graduate students and six undergraduates reading Plato’s Phaedrus. It has to do with rhetoric, with erotic love and with the nature of the soul and with poetry. And I found the issues of how one expresses oneself in writing or in speak­ ing, the issues of the nature of the soul, the issues of the nature of erotic love, quite immediate and urgent for every man and woman in the room. And not at all stale by virtue of having been written by a “dead white guy.” Q: That naturally leads to the question ofwomen. And I know you expressed interest in that and thefact that your wife and daughters sometimes bug you to pay more attention to the female gender. Two things I should mention in that connection. In one of my very early classes in the Summer Glassies, one of the tutors JB: St. John ’5 College • Spring zooi } �{interview} 15 Y think ofthe students as thefirst group lam responsiblefor serving. son we consider as a potential student is that person’s seriousness about and capability for studying in this particular way, reading a text slowly and discussing it at length with col­ leagues in a classroom. put me onto the text The Book ofthe City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan, which is quite a remarkable story of court life in the 15th or i6th century from a woman’s point of view. And I’ve mentioned as well that we have had a preceptorial in the Graduate Institute on the work of Toni Morrison. Q: JB: My meetings with students are what I call I want to ask you about the relationship between St. John’s College and the city of Santa Fe. Do you sense an affinity between this comparatively new (1964) institution and this ancient (1610) city? Q: JB: Yes. In the last ao years many adult learn- 2 z ers, if I could use that phrase, have moved 5 o into Santa Fe. These are men and women 2 cc who may have retired or may be in the « process of winding down their full-time pro­ fessions, and who are seeking an opportunity to look with some seriousness into matters of the quality of life and whether or not the soul is in fact perpetual. And to examine, to stop and lookback on what they’ve done in the last 30 or 40 or 50 years of their lives and reflect on them in a thoughtful way. We draw many such men and women to us through our Com­ munity Seminars, through our Summer Classics, even through our Graduate Institute. So, I think that’s part of the affinity with this town. Q: Santa Fe has a notoriously poor public education system itself. Many ofthesepeople you refer to arepart-time residents, and, as you say, are retired, and they can afford to stop and reflect on their lives. One would wish that somehow this oppor­ tunity could be made available to people who have not had thatprivilege. Let me say that we make all of our admissions decisions at the undergraduate and at the graduate level on a needs blind basis. I’ve heard more than once some passing comment about this elite program in which rich white folks come and study the dead white guys. But approximately 70 percent of our stu­ dents currently receive financial aid of one kind or another, so we welcome a very wide variety of students. And for sure, we could do a better job of reaching a more diverse population. We are working on that. The biggest question about every per­ JB: Tell me aboutyour meetings with students. “town hall meetings.” I regard the agenda as belonging to the students. You call the students customers, your ‘^pri­ mary customers. ” Q: I think of them as the first group whom I am responsible for serving. They’re here, they are living here, they have entrusted themselves and their education to us. I feel responsible to them. So in that sense they are my primary customer. And so, once every four to six weeks I want to have a town hall meeting, invite any and all students who would like to come, and discuss what they would like to discuss. I don’t always have the answer, but I’m willing to take a question and tell them I’ll get back to them. JB: about exhausted my question list unless you sense an omission in what we’ve covered that you’d like to add to this informal accounting to St. John’s alumni. Q: I’ve JB: My added message would be that, whereas I regard the stu­ dents as my primary customers, if I can say that, I think of the alumni as a very close second. And it’s helpful to me - I’ve already heard from quite a number of alumni by e-mail and have received feedback on communications I’ve sent them, on publications we’ve put out as a college as well as articles that have been published elsewhere about the campus. Q: Well received? well received. We have listened to suggestions for improvements, too. This is a very thoughtful alumni body and I have a great deal to learn from them. Dialogue is the hallmark of this school. It is vital that we continue to have a rich dialogue with the alumni, as well as the students and faculty. 4" JB: Very {The College -St John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �{The Program} THE LOGOS ACCORDING TO ARISTOTLE Tutor Joe Sachs thinks the key to understanding Aristotle lies in ordinary speech - whether its Greek or English. BY Barbara Goyette, A73 o surprise: Joe Sachs, an alumnus who graduated in 1968 and became a tutor in Annapolis in 1975, first encountered Aristotle in his freshman seminar, which was led by Bob Bart and Debbie Traynor. Slightly surprising: He found a kind of joy in reading and Studying Aristotle that was a deep­ ening of the delight he experienced while reading Plato. His favorite book was The Physics. “There were two things that happened,” he says. “1 realized that what 1 thought of as sci­ ence and philosophy didn’t have to be distinct. And then I realized that the world didn’t have to be thought of the way I’d been taught in high school. The Physics denies things I had assumed about space, time, body, cause, and explana­ tion.” Downright surprising: Sachs has spent a good part of the past ten years translating four works of Aristotle: The Physics, The Metaphysics, On the Soul, and The Nicomachean Ethics. The first two have been published, the oth­ ers have found publishers and will appear in print soon. Considering that Aristotle is probably the philosopher who most permeates Western thought - from his tutelage of Alexander the Great, to the adoption of his Latinized vocabulary as the very speech of philosophy for hundreds of years, to the easy acceptance of the nickname “The Big Aristotle” by basketball’s superstar Shaquille O’Neal - why {The College- would there be need for more translations? Because the translations out there are inadequate, says Sachs. The prob­ lem with the translations dates to the i6th and 17th cen­ turies when scholarly work that had previously been avail­ able only in Latin began to appear in modern languages. The Latin versions of Aristotle established a vocabulary that carried over into the modern languages, a vocabulary that included such familiar philosophic staples as “acci­ dent,” “substance,” “essence,” “actuality,” and “priva­ tion.” Not only did the Latinized versions of these words become a jargon, but that jargon disguised much of what is important in Aristotle, Sachs thinks. “The twists and turns of the tradition that got lost from view led to mistakes and misunderstandings of Aristotle,” he says. Here’s an example of how the words used in the scholar­ ly tradition don’t really capture the Greek: The phrase kata sumbebekos became, in Latin translations of Aristotle,/>er accidens, and then in scholastic English the Latin word’s descendent, “accidental.” “The Latin is a good translation for the Greek, and the English is cognate with the Latin,” says Sachs. “But the original Greek meaning doesn’t come through when you make kata sumbebekos into ‘acciden­ tal.’” He renders kata sumbebekos as “incidental” rather than “accidental.” In his Glossary to The Physics, he explains, “The word ‘accidental’ is appropriate to some, but not all incidental things; it is not accidental that the housebuilder is a flute player, but it is incidental. To any St. John's College • Spring 2001 } �{The College -St John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �{ThePkogram} ''LikePlato 's dialogues, Aristotle's writings lead us onfrom untested opinions - those expressed in ordinary speech toward more reliable ones. " thing, an infinity of incidental attributes belongs, and this opens the door to chance (196 b).” Nineteenth and aoth century English translations of Aristo­ tle include those found in the Loeb editions and in the huge beige McKeon edition that Johnnies of the 1970s and 1980s relied on. Loeb translations are loose by design. McKeon’s edi­ tion contained parts of a series of Oxford translations made early in the aoth century. Some were very graceful, but they relied entirely on the Latinized vocabulary carried over from the earlier translations. Beginning in the 1960s, Hippocrates Apostle produced a set of translations that attempted to stan­ dardize Aristotle’s vocabulary in English - Apostle always used the same English word for each Greek term, but he still relied on the adopted Latinized words. During the course of many years’ worth of classes, study groups, and advising sessions, Sachs found himself having to say to students “it doesn’t really mean that” about many of the words they were wrestling with. He would give long explanations of each such word, and wish there were some better way to translate it. Behind Sachs’ resolve to try to render Aristotle into English more effectively lies a deeper reason than being discontent with the use of the fossilized Latin vocabulary. Aristotle looks at ordinary speech and the thought behind it, and he “puts together the most ordinary words in unaccustomed combina­ tions. Since the combinations are jarring, our thinking always has to be at work,” says Sachs. Here’s the paradox of Aristotle for us today: He’s at the same time the most referred-to thinker whose ideas form the very foundation of all Western philoso­ phy, from Locke, Kant and Hegel to Whitehead and Husserl, and yet - according to Sachs - he’s the freshest because he makes us examine the most simple assumptions about our lives and what they might mean. Getting to the root of this fresh quality of Aristotle’s work was Sachs’ aim in translating the the­ oretical books with the resources of “ordinary English.” Gertainly this is an enterprise characteristic of how the Greeks are treated at St. John’s. “[Jacob] BClein is the main source of my thinking about Aristotle and Plato,” notes Sachs. He cites Klein’s essay “Aristotle, an Introduction” (which appears in Jacob Klein: Lectures and Essays, St. John’s College Press) as something he’s read many times. But Sachs calls his translations an appropriate entry point for any educated reader - not just Johnnies - into the world of the ancients. {The College Turning The PHYSICS wyg English rom 1990 to 1992, Sachs held the National Endow­ ment for the Humanities (NEH) chair at the col­ lege. This fellowship enables tutors to spend their time studying a topic in depth for two years; dur­ ing the second year they also lead a faculty study group on their topic and give a lecture. He used the tim begin a translation of The Physics. “At first I didn’t know was practical - whether I knew enough Greek, whether there were solutions to the difficult problems I saw,” he says. But he began to work with the aim of making Aristotle’s sentences real by getting rid of the jargon and using instead everyday, common words that exist in both English and Greek. “Aristotle respects ordinary speech more than most modern philosophers do. We use a lot of important words in inconsis­ tent ways. For Aristotle that is an indication of something deeply true,” explains Sachs. For example, take the Greek word kalon. Sometimes it is translated as “beautiful,” some­ times as “noble.” But the English word “noble” loses most of the vividness and power of the Greek. Aristotle considers the linguistic usage as a clue that leads to an understanding of moral virtue as something for its own sake, that hits a mean. In English we might also say, “That’s a beautiful thing you did.” We all know what that means, and it somehow tells us some­ thing about that action. “Ambiguities in speech that are deeply revealing about the thing referred to can arise in similar ways in more than one language,” says Sachs. “The trouble with ordinary speech for the purposes of phi­ losophy,” says Sachs, “is that it carries too much meaning. We are so accustomed to its use that it automatically carries along all sorts of assumptions about things that we make without being aware of them. ..Like Plato’s dialogues, Aristotle’s writ­ ings lead us on from untested opinions - those expressed in ordinary speech - toward more reliable ones.” Getting something out of The Physics depends on how will­ ing people are to let go of their assumptions. “It’s full of things that people laugh at when they encounter them - take his notion that bodies falling in a void would speed up without limit. But reading Aristotle is a way of getting back to the ques­ tions. Sometimes to get that fresh look you have to uproot things that stand in your way. The Physics has everything to do with living in the world.” F St John’s College • Spring 2001 } �{TheProgram} 19 ''The argument is on the way somewhere and things are changing. Things get revised. Progress on the translation was sometimes slow - a sentence in a day - and sometimes faster. Sachs found that he couldn’t leave a decision half-made. “So many things that I hadn’t paid attention to turned out to he very interesting and important,” he says. But at the end of the second year he had a draft. Find­ ing a publisher was a real-world challenge. His translation wasn’t favored hy the classicists because “it wasn’t good Enghsh,” meaning that it read like philosophy instead of litera­ ture. The philosophy departments, on the other hand, didn’t like Sachs’ translation because it wasn’t consistent with the other works in the tradition - no “substance,” “essence,” “accident,” etc. Sachs wound up using Rutgers University Press, and his Physics appeared in 1998 as part of their “Mas­ terworks of Discovery: Guided Studies of Great Texts in Sci­ ence” edited by Annapolis tutor Harvey Flaumenhaft. been obscured by technical jargon the same way they had been in the theoretical works. But there were enough ways that I thought those translations fell short that I decided to try doing my own,” says Sachs. All of the books reflect the basic aims of recapturing the original focus of Aristotle’s thinking. What’s Aristotle Doing? hat has Sachs learned about Aristotle after spending so much time with him? Not a few St. John’s students and alumni have trouble reading Aristotle because of his style - it’s so densely packed, the sen­ tences are opaque, and it lacks the drama of the dia step-by-step explications of Kant, or the perverse Nietzsche. Sachs doesn’t exactly buy the commonly accepted story that Aristotle’s writings are transcriptions of lecture The Other Translations notes. “I think they may have begun as lecture notes, but they he year following his second spent holding the got written down and polished,” he says. He compares the method to that described frequently in Plato’s dialogues, when NEH chair, Sachs had a sabbatical, which he used a character says “I heard this from so and so, and then I wrote to begin working on a translation of The Meta­ it down and checked it with the source.” physics. That book was published in 1999 by Green “I think you can feel the movement in the classroom,” says Lion Press, an independent pubhshing house con­ Sachsofabout the writings. “An objection outlined is something centrating on primary texts in the history of science, history someone brought up in one of the classes. Or there might be a mathematics, and history of ideas and run by St. John’s alumni joke about the educated person being pale - that would refer to Wdham Donahue (A67) and Dana Densmore (A65). someone in the room. A lot of the things we puzzle about would Even more than The Physics, The Metaphysics has been mis­ have been obvious to Aristotle’s hsteners.” The movement of understood, thinks Sachs. It’s commonly criticized as not the arguments is dialectical - that’s the structure that prevails being cohesive, because it appears to make new beginnings in The Physics, The Metaphysics, and even in The Ethics. “The over and over again, as well as covering the same ground argument is on the way somewhere and things are changing. repeatedly. Sachs found an underlying order as he worked Things get revised,” says Sachs. This flowing structure to the through the translation; rather than becoming so enmeshed in works is another reason the accepted notion of Aristotle laying details that a sense of the whole is obscured, the opposite hap­ down the law or offering a series of set answers is so wrong. pened - he came to a clearer understanding of the differences “Instead, I find it a record of careful thinking,” says Sachs. between demonstration and dialectic. Aristotle’s record of careful thinking is something that has At the urging of tutor Brother Robert, Sachs also translated kept Sachs busy translating for about ro years. Although he On the Soul over the course of a few summers; it’s currently says the efforts never turned into a chore, he’s finished with being prepared for publication by Green Lion. And, during a translating, at least translating Aristotle and at least for now. second sabbatical, almost 10 years after working on The But the thoughts are still alive for him: “Every time I pick up Physics, he translated The Nicomachean Ethics. That transla­ one of his books or sit down with people to talk about Aristo­ tion is being prepared by The Focus Philosophical Library in tle, I find new things.” Massachusetts. “The Ethics is a book that I love. The translations seemed good enough because the things Aristotle was saying had not W T {The College -St John's College • Spring 2001 } �{Johnnies on Parenting} THE EDUCATION THAT IS PARENTHOOD From birth to the empty nest, raising a child means learning to deal with each new challenge. BY Sus3AN Borden, A87 OR ALL WE LEARN FROM THE GREAT ROOKS, they don’t seem to answer parent­ hood’s most pressing questions: What did Penelope do to make Telemachos sleep through the night? Would attachment parenting have saved Oedipus? If Desdemona and Juliet had been allowed to try “group dating,” could tragedy have been averted? Pedi­ atric rheumatologist Jim Jarvis (A75) agrees that there are limits to the insights on parenting to be gained at St. John’s. “Will studying Apollonius make you a better par­ ent?” he asks. “I don’t think so.” He suggests more intimate sources for learning how to raise children. “You learn from your parents, you learn from your children, and you learn from your heart, if you leave your heart open and attentive to all the wonderful things your child is trying to teach you,” he says. And that, he explains, is where St. John’s comes in. “St. John’s prepares your heart to be open,” he says. “I remember tutors Michael Littleton and Elliott Zuckerman teaching me that it’s okay to love something because it’s beautiful. I remember seeing the look on Michael Little­ ton’s face when he was listening to Beethoven’s Eroica Sym­ phony. I realized that I was watching not only a man who found this piece of music intellectually satisfying hut who, in the very core of his heart, found it beautiful. If you let it, your St. John’s education can prepare your heart for accept­ ing the incredible beauty and mystery of childhood.” Granted, Piaget and Montessori are not on the St. John’s reading list. And there’s no manual for raising children that {The College- provides an answer for every troubling situation. But in this inaugural issue of The College, six alumni who work with parents and children offer their insights into the education that is parenthood. I•Convocation Birth Parenting studies - like college studies - begin with a sud­ den immersion into a completely different kind of life. Eor both experiences, it’s a change you’ve been waiting for for months, mainly with excitement, but also with anxiety. You pack your bag, climb into the car, and the adventure begins. One key difference: when you’re heading for col­ lege, it’s just butterflies in your stomach. One similarity: you’re beginning a new life with a journey into the unknown. Midwife Laureen Sutton-Borgilt (SP86) says that, because she works mainly with home births, the couples she works with have a high sense of responsibility. But, she says, taking responsibility can be confused with taking con­ trol, and when it comes to childbirth, control is an illusion. “One of the biggest jobs in preparing for birth is accepting what it means to deal with uncertainty. You don’t always get to choose how things are going to come out. You can choose the little things, like to stay home or to have the baby in water, hut birth doesn’t always give you your choice. Parenting doesn’t always give you your choice either,” says Sutton-Borgilt. “Parenting plunges us into an unknown over which there is no control and pregnancy is definitely a first step into this realm of the unknown.” St. John’s College • Spring 2001 } �ai their own temperaments, their own way of dealing with the First year oflife “God Creating Adam” world,” she says. “The best a FROM Chartres Cathedral parent can do is help them learn how to Sure you studied virtue at St. John’s, make good judgments and accept but these days you’re modeling good themselves with whatever limitations behavior at home. Of course you read and strengths they have.” about beauty during college, but par­ Friehling offers a Johnnie-like enthood leaves you marveling at your approach to child-raising: “Just like baby’s perfect features. And while love tutors are not professors but are there was once a subject for discussion and to guide students in dialogue, I see par­ contemplation, it’s now something ents as guiding their children in a dia­ that overtakes you every day. Like logue. From the time the child is six freshman year, early parenthood fasci­ months old, parents should set up a dia­ nates us with its subject matter. But logue to help the child figure out this there’s a lot to learn and a world of world on his or her own. By the time adjustments to make. Jim Jarvis [A75] they are adolescents, children are very “There’s no bigger transition in the much participants in the dialogue and world than becoming a parent,” says they don’t have the same kind of rebel­ pediatrician Melissa Sedlis (A73). “No lion issues as children whose parents set themselves up as matter how old you are, you’re just someone else’s child arbitrary authorities.” until you become a parent yourself. There’s a great divide II- Freshman Year J. ''Ifyou let it, your St. Johns education can prepare your heart for accepting the incredible beauty and mystery ofchildhood. ” you cross. “Everyone has watched a child misbehave, seen how the parent handles it, and thought, ‘I’ll do it so much better. My child will never go to McDonald’s. My child will never want sugar cereals.’ There are a lot of illusions that parents have to lose. What we often have in our minds during pregnancy is an idealized version of what our child will be like. We try to fit the child into our idea of what the child should be.” Pediatrician Linda Friehling (SF71) warns parents not to impose such ideas onto their children. “Children have {The College- III-Sophomore Year Toddler andpreschool years More than any other year, sophomore year seems to focus on a single book: the Bible. Parents of toddlers and preschoolers, their faith tested by temper tantrums and toi­ let training, can find themselves haunting bookstores’ par­ enting sections, praying for a divinely inspired source of wisdom. Some find a favorite - a parenting “Bible.” Among St. John's College - Spring 2001 } �2,2, {JoHNNiES ON Parenting} ‘7sometimes have to remind parents that the ape at which you first eat preen beans is not on the applicationfor Harvard. ” Melissa Sedlis [A73] today’s most popular are T. means and interest to support Berry Brazleton’s Touchpoints, good daycare.” Penelope Leach’s Your Baby But what about intellectual and Child, Arlene Eisenberg’s enrichment? Wouldn’t a top­ What to Expect the Toddler notch daycare offer children a Years, and Dr, Spock’s Baby and head start in the academic Child Care. world? Berkowitz doesn’t think Steve Berkowitz (A8i), associ­ so. “You can get your kid to read ate professor in child and adoles­ earlier, to know the capitals ear­ cent psychiatry at Yale Medical lier, to do math earlier, but what School, says he likes some, but has been demonstrated is that it not all, of these works. “Throw all evens out in the end,” he says. Brazleton out the window,” he “The important factors in pre­ says. “He’s a nice guy but all too school are the social and nurtur­ easy.” Berkowitz says that Bra­ ing elements. While formalized, zleton’s “let it happen natural­ rigid education in reading, writ­ ly” approach is too hands-off for ing, and arithmetic is becoming most parents and children. “For more popular, this might be at instance, toilet training,” says the cost of something very Berkowitz. “I don’t think you important to children: the use of just sit there and tell a kid ‘you their imaginations, working can potty train whenever you’re things through, and learning ready.’ I don’t think you have to and understanding through play demand it when they’re i8 and imagination.” months old, but at 3 years, when Sedlis says that this rush to they’re not potty trained, you academics is particularly a prob­ An icon of parental affection - a madonna and child can say ‘we want this, you have lem in New York City, where she to do it, it’s what kids your age lives and practices. “Children do.’” Berkowitz thinks parents should be more directive than begin to apply to nursery schools at the age of one or two. They Brazleton advises. “I don’t think young children want a mil­ go on a round of interviews and many of them get rejected. lion choices,” he says. “They want comfort, nurturing, direc­ There’s enormous anxiety over this and parents beheve if you tion. They wantyou to make choices for them. That’s what par­ don’t get into the right nursery school, you won’t get into the ents do.” right ongoing school, then the right college, and then the right While he’s not so crazy about Brazleton, Berkowitz does like job. I sometimes have to remind parents that the age at which Penelope Leach. “I think she’s great and has a lot to offer,” he you first eat green beans is not on the application for Harvard.” says. “Like anybody else, there are things I disagree with her about, like her strong stance against daycare. Studies show IV • Enabling that good daycare is very good for children, there’s just very Are youfit to continue? little of it.” What is good daycare? Berkowitz points to the daycare cen­ It’s the end of your sophomore year. You go to your mailbox ters affiliated with Yale. “Theyhaveverylowchild/staffratios, and find a letter from the dean. You’re either in or out. But as highly trained staff who are well paid and have the benefits of a parent, it’s not that simple. There are many points in a being in an academic environment, and parents who have the child’s life when you find yourself scrutinizing your perform{The College - St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �{JoHNNIESOnPaRENTING} 2,3 JOHNNIES RECOMMEND... great books on parenting Touchpoints: Your Child’s Emotional and Behav­ ioral DevelopmentYyY. Berry Brazleton Toddlers and Parents: A Declaration ofIndepen­ dence by T. Berry Brazleton Infants and Mothers: Differences in Development by T. Berry Brazleton The First Twelve Months ofLife by Frank Caplan ance, uncertain if you’re really V • Junior Year and Theresa Caplan qualified to proceed. And like tutors Elementary school How To Talk So Your Child Will Listen, and Listen at an enabling meeting, there are So Your Child Will Talk by Adele Faber plenty of people who seem ready During junior year, you read Hume and willing to judge your fitness as a and Rousseau. As the parent of a The Magic Years by Selma H. Fraiberg parent. Certainly you can ignore schoolage child, a visit to the play­ First Feelings: Milestones in the Emotional Develop­ onlookers at the grocery store when ground reminds you that life can ment of Your Baby and Child by Stanley Greenspan your child is having a tantrum. But still be nasty, brutish, and short. The Course ofLife by Stanley Greenspan what about your mother, your The temptation to tighten control spouse, your adolescent who is strong as your child learns to Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five by screams “I hate you,” your in-laws, Penelope Leach negotiate the social contracts of the or your child’s pediatrician or school yard, soccer team, and Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn teacher? scouts. But even as the outside The Emotional Life ofthe Toddler by Alicia F. When daycare director Karen world claims more and more ofyour Lieberman Shavin’s (Aya) son was diagnosed child’s time and interest, the The Interpersonal World ofthe Infant: A Viewfrom with a learning disorder at age experts agree: it’s time to loosen Psychoanalysis and Developmental Psychology by three, she was devastated by his your grip. “Most of my peers from Daniel N. Stern prognosis. “They told me he would St. John’s will remember that I’m a never go to college and never have rabid baseball fan,” says Jarvis. . The Toddler Years: A Practical Guidefor Parents & Caregivers by Irene Van De Zande friends. And they said that all his “And yet I know that my son’s problems were related to an overfavorite sport is not baseball. He’s a protective mother.” good player, but he’s not as excited Shavin says that, being in the child development field her­ as he is about soccer. One of my most important jobs as a par­ self, she tried to follow the advice of the experts she periodi­ ent is to share his excitement about soccer and not push base­ cally consulted. However, she saw that even professionals ball on him. “When we lived back east we saw parents trying to don’t agree and noticed they can fall into the trap of giving live vicariously through their children through their academ­ one-sided advice, influenced more by their training than by ic and artistic endeavors. In Oklahoma, it’s through football the needs of the child. “I needed to hear the experts’ recom­ and cheerleading. I call it child abuse by sports.” mendations,” she says. “But then I needed to analyze what “Some parents wrongly view their children’s accomplish­ they said to see if their method really applied to my child’s ments as their own,” says Friehling. “That’s where distance needs.” Shavin recommends that parents in similar situations becomes necessary. You’re there as an enabler. You can nei­ learn as much as they can from professionals, but then think ther reap the accolades nor accept the blame for what happens about what they know about their child and be willing to do to your children as they move through school. There’s a differ­ what the child needs, regardless of anyone’s advice. ence between encouraging and pushing.” This approach worked well for her son, who has made great progress despite a significant auditory processing disability. VI- Senior Year “He’s 18 now, just finished his first semester of college, got all Adolescence As, and has a steady girlfriend,” she reports. “When he makes friends, they’re friends for life.” It’s not unusual to be intimidated by senior seminar readings. What is this phenomenology, this theory of parallels, this Beaute that Baudelaire seems so taken with? Fortunately, a second reading and some careful reflection often reveal that {The College St John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �“4 {JohnniesonParenting} ''The adolescent is like Socrates, asking the tough questions, forcing parents to examine themselves and how they ve lived their lives. Linda Friehling {SF71) these are the questions of freshman, VII "Graduation sophomore, and junior years dressed Empty nest up in fancy clothes. So too with adoles­ cence. Like commencement, the empty nest is “Parents of adolescents constantly both a beginning and an end. “It’s won­ pull their hair out, forgetting that they derful and painful, letting go,” says are struggling with the same issues Friehling. “When my first child was in with their children at 14 as they were the middle of college I was cleaning out with their children at 3,” says a room in the basement where a lot of Berkowitz. “The difference is that you the toys were. I kept going up to him can’t pick up a 14-year-old and say no.” and saying, ‘Mattie, do you want this Parents can find themselves regret­ any more? What about this? Is this ting this difference when it comes to important to you?’ He was very gentle, issues like sex. “Sexuality exists from but finally he said, ‘Mom, do you think very early on, but adolescents are actu­ I’m going to play with any of my toys ally able to do something about it that again?’ I had a tear in my eye because I they couldn’t do when they were 3,” realized no, I suppose he’s not.” Berkowitz says. He adds that this is Friehling says that, while the vision more troubling to parents of girls. “It’s of a grown child can provoke tears, it an issue of biology. Boys don’t get can also bring joy to a parent: “Ifyou let pregnant.” Sibling interaction depicted by Rembrandt yourself enjoy each phase, you can look In her practice, Sedlis offers adoles­ back at it with pleasure.” cents a safe place to talk about sex, drugs, and alcohol. And she gives them at least one important Steve Berkowitz (A81) is an assistantprofessor in child and adoles­ piece of information. “With older teenagers. I’ll say, ‘have you cent psychiatry at Yale University's School ofMedicine as wed. as the medical director of the New Haven Child Development-Community ever heard of the morning after pill?’ They look at me like I Policing Program and the Yale Child Study Center Intensive Home­ have two heads,” she says. “But every four to six months, a girl based Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services. He is also thepsychi­ will come to me for this, a girl you would think of as a good atric consultant to the National Centerfor Children Exposed to Vio­ girl, who is a good girl, who has made a mistake.” While Sedlis lence. He is thefather oftwo daughters. encourages teens in such difficult situations to leave the hnes Linda Friehling (SF71) is a pediatrician and the mother ofthree sons. of communication with their parents open, she says that there She lives in Great Falls, Virginia. are some thing a child needs to keep private. liM Jarvis {A75) is director ofpediatric rheumatology at the Children’s Fortunately, the world of teenagers isn’t all about risky Hospital of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, and a clinical associate pro­ behaviors. Friehling is energized by the intellectual and moral fessor ofpediatrics at the Oklahoma University Health Sciences Cen­ challenges teens constantly pose. “Adolescents are wonderful ter. He is thefather oftwo daughters and one son. because they are thinking, idealistic, and energetic. They keep Melissa Sedlis (A73) is a pediatrician in private practice in New York you on your toes and don’t take any nonsense,” she says. “The City. She and her husband, Steven Sedlis (A7;j), have three daughters. adolescent is hke Socrates, asking the tough questions, forc­ Karen Shavin (A73) is the executive director ofBright Beginnings, an ing parents to examine themselves and how they’ve lived their infant-toddler and preschool Head Start program for homeless chil­ lives. You have to back up what you say and give reasonable dren in Washington, D.C. She and her husband, Jeff Crabtree (A72), arguments. They’re not going to take things at face value; are theparents ofone daughter and two sons. they’re going to question everything.” Laureen Sutton-Borgilt (SF86) is a midwife and the mother of two daughters. She lives in Ashland, Oregon. {The College - St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �as {Campus Life} CHORAL KALEIDOSCOPE BY SuS3AN Borden, A87 he Great Hall of McDowell has seen many Odysseus,” says David. “When they have finished their performance with Demodsights in the past 200 years: the schooling of ocus of the tale of Ares and Aphrodite, Francis Scott Key in 1796, a hall honoring Gen­ two youths are singled out to make a solo display of their gymnastic prowess, throw­ eral Lafayette in 1824, and the treatment of ing and catching a ball in mid-air.” Following Plato’s formulation, David’s Civil War casualties in 1863 and 1864. In recent group began with a bardic rendition of the years, it has been the site of college registra­ opening of Homer’s Catalogue of Ships with the singer in the middle (like tion, Fehhie convocation, and G.I. commencement. It has Demodocus) circled by dancers. Then two of the students, hosted coffee houses, rock parties, and waltz parties. PlaysJohann du Hoffman (A04) and Danae Marshall (A03), performed a have been staged and freshman choruses have sung within its carefully choreographed gymnastic dance. Next, Sarah Frost (A04) gave a solo per­ walls. And one chilly afternoon this past February, it was the formance of a short Sappho poem, and setting for a spectacle rich and strange. finally the group presented a full choral T Drawing inspiration from the figures on GrEEKVASES, AmIRTHANAYHGAM David (center, left photo) leads stu­ ANCIENT dents IN A recreation OF A CHORAL DANCE. Annapolis tutor Amirthanayagam David (A86) and Miriam Rother, a choreographer from Switzerland (and mother of sopho­ more Noam Gedalof), led eleven students in a two-week workshop reconstructing a Greek chorus. When the group presented a “workshop-performance” in the Great Hah, about 150 students and tutors showed up to watch. David explained that the first part of their presentation was a reconstruction of a gymnastics lesson described by Plato in the Laws. “It is likely not a coincidence that the two types of dancing Plato pre­ scribes, one imitating the language of the Muse, the other more gymnastic and ath­ letic, correspond to the two types Alcinous has his Phaeacian youths display for {The College. St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } rendition of the “Ode to Man” from Antigone. A key to the reconstruction was David’s theory of Greek prosody, which allowed the dancers to know where to stress their words. Since the main floor of the Great HaU was packed, many onlookers saw the per­ formance from the second floor balcony. From on high, the movement of the dancers looked like the jewels in a kaleido­ scope moving through a set of comphcated but orderly symmetrical patterns. �2,6 {Letters} Editor 's Note: Thanks to those who wrote in with information about thephotos in the calendar. We were hoping that thepho­ tos would elicit memories and waitedfor the e-mails and letters to come in telling us who waspictured in each shot. We weren i sure about the date ofthe staircasephoto (hence the ''ca. uj7O ”). But we are sure about thephotographer because his name is stamped on the back ofthephoto: Mari­ on Warren, an Annapolis artist who took manyphotos ofthe college—on both cam­ puses—from the late tgsos through the mid-iQ’^os. E-Zine Proposal Photo Recollections For the record, the picture accompanying the month of March in the aooi “Founders & Foundations” calendar is Brother Robert’s freshman (not sopho­ more) geometry class in the fall of 1973. Since we aren’t wearing heavy jackets (and Lauren has her shoes off) it must be early in the semester and we’re all sweating. Sweating because we’ve each been given a proposition to demonstrate; judging by the models on the table we’re proving the existence of the regular solids. I had to prove the existence of the cube. Sara Anastaplo did the dodecahedron (better her than me) That’s Leslie Combiner at the blackboard. Clockwise from Leslie are Carolyn Wade, Sara Anastaplo, Paul Rneisl, Janis Popowitz, Louis Eckler, Jean Murdock, Lauren Ballard, Brother Robert, Michael Levine, Eric Salem, Charlie Bor­ ders, Rick Smith (I think) and Elizibeth Hennessy. I seem to remember Ann Browning and Pam Lobdell in this class also. Once I hit Pam in the face with a snowball thrown from the fire escape right next to this room (three stories up...do the physics) and she didn’t cry even though she wanted to. Don’t think I’ve forgotten that I owe you, Pam! me an impression he had about the photograph on the back cover. John and I con­ curred that the picture of six students sit­ ting on the stairs is not from 1970, but from 1965-66. The students are from the Santa Fe class of 1969, in order, clock­ wise, beginning on the left: Robert Rosenwald, Karen Jurgensen (feet), Helen Smith (with cigarette in hand), Jim Pipes (next to the rail), Ted Propeck (at the bottom of the picture), and Jim Walk­ er (in the center). My hunch is the photo was taken by Carl Bostek, SF68, who took a number of pictures around campus dur­ ing that period. If someone out there has a different “perspective” I would certainly welcome correction. But, as John noted, some shoes you never forget! — JoE Reynolds, SF69 As profound as most of the content of The Reporter may be, isn’t it about time to move away from consuming the natural resources of our planet, i.e. trees, for the manufacture of paper, and energy to print and to disseminate it by mail? Isn’t it time to put The Reporter on-line and distribute it as an E-zine? At the very least, let alumni choose the printed version or the web version. If some tidbit inspired by divine madness tickles the fancy of an E-alum, he or she can print it, or save it on a diskette. There needn’t be concern over losing E-articles. If a magnetic pulse occurs in the manner in which is predicted, there will be neither college nor alumni left to lament the loss. — William Malloy, SF77 Editor’s Note: Currently weput the Class Notes—the mostpopularfeature—from The Reporter (and nowfrom The College) on the St. John’s web site (www. sjca. edu click on “Alumni”). Weplan to include articles, letters, and other sections p/The College on the redeveloped St. John’s web site in thefuture. — Paul Kneisl, A76 Two PHOTOS FROM “Founders & Foundations” cal­ THE I enjoyed receiving the new “Founders & Foundations” calendar, poring over the pictures, and reliving memories. Regard­ ing memories, I had dinner with John Strange (SF69) and his wife, Carol, recent­ ly. John pulled out the calendar to run by endar INSPIRED rec­ ollections; THE FRESHMAN MATH CLASS (above) AND THE STAIRWELL STUDY GROUP (lEFt). {The College. St. John ’5 College ■ Spring soot } �{Letters} Seminar Dynamics To the tutors - Consider whether this is a fair description of what happens in semi­ nar: Jane is making a point. The instant her mouth shuts, John launches in on his own topic. Or he may not even wait for Jane to stop, or he may have to drown out several others who are equally ready to jump in. John makes his point, and the instant he stops, somebody else jumps in without the slightest pause. In my experi­ ence, this was how it went two nights a week for four years. But in order to be ready to start talking as soon as Jane stopped, John must have ceased listening to Jane and begun formulating his answer long before she was finished. Some or most of what Jane said, John didn’t hear, because he was busy composing his own speech. The result is not a discussion, but a series of monologues. The opening question is a jumping-off point, and for­ gotten by 8:05. Those students who plan their own speeches instead of listening are rewarded with air time; those unfortu­ nates who can’t help listening and trying to understand what’s being said never get a word in. Yes, I was one of those. But I’m not writing to complain. I love St. John’s. A lot of the best of what I am I got at St. John’s. Even the seminar was valuable to me, although I wasn’t very valuable to it. I got a lot of good thinking done in there. I’m writing to talk about teaching lis­ tening. When I was a student I heard that the tutors keep to the background in sem­ inar because their job is not to teach what the books say, but to help students find it for themselves. But because you’re not in seminar to teach the correct interpreta­ tion of the book doesn’t mean you’re not there to teach. In the seminar setting, you are in the perfect position to teach hstening - an important part of learning, maybe the most important. Imagine this alternate scenario: John gets halfway through his speech and you, the tutor, interrupt: “John, how does this relate to Jane’s point? Are you agreeing or dis­ agreeing?” With a few such words inter­ jected, you would completely change the nature of the seminar. If you were to con­ sistently enforce relevance, the students would have no choice but to listen before talking. We would be in a real discussion. We would be forced to take each other seriously, to really come to grips with the fine points of what the other person is try­ ing to say. After two hours of that careful listening, two nights a week for four years, we would graduate with a life skill as important as anything the college can give. And on the way we probably would learn a lot more about the books. — Jack Armstrong, A83 In Defense of a Telescope Maker I find Duncan North’s expressed disdain for “pansy philosophers” and telescope makers shocking. Although Galileo was not mentioned by name in the article “The Tao of Duncan” [The Reporter, Fall/Winter aooo), he was clearly implied by Mr. North’s reference to telescope makers. How can anyone say Galileo did not live his philosophy! For goodness’ sake, he stood trial before the Inquisition for it! For what? For believing that reveal­ ing the truths about the natural world could only benefit mankind and give greater glory to God. Galileo walked a precarious line, balancing on one side his incredible insight and vision, and on the other the salvation of his soul. Although the Church at the time felt that he lost his balance in favor of his own vision, Galileo maintained his innocence until his death, denying that he had violated the tenets of the Church. Galileo believed that the workings of the universe could be explained, especial­ ly with the aid of mathematics, in terms that could be comprehended by the human mind. These might not reflect the means God used to accomplish these phe­ nomena, but they are no less useful for man’s purposes. In so doing he replaced otiose theorizing about causes with quan­ titative observation of phenomena, and essentially created modern science. His emphasis of the practical application and value of science set Galileo apart from most philosophers of his time. He was interested in the physical world, from tel­ escopes and the moons of Jupiter, to the laws of falling bodies and the creation of the pendulum clock. His vision was star­ tlingly clear, his mind was never idle, even through his frequent illnesses. And how can anyone in this modern day and age deny the results of his efforts? We may be concerned with limiting the scope of mod­ ern science, but we certainly cannot do without it! {The College. St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } 2,7 Perhaps most important to remember, yet also most difficult to comprehend given the conflict between his insight and intellect and his treatment by the Church, Galileo was a believing Catholic. Not just paying lip service to those more powerful than he, but a believer in Holy Scripture and the preciousness of his soul. Believ­ ing that unveiling the truths about the natural world could only give greater glory to God, he published his Dialogues, incurring scientific jealousy and the wrath of Pope Urban VIII. Tried, convict­ ed, and imprisoned (under house arrest) by the Court of the Inquisition, Galileo thought that his works would no longer be valued and his reputation would be forev­ er stained. Yet, in the wretchedness of his confinement, at a time when most of us would be bitter or frightened or at best cautiously unproductive, Galileo wrote Two New Sciences. Galileo lived his phi­ losophy literally until he died. — Janette Fischer, SF85 Remembering Robert Bart For me, the most memorable character in my time at St. John’s was Robert Bart; we might grieve his passing, but delight in the full life and years he had. I have always thought of myself as an “Athenian;” no Spartan naked-on-theground sleeping for me. But Bart could outdo me: once, during a counseling ses­ sion with him, I mentioned that I always needed cold water on the face first thing in the morning. “How can you DO that?” was his astonished reply. What a dear softie! — Jerry Milhollan, A58 The College welcomes letters on issues of interest to readers. Letters maybe edited for clarity and/or length. Those under 500 words have abetter chance of being printed in their entirety. Please address letters to: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, md 21404 or The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, nm 87501. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: b-goyette@sjca.edu, or via the form for letters on the web site at www.sjca.edu click on “Alumni,” then on “Contact The College Magazine.” �2.8 {Alumni Notes} 1938 With the birth of Grace Townsend Mullaney, Francis Townsend, Jr. now has nine grandchildren. 1939 At age 83, Malcolm Silver is in his 58th year of practicing dentistry. 1947 John Brunn has retired, but is still taking classes at the Fromm Insti­ tute in San Francisco. “A Johnnie never graduates!” he writes. er as well as an author of books in five or six different genres. Twenty to thirty times a year, I amuse myself by visiting schools around the country to perform my stand-up comedy/poetry assemblies and workshops. I also speak at confer­ ences for reading teachers and librarians, where I show them how to make learning a lot more appeal­ ing and fun for their students. (Amazingly, I get paid for this mis­ sionary work.)” Bruce’s books have sold more than 12 million copies overall. More of his poetry as well as poetry lessons and contests to enter for kids 6 to 13 can be found on gigglepoetry.com. David Schiller recently delivered papers on Confucius at four confer­ ences. songs, chant, or dance from the Baha’i, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Lat­ ter-day Saints, Protestant, Roman Catholic, and such faith communi­ ties. I’ve directed the InterFaith Conference since 1979, just after it was founded. Learn more about its work at www.interfaith-metrodc.org or 202-234-6300.” 1968 During a sabbatical from teaching, Bart Kaplan (A) spent seven months cruising the Caribbean in a 32-foot sailboat. He visited Cuba twice. His wife and two daughters visited him in the Bahamas several times. Charles Watson’s (A) eldest son is 1964 1951 Tom Williams writes: “This past July I moved after 43 years in the same apartment. What to do with some 2,000 books? I gave my favorite, Euclid’s Elements, to my grandson who has a real feel for mathematics, sold some, threw away some, and boxed others for donation. Others, mostly from St. John’s, I took with me to our new address, and will feel at home with them in their new bookcases. They are indeed old friends - and the reason I went to St. John’s.” 1959 Barbara Tower is still living in downtown Annapolis and still in real estate. Her children, Elizabeth, John, and Alex, all live locally. She has eight grandchildren, including triplets. 1962 Lenke Vietorisz reports that she and her cousin’s son, Richard Repasy, have put out a book useful and handy for those learning Hun­ garian: A Guide to Hungarian Verbs (525 pages, including conjugations of 300+ verbs), which may be viewed (and acquired) at accessi.net/lenkev. Jeremy Leven is prepping in Paris, Prague, and Italy for a film on the theft of the Mona Lisa in the 1920s. He’ll be directing stars Robin Williams and Antonio Banderas from his own script. “I have taken the Harvard Negotia­ tion Course and now, though still/always a student, I am giving workshops on this ever-useful skill,” writes Cecily Sharp-WhiteHILL. Calvin Byles (who now uses the name Leif Smith) co-owns a research and training business with his wife, Pat Wagner, in Denver. “I run a think tank with mostly technology, business, and research clients - indi­ viduals who care about exploring new ideas (check out the web site at www.pattern.com),” he says. 1966 Penn State Press has published Postfoundational Phenomenology: Husserlian Reflections on Presence and Embodiment by James R. Men­ sch. Mensch teaches philosophy at St. Francis Xavier University. 1967 Bruce Lansky’s publishing compa­ Clark Lobenstine writes: “The ny, Meadowbrook Press just pub­ lished IfPigs Could Fly, his seventh book of children’s poetry and his “70th, 80th, or goth book overall I forget,” he writes. “I’m a publish­ InterFaith Conference’s 21st Annu­ al Interfaith Concert at Washington Cathedral featured a world pre­ miere of the five-part setting of an ancient Hebrew text, as well as {The College. now NPR correspondent to West Africa after a two-year stint as pro­ ducer for CNN in Moscow. “Our baby is looking at colleges with Russian languages and marine biol­ ogy,” he writes. Donald J. Schell and Marilynn (Wills) Scott (both SF) report that their daughter. Patience Alexandra Schell, was married in September to Arturo Costillo. “The wedding guests included almost 10% of the class of’68,” they write. Their daughter is a research fellow and lecturer at University of Lon­ don; her Oxford DPhil is in Latin American history. 1970 Edward Macierowski (A) reports that his latest publication, which came out in October, is his English translation of Henri de Lubac’s “Medieval Exegesis, Volume 2: The Four Senses of Scripture.” Hudi Podolsky (SF) writes: “I am the executive director of the Coali­ tion of Essential Schools - a great mission and a great team to work with. Bringing some of the wisdom of the St. John’s design to public schools-small schools and depth over breadth. Having a blast! ” Ken Joseph (A) was the subject of a column in the Pittsburgh Post­ Gazette. Brian O’Neill reported on Joseph’s circumnavigation of Allegheny County (Penn.) by bus, lightheartedly comparing his accomplishment to that of Magel­ lan. Joseph dates his love of public St. lohn’s College ■ Spring 2001} transportation to when he was ii and his parents sent him and a friend downtown with specific instructions about which streetcar to take. “Of course,” he says, “we didn’t take that one. We saw anoth­ er and said ‘Let’s see where it goes.’ It was really a feeling of freedom.” 1971 George Elias (A) writes that his wife, Deborah Nikkei, has finished her 40-chapter novel based on the takeover of Bank of America. His oldest daughter, Ingrid, will be studying in India this summer and fall as part of her undergrad work at UC Berkeley. 1972 SusannW. Rogsdale (SF) reports: “After 27 years in technology, we left it all behind and moved to the beach to pursue our first love books. We have a small used and rare bookstore in Cannon Beach, www.jupiterbooks.com. Our son is pursuing the liberal arts at Reed (the next best choice) although cur­ rently taking a break doing techni­ cal support - the job experience!” Evan Dudik (A) has been spending his time since last June publicizing his new book. Strategic Renais­ sance: New Thinking and Innova­ tive Toolsfor Creating Great Corpo­ rate Strategies... Using Insights from History and Science, which was published by the American Management Association. He claims major business schools and consulting firms are mired in the Middle Ages and says it is one of the few recent business books that starts with an auto defe. “Jay Leno hasn’t called yet,” says Evan, “but I’ve given 4 radio interviews, sever­ al print interviews, and had a num­ ber of speaking engagements. The book has made a steady climb up Amazon.com’s charts from their 1,437,936th to their 8,913th most popular, but who’s counting. Harry Potter watch out.” Alvin Aronson (A) submits this report about himself: “He has been writing a comedy for many years called Dr. Feelgood, based on the life of the famous Dr. Max Jacobson, who treated John F. Kennedy for his back problems. Jacobson was later disbarred by the American Medical �{AlumniProfile} 2,9 Lisa Simeone: Our Woman at NPR By Roberta Gable, A78 t’s not just the voice. But the voice is unmistakable: rich, intimate, memorahle - and intelligent, hut neither wiseacre nor world-weary. Perfect for National Public Radio (NPR), which has suited Lisa Simeone (Aj^g just fine: recently she became the host of NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered. Simeone’s post-St. John’s radio odyssey began with a focus on classical music. She had first discovered her passion for it while a student (at one point early in her enthusi­ asm rushing down to the music hbrary to ask Liz Bolotin, then the music librarian, if she had “anything by Brandenburg” on hand); then, after graduation, she volun­ teered at the ten-watt station at Anne Arun­ del Community College near Annapolis for three hours a week, the lone voice of classi­ cal in a sea of rock. She landed a job at WBJC, the classical station in Baltimore, in 1983, stayed there for a year and a half, then moved over to WETAin D.C., alarger, more important station, but a helluva commute from Baltimore. Two years was about enough of that, and she quit, not sure of the future, but meanwhile tiny WJHU in Balti­ more was about to upgrade from its humble status as a ten-watt station to something more substantial. Simeone became part of the original professional team, and stayed at WJHU (which, like WBJC and WETA, was an NPR affiliate) for ten years, from 1986 to 1996, hosting the afternoon classical music program. That’s a lot of classical music, even for an aficionado. She made things more interest­ ing for herself (and, as it turned out, for her audience) by running short interviews right before All Things Considered, the NPR evening news show. Her first interviews were with people having to do with music, and were four minutes long; gradually she extended the interview segment to 10, then 30, then 60 minutes, and the interviews to any topics that interested her, from music to health to science to social issues. She did the whole thing herself, editing, producing, and cutting the tape for the segments. In 1996, burnt out, she left WJHU to go freelance. She joined AFTRA, the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, and worked doing voiceovers and narration Lisa Simeone Y didn "t want to talk aboutJust music. I wanted to talk about a lot ofstuff.'' both on-camera and off. She also enrolled in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins Uni­ versity, getting an MA in non-fiction writing in 1997. But public radio was far from finished with her. The NPR documentary show Soundprint was looking for a new host in 1997, and they called Simeone to see if she was interested. She was, especially since it was a regular gig, but not full-time. She hosted the pro­ gram for the next three and half years, pro­ duced three documentaries herself, and also filled in as the perennial guest host of NPR’s Performance Today. (“I was always leaving, and every time I did they threw a cham­ pagne party.”) She turned down an offer to become the permanent host of the program, because she wasn’t interested in re-niching herself back into classical music. “I didn’t want to talk about just music. I wanted to talk about a lot of stuff! ” She had that {The College. Si. John’s College . Spring 2001 } opportunity when she began filling in occa­ sionally for Liane Hansen on Weekend Edi­ tion Sunday. Then one day Weekend All Things Consid­ ered (WATC) gave her a call. They wanted to know if Simeone was interested in audition­ ing for the host job. “I told them, ‘No! I’m not working weekends!’” But they finally persuaded her to audition, and she got the job. Her first show was October 14, aooo. Most NPR affiliates air WATC Saturday and Sunday evenings, from 5:00 until 6:00 (and most NPR listeners will be chagrined to learn that, in-house, “WATC” is pro­ nounced to rhyme with “Yahtzee”). Simeone’s show ranges from hard news to cultural pieces, from the ephemeral to the substantial, from soup to nuts, giving her the opportunity to talk, as she wished, about a lot of stuff. And although the ideas about what stories to do on the show come from her daily meetings with the producers and editors, Simeone’s preferences are influen­ tial. “This job is a generahst’s dream,” she says, “and I became a more thoughtful, wellread generalist thanks to St. John’s....! loved St. John’s, and the truth is there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank my lucky stars that I went there, or that I don’t call upon what I learned there. Just this morn­ ing I did an interview with the two transla­ tors of a new edition oiAnna Kareninawhat could be more St. Johnnie than that?! ” Remembering her one-woman interview show on WJHU, where she was interviewer, editor, and producer, Simeone revels in the luxury of not having to cut her own tape. She reads, she looks at books and CDs, she writes up questions, she conducts inter­ views, she writes introductions and leads, and she loves it when it’s live rather than on tape. Early on in her WATC career she start­ ed her show at 5:00 one fateful Sunday, when Katherine Harris was expected to cer­ tify the presidential vote count in Florida. She stayed on the air five until 10:00. The producer saved her some cold pizza. Working at National Public Radio is a pleasure for Simeone. “I love the environ­ ment - I spend my time with creative, inter­ esting people, with rich lives, who are burst­ ing with ideas.” Sounds like a talking college, with fewer books and more micro­ phones. �{AlumniNotes} 3° Association for his unorthodox practices, and this play is in defense of his methods. Archie Smith, the 83-year-old brother of the late Winfree Smith, has been an actor for ao years with the Denver Reperatory Company. He is going to stage a reading of the play in Denver the week of February 15. Alvin has many claims to fame: he was stage manager for Kennedy’s last birthday party at the Waldorf Astoria in 1963, when Audrey Hepburn sang ‘Happy Birthday.’ He had a talk with Louis Armstrong that night and told him how much he admired him, to which Armstrong replied, ‘Thank you. Pops.’ He shook hands with Marilyn Monroe, had lunch with James Dean, acted with Geral­ dine Page, and was once put down brilliantly by the late Jacob Klein (who was quite right).” 1973 Peter Ellison (A) is now Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. His new book. On Fertile Ground, was due to be published by Harvard University Press in March. 1974 2000 marked a year of big changes for Roger Burk, USAF ret., (A) and Robin Kowalchuk Burk (A72). In July Roger left his posi­ tion as a senior consultant/analyst with the Aerospace Corp, and joined the faculty of the U.S. Mili­ tary Academy (West Point). He now teaches optimization and decision theory within the Systems Engi­ neering department, drawing on his doctoral degree in operations research and his experience in the use of computer models and deci­ sion analysis to guide the selection and evaluation of complex national security systems. In addition to teaching, he mentors junior facul­ ty, assistant-coaches the crew and fencing teams, consults, and con­ tinues research activities. Accepting the position entailed a move to a few rural acres in the mid-Hudson Valley, where Robin keeps busy raising and training champion show dogs (English Cocker Spaniels, a hunting breed). She reports that the sight of an out­ standing dog standing with unself­ conscious grace or moving with perfect intensity through the fields takes her breath entirely away. Indoors, her weaving studio houses several looms and a not-yet-bigenough stash of linen, cotton and woolen yarns. She says that dogs and weaving provide some solace to the right hemisphere of her brain, sadly neglected during 25+ years in the computer industry, during which time she also perpetrated several technical books on unsus­ pecting Amazon.com customers. In her spare time and on the principle that her MBA should probably be put to some use even if there wasn’t a single right-brain course in the whole degree program, Robin con­ tinues to consult to companies try­ ing to figure out how to use all this new Internet stuff in their busi­ nesses. 1975 Kristin R. Lucas (SF) is working in downtown Houston in the IT department of an energy commodi­ ties trading company. Her older son is a junior at Carnegie Mellon Uni­ versity and her younger son is a high school senior. extraordinarily different wants and needs, and they let you know it. Since I never did/will father a child, this work is very satisfying to me, and a shock to the nurses, since many babies who don’t stop crying for relatives, never cry when ‘Uncle Bill’ holds them. I recom­ mend volunteerism for any and all. Children and youths can con­ tribute as well. Find something that is energizing, and ‘just do it.’” 1978 Caroline (Charlie) Allen (A) writes: “My occupations in life since graduation have been music (both classical and rock), software engineering, and writing, pretty much in that order. I got married in 1990 to Christophe (Kokou) Dossou, a master drummer from Togo whom I met while I was living in Germany and touring with various bands. I co-own a small but sophisti­ cated studio (24 tracks digital, 30 tracks HDR) called Dos Gatos in Los Angeles with my business part­ Diane Lamoreux Ciba (A) has finished her course work for a PhD in marketing at the University of Connecticut. She is currently teaching and has the research and dissertation writing ahead of her. Quantum Leaps 1976 van Canter (A81) writes: “When reading the last Peter Clark (A) writes that he’s still alive and well, living in Ranches­ ter, Wyoming. “Not the end of the world, but close enough to see it.” 1977 Carol Highshaw (SF) has left the academic world and moved back to the Washington D.C. area, where she’s working as a researcher and writer. William Malloy (SF) writes: “Although discussing ideas found in books and films can be very satis­ fying, I have found something at the other end of the spectrum of activi­ ty to be very wonderful as well. Since late 1999,1 have been a volunteer at a children’s hospital in Houston. One evening a week, I work giving respites to parents, by talking/playing with older children, or holding/rocking infants. On Sat­ urday afternoons, I hold, rock, or just comfort premature babies. They are not just ‘smaller newborns.’ Since preemies ‘aren’t supposed to be here yet,’ they have many {The College. ner, also my bass player. Like me, he works a lot in software, particularly digital signal processing. We have a band called BushTaxi which has one independent CD out and is about to release a second. Apart from that I’ve played on about five records/CDs for other bands, and have credits on a number of movies (for writing special effects code) the one I’m most proud ofis/a/nej and the Giant Peach, for which I was Sony’s CG software supervisor. Lately I’ve been focussing more on biotech and digital audio than on computer graphics. I can’t help think of Mr. Golding when I consid­ er my own dislike of telephones, but I’m very good with e-mail (it is, after all, one of the bases of my cod­ ing life since about 1986) and would love to hear from folks. My e-mail address is caro@nwc.net.” issue of The Reporter, I was reminded of a moment in my first day of junior French with Mr. Littleton. He was leading us in reading the first paragraph of Baudelaire’s ‘Recueillement’: ‘Soi sage, o ma doulour, et tiens-toi plus tranquille...’ We could hear the Freshman Chorus singing ‘white sands and gray sands, w buy my white sands.’ Mr. Littleton, who had been our Freshm Chorus tutor two years before, told a story. He was visiting Switzerland when he learned a local song about the change of sea­ sons and the level of the snowcaps in the mountains. ‘When the snow caps go up, I can roll up my shirtsleeves’ or something like that. He said it was remarkable to him because it showed that you can see time. He said sitting in that room with us as juniors, hstening to the song we sang as freshmen wafted up the staircase of McDowell, showed him that he could hear time, as well. We sat stunned, astounded at this quantum leap. “And now, reading The Reporter each time I have discovered a new phenomenon. I start with the class notes from the present graduating class and turn backward to find the news of my class­ mates, the class of 1981. And each year our class recedes farther and farther. It is as if we are retrograding into the past, soon to take our place next to the hero generations of the college. And so now as I turn page after page, I know I can feel time, as well. “My wife Ellen, five-year-old Taha, new baby Emma, and I hve in Chicago. I am now a course developer for Unext.com, an online grad­ uate and executive education university. I have been a lawyer, ele­ mentary school teacher, school administrator, and web developer.” ->■ E Sf. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �{AlumniNotes} Michael Ciba (A) continues as pas­ tor of Mill Plain Union Church in Waterbury, Conn., and is enrolled in a spiritual formation program with the Shalem Institute in Washington, D.C. Their daughter Rachel is a jun­ ior at UConn, majoring in anthro­ pology. Their son Daniel is a fresh­ man at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y., majoring in drama and dance. Connecticut is the twelfth place they’ve lived since they were married, and it seems to agree with them. Anyone who remembers them is welcome to con­ tact Michael at RevCiba@aol.com or Diane at DiCiba@aol.com. 1979 Gregory R. Cowell ( SF) writes: “With my second child on the way I thought I would send in an update of my life, not having done so since I drove away 31 years ago. My wife Jeannine and 1 have been married for eight years. We have two future St. John’s candidates at our house: our daughter Cathryn is three and a half, and we are expecting a son in the next month. I have been practic­ ing medicine for 16 years and cur­ rently I am the medical director of a medium-size emergency room in llhnois. Music is my passion, but I have yet to figure out how to make a living as a musician. My e-mail is gcowelled@aol.com. Regards to all, but especially to old E and F dorm­ ers who might be reading.” 1980 News from Tony Waters (A): “I live in Auburn, Calif. My wife, Dagmar Waters, and 1 have two children, aged 12 and 9.1 am currently an assistant professor of sociology at California State University, Chico, and recently published a book. Bureaucratizing the Good Samari­ tan: the Limitations ofHumanitari­ an Relief Operations (Westview 2001). It is in part based on my work in the Rwanda Relief operation in Tanzania, in 1994-6. In terms of teaching responsibilities, I do the crime classes (criminology and juve­ nile delinquency), population, eth­ nic relations, and ‘macro-sociology’ in general.” in November in Columbia, Md. “Email me at Nhrosen@aol.com for any good reason,” he says. 1981 “I was married to the lovely SherryAnn Jhingai in June 2000,” writes Joshua Berlow (SF). “Sherry con­ vinced me to move back east from Santa Fe, where I had been living. We were married in St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Sherry has a lot of friends and family. The wedding took place on the famed North Side of St. Thomas, in a very dramatic villa (Villa LeMcAi) over­ looking the sea. My best man was Eric Quinn (A82). Sherry is origi­ nally from Trinidad, in the south Caribbean, so after the wedding it was off to her home village of Cumuto in Trinidad. I’ve never seen anyplace so lush and green! What seemed like the entire village turned out for a wedding party held in our honor. We are in the process of buying a house in Baltimore, and will be moved there by the time the magazine comes out. Anyone inter­ ested can check out my web site at www.joshuaberlow.com They can purchase my newly-published book Insanity Factory: A Psychiatric Mem­ oir on the web site, as well as view various articles, and some papers written for classes at St. John’s.” Joe Roach (A) e-mails: “My wife BJ (Sisson) (A) and I dropped off our daughter Katie at St. John’s - Katie matriculated with the new January Freshmen class. Our two other chil­ dren, Molly (15) and Nicholas (ii) helped move Katie in. After Nicholas was introduced to Peter Kalkavage (who was a freshman tutor when I was a freshman), he asked me, ‘Was he your college roommate?’ The cruelty of children. “I am in my sixth year as a staff member at The New School in Newark, Del., which is a democratic (or liberty-based) school. Melanie ( Jago) Hiner (A80) asked me to give her some help when she opened the school in the fall of 1995. At that point we had 7 students - now we have over 50. Nick and Molly have been at the school since the opening.” 1982 Nathan Rosen (A) and his wife Roberta Babbitt announce the birth of Brina Tamar Rosen on July ii. “Yes, that’s six children, for those who are keeping score,” he notes. His production of The Crucible ran {The College. 1983 After 13 years in the practice of law, Michael Henry (A) recently opened his own law office in center city Philadelphia. He has been mar­ ried for 13 years and is living in Media, Penn. His wife Lorie and he have three children: Michael, age II, Devin, age 10, and Daniel, age 7. “We are actively involved in our parish and children’s school, St. Mary Magdalen,” Michael writes. “My practice consists mainly of civil trial work and immigration. I have organized a Lawyer’s Retreat group under the auspices of the Cathedral Ministries for the Diocese of Cam­ den, N.J. We meet four or five times a year to discuss faith issues and the practice of law. I would love to hear from old classmates and other alum­ ni.” Michael’s address is i Gordon Drive/Media, Pa. 19063. Robin B.G. Laylin (SF) and his wife, Laura, report the birth of their daughter, Catherine, on June 26, 2000. 31 ness law at a big firm in Miami. I’m married to a beautiful and brilliant woman who hails from North Dako­ ta and Seattle, and who is a lawyer as well. We have two babies, Allegra (just two) and Ethan (6 months). Have visited with Mitch Buroker (SF84) in L.A. recently, and gotten a nice letter from Jack Armstrong (A83). Would love to hear from any St. John’s friends. E-mail at whill@steelhector.com.” 1984 ALUTHA JAMANCAR (BRAD WEST- gaard) (SF) says that he’s reached three milestones this pastyear: “I celebrated my six-year wedding anniversary with Daniela Chiapella, a native of Northern Italy; I changed careers from print to web publishing; and I changed my name from Brad Westgaard to Alutha Jamancar. Drop me aline at alutha@alutha.com or stop by my homepage atwww.alutha.com. I’d love to hear from old classmates, especially my freshman core group! Visitors to our home in Silicon Val­ ley are welcome, but had best not have any cat allergies! ” David Walworth (A) has finally While Scott Fitzpatrick (A) does do freelance web design, as reported in the fall issue of The Reporter, he has also been the Principal Site Architect for Computer Sciences Corporation for several years. He has designed all the classified intranet sites for the Ballistic Mis­ sile Defense Organization and is now currently creating the web sites and the Director/Flash interactive CD ROM demo disks for CSC’s elec­ tronic knowledge management group. “In other words,” he writes, in reference to our omission, “I do have a full time job.” Darrel Moellendorf (A) writes: “Last year, in my 40th year, my wife - Bonnie Friedmann - and I became parents for the first time. Our son’s name is Marino Arnold Friedmann. I am still living in South Africa, and teaching philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand. My book. Cos­ mopolitan Justice, will be published this year. And I’d love to hear from old friends.My e-mail address is 103dar@muse.wits.ac.za.” A note from William Hill (A) says: “I’m alive and well, practicing busi­ St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } gotten his yacht design business up and running: Walworth Yacht Designs, P.O. Box 3792, KingshiU VI00851. Karen Tourian (A) completed her first Gentury (100 mile) bike ride on Labor Day. Peter Green (A) writes; “Still in Prague, though probably not for much longer. Spent a week in August sailing in Groatia with Jason Walsh (A85). Then found myself in Belgrade in October to cover the demise of Slobodan Milosevic. Arrived in New York in time to expe­ rience the unending madness of Election 2000.” Connie Bates (A) writes: “My hus­ band and I are proud to announce the birth of our first child. Dean Calvin Calloway, on November 16, 2000.” �{AlumniNotes} 3^ 1989 1985 1987 Bonnie Bishop Stark (SF) is finish­ ing her third year of a nurse-mid­ wifery program at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio. She will complete the program next year. “In December I completed my first (and probably last) marathon,” writes Marjorie C. Kaplan (A). “My mother died of lymphoma in June 3000, and in her memory I joined Team in Training, a marathon training program that benefits the Leukemia and Lym­ phoma Society of America. After four months of training that required 30 to 45 miles a week of roadwork, I completed the Honolu­ lu Marathon the same day I started it, crossing the finish line smiling and under my own power, and NOT dead last - there were about a dozen elderly tourists behind me, but they may have strayed onto the course by accident.” 1986 “My life has completely changed in the past two years,” writes Lucy Duncan (SF). “My business partner and I closed the Story Monkey Bookstore in Dec. ’98. We were growing but not fast enough to war­ rant continuing. It was a sad loss for me and for the community (Omaha), but we were able to walk away without significant financial scars. I took a job in January of ’99 with the Friends General Confer­ ence of Religions of Friends (Quak­ ers) in Philadelphia as their book­ store manager. I really love the place and the work. FGC is by far the healthiest organization I’ve ever worked for. We do primarily a mail order and Web business (quakerbooks.org). In Oxfordshire, Eng­ land, in April of ’99 I met my fiance, Graham Grarner, at a conference of Quaker publishers and booksellers. We will be married in April of aooi at the London Grove Meeting House outside Philadelphia. Sheila Virgil (A88) will play flute at the wedding. We plan on settling in Philadelphia, though Grant is keeping his house in England so who knows about the future. I see Amy Murphy Bianco (SF86) regularly. She is an editor at McGraw Hill launching a science trade division. I’d love to hear from anyone else. My email address is: lucyd@fgquaker.org.” Erik Mueller-Harder (A) e-mails this report: “My wife Karen and I are extremely pleased to announce the birth of our daughter Clara Jean in October of 2,000. Our son Timo­ thy is about to turn four, and he’s promising to be a great older broth­ er for Clara. There’s lots of news and photos on our family web site, www.praxisworks.org. I’m stiU spending most of my time building Praxis News Digest, at pnd.praxisworks.com.” 1992 Susie Attar Antebi (A) is living in Michael Stevens (AGI) writes: Panama City, Fla. with her two kids, Daniela and Isaac, and husband Alberto. “Miss the Johnnies and would love to hear from long-lost friends,” she says. Her e-mail is danisa@sinfo.net. “We welcomed a daughter, Juba Linda, into our home on April 22, 2000. We tried a homebirth this time around - quite a wonderful way to have a baby. The midwife was a dynamo - no ‘windeggs’ such as beset Socrates! Julia joins brother Ethan, three.” Chris Tegeler (A) e-mails: “At the end of January, I moved to Athens, Greece to work in our land agent’s office in Piraeus, Arete Tours. A rather appropriate name for a com­ pany employing a Johnnie, I must say. My address: Xenokratous 42, 10676 Athens, Greece. My e-mail is StiU the same, ctegeler@yahoo.com. Looking forward to hearing from anyone passing through.” Mark Hentz, III (A) is attending Northeastern University School of Law while working full-time at Northeastern in the office of enroll­ ment management. “Jack Gunther and I were very happy to be in Ted Hanratty’s wedding party this past October,” he writes. Bryan Dorland (A) e-mails: “I Brett Heavner (A) writes: “My 1988 Kim Paffenroth (A) has just been hired as an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y. His book yfz/gizjtine and Liberal Education (Ashgate Publishing, 2000) has just been favorably reviewed in The Heythrop Journal, and his next book, Judas through the Centuries, will be pub­ lished next year by Westminster John Knox Press. As a gratifying part of his last days teaching at Vil­ lanova University, one of his stu­ dents has again been honored with the highest writing award given to a first year student at ViUanova. John Lavery (A) is still in London and working in the commercial banking world, despite Leo’s advice. “Have developed a weak­ ness for skiing,” he writes, “and will take any invitation offered in that regard.” Erin Milnes (A) writes: “I’m still living happily in San Francisco (five years now - can you believe it?!) I continue to freelance edit and write, but I’ve added some video work to my repertory. In the past year I worked on a documentary shoot in Nepal and one in Death Valley (where temperatures soared to 120 degrees in the shade). I’ve also been sea kayaking a lot lately and heartily recommend it. Life is good.” {The College. wife Christine and I proudly announce the birth of our son, David Graham Heavner, on January 31, 2000.” Garfield Goodrum (A) writes: “We have adopted two thorough­ breds from an equine rescue group in Pennsylvania, and I just compet­ ed in my first horse show - dres­ sage, to my wife’s chagrin (she’s into jumpers!). We’re loving the horses, whose names are Turtle and Clem, and young Graham Heavner has even ridden them! Don’t forget to spay/neuter your companion animal!” ■ David (A) and Cherie (A90) Reese live in Vienna, Vir., with Sam and Lydia Reese, ten and three years old. Their St. John’s education, they write, allows them to live lives of total and constant bliss. 1990 David Marquez (SF) says that he “escaped the slavery of the Star­ bucks Corporation” and now works for Arch Wireless Corporation. “I look forward to receiving survival tips from any and all,” he says. Ken Turnbull (A) is now an associ­ ate at Piper, Marbury, Rudnick & Wolfe LLP in Baltimore, where he is in the litigation department. 5r. John’s College ■ Spring sooi } received a Master of Science in physics from the University of Maryland in August 2000. In Janu­ ary 2001,1 passed the PhD qualify­ ing exams in physics at Maryland, and I am set to begin thesis research this semester. Anyone who wants to contact me can reach me at dorland@physics.umd.edu. ” Leah Ankeny (SF) is enjoying a challenging new position as an admissions counselor for Cornish College of the Arts, a private, fouryear visual and performing arts col­ lege located in Seattle, Washington. “Despite the rumors of my impend­ ing marriage, I am living on my own and revisiting a more independent life.” she says. “I am thrilled at the arrival of my beautiful ‘niece,’ Ema (Cooney) Bargeron, daughter of my dear friend and fellow alumna Joanna (SF). I continue to study yoga and search for my path spiritual­ ly, setting aside performing and writ­ ing for a while. I look forward to see­ ing all the ’92 Santa Fe folks at our tenth reunion in Spring 2002.1 can be reached at: Lankeny@yahoo.com and I always welcome visitors to the Peaceful Pacific Northwest.” Judah M. Domke (SF) writes: “I just appeared as a lead actor in a movie called ‘Whipped’ that came out this past November. If you missed it on the big screen, John­ nies can rent it when it comes out on video in February 2001. It’s an R-rated sex comedy that isn’t for the faint of heart.” �{Alumni Profile} 33 Shopaholic by Profession Heather Moore (SFoo) landed a dream ofafirstjob: she getspaid to revel and shopfor the coolest circus around. BY SuS3AN Borden, A87 eather Moore’s been buying quite a lot these days, going from city to city, picking up an odd assortment of goods: nuts, bolts, earphone antennas, eye makeup remover, marine antifreeze, used CDs, a ping pong table, even mail-order sequins. But she’s no itinerant shopa­ holic. She’s hard at work - as the assis­ tant buyer on tour with the Cirque du Soleil, the avant-garde circus that’s much closer to The Matrix than it is to Dumbo. Moore lucked into the job this summer, after a post-graduation move to Denver with her boyfriend, Joey Chernila (SFoa). A temp agency sent the couple to Cirque du Soleil, where they worked as runners, acquiring the products purchased by the buyers. When a permanent job opened up, Moore applied, won the position, and head­ ed to Montreal for training. Since then, she’s been to Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Miami. New York, Chica­ go, Boston, and Philadelphia are slated for the coming months, and by the time the tour’s over in 2002, she’ll have hit Houston, Dallas, and Phoenix. She says the travel is a dream come true. “For the last four months of school I kept telling my roommate, ‘If I could just get a job where they would pay me to travel I would never complain.’ It’s exact­ ly what I wished for,” she says. Although Moore travels within the United States, her co-workers come from 52 coun­ tries and include Chinese acrobats, Russian jugglers, and all manner of Canadian col­ leagues. Most business is transacted in Heather Moore (above) is an assitant buyer ON TOUR WITH DrALION, WHOSE ACTS ARE ENHANCED BY HIGH-TECH EFFECTS (bELOw). French, which Moore says is difficult even after Phedre and Fleurs du Mai. “I’m working on speaking French, which is a big challenge, especially since it’s not really French, it’s Quebe­ cois,” she says. “Speaking French will be integral in my later career with Cirque.” Later career? How long can a first job last? Moore, who knows a good thing when she falls into it, says that while her job lasts until the end of the tour in another year and a half, she’s already exploring different departments and thinking about different opporutinites within Cirque, which has headquarters in Montreal, Amsterdam, Singapore, and Orlando. Her current fascination is the tech department. “Our show has a lot of effects - lighting and rigging - to facilitate some of the acts. There’s an aerial ballet with two dancers on a long silk rope doing a series of acrobatics in the air. The behindthe-scenes tech stuff helps make the show spectacular.” Moore is also considering working with Cirque’s development of a permanent com­ plex in London consisting of a hotel, a restaurant, a retail area, and a show. In the meantime, she’s enjoying the Cirque du Soleil life, which she says resembles her justbygone undergraduate days. “Who would ever think they could get a first job like this?” she asks. “It’s been so exciting, and it’s come at such a great time. I didn’t even get good and used to being out of college before I joined up with Cirque. You live with these people, you work with them, you eat with them. You the get chance to develop intense relationships with every­ body around you while you’re on a constant road trip. It’s like college on wheels.” 4" Michael Deutsch (SFGI) has been Jonathan Secora Pearl (A) writes Aaron Mason (SF) reports: “I am promoted to vice president of Wad­ dell & Associates, Inc., a provider of investment and financial counsel located in Memphis, Tenn. He earned his CFP (Certified Financial Planner) license in 1997 and served previously as assistant vice presi­ dent at the firm. that after leaving St. John’s in 1990 he studied music at Indiana Univer­ sity, then received a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Rice in 1997. He is currently pursuing a PhD in musicology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with an emphasis on the cognition of speech and song. alive and well, living in Manhat­ tan’s Upper West Side with my boyfriend of nearly five years. Still an aspiring actor, I have taken a ‘dayjob’ with a large architectural firm writing and editing for their marketing department. In March, I am acting in a ten-minute play that I wrote; it’s a dark comedy called ‘Mr. Oedipus.’ Looking forward to 1993 Alex Ellerman (AGI) is a flight instructor with Navy Training Squadron 29. VANESSA Ellerman (A) is practicing law with Hornblow­ er, Manning & Ward, and they’re both still celebrating the birth of their son Ian on April 20, 2000, (The College. St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } �{Alumni Notes} 34 JohnnyXpress 1994 An Unofficial Bulletin Board/E-mail List for the St. John's Community Hallie Leighton (SF92) has started a new yahoo “eGroup” to function as an unofficial hulletin hoard for the St. John’s commu­ nity. On johnnyXpress, members of the SJC community worldwide can post and read announcements and queries (e.g., “Moving to a new city - looking for area Johnnies/alumnae chapter/contacts” or “Whatever happened to Johnnie Doe, class of ‘__, A/SF?” or “Hey, I have a gallery opening...”). These announcements are received in the e-mail boxes of all Johnny subscribers. Subscribing is free and easy - just e-mail johnnyXpress-subscribe@egroups.com. For more information about johnnyXpress, e-mail johnnyXpressowner@egroups.com or go to http://www.charm.net/~bfant/ johnny/bulletin.html, part of the unofficial alumni site run by Bill Fant (A79). The purpose of johnnyXpress is to enable members of the St. John’s College community to get and/or share information with other Johnnies as quickly as possible. Thus it is for announce­ ments and brief queries. Though the list is not moderated, meta­ physical meanderings or idle banter will not be allowed. (The rea­ son for this draconian rule: there is already an e-mail list for conversation, “the Johnny List.” To subscribe to the high-volume Johnny list, send an e-mail to majordomo@charm.net with the words “subscribe johnny” or “subscribe johnny-digest” in the body of the e-mail message.) Why is this bulletin board “unofficial”? Because it’s not run by the college. The college is working on a new web site that will have more features for alumni but it won’t be online until next fall at the earliest. warmer weather and hearing from long lost Johnnies! Aaronious@earthlink.net. ” reads them, though upside-down, rather than eating them, we know she is headed for SJC class of 2030.” John Markos O’Neill (SF) reports that he is in his fourth happy year of “bicycling, singing (in Schola Cantorum, a local cho­ rus), dancing (swing), and coding in Silicon Valley. I would love to hear from Johnnies in the SF Bay area or elsewhere! E-mail me at Jmo@ipsmedia.com.” Jim and KRISTEN (Riddlespurger) Litsinger (A) happily celebrate the first twenty-four months with their daughter, Emily Golden Litsinger. “Born in April 1999, she is a true delight with curly (can’t explain that one!) blond hair. Her eyes always smile and she is quick to gig­ gle. Big brother Nathaniel (31/a), also adores his sister, particularly as long as she doesn’t play with the toys he might want to play with. Emily already shows a great love of books and now that she actually Ethan Schoonover (SF) is e-business director for Lowe Lintas and Partners (an international marketing/communications agency) in Southeast Asia, currently based in Bangkok. He oversees online mar­ keting, web site development, and internet strategy for multinational clients. “I get to travel frequently throughout the region, which is enjoyable as I continue to be a stu­ dent of the many cultures I encounter. I do miss the mountains and beauty of Santa Fe, but the year ’round tropical beaches in SE Asia go a long way towards assuaging my homesickness for the USA. And of course, ever true to St. John’s, I am obligated to occasionally quote Homer in meetings with clients. I’d love to hear from friends/enemies. Here is my e-mail address: ethan. schoonover@lowehntas .com.” {The College. A note from Emi Ima-Kohn and Colin Ray (both A94): “We met at St. John’s. Emi was living in the U.S. although she was Japanese. Colin had been hving in Nigeria although he was American. We both had Mrs. Maschler for Fresh­ man Greek. Although we were in the same Greek class, we did not really get to know one another until late in the spring of our Freshman year when we took a clowning class together. Cohn exceUed at jugghng; Emi excelled at falling-down. By the end of the year, we were very close friends. During the summer of 1991 Emi taught at a camp in Vermont and Colin returned to Nigeria to visit family and friends. “After spending part of sopho­ more year in Santa Fe, Emi moved to France and put herself through the French university system by being an au-pair for a French fami­ ly. After completing St. John’s, Colin went to Cameroon as a Peace Corps volunteer to teach math in French. For nine years, we kept in touch-sometimes more frequently, sometimes less, hut always as close friends. After completing a mas­ ter’s degree in Russian studies at the Sorbonne, Emi was accepted into the D.E.A. (a degree between a master’s and doctoral degree) pro­ gram at the Political Science Insti­ tute in Paris, where she focused her studies on the new Independent States of the former Soviet Union. After the Peace Corps, Colin returned to the U.S. to study law and business at Willamette Univer­ sity in Salem, Oregon. “In 1999 we started keeping in touch more and more. In March 3000 Colin traveled to Paris to see Emi. In May, Emi came to the U.S. for Colin’s graduation ceremony. On graduation day, we became engaged. After announcing our engagement, we hopped on Colin’s motorcycle and seven days and 3800 miles later we arrived in New York. In June, Emi then had to return to Paris to complete an internship at the OECD - Organiza­ tion for Economic Cooperation and Development. At the end of July, Colin took the New York bar exam. At the beginning of November, Colin happily accepted a position as an Associate Attorney with a smaU international law firm in Amster­ Sf. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } dam. He will primarily work in international corporate and inter­ national tax law. And ... at 11:00 on November ii, 3000, in Linlith­ gow, Scotland, we were married. The best way to reach us is by e-mail at: Emikocolin_ray@hotmail.com.” Johnny Metelsky (A) and Lydia Rolita (A96) were married on June 17th in their backyard in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California. Johnnies in attendance were: Muneet Rakshi (A94), Hope DelCarlo (SF94), Jen Donnelly (A96), JOELLA KLINGHOFEER (A96), Aimee Lalone (A94), Sundance Metelsky (AGI90), Paul More (A94), John Williams (A96), and Ron Wingate (A94). Honorary Johnnies John Metelsky and Ethan Billotte were also in attendance. Lydia and Johnny plan to move back East in a couple of years when Lydia finishes medical school at Loma Linda University and Johnny finishes his masters in astrophysics atUC Riverside. E-mailjmetelsky@hotmail.com. Bill Kowalksi (SF) writes: “I am happy to announce that my second novel. Somewhere South ofHere, is finally finished and will be pub­ lished by HarperCollins in March of 3001. Most of the action takes place in Santa Fe, and readers of this pub­ lication will probably recognize a certain small liberal arts college which plays a minor but noticeable role in the story - though of course any similarities to colleges either living or dead are purely coinciden­ tal. In addition, Eddie’s Bastard, my first novel, is out in paperback, and is now being translated into 12 languages - including Finnish, Hebrew, Czech and my grandmoth­ er’s personal favorite, Polish. No word yet on Tagalog or Urdu. So far nobody has bought the film rights, either, but hope, as they say, springs eternal. Another piece of good news is that HarperCollins has also purchased the rights to my third novel, which is still in its very early stages, and my fourth, about which I have no clue. After two loud and smoggy years in Brooklyn I’ve moved to Toronto, where I live with my non-Johnny companion and freaky consort, Alexandra. I wel­ come email from friends and class­ mates, so please write to wilham. kowalski@CIMteration.com.” �{AlumniProfile} 35 La Vie Parisienne Phil Wood, owner ofParisfixture the San Francisco Book Co., is afrancophile success story. BY Sus3AN Borden, A87 or much of his adult life, Phil Wood (A67) knew he wanted to live in Paris. He had first visited the city when he was in the army in ighr, stationed in Ger­ many. The charm of the culture, the intellectual bent of the people, and the beauty of the country attracted him from the start. In 1986, he rented an apartment on the lie St.-Louis but ended up spending most of the year working at his job in California. Undaunted, he continued to study French. Ten years later, when he was working for Parallax Press in Berke­ ley as comptroller/computer systems administrator, he found himself in Paris for several weeks. “I had very little hope of extricating myself,” says Wood, who was at the time a devoted employee. “Then my boss, who knew I wanted to move and who’d been interviewing people to take his place, told me on the phone that someone he’d inter­ viewed was not suitable for his job but could do my job quite well. He said, Tf you’re ever thinking of leaving, now might be the time.’ I remember the moment when I came out of that phone booth on Rue Monge in the fifth arrondissement and realized that I might actually be able to move to France.” Wood decided to take the leap. He signed up for the Cours de Langue et Civilisation Frangaise at the Sorbonne, found an apart­ ment on the lie de la Cite, and began to investigate starting a business. Learning about the French educational system and about the French business world, he says, was an adventure in the French way of doing things. Having always admired the intellectual disposition of the French, Wood enjoyed learning how to write the French disserta­ tion, a composition with a strict form: the question, the thesis, the antithesis, and the synthesis. “I realized, here is a very power­ ful cultural difference. They’ve gone through this process throughout their edu­ cation and they all know how to do this.’” But when it came to starting a business. Wood was not certain that the intellectual approach was best. Planning to open a book­ store on the left bank, he took a weeklong Phil Wood didn’t do a market survey, as his French business advisers dictated; he STARTED THE BOOKSTORE AND WAITED TO SEE IF ANYONE WOULD COME IN. workshop on French business practice and found that much emphasis was placed on the etude de marche, the market study. “Every­ one kept asking me if I had done one. I said no. My feeling was, the way I’m going to do my market study is by starting the store and seeing if anybody comes in,” says Wood. “The etude is an intellectual approach, but it can be counterproductive, at least for an American. You can think a lot and do studies and in the end never do anything.” As it turns out. Wood was not hampered by skipping the etude. His English-language bookstore, San Francisco Book Co., does a fine business, selling used books to a clien­ tele about half French-speaking and half Eng­ lish-speaking. Wood says that the French are careful about what they read and tend to buy serious books, especially history and good literature. “Books that are somewhat criti­ cal of America or a little offbeat sell well, books by Bill Bryson and Hunter Thomp­ son,” says Wood. “The French also like con­ spiracy-type works about JFK.” Wood’s Eng­ lish-speaking customers include a tourist trade with an appetite for paperback edi­ tions of literature and modern fiction. Although Wood deals with the business rather than the retail side of the store, he is not deprived of encounters with the public. {The College. Sf. John’s College • Spring 2001 } He and his principal book buyer, Dick Toney, spend many afternoons looking through books, often in private collec­ tions. The advantages of such excur­ sions, says Wood, go beyond the com­ mercial: “You get to meet interesting people and see their apartments in Paris, go to parts of town you’ve never been to and see how people live.” Wood remembers one picture-perfect afternoon when he and Toney visited two sisters, “respectable old ladies,” at their house near Fontainebleu. “It was like something out of a movie: a beauti­ ful village, nothing moving, no cars, a little river. The house was right across from the church. Two elderly women answered the bell and the first thing they wanted was not to talk about the books, but to sit down and have drinks in the garden. There we were, Dick and I, two old guys from California sitting with two elderly spinsters, drinking apple juice. The sun was out and the birds were singing and the church bell was ringing and finally we had to say, ‘what about the books?’ ” But it’s not just respectable old ladies that Wood has met. In 1999, he married Anouk Malaquin, whom he met through mutual friends. “Our first ‘date’ was actually the result of a misunderstanding on my part about the time I was supposed to show up to help some friends,” he says. “When they said to come at ‘six-thirty,’ it never occurred to me they meant 6:30 a.m., so when I arrived at 6:30 p.m. - i8h3o French time Anouk was there and my help was no longer needed. I said, ‘I guess I’ll go to the movies,’ and she said ‘What a good idea! ’ and off we went. We saw Breaking the Waves, which I had been intending to see but probably wouldn’t have chosen for a first date! ” Today, Wood’s vie Parisienne is complete. He lives in an apartment in Montmartre, has married into an old bourgeois family, and runs a bookstore on the left bank. And he’s enough of a Paris fixture that the guide­ book Paris Access published a list of his city favorites, including the Jardin du Luxem­ bourg, the market in the Rue Mouffetard, the city lit up at Christmas with concerts in the churches, watching the boulistes around Montmartre, and - appropriately enough for a bookstore-owning Johnnie - the reading room of the Bibliotheque Ste. Genevieve. �{AlumniNotes} 3® Amanda Dulin (A) writes that she is happy in Charlottesville with Dominic. Delsen) Flynn (A). “We are scuba diving and changing lots of dia­ pers!” Nathan Humphrey (A) has a piece Alice Brown (A) writes: “Greg and in the Fall 2000 issue of re:generation quarterly about how sophomore year at St. John’s - in particular his reading of the Confessions - led to his spending the summer at a Catholic Benedictine monastery. As the son of an Evangehcal Christian minister, Humphrey was taught to file “Cathohcism” under “cults,” along with Mormonism and Scien­ tology. But at the monastery “the false dichotemy between the ‘sacred’ and the ‘secular’ disap­ peared.” His piece is a plea for understanding among the various Christian denominations. I are in Columbus, Ohio, where Greg is earning a PhD in classics at OSU and I am teaching at a charter school. Life is grand. Best wishes to all.” 1995 October 29, 2000 saw the wedding of China Williams (A) and Matt Baum (A). The ceremony was held at Sigmund Stern Grove in San Fran­ cisco, Calif. A report from Carrie Sager (A): “In the fall, I spent three great months in China studying acupunc­ ture and traditional Chinese medi­ cine. The experience was fantastic. Surprisingly, I grew to really love China and was sad to leave. After China, I visited Hong Kong - a nice return to civilization. Then it was six weeks of travelling around Thai­ land. One of the funniest things on my trip - there I am standing on a pier in the middle of Bangkok and who do I run into... a fellow John­ nie, Diedre O’Shea (A97). In all, an awesome trip although my body was really ready to come home and eat good old North American food by the end. I would love to offer what little advice I can to anyone travelling to those countries. For now, I will keep my e-mail address at carrie_china@yahoo.com. My other news is that I am getting married. My boyfriend proposed the week before I left - guess he wanted to make sure I came backNow I have just nine months to get ready for the big day - Sept. 28, 2001. Knowing my timing, it will conflict with Annapolis homecoming again!” “My husband, Ethan, and I are doing a two-year tour of duty in Guam,” writes Sarah (Van Cheryl Heneveld (AGI) is still in 1996 Adrienne Jakowski Rukensiein married Peter Rubenstein (both A) in July of 1998. They are currently living in Arlington, Vir. After gradu­ ating, Adrienne got an MA in Teach­ ing Secondary English, taught for two years with Denver Public Schools, and is now getting another MA in Deaf Education at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. She was recently offered a job teaching English to high school seniors at a deaf school in D.C. Peter has been exploring technical jobs with USwest and an Internet company in DC called Covad. He enjoys eating a bowl of Lucky Charms while watch­ ing the Powerpuff Girls or Dexter’s Laboratory on Cartoon Network. His favorite philosopher is still Leibniz and his favorite color is green. James Cromer (AGI) is going back to school - to Skidmore College - to learn how to design web pages while he completes his ninth year of teach­ ing. Joy Pope (AGI) and Miguel Alandete have welcomed a daughter into their lives. Maya Lucia Pope Alandete was born on October 3, weigh­ ing in at an astonishing 9 lbs., ii oz. Sid Ranck (AGI) has accepted the role of godfather. The new family is doing beautifully in Eugene, Ore. their home now - and they’d love to hear from classmates or Johnnies in the area. Alandete@oregon.uoregon.edu. Melissa Cate (A) and Darcy Christ (A94) were married on October 7, 2000. Douglis Beck (AGI) and Susan Allen are thrilled to announce the birth of a beautiful daughter named Veronica Vandenberghe Beck on December 22, 2000. Says Douglis, “She has brought not only joy to our {The College - world, but also a good number of sleepless nights, a small amount of chaos, and general mayhem for all concerned. I continue to work as an architect at Cannon Design in St. Louis, while Susan is a manager for Borders Books & Music. Veronica is currently unemployed and search­ ing for a position in waste manage­ ment.” New Delhi. “I have not found any Johnnies here yet, and I miss the Washington, D.C., alumni discus­ sions,” she says. Her e-mail address is cheryls@vsnl.com. 1997 John Carle (SF) reports that he and Cheryl are alive and well in metro Atlanta. After a short stint with CNN, he’s working as a web developer with a consulting firm. E-mail is welcome at jcarle@newtousbaby.com. Juan Villasenor (A) will graduate from Vanderbilt Law School in May 2001 and has accepted a clerkship with a federal judge in Nashville, Tenn., for one year beginning in September. 1998 my husband Chris and I just had our first child on November i6th, 2000. Her name is Rosalyn Ophelia.” Kathleen (Tinning) Connelly (A) writes: “Patrick Connelly and I were married June 12,1999, and have been living in Vicenza, Italy, ever since. Italy is beautiful.” Susie Lorenzini (AGI) and Jason Salinas (AGIoo) were married in June 2000, in San Diego. In the summer 1999 issue of The Reporter, an unknown perpetrator sent in a false report about Eve Gib­ son (A) and Todd Pytel (A). Here’s a correction from Eve: “Todd will not be ‘working closely with the Warner Brothers Network in the upcoming months’ because he is too busy teaching high school math at Senh, a Chicago public school, nor am I teaching fifth graders science at a Catholic school in New York. I have been playing rugby for the Chicago Women’s Rugby Football Club and tutoring at Literacy Chica­ go, and toiling in an office.” 2000 Valerie Whiting (A) reports that she got her Peace Corps assignment: She headed to Panama in January to be an environmental educator. Max R. Fink (SF) reports: “Work­ ing in Chicago as a corporate recruiter (probably for something I did in a past life!). Just returned from a vacation to the rainforests of Costa Rica. Thinking of becoming a tour guide in South America.” Heather (Miller) and Nate Greenslit (both A) are the proud parents of Emily Ruth, born March 25. Heather taught middle school math and science in a private school outside Baltimore until Emily’s arrival. She’s now a stay-at-home mom and a private tutor. Nate got his master’s degree in cognative sci­ ence at Johns Hopkins and will begin a program in the history and sociology of technology at MIT. The Greenslits now live in Worcester, Mass. 1999 Erin Gage Bates (A) writes: “I was married February 5th, 2000, and St. John’s College • Spring 2001 } Calling All Alumni The College wants to hear from you. Call us, write us, e-mail us. Let your classmates know what you’re doing. The next issue tvill be published in July; copy deadline is May 20. In Annapolis: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404; b-goyette@sjca.edu. In Santa Fe: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Public Relations Office, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87501-4599; classics@maiLsjcsf.edu. Alumni Notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at: www.sjca.edu - click on “Alumni.” �{Student Voices} Through a Photographer’s Eye The Transfer Experience A Imost 30% of St. John’s students have spent a year or more as transfers, making them true hi-campus members of the / college community. Whether their “year abroad” is spent in Santa Fe, after some time in the brick-clad East, or in / Annapolis, after a year or two in the mountain air, transfer students almost universally enjoy the experience. Sylvaine Rameckers, Aoi, spent last year in Santa Fe. An avid photogra­ pher, she fell in love with the landscape of the southwest. Although St. John’s students generally rate the location of the campuses low on their list of why they chose the college, Santa Fe and Annapolis are nevertheless both beauti­ ful places-each in its own way. Here are some of Sylvaine’s favorite photos that capture the flavor of each location. {The Colleges?. John’s College • Spring 2001 } 37 �38 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Greetings! Thanks to you all for giving me the opportunity to lead the Association as its new president. You have a dedicated and creative Board of Directors, who will he focused on maintaining tradition and building new opportunities for alumni to connect with each other and the College. For example... I wish you could all have joined us for a delightful evening on January ay. Eighteen groups of alumni and current St. John’s seniors met at Santa Fe restaurants for Senior Dinners. The dinners, which have become tradition on both campuses, are designed to wel­ come soon-to-he alumni into the Association. As you can imagine, the conversations are lively and varied, ranging Electing Alumni Representatives to the St. John’s and Alumni Association Boards Election ofAlumni Representatives to the St. John's College Board of Visitors and Governors In accordance with Article VIII, Section II of the By-Laws of the St. John’s College Alumni Association, notice is hereby given that the following alumni have been nomi­ nated by the Alumni Association Board of Directors for election to the St. John’s Col­ lege Board of Visitors and Governors. from essay topics, to career possibilities, to current pic­ tures of student life, to news of tutors and mutual friends, to life after St. John’s, to activities of the Association. Mem­ Glenda Eoyang ories, hopes, and fears are traded and relished across time and geography. This is one of my personal favorites among the many Association activities. It is Notice is also given that nominations may be made by petition. The rules governing submission of nomi­ nations by petition are as follows: I. Petitions must be signed by at least fifty members of the Alumni Association in good standing. a pleasure to revisit that invigorating time in my life. I am always surprised to see how similar the experience of today is to that of the mid-yos, when I made my transition from student to alumna-and also how different it is. The current crop of seniors are so bright and curious and verbal and excited as they come to terms with integrating their Johnny experience with the rest of their lives. If you live in the Santa Fe or Annapolis area and would be interested in hosting a dinner, let the Alumni Directors know. Usually, two alumni co-host eight seniors at a local restaurant. The college Alumni Directors select the sites, but they also take suggestions. The cost is shared by the hosts, the college, and the Alumni Association. You’ll be asked to distribute some information about the Association and explain the benefits of staying in touch with other alumni. It is a wonderful opportunity to connect and see what’s happening in the world of St. John’s! For the past, the present, and the future. ST. JOHN’S college alumni association Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, undergraduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, all alumni have automatic membership in the St. John’s College Alumni Association. The Alumni Association is an independent organization, with a Board of Directors elected by and from the alumni body. The Board meets four times a year, twice on each campus, to plan programs and coordinate the affairs of the Association. This newsletter within The College magazine is sponsored by the Alumni Association and communicates Alumni Association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SFy6 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary -Barbara Lauer, SFy6 Treasurer - Bill Fant, Ayg Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team ChairTom Geyer, A68 Glenda Holladay Eoyang, SFy6 Eoyang@chaos-limited.com Web site -www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404 or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87501. {The College- St. John’s College • Spring 2001 } �39 {Alumni Association News} 2. Nominations must be accompanied by a biographical sketch of the nominee. 3. The consent of all persons nominated must be obtained. 4. The petitions must reach the Directors of Alumni Activities NO LATER THAN DECEMBER i, 2001. c/o Alumni Office St. John’s College P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404 If nominations by petition are received, there will be an election conducted by mail ballot. If there are no such nominations, the nominees listed below will be consid­ ered elected. Terms will begin in July of 2002. Eor his second term: Jason Todd Walsh, A85 New York, N.Y. MBA, Harvard Business School, 1989; entrepreneur-in-residence, McKin­ sey & Company, 2000present; executive vice president/ start-up gener­ al manager, Oncology.com, 19992000; vice president of business develop­ ment of Quest Diagnostics, Incorporated, 1998-1999; vice president/general manager. Long Island Region of Quest Diagnostics, 1996-1998; associate director for strategy and development for the Opto-Electronics Group of Corning Inc., 1993-1995; business manag­ er, television components. Corning Asahi Video Products Company, 1990-1993; mem­ ber of the St. John’s College Alumni Associa­ tion Board of Directors, 1990-1996; Treasurer of that Board, 1998-2000; Vice- President of that Board, 2001-; Lady Liberty Regatta chairman. New York Harbor Sailing Founda­ tion, 1998 & 2001; member, St. John’s Col­ lege Board of Visitors and Governors, 1999-. For his first term: Mark Middlebrook, A83 Oakland, Calif. Mark is a rabid liberal artist in sheepish techno-geek clothing. After earning his BA from St. John’s in 1983, he completed a Master’s degree in structural engineering at the Uni­ versity of California, Berkeley. Since 1988, Mark has been the sole proprietor of Daedalus Consulting in Oakland, Calif. In this guise, he fools around with computer aided drafting (CAD) software for money. Seeking moderation in all things-especially time spent with computers-Mark remains active in the liberal arts and the St. John’s College community. He has participated for many years in the Northern California alumni chapter and the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors. Since 1999, he has taught St. John’s-style seminars at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif. Mark’s other avocations include music, languages, and cooking. He currently is working on perfecting his tortilla espanola, Andalusian Spanish, and flamenco bulerias. For his second term: Clinton Dale Lively, A78 Princeton Junction, N.J. MS, Mathematics, University of Virginia; MBA, Finance, University of Chicago. Man­ aging Director and Head of Portfolio Risk Management, Merrill Lynch, NY; directing firmwide event analysis, process risk manage­ ment, country risk assessments, internal risk capital allocation, and oversight of market risk taken within the Private Client, Asset Management and Merrill Lynch Treasury divisions. Managing Director and Partner in charge of the Corporate Risk Management Group for the Bankers Trust Company, 199799; previously for Bankers Trust: joined the bank in r984 in Sales, Trading and Funding Department; in 1987 a member of the team that developed the Global Market Risk Man­ agement function; in 1989 transferred to Tokyo to set up the Global Market Risk group for Asia, Australia, and New Zealand; in 1992 returned to New York as head of the Global Risk Analytic group and was appointed head of market risk globally in 1995; in spring of 1997 chosen to manage the Corporate Risk Management function overall. A member of Bankers Trust Asset Liability Committee (ALCO) and Management Committee on Controls. On the Board of Directors of Bankers International Corporation and LongTail Risk Insurance, Ltd. Election ofOjftcers and Directors ofthe St. John ’a College Alumni Association In accordance with Article VII, Sections I and II of the By-Laws of the St. John’s Col­ lege Alumni Association, notice is hereby given that the following alumni have been nominated to serve as officers and direc­ tors on the St. John’s College Alumni Asso­ ciation Board of Directors. Notice is also given that nominations for the positions as officers and directors of the Association may be made by petition. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } The rules governing submission of nom­ inations by petition are as follows: 1. Petitions must be signed by at least thirty members of the Alumni Association in good standing. 2. Petitions must be presented to the Sec­ retary of the Alumni Association prior to the Annual Meeting at which the election is to be held. Petitions should be sent to Barbara Lauer, c/o Alumni Office, St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404. 3. The election will be held at the Annual Meeting on Saturday, July 7 at 1:30 p.m. in Santa Fe. 4. The candidates for Officers and Direc­ tors receiving the highest number of votes for those offices shall be declared elected. Terms will begin on January i, 2002. For his first term: William Tilles, A59 Rockville, Md. William R. (Bill) Tilles is an Organization Develop­ ment consultant specializ­ ing in the planning and facilitation of processes that enhance organiza­ tional performance. Before he retired from IBM in r992, he held man­ agement and staff positions working with government and commercial clients. He was a principal in Collaborative Decisions, Inc., a small, women-owned business focusing on decision support technology. Currently, as an associate of CI International, based in Den­ ver, Colorado and Washington, D.C., he pro­ vides facilitation and planning services to government and commercial clients. He is also an active participant in the DC Cultural Alliance Business Volunteers for the Arts pro­ gram, where he was honored as Business Vol­ unteer of the Year in 1999. Tilles is in his third term on the Board of Visitors and Gov­ ernors, where he is the Chair of the Visiting Committee and member of the Executive Committee. For her first term: Valerie Pawlewicz, A89 Annapolis, Md. Currently designs educa­ tional trips for the Smithsonian-the largest, most diverse, museum-based travel program in the world (1998-). She organ­ izes performing arts, fine arts, culinary, history and �40 {Alumni Association News} literature seminars, working directly with such organizations as the Santa Fe Opera, Toronto International Film Festival, and the Spoleto Festival USA, and with such individu­ als as Ken Burns, Holly Mondavi and Gian Carlo Menotti. Prior to the Smithsonian (1996-98), she worked as an independent folklorist on community oral history projects, including a St. John’s College oral history project (over ao interviews were collected from faculty, alumni, staff at both campuses). She was the Senior Resident for Student Activities at St. John’s College, Annapolis, Md. (1994-96), at the same time serving as in­ house substitute teacher at the Key School in Annapolis. From 1992-94, she completed graduate work at UNC Chapel Hill in folk­ lore, taking on oral history projects as diverse as furniture factory workers and Southern funeral directors. She served as a class leader for The Campaign for Our Fourth Century (1993-95). She is married to Leo Pickens (A78), Director of Athletics on the Annapolis campus. For her first term: Martha Black Jordan, SFGI86 Mexico City, Mexico Jordan was born in Mexico City and educated in the U.S. She holds a BA from Sweet Briar College, an MA from St. John’s, and an MFA from Vermont Col­ lege. She is the founder of the Tramontane Poets of Mexico City, a collective dedicated to being a bridge between the poet­ ry worlds of Mexico and North America, which has sponsored visits to Mexico City and readings by Reginald Gibbons, Joe Somoza, William Merwin, Grace Schulman, Mark Strand, Naomi Shihab Nye, William Snod­ grass, and others. She has read her own work, as well as translations, on National Public Radio and at various organizations around the country. Her poems have appeared in IfI Had My Life to Live Over, Latitudes, The Tree is Older Than You Are, California Quar­ terly, The Texas Observer, the eleventh MUSE, Grand Street, and Tameme. She has also published many translations from Span­ ish to English, some from English to Spanish, and has edited two bilingual books. She has served on the board of the Junior League of Mexico City; Christ Church Episcopal, Mexi­ co City; National Board Medical College of Pennsylvania/Hahnemann University, Philadelphia; Women’s Auxiliary American British Cowdray Hospital, Mexico City. For his first term: Rohert A. George, A85 Brooklyn, N.Y. Currently Associate Edito­ rial Page Editor for the New York Post. He is also a columnist for National Review Online. Previously, George served as Director of Coalitions for the Republican National Com­ mittee. Reporting to the RNC Co-chairman, he acted as party liaison to diverse business, eth­ nic and interest groups. From January 1995 through May 1998, George served as Special Assistant & Senior Writer to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1994, he was a Legislative Assistant to former Con­ gressman Michael Huffington (R-CA). From 1988 to 1993, he served as Communications Director for the Republican National Finance Committee. Contemporaneous with his pro­ fessional full-time career, George has held sideline occupations as a researcher, disk jockey and free-lance writer. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Wash­ ington Times, National Review, New Repub­ lic, Billboard, Diversity & Division, The Weekly Standard, CRISIS, San Francisco Chronicle, Intellectual Capital, com. Salon', and he was a contributor to Generations Apart: Xers vs. Boomers vs. the Elderly and Black & Right: The Bold New Voice ofBlack Conservatives in America. He is an Adjunct Fellow with the Center For New Black Lead­ ership, a national African-American advocacy group exploring entrepreneurial and freemarket issues, and Third Millennium, an organization dedicated to multi-generational public policy issues. George was born on the Caribbean island­ country of Trinidad and Tobago and raised in Great Britain and the United States. His interests include reading, jogging, cultural analysis, and a proclivity for withering puns. as the Director of College Placement for the school, the only college preparatory school for Native Americans in the country. Origi­ nally from Boulder, Col., Boydstun chose to attend St. John’s instead of going to a per­ forming arts school to pursue her love of act­ ing. She remained active in theatre at St. John’s, however, and since her gradua­ tion has performed with Shakespeare in Santa Fe (Measurefor Measure and A Mid­ summer Night’s Dream) and as the title role in Queen Elizabeth I at Santa Fe Stages. She recently auditioned for several graduate act­ ing programs around the country, and she hopes to spend the next three years pursuing an MFA. CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-880-^134 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 315-465-0344 ANNAPOLIS Roberta Gable PORTLAND 410-295-6936 360-883-9058 AUSTIN Jennifer Chenoweth 513-483-0747 SACRAMENTO Helen Hobart 916-453-1083 BALTIMORE David Kidd SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 410-738-4136 619-433-4353 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 CHICAGO Dale Mortimer SAN FRANCISCO/ NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jon Hodapp 831-393-9496 Lorna Anderson SANTA FE For her first term; 847-467-3069 John Pollak Amber Boydstln, SF99 DENVER Santa Fe, N.M. Elizabeth Pollard Jenny SEATTLE Amber Boydstun has spent the two years since she graduated from St. John’s teach­ ing at the Native American Preparatory School (NAPS) in Rowe, N.M. Last year she taught Advanced PreCalculus and Geometry at NAPS, and this year she serves 303-530-3373 Jon Bever {The College- St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } LOS ANGELES Elizabeth Eastman 563-436-1934 MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 613-833-3316 NEW YORK Fielding Dupuy 313-974-3933 NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 505-983-^^144 306-739-1163 WASHINGTON, DC Bill Ross 301-330-4594 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 973-3-6717608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �{Connections} How Can Alumni Stay Connected TO THE College? Let us count the ways. For alumni from lacrosse-loving days of the r93os to the most recent of the 1990s, St. John’s occupies a special place in their consciousness. There are many ways alumni can be involved in the life of the college, or stay involved with the college from afar. Indeed, the proliferation of new kinds of activities has some alumni confused. Here’s a short version of the activities of different alumni groups. The St. John’s College Alumni Offices College staff and resources devoted to encouraging alumni connections to the col­ lege. The Offices of Alumni Activities plan and carry out Homecomings, Summer Alum­ ni Programs, and Croquet Weekend; take care of the database of alumni names and addresses; coordinate the Alumni Register; staff Alumni Association projects; work with current students to foster continued relation­ ships with the college; serve as touchpoints for all alumni dealings with the college. Contacts: Annapolis: Roberta Gable, Director and Dolores Strissel, Assistant. 410-626-2531. alumni@sjca.edu Web site: www.sjca.edu, click on “Alumni” Santa Fe: Tahmina Shalizi, Director. 505-984-6103; tshalizi@mail.sjcsf.edu Web site: www.sjcsf.edu, click on “Alumni” St. John’s College Alumni Association Non-profit association independent of St. John’s College; Alumni Association dues help support Association projects-dues are not a contribution to St. John’s College. All alumni are automatically members of the Alumni Association. The Alumni Association mission is: To provide an active place for alumni in the life of the college; to promote the continuing association of alumni with one another; and to serve, preserve, and advance St. John’s College as one community of and for liberal education. Usually held the last Saturday in April, the St. John’s-Navy Croquet Match draws HUNDREDS OF ALUMNI BACK TO AnNAPOLIS. ThIS YEAr’s DATE: ApRIL 28. The Alumni Association, through its Board of Directors, helps plan and sponsor Homecomings and Summer Alumni Programs in cooperation with the college offices of Alumni Activities; helps sponsor the Alum­ ni Register; awards Honorary Alumni status and presents Alumni Association Awards of Merit; coordinates Alumni Association chapters in cities around the country; pub­ lishes the Alumni Association News (a pages in The College, formerly The Reporter). Contacts: Glenda Eoyang, SF76, President Web site: www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Philanthropia A subcommittee of the Development Com­ mittee of the Board of Visitors and Gover­ nors, comprised of alumni volunteers inter­ ested in encouraging financial support of the college by alumni. Philanthropia’s main efforts are centered on the Alumni Annual Fund, direct contributions to the college which provide the campuses with operating expenses. Philanthropia volunteers help plan fundraising strategies in cooperation with the college development staff; build aware­ ness of the college’s financial needs and alumni’s responsibilities for support through publications like the “Founders and Foundations” calendar; encourage class reunion organization for the purposes of fundraising; help plan phonathons, “meet the president” receptions, and other activi­ ties in various cities. {The College -St. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } Contacts: Leslie Jump, A84, President; Alex Fotos or Mary Simmons in the Annapolis Advancement Office, 410-626-2507; Ginger Roherty in the Santa Fe Advancement Office, 505-984-6109. Web site: www.sjca.edu/advance/philan. phtml Alumni Admissions Representatives Alumni who volunteer to help the Admis­ sions Offices with various recruiting proj­ ects, such as hosting prospective student receptions; interviewing or answering ques­ tions from prospective students, parents, and high school counselors; answering e-mail questions from prospective students; helping to represent the college at college fairs. Contacts: Annapolis: Dorcey Rose, Associate Director of Admissions, 410-626-2527; d-rose@sjca.edu. Web site: www.sjca.edu/admissions/representative.phtml Santa Fe: Ana Alvernaz, Associate Director of Admis­ sions, 505-984-6003; aalvernaz@mail.sjcsf.edu Alumni Placement Office Contacts Alumni who volunteer to help the Place­ ment Offices on each campus. Placement Office contacts provide information and networking advice to current students look­ ing into graduate programs and career fields. Contacts: Annapolis - Karen Krieger, Director of Place­ ment, 410-626-2500; k-krieger@sjca.edu Web site: www.sjca.edu/placement/office. phtml Santa Fe - Margaret OdeU, Director of Place­ ment, 505-984-6066 Web site: www.sjcsf.edu/placement/ �{Obituaries} Albert Patterson Close Class of tgsS Retired Judge Albert Patterson Close, Sr., an administrative judge of the Circuit Court for Harford Coun­ ty (Md.) for many years, died in December. Judge Close served for more than two decades on the local bench, where he presided over some of the highest profile criminal and civil cases in Harford County history. Born near Bel Air, Md., and the youngest of seven children, he grad­ uated from St. John’s in 1938 and received a degree from the Universi­ ty of Maryland School of Law. Dur­ ing World War II, he served in the Marine Corps in China, attaining the rank of major. After the war, he practiced law for many years in Bel Air, served as People’s Court judge for eight years, and was appointed to the Circuit Court bench in 1967. The following year he was elected for a 15-year term. Rather than retire in 1984, he sought a second 15-year term, which he won. Judge Close was active in the Republican Party, volunteered with the Boy Scouts, and was a member of the Susquehanna Law Club, the Jar­ rettsville Lions Club, and the board of directors of Upper Chesapeake Health System. He is survived by his wife, five sons, three daughters, two sisters, and six grandchildren. Patrick D. Davis, Class oftgs^ Patrick D. Davis, a member of the class of 1950, died January 32 in Seattle. He was born in Dewey, Okla., and grew up in Washington, D.C., where he often worked as a child actor. He served three years in the Navy in World War IL After St. John’s, he attended the University of Maine, Orono, and Canterbury Col­ lege in New Zealand. He lived, trav­ eled, and worked for 13 years over­ seas, mostly in England, France, and Turkey. He was employed as a civilian with the U.S. Air Force as an educa­ tion officer and regional director of adult eduction affiliated with the University of Maryland. He subse­ quently was a federal employee and regional administrator in Washing­ ton, D.C., and Seattle, both with the Office of Economic Opportunity and Health & Human Services’ Head Start Program, working to improve opportunities for disadvantaged chil­ dren and mothers. His love of traveling, history, for­ eign affairs, theater, archeology, politics, art, music, and great books led many to call him a Renaissance Man. He will be remembered for his love and caring for people, his gen­ erosity and sense of humor, and his devotion to social justice and envi­ ronmental causes. He is survived by his wife, Verrelle “Susie” Davis and son, Justinian A. Davis. Beach, and Vermont College. Gifts in Michael’s memory may be made to The Vermont Respite House, 99 Allen Brook Lane, Williston, VT 05495. —Sapna Gandhi, Agi Michael Kraemer, A93 In his short life, Michael Kraemer touched and influenced more than most people do in their entire lives. He spent most of his free time volun­ teering at animal shelters, tutoring students of all ages in their school­ work, and helping new immigrants adjust to life in America. It was his approach that made him special: he approached every task and every per­ son with love and kindness. And at the young age of 19, Michael knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life serving humanity and protecting ani­ mals. Michael was one of those peo­ ple who truly had no enemy. After leaving St. John’s in 1991 after his sophomore year, Michael moved back home to Miami to five with his family. Still a Johnnie, Michael loved learning so he contin­ ued to study on his own-learning Spanish and Portuguese, before set­ tling on holistic studies. He was inspired after treating his own health with alternative medicine. He began a correspondence course at Vermont College’s School of Holistic Studies. After several trips to Vermont to complete his coursework, Michael and his sister eventually moved there. Michael had always loved good music and over the last several years had acquired quite a collection of reggae, bossanova, funk, African, salsa, and other groovy music. One of his gifts was making music tapes for his friends. So it was not a sur­ prise that Michael taught himself rocar and drums and became part of a performing samba group. Michael was diagnosed with can­ cer in early April 3000. He had a very shm chance of treating the cancer successfully with Western medicine. Instead of compromising his faith in Eastern healing arts, Michael chose to try acupuncture and Chinese herbs to heal. For a while, it seemed to be working and making him stronger. The last two months of his life were spent in a hospice, where he was surrounded by family and close friends. For the first time, Michael let himself be loved and nurtured, instead of always being the strong and generous one. Michael passed away on Novem­ ber 25. He will be loved and remem­ bered by his friends from St. John’s, the Annapolis Society for the Pre­ vention of Cruelty to Animals, the Jewish Community Center in Miami {The College- William Allen Ruhl, Jr. Class oftg44 William A. Ruhl, Jr., a bank execu­ tive in Salisbury, Md., died in December. He was a member of the St. John’s class of 1944 and served in the 83nd Airborne Division during World War IL Mr. Ruhl was the first managing officer of First Shore Fed­ eral Savings and Loan Association when it was founded in 1953, and was named executive vice president in 1964, the position he held until retirement in 1984. He served as a member of the board of First Shore Federal from 1969 to 1998, when he was named director emeritus. Mr. Ruhl was active with the Salisbury Chamber of Commerce, the Mary­ land League of Financial Institu­ tions, scouting, the Salisbury Rotary Club, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, and the American Field Service exchange student program. He is survived by his present wife, a son and three daughters, five grand­ children, a brother, and a sister. Adolph W. Schmidt Member ofthe Board Adolph W. Schmidt, a longtime sup­ porter of the college who served on the Board of Visitors and Governors since 1949, died December 17 in Pittsburgh. He was 96. Mr. Schmidt was active in many spheres during his life: in the busi­ ness world as a banker and financier for various Mellon family business­ es, in the city of Pittsburgh as founder of the Pittsburgh Playhouse and the Pittsburgh Symphony, in the international sphere as a diplomat who served as ambassador to Cana­ da from 1969 to 1974 and also found­ ed organizations dedicated to stabi­ lizing the world’s population and resources, and at St. John’s-which he once called “the finest under­ graduate liberal arts program in the United States today, barring none.” A native of McKeesport, Pennsyl­ vania, Mr. Schmidt graduated from Princeton and the Harvard Gradu­ ate School of Business Administra­ tion. He served as an intelligence officer in the Army during World War II, and after the war he was active in developing political unity among the countries that eventually formed NATO. Professionally, he worked with the Mellon National Bank and its St. John^s College - Spring 2001 } affiliated institutions and organiza­ tions beginning in 1929 until his retirement in 1969. He was a presi­ dent and trustee of the A. A. W. Mel­ lon Educational and Charitable Trust, and a trustee of the Old Dominion Foundation. Mr. Schmidt’s interest in St. John’s began when he read the February 1940 article about the college in Life magazine while on a flight from Pitts­ burgh to Washington. He felt the St. John’s curriculum represented much that was lacking in his own educa­ tion. He called the college and spoke with Stringfellow Barr, who invited him to come for a visit. After attend­ ing a seminar and then a mathemat­ ics tutorial the next day, Mr. Schmidt began to think about taking the year off to enroll. Back in Pittsburgh, he showed a copy of the Life article to Paul Mellon; about a week later, the two discussed the college and Mr. Mellon told Mr. Schmidt that he should remain in Pittsburgh since there was so much work to be done. In fact, Mr. Mellon had decided to enroll at St. John’s himself. Mr. Schmidt was elected to the St. John’s Board of Visitors and Gov­ ernors in 1950; he became chair in 1954 and again in 1962. From r969 to 1974, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Canada and did not participate on the Board, but upon his return he again joined. In 1980 he was made a member emeritus. The Adolph W. Schmidt Endowed Thtorships were estabhshed with a gift from Mr. Schmidt in r985. Alter­ nating between the campuses, the tutorship enables a faculty member to take release time from teaching for further study and the leading of a fac­ ulty study group, either in the areas of pohtics and economic and mone­ tary theory, or in some other area of importance to the program. Mr. Schmidt was named an hon­ orary alumnus of St. John’s in 1987, and was given the Alumni Associa­ tion Award of Merit in 1989. ALSO NOTED... Gretchen L. Berg, A75, died in June 3000 Patrick D. Davis, A50, died in January 3001 John D. Edinger, A34 Vincent W. McKay, A46 Ben Moskowitz, A50, died in June 2000 Col. Frederick L. Smith, Aa7, died in November 1999 Robert Arne, SFG83, died in November 2000 Theodore A. Buder, SF94, died in August 2000 �{Obituaries} In Memory of Robert Bart Remarks delivered by Nancy Buchenauer at a memorial servicefor Robert Bart, tutor in Annapolisfrom ig4Q to ty~7 and in Santa Fe from to 2000. Robert was my friend. And he was a great and terrible friend. I first met him in 1979 when I went down the hill from Los Alamos to apply to be a tutor. He was the Dean in Santa Fe in those days, and for me he embodied what a dean had to be. Really, he embodied the col­ lege. When I was appointed he told me that he had serious reservations about whether any­ one who lived 40 miles away could be a tutor. My response was to form the determination then and there that I would never miss a class or Friday lecture, and I would never let my students down in any way. I would show him what I could and could not do. He had planted in me an expectation that made me demand more of myself than I ever had before. That was the beginning of my education from him in what the college was. He made me desire to show him that I too was capable of giving myself completely to something that was valuable and difficult. In effect he was asking me to be more than myself. I didn’t know then what I later came to know from watching what he did as well as hearing what he said, that only in giving oneself to some­ thing greater, outside oneself does one have a chance to find out who one really is and so really to be something. From his love of art he taught me to see. From childhood my mother had taken me to museums and said, “Look, isn’t that beauti­ ful?” But when Robert took me to Michelan­ gelo’s statue of Moses he asked me a question. Pointing out the curl of the upper lip, he asked, “Is he feeling contempt?” Robert taught me intelligent looking. He showed me that the best paintings and statues demand a response from our innermost selves. Just like poets, artists use the tricks of their trade-per­ spective, rounding, color, light, shape-to express a meaning, to show us what is impor­ tant about their subjects for human beings. Painting technique is a language as much as written words or musical notes, and one can learn to read and understand from it the truth of being a human being. A building in the hands of a great architect becomes an organic whole designed to satisfy our craving for wholeness: our lives are elevated by it and made more orderly and purposeful. If one looks at Manet’s painting, “Le balcon,” one sees the artist Berthe Morrisot looking out Robert Bart and down, with ferocious intensity: perhaps above all, artists by looking are teaching us that it requires effort to look and that no part of the world we inhabit is just present for us without our labor. Nick Maistrellis, by mentioning to me what he was thinking about saying here today, helped me to understand that the key to what came to be my friendship with Robert is learn­ ing, that is, my learning. That was an inevitable consequence of how Robert did everything and of who he was. He was posi­ tively unable to keep anything at a “safe” dis­ tance, from which one might think or talk about it as if one were not involved. To every­ thing and everyone he had an immediate, vis­ ceral response. Never for him was the life of the mind divorced from our personal relation­ ships to one another, and the one always importantly informed the other. He taught me that taste is absolute and that people of integrity have to judge. His judg­ ments often made me terribly uncomfortable, but I also learned from them that to stay alive and awake and questioning, to encounter peo­ ple and ideas genuinely, one has to make judg­ ments. Part of why Robert was such a holy ter­ ror to many students and colleagues was because in his presence everything one said and did was constantly and relentlessly judged. There could be no off-hand, unthinking remarks, because he was thinking all the time, and he was unscrupulously honest about what he thought. At times he would take enormous offense at a chance remark, unable himself to believe that the words were not intended, because for him everything was intentional. But he suffered also from staircase self-hon­ esty. He would go through paroxysms of remorse over what he had said to people. He also had the peculiar quality of frequently {The College -Sr. John’s College ■ Spring 2001 } 43 doing more justice to people behind their backs than he could do to their faces. It was not uncommon in Instruction Committee meetings for him to speak in praise of people whom he only bristled at face to face, and at such times nothing of what one might call per­ sonal feeling clouded his ability to evaluate. This intellectual generosity was accompa­ nied by a truly remarkable generosity in other ways. AU his life he lived by a standard of extreme ascetic economy while giving prodi­ gious amounts of money to the college and to his friends. In the last years of his life he became friends with a young woman he hoped would help him to remain in his home a little longer, but when he learned of her desire to go to graduate school in Washington, he made up the difference between her scholarship and what she needed to be able to attend. When he had first come home from the hospital after his second heart attack, I was spending seminar nights staying in his house, and I woke up one morning finding him sweeping the snow off my car with a broom, hardly able to walk. For him it was easy to give to and to spend on oth­ ers and next to impossible to spend on himself. He was terribly lonely and often agonized by a sense that he had driven away some of the finest friends he had had. He told me once on one of the rare occasions that he spoke of his past and his childhood that in school he had never had a friend. I came to see how coming to the college meant so much to him personal­ ly as well as intellectually. At the college he made the first real friendships of his life. He needed others around him constantly, and his life was best for him when he could spend two meals a day in conversations with one other of those he cared about. Once someone became his friend they were a part of him forever, even though there were few with whom this did not take the form of a constant struggle. Bill O’Grady once said of St. Paul that just exactly a man who found it hard to love would have to struggle to come to know (and to say) what love is. Those words could just as well have been said about Robert, for because love, the most intense and close relationship of one human being to another, was so hard for him, he devoted his life to trying to see it, to learn it, to say it, to do it, and to give it to others. Such was Robert. I think he was a great man. 4" The college has established the Robert Bart Endowment Fund, to be usedforfinancial aid for students. Contributions can be sent c/o Advancement Office, St. John's College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87501-4599 �{St. John’s Forever} he King William Players “girl trouble” as a result of his effort. Al staged the American pre­ Sugg (A54) played the Skeleton, a mysteri­ miere of Thomas Cranmer of ous spirit figure who offered counsel to the Canterbury, a verse drama embattled Cranmer. Jo Thoms, wife of about Henry VIII’s archbish­ tutor Bert Thoms, played Anne Boleyn op who suffered martyrdom (third from left in the photo) and also as a result of his stance on the kingdesigned ’s the set and the costumes, which divorce from Catherine of Aragon.included Two a medallion necklace for the king productions took place-February 9 and 10, that was fashioned from tin can lids. 1951-in the Great Hall. A group of students Richard Edelman (A51) produced and had read and discussed Charles Williams’ directed. In his quest for authenticity, difficult, disturbing work the previous Edelman tried to rent furniture appropri­ spring and vowed to put on the play. Talk ate to the period but was unable to find it. about a production: this one took nine When he spotted some pieces that looked months of preparation and involved a hun­ like they ’d work in the lobby of Lowe’s dred students and townspeople. Valencia Theater in Baltimore, he wrote Tutor Hugh McGrath played Cranmer; the owners, who allowed the KWP to bor­ his dramatic bearing and resonant English row the furniture. Always avant garde, the accent must have been perfect for the part. King William Players employed unusual Paul Rickolt (A52) was Henry VIII (second three-leveled staging and at times they from the left in the photo). According to played their roles standing-or racingnews accounts from the Annapolis paper. among members of the audience. And, in The Evening Capital, Mr. Rickolt spent the St. John’s spirit of trying to get to the months growing a beard so that his looks would be authentic. 1951 was not a big year root of every issue, tutor Winfree Smith for the popularity of facial hair, and he gave a lecture before the play on the reported being stared at and experiencing British Reformation period. T {The College - St. John’s College . Spring 2001 } From the college archives COMES THIS 1951 photo OF AN elaborate King William Players production. V ► ■' �{Alumni Events Calendar} Croquet Match St. John'’s vs. U.S. Naval Academy Saturday atj, 1 p.m., (Rain date; April 29) CLASS OF Summer Alumni Program, Week 1 Section I - The Art ofLiving Well Readings from Montaigne’s Essays and Chuang-Tzu Led by Mark Rollins and Krishnan Venkatesh If to philosophize is to learn how to die, by” what can we learn how to live? These semi­ nars will constitute an imagined conversa­ tion between one of the greatest Taoist sages and the i6th century Frenchman who first wrote the personal essay. Although the cultural roots of these two men are quite dif­ ferent, both share a deep suspicion of human claims to know, and both draw from huge treasuries of story and anecdote in their nimble interrogations of life. They engage many of the same issues-among others: dying, illness, disability, ambition, thought itself, and even the value of doing nothing-and introduce us to some surpris­ ing teachers. Lord Wen-Hui said, “That’s good indeed! Ting the cook has shown me how to find the Way to nurture life.” Section II- Two Dialogues With God Readings from The Bhagavadgita and The Book of Job Led by Phil LeCuyer and Michael Wolfe Participants will explore two conversations with God, one from the Hebrew scriptures and the other from an Indian epic. Morning seminars will revolve around Job’s encounter with the Lord in the Book of Job. Afternoon seminars will be devoted to Arju­ na’s exchange with Krishna in The Bha­ gavadgita. 7 A , Informal mini-reunions happen at the Croquet Match. Last year, the class of ’89 MET on the lawn; they brought new <*• All-Alumni Art Show in Santa Fe BABIES, SPOUSES, FRIENDS, AND LOTS OF FOOD AND WINE. lecoming aooi - Annapolis o' tiuii lecoming aoor ■ ® ' it' - Santa Fe Frid! Reunion classes: 71, 76, 81, 86, 91, and 96 September 30 Reunion Classes: 36, 41, 51, 56, 61, 66, 71, 76, 81, 86, 91, and 96 JT Summer Alumni Program, Week ^unudy) JLLiy xo j?ixuHy, j fflta Fe Mysteries and the Law: The Nature ofEvidence Led by Eva Brann, Grant Franks, and Barbara Lauer Who done it? How do you know who done it? How does the polity justly deal with he or she who done it? This week of mixed media and conversa­ tion addresses questions of crime, investiga­ tion, and punishment. Through the eyes of modern filmmakers and both contemporary and ancient playwrights and authors, we will examine the influences of perception and judgment in relation to mysteries. Texts include Billy Budd, Eumenides, Twelve Angry Men, and Pirandello’s So It Is (IfYou Think So). {The College - St John's College • Spring 2001 } For information on events, contact the Offices of Alumni Activities: Tahmina Shalizi, Director of Alumni and Parent Activities Santa Fe - 505-984-6103; tshalizi@mail.sjcsf.edu Roberta Gable, Director of Alumni Activities Annapolis - 410-626-2531; alumni@sjca.edu �STJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS > SANTA PE Published by the Public Relations Office Box 2800 Annapolis, Maryland 21404 ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED Periodicals Postage Paid � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The College </em>(2001-2017) Description An account of the resource The St. John's College Communications Office published <em>The College </em>magazine for alumni.  It began publication in 2001, continuing the <em>St. John's Reporter</em>, and ceased with the Fall 2017 issue.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The College" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=56">Items in The College (2001-2017) Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context thecollege2001 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 44 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The College, Spring 2001 Description An account of the resource Volume 27, Issue 2 of The College Magazine. Published in Spring 2001. Misnumbered as issue 3. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Goyette, Barbara (editor) Borden, Sus3an (assistant editor) Behrens, Jennifer (graphic designer) Mulry, Laura J. (Santa Fe editor) Johnson, David Hanlon, Erin Wolff, Peter Balkcom, John Eoyang, Glenda H. Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 27, Issue 3 Spring 2001 The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/c3f54aaf96a8b474b0dbc5107c5f0841.pdf 282945520a69dbe9701b5ca5807f088f PDF Text Text ���������������������������������������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 58 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Questions of Lear and Cordelia Description An account of the resource Typescript of a lecture delivered on September 7, 2007, by Louis Petrich as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Petrich, Louis Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-09-07 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. King Lear Cordelia (Legendary character) Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Petrich_Louis_2007-09-07 Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/6000ce628b9c12de7dd73c8bb1995edd.pdf 1e31c95a58ad4b1ad8f3c4c869929f25 PDF Text Text �STJOHN’S College ANNAPOLIS ■ SANTA FE On Faraday The College (usps 018-750) ichael Faraday was the Horatio Alger of Victorian Eng­ land. His father was a not-especially-successfnl black­ smith who had emigrated to London from Westmorland when the family fell on hard times. Faraday was born there in 1791. He went to school until he was 13 and at 14 he was apprenticed to a bookbinder. Through reading, the young man became fascinated with science. By the time he was 19 he was conducting chemical experiments on his own, with equip­ ment and materials he was able to scrounge, and he attended public lectures at the Royal Institution with tickets provided by one of the bookbinder’s patrons. In a positive effort at self-improvement, Faraday worked to purge his accent of Cockney origins. He corresponded with like-minded young men who also sought to expand their intellectual horizons. He considered science a noble activity and once wrote: “My desire was to escape from trade, which I thought vicious and selfish, and to enter into the service of science, which I imagined made its pur­ suers amiable and liberal.” On a long shot, without any introduction, Faraday wrote Sir Humphrey Davy, the eminent chemist, and enclosed the notes he had taken on Davy’s lectures. Later, when Davy injured his eyes in an experiment, he sent for Faraday to write for him and serve as an assistant. From there, Faraday’s rise in the very active Victorian world of science was swift. By 1813 he had been appointed Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution. By 1835, Faraday was the director of the laboratory at the Royal Institution. He lived upstairs, having married the daughter of a well-to-do silversmith, and had his laboratory in the basement. His focus was experimentation and on explaining to the public the principles governing nature. In r83i he began research into electromagnetic induction, resulting in a paper that established his reputation. He published 400 articles and books, including the monumental Experimental Researches in Electricity. Scientists in Victorian Britain felt a civic responsibility to use their expertise for the public good. Faraday made recommendations on railway safety. In his 60s he traipsed over rocky seacoast terrain to visit lighthouses and study how to improve their operation. He was called in to investigate a fatal mine explosion. He tried to improve the quality of steel by making different alloys. Faraday wasn’t a mathematician, and his experiments did not depend on or seek to find a mathematical explanation of the world. Faraday belonged to a strict Christian sect called the Sandemanians. He saw the natural world as divinely created, and sought the natural laws he felt reflected God’s will. Maxwell, who later developed the equations that described what Faraday had dis­ covered about electromagnetism, called him “The Great Electrical Philosopher.” M ~BG is published quarterly by St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM. Known office of publication: Public Relations Office St. John’s College Box a8oo Annapolis, MD 21404-2800 Periodicals postage paid at Annapolis, MD Send address changes to The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, Box a8oo, Annapolis, MD 21404-2800. postmaster: Annapolis 410-626-2539 b-goyette@sjca.edu Barbara Goyette, editor Sus3an Borden, assistant editor Jennifer Behrens, graphic designer Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Katherine Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 classics@mail.sjcsf.edu Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board Alexis Brown Grant Franks Robert Glick David Levine Margaret Odell John Rankin Ginger Roherty Tahmina Shalizi Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} Page Z2i Commencement 2001 DEPARTMENTS Elliott Zuckerman delivered a series of “preludes” for graduates in Annapolis; in Santa Fe, Cornel West urged graduates to challenge the assumptions of contempo­ rary mass culture. Page 2, FROM THE BELL towers • • • • • • • • • z6 Sophomore Seminar Forever All Johnnies have wrestled with the questions about faith, suffering, God, and mortality. But some alumni, whether by conviction or vocation, live in a world where theology is more than a speculative study. Faraday, the Experimenter Balkcom Inauguration invitation Liberty Tree clones New dean and GI director appointments McDowell’s facelift Poetry Slam highlights Philanthropia news The studs of St. John’s Mortimer Adler, an appreciation II ALUMNI VOICES • Marx Redux 36 ALUMNI NOTES ALUMNI PROFILES 38 Barbara Rogan (SF73) is a novelistshe can’t help writing Page 2/0 31 Robert Bienenfeld (SF80) markets tomorrow’s cars today Rousseau and Realpolitik 33 Tia Pausic (A86), a lawyer by training, works to build democracy in Croatia Five alumni in the world of politics discuss how the political philosophy on the pro­ gram relates to the issues they deal with in their professional lives. 36 Catherine Allen (A69), a cultural anthropologist, focuses on the people of the Andes Page 28 40 LETTERS It Takes Two Villages 41 OBITUARIES Timothy Miller considers what it means to learn in a community in his Dean’s Statement. • 43 HISTORY • Page /j-6 Nick Maistrellis on Leo Raditsa (page 43) The colorful past of Hunt House PAGE 46 43 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Say It Isn’t So What happened to St. John’s domination in croquet? ON THE COVER Michael Faraday. Illustration by DavidJohnson. • Finding lost alumni • Welcoming new alumni • Amendment procedures 48 ST. John’s forever �2. {From the Bell Towers} The Experimenter as Entertainer Michael Faraday was more than “the great electricalphilosopher. ” Who would think the burning of an ordinary candle a fascinating subject of study? Michael Faraday did, and his lecture on the topicoriginally delivered for childrenwas re-created this spring at a conference on Faraday held in Annapolis. “There is not a law under which any part of this uni­ verse is governed which does not come into play, and is not touched upon, in these phenomena,” wrote Faraday in the introduction to his lecture “The Chemical His­ tory of the Candle.” Grant Franks (A78), a tutor in Santa Fe, donned the garb of a nineteenth century gentieman­ scientist (a suit put together by his wife, based on a pattern for an Abe Lincoln Halloween costume) and grew three month’s worth of side­ burns in order to play Faraday. His demonstra­ tions performed in front of a crowd of students, faculty, visi­ tors, and children kicked off the three-day conference. Franks-asFaraday showed how a candle forms a cup for the melted wax, how capillary attraction occurs as a candle burns, how a candle’s vapor is combustible even after the flame is blown out, why a can­ dle flame is brightest at the top and darker toward the bottom, and how tongues of flame differ from a single candle flame, among other things. Learn­ ing the hues to the talk was the easy part. More challeng­ ing was assembling the props. “Finding different kinds of candles, shaping the glass tubes, practic­ ing the technique of piping gas out of a flame, figuring out how much copper chloride to add to the alcohol to make a green flame-it involved a lot of STUFF,” says Franks. Faraday dehvered public lectures, not in an academic setting but at the Royal Institution. The lab where he carried out his own experi­ ments was in the basement. “Faraday is important because he learns about the world by manipu­ lating it with his hands, not by casting it into algebraic forms that he can play with on a black­ board,” says Franks. “Of course, no scientist is obhvious to experi­ mental results, but Faraday is especially wonderful in the way his thoughts take physical form in the apparatus he builds.” Faraday understood the idea that there can be some show business in science-“Faraday was, among other things, the precursor of Mr. Wiz­ ard and of Bin Nye the Science Guy,” says Franks. The conference (sponsoredby the Dibner Fund) focused on two issues: How does experiment lead one to knowledge of nature, and how can such knowledge be made accessible to others, especially to non-scientists. Faraday is particu­ larly apt as a focus for these ques­ tions, says Annapolis tutor Howard Fisher, one of the confer­ ence organizers. While Faraday’s Experimental Researches in Elec- Santa Fe tutor Grant Franks, FaRADAY, PLAYING THE PART OF demonstrates the characteris­ tics OF flames. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } tricity is read in junior lab and several of his experiments on electromagnetism and electro­ magnetic fields are performed, his method of thinking and his approach to experimentation are themselves worthy of investiga­ tion and thought. The confer­ ence’s keynote lecture was dehv­ ered by tutor emeritus Thomas Simpson (A50) on the topic “Was Faraday a Mathematician?” Other lecturers included David Good­ ing, from the University of Bath (U.K.), Frank James, from the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and Ryan Tweney, from Bowling Green State University. In addi­ tion to the lectures and the candle demonstration, the conference featured a roundtable discussion of Faraday’s “Lecture on Mental Education” and some student demonstrations of classic Faraday experiments. Faraday, whom Maxwell called “the great electrical philoso­ pher,” has been studied at St. John’s for more than 30 years; a part of his 7th series on electro­ chemical equivalents was done in senior lab and small segments of the nth series on induction in junior lab. About four years ago, Annapohs adopted the Santa Fe manual for junior lab electricity and magnetism, which included much more generous portions of both Faraday and Maxwell, who developed the mathematical equations for the phenomena of electromagnetism that Faraday showed. A book by Howard Fish­ er, Faraday’s Experimental Researches in Electricity: Guide to a Eirst Reading, has just been published by Green Lion Press (run by Bill Donahue, A67, and Dana Densmore, A65, SFGI93); Green Lion has also just come out with a three-volume reprint of Faraday’s Experimental Research­ es in Electricity. “The conference was a great delight,” says Fisher. “I saw again, first hand, how deeply Faraday’s way of pursuing a ques­ tion resonates with ordinary read­ ers who respect a natural clarity in the things around them.” �{From the Bell Towers} Balkcom Inauguration Set for September All St. John’s College alumni are invited to attend the inaugura­ tion of John E. Balkcom as Santa Fe’s fifth president. Events will take place on Friday and Satur­ day, September 14 and 15. Dr. Hanna Holborn Gray, president emeritus of the University of Chicago, will give the inaugural address. Students, faculty, alum­ ni, and staff have been working on committees to organize the celebration, which wiU include events for all segments of the college community. The theme “Inviting Conversations” was developed to capture a sense of Mr. Balkcom’s vision for his Liberty Tree Lives On? When the Liberty Tree suc­ cumbed to damage from Hurri­ cane Floyd in the fall of 1999, lovers of the tree took heart in the fact that there were several offspring: a seedling planted across front campus, in front of what is now the Greenfield Library, by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1889 is now a very large tree; a Liberty Tree descendant from a seed hatching project begun by the Caritas Society in 1975 thrives on the grounds of the U.S. Capi­ tol; and some crack scientists at the University of Maryland are working on cloning the Liberty Tree using shoots taken from the tree’s new growth just months before the hurricane. Now it seems that the baby Liberty Tree on the Capitol grounds may be endangered itself. A plan to expand the Capi­ tol building with the construc­ presidency: a commitment to the program, including his intention to further relations within the college community and expand relationships with those who are unfamiliar with the college. On September 14, students, faculty, and staff will launch the weekend with a picnic on the soccer field, followed by an all­ college Chicago-style softball game (an athletic challenge that resembles “mush ball”). On Fri­ day evening, inaugural guests and college community mem­ bers will join with the Santa Fe community for a performance at the newly renovated Lensic Per­ tion of a visitors cen­ ter calls for the Lib­ erty offspring, along with 83 other trees that have national significance (some planted by Congress­ men to honor people or events important in their state’s histo­ ry) to be cut down. The tree, planted in 1978 by Maryland’s then-senator, Charles McC. Math­ ias, is now 40 feet high, with a trunk that is almost ao inches in diameter. Because the tree is so large, moving it would be expensive and perhaps fatal. However, after a couple of articles in the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun reported on its fate, the Liberty progeny suddenly appeared on the list of trees slated to be moved rather than chopped. Rebecca Wilson, former public relations director at St. John’s and the planner of forming Arts Center in down­ town Santa Fe. Students and alumni, in addition to profes­ sional musicians, will perform in honor of the occasion. There will be an Inaugural Breakfast for guests of the college and dele­ gates from distinquished liberal arts institutions on Satur­ day morning, followed by the official Inaugu­ ration at IO a.m. on Meem Library Placita. Immediately after the 3 installation of Mr. Balkcom, a reception will take place on the Upper Placita. Saturday evening, the festivities will conclude with a Student and Alumni Waltz Party in the Great Hall. 4- John Balkcom will BECOME Santa Fe’s fifth PRESIDENT IN AN INAUGU­ RATION THAT CELEBRATES THE St. John’s Program. ''The clones have been recalcitrant to rootformation ...bittwehaveni given up.'' The Liberty Tree, ca. 1955. WILL ITS OFFSPRING SURVIVE? the Liberty Tree seedling project in the 1970s, expressed dismay about the transplanting. “I don’t think it can survive the move,” she told the Baltimore Sun. She hopes instead that the design of the visitors center can be {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2001 } modified to save the trees. As for the clones, Gary Cole­ man, a University of Maryland professor who took cuttings of Liberty Tree shoots, says in an email that he is still working on the project. “We have estab­ lished tissue cultures and have managed to increase the number of cultured shoots through this process. Although this is good news, the clones have been very recalcitrant to root formation,” he says. “We haven’t given up and will continue until we suc­ ceed.” 4- �{From the Bell Towers} New Appointments FOR Dean, GI Directors Bill Pastille GI Director, Annapolis What qualifies a tutor to lead the Graduate Institute? Annapolis tutor Bill Pastille has one idea: “An advanced sense of not knowing anything.” As he begins his three-year term as Director of the Annapolis Gradu­ ate Institute this summer, Pastille discusses his Socratic take on life: “Socrates has become more and more understandable to me, his repeated refrain: I know that I don’t know. People either regard that statement as a sham, false modesty, or they try to take it seri­ ously,” Pastille says. “Socrates seems to know all the answers, but the more I live with him, the more I see it’s just a simple human truth. We’re constantly pretending to ourselves that we know something so that we’U have something to hang onto.” Pastille earned a BA in music from Brown University and an MA and PhD in musicology from Cor­ nell University. He became a tutor in 1986 and served as assistant dean from 1994 to 1996. It’s entirely likely that Gradu­ ate Institute students share Pastille’s sense of not knowing. Outgoing Director Michael Dink has recently written that they are in some sense more self-selected than undergraduates because “they have decided that they are in need of a liberal education when they had passed the stage of life when such a need is often con­ ceded, if not heartily endorsed, by common opinion.” By SusgAN Borden (A87) Frank Pagano GI Director, Santa Fe As the newly appointed director of the Graduate Institute, Frank Pagano has struggled with the question: what is an administra­ tor? Undoubtedly the title brings with it a slew of managerial mess­ es, loads of paperwork, and tons of added concerns. But Mr. Pagano, like many tutors, looks beyond the trifling details to the heart of his job. He believes the role of the administrator is to “think about how to keep the pro­ gram alive,” and to work to main­ tain the integrity of the program. Before joining the faculty at St. John’s, Mr. Pagano taught at the University of New England. Class­ es geared towards professional training began to replace the lib­ eral arts focus of the college, and the emphasis placed on grades reminded him to appreciate the importance of a liberal education. It should come as no surprise, then, that Mr. Pagano views his move to St. John’s, “where the grades were not paramount,” as the beginning of a “second life.” But this was not his only “sec­ ond life.” Along with marrying tutor Janet Dougherty and father­ ing two children, Rachel and Ron, Mr. Pagano counts his work with the Eastern Classics among his life-changing experiences. Teach­ ing classes in both Chinese and Ancient Greek have illustrated for him the uniqueness of both intel­ lectual traditions. Yet, he sees a startfing similarity between the Chinese and the Hellenic views of history, and he understands this similarity as a “point of contact” despite their differences. While on sabbatical, Mr. Pagano pre­ pared two lectures on Herodotus’ Histories, and the past fall semes­ ter he led a preceptorial on Sima Qian’s The Records ofthe Grand Historian. Studying these two eminent historians has provided him time to reflect on the nature of historical thought and how it is capable of traversing the wide gap that distinguishes Eastern and Western culture. Mr. Pagano sees this sort of inquiry as crucial to the life of the graduate program. In his eyes. Eastern Classics provides an excellent complement to studies in Western tradition. It helps stu­ dents discover, through another cultural perspective, “how human beings choose to live their lives.” Students in the Graduate Institute in Liberal Education also apply themselves to the study of this question, but within the context of their own cultural heritage. Mr. Pagano understands that by keeping the idea of their “point of contact” active, he keeps the two halves of the Graduate Instituteand the study of their distinctive programs-vigorous and alive. By John McCarthy (SFoz) David Levine Dean, Santa Fe David Levine (A67), appointed dean in Santa Fe this spring, brings to the office the experience of being a Johnnie himself. He feels he knows what it means to be on the other side of the desk, and often tries to view his administra­ tive tasks from the perspective of a student. That knowledge cou­ pled with 15 years of teaching experience, including holding the positions of assistant dean and the director of the Graduate Institute, prepare him for the role of dean. His academic career was not always aimed straight for the office of the dean, or St. John’s College for that matter. He spent his first year of undergraduate work at the University of Pennsyl­ vania, and it was not until he encountered that “sting ray” of a philosopher, Socrates, that he made a move for St. John’s. “Plato (The College ■ St. John's College ■ Summer sooi } “Should the dean wear jeans?” GI Director Frank Pagano (left) and Dean David Levine (right) address all manner of QUESTIONS IN THEIR NEW ROLES. ruined my medical career,” he says. Mr. Levine also had no idea when he was a student that he would ever become a tutor. After completing his graduate work at Pennsylvania State University, and while he was teaching at the University of Oklahoma, he received a call from the dean’s office offering him a position on the Santa Fe campus. He accepted because he knew that the interac­ tion with colleagues and students would be of a high caliber at St. John’s. He has thoroughly enjoyed the teaching side of the St. John’s experience, and is ready to meet the challenges associated with being dean. In that role he must address a variety of questions and demands, everything from “Should the dean wear jeans?” (Mr. Levine sports denim rehgiously) to decisions about faculty employment. He sees his new role as an opportunity to become more involved with student life by meet­ ing with organizations such as the Graduate Institute Council, the Student Polity, the Student Review Board, and the MoonTag, and by eating in the dining hall more often. In support of stu­ dents and the importance of their opinions in the decisions of the college, Mr. Levine would like to see the Student Committee on Instruction re-instated. 4" By John McCarthy (SFoi) �{From the Bell Towers} Of Bricks AND Mortar Venerable McDow­ ell Hall is covered with a fretwork of scaffolding this summer, as the exterior of the 259year-old building undergoes a reno­ vation. Workers from the A.J. Marani Company and Coastal Exteri­ ors in Baltimore are cleaning the brick, chipping out deteriorated grout, and putting in new grout (22 tons of it) where necessary. The cupola, whose tin roof had devel­ oped several leaks, is being re­ roofed with lead-coated copper. Begun as the governor’s man­ sion for the colonial head of the Maryland colony in 1742, the building was abandoned before being completed because of a dispute between governor Thomas Bladen and the legisla­ ture, which thought his original plan for the house too grandiose-£3000 for a house with a central three stories and single-story wings extending to each side, a colonnade of pillars, and on the inside marble floors and elaborate woodworking. When St. John’s was chartered in 1784, the state gave the building to the college. By 1789, the first classes were being taught in it. As late as 179a the college’s Board was stiU petitioning the General Assembly for funds to complete the hall. Until the mid1800S McDowell (named for the college’s first president) served every function on campus-it was the only classroom building, dormitory, dining hall, and pro­ fessors’ quarters (the hbrary Draped in plastic sheets and COVERED WITH A FRETWORK OF SCAFFOLDING, McDoWELL GETS A FACELIFT. hved in the octagon room under the cupola). During the Civil War, McDowell became the headquarters of the Union Army Medical Corps, which used the college as a hospital for exchanged prisoners. On February 20,1909, McDowell was gutted by a fire which began in the cupola and destroyed much of the front of the building. At the time St. John’s had compulsory mili­ tary training and ammunition was stored in the basement, but students managed to remove it before fire caused an explosion. The building was rebuilt accord­ ing to its original design. A com­ plete interior renovation in 1989 reconfigured former administra­ tive offices on the first floor into classrooms and included modern heating and air conditioning. Repointing the brick this sum­ mer proved somewhat controver­ sial with the Annapolis preserva­ tion community, some of whom felt that grout hke the original (made from lime and oyster shells) should be used, rather than the cement and lime compound proposed by the contractors. After a review by the Annapohs Preserva­ tion Commission, the contractors’ methods were approved. “This building was con­ structed in several phases over a period of many years,” notes John Christensen, the Annapohs admis­ sions director who has written a book about the architec­ ture and history of McDowell. “Its brick and the mortar hold­ ing it together are of different kinds. So this careful restoration is impor­ tant because it will ensure the building lasts another 250 years.” Tutor ExtraCURRICULARS Peter Kalkavage, a tutor in Annapolis, has a new transla­ tion of Plato’s Timeaus out. It’s published by Focus Press . . . Annapolis tutor Amirthanayagam David (A86) has a lecture “ ‘I Know Thee Not, Old Man’: The Renunciation of Falstaff’ published by the Universi­ ty of Chicago Press as a part of his teacher David Grene’s festschrift. Literary Imagina­ tion, Ancient and Modern: Essays in Honor ofDavid Grene.. .Annapolis tutor emeri­ tus Curtis Wilson is the author of a chapter called “Newton on the Moon’s Variation and Apsidal Motion; The Need for a Newer ‘New Analysis’” in the new book, Isaac Newton’s Natur­ al Philosophy, published by MIT.. .Santa Fe tutor emeritus {The College. St. John's College • Summer 2001 } 5 Charles Bell is featured in two recently published books by New York photographer Mariana Cook. The first. Couples: Speak­ ingfrom the Heart, shows Mr. Bell with his wife, Diana Bell. In the second. Fathers and Daugh­ ters, he is with his daughter Carola. . .Annapolis tutor Andre Barbera has recently published articles in The New Grove Dic­ tionary ofMusic and Musicians, Macmillan Publishers; “George Gershwin and Jazz” in The Gershwin Style: New Looks at the Music of George Gershwin, Oxford University Press; and biographies of Aaron Thibeaux (T-bone) Walker and Dianah (Ruth Lee Jones) Washington in American National Biography, Oxford University Press... Annapolis tutor Adam Schulman’s book review oIAll Shook Up by Carson Holloway appeared in the Wall Street Jour­ nal in March. The book’s subject is the potentially destructive effects of popular music.. .Santa Fe tutor William Alba is run­ ning the Bard Writing and Thinking Workshop in Santa Fe this summer. The workshop, sponsored by Bard College, is for high school students interested in creative writing. Mr. Alba has also started a publishing compa­ ny, Pulley Press, specializing in small runs of books that are chal­ lenging to print. The hrst book is An Oz Album, a collection of visual poetry related both to Dorothy’s journey in Oz in search of a way home and to a person’s hfe in Chicago in search of love.. .Annapohs tutor Eva Brann’s new book. The Ways of Naysaying, has been pubhshed by Rowman & Littlefield. It’s the third part of a trilogy that includes The World ofthe Imam­ nation: Sum and Substance and What, Then, Is Time?. .. Annapolis tutor Jim Beall had articles pubhshed in Proceedings, the U.S. Naval Institute, “Tech­ nology Policy and Military Readiness at the Dawn of the Millennium” and “Restore the Focus on Technology.” �6 {From the Bell Towers} Franz Strum Slammin’ Stanzas (SF04) delivers VERSE AS PERFORMANCE ART IN THE FIRST ANNUAL POETRY In celebration of National Poet­ ry Month, Meem Library and the Bookstore in Santa Fe spon­ sored the campus’ first annual poetry slam in April. Poetry slams make a competitive art of performance poetry. Partici­ pants are judged on both the content of their poems and the quality of their performances. The most exciting performers interact with their audiences, and the structure of a slamwith poets advancing in the rounds according to their judged scores-depends on the performer-to-audience and audience-to performer relationship. At the St. John’s slam, a panel of judges from the college commu­ nity that included tutor David Carl, library staff member Tim Taylor, and junior Paul Obrecht rated the 15 high-energy contest­ ants on their delivery, content, form, and style. The poets exhibited great variety in form, style, and above all-content. From haiku to blank verse to pure rampage, the contestants never let the audience’s attention waiver. Not for a second. The contestants were students, freshmen to sen­ My Lady’s Blancmange (3poem by winning slammer Mirabai Knight, SF02) iors, with one lone, brave tutor (William Alba). The rounds were fast-paced and fun. The decisions about who should go on to the next round and who should join the audience were difficult indeed. Mr. Carl said he was “impressed with the virtu­ osity and level of skill” of the poets. The first place winner was Mirabai Knight, a junior. Knight proved herself a true actress: with each poem she changed her stance, her accent, and her tone. —Marika Brussel Ye Gods! Her smile, a tender eel whose spark and sinew strike the fray of pallid, melancholy meal awash in jellied consomme. The ringlets twining ‘twixt her thumbs along a swathed stretch of brow, beneath which Thought’s Dark Lantern hums and sput­ ters rich, (as per allow) the treacle-coats of mallow, ripe until they wither, sweet and spenthut yet they wax, as folds of tripe unfurl to zaftig firmament! The pearly spiralling within, whose snares admit of no escape, the slumb’ring lips and sinking chin, the ridge of silk, the sulk of nape... My bosom fluttersOh, my soul! Would that her ochre eyes were mine, and intermittent brilliance through a patient augure’s agar shine. Student ExtraCURRICULARS On campus, they are united by a single program. Off campus, their interests are as numerous as the entries in the Lidell-Scott Lexicon. Here’s a quick look at what Johnnies are doing off-campus these days. Ellie Kocezela (SF04) and Erin Hanlon (SF04) traveled to Nashville, Tenn, to attend the aooi Amnesty International Annual General Meeting as rep­ resentatives the SJCSF Amnesty group. They spent three days attending panel discussions and participating in breakout ses­ {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer sooi } SlAM. sions as they looked for ideas to make the campus group more effective. Adriana de Julio (SFoi) has won a one-year fellowship with the National Institutes of Health to conduct cancer research and Susannah Daniels (SFoi) has a conservation internship at El Malpais National Monument in Grants, N.M. Philip Bolduc (SFoi), Brian Ballentine (SFoi), Karen Gosta (SFoi), and Justin Kray (SFoi) have internships to teach English in France through the French Department of Edu­ cation. Elizabeth Royal (Aoi) will spend two weeks this summer at the Claremont Institute, a con­ servative think tank, as a Pub­ lius Fellow. She will attend semi­ nars on political philosophy and the American political tradition, contemporary political issues, and political rhetoric and writ­ ing. Among the 18 Annapolis stu­ dents pursuing Hodson Trust internships this summer are Randy Pennell (A02), interning with the Philadelphia ybers; Hannah Ireland (Aoi), working with a documentary production company; Lydia Frewen (Aoa), learning to make violin bows at the University of New Hamp­ shire; and Peter Heyneman (A02), attending the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. �{From the Bell Towers} Phoning for Philanthropia Tuition only covers about 75% of what it costs to educate students at St. John’s. The rest comes from the endowment andfrom contributions to the Annual Fund. Phonathons are part of the story behind those contribu­ tions. Q: You throw a phonathon and who shows up? A: In the case of St. John’s, 33 alumni from classes spanning 48 years, from Everett Wilson (A56) to Hayden Brockett (A04). Q: And just what does everyone do (besides making phone calls)? A: Eat dinner and compete for prizes for the most donations and the most new donors (the phone calls involve chatting with alumni, outlining the college’s needs, and asking for $$$). Q: So where do you throw that phonathon? A: In Annapolis, it’s the Conver­ sation Room-where else? In Santa Fe, it’s the Senior Com­ mon Room. Q: And who sits where? A: Interestingly enough, says advancement officer Mary Sim­ mons, at the Annapolis phonathon the very youngest and very oldest choose to sit right next to each other. It’s a Alumni phoning alumni; EFFECTIVE FUNDRAISING AND SUCCESSFUL FUN. social event that brings alumni together for a good cause. Simmons reports that the spring phonathon, held May 15, was a success. In Annapolis, ao volunteers made 619 calls, rais­ ing $r6,arr.5o from 149 donors. Among the donors, 63 were making their first gifts to the Annual Fund. In Santa Fe, 13 volunteers made 38a calls rais­ ing over $4aoo (gifts are still coming in). Of Santa Fe’s 59 phonathon donors, aa were making their first gifts. These high proportions of first-time donors are particularly satisfying to members of Philanthropia, the alumni organization dedicat­ ed to fundraising among fellow alumni. While Philanthropia’s goal is to increase alumni finan­ cial support to the college, it’s not just the number of dollars they want to increase. The num­ ber of donors counts too; foun­ dation and corporate support is often linked to the percentage of alumni who donate. Ginger Roherty, Director of the Annual Fund for the Santa Fe campus, is a fan of the phonathon approach. “There is a tremendous synergy when phonathons are conducted around seminar tables and there is a great sense of everyone working toward a common goal,” she says. “Everyone is truly having a good time and enjoying each other’s company.” Phonathons are one tactic Philanthropia employs to involve alum­ ni in financial support for the college. They also solicit alumni with bro­ chures and letters and they organize reunion class­ es to focus on social events. 7 cyber-networking, 3,035,763 Dollars given by Alumni and giving. FYOl Annapolis cam­ pus vice president 2,083,984* Jeff Bishop says that 1,953,944 FYOO Philanthropia 1,520,683 FY99 expects to meet its FY98 goal of a ten-percent increase in alumni participation in the Annual Fund. “We’re laying the groundwork for the plus $5,000,000 from the estate of Paul Mellon future of the col­ lege,” he says. 2,187 Number of “More young alum­ pYQj Alumni Gifts FYOO ■ ni are becoming 1,710 acquainted with FY99 Philanthropia and FY98H recognizing the col­ lective power of the number of gifts given to St. John’s.” Before the creation of Philanthropia, alumni giving was around 20%, well below the median of other small liberal arts colleges, which garet Odell (SGI97), Rachel is 44%. “Today, we’re up to 25%, O’Keefe (A82), John Oosterhout with reunion classes making the (A5r), John Wood (SFoi), Elaine biggest improvements, now up to Coleman Pinkerton (SGI88), and 30%. “While we have a long way Inga Waite (SF87). to go,” says Bishop, “we feel Philanthropia’s leadership confident that someday we will recently changed. Leslie Jump get there.” (A84) is the new chair of Philan­ Philanthropia wants to thank thropia. Other members of the the phonathon volunteers, Steering Committee are Amber including Mary Pat Justice Boydstun (SFpp-overseeing “spir­ (SGI71), Katherine Haas (A60), it” activities), Eloise Collingwood Merle Maffei (AGI86), Harry (A79-overseeing communica­ Zolkower (A82), Chris Olson tions), Brett Heavner ( ABp-over(A78), Thea DelBalzo (AGIoi), seeing the reunion class leaders), Rosamond Rice (AGI81), Karen Marta Lively (A78-at large), Paula Salem (A76), Everett Wilson Maynes (SF77-overseeingpoh(A56),Tom Tandaric (A98), Pilar cy/membership), Becca Michael Wyman (A86), Tim Pomarole (A97-overseeing strategy), and (A98), Steve Wilson (AGI99), Amy Thurston (A95-overseeing Jim Heyssel (A84), Hayden events/phonathons). -ijiBrockett (A04), Isadora Sageng (A03), Stephen Steim (A03), Stephanie Porcaro (A03), Brooke Lee (A03), Gin Behrends (AGI90), Anne Ferro (A80), Joni Arends (SF89), Carisa Armen­ dariz (SF99), Claiborne Booker (A84), Kit Brewer (SGI98), Alex­ is Brown (SFoo), Peter Dwyer (A86), Geri Glover (SF80), Mar­ {The College -St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } Philanthropia seeks volunteer help from all alumni who want topar­ ticipate, whether in a small or large role. Ifyou ’re interested, please call or e-mail Maggie Griffin in Annapolis: 410-626-2534, m-griffin@sjca.edu or Ginger Roherty in Santa Fe: 5O5-g84-6og<). �8 The Studs of St. John’s Ostensibly as a fundraiser (but primarily for the novelty value) several juniors in Santa Fe cre­ ated the wildly popular “Studs of St. John’s” calendar. Featur­ ing the 15 most macho men per­ suaded to pose for a project ini­ tially dismissed as a dubious attempt to raise money, the cal­ endar turned out to be a raging success. While this “success” was mostly realized in terms of school-wide interest rather than fiscal returns (due to con­ fused leadership and poor financial forecasting), the entire project served Santa Fe well. It’s not every year that the campus is hit with a Studs calendar-and despite the lack of a precedent, the outrageous pic­ tures amused all those exposed to the handsome visages and physiques displayed in the cal­ endar. The project was conceived to finance the so-called Junior Block Party, another first for Santa Fe. The block party-held on a pleasant sunny day in May-featured live music, a bar­ becue, outdoor games, much {From the Bell Towers} lounging in the sun, the third annual women’s arm wrestling contest, and kegs of beer to help facilitate the atmosphere. The block party, financed by pre-pro­ duction sale of the calendars, treated all to a good time and lived up to its expectations. Unfortunately, with a business plan that drew on the dot-com legacy, the calendar’s start-up money got spent on the party and there were no funds left to produce the calendar. After many rounds of creative negoti­ ations with several businesses in Santa Fe and a few helpful mem­ bers of the St. John’s adminis­ tration, the calendar was pro­ duced at a cost far below initial expectations-with photos of superb quality and ridiculous content. —BY John Rankin, SFoa Greatest Hits (in Russian) Valery Serdyukov (left), the governor of Leningrad, recently LiSA RICHMOND (RIGHT), PRESENTED A GIFT OF 30 RUSSIAN BOOKS TO GrEENFIELD LIBRARY AS BuD BiLLUPS, COLLEGE ThE BOOKS INCLUDED WORKS BY ToLSTOY, DoSTOEVSKi, Chekhov, and Pushkin, The governor was in Annapolis to SIGN A TRADE AGREEMENT WITH PaRRIS GlENDENING, GOVERNOR OF Maryland, and expressed an interest in donating books to a local COLLEGE. The Russian classics found a home with the other “greats” at the St. John’s library. LIBRARIAN AT THE A point of history: As John Rankin points out, it’s not every year that the college is hit with a Studs calendar. But such an event did happen at least once before-in Annapolis in 1987, when Ben Birauss (A88) pro­ duced “The Men of St. John’s.” Drawing on the non-PC transla­ tion of the college motto “I make free men out of boys by means of books and a balance,” TREASURER, LOOKED ON. the calendar featured comely men posing in St. John’s-esque situations: Krauss in front of the pendulum pit mural, Steve Hulbert (A87) in the King William Room, Chandran Madhu (A88) in front of an Apollonius proof, Mark Shiffman (A89) at the switchboard, Jeff Kojak (A89) at the plane­ tarium, Andre Wakefield (A87) in a music room, Scott Vineberg (A88) near the French Monument, Toby Barlow (SF88) in a Humphreys bathroom, Vince Pruden (SF89) in the art gallery. Matt Krawiec (A88) at the boat house, John Lavery (A87) in the weight room, and John Pronko (A90) in the con­ versation room. La plus qA change; St. John’s studs in aooi and 1987. {The College - Si. John’s College • Summer 2001 } �9 {From the Bell Towers} Mutant Gene Discovery When Marc Priest (Aoi) began an internship at the National Institute of Allergies and Infec­ tious Diseases during the sum­ mer before his senior year, he thought he’d be learning some lab techniques and helping out with minor projects. Instead, he discovered a gene mutation that was causing a i6-month-old patient to be particularly suscep­ tible to common bacterial infec­ tions that most people fight off with no trouble. Under the direction of Dr. Steve Holland (A79), Priest set out to find what was causing the patient’s interferon gamma receptor-alpha deficiency. They knew that a gene mutation pre­ vented the receptor from processing a chemical that is essential to the functioning of the body’s immune system. He isolated the gene, cloned it, and then com­ pared it to normal genes to locate the mutation. Priest found that both the child and his mother had a deletion on the gene that acts as a chemical receptor for the immune sys­ tem’s pathway. “After I found the mutation I met with the Marc Priest, shown AT GRADUATION WITH President Nelson, LOCATED A GENE MUTA­ TION THAT CAN AFFECT THE IMMUNE SYSTEM. patient and his mom,” says Priest. “I explained to her that the child’s condition was treat­ able. This was certainly gratify­ ing.” Treatment consisted of injecting double the amount of the chemical that cannot be uti- barred, music-wise) Annapolis Homecoming 2001 . The traditional Saturday Take a handful of Annapolis alumni and ask them which building, Mellon or McDowell, is closer to the heart and soul of the college. Only the incorrigible will say Mellon. Yet Mellon’s FSK lobby has been the site of all Homecoming registrations in recent memory as well as the big Saturday evening cocktail party, when the acoustically challenged room echoes with a din ren­ dering individual words inaudible. This year we say, “Enough of this.” Homecoming (Sep­ tember 28-30) will at last reflect the fond feehngs of alumni for McDowell, with regis­ tration moved to the cozy quarters of the Coffee Shop and the cocktail party moved to the Great Hall and the first and second floor classrooms. Other decidedly non-lobby events will include: • A career panel, both for cur­ rent students and job-chang­ ing alumni • Two rock parties, one Friday night in the boathouse (all seventies music, sans disco), one Saturday night in the Coffee Shop (no holds night waltz party in the Great Hall Seminars running the gamut from Plato to Emerson, from Robert Frost to Chfford Geertz, from Shake­ speare to Toni Morrison, with a seminar on Harry Potter for children Reunion dinners, picnics, croquet games, and cocktail parties, for reunion classes 1936, 1941,1946, '95>-1956, 1961,1966,1971,1976, 1981,1986,1991, and 1996 • The Special Meeting of the Alumni Associa­ tion, where Nancy Lewis, John Moore and Beate Ruhm Von Oppen will be made Honorary Alumni “Essay Conference” by Jo Ann Mattson, A(i7 {The College- St. John’s College - Summer 2001 } lized because of the missing gene. “This particular deletion occurs in only one out of 200,000 patients, but it is significant to study it. Looking at the few that are with­ out the receptors in their immune system pathways helps us to understand how the pathways work. This helps us understand how to help normal people who are susceptible to such bacteria as tuberculosis,” he says. • The Saturday night Homecoming banquet, where Tom Williams (A51) and Warren Spector (A81) will receive the Alumni Association Award of Merit • The Soccer Classic, with the alumni rarin’ to avenge last year’s loss to the students • The Homecoming auto­ graph party, with alumni and faculty authors signing books ranging from western novels to translations of Aristotle and Plato • Sunday brunch at the home of President Christopher B. Nelson (SF70) The Homecoming lecture Fri­ day night will be dehvered by Abraham Schoener (A82), who will speak on “The Biology of the Fermentation Vessel.” Before and after the lecture, students, faculty and alumni will gather, yes, in the FSK lobby. Some things never change. 4" Contact the Annapolis alumni office at 410-626-2331 or alumni@sjca.edu to registerfor Homecoming. �IO {FromtheBellTowers} Mortimer J. Adler, An Appreciation ortimer Adler-a teacher, author of books that popularized themes in philosophy, and compil­ er of the Great Books published by Encyclope­ dia Brittanica-died on June 28 in San Mr. Adler played an important role in Mateo, Calif., at the age of 98. the establishment of the St. John’s Pro­ gram, of which he was a vigorous support­ er over many decades. From the earliest days of the New Program he visited St. John’s, both in Annapolis and Santa Fe, many times to lecture and to meet with fac­ ulty and students. He was an articulate spokesman for liberal education and for the reading and discussion of great books as central and fundamental to it. Along with such colleagues as Scott Buchanan, Stringfellow Barr, Mark Van Doren, Richard McKeon, and Robert Hutchins, he made a major contribution to the estab­ lishment of great books programs not only in Annapolis and Santa Fe but also in New York, in Chicago, and all across the country. In the more than three dozen books that Mortimer Adler wears a crown after being he wrote, Mr. Adler sought to clarify for a PROCLAIMED, A LA NaPOLEON, THE HOLY EmPERwide general audience a variety of pro­ OR OF THE Western World in the 1992 lec­ found philosophic questions illuminated ture PRANK. by the study of the greatest authors. His books included How to Read a Book, How to Think About War and Peace, The Differ­ then went to the University of Chicago as a ence ofMan and the Difference It Makes, professor of the philosophy of law. Aristotlefor Everybody, miHov: to Think Mortimer Adler did not believe that the About God. full exercise of intellect was something for a Born in New York City, Mr. Adler small academic elite. In 1946, he joined with dropped out of De Witt Clinton High Robert Hutchins to organize a Great Books School when he was 15, and worked for the program for the general public and arrange editor of the New York Sun. Deciding that for the Encyclopedia Britannica to print a he wanted to study philosophy, he attended 54-volume set of such books, for which he Columbia University and completed the contributed the Syntopicon, a guide to the course of study, but did not receive a diplo­ themes, questions, and arguments to be ma because he refused to take the swim­ found in them. In 195a, he organized the ming test that was a physical education Institute for Philosophical Research. He was requirement. Even without his degree, editor and then chairman of the board of however, he became an instructor in phi­ editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica losophy, and in 1928 he received his PhD beginning in the mid-1960s. He organized (eventually being granted a BA by Colum­ and led seminars for executives at the Aspen bia in 1983.) He did research in psychology Institute, and initiated the Paideia Project and taught at Columbia from 1923 to 1930, to make practice of the liberal arts and dis­ M cussion of great books central to the high {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2001 } school curriculum. At St. John’s, Mr. Adler is remembered as an energetic advocate of studying the great books and practicing the liberal arts-one who never stopped ask­ ing the big questions, both theo­ retical and practical, and who always relentlessly insisted on clarity in discussing them. He showed himself as such a man in the course of visiting this Col­ lege as a lecturer, with undimin­ ished vigor, for almost sixty years. In the early years, his lec­ tures were several hours long, which gave rise to the tradition, ever since the late 1930s, of interrupting his talks with a stu­ dent prank. Some were simple­ like the first, which consisted of a hall full of alarm clocks which all began ringing at exactly one hour into the lecture. Some were quite elaborate, like the one in which the curtain opened behind the lecturer, to reveal a tableau of students costumed and posi­ tioned to resemble the Renaissance painting “The School of Athens”: there was a Homer in it, and a Virgil, and a Plato, and the restbut no Aristotle; out came a student, who placed a wreath on Mr. Adler’s head and escorted him into the scene, to take the place of Aristotle. Mr. Adler loved it. He took the pranks as they were meant to be taken-as signs of affection and regard for a man who loved reading hard books, asking deep questions, clarifying alternative answers, and making thought make a differ­ ence in the world. Mr. Adler is survived by four sons: Mark, of Chevy Chase; Michael, of Grand Junc­ tion, Colorado; and Douglas and Philip, both of Chicago. A memorial will be held for him at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 29, at Homecoming in Annapolis. 4" —Harvey Flaumenhaft For a retrospective ofpranks staged during Mortimer Adler’s lectures, see page 39. �{Alumni Voices} MARX REDUX By Sarah Fridrich, SF99 n the two-year anniversary of my senior oral-on my essay concerning Karl Marx and his discus­ sion of capitalism-I found myself, late at night, scribbhng a letter in a notebook near my bed­ side. It was addressed to Ms. Engel, the chair of my senior oral committee. The letter began: “I’ve been thinking about and slowly sort­ ing out what excited me about Marx’s assessment of capital­ ism. Now, I would like to contin­ ue the discussion that had only just begun at the table in Meem during my oral. You had posed several questions to me about my essay. The most troubling question was about revolution.” Recent protests at the World Trade Organization talks in Quebec, Washington, D.C,, and Seattle had given me new incen­ tive to decipher what Marx was trying to say about capitalism. The protes­ tors questioned whether impacts that world trade agreements could have on the environ­ ment and on the populations and socioeco­ nomic stability of developing countries would be brought to the discussion tables. Sitting comfortably at my mother’s home in Annapolis where I grew up, I wondered why they thought these things. Why did pro­ testors believe, even though many of them had no first-hand proof of it, that certain issues were not being addressed? Why did they feel compelled to shout and carry signs? It had been five years since I’d participat­ ed in similar activities. I’d started a petition signed by the majority of female students demanding that the administration permit us to wear long stockings during the winter months at our CathoUc high school. I’d Sarah Fridrich, who currently works in MARKETING in AnNAPOLIS, WRITES SONGS AND PERFORMS WITH HER BAND IN HER SPARE TIME. marched past the White House with a body of young people shouting to be heard on the issue of gay rights. I’d made posters and got petitions signed while shouting for more culturally diverse faculty and curricula to serve the needs of a diverse student body at a small liberal arts college in upstate New York. Then, in 1994,1 enrolled at St. John’s and I knew there wouldn’t be shouting, it wouldn’t be necessary. I became accustomed to being heard and having fruitful discussions-in attempts to figure out what it means to be human-on topics such as heroism, war, and revenge; truth, knowledge, and intellect; god, cer­ tainty, and morality; rights, givens, and {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } assumptions. At times I may have felt like holding up a sign to get my point across, but it was never necessary. In silence, I often learned more. I found that, by listening, I prepared others to better hear me. When the discussion turned to Marx’s essay on alienated labor, I felt compelled to put some words on paper, but there was still no need for it to be fluorescent poster board. In my senior essay, I managed to say a few things and to clarily what he meant when he criticized the German Ideologists and when he talked about the effects of capitalism on society. But when the hour for the senior oral was up, it felt like I had just started to uncover what I needed to know from Marx. Ms. Engel asked why I thought that non-vio­ lent revolution was possible within Marx’s philosophy. I really didn’t have an answer. The dilemma highlighted my need to sort out what Marx said from what Marx had inspired me to say. This would take much longer than the weeks we had to write an essay. Working in the business world after graduation gave me the opportunity to test my understanding of the philosophy that labor in capitalism is a commodity, and that capital must create more capital. Two years later, on the couch in my living room, I wondered if these shouting protes­ tors might benefit from a Johnnie-like dis­ cussion on Marx’s ideas. Had Marx laid the foundation for these protests? Did the pro­ testors know it? Maybe not. In my letter to Ms. Engel I submitted: “Much of Marx’s concern about capitalism was that it dehu­ manized common laborers ... Yet in Europe and America most of those labor issues have been addressed in the time since Marx wrote. Might Marx’s insights on capitalism still shed some light on current issues of working conditions? Is there a connection between the globalization of trade and the nature of capitalism as an ever-expanding economic system? ... Should I be making some signs and protesting?” I haven’t felt it necessary.. .yet. �{Commencement} COMMENCEMENT 2001 Ed Moreno (Santa Fe) and Barbara Goyette (Annapolis) BY he graduating Mr. Zuckerman attempted to clothe seniors-95 in the inevitable graduation bromides in Annapolis and in attire appropriate to St. John’s. He said in Santa Fe-chose he would present the seniors and mas­ as their com­ ter’s candidates with seven “preludes,” mencement which “have no required form. They may speakers one each be perfectly made miniatures; or they from the two basic may be mere fragments, famously pools: tutors at baffling to the experts.” the college whose real thoughts they The subject of the first prelude was the have been curious about for four years Tutors Peter Pesic and Janet Dougherty claim that at St John’s, the books are the CONGRATULATE THE SaNTA Fe GRADUATES. and “outsiders” who might have teachers. “It is easy enough for me to thoughtful words to send them on their agree with the truism,” he said, “for one way. In Annapolis, tutor emeritus Elliott of my own exaggerated opinions about Zuckerman presented a perfectly constructed, wittily pack­ teaching is that all a teacher can do is point to something. aged set of what he called preludes, while Harvard professor, Since in the St. John’s seminar the places pointed to are in the author, and lecturer Cornel West wove the theme of radical texts... that gives us both a role, the person pointing and the questioning into his address to the Santa Fe graduates. page that is pointed to. And this becomes a richly complicat­ ed process when, in the course of a seminar or a class discus­ Bromideless Preludes in Annapolis sion, all the participants are doing the didactic pointing.” Mr. Before the assembled seniors and the a6 master’s degree can­ Zuckerman’s second prelude also had to do with his role as didates and all their families and friends, plus students and teacher: “Even though I was officially an historian, I never alumni, Elliott Zuckerman, who’s been a tutor since 1961, was worried about our not doing official history. I have seen what introduced on the bright sunny morning of May 13 by Presi­ happens elsewhere when lectures on the Greeks intrude upon dent Chris Nelson. It cannot be said of Mr. Zuckerman that he Homer, and Machiavelli is crowded out by arguments about is incapable of uttering a trite remark, but it can certainly be when the Renaissance began...” said that he is incapable of uttering a trite remark and not Third, Mr. Zuckerman related anecdotes from his own stu­ identifying it as such. This character trait put him at some­ dent days, when he was enrolled in a course at Columbia thing of a disadvantage in delivering remarks at a graduation, taught by poet Mark Van Doren on Narrative Art. The course since, as he said, “Abromide [which is a commonplace] is rec­ included works like the Iliad, Don Quixote, and a novel by ognizable not necessarily by the inevitability of its words but Kafka. “The exam, as I remember it, consisted of two ques­ by the triteness of the very thought behind the words...Bro­ tions. The first question was: Which of the books in the mides are not only the expected material of commencement course did you like least? The second question was: To what speeches, but they are the substance of Graduation Day deficiency in your character do you attribute not liking this itself.” book as much as the others?...In classes in cultural history or {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer aooi } �{Commencement} ‘‘‘ Use your intellect to cut though the thicket ofmass tastes and mass culture...'' Cornel West {The College- St. John’s College • Summer zoot } ^3 �14 {Commencement} lost, or known students who have felt lost. the history of ideas there was one sort of “Perhaps at such times it might be useful to final exam that I found particularly vex­ remember the grapefruit crate, and to think ing. I refer to the Imaginary Conversation. of oneself as not entirely lost, but as in some One is asked to compare the view of (say) way analogous to the stray object that is both Saint Augustine and Hegel and Jane Austen lost and found and therefore neither lost nor on (say) what is the most important pursuit in Elliott Zuckerman in Annapolis (above). found. Allow oneself to hang poised, like a life. I was never able to get started on such a Santa Fe Seniors reflect on Cornel West’s QUESTIONS (below). character in Henry James who may want to comparison because I couldn’t decide how give two contradictory responses at the same these miscellaneous characters should time.” address one another. Does Saint Augustine Mr. Zuckerman wove the theme of myriad-mindedness versus sin­ call Hegel George? Is it in good taste for Jane Austen to ask Augus­ gle-mindedness throughout his address, and concluded with a prel­ tine to convey the greetings of Emma Woodhouse to Santa Monica? ude on the subject. A fable of La Fontaine, he said, is about a bat who At St. John’s College the students can engage in the Great Conver­ finds himself twice trapped in the nests of different weasels. The first sation without such stifling problems of entering into it.” time, he convinced the mouse-hating weasel that he was a bird; the Prelude number four involved the study of biology at the college. second time he convinced the bird-hating weasel that he was a “We used to do a whole year of biology lab in the sophomore year,” mouse. “And even though such myriad-minded animals are lovable said Mr. Zuckerman. “There was a student who, in the seminar, was enough, it is difficult for people to remain entirely comfortable with particularly taken with Plotinus, and with a principle called the mixed natures in these days that still recommend the Romantic One, which, as you know, is transcendental and undifferentiated. It virtues of sincerity and authenticity, virtues that seem to imply one­ happened that in the lab that student failed utterly to complete the ness. So it may not be so bad to take as a model La Fontaine’s inven­ fruit fly experiment. It was suggested at his Don Rag that he simply tive Chauve-souris.” couldn’t deal with the fruit flies because there were so many of them.” Facing the Big Questions in Santa Fe The fifth prelude included a story about Mr. Zuckerman’s gradu­ ate school experience at Cambridge, where he became friends with An uncommon May rain in Santa Fe marshaled the St. John’s Gollege Watson and Crick at the time they were discovering the double helix Glass of 2001, their families and friends across campus and into the structure of DNA. He and his literary friends had not been open with Student Activities Genter for commencement exercises on May 19. Watson because he was a scientist. “Part of our prejudice,” said Mr. Beneath a soft glow through skylights, in undergraduates received Zuckerman, “had been owing to the fact that those were the years the Bachelor of Arts degree, and 26 received the Master of Arts in when there was a sharp split between the sciences and those pursuits Liberal Arts degree. Nearly 700 visitors watched as the members of that were known as the Humanities. They were even called the Two the largest of the Santa Fe campus’ 34 graduating classes received Cultures, and there were scandalous revelations about physicists their degrees. who had never read Euripides... and The commencement was the first poets who didn’t know how many equa­ major event in the Student Activities tions bore the name of Maxwell.” Center, the new building-opened last Not all Mr. Zuckerman’s preludes fall-that overlooks the Atalaya Trail were from the academic world. The Arroyo. Although commencement is sixth told of a boy at a summer camp usually held outside on Meem Library who constructed a lost and found box, Placita, the crowd seemed not to mind a grapefruit crate that was already that rain forced the ceremony into the conveniently divided down the middle new space. The graduates and many vis­ into two sections. For each section he itors gathered in the gymnasium, while had a sign, one reading LOST and the others watched from the mezzanine. other reading FOUND...Day after day I The Anasazi Brass and the St. John’s watched people come up to the box ... College Chamber Choir performed, trying to decide which half ...was the with selections from the Brass includ­ more appropriate repository.” Some­ ing two trumpet tunes by Henry Purcell times, noted Mr. Zuckerman, he has felt 5 and from the Choir, “Regina Caeh” by {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2001 } j �{Commencement} 15 Gioaccino Rossini and “Sicut Cervus” by Gio­ to raise the courage to evaluate the evaluations, to interrogate the most basic presuppositions vanni Palestrina. The event was a milestone for the college. In and prejudgments in the spirit of intellectual his first commencement as president, John E. humility-back to the grandpop, eye-pop, potBalkcom revealed fondness and love for his first belhed, big-lipped, flat-nosed Socrates,” West ensemble of graduates, recalling numerous said. occasions on which students welcomed him into He continued, “Tradition is not something you inherit. If you want it, you gain access to it by the college community. Balkcom had become president of St. John’s College in Santa Fe just Cornel West in Santa Fe (above). means not just of hard labor but sacrifice, com­ nine months earlier, after a long career in busi­ Annapolis graduates parry and party bat. Looking deeply inside of yourself, and after the ceremony ( below) . ness and management consulting. always acknowledging that when you look inside Commencement speaker Dr. Cornel West, the yourself you’ll see, in part, the antecedent reali­ Alphonse Fletcher Jr. University Professor at ties, the histories, the social structures that have Harvard University, called upon the graduates to use their critical in part shaped us, but never render us captive, because we’re agents. thinking to challenge and question the seductions and shallowness We can make choices and commitments and decisions.” of mass culture and to remain true to their humanistic training. West In an address filled with references to Leo Strauss, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Seneca, and St. Paul, West brought a very contemporary is known for his best-selling book Race Matters, which triggered a national debate on race issues. Touching on influential traditions in focus to the age-old question that faces all graduating students: How religion, philosophy, democracy and populism, he lectures on race to adopt away of life of “genuine questioning.” That questioning, he said, “has to go hand-in-hand with the legacy of Athens: the spiritu­ issues, education and other subjects. Dr. West Uved part-time in Santa Fe throughout the academic year. He attended lectures at the ality of genuine loving, serving, situating oneself in a story bigger than oneself, being able to locate oneself in a narrative grander than college and stayed to participate in discussions that followed, which is how the students got to know him. As in Annapolis, the seniors in oneself, that tries to tease out the better angels of one’s nature, to Santa Fe choose who will be invited to give the commencement get one out of one’s egocentric predicament.” West said young people might realize the importance of not “sell­ address. West posited the essential question: “The one question that will ing their souls for a mess of potage,” but they nevertheless must continue like a drum beat to confront you, the most frightening somehow confront our market-driven civilization, where the guid­ question, the most terrifying question, the question that sits at the ing principle is “the nth commandment: Thou shalt not get very center of the humanistic educa­ caught.” West concluded his remarks by urg­ tion; What does it really mean to be human? We will not get out of space and ing the graduates to continue to use time alive, and what are you going to do their “intellectual and existential armor” acquired at St. John’s to fight in the meantime?” West illustrated his point with refer­ for justice, “not because you would somehow create a better world ences to Socrates’ remark in Plato’s Apology, that the unexamined life is overnight, but rather, as my grand­ not worth Uving (and to Malcolm X’s mother used to say going all the way addition: “the examined life is back to gut-bucket black churches and painful”). As Socrates, who was on trial Jim Grow Mississippi, that ‘if the king­ for questioning the “pretenders to wis­ dom of God is within you then every­ dom” of his day. West challenged the where you go you ought to leave a little graduates to use their intellect and to heaven behind.’ Leave the world just a “cut through the thicket of mass tastes little better than how you found it,” he and mass culture” that dominate socie­ said. ty in the present day. Both commencement addresses are “Intelligence is a manipulative facul­ ty. It allows us to evaluate immediate on the web. Elliott Zuckerman’s speech context. But intellect is about awe and is at www.sjca.edu, and Cornel West’s wonder and astonishment. It forces us is at WWW. sjcsf. edu. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } �{Johnnies on Theology} SOPHOMORE SEMINAR FOREVER Reflections on theoloflcal questions by religious alumni. BY Sus3AN Borden, A87 t St. John’s, we come to seminar seeking answers bnt walk away with questions. Nowhere is this more true than in sophomore seminar, where we read the Bible, the “A saints” and Martin Luther, Dante and Chaucer. At year’s end most of us gather our thoughts, settle on answers, and resolve to live with our doubts and difficulties. But some, by conviction and often vocation, live in a world where theology is more than a speculative study. They are pastors and can­ tors, rabbis and chaplains, ministers and seekers. Their lives are a permanent search, where the questions of sophomore seminar are forever open. Bible ioi The Bible is the stepping stone in the rushing stream of reli­ gion at St. John’s-no matter what their religious upbringing (or lack of it), sophomores all read and discuss the Bible as a part of the program rather than as a basis for belief. For some students, it’s hard to separate past associations and to address the text directly; for others, reading the Bible opens their minds to a new world. The Rev. Janet Hellner-Burris (SF77) remembers her sen­ ior enabling oral: “I had boned up on all those seminar books and I was ready to go,” she says. “The tutor asked me, ‘Ms. Hellner, do you remember the story of the prodigal son?’ and I thought, ‘Come on, I grew up on this stuff.’ He said, ‘It’s in Matthew,’ and I said, “No, it’s Luke 15.’ And then they knew who they were talking to.” Familiarity with the text, says Hellner-Burris, did not turn out to be an advantage: “I had a miserable exam. I could not get beyond a Sunday school understanding of the story.” Hazzan (Cantor) Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo (A95), howev­ er, had never read the Bible until sophomore seminar. The son of a Jewish mother and an Italian-Catholic father, his reli­ gious background was fairly limited: “The only Judaism I had in my family,” he says, “was when my mother got angry at my father. Then she would say, ‘Frank, don’t forget you’re a Jew!”’ When Lanzkron-Tamarazo finally arrived at the sophomore seminar table, he says it was an awakening; in some ways, a rude awakening. “To hear about a God who destroys an entire world of people except for Noah, to hear about a God who would let Abraham sacrifice his son, to learn about David betraying his soldier, that made me angry,” says LanzkronTamarazo. But, he says, that anger led to some lively discus­ sions in the Nick Capozzoli-Wendy Allanbrook seminar and brought him to study Hebrew with tutor Michael Blaustein (A74) for a year and a half. Nine years later (five of them spent studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America), Lanzkron-Tamarazo is now a cantor. Both his training and his cantorial practice require the reading of the Talmud and the AfwAraa-biblical commentaries that inform the Jewish interpretation of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). “You can’t read the Torah just by reading it as a book,” he says. “What makes it a part of the Jewish tradition is the way the rabbis understood it in the writings of the Talmud and the MishnaT Lanzkron-Tamarazo’s problems with stories like the bind­ ing of Isaac were put to rest by the commentaries. “I asked, {The College. St. John’s College • Summer 200 f } �I? ing to him because of his work. “I think there is a tragic char­ acter to existence. God, for bet­ ter or worse, created the world in a certain way and we have to deal with the consequences. That may be blaming God some, but that’s all right with me. I think God knows there’s lots of trouble in this world and it’s not all our fault. I guess I’m more involved now with how to manage the cre­ ation as we find it, not so much asking how it became this way.” The relationship of God and suf­ fering comes up often in Dillard’s work because of the degree of pain he encounters and because of the population of patients he works with: mostly poor, sometimes undereducated, and often with a strict religious background that features a punishing God. “One of the main things patients here need to believe is that you don’t have schizophrenia because of sin. It’s a medical thing, not the response of an angry God,” he says. “That’s a big issue for people here. They think they’re suffering because of something they did.” “Why is the universe as it is?” he asks. “The longer I con­ tinue with my faith and ministry, I become less and less clear about issues that were so plainly clear when I was growing up. I’d like to have God come out looking good, but I think it’s a process where the universe is emerging and God’s under- how could God tell Abraham he’s going to he a father of a multi­ tude of nations and then ask him to destroy his only son?” he says. “I was bothered that Abraham would go ahead with it, even if it Outward symbols of religion like a church steeple or meno­ rah SERVE AS reminders OF PROFOUND THEOLOGICAL ISSUES. was God who asked.” As it turns out, the great rabbis of the ages have had some of the same prob­ lems. “The rabbis weren’t so troubled by God as by Abraham. Before this story, Abraham ques­ tioned everything and haggled with God. But when it came to Isaac, he said okay. He went up the mountain and lied to his only son,” says Lanzkron-Tamarazo. Janet Hellner-Burris (sf 77) “A hero can be flawed.” Yhave a deeper understanding ofthe question ofsuffering than I did in college, but I don i have the answer What About Job? Reading the Bible as a book, as it’s done in sophomore semi­ nar, leads some students to examine the stories in an almost literary way-the implications for their beliefs recede into the background as the stories’ universality is considered. Rev. David Dillard (A89), a psychiatric chaplain at a state mental hospital in Kentucky, wrote his sophomore essay on Job and says that, in the context of his current work, the ques­ tions of that book remain. “Why are people born with mental illnesses? Why should they suffer the way they do? How is a righteous God involved in all of that?” he asks. The questions he first dealt with on a theoretical level now have more mean- {The College - St John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } �i8 {JohnniesonTheology} Y think ofinterfaith work as an opportunity to share our glimpses ofGod. None ofus, by assumption, has seen Godface toface, but each ofus has experienced God in a variety ofways."" Clark Lobenstine (A67) standing is emerging too. I think God is struggling with cre­ ation as much as any of us are. “There’s a theology called ‘God Wins’ theology, where we do everything we can to make sure that God comes out look­ ing good. If there’s a problem, it’s not God’s fault, it’s some­ thing else’s fault. I don’t think God respects that frame of thought any more than a free-thinking individual would.” Dillard knows there are objections to his point of view: “One criticism of this kind of thinking is that I’m anthropomor­ phizing God, but I can’t bring the other kind of theology into a room with a patient.” Rev. Hellner-Burris, pastor of an urban church facing urban prob­ lems (violence, addiction, poverty, racism), also struggles with the question of suffering. “I have seen so much suffering in my workthat question doesn’t go away,” she says. “I would say that I have a deeper understanding of the question [than I did in college], but I don’t have the answer. All I know is that I would rather live with God and all of those questions than without God.” The Rev. Dr. Glark Lobenstine (A67), director of an interfaith organization, tells the story of William Sloan Coffin, a former chap­ lain at Yale: “His son was killed and someone gave him the tradi­ tional line about it being God’s will, and Coffin lashed out and said, ‘To Hell it was! God was the first to cry!’” As for Lobenstine’s understanding of God’s relation to suffering, he says that for him, it isn’t a question of how to understand suffer­ ing but a challenge of how to remain faithful in the face of suffering. “I am very clear that God never promised us a rose garden. There are joys that are part of the spiritual journey, some of which come in the midst of pain and suffering and some of which come in what appear to be much easier ways.” Glimpses of God When Lobenstine was in high school, he asked God to make clear His personal love for him. “I never doubted the existence of God,” says Lobenstine. “But I wanted something more personal.” The summer before his senior year, Lobenstine was in a car acci­ dent. “It was my fault. I broke the windshield and they had to pull the glass out of my mouth, but no one was injured,” he says. “I was very struck by this being the answer to my prayer. God didn’t cause the accident, but I felt he protected me in it. I responded to that experi­ ence, a revelation to me of God’s love, as a calling to my ministry. I was God’s to do with as he wanted.” Lobenstine’s ministry is an unusual one. As director of the Inter­ Faith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., he works with people of many faiths and representatives of many communities on a host of social issues from housing and child welfare to racial toler­ ance and interfaith understanding. Through his work, Lobenstine says, God is revealed to him in many ways: “I see a great variety and depth of God’s love. Although I’m profoundly grateful to be a Chris­ tian, I know from Sana the Muslim and Jan the Baha’i and D.C. the Hindu the great joy they have in their own relationship with God and the depth of that relationship with God. “I think of interfaith work as an opportunity to share our glimpses of God. None of us, I assume, has seen God face to face, but each of us has experienced God in a variety of ways. By sharing ghmpses, whether we are all Presbyterians or all Muslims or all Catholics or of diverse faiths, we deepen our understanding of God while we grow in our appreciation of our own traditions and our understanding of others’.” In her own spiritual journey, Vicki Manchester (SF71) has seen glimpses of God through different religions, from her Episcopalian childhood to a time when she attended a Jewish temple to now, when she has found what she was searching for in Tibetan Buddhism. Manchester says that faith does not demand understanding. Rein­ carnation, for example, is an important idea in Tibetan Buddhism, and although it doesn’t make sense to her, she has faith that it will. “I keep listening to my teachers and seeing that everything else they say makes sense. My respect for the dharma, the teachings, has steadily built up, mainly because it works. Being kinder to people really did increase my own happiness. That’s kind of a law of karma which is connected to the idea of reincarnation,” she says. “A lot of the teachings are mysterious to me. I can’t understand all of them, but I have faith that someday, maybe, I will.” The Rev. Rachel Frey (Agi), an associate minister at a suburban parish, agrees that questions of doubt can live within a faithful per­ son. “I wrote my senior essay about doubt,” she says. “I asked if you could be both faithful and doubtful, something I was thinking about and wanted affirmed.” Now, after seven years as a minister, she says she no longer looks for answers in theological readings. “I have more life experience that affirms my faith,” she says. “When I was at St. John’s, I thought about God in an academic way. Being a minis­ ter, my experience with congregations of faithful people has led me to believe in having a relationship with God, as opposed to thinking philosophically about a concept of God. I used to believe because it was logical, but now I believe because of the things I see in people’s lives.” Frey, who works part-time at the University Christian Church, in Hyattsville, Md., says she set out to find a position at a church with more than one minister so she could continue learning from some­ one with more experience. “I’m at U.C.C. because my senior minis­ ter, Marshall Dunn, is the kind of minister I wanted to be with and work with and learn from. He’s an excellent pastor. He loves his {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer soot } �{Johnnies on Theology} 19 ''When I was at St. Johns, I thought about God in an academic way. Being a minister, my experience...has led me to believe in having a relationship with God.'' Rachel Frey [A91] church and he’s beloved by his church. He loves people and he loves being a minister, which sometimes seems kind of rare. There are a lot of disheartened ministers out there.” Keeping the Faith As a pastor at an active and diverse church near Pittsburgh, Rev. Hellner-Burris has sought to avoid the disheartened minister syn­ drome by focusing on her prayer life. She recalls a time early in her ministry when she saw she was heading for burnout. “I became com­ mitted to daily prayer,” she says. “For me the inner journey is what feeds the outer journey. The inner focus of my prayer life has been crucial to my outward expression of ministry. I can’t do one without the other.” For Dillard, the psychiatric hospital chaplain, the difficult cir­ cumstances of his work keep him from burnout-an irony not lost on him. “This is a place where there’s a lot of suffering and mental anguish, but we’re able to do some good and help people out. Patients really give us the greatest affirmation.” As an example, Dil­ lard describes a group he leads in geriatric music: “These folks can’t remember what they had for lunch, but they remember all the words to the a3rd Psalm or ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’ or ‘The Old Rugged Cross.’ We’ll use these songs to access memories and emotions. We’ll sing the old church song ‘Break into the Garden,’ and it’ll bring somebody back to a little country church in Kentucky. “It’s a gift to worship with people who really want to be in a wor­ ship environment, a gift to be in a service with people who aren’t driving up to the church in a Jaguar. They come with a rawness you rarely see out in the real world where people put on their church clothes and church personas and don’t show their true selves.” -#■ Theology Bookshelf David Dillard (A89) is a psychiatric chaplain at Central State Hos­ pital in Louisville, Kentucky. He is a member of the Alliance of Baptists. He recommends: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky Tragic Vision and Divine Compassion: A Contemporary Theodicyiyj'^&aAy^sAey Either/Or by Soren Kierkegaard The Crucified Godby Jurgen Moltmann Rachel Frey (Agi) is associate minister at University Christian Church in Hyattsville, Maryland. She is a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She recommends: Desiring God: Meditations ofa Christian Hedonist by John Piper Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales by Leo Tolstoy The Christ-Centered Woman: Finding Balance in a World of Extremes by Kimberly Dunnam Reisman Janet Hellner-Burris (SF77) is pastor at the Christian Church of Wilkinsburg in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She recommends: Jesus and the Disinheritedby Howard Thurman Open Mind, Open Heart by Thomas Keating Pedagogy ofthe Oppressedby Paolo Frieire Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo (A95) is hazzan (cantor) and education director at Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim in Cranford, New Jer­ sey. He is a member of the conservative movement. He recom­ mends: The Guidefor the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides The Talmud over 500 years of rabbinical commentaries The Jewish IFtzz-by Josephus (around 37 c.e.) Clark Lobenstine (A67) is director of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He recommends: The Illustrated World’s Religions: A Guide to our Wisdom Traditions by Huston Smith A New Religious America by Dr. Diana Eck Vicki Manchester (SF71) has taken refuge vows as a Tibetan Bud­ dhist. She recommends: The Dhammapada (teachings of the Buddha) Liberation in the Palm p/’FoMr/ZazztZby Pabongka Rimpoche Ethicsfor a New Millennium by His Holiness The Dalai Lama The Art ofHappiness by His Holiness The Dalai Lama The Four Noble TFiztAj by Venerable Lobsang Gyatso What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula {The College - St. John’s College ■ Summer aoot } �ao {Politics} ROUSSEAU AM) HKAI.I'OI I I IK How alumni in the world ofpolitics are influenced by their St. Johns background. By John Rankin, SF03 rom a C-SPAN production studio to the diplomatic negotiating table in F Cyprus, St. John’s graduates have found their calling in the field of While the alumni interviewed for this article politics and government. Could express a great appreciation for their education, they­ this array of positions held by alum see the value moreniinindicate the mental tools and skills they a connection between picked up at St. John than in the content ofread the pro ­ the’spolitical philosophy at St. gram. Reading political careersphilosophy chosen? was not particu­ larly persuasive for any of them in terms of choosing a career; they felt a desire to get involved and pursue the causes important to them. However, all the alum­ ni profiled value the fact that they have read the majority of the political texts that played a role in the evolution of western political thought, and they cite this as an indispensable background for a thoughtful, substantive take on the political world of today. The stories of five alumni follow: an ambassador, a television producer, a writer and television panelist, and two who work at think tanks. Donald Bandler (sfgi 73) “Getting things done-that’s what it’s about,” quips Donald Ban­ dler, American Ambassador to Cyprus. Appointed to the post by former President Bill Clinton in May 1999, Bandler faces the complex and delicate issues concerning this small island nation off the southern coast of Turkey. As ambassador, Bandler’s pri­ mary mission is to represent American interests in Cyprus. This involves everything from providing political analysis to the U.S. State Department, to managing the 200-employee embassy in Nicosia. Recently, John’s and the he played a role in facilitating a major sale of Boeing planes to the commercial fleet of Cyprus Air. The issues facing any diplomat in Cyprus demand thoughtful analysis and careful handling. Divided since 1974 by a Turkish invasion, the status of the island as a whole, and potential unification, remains uncertain. Tensions run high, and lives have been lost in demon­ strations and uprisings. Bandler came to this post with a solid background in interna­ tional diplomacy. After j oining the State Department in 1976, his career took him to posts in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, where he participated in the negotiations leading to the unification of Germany. Consistent with the practice of political appointees, Bandler submitted a letter of resignation to President Bush when he took office. The Bush administration, however, has given no indica­ tion it would like him to leave, and Ambassador Bandler expects to stay at his post. Bandler’s connection with St. John’s began during his under­ graduate years at Kenyon College, where he met several profes­ sors who had studied with Leo Strauss and other academics involved in the Great Books movement. Bandler married Jane Goldwin (A71, daughter of former Annapolis Dean Robert A. Goldwin, A50) and completed the Graduate Institute in Santa Fe several years after graduating from Kenyon. {The College- St. John’s College • Summer sooi } �{The College* St. John’s College • Summer 2001 } �{Politics} ^...the conceptualfoundation acquired from studyingpoliticalphilosophy can be very helpful in thepolicy debate. Donald Bandler [SFGI73] Philosophy Meets Politics Bandler discusses the role that his political philosophy background hasplayed in the world ofRealpolitik in ‘"Philosophy Meets Politics. ” Talking with John Rankin caused me to reflect on whether and how polit­ ical philosophy, my academic concentration at Kenyon College and St. John’s College, was a good background for a career in international rela­ tions. The short answer: a resounding yes. Early in my career I had the privilege of working as Special Assistant to Dr. Paul Wolfowitz, currently the Deputy Secretary of Defense. As Director of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, Paul assembled a group of 20 or so policy thinkers-many grounded in political philoso­ phy, some taught by students of Leo Strauss-with a mandate to provide an independent judgment on policies developed largely by career experts. The policy debate often turned on issues that would appeal to the student of political philosophy: What are the necessary conditions for security of human rights? What deters hostile human behavior? Fear? Hope? And why are so many people so desperately poor, i.e., what causes poverty? Or the better question: what causes prosperity? Later, I had two assignments in Paris, six years in all, ending up as Charge d’Affaires at our embassy. The ambience alone was a political philosopher’s daydream: Ben Franklin’s statue in the courtyard. Jeffer­ son’s name carved at the top of the list of U.S. Envoys. Rousseau and Lafayette memorabilia to explore. Even the pervasive reek of Gauloise cigarettes did not dent the pleasure of a bistro lunch with Jean-Francois Revel, a visiting Alan Bloom or Robert Goldwin. But Paris was not all atmospherics. France wields considerable international influence and enjoys playing her role as a counterweight to America. Although the French Revolution and U.S. Constitution emerged at a common moment, 1789, France had a string of different regimes and the U.S. only one. Understanding the similarities and differences is important in striving for good relations and cooperation. For its part, the French “classe politique” is steeped in history and political theory that rein­ forces its self-image as a competing pole of civilization. This comes out in foreign policy seminars (“colloques”), which are often contentious and are taken seriously. So too, are our discussions with French leaders in the Elysee Palace, the Prime Minister’s office, and the Foreign Min­ istry. Realpolitik generally prevails in those sessions, but the conceptu­ al foundation acquired from studying political philosophy can be very helpful in the policy debate. And when the U.S. and France agree, it is usually a lot easier to build an international consensus. Political philosophy also figured large in my work in Germany on its reunification and on Israel’s peace negotiations with the Palestinians and Jordan-and it is at the heart of my current ambassadorship. “The Cyprus Problem” revolves around whether and how to negotiate a set­ tlement to reunify this island that has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974. Debate centers on “political equality” and whether the set­ tlement should be a federation, confederation or some hybrid. The issues parallel those in the Federalist Papers, especially debate over the respective powers of the states and central government. I maintain an intensive dialogue on these subjects with the Greek-Cypriot and Thrkish-Cypriot leaders on the island, in UN-led talks, and in unofficial study groups led by U.S. academic experts. I would hasten to add that political philosophy is only one of many fields that provide a good background for a career in diplomacy. In fact, the best preparation is probably a good liberal arts education, one that dwells on books of lasting value, leads students to grapple with funda­ mental ideas, values inquiry, and cultivates the art of serious conversa­ tion. Seth Cropsey (spya) A Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Wash­ ington, D.C. (a public policy think tank generally labeled con­ servative), Seth Cropsey studies national security and defense. Newt Gingrich, Lynne Cheney, and former Annapolis dean Robert A. Goldwin are just a few of his well-known colleagues. Cropsey analyzes how the United States military may best take advantage of new technology. He studies the questions raised by the increased accuracy and range of new weapons systems. As history has demonstrated, technological advances such as the longbow in medieval times and the Tomahawk cruise missile of today can render old strategies and plans useless or even deadly. Cropsey’s work creates new methods the military can use to keep their tactics resonant with their technological capabilities. Cropsey also studies the implications raised by the “kinder and gentler” military of today. In recent years, the American mil­ itary has undergone serious structural changes and adopted new training methods. American military personnel often find them­ selves in foreign countries as “peacemakers”-an ambiguous type of policemen far from the typical (and expected) role of a soldier. This often frustrates individuals in the armed services, as few enrolled in order to police the streets of an unfamiliar land. Furthermore, the character type the military has tradition­ ally rehed on to excel-those interested in taking risks and test­ ing themselves in combat-is put off by the style of the modern military and less inclined to enlist. Cropsey began his career in national security in 1981 as a recent St. John’s graduate concerned with the relationship between the United States and Russia. He has served as a profes­ sor at the Marshall European Center in Germany, run jointly by the governments of the United States and Germany. There, Cropsey taught military personnel from former Warsaw Pact countries principles of modern liberal democratic governments {The College - St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } �{Politics} ^3 ''Because I work in politics, lam especially grateful to have read works related to societies organizing themselvespolitically, from Plato andAristotle to the Federalist Papers. ” Eloise Collingwood [A8o] and related national security issues. He also worked with Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr. as the Deputy Undersecretary of the Navy from 1984 to 1990. Cropsey values his St. John’s education for enabling him to deal with a wide range of material and understand the fundamen­ tal issues at stake. He suggests one change to the program, which should not come as much of a surprise considering the path of his career. “Edward Gihhon \Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire\ is no longer on the program, and he should he,” says Cropsey. Eloise Collingwood (A80) C-SPAN producer Eloise Collingwood uses the problems of Washington, D.C., as the raw material for a television show. Collingwood is responsible for getting C-SPAN’s national morn­ ing call-in show, “The Washington Journal,” on the air. This is no small task. Each day begins at 4 a.m. Collingwood thinks up seg­ ment topics for the show, finds guests, determines the leads for each segment, and works with the director and technicians to ensure a seamless program. Collingwood reviews scores of arti­ cles from newspapers, magazines, and the Internet to stay on top of the issues and find new material for the daily show; under­ standably, she values St. John’s for helping her learn how to get to the gist of an argument and relate ideas to one another. Like many Johnnies in politics, Collingwood finds the pohtical books she read in seminar valuable in her professional life. “Because I work in politics, I am especially grateful to have read works related to societies organizing themselves pohtically, from Plato and Aristotle to the Federalist Papers.” Tom G. Palmer (A82) Palmer is a Fellow in Social Thought at the Cato Institute, a public policy research institute in Washington, D.C. He publishes papers, lectures at universities and insti­ tutes around the world, and edits book man­ uscripts and policy papers, determining whether they meet Cato’s standards. He is also director of Cato University, which gives seminars on the principles of free markets, limited government, the rule of law, and other issues central to modern classical liberalism. The libertarian Cato Institute suits Palmer’s interests well. “My life work has been dedicated to advancing individual liber­ ty,” he says. The Cato Institute has allowed him to immerse him­ self in the study of the ideas he loves. In his work. Palmer fre­ quently revisits texts he read at St. John’s. However, he feels that books do not always hold the answer. “I learned at St. John’s that there are lots of people who read a lot, but who have no wisdom or who are bad people, and many more who don’t read much, but who are wise and good,” he says. Palmer does suggest some improvements to the program. He argues that St. John’s “seriously underestimates the importance of economics” and cuts off the study of economics with “one of the most disastrous dead ends in the history of thought: Karl Marx.” Palmer would like to see inclusion of the work from the Marginahst Revolution of 1871, in which economists Karl Menger, W.S. Jevons, and Leon Walras independently solved several prob­ lems facing the classical economics of Marx and Adam Smith. Will of the People? In January 2001, Palmer and two colleagues, John Samples and Patrick Basham, released a paper titled '"Lessons ofElection 2000. ” Among other contrarian views ofthe election, the authors argue that the electoral college should not be discarded, high campaign spending did not discourage voters but actually increased voter turnout, and the misguided appeals to the "will of the people ” by politicians on both sides of the debate represent a confused claim to a concept opposed to the nature ofAmerican representative democracy. The United States is a constitutional republic, not a regime intended to embody “the will of the people.” Talk of the will of the people is profoundly misleading. Indeed, the idea of the will of the people is a deeply authoritarian idea completely at odds with the idea of government under law. It derives, not from the American Founders or from any “Whiggish” antecedents in Britain’s constitutional history, but from the radical authoritarian and anti-liber­ al philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who postulated a “general will” of the people as the foundation of the state. According to Rousseau in The Social Contract-. “The general will is always right, and always tends to the public good; but it does not foUow that the deliberations of the people will always have the same rectitude. We always desire our own good, but we do not always recognize it. You cannot corrupt the people, but you can often deceive it; and it is then only that it seems to will some­ thing bad.” As political historian J. L. Talmon noted in his classic study of the play­ ing out of Rousseauian politics, “The very idea of an assumed preor­ dained will, which has not yet become the actual will of the nation . . . gives those who claim to know and to represent the real and ultimate will of the nation-the party of the vanguard-a blank cheque to act on behalf of the people, without reference to the people’s actual will.” {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer zoot } �{Politics} 24 ''Thepersonal is the universal [in America]. Each individual experience is a chapter in the larger drama called the American Story. Robert George [A86] The United States is not based on some grand notion of the will of the people. American government depends on the more modest idea that the people may delegate certain limited powers to a representative government operating on principles and procedures set out in our Constitution. If by “will of the people” pundits have in mind the Constitution, that is closer to the occasional use of the term by the American founders. But current debate indicates that what they have in mind is, instead, whatev­ er the will of the people is (should be) about particular matters ofpolicy, or who should be president. If the Constitution is the abiding will of the people, then it sets the terms within which policies and officers will be selected, and continual recourse to the “will of the people” is otiose. The phrase “the will of the people”-along with “dimpled chad”-has no place in a system of equal liberty under law. Instead of confusing our­ selves with airy metaphysical talk about the will of the people, we should, with Jefferson, “with courage and confidence pursue our own federal and republican principles, our attachment to our union and rep­ resentative government.” Robert George (a86) As an editorial writer for the New York Post, Robert George writes five or six unsigned pieces for the newspaper each week, covering issues from the national level to the local concerns of New York­ ers. Where George really lets loose, though, is in his regular columns for National Review Online. Favorite topics of recent months are Bill Clinton’s par­ don fiasco and the early stages of Hillary Clinton’s senate term. George’s columns feature slick appeals to his view of the issues and a rhetorical flair unmistakably his own. Although at heart a thoughtful commentator, his columns often leave the reader more impressed by his brazen style than his cunning erudition. Before working at the Post and National Review, George helped staff the communications office of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, writing speeches and press releases and formulating public relations strategy. He then went on to coordinate the efforts of grassroots organizers with the Republican National Committee. His latest project is serving as a regular panelist on the Saturday evening CNN show “Take 5.” On the show, he discusses topics from politics to popular culture -with two co-hosts and guest panelists. My Independence Days Last year, Robert George took a breakfrom his clever and combative style to write a sentimentalJuly 4th columnfor Salon, com, “My Inde­ pendence Days. ” Here we celebrate the Fourth of July. For this writer, everything that the dream called America represents can also be found in two personal “independence days.” The first is January ai, 1971. It was the day an eight-year-old boy first landed in the United States at JFK International Airport. At the time, U.S. hospitals were experiencing a nursing shortage, so the boy’s moth­ er responded to an inquiry from New York City’s Mt. Sinai Hospital. The boy wasn’t happy about leaving his island home. It was only later that the lesson of taking advantage of an opportunity when presented sunk in. Fortunately, a volatile case of air-sickness endured by the young boy on the flight over did not prove to be a portent for future experience in the United States. Living in a country for close to three decades, there are any number of days and experiences that might stick out that also symbolize America. But this writer selects November 3, 1989....the swearing-in ceremony [for my citizenship]. The event itself was rather low-key; ultimately, it seemed somewhat prosaic. The poetry was supplied moments later as the new American emerged into a crisp Maryland morning and looked up in the sky. There, fully unfurled over a government building, was Old Glory flapping in the wind. Couldn’t have been more perfect if Spielberg had directed it. Many people consider the passage of the first 18 years as the initial step from childhood into adulthood. This particular r8-year passage marked a period separating arrival and “Americanization.” Other opportunities followed. Less than three years later, a few of the writer’s words ended up in the last speech Ronald Reagan delivered at a RepubUcan Convention. Just a short phrase, but for a young island immigrant, it was certainly a thrilling, awe-inspiring moment. And then, a few years after that, the immigrant found himself writing for the first Republican Speaker of the House in 40 years. As we celebrate the nation’s birth, it’s not a bad idea to pause and con­ sider our own personal “independence days.” These are the moments in our lives that stand out as uniquely American. At one time, for many, it was the Ellis Island arrival. For others, it’s starting a business, beginning the novel or casting the first vote. These are the days that connect each of us intimately with the opportunity that is America. The personal is the universal here. Each individual experience is a chapter in the larger drama called the American Story. The opportunity to excel within the story is the connection we all share, regardless of race, gender, or any other superficial attribute. {The College -St John’s College • Summer 2oot } �as {The Program} It Takes Two Villages In his Dean s Statement, Timothy Miller considers what it means to learn in a community By Barbara Goyette, A73 very year the chairman of the Instruction Committee (which alternates hetween the dean in Annapolis and the dean in Santa Fe) submits a Dean’s Statement of Educa­ tional Policy and Program. Topics for the Dean’s Statement vary from the hroad to the more specific; sometimes the Statement serves as an institutional don rag or propos­ es major changes to the program. This year, Timothy Miller, acting dean in Santa Fe, characterized his topic as “the intrinsic fundamentals that make this small college precious to its memhers and also a precious resource within the larger educational sphere.” The Statement begins, “For St. John’s College it takes two villages-one in Santa Fe and one in Annapolis. Even in an age of spin the notion of a village has an appeal Timothy Miller (right) included passages that is not merely sentimental. Reaching FROM Simone Weil and William James in his more deeply into our souls, it suggests Dean’s Statement. mutual care and nurture, the daily support of family and neighbors, help in emergen­ cies, the sharing of rituals . . ., recurring celebrations . . ., and ceremonies by which, often recedes to some vanishing point in as thinking animals, we mark the stages of the future.” Tenured tutors are more likely our growth, maturity and decline.” to be granted partial or full leave from Mr. Miller discusses the primary goal of teaching, and they are more likely to have the college as the education of young peo­ added responsibilities such as administra­ ple who are emerging from adolescence to tive posts that free them from the class­ early maturity. The college must meet their room. A result is that on the Santa Fe cam­ educational needs and see to their personal pus, throughout the 1990s, “approximately needs and interests as well. That American 60 percent of tutors have been tenured, but colleges and universities operate on a fourtenured tutors have taught only about 40 year cycle to bring students to this desired percent of the classes. . . Clearly a majority maturity makes for some difficult decisions of our classes depend on the energy and dis­ along the way. tinction of our newer tutors.” He expands on some of the problems this Mr. Miller also discusses the perennial compressed schedule creates for tutors, problem of there being too many books to whose primary responsibility is to “teach read in too little time. The Statement sug­ and make ourselves as competent as possi­ gests alternatives for dealing with the music ble in all parts of the St. John’s program.” and visual art tutorials-including a sugges­ In their early years, faculty must spend tion to move the visual arts tutorial to soph­ much time and effort to learn the parts of omore year and to focus more time in lan­ the program they are teaching. Even after guage tutorials on writing. He also receiving tenure, tutors find that the goal of considers a larger question: “We intend our teaching at all levels in all areas of the pro­ program of studies to have a wholeness that gram is still elusive-“achieving that goal does not exist in the typical college curricu­ E {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } lum. Whatever our judgment about the incompleteness and inadequacy of specific parts of our program most of us believe that the program as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Whether this wholeness may be a reflection of a wholeness existing in the world is worth our atten­ tion...” Passages from William James and from Simone Weil illustrate some approaches to this question of how it’s possible to pay atten­ tion to the most important things. In a passage from Psychology, James lays out an approach to learning that demands “willful attention in study,” while Weil denies the effectiveness of will power and posits that leaving our­ selves open works better: “Attention con­ sists of suspending our thought, leaving it detached, empty, and ready to be penetrat­ ed by the object,” she writes. Mr. Miller cites a passage in Weil’s “Human Personality” that addresses “the proper balance between the individual intellect and the collective in which an indi­ vidual has its natural origins”: “When sci­ ence, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible...But above this level...is the level where the highest things are achieved. These things are essentially anonymous...The human being can only escape from the collective by raising him­ self above the personal and entering into the impersonal...” This passage serves as a source for his final question: “Are we over­ weening in the hope that our lives as stu­ dents and faculty at St. John’s College are directed toward the sacred realm of the impersonal?” Thefull text ofthe Dean’s Statement is online at www.sjcsf.edu/academic/ deanoi. htm, or is availablefrom the Dean’s Office in Santa Fe (505-g84-6o7o). �{Alumni Notes} 1935 Richard Woodman writes: “Glad to read the article on St. John’s in the Smithsonian^ February aoor issue. Those prior to the 1937 class did get a good liberal education with a chance to see the Maryland legislature and U.S. Congress in session without having to wait in line and go through metal detector systems. It was a poorer but it seemed a kinder world in some respects. I wonder how many of the class of 1935 are stiU alive and working as I am.” 1936 Gilbert Crandall, a Civil War buff, recently had articles on that subject published in the Washing­ ton Times and the North Georgia Journal. 1938 Frank Townsend reports that he is still alive and thriving. 1942 Ernest Heinmuller writes about two classmates: “Bill Ruhl died in January. As a community leader in Salisbury, Maryland, he was prop­ erly honored by a large gathering of friends and officials at the funeral. Some of you 4aers might like to send a note of encouragement to Al Poppitti (use the register address). Al suffered a severe heart attack but is showing improvement daily. I have been busy working for World Vision, a ‘feed the hungry’ effort for Rwanda and other Third World peoples.” 1949 Oscar Lord reports that his son, Lt. General Lance W. Lord, USAF, is Commandant of the U.S. Air Uni­ versity Maxwell Field, in Mont­ gomery Alabama. copal parish in Palm Springs, Calif. “This Sunday ‘work’ and a variety of physical problems keep me from attending Sunday alumni seminars in Los Angeles. Health problems hit us hard from Christmas into January. Son David broke his left leg and is in a wheelchair, and wife Rita is on oxygen 24 hours a day due to emphysema. So I get food and run errands until we get David on his feet and Ruth free of oxygen tanks.” 1950 “I regret not being able to attend the 50th reunion of my class this last fall,” writes Tom Meyers. “My health is generally quite good, but that of my widowed sister is not. Perhaps I will be able to make the next one. It will not be quite the same, but one does what one must. Amazingly, I will be 80 years old this coming October-both astounding and amusing.” stayed in pubs, B&Bs, and resort hotels. “It was a blast!” he says. “Great scenery, great people.” Jennefer Ellingston is active in 1953 Charles Powleske reports: “My fourth year of retirement finds me at work on ‘The History of BCIU (The Business Council for Interna­ tional Understanding)’ where I began working in i960.1 also con­ tinue to be active with BCIU’s working group that brings about its annual benefit at the Metropolitan Opera (since 1984); also still active in the affairs of The Princess Mar­ garita of Romania Foundation as a member of its board. I still ‘rest up’ in Mexico when I can (Puerto Vallarta, mainly) and, in 2000, enjoyed April, May, and October there.” 1955 Priscilla Bender-Shore and Merle Shore (class of ’54) write 1951 Alfred Franklin sends a message to classmates; “Our 50th reunion is this year. Myself, Ray Stark, and Herman Small are starting togeth­ er a committee for setting up the agenda. We would like to expand the committee to establish what the class gift should be, who we can get to tutor, and choose the reading.” from California. Priscilla curated and juried an art exhibition, “Susan B. Anthony on Mt. Rush­ more,” for the Santa Barbara Coun­ ty Arts Commission. The exhibit ran from February through April and celebrated Women’s History Month. Eighteen artists were repre­ sented. Priscilla gave two lectures in connection with the exhibit. William Roberts writes that he spent last March bumbling around England, Wales, and Scotland. He A Happy Accident ARL Hammen (A44) sent in the following contribution: “I was a Maryland scholarship student, class of 1944. Going to St. John’s was a happy accident for me. I last Mostly I studied visited oyster metabolism taught cellular and comparative the campus and in October 1999, and enjoyed seeing physiology courses. Also ran the Boston Marathon times. Sinceand a few classmates. Most of my career12was teaching retirement in 1993 I have in taught freshman biology at of a community col­ research biology at the University Rhode Island. lege several times and have held other part-time jobs, the most interest­ ing: enumerator for the 2000 census. I became so good at obtaining information that I was promoted to denominator. Beginning in August I C Richard Frank was made an hon­ orary member of the Societe Asiatique. The Rev, Frederick Davis says that he is still assisting at an Epis­ 1956 plan to teach math review at the Ringling School of Art and Design, one of the best art schools in the U.S. I remember that Jacob Klein said that if you have a mind at all, it is a mathematical mind. My running career continues. In 2000 I was ranked number one M75 in Florida for both 5 km and 15 km.” {The College. 5t. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } the Green party and reports that it now has 84 elected officials. “Yes, we are small, but everyone is grow­ ing green or withering away. Global warming continues and the Arctic ice cap loses four inches a year.” 1957 Arianne Laidlaw writes that she is going to Vietnam as the guest of people she and her husband spon­ sored in 1975. She will spend three weeks there, from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi. She also plans a few days in Hong Kong and Bangkok. 1959 John McDevitt says that he con­ tinues to teach part time at the community college and to make dulcimers and harps. His daughter, Gianna, has joined with his wife in the operation of a country general store and trailer park. “ISI Books of Wilmington, Delaware, has just brought out my newest (of nine) books,” reports Hugh Curtler. “It is entitled Recalling Education and it propos­ es a traditionalist approach to high­ er education that is counter to the major trends today (except, of course, St. John’s) where the liberal arts are in serious jeopardy.” i960 “I am in the third year of a fouryear great books program at the University of Chicago downtown campus,” writes Peter Ruel. “We meet once a week for three hours (one and a half seminar and one and a half tutorial) for three iiweek semesters. Forty years makes a difference in how one reads a book. It is definitely worthwhile to return to what we all loved as young people, and breezed through ivith little understanding.” 1962 Lenke Vietorisz reports a new web site address: members.net/ rrrepasy. �{AlumniNotes} Jon Cohen retired last summer after ai years as a social worker for the State of New Jersey. David Schiller writes that he is planning to deliver another paper for the International Society of Chi­ nese Philosophers in Beijing in July 2001. David Benfield has enjoyed elec­ tronic correspondence with various classmates and suggests that the class of 1962 plan an electronic reunion to coincide with Homecoming 2001. “At this reunion we can make plans for a real face-toface reunion in 2002 to celebrate 40 years of reality. Write to me at david.benfield@montclair.edu.” 1964 Judith Laws Wood has moved to Visalia in the San Joaquin Valley of California. She is a reference librar­ ian at the county public Ubrary. 1966 Constance Baring-Gould writes: “Congratulations on the Smithson­ ian article! My sister wrote to me about it and I really enjoyed reading it. I still protect my books rather than my hair-I’llbet we all do!” 1967 Meredith Burke continues to publish editorials on the subjects of AIDS control and negative popula­ tion growth. Her pieces have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Exam­ iner, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Hope Zoss has been appointed Associate Director of Development at the Chemical Heritage Founda­ tion in Philadelphia. 1968 Ellin Barret (SF) writes that there are several St. Johnnies in the San Francisco Bay Area who are involved with a winter production called the California Christmas Revels. Revels uses a unique form of music theater to dramatize the celebratory traditions of diverse cultures and eras. Both profession­ als and amateurs perform, and there are carefully planned moments of audience participa­ tion. The 2001 show will focus on music as a force for ethnic and reli­ gious reconciliation, drawing espe­ cially on Irish-Celtic heritage, to portray some of the unifying themes underlying the on-going struggles that beset warring fac­ tions over generations. This year’s script is built on the story of the greatest Irish harper of all times, the blind O’Carolan, who, against great opposition, steadily dedicated his life to using music to heal enmi­ ty among peoples. Antigone Phalares (SF) has been a part of the Sacramento alumni seminar group for over 20 years. “Our crown jewels are Marion and Tom Slakey,” she writes. “How lucky it is to have our very own St. John’s tutor and tutoress to con­ tinue those enriching conversa­ tions we began long ago, in Annapolis and Santa Fe. This is life lived to the full.” “Our daughter has joined the Peace Corps. We are planning to visit her in the Dominican Republic this spring,” writes Carol Neitzey Dale (A). tour the ancient Temples in Noa (Japan’s first capital), and see Kabuke. He is a professor of Pedi­ atrics, Physiology, and Biophysics at the University of Southern Cali­ fornia and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. 1969 “Got caught in the dotty-com melt­ down. An interesting experience but one I don’t want to repeat,” writes Frances Burns (A). Joseph Baratta (A) will be teach­ ing the history of math at Worces­ ter State College in Worcester, Mass., in 2002. Carl Severance (SF) is now living in Lexington, Ky., teaching adult education (GED Preparation). His wife Deanna is Director of Ken­ tucky’s historic Frontier Nursing Service. His son Alex is in his sec­ ond year at Boston College Law School, and his daughter Sarah Sebestyen is pursuing a singing and song writing career in New York. Greetings may be sent to carlsev@aol.com 1970 Allison Karslake Lemons (SF) Steven Hanft (A) says, “In nine reports: “I am currently teaching French part-time at Wichita State University and at East High School in Wichita. My husband, Don (SFGI), teaches physics at Bethel College, in North Nevrton Kansas, and my oldest son, Nathan, is a freshman at (dare I admit it?) Ober­ lin College, studying piano (among other things). I’m afraid making money just isn’t in the genes; but we’re leading enjoyable lives (and possibly even somewhat virtuous ones) all the same.” years I can retire.” Thomas Keens (SF) received a fel­ lowship for Foreign Scientists to Japanese Institutions from the Japanese Foundation for Emer­ gency Medicine. He spent nearly two weeks at the National Chil­ dren’s Hospital in Tokyo. He gave two major presentations on his research on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and discussed SIDS and respiratory research with Japanese colleagues. He also had a chance to walk in the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Catherine Carroll (A) announces her marriage to Gilbert T. Lusero on January 6, 2001, at their home in Portland, Oregon. She continues to practice law, spe­ cializing in domestic relations; Gilbert is semi-retired. They will be traveling to Spain and would like to hear from any St. John’s people who are there now or who have travel suggestions, recommenda­ tions, or reminiscences they’d like to share. Their address is 8100 SW 68th Place, Portland, OR 97223. Maya Hasegawa (A) and Bor Wycoff (A) were sorry they missed the 30th class reunion in 1999. Maya’s father Ichiro had become very ill and they went to Richmond several times that autumn to visit before he passed away Christmas Eve morning. Maya continues to work at the Boston Housing Authority, overseeing compliance with civil rights requirements man­ dated by HUD. Bob, working for {The College. Sr. John^s College ■ Summer 2001 } ay Data Dimensions as a systems con­ sultant, survived Y2K and now looks forward to at least several more years of steady employment dealing with the changes required by the 1996 HIRPA legislation. “This January we detoured into Annapolis for a few hours on the way back to Boston from Richmond and strolled around the campus, stopping in to see the new library,” they tvrite. “We had the sensation of being ‘ghosts,’ invisible or nearly so, to the students there, as doubt­ less past alumni were invisible to us when they stopped to gather mem­ ories as we lolled around on a donothing Sunday afternoon in 1967,” Hudi (Schneider) Podolsky (SF) reports: “I’m now the executive director of the National Coalition of Essential Schools-back to the world of teaching and learning that I love so much. It has taken me a long time to come back to this great work, but my sojourn in the profit-making world has given me skills and perspectives that I can now put to good use. You can see what we’re up to at www.essentialschools.org.” 1971 Vicki Manchester (SF) is teaching English and drama at the CIUA Charter School in Colorado Springs. “I helped to start the school four year ago and after three years of incipient chaos the school is stabilizing and even has a waiting list. I get to seminar lots with the seniors. On the non-professional side I took refuge vows as a Tibetan Buddhist in 1998.” Jane Goldwin Bandler (A) and Donald Keith Bandler (SFGI73) are currently living in Cyprus where Don is serving as the Ameri­ can Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy. Jane is a psychological counselor with a specialty in par­ enting skills. They have three chil­ dren: Lara (25), a PR account exec­ utive in New York City, Jillian (23), beginning University of Maryland Medical School in 8/01, and Jeff (24), in eighth grade in Nicosia, Cyprus. �a8 {Alumni Notes} The Writer as Addict Praising a writerfor writing is likepraising a crack addictfor assiduous smoking. Writing is an addiction, and like all addictive substances, it stokes thepleasure centers ofthe brain. Emma Roth in Suspicion by Barbara Rogan BY Sus3AN Borden, A87 mma Roth, the main charac­ ter in Barbara Rogan’s (SF74) novel Suspicion, is, like Rogan, a full-time writer and part-time soccer mom. Like Rogan, she’s Jewish, has a love of jazz, and lives on Long Island. But, Rogan says, Emma is not her. “The main thing about Emma is that she’s very vulnera­ ble, emotionally fragile,” says Rogan, “whereas I, despite my share of occasional woes, am as healthy as the proverbial horse.” Still, even without knowing Rogan, you get the feeling that the two have a lot in common, especially when it comes to writ­ ing. Rogan agrees with Emma’s comparison of writing and addiction. “That speaks for me very accurately. Writing has always been the thing I do that gives me the most pleas­ ure and the fact that I can make a living at it is great. That reinforces it: when you get published and get paid and get all the stroking that goes with it.” Rogan says she always wanted to be a writer. “I always could write, even as a kid I had a talent for writing, a great love for words. I was a huge reader. That’s what led me to St. John’s in the first place,” she says. At St. John’s, Rogan wrote several good essays, but was nearly silent in class. This led, temporarily, to an interesting problem: “There was one essay that was so good and so out of line with my participation in class, that I was accused of plagiarizing it. It was a Jungian analysis oiDon Quixote. I was into Jung that year and it kind of clicked for me in one essay,” she says. “There was a great One of Barbara Rogan’s St. John’s essays brouhaha, a lot of fuss made in the attempt WAS so good, she was accused of plagia­ to find my ‘source.’” When the smoke finally rism. She took that as encouragement to cleared and it was acknowledged that Rogan BECOME A WRITER. had written the essay, many of the tutors involved in the investigation told her that in 1974 after she graduated from St. John’s she should be a writer. and moved to Israel. There she worked as a Though an accusation of plagiarism is an production director and English editor for a unusual source for encouragement, Rogan Tel Aviv publishing house while she wrote took it as such and started writing seriously E {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2001 } her first book, which she describes as a prac­ tice book. The following year she opened her own literary agency, which eventually became the largest in Israel, supplying over 50 percent of the Israeli market for translat­ ed books. In 1980, Rogan met and married Ben Kadishson, an Israeli musician. Their first son (they have two: Jonathan, 18, and Daniel, 14) was born during the 1982 war in Lebanon. During the same year Rogan’s first novel. Changing States, was published simultaneously in England, the U.S., and Israel. “Getting my first book published was a huge thrill and it was published in three countries. I was so new to the business I didn’t realize what a terrific piece of luck I’d had,” she says. Rogan’s good fortune has continued. She now has seven novels to her credit and is co-author of a non-fiction book about the Middle East. Two of her books- A Heartbeat Away and Rowing in Eden-wcxc Literary Guild selections. Her 1999 book. Suspicion, was a Book-of-the-Month Club featured selection. “Every book is a thrill. And a heartbreak usually. It’s a tough career; not the easiest business to be in. You never really feel suc­ cessful entirely,” she says. Rogan explains the trials that come with a book’s publica­ tion: “Very rarely do things just click and go the way you want them to. I’ve seen it from a lot of angles: as an agent, as an editor, and as a writer. There’s always a lot of expectation built up around publication and it doesn’t always pan out.” She discusses the econom­ ics of book distribution, advertising, and dis­ play: “Most books that are published have little or no advertising budget. They’re just shoved out the door with the hope that someone will pick them up. The advertising budgets go to Nora Roberts and Stephen King-a guaranteed return on investment. But publishers do this for sound business reasons. I have maybe the misfortune of understanding their point of view; neverthe- �{Alumni Notes} less, it is often frustrating for the writer.” On the whole, Rogan has heen among the more fortunate writers. Her hooks have been reviewed in the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. They have been released as audio books and published in eight languages. The movie rights to Rowing in Eden were optioned and the movie rights to A Heartbreak Away were sold to MGM. Rogan says that A Heartbeat Away is a favorite among her books, combining sever­ al subjects important to her: a hospital set­ ting, which grew to interest her after her son dragged her to a number of emergency rooms when he was little; jazz, an interest she shares with her husband, a jazz musician when they met; and Jane Austen-Rogan bor­ rowed the plot for the book from Pride and Prejudice. Rogan doesn’t always turn to the Great Books for story lines, but program works are often present in her books. Whether a char­ acter is compared to Don Quixote, shudders when she thinks of Medea, or hides a piece of evidence in her copy of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Rogan’s ease with the great books will seem familiar to Johnnies. Not that she feels at ease with all of St. John’s. “I still have nightmares about Greek,” she says. “I dream that I took a year off and came back and couldn’t remember a single word.” Although she has long since left Monte Sol behind, Rogan remains in the classroom. 1972 JuanHovey (SF) reports: “My wife EUse Cassel and I, being now empty nesters, have bought a lovely town­ house at the far northern end of Topanga Canyon Road in the San Fernando Valley, up on a hilltop among huge stone outcroppings and oak trees that formed the back­ grounds for the Tom Mix movies, for the Lone Ranger TV series and, it is said, for one or two scenes from the John Ford classic ‘Stagecoach.’ There are bobcats up here plus at least one mountain lion and plenty of coyotes, of course; people tell us there is also a small herd of wild goats in these mountains. I continue to write a weekly column on business finance and insurance for the Los Angeles Times and contribute to a number of other publications on the same subjects. Life is sweet!” She writes quickly, notpausing to think, just letting the words spill out. Later she will cut and edit ruthlessly, hut not now. First drafts are playgrounds where anything goes. FROM Suspicion now as a continuing education writing teacher. She encourages her students to write quickly, the way she describes Emma as writing, but she doesn’t practice what she preaches, Rogan approaches her first drafts with a bit more deliberation. “I plan more carefully and have to rewrite less than I used to,” she says. “I’m trying to be a httle bit more efficient. I try to plan out my themes James Burress (A) notes that his son, Toby Burress, is entering the St. John’s class of 2005. Louise Romanow (SF) sends this report: “I find it amazing how busy one can be and not be earning any money! Bill’s and my son Curt is now 14 and cycles to school every day, a rare event today. I continue to push the catbriar back, planting indige­ nous shrubs and perennials under the forest canopy around our house. I’m active in the League of Women Voters, a bunch of opinionated women-always lively discussion, and I produce our newsletter and do a bit on our web site. Keeping up with technology keeps me learning new stuff every day.” 1973 A medical journalist for more than 20years, Nancy Plese (SF) is cur­ 29 more and let the story drift less.” Before she starts a chapter, Rogan writes a list of goals and makes notes on the interweaving plot­ lines she has to work with. She then thinks up ways to dramatize her goals and invents incidents that do so. Rogan says that her new approach to writ­ ing might be related to the fact that she’s now working on her second mystery. “Mys­ teries have to be plotted more succinctly,” she says. “With a character-driven novel, you can meander a little bit more.” Her new mystery, to be published by Simon & Schus­ ter sometime in aooa, is centered on a reunion of old school friends who vowed to get together again after ao years. When the time comes, one of them is missing-mur­ dered by one of the friends. The idea for the book, Rogan explains, grew out of real life, when she and a group of classmates vowed to meet on the eve of aooo. “For some bizarre reason a lot of us did remember and six months before the night we started reaching out and contacting each other,” she says. “It was a pretty amaz­ ing experience and the book grew out of that.” Any chance that some of her SF74 classmates will recognize themselves in the book? Unfortunately not. The group that inspired the mystery was from Rogan’s high school in Westbury, New York. rently Executive Editor of The Pfizer Journal, a bimonthly health policy publication with an audience of sen­ ior health policymakers. She is also the mother of two, Andrew (17) and Katelyn (7), and recently celebrated the 22nd anniversary of her mar­ riage to George Lewert. She lives in Brooklyn, having moved to New York in 1973, shortly after graduation. “My son’s search for the right col­ lege brought back memories of the decision to go to St John’s, which was one of the best decisions I have made in my life,” she said. “On a daily basis, I draw on the knowledge and experiences gained there.” “A bill has just been introduced in the Michigan legislature to require the teaching of ‘creationism’ in our public schools, which is, of course, the starter’s gun to revisit Origin of Species,” writes JoN Ferrier (A). “Jane Spear (A) and I both begin our sixth decades this year, hoping {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } that the owl of Minerva truly does fly at dusk. Tuesday’s New York Times reported on the launching of scien­ tific studies to assess the medicinal properties of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocy­ bin in treating alcoholism, phobias, and other illnesses. Is there no limit to the powerful strangeness of life? Let’s hope not. May chaos find us ready.” 1974 Virginia Newlin (SFGI) is retired but teaching autobiography, working as a poet, and volunteering as an environmental activist. “I’m a family practice physician working at Lovelace,” writes Anne Ashbrook Fitzpatrick (SF). “For fun I sing with the Albuquerque Women’s Choral Ensemble and the Harmony Project.” �{AlumniNotes} 3° 1975 John A. White (SFGI) has had his book Kevvy published by Xlibris of Philadelphia. “Set in future time, it’s an epic novel with twin themes, a society that has abolished marriage, and which has made scientific dis­ coveries which are too successful. It provides ideas and value exploration for the thoughtful, and adventure, science fiction, sex, and romance for folks looking for a good yarn. It’s the culmination of many years’ work. Further information is at www.Xlibris.com/Kewy.html.” Howard Meister (A), having suc­ cessfully defended his very cool the­ sis, “Media and Metaphor,’’ has received the MA in media studies from The New School in New York City. He is currently looking for suit­ able employment as a teacher, writer, exhibit designer, or curator, following 20 years as an internation­ ally exhibited visual artist. Howard can be reached at HMMeister@aol.com. Jim Jarvis (A) says, “I enjoyed see­ ing so many classmates at reunion time last year. Hope we can have as good a turnout for #30.” G. Kay Bishop (A) is commissioning a “musical commentary” from com­ posers Chris Turner and Rich Robe­ son. Text for the pieces will be drawn from her poetry, including poems from the collections Zero and The Book ofLillith. Plans are to combine the five performance and text pres­ entation on a CD to appear next year. 1976 Victoria Hanley (SF) has written The Seer and the Sword, a fantasy novel for young adults. Published in December 3000 by Holiday House, it is also being published in Britain, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Spain, Finland, and Japan. Hanley is a Montessori teacher and massage therapist; she says that although she didn’t finish St. John’s, “the experi­ ence of daily dialectic during that time has influenced my life ever since.” The novel, which garnered praise from reviewers, is about a princess who discovers she has the power to see the future but must confront the issues of greed and revenge and perhaps fight to save her kingdom. 1977 Ann Worth (SF) writes; “I am an active member of the Local 510, Sign, Display, and AUied Crafts. We set up tradeshows and conventions in the greater Bay Area and I am fre­ quently the steward. Anyone want a new job?” Susan Holton (A) reports: “For the last four years I’ve worked as a senior designer for Tribune Media Services, one of the companies, along with the Chicago Tribune, of the Tribune Company. I design everything from sales collateral for our properties, which include columnists, editorial cartoonists, and comic strip cre­ ators, to corporate brochures and web sites. Through it all I’ve also maintained a freelance illustration and graphic design business. Cur­ rently I’m one of the artists on the Millennium campaign for posters for the Northwest Indiana Forum.” Jon is still enraging DAs as he suc­ cessfully defends ‘innocent citizens wrongfully accused of heinous crimes.’ I am in the lower profile job of engineering manager at Zairmailsee what my team is doing at www.zairmail.com.” 1980 Liz Pollard Jenny (SF) was the organizer of the first Alumni Art Show, held in July in Santa Fe at the campus gallery. Nancy Jene Cline Wright (SF) writes: “No major changes; still teaching, still married to the same fine fellow, still in Richmond, Vir­ ginia. I do have a computer now, with an e-mail address: cornishogre@earthlink.net. I have not figured out how to forward things to multiple addresses, and probably won’t anyway, but enjoy watching the way things end up moving about to multiple groups of people with a few button clicks-a different sort of ‘Great Discussion,’ I guess. I’d enjoy hearing from fellow Johnnies.” David Pex (SF) is the director of finance for RuleSpace, an Internet infrastructure start-up company. He got certified as a scuba diver fast year, dove in the Cayman Islands, and is off this summer to St. Vincent and Tobago for more diving and snorkeling with his family. 1978 Larry Ostrovsky (A) writes: “I have been living back in Anchorage for the past seven years. If you can look beyond the typical western sprawl, it’s really kind of an undis­ covered gem of a city. There’s excel­ lent hiking and skiing, long summer days and crisp winters. There’s even some big economic scheme every five or ten years to keep everyone excited. If anyone comes through this way. I’d love to hear from them. My e-mail is Larryostrovsky@h<itmail.com.” 1981 Mary Filardo (A) wrote an editorial in the May i edition of the Washing­ ton Post. As the executive director of the nonprofit 31st Century School Fund, she outlined the phght of the physical facihties at the D.C. public schools. Her editorial stressed the importance of planning for the future and of keeping a good handle on current design and construction needs and services. James Schamus (A) co-wrote and was producer for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” He’s worked with Ang Lee on other films in addition to the Oscar-nominated surprise hit about Chinese warriors, such as “The Ice Storm” and “Eat Drink Man Woman.” Schamus also wrote the lyrics for Crouching Tiger’s theme song, “A Love Before Time.” Marilynn Smith (SFGI) reports: 1979 Marie Toler Raney (A) and Jon Raney (A74) report that they are “still happy in Portland, Oregon in our house ‘Wits End.’ Soon to be empty nesters, we expect to find it easier to come east to see friends. “I’m still working at Coachella Val­ ley High School in the Southern Cal­ ifornia desert-and looking forward to retirement (or is it re-focusing) in about a year and a half. Teaching composition and literature at the College of the Desert is a great joy. So are my four grandchildren!” {The College. St. John^s College . Summer 2001 } 1982 Lemuel Martinez (AGI) ran on the Democratic ticket for the 13th Judi­ cial District Attorney post in Albu­ querque. He’s an assistant district attorney and an instructor at the University of New Mexico who was formerly a public school teacher for ten years. Eileen M. Renno (A) is living in beautiful southern Oregon on the east fork of the Illinois River. “I am the proud mother of two daughters, Molly (17) and Katy (6). I am work­ ing in Human Services as a Job Coach for The Job Council. I work with ‘hard-to-serve,’ long-term wel­ fare recipients, supporting them in their efforts toward self-sufficiency. It’s a challenging and rewarding position with never a sometimeslonged-for dull moment. I miss the Chesapeake Bay and look forward to visiting family in Shady Side and Frederick, Md., this summer. It’s a happy thought that I’ll be visiting Annapolis and St. John’s again, too.” 1984 John L. Bush (SF) says that he has a new place of employment-he’s work­ ing in the office of the university architect at Virginia Tech in Blacks­ burg, Va. “I’m enjoying walking to and from work every day. Elizabeth is finishing her masters degree at Virginia Tech in plant pathology. Salem is finishing his senior year of high school at Blacksburg High and looking at colleges to attend. He is hoping for an athletic scholarship for track and cross-country. Loran is finishing his freshman year of high school and enjoys playing soccer and basketball. Hope everyone is well and prospering.” Karl and Lisa Walling (both A) write that Karl is now a professor of strategy at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. Lisa is now the direc­ tor of the Tiverton Public Library system. Barry and Cynthia Hellman (both A) have a new daughter, born 11-700, named Abigail Faith Hellman. They now have three children, Barry III (14), Joel (7), and the new baby. Tracy Mendham (A) e-mails: “After living in Brooklyn, N.Y., for nine �31 {Alumni Notes} Thinking in the Future Tense BY Barbara Goyette, A73 A yjobistothink /I about the ! I future,” says / I Robert Bienenfeld(SF8o).As senior manager of alternative-fuel vehicle marketing for Honda, Bienenfeld works to promote the use of cars that run on fuels other than gasohne. The present is rapidly approaching the future as far as internal combustion engine technolo­ gy is concerned. What with the energy crunch in California (and elsewhere), the high price of gasohne, the arguments about the best ways to deal with environmental problems like pollu­ tion and misuse of non-renewable resources, hybrid automobiles-which are fueled by gaso­ line and electricity-are in the news today. Bush has proposed a tax incentive to encour­ age sales of hybrids. The American auto com­ panies are working to develop hybrid versions of their top-selling SUVs. Honda and Toyota promote their small hybrids in hip ads in major magazines like Time and the New York­ er. Movie stars, gear-heads, and environmentally-sensitive politicians are buying the Hon­ das and Toyotas currently on the market. “Technology is changing all the time, and I’m optimistic about how social priorities are changing, too,” says Bienenfeld. “We’re con­ suming way too much petroleum and we need to be really concerned about that. There’s been progress, but we need to go further.” Alternative-fueled cars are one factor in the mix of regulations, proposals, and products that aim to help us deal with these current problems and prepare us for the future. Bienenfeld has worked for Honda since right after he graduated. “I knew I wanted to go into business, and I didn’t want to go to graduate school right away to do it. I thought my St. John’s education was great for any W I years, my partner Dana Chenier and I are moving back to Massachusettswe’ll be relocating to Natick in May. In July, I’ll be graduating from the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College. For the time being, my e-mail address will be tmendham@nish.pair.com.” Sue (Price) Gavrich (A) e-mails: “My husband Bob and I joyfully career,” he says. “At St. John’s I was used to picking up a new, difficult book every week and then applying myself to under­ stand it. I thought about the business world; ‘How hard could it be?’” After a threeyear stint as a con­ tractworker, Bienen­ Robert Bienenfeld WITH the Insight, feld was hired Honda’s hybrid. full-time. He worked in parts inventory management and then spent a year and a half in Japan. In 1993 he was assigned to the alter­ native fuel task force. Over the past decade Honda has developed cars that are fueled by natural gas, battery electric power, and a combination of gas and electricity (the hybrid). The Insight, a hybrid, uses its gaso­ line engine for most driving but has an elec­ tric motor as a supplement. When the driver brakes, the battery recharges. “It’s a huge challenge to provide alternatives to gas-pow­ ered vehicles,” Bienenfeld says. “However, the social and environmental benefits are great, like reduced dependence on imported oil and reduced emissions.” Bienefeld helped Honda launch a battery electric car in California in 1997. Although the car was very advanced, battery electric cars are not new. It turns out that electricity is a very old method of powering cars. At first, electric cars outsold aU others. Other fuels had their drawbacks: steam was dangerous, and gas engines were smelly and noisy. How­ ever, when demand grew for travel between cities, the battery-powered electric cars fell announce the birth of our daughter, Anna Lucy Gavrich on October 18, 2000. You can see pictures of Lucy on her web site, www.annalucy.com. We recently moved to a Craftsman bungalow in Alameda, Calif., which is basically Mayberry with good sushi. I’m working from home as a self-employed fee-only financial planner. You can e-mail me at sue_gavTich@moneywell.com.” into disfavor with the public, who instead bought gas-powered cars that could travel farther. Now, the almost perfect infrastructure-with a gas station every corner­ makes introduction of alternative-fuel cars difficult. The supply of natural gas is in the hundreds of years, says Bienenfeld, and Honda has developed a car that runs on natural gas. But there are only about 1,500 places around the country to refuel such a car, as opposed to 200,000 places that sell gasoline. Bienenfeld is work­ ing with another company to develop a home­ refueling appliance for natural gas vehicles. “The answer to the marketing challenge is in education,” says Bienenfeld. “We have to look at innovative advertising, reach key opin­ ion makers. A variety of people have to throw their support behind these new cars-the automobile magazines, the environmental groups, even government.” Bienenfeld is also busy with the next step in the consideration of the future: product planning for Honda-thinking about what the next generation of Accords, Civics, and Odysseys will be like. He’s been pondering the difference between speculating and plan­ ning. “I read Paul Erlich’s The Population Bomb while I was in junior high,” he says. “I was really influenced by that book-what he thought was going to happen. Yet every pre­ diction he made was wrong...In 20 years we’ll still be planning for the future-after all, we never really get there. The principles will be the same: you need to have a really clear understanding of your goals and mission.” John Wright (A) has published short stories in Isaac Asimov’s SF magazine and in Year’s Best Annual (David Hartwell, ed.) His two novels, Golden Age (sf) andLa.st Guardian ofEverness (fantasy), are due for publication in aooi and 2,002, by Tor Books. John is a retired attorney, newspaperman and news­ paper editor. He presently lives in fairy-tale-like happiness with his {The College .St John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } wife, the authoress L. JAGI LAMP­ LIGHTER (A85), and their two chil­ dren, Orville and Wilbur Wright. 1985 Sarah (A) and Dan Knight (A84) write that they had a wonderful time at Homecoming weekend. “It was great to see everyone and we were �{AlumniNotes} 3^ surprised by how relaxed and ‘at home’ we felt on campus.” Robert George (A) is going to be a regular on a new talking head show on CNN, airing Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. The show, called “Take 5,” pre­ miered on March 17. Karen Bell-Andrews (A85, also AGI93) is married to Ben Andrews, a singer very popular in England and currently on tour there. She is an athome mom working on her PhD. With their three children, Amelia, Eliza, and Ian, they live on a historic old farm in Fairplay, Md. (near Hagerstown). Karen raises cows and chickens as well as bees. 1986 Debbie Jones Humphries (SF) is stiU teaching part-time. She loves working with graduate students. She has also started homeschooling her two sons, Ranier (5) and CameronJack (3), “and that’s keeping me busy,” she says. Julie (Spencer) Moser (SF) sends this request: “Would anyone who has experience teaching in a Paideia high school please contact me? I’m helping found a new high school and I need your advice. My e-mail is rainyday@taosnet.com.” 1987 is so much fun and we love him so much we can hardly stand it,” says Claudia. “I would love to hear from classmates-it seems like just yester­ day we were at Homecoming for our loth reunion. Please e-mail me stackc@uncwil.edu.” 1989 Pamela Jeffcoat (SF) writes: “I finally got a job as a Russian inter­ preter, and now I’m starting to learn Turkish. I play ping pong with a lot of Chinese guys but so far, I haven’t learned a word of Chinese.” Koko Ives (A) writes that she now has two beautiful daughters, Zoe and Cate. 1988 Alden Joseph Stack was born to Claudia Probst Stack (A’88) and Joe Stack on October 29, 2000. “He Roberta Faux (A91) live in downtown Baltimore where they are restoring a historic building that functioned as a pharmacy with living quarters above. Roberta received her MA in classics in 1999. After receiving his doctorate in composition from Boston Universi­ ty and teaching for several years in Colorado, Travis now operates a music production studio. The Apothecary, with Frank A (Ago). “We love doing this stuff and are always looking to work with on interesting film and video projects. Music from some of our recent proj­ ects can be heard at our web site www.mp3.com/TheAp0thecary.” T Marion Gunn Jenkins (SFGI) is still in retirement, living in New Haven next door to her only grandchild and her daughter and son-in-law. “I’m active observing local and regional government for the League of Women Voters of New Haven. I hope to take up my study of Greek which gives me great pleasure despite the obstacle of age.” “Young Adam Pittman was born April ig, 2000,” writes Clinton Pittman (SF). “Thought about a Homerian name, but then decided against such a radical step-not everyone gets all those Odyssey ref­ erences in Oh Brother, Where Art Thour “I am leaving my job as an attorney in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice to take up a one-year Visiting Assistant Professor post at the Northwestern University Law School, where I received my JD in 1994,” writes JOE MILLER (A). “I will be teaching intellectual property law courses. My residence at the Law School starts June 4, 2001. One thing will not change-namely, my permanent e-mail address at findjoemiller@hotmail.com.” Amanda Dalton (A) played the parts of Delightful and Nadine in a Colonial Players production of Dear­ ly Departed this spring in Annapolis. A professional clown who graduated from Ringling Brothers’ Clown Col­ lege, she has appeared in summer theater productions for the past sev­ eral years. Charlotte Glover (SF) reports: “I’m living with my husband David Kiffer in beautiful, wet Ketchikan, Ala., and we are enjoying our first child, a darling boy named Liam Benjamin Kiffer, born December ii, 2,000. So far, his favorite ‘great book’ is Bugs in Spaced ravis Hardaway (A91) and his wife our four-year-old daughter, Imogen, loves her Montessori pre-school. Hope all is well with the many friends I’ve lost touch with.” Margaret (Meg) Lewis (A) is work­ ing at the Academy of Natural Sci­ ences in Philadelphia as a Ubrary specialist. She invites alums and stu­ dents to visit. The MP3 Scene 1990 Margo Maganias Thomas (A) writes: “What a difference 12 years makes! My husband Bill and I are still living in Arlington, Va., and appreciate its village/urban charac­ ter. We’re planning on renovating and expanding our Cape Cod which over the past four years has become too small for our family. Our oldest. August, is enjoying kindergarten and GenevaMacDonand Pulgham (SF) co-authored a book with her sister; it was published in igg? by Texas A&M Press- Women Pioneers in Texas Medicine. Fritz Hinrichs (A) writes; “I am very pleased to announce two great gifts of God to me. On March 25,1 had the privilege of marrying Christy Hass of Rocklin, Calif. On January 4, we were blessed with the birth of a beautiful girl-Annabelle Faith Hinrichs. With great grief, but also trust in God’s loving provi­ dence, I must also relay that after let­ ting forth a short, beautiful cry, she mysteriously passed into the land of the living (Job 1:21). We would love to hear from you all-contact us through our web site, www.gbt.org.” Sundance Metelsky (AGI) and Tom Oehser, her partner of nine years, were married on May 7 in Luray Cav­ erns. More than go people attended, including their children, Bela Wolf­ gang Zoltan Seaton Williams Metel­ sky Oehser (son, age 5 ) and Zina Xena Metelsky Oehser (daughter, age 14 months). Johnnies in atten­ dance included Johnny Metelsky (Ag4) and Lydia Rolita Metelsky (Ag6) and honorary Johnnies, John Metelslcy and Ethan Billotte. Also on hand was a film crew from the cable TV show, “A Wedding Story.” The episode will air sometime in Septem­ {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } ber or October on The Learning Channel. Sundance says, “The wed­ ding was a unique celebration, fea­ turing the casting of the circle and calling of spirits, a hearty group singing of‘Yellow Submarine,’ humorous legal proceedings featur­ ing Tom’s cousin, Tina Oehser, who asperged the couple with water from the sacred springs near the Oracle of Delphi, Tom and Sundance being wrapped in a blanket held up by four friends (one doing the holding in spirit) and time in total darkness in the cave, a talking stick in which each attendee had a chance to offer a blessing, and closing with the Grate­ ful Dead song ‘Ripple.’ If you want to know when the episode airs (or just want to say hi!), please e-mail me at sundance@toms.net.” 1991 Nate Downey (SF) is helping to organize the tenth reunion in Santa Fe this summer and would like to gather e-mail addresses for any and all classmates. E-mail him at nate@sfpermaculture.com with “Hegel rocks! ” in the subject line. Elliott Tullock (SF) writes: “In December I will complete training at the Texas Maritime Academy and receive a third mate unlimited ton­ nage any oceans license. Upon receiving my license I will sail on a general cargo steamship trading from the U.S. Gulf to Europe and Africa. Wife Diana and son James (3) are doing well. We expect to return to Belize next year and take up ranching and tropical fruit cultiva­ tion when 1 am home from sea.” Karen Andrews (SF) recently par­ ticipated in a group theme show fea­ turing “functional/dysfunctional” art at the Flux Gallery in Denver. �{AlUMNiPrOFILE} 33 Democracy Brokering IN THE Balkans BY Roberta Gable, A78 hat moment after you graduate election systems (our forte!) and party-building from law school (in the case of Tia Pausic, A86, Harvard Law to commercial legal School) can be one of the most reform and economicfree moments in life. The rig­ related issues like pension reform, the creation of ors of the academic world are small and medium enterprise, and the devel­ behind you, and the long grind towards opment of trade unions. The CDP opened the becoming a partner somewhere looms ahead; Zagreb office in May of ’92, and Pausic was but in the meantime, Sisyphus can take a the first executive director. couple of weeks off and relax. Pausic cele­ She had been back to Croatia three times brated her freedom by going with her father on CDP business but now we’re talking on the Croatian Fraternal Union of Pitts­ immersion. There was the language to be burgh’s more or less annual trip to Croatia reckoned with (“I tried not to be afraid of (her father is Croatian and her mother is speaking”), the lack of consumer goods (“I Romanian). They had a swell i8-day trip, including a weeklong cruise on the Adriatic. developed a scavenger mentality that has been hard to shake! ”), the toilet paper (“like Then, back to reality, and Pausic moved to tree bark”), and her living situation. She had D. C., where she had a typical entry-level j ob a small one-bedroom apartment, which was as an associate at a fairly large law firm. They did government contract work and also some not only her home, but also the CDP office and the crash pad for any CDP visitors. international and immigration work, which Pausic set to work developing projects to was Pausic’s area of interest. In the meantime, as a result of the Croat­ submit to funding agencies, both public and private. For example, the Children’s Hospital ian vacation, she became involved with the in Zagreb was in need of a mobile medical Croatian American community in D.C. clinic, since they were basically the only pedi­ Young professionals, mostly children of atric hospital in the country and also tasked recent emigres, would get together and talk with health care for refugee children politics: it was 1989, and change, with the throughout Croatia. She found funding with prospect of multi-party elections in Hungary, the Soros Foundation to purchase and equip Poland, and Czechoslovakia, was sweeping the vehicle, and in 1993 they were then able Europe. And then they did more than talk: to help children in remote places. (By 1999 they started to host visits from democratic the local hospitals were enough recovered political leaders in Croatia, hoping to get U.S. governmental support for free elections that the vehicle was then donated to the mili­ tary unit in charge of mine-clearing opera­ there. tions.) Finally they decided they needed to form a By 1994 she had to face reality once again. non-profit organization to support this work, She was making next to nothing working for and the Croatian Democracy Project (CDP) a non-profit, and had deferred her law was born. As the situation in Croatia heated school loans for two years, but now had to up, Pausic’s interest in government contract think about shouldering that burden again. work cooled down-her pro bono work for the “I left in December ’93, thinking I was CDP became her focus. never going back. I cried on the plane to In 1991 war broke out in Croatia. The CDP Frankfurt.” (and Pausic, the president thereof) realized Back in Washington, she camped on her that the only way they would succeed in sister’s couch and continued to help out at bringing democracy-building resources from the U.S. to Croatia would be to open an office the CDP while she looked for a job. She talked to the president of America’s Develop­ in Zagreb. And what exactly are “democracy­ ment Foundation (ADF) about possibly get­ building resources,” do you ask? In response ting involved with their projects. In March to the democratic changes in eastern Europe in the eighties, an industry of support grew 1994 he called her and told her that USAID had issued an RFA (Request for Applications) up in the United States, for everything from T { T H E C o L L E G E . St. John’s College ■ Summernoot } Tia Pausic (bottom row, far left) poses with Croatian friends and co-workers. for a human rights project in Croatia, and asked her if she would help write it and be the Chief of Party (basically, be the person who would be in charge if the grant were given). She would, she did, and ADF, a non-profit in Alexandria, Virginia, was awarded the con­ tract for a project to strengthen the abilities of the human rights organizations in Croatia. So, having left Croatia expecting never to return, she moved back in October ’94 to provide training, give technical assistance, and bring grant funding to the Croatian groups. This time her set-up in Zagreb was a lot different. The grant was for $2.5 million over a three-year period. She had her own apartment, and in her office she had actual equipment, actual staff, and an actual salary; and she had become fluent in Croatian, fluent enough even to be a Croatian/English inter­ preter. She designed a grant program, but when they were about to give their first grants in ’95 the government initiated a mili­ tary operation to seize occupied territory from the Serbs, and Zagreb was bombed, making for a certain amount of, shall we say, uncertainty in her life. Nonetheless, they stayed, the occupied territory was liberated, and life got back to more or less normal. A pleasant influx of additional funding turned the three-year $2.5 million project into a six-year, $10 miUion project, which from mid-1996 focussed on displaced persons and repatriation issues. The pursuit of happi­ ness continues abroad for Pausic. She left this June for her next posting with ADF-Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she will be directing a $4 million, three-year project cre­ ated to provide training, technical assistance, and grants to local nonprofits to encourage more civic participation, advocacy, public­ private partnerships, and coalition-building among the local groups. �{AlumniNotes} 34 Christopher Johnson (SF) says: “I Dianne Cowan (A) is still in Boston, recently completed my PhD in com­ parative literature at New York Uni­ versity. My dissertation, ‘Hyper­ boles: Exemplary Excess in Early Modern English and Spanish Poetry, and its Origins in Classical Epic and Rhetoric,’ won the Outstanding Dis­ sertation Prize in the Humanities for 2000-01 at NYU. Currently, I am also teaching at New York University and City College, but this summer I’m off to a friend’s organic farm in the Pacific Northwest to clear the head and get the hands dirty.” still working for the same software company. Her e-mail address is diannecowan@mindspring.com. 1992 Kate (Griehs) Sullivan (SF) and her husband John Sullivan (SF94) live in Austin, Tex., where John is a project manager for 7-24 Solutions and Kate homeschools their four children, Madeline (7), Jack (5), Lily (3), and Claire (i). John’s e-mail is Jsullivan@724.com and Kate’s is Kate@willdev.com. Boaz Roth (AGI) recounts his recent life: 1999, marriage; 2000, baby #1; 2001, home ownership. He asks: “Will I ever get a chance to read Proust again?” “The charter school I’ve been work­ ing on for the last two and a half years finally got chartered, so we’ll be opening in September,” says Taeko Onishi (SF). “It will be a multi-aged, project-based K-5 school targeting low income families in Troy, N.Y. It is an outgrowth of a community learning space for K-12 in a local public housing neighbor­ hood where I work now. I’d love to hear from any and all Johnnies. Come for a visit or just get in touch, ktaeko@hotmail.com.” Amy Elizabeth Parton (A) says, ‘I am working as a clinical research monitor in the pharmaceutical industry. Still enjoying life in Austin, Tex., and would love to hear from old friends. The rest of the world knows me by my middle name so I can reached by e-mail at elizabeth.parton@austin.ppdi.com.” Elyette (Block) Kirby (SF) reports: “I’m having a baby in May and soon after will be transferring from The Netherlands to the UK with my job at Amazon.co.uk. I enjoy working at Amazon where every interview situation seems to fit in a discussion on who one’s favorite authors are. I am what’s called a ‘communications specialist,’ which means I write a lot. My husband I hope to be settled in the London area by June and would love to hear from anyone close by-or far away! My e-mail is elyette@hotmail.com.” Trish Dougherty (A) reports that Sean Donald Dougherty was born 5/5/01; he joins his big brother Owen and his mom and dad in Orwell, Vermont. Simon Bone (SF) sent in a photo of himself in front of Kant’s grave in Kaliningrad. “He is still dead,” notes Simon. J. Elizabeth Huebert (SF) received her MD from University of Nebraska Medical Center, May 5, 2001. She will do a one-year internship at Broadlawns Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, and then return to Omaha for three years of specialty training in anesthesia. Alec Berlin (SF) released an album of original jazz in October 2000, “Crossing Paths.” It is available at www.cdbaby.com/alecberlin. Since then he’s been composing a lot and working in the new media world, all the while freelancing in bands around New York City. 1993 Jennifer Council Jones (A) moved to Newport Beach, Calif., where she is opening an office for an ad agency and having a great time learning to surf. Nereos Gunther (A) writes, “I am completing my period of indenture in the City of Baltimore and plan to begin an entertainment web site and educational association for vivisectionists.” Valerie Duff (SF) is currently teaching at Boston University and at Harvard Extension. She plans to take a year off to attend Trinity Col­ lege in Dublin, Ireland. While there, she will be in an MA program in cre­ ative writing. Valerie received an MA in creative writing from Boston Uni­ versity, and has since published extensively in Agni, Salamander, Verse, and other literary magazines. She was managing editor of Agni (the literary magazine of Boston University ) for two years. Aaron Mason (SF) works as a mar­ keting writer/editor in the NYC offices of STV Inc., as an architectur­ al consultant; most projects involve public transportation planning. Aaron and Nick Gray (SF97) were both involved with a theatrical per­ formance in New York City in March-Mercury Retrograde: An Evening of 4 Original Short Plays @ the Sanford Meisner Theatre. Aaron wrote a lo-minute play called “Mr. Oedipus,” which is, he says, “artful­ ly directed by goddess-on-wheels, Elysa Marden. Appearing with the hilarious Laura Agudelo (roles of Hillary and God), I play the title role of a man trapped between two conflicting identities. One personali­ ty is an angry white rap star (sound familiar?), and the other side of him remains a reclusive author of chil­ dren’s books. It is VERY loosely based on the original Oedipus.” In another lo-minute play, “Bye Bye Love” by Milton Johnson, Aaron plays the proud owner of a trailer­ home, a Trans-Am, and a hidden past... “‘Bye Bye Love’ is directed with zen-like poise by the unflappable Beth Ouradnik. And Nicholas Gray has written a 20minute play, ‘Coat Room,’ directed by the wise and wooly Sean McGlynn. ‘Coat Room’ is a romantic farce that takes place (where else!) in the bed­ room/coat room of a party. Mr. Gray plays a lovelorn twentysomething lad in the midst of a messy separation.” Anna Vaserstein (A) writes that she and Warren Ellison announce the birth of Daniel Vaserstein Ellison on May 6, 2001 at their house in Jeri­ cho, Vt. Jenna Palmer (SF) and James Michel (SF92) send word that Jenna received her MA in literature at San Francisco State University with a thesis on Jane Eyre, as well as certificates in the teaching of com­ position and reading. She is current­ ly teaching at San Francisco State and the College of San Mateo and hoping to hook a permanent posi­ tion. Jim’s law practice is in its fifth year and has recently moved to downtown San Francisco. You can {The College. St John’s College ■ Summer aooi } contact them at jpalmer@sfsu.edu and jamich@pacbell.net. Jeff Natterman (AGI) is currently involved with the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Council and Baltimore City Schools. He says, “I could spend an hour at least describing the deplorable conditions of the elemen­ tary schools in the city. In particular, their books are in some cases 20 years old (history books with Richard Nixon as the current presi­ dent); their libraries in disrepair and mostly empty of books of any kind. The city pleads for more funding from the state; the state attempts to meets the needs, but fails...badly! I have developed a program called ‘Great Books for Great Kids: The Tench Tilghman Project.’ This pro­ gram targets just one elementary school in Baltimore City. I am hop­ ing to solicit either funding or ele­ mentary school age resource books for the school by August 2001.1 believe these children will never rise above a ‘mediocre at best’ environ­ ment without the best possible resources for learning starting with books. Please contact me if you’d like to help out; jnatterm@jhmi.edu.” Special greetings to the class of ’93 from Amalia Uribe (SF). She writes, “I have two pieces of good news to report. First: Graduated with honors from Massage Therapy school in October 2000. Since November I have been a full time certified Mas­ sage Therapist, and I absolutely love my new career. I work at a chiroprac­ tic clinic and at a small day spa, both in the East Bay of California. Sec­ ond; On July 14, 2000,1 eloped!!! I am now happily married. My hus­ band is Mustapha Moutri; he is 28, a 2nd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and is from Rabat, Morocco. We are quite happy big smile, and NO, there are no plans for little ones just yet. I would love to hear from any of you, but especially from my class­ mates: My e-mail is amaliacmt@yahoo.com (this is a new address). If any of you have tried to get in touch at the old address, I have not had that for a few months, so please try again. I would also very much like to hear from: Jonathan Bricke Rowan (SF96) Will and Amy Glusman (A93) Julie (Girone) Martin (A) and her husband Eric announce the birth of their second daughter, Josephine �35 {Alumni Notes} April. She was born on April 24. Says Julie, “I’ve been a housewife since Charlotte, our first child, was born three and a half years ago. At the moment, we’re still in Somerville, N.J., although we’re moving to a house on an organic farm in Hopewell, New Jersey, this fall, where my husband is the care­ taker. He’s still the executive chef and manager of a fine-dining restaurant in Hamilton as well. Any Johnnies interested in either line of work (especially the farming­ apprentices are always wanted), give a call.” Matthew Wright (A) writes: “Hello to everyone. Michelle, Anne, Emily, John and I are still living in Philly. We are homeschooling and living in a small intentional commu­ nity we helped get started last August. I would love to hear from people at matthew.wright@wholefoods.com.” 1994 Sarah Liversidge (A) and Mike Afflerbach (A) were married Sept 16, 2000 in the Great Hall. Their reception was held on the back lawn of the house of President Chris Nel­ son and Joyce Olin. Many Johnnies were in attendance. The Afflerbachs are still living in New Bern, N.C. and are enjoying racing sailboats. Sarah will be taking her architectural exams this year and Mike is loving the radio biz. Peter Bezanson (SF) has been appointed tutor at the College of the Humanities and Sciences in Phoenix, Arizona. The College of the Humanities and Sciences is a great books distance learning col­ lege established in 1997; it offers undergraduate and graduate educa­ tion in the humanities with concen­ trations in imaginative literature, natural science, philosophy and reli­ gion, and social science. Kenneth Wolfe (SF) is spending this year as a visiting assistant pro­ fessor at Reed College. He received his PhD in classics from UC Berkeley in May 2000. Paul Barker (AGI) will be moving back to Maryland from Ohio. He has been appointed principal of John Carroll School in Bel Air. Antique Information Systems Tracy Whitcomb (A) says she is still enjoying life in Burlington, Vt. Michael ViLLACRUsis (AGI) writes n article about Randolph Stakk (A98) called “Under­ that he and his wife Jennifer had ground Mail Road” appeared on the front page of the New their first child on February 15, York Times metro section in May. Stark, identified in the Emily Rose. article as an entrepreneur, is interested in the under­ ground pneumatic tubes installed in the 1890s to carry Sarah (Van Deusen) Flynn (A) says: mail throughout the city. He wants to use them to hold “We are enjoying Guam. It’s a very fiber optic cable which would connect with telecommunications nice systems place for young families. Ethan that already exist. The pneumatic system was state-of-the-art in several is stationed here at the Naval Hospi­ East Coast cities until about rgrS, Stark discovered, until it was phased out tal until September 2002.” by a quicker and less expensive form of transport that could also carry a greater volume-motor wagons. It was not until 1953 that the tube system Thea Agnew (SF) is still living in was closed. Stark is quoted in the article as saying it would cost “about Alaska. She’s working for herself $roo million a mile to repUcate the conduits today...making even five miles writing grants, particularly working of them a worthwhile resource.” He’s currently searching for the original with rural development in Alaska blueprints for the system. Native communities. She completed an MA in history in May 2000 focus­ ing on 19th century encounters and coordinate the distribution of Patricia Greer (AGI) wiU be a tutor between Yupik Eskimos and Russian marketing materials for the various at the Santa Fe campus next year. Orthodox and American Protestant FtvS products. She will be responsi­ missionaries. ble for sales materials and press kits Dan Farley and Elizabeth Rhodes on projects as diverse as the upcom­ Farley (both A) write: “In addition ing local Fox World Productions ver­ to our daughter, Hannah (now three sions of “Temptation Island” and years old), we have a son, Dylan, the movie based on popular chil­ born May rq, 2000 (Mother’s “John and I are busy planning our dren’s author R.L. Stine’s story enti­ Day!).” house-to be built this summer on tled “When Good Ghouls Go Bad.” our II acres of slightly wet paradise A 1996 1995 Emily Murphy (A) was one of four Pennsylvania graduate students to receive the Outstanding Graduate Student award from the Pennsylva­ nia Association of Graduate Schools. Of course, she says, “around here it’s ‘for the Glory of Old State,’ but I think that a lot of the credit goes to St. John’s as well.” Susan Talkington (SFGI) is cur­ rently working as a software engi­ neer for the Seattle offices of Mer­ rill Lynch. She married Ian MacGillivray of Santa Fe in March 2oor, and the two are currently residing in Eldorado. Rontt Koren (SFGI) has been pro­ moted to Manager, Marketing, Fox Television Studios. Ms. Koren will continue to develop marketing opportunities for Fox Television Stu­ dios, including top series suppliers Regency Television and the Greenblatt-JanoUari Studio, alternative studio Fox TV Studios Productions, international production specialist Fox World Productions, Fox Televi­ sion Pictures and non-fiction pro­ duction companies Foxstar and Nat­ ural History New Zealand. Ms. Koren will continue to help design icksT in central Maine,” writes Allison Eddyblouin (SF). “The girls (Mary Catherine and Thalia) are great­ homeschooling is a blast. It was great to have Jason Voigt come visit. He will be doing the same boat build­ ing program that John did four years ago! Any other Johnnies want to come visit? If so, drop us a line.” Mara Giles (SF) writes, “Just read Geoff Marslett (SF) currently has the Spring 2oor The College and enjoyed reading about a distant and not-so-distant past of my own. I rem­ inisced about my years on both the Santa Fe and Annapolis campuses. I am enjoying my life very much with my non-Johnnie husband, a biology professor, and our wonderful daugh­ ter in Nebraska. I work for a comput­ er software company located in New Mexico and feel quite lucky to be able to telecommute. I still enjoy the academic life, can’t seem to get away from it (married into it), and am pur­ suing more (yea!) degrees in litera­ ture and philosophy with hopes of...??? Well, let’s just say it’ll ruin the surprise if I tell you now. Best of luck and regards to each of you.” an animated short film out called “Monkey vs. Robot.” For more infor­ mation, check out his website at WWW. swervepictures. com. Rosemary Ingham (AGI) writes: “I retired from teaching at Mary Wash­ ington College in May and am spend­ ing the summer at the Utah Shake­ spearean Festival where I will be designing costumes for Two Gentle­ men of Verona and The Fantask- Nada Khader (SFEC) is teaching French and private tutoring students at the United National International School in Manhattan. She’s also a Girl Scout troop leader. {The College. St. John ’5 College ■ Summer 2001 } Jon Stephen Pearson (SF) is com­ pleting requirements for an MFA degree in comparative literature while teaching literature under an assistantship at the University of Georgia in Athens. Amy (Norman) Morgan (A) reports: “I was married in June 1998. During the ‘99-00 school year my husband (Bill) and I taught Eng­ lish and methodology to secondary school English teachers in Ovorkhangai, Mongolia. Now, we live in the Cincinnati area where Bill teaches elementary school music and I teach English to foreign business people and their spouses. I am applying to study applied lin­ guistics at Indiana University or �{AlumniProfile} Cultural Jam Session Anthropologist Catherine Allen explores the culture ofthe Andes. BY SUS3AN Borden, A87 cattered throughout Catherine Allen’s (A6g) office are Andean textiles-woven pieces in reds, black, and white with patterns marching down one side and up the other. Allen nods towards one, a woman’s shawl, and points out the seam down its cen­ ter. “You’d think that they’ve just taken two complete pieces and sewn them together, but it’s really a single pat­ tern,” she says. “The two halves are part of the design. In the Andes, everything needs a companion.” Allen’s knowledge of Andean culture goes well beyond textiles. An anthropologist, she did her fieldwork with the Quechua-speaking people in the Peruvian region of Cuzco, where she lived and partici­ pated in community life by harvesting and planting potatoes, cooking, learning to spin, and helping to herd animals. She has written many articles, a book, and a play that draw on her fieldwork in the Andes. And she has just won a Guggenheim Fellowship to write a book examining Andean expressive media (such as storytelling and weaving) and write another play. Allen didn’t start out as an anthropologist. She was originally interested in classical archaeology, an interest that led her first to St. John’s and then to the University of Illi­ nois to study archaeology at the graduate level. It wasn’t long, however, before Allen found herself frustrated with the narrow focus of archaeology. “I was interested in questions of meaning, questions that needed Catherine Allen (second from left) SWITCHED from IMAGINARY TO REAL FRIENDS THROUGH THE STUDY OF QEROS, ARTIFACTS FROM THE Andes. a living context” she says, “but all the peo­ ple I was studying were dead.” In pursuit of her master’s degree in the iconography of ceramics from the southern coast of Peru, Allen spent hours staring at museum collections and studying pictures of ceramics. She learned plenty about the ceramics themselves, but little about what they were used for. “It was like having the grammar of a language, but not knowing what any of the words mean,” she says. When she considered questions of meaning, she had only her own mind to consult: “I felt like I was making up my imaginary friends.” Allen moved from imaginary to real friends during her dissertation research. { The C o llege-St. John’s College • Summer 2001 } which began with the study of lacquered wooden cups called qeros. Although the first part of her project brought her back to museum work, the sec­ ond part sent her into the world of people, meaning, and anthro­ pology. Qeros date back to the 17th century, but they are still used for drinking rituals in some communities in the Peruvian highlands. Allen decided to study one of these communi­ ties, Sonqu, hoping that current drinking rituals would shed light on past qero uses and answer the questions of meaning she had been formulating. Allen went to Sonqu and immersed herself in the communi­ ty’s way of life. While her academic interests centered on the per­ formative aspects of life (storytelling, cere­ monies, and rituals), Allen found herself focusing on the community’s everyday modes of interaction. “What I studied was a kind of etiquette, really,” she says. “Ritual is an intensified expression of everyday courtesies.” Among the people of Sonqu, the basic vehicle of rit­ ual is the coca leaf, always chewed in a cere­ monial context. And so her dissertation moved away from the qeros that had brought her to Sonqu. “I ended up writing on coca chewing,” she says. “Coca is the bare bones of their ritual life.” Allen completed her dissertation. Coca, Chicha, and Trago: Private and Communal Rituals in a Quechua Community, in 1978. Ten years later she published The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an �{AlumniProfile} 37 ''When Ifirst studied culture, I thought ofit more as a symphony: each person has apart to play and the culture gives you a score. But the class made me realize there isn i any score; culture is something that is always emerging '' Andean Community, the book that devel­ oped out of her disser­ tation. It is still in print today, read pri­ marily by anthropology students; a second edi­ tion is in the works. And as her book is a perennial at universi­ ties, Allen is now a perennial at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Hired 20 years ago as a newly-minted PhD, she is surprised to find herself still teaching there. “I never expected to stay,” she says. “I thought I would go on to a small experimen­ tal college, but I began teaching in an era when experimental programs were folding or contracting.” Allen says her longevity at George Wash­ ington is primarily due to the congenial atmosphere of the anthropology department and the university’s Division of Experimen­ tal Programs. Through this division, Allen has collaborated with colleagues from the school’s religion, art, literature, history, and political science departments. In 1993 and 1994 she wrote a play. Condor Qatay, with a colleague in the theater department and the two teach a class together: “Anthropology in Performance.” She describes a typical exercise from one of their classes: “Rather than explore a situ­ ation intellectually and analytically, we do an improvisation. We set up situations like waking up or harvesting, assign participants kinship and household roles, and have them play out these situations without speaking English.” It is through negotiating these improvisational roles that students gain insight into the rituals of another culture. But Allen says that it’s not just the students who benefit from the exercises: “I’ve learned a lot from teaching and watching the improvs,” she says. “I get flashes, moments that show me how cultural prac- Catherine Allen tices grow out of the dynamics of the inter­ action of a group. “When I first studied culture, I thought of it more as a symphony: each person has a part to play and the culture gives you a score. But the class made me realize there isn’t any score; culture is something that is always emerging,” she says. “Culture is more like jazz. You have some basic sequences in your head and general expectations of other peo­ ple, but the jam session never comes out the same way twice.” Starting this Septem­ ber, Allen will have the chance to further her studies of the cultural jam session. As the recip­ ient of a Guggenheim fel­ lowship, she’ll have a year off to work on two proj­ ects. The first is a book on Andean aesthetic strategies. It will include examinations of story telling, weaving, and ceramics. “It draws on my original interests,” Allen says. “I’m finally going to include a chapter on qeros." The other project is a second play. “My first play. Condor Qatay, means the Condor Son-in-Law. The condor carries off the Indi­ an maiden and becomes the son-in-law,” Allen explains. “This play is the converse: the star woman who marries an Indian man.” Like the textiles in her office, the two stories form a single design: they are reflections of each other, companions. Catherine Allen’s FAVORITE BOOKS IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Argonauts ofthe Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski The Nuer by E. E. Evans-Pritchard Tristes Tropique (or The Savage Mind) by Claude Levi-Strauss The Ritual Process by Victor Turner The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas Pigsfor the Ancestors by Roy Rappaport The Spoken Word and the Work ofInterpretation by Dennis Tedlock Unnatural Emotions by Catherine Lutz Andean Lives by Valderrama, Escalante, Gelles, and Martinez {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } �{AlumniNotes} 38 TESOL at the University of Cincin­ nati in the fall.” “I am completing study for my mas­ sage therapist certificate and plan to eventually specialize in maternity care and rape recovery treatment,” writes Erin (Hearn) Furry (A). She’s heen married to William C. Furhy tV for a year. Erin has plans to start an Alaska alumni chapter after this summer. “If anyone is interested in helping, I can be reached at celebrinthol@usa.net.” Loreen McRea Keller (AGI) writes that she and her husband Greg are expecting their third child in May-“maybe a third girl? We can’t wait to find out! ” Jennifer (Wamser) Deslongchamps (AGI) writes: “The year after graduation, having just returned from a year studying medieval philosophy in Pisa, I met my future husband in a laundromat in Fairfield, Conn. Paul Deslongchamps and I were married in January 1999 and this October we were blessed by the birth of Thomas Robert. While I’ve been taking this year off. I’m currently ‘all but dis­ sertation’ at Yale, where I’m work­ ing on the notion of infinity in the work of Meister Eckhard and Nicholas of Cusa.” Scott Field (SFGI) and his wife Jes­ sica will celebrate their fifth anniver­ sary this summer, and they will have their son Henry (born September 33, 3000) along. “I’m still teaching fifth grade, although I now have senior elective psychology and a philosophy course to teach as well,” says Scott. “Finally, I’m putting all of that liber­ al arts background into my perform­ ances each weekend at ImprovBoston, the improvisational comedy troupe I’ve been performing with for over three years now.” Erica Maria Ginsberg-Klennt (SFGI) writes: “We sailed away from Annapolis in 1997 and stayed in the Bahamas for a year before crossing Panama to French Polynesia. I’ve been writing articles on technomodism (the use of technology to make your location irrelevant) for French, German and Italian magazines. Our daughter Antonia Tahia was born in Hawaii in August r999 and we are all moving to the south of France this summer with the ‘Pangaea Nui.’ Check out our web site, www.pangaea.to for more stories.” 1997 Ryan ViGUERlE (SF) writes: “Shortly after graduating from some college no one’s ever heard of, I moved out to LA to try and make it as a writer. Then, after floundering about for a few years, I decided to go back to school and am now studying at the American Film Institute. A swell place. Greetings maybe sent to raoulduke@mediaone.net.” Rebecca Michael reports that she and Mike Gaffney (A95) are getting married in Annapolis on June 39, 3003. They are living in Jack­ sonville, N.C., where Mike is sta­ tioned for the Marine Corps. Rebec­ ca is finishing her master’s thesis. Kit Linton (A) and Sonya Schiff Linton (Aoo) were married last September and are living in Washington, D.C. Romance novelist HiLLARY FIELDS (SF97) had an article in Cosmopoli­ tan (April 3001) called “The Tough Girl Trap.” She offers advice to “strong women” whose independ­ ence is seen as a threat by men. She’s the author of two books. The Maid­ en ’s Revenge and Marrying Jezebel. “I finally got my dream job-working in the ‘new’ field of agri-tourism,” writes Mary Beth Stevenson (AGI). “I am the assistant manager of a site in Grafton, Wise, called the Family Farm. It is a 135-year-old, 46-acre farmsite. I five on site, too, in a stone farmhouse built in 1890. Any Wis­ consin alumni should check it out.” Postcard from Panama Luke and Rachel Trares (both A) have moved to Fort Worth, Tex., where Luke is attending Southwest­ ern Baptist Theological Seminary in the hope of becoming a church planting missionary, probably some­ where on this continent. “I am really enjoying school,” he says. “Please don’t hesitate to contact us with questions about Christian ministry (ltrares@yahoo.com).” Genevieve Goodrow (A) writes: “Hooray! I passed the bar exam and started work, and while it’s nice to get paid I’m beginning to fantasize about school again. At least I have plenty of time to read while commuting.” Christopher English (SFGI) and Diane Shires (SFGI98) are getting married on December 37, 3001 on Catalina Island, Calif., 170 years to the day Darwin set sail on the Beagle. 1998 “Lest anyone is interested, I am cur­ rently working as a flight instructor for Swissair at the Flight Safety International Academy in Vero Beach, Fla.,” e-mails Ariel Szabo. “Through the Swissair Aviation ow I’ve been in Panama with the Peace Corps for School (SRAS), I train pilots for both almost four months. I spent three of these months Swissair and Austrian Airlines. If in training, in a suburb of a suburb of Panama City. anyone is interested in information Had a great host family (whom I visited and partied concerning airline careers or flight with for my birthday), and made good friends, both training under the new European Panamanian and American. There were 17 other regulations (JAR/JAA), please feel free to contact me at Thesmophopeople in training with me. The best of training? Los Carnavales” they rivaled Brazil and definitely beat Mardi Gras in Newria@mac.com. Orleans! Recent graduate Valerie Whiting (Aoo) writes aboni her assignment in the Peace Corps. N Now I live in La Raya de Santa Maria, in the province of Veraguas, almost in the middle of the country. It’s hot, dry, about 800 people. We have TV, water, and some houses have indoor toilets, but the house I’m renting has a latrine. As an environmental edu­ cation volunteer, I work in the school (K-6) doing projects and teaching English (oh joy!). More so, this community needs organi­ zation. I’m a hit because my town meeting actually had 100 people (out of 800). Trying to end the family feuds, religious clashes (Catholic vs. evangelical), and pohtical partisanship seems to be my main goal. I love Panama-the music’s loud and tacky, the food’s greasy (and sometimes unrecognizable as to which animal it came from), we all paint our toenails hot pink and wear tight jeans and tank tops. It’s my kind of country. I’m still feeling out the Peace Corps and its effectiveness here. I’ve only got one month in site, so we’ll see how that goes. If any­ one would like to reach me, my mailing address is: Entrega Gener­ al, Santiago, Veraguas, Republica de Panama, or valeriewhiting@yahoo.com. David Braden (SFGI) teaches fifth grade math at Casady School, a pri­ vate Episcopal day school for grades K through 13. He and his wife have three children: Hannah (almost5 years old), John Henry (3), and Paul (i), and they are expecting their fourth in October. Kristina Rodriguez (SF) writes: “We had another baby boy in Sep­ tember 3000. We named him Matthew. I’m currently living in Alamogordo, N.Mex., where my hus­ band manages an Applebee’s. I’m fortunate enough to stay at home with my boys.” Greetings may be sent to brianandtina@tularosa.net, or 1454 Columbia Ave., Alamogor­ do, NM 88310. Nathan and Heather Greenslit (both A) five in Worcester, Mass. {The College. St. John's College ■ Summer aoot } �39 {Alumni Notes} Summa Adlerologica dler goes with Prank the way that Reality goes with Week­ end.when Andhis thetalk Adler Prank has John’s was in 1937, lasted over a longer pedigree than Reali two hours. The following year, students were­ tysomething Weekend. Mortimer determined to do about the over­ Adler ’s first lecture at St. whelming length. They gathered every alarm A clock on campus, brought them to the bal­ cony of the Great HaU (where lectures were then held), and timed them to ring one hour into the lecture. In Adler’s biography. Philosopher at Large, he recounted his reac­ tion to that first prank: “I stood my ground, waited for the din to subside, and then, with a smile and bow to acknowledge their ingenu­ ity, completed the lecture. The students plot­ ted another way to defeat me.” Such a plot was executed the following year when, again an hour into the talk, someone cut the power to the Great HaU. “Utter darkness-and silence-reigned for a moment,” wrote Adler. “I knew they expected me to rise to the chaUenge, so I took matches out of my pocket and continued the lecture by matchlight for the brief interval it took for a mem­ ber of the faculty to restore the electricity.” They were married in June 1998 and have a beautiful daughter, Emily Ruth, who is now a year old. Heather taught middle school math and sci­ ence until Emily was born. She now tutors and sells Discovery toys. Nate got his master’s degree in cognitive science from Johns Hopkins last year and is now in a doctoral program at MIT called “The History and Social Study of Science and Technology.” They are expecting another baby sometime in August. Lorna Anderson (A) is engaged to be married on May 25, 2002, to Aaron Johnson, a classical pianist, and they are both living and working in Chicago. Lorna flirted briefly with a career in journalism, was accepted into Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and after two months decided she’d leave the hot pursuit of the ephemeral up to someone else. She is now working part-time and writing poetry, which she has come to admit was her voca­ While the records of decades of Adler pranks have been lost to the coUege, the pubhc relations office still maintains a hefty file stuffed with reports of lec­ ture high jinks. According to a igUr clipping, prank­ ing seniors scattered throughout the audi­ Adler — named Holy ence interrupted the lecture with their own Roman Emperor DURING A PRANK — conversation. They COMPLETES HIS LEC­ imphcated Adler in TURE WITH CROWN IN some of the world’s PLACE. most significant works and deeds, including Adler Grossing the Delaware, Adler the Great, Adler’s Last Stand, The Critique of Pure Adler, Thus Spake Adlerthustra, Summa Adlerologica, Cain and Adler, E Pluribus Adler, Huckleberry Adler, and Wealth of Adlers. The 1984 prank featured a “This Is Your Life” segment where Adler’s parents were interviewed. Mrs. Adler, played by Nancy tion all along. She also volunteers for a great books organization in the city and has been leading poetry discus­ sions at venues throughout Chicago. She welcomes a visit from anyone passing through. Mease (A84), spoke of her son’s early years: “Even as a baby he had this annoy­ ing habit of going on and on, and we sometimes thought he’d never stop! He would latch onto some topic. I think it was the forms first, and ethics later, and he would just keep talking.” In 1987, television journalist Bill Moy­ ers filmed Adler’s lecture for a series on the Gonstitution. WeU before the event, then-president WiUiam Dyal (HA89) assembled the ringleaders of the senior class and swore them to a prank moratori­ um. When junior class members heard of their oath, they decided to take matters into their own hands. They went to Maria’s Pizze­ ria, bought a pepperoni pizza, and wrote in large letters on the box, “From the Junior Class.” Midway through the lecture Thomas Burke (SF91), dressed as a delivery boy, brought the pizza onstage to Adler. Adler reached into his pocket, pulled out a ten, and gave it to Burke, who propped up the box on the front of the lectern to remind the audi­ ence who had delivered the pizza-and the prank. Moyers declared it fine television. “A little prank at St. John’s probably keeps the mind awake,” he said. Ruth Busko (SF) is currently living in Columbia, Md., pursuing a mas­ ter’s degree in acupuncture at the Traditional Acupuncture Institute there. Tilman Jacobs (SF) has been living 1999 From Scott Larson: “I am writing this note just to let you know some recent events in my life. On March 18, 2000,1 married my long-term girlfriend Jennifer (nee Rodgers) (AGI99). On December 7th 2000, we had a son, Oliver Scott Larson, weighing 6 pounds 15 ounces. We are both (my wife and I, not our son) working at Thomas Jefferson School in St. Louis.” Kelly O’Malley (A) is pursuing a master’s degree program in forestry and ecosystem management at Duke University’s School of the Environ­ ment. in Sweden since last August and plans to stay for another year in Europe. 2000 Andre Rodriguez (SFGI) is cur­ rently teaching eighth grade Ameri­ can history; he’s applying to law school. Stacy Allen (AGI) reports that she had a son, John Brady Allen, 9 lbs., 5 oz., born one month after graduation. “I am now a student in the psycholo­ gy department at New School Uni­ versity in Manhattan,” reports James Lewis (SFGI). {The College .St John's College . Summer 2001 } Calling All Alumni The College wants to hear from you. Call us, write us, e-mail us. Let your classmates know what you’re doing. The next issue will be published in November; copy deadline is September 20. In Annapolis: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404; b-goyette@sjca.edu. In Santa Fe: The CoUege Magazine, St. John’s College, Public Relations Office, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; classics@mail.sjcsf.edu. Alumni Notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at: www.sjca.edu - click on “Alumni.” �{Letters} On The College Whether it is a work slowdown from the world of writing ency­ clopedia articles, anticipation of Jon Ferrier’s 50th birthday this coming Wednesday, or my own youthful longings, I do not know. But my week has been full of dreams of Prince George Street, Thucydides, (never really TOO far from my psyche, I confess) the scent of boxwood, and the glories of an Annapolis spring. When I opened my mailbox this Saturday morning, I found the new issue of The College. On this Saturday afternoon when I would rather be enjoying Reality weekend than cleaning house, please know what a joy and com­ fort this brilliantly-conceived, marvelously-executed “new” magazine brought to my soul, my heart, and, ah, my mind! Some mail days are better than others. Thank you for being such an integral piece of a pretty good mail day. —Jane E. Spear, A73 I have just completed The College cover to cover and take my (proverbial) hat off to you all for the obvious work and resulting high quality. My wife graduated from the Graduate Institute in 1991 and I only completed half the program before 1 went on to (gasp) make money! The one regret of my life is not complet­ ing the, G1 program. The concept and the execution of The College is wonderful! Please keep up the hard but great work! —Sean P. Scally, AGI89 In your introduction to the new alumni periodical, you asked readers to “Let us know what you think.” Here’s what I think. I think the new format is excel­ lent. It allows for lengthier and more serious treatment of issues than The Reporter. The content of the first issue was excellent and thought-provoking. It invites alums to reflect on how they might interpret their current lives in light of the program. The professional format is appealing. I hope to see wonderful things in the future. “This hath offended; oh, this unworthy hand! ” -James A. Cockey, A71 —Michael Ciea, A78 I’d like to commend the staff of The College for a wonderful new format for your publication. It’s much more enjoyable to read. In fact, for once, I read every arti­ cle. —Lisa Lashley, SF80 Good show-big improvementexcellent start. And only St. John’s could offer a wrestling bout with Aristotle and then deal with the technicalities of dehcate training of the very, very young a few pages later. Go to it. St. John’s ranks near the top (or at the top) of Ameri­ can educational institutions. And I’m glad that at least one of my children had the benefit of it. —Donald Harriss Historical Accuracy I enjoyed your article about the r95i St. John’s production of Thomas Cranmer ofCanterbury [“St. John’s Forever”], but I must point out the obvious error, about which I suspect you have already heard many times. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer did not “suffer martyrdom as a result of his stance on the king’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon.” His stance on the divorce actually made his career with Henry VIII, and led to his appointment as the first Protes­ tant archbishop of Canterbury. He continued in his position under Henry VIII and Edward VI, and only got into trouble under Queen Mary. She imprisoned him because of his Protestant involvement, and coerced him to a recantation of his Protestant views before his execution. He then dramatically reversed his position again before he was burned at the stake, asserting that his only sin was his previous recantation of his Protestant position. Before dying, he put the hand which had signed the recan­ tations into the fire, saying. More Great Books on Parenting I loved the parenthood piece in the spring issue [“The Education That Is Parenthood”]. The Pro­ gram is surely an excellent prepa­ ration for parenthood, since, whatever the great books may be about, it trains you in open and respectful dialogue, the proper relationship with one’s child. Of books about parenting, I have fond memories of Children the Challenge, by Rudolph Dreikers, Hawthorn Books, New York, 1964. It too fosters such dialogue. And for little children of course Dr. Spock. With reference to Janette Fischer’s letter on Galileo’s talents, it’s evident from Dava Sobel’s recent Galileo’s Daughter that he was an attentive and loving father too. —John A. White, SFGI75 I am breaking a 25-year silence to share this one thought with the St. John’s community. The best book on parenting I have ever read, in fact the best book I have ever read, the book I would keep if I had to give away every other book I own, the book I have bought ao copies of over my life and given away to troubled par­ ents and been thanked again and again for the gift.. .was not included in the list. From the first time I read it 15 years ago, I said if there ever was a book writ­ ten about parenting for a mem­ ber of the St. John’s community, it is Whole Child/Whole Parent by Polly Berrien Berends. —George Kiberd, A7a I read your recent article on par­ enthood with enjoyment. I am a mother of two, a La Leche League leader and something of a “birth junkie,” and I’d like to recommend a few more books. For birth. Dr. Bill and Martha Sears’s The Birth Book, and Birthing From UY'zAzzibyPam England and Rob Horowitz. {The College- St. John's College • Summer 2001 } La Leche League’s The Woman­ ly Art ofBreastfeeding is essen­ tial for nursing moms, and Dr. Sears’s The Baby Book is a wonderful book on parenting and baby care. The Sears books promote attachment parenting­ breastfeeding and holding the baby whenever he wants it, carry­ ing him in a sling, co-sleeping. This produces secure, independ­ ent children, contrary to what advocates of the old “don’t pick that baby up or you’ll spoil him” school might say. I also wanted to mention the large part that breastfeeding can play in the first year or more of a baby’s life, since it wasn’t dis­ cussed in your article. Breastfed babies are smarter, have stronger immune systems, and have a lower risk of leukemia, MS, obe­ sity and heart disease later in life. Breastfeeding moms have a lower risk of breast, ovarian, and cervi­ cal cancer, as well as a lower risk of osteoporosis. In addition to its many, many health benefits for mother and baby, breastfeeding helps to forge a stronger bond between them, and gives the mother a wonderful parenting tool as the baby gets older. Nurs­ ing is a wonderful way to soothe the bumps, bruises, hurt feelings and tantrums of toddlerhood, and I didn’t think it should be left out of a discussion on parenting! For more information on breast­ feeding, check out www.lalecheleague.org and www.breastfeeding.com. —Tamara Steblez Ashley Aga/gs Hurray for Planning I was excited to read in “One Col­ lege-How to Make it Really Work” (Springissue) that “...the Management Committee pre­ pared a framework for a college­ wide strategic plan that considers needs and resources well into the future.” What a great idea! —James Laws, SF86 Corrections Probably due to my somewhat illegible scrawl/penmanship �{Obituaries} C. Thomas Clagett Jr. Class ofiQsg C. Thomas Clagett Jr., a retired business executive who graduated from St. John’s in 1939, died on June 18. Mr. Clagett served in the Navy during World War II and became a lieutenant commander. He worked for the Zeigler Coal Company beginning in 1947; he was board vice chairman and head of the board’s executive committee when the com­ pany was bought by Houston Natural Gas in 1973. Mr. Clagett continued to serve on the board of the new company until he retired in 1985A lifelong resident of Washington, D.C., Mr. Clagett was involved with many civic and church groups, including Decatur House, the Navy League, the Masons, the Sons of the American Revolution, Washington Hos­ pital Center, Washington National Cathe­ dral, and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. He was also a yachtsman and sailor who established the Leiter Trophy, in honor of his wife, who died in 1977. He is survived by a son, a daughter, and four grandchildren. Constance Darkey Constance H. Darkey, who was known to every generation of New Program students and tutors, died May a6 at her Santa Fe home of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of eighty-four. She is survived by her husband, tutor emeritus William Darkey; a son by a previ­ ous marriage, Peter Nabokov, professor of anthropology at UCLA; by a daughter, Catharine Darcy, who works with a real estate firm in San Bernadino, Calif; by a sis­ ter, Sally G. Holladay of Schroon Lake, NY; and by a number of grandchildren. Mrs. Darkey was born and grew up in Min­ neapolis, Minn.; she graduated in 1938 from more letters there were a number of typos in the Alumni Notes for a listing I submitted which appeared in the 1986 section in the Spring 2001 issue: Firstly, I married Graham Gar­ ner, not Grant as listed once in the note. I work for the Friends General Conference of the Reli­ gious Society of Friends (not the Religions of Friends) and my email address is lucyd@fgcquak- Wells College in Aurora, NY, where she majored in Engbsh literature and drama and then did graduate study in literature with Professor Lane Cooper at Cornell University. In Annapolis she became deeply persuad­ ed of the rightness of the St. John’s curricu­ lum, a conviction which never waned. For several years she was manager of the College Bookstore in Annapolis, resigning in 1944 to take an editorial position in New York with a trade publication. Returning to Annapolis in 1947 she, with a group of other parents of young children, became involved in an enterprise which resulted in the Key School. She was first the librarian and had great fun buying books and then devised the school’s history program, which she taught delightedly. She understood and was an enthusiastic supporter of and participant in both the intellectual and social life of St. John’s, well understanding that these were not separable provinces. She favored the idea of the western cam­ pus and once in Santa Fe took up her resi­ dency with all of her considerable energies, making new friends, reading widely and deeply in the literature and history of the Southwest, and traveling throughout the entire region. She put her new knowledge to work first as a docent in local museums, and then became the librarian of the Wheel­ wright Museum of the American Indian. When her husband became the dean of the Santa Fe campus, she again turned her ener­ gies to the social life of the college, acting for five years as hostess to visiting lecturers and to generations of students. She was a regular and excellent partici­ pant in Gommunity Seminars, and for one year she was happily a co-leader of an under­ graduate seminar. er.org not lucyd@fgquaker.org. The wedding was really beautiful by the way-a really perfect day. —Lucy Duncan, SF86 Editor’s Note Due to a computer software glitch, many households received multiple copies of the first issue of The College. We hope the soft­ ware problem is corrected and apologize for loading up your Donald S. Elliott Class oftg48 Donald S. Elliott, who taught at Garrison Forest School for 30 years, died on March 13. Mr. Elliott also wrote children books devoted to teaching about music, “Alligators and Music,” “Frogs and Ballet,” and “Lamb’s Tales from Great Operas.” At the private school in Owings Mills, Md., where he taught, his favorite course was an interdisci­ plinary one that combined art, literature, history, and music. Mr. Elliott was born and raised in Lutherville, Md., and entered St. John’s when he was 14. He received his degree in 1948 and went to work for the Baltimore Life Insurance Company in the actuarial depart­ ment. He left to become a teacher at Garri­ son Forest School. He is remembered as a Renaissance man who taught himself to play the piano, read philosophy and literature constantly, and built his own swimming pool. He is survived by his wife, Cielito Obina, and by three sons, two daughters, and four grandchildren. ALSO NOTED: Elizareth D. Hatch, A76, died in Decem­ ber 1998 John A. Joh, Class of 193a, died in March 2000 Craig Allen Johnston, A95 Kenneth Lenihan, AGI88, died in May 2001 Jesse Elhert Morgan, Class of 1954 F. Scott Seegers, Class of 1967, died in February 2001 Tad Sanwick, Class of 1938, died in May 2001 George F. Wohlgemuth, Class of 1919, died in June 2001 mailboxes unnecessarily. Contacting The College The College welcomes letters on issues of interest to readers. Let­ ters may be edited for clarity and/or length. Those under 500 words have a better chance of being printed in their entirety. Please address letters to; The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404 or The College Maga­ {The College- St. John’s College . Summer soot } zine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, nm 87505-4599- Letters can also be sent via email to: b-goyette@sjca.edu, or via the form for letters on the web site at www.sjca.edu - click on “Alumni,” then on “Contact The College Magazine.” �{Obituaries} 42, In Memory of Leo Raditsa emarks delivered by tutor Nick Maistrellis at a memorial service for Leo Raditsa, tutor in Annapo­ lis from 1973 to aoor. Mr. Raditsa died in January. R I first met Leo in the mid-yos when we shared a sophomore seminar-the first of three seminars we shared over the next 35 years. We may have a record. I liked him immediately although we disagreed, almost from the beginning, about many things; poli­ tics, the college, the purpose of seminar. I thought of him as a political conservative because of the passion with which he believed in the inherent evil of the Soviet empire. But he himself rejected that label. He thought of himself as a partisan of free­ dom and humaneness. He was also deeply skeptical about the college’s approach to the books. He did not believe they could be read without the context of the struggles which surrounded their birth, and without the con­ stant guidance of a teacher. At bottom, Leo believed that the task of the tutor is to show students what is impor­ tant in the extraordinary books we read together. I, being more conservative, thought that no such thing can be done in seminar, and that all we can do is to allow students the occasion to examine their own insights into the books. For me, the main job of the seminar leader is to wait and listen, whereas for Leo it was to assert and provoke. What he cherished most in seminar was oneon-one exchanges between himself and a stu­ dent who was responding to something he had said. He told me that he didn’t believe students could sustain an important conver­ sation just among themselves. This made for seminars in which there was always at least the possibility of tension between the tutors. I found being in seminar with Leo difficult and wearing, but also very exciting. If we had not been in seminar together, I do not know if I would have ever allowed myself to know and care for this extraordinary man. Many people one meets are interesting for what they know or for what they have done. It is much rarer to meet one who is interesting in himself. Leo was one of these. I have often, over the past many years, experi­ enced a lack which on reflection turned out to be a need to have lunch with Leo, just to be with him. In every encounter with him you knew you were in the presence of someone. Every opinion he expressed had that in it which marked it as one of Leo’s utterances. In this way he had of always being truly pres­ ent in every conversation, Leo was one of the most intimate human beings I have known. Leo always said what he thought, and what he thought was never ordinary. His thinking had for me the following quality; he seemed to be the conduit for opinions coming from a deeper source, rather than the originator of them. His own awareness of this quality of his thinking is probably reflected in his respect for the discovery of the unconscious by classical psychoanalysis, and especially for the work of Freud and Wilhelm Reich. I remember so many occasions when he said things I could not possibly have expected, or expressed opinions I could not imagine any­ one holding, that I could spend hours relat­ ing them. One in particular happened 25 years ago in the sophomore seminar we shared. In those days we read John Calvin’s Institutes ofthe Christian Religion, a formi­ dable book best known for its austere teach­ ing on the predestination of souls for salva­ tion. Leo had never read it before, and came to the seminar very excited. It was his open­ ing question. He looked at the class and said, “Isn’t this the sweetest, the warmest, the most humane author you have ever read?” Of all the things I could have imagined being said about Calvin, this was the least expect­ ed, and yet, it became the beginning of a very good discussion, for it challenged us to reassess our own first opinions. What Leo saw was that the doctrine of predestination {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer noot } removed an unbearable burden of responsibility from human beings. This story also has its own irony, for it shows Leo being a seminar stu­ dent in the best St. John’s tradition in spite of his own doubts about being a seminar leader. Leo cared about his students. His manner was often abrupt and challenging. He was sometimes grumpy. It is hard to know how much of this was from the chronic pain in his leg, for he never com­ plained. He could be unfairly criti­ cal, and judgmental. He often mis­ judged students. But, he cared deeply both for their learning and for their personal welfare. He didn’t talk about students very often, but when he did he surprised me by how much he knew about them. He was impatient with what he saw as phoniness, and much of his harshness was directed against perceived laziness, or what he thought was the mere parroting of fash­ ionable opinions for effect. But if he thought a student was doing his best Leo could be extraordinarily gracious and encouraging. I remember two occasions when he saved me from unfairly undervaluing the written work of students, when I had allowed myself to be too critical of superficial defects. He was often more generous in formal evaluations than in oral exams. We were together on more than one occasion on senior essay com­ mittees when he was very harsh in person to a student to whom he gave a good grade on the essay itself. His response to this apparent discrepancy was to say that he thought the student was too pleased with himself, and needed to be woken up. My favorite times with Leo were outside class, and especially when we were not talk­ ing about college matters where he was usu­ ally furious about a decision that had just been made by some officer of the college in which, all to often, I was implicated. I loved to hear him talk about Italy. He cared deeply about the world, and in his presence I cared about it more too. We had both adopted chil­ dren at about the same time, and it was with him that I shared my feelings about the spe­ cial joys and challenges of being an adoptive parent. He gave the best dinner parties. �43 {History} HUNT HOUSE The sprawling Santa Fe-style adobe home with the courtyard perfectfor viewing sunsets once belonged to a colorfulpoet. BY Alexis Brown, SFoo new president for the Santa Fe campus travels to Asia, Bynner had a newfound love and appreciation for poetry. He settled down occupies the Hunt House, and as he and his in the hills of Santa Fe and began to expand on his poetic expression, using the simple, wife begin planning for their future there, elegant styles of Asian poetry. is it, exactly, that the house named one wonders about the house’s history. Not forHow Robert Hunt, Witter Bynner’s partner, is much is known about the house in the hills now being used by the college as a home for president? This isn’t the house Bynner across from campus, even less of our con­ its lived in on Santa Fe Trail-the house where famous parties were held. Instead, it’s a nection with the man who donated it to thethecollege, poet sprawling set of buildings, a main house with Witter Bynner (1881-1968). two guest houses surrounding a courtyard. A In 1922, Witter Bynner moved to Santa Fe, a place he would call home the rest of his life. For decades, Bynner was a prominent citizen in Santa Fe and an active participant in the cultural and political life of the city. He had no official affiliation with the “new” college that was built in Santa Fe in the mid-sixties. His association with St. John’s was a result of his appreciation and respect for the college and its program. Bynner and Robert Hunt, his companion of more than 30 years, lived in a house on Old Santa Fe Trail. There they held parties that attracted artists, literary figures, and celebrities who lived in or were visiting Santa Fe-people like D.H. Lawrence, Ansel Adams, Errol Flynn, Robert Oppenheimer, and Georgia O’Keefe. In his 87 years Witter Bynner produced many volumes of poetry, translated Greek and Chinese works into English, taught poetry classes at Stanford and Berkeley, trav­ eled throughout the world, and made numer­ ous friends. Yet despite his achievements few Americans recognize his name. Bynner’s obscurity is mostly due to the 1916 “Spectra Hoax,” in which Bynner and Arthur Davison Ficke, writing under pseudonyms which they later revealed, established “Spectrism,” a supposedly new school of poetry that attract­ ed many advocates. When Bynner and Ficke revealed this “new” type of poetry as a hoax. and their identities, they offended many of their peers, and thus lost respect in the literary world. Despite lack of recogni­ tion from his contempo­ raries, Byn­ ner contin­ ued to Santa Fe president John produce many Balkcom and his wife carol excellent writ­ are new residents of the Hunt House. ten works throughout his lifetime. He also translated Iphigenia in Tauris from the original Greek to English in 1915. During these years, he lectured throughout the United States on poetry and women’s suffrage. In 1917, soon after the Spectra Hoax, Byn­ ner visited Japan and China, spending approximately two months in each country. He wished to explore Asia and to escape America’s involvement in World War I. A staunch pacifist, he loathed Europe’s war and strongly denounced violence. After his {The College -5f. John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } Up in the hills, it affords wonderous views of Santa Fe sunsets. The story goes like this: Hunt and Bynner were travel­ ing south to sell a house they owned in Chiapas, Mexico, because they were planning to move into a new house in Santa Fe designed andbuUt by Hunt. On the way, though. Hunt died suddenly. Bynner was so grief-stricken that, although Hunt left the house to him, Bynner could neither move into the house by him­ self, and nor could he sell it. A year later, Bynner had his first stroke, and was confined to living in his own house, the one that had been site to so many parties. Neither Hunt nor Bynner ever lived in the house Hunt built, but they are now both buried near there, in a spot marked by a bronze statue of a dog once loved by Hunt. When Hunt died, Bynner acquired the titles to both houses. Bynner himself died in 1968, leaving both houses to St. John’s, presum­ ably because he admired something about its philosophy of education. The college sold the Witter Bynner House on Old Santa Fe Trail because it was too expensive to main­ tain. But, luckily, the Hunt House still stands strong, home to a new president. �44 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Senior Dinners: Welcoming the Newest Alumni Dear Johnnies, St. John’s may have you for four years, but the Alumni Association has you forever after. That’s the message alumni pass along to their newest fel­ low alums—the soon-to-be-graduated seniors-during Senior Dinners. These dinners, which take place in Santa Fe in January and Annapohs in April, have become an important tradition for the seniors and for their alumni hosts alike. It’s a chance for Johnnies who’ve been out in the “real world” to welcome students into the Association. The hosts, the college, and the Association all work together to make the evening a success. The Alumni Directors, Tahmina Shalizi and Roberta Gable, choose the local restaurants (with input from participating alumni). The students choose the friends they want to go out with. And the alumni hosts put their social skills to good use in bringing the evening together. Leo Vladimirsky, a member of the Annapolis class of 2001, says he enjoyed his dinner at North­ woods with Mark Middlebrook (A82) and Robert Bienenfeld (SF80). “The food was great-Northwoods being one of the best places to eat around Have you received your copy of the St. John’s College Alumni Register aooi? Have you checked to make sure your own info is right? Have you seen who’s lost and who’s found? (More about that later.) Have you scanned your class to see who’s married or divorced? Who’s moved or changed johs? Have you used the new e-mail section to send ehellos to old friends? I certainly have, especially because I’m getting ready for the 25th reunion of my class! Glenda Eoyang We owe a note of resounding thanks to Roberta Gable, Direc­ tor of Alumni Activities in Annapolis, and her team for the tremendous work they did preparing the Register. Every five years, the Alumni Association and the college fund the effort to collect data about alumni and to publish that information for all of us to share. The Register is an excellent tool to help us stay connected with each other and with the college. Many thanks to all! Now, about those lost alumni.... As you browse the new Register, you’ll note that some names are marked with an asterisk for “address unknown.” These are alum­ ni who have lost contact with the community. The Alumni Association and the col­ lege will be making an effort over the next few months to rebuild connections with these missing persons. You can help! If you’re in touch with ones who are “address unknown,” please contact them and encourage them to get in touch with the col­ lege (or call or e-mail the Alumni Office so that they can follow up). A phone call, a note, or an e-mail will provide the information tie that hinds us. I hope your summer is joyous and rewarding and that you have a chance to partici­ pate in some of the summer’s alumni activities: Homecoming in SF, Summer Alumni Weeks, GI graduation, various chapter gatherings, listserve conversa­ tions, or a private visit to one of the campuses. For the past, the present, and the future, Glenda Holladay Eoyang, SF76 ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, undergraduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, all alumni have automatic membership in the St. John’s College Alumni Association. The Alumni Association is an independent organization, with a Board of Directors elected by and from the alumni body. The Board meets four times a year, twice on each campus, to plan programs and coordinate the affairs of the Association. This newsletter within The College magazine is sponsored by the Alumni Association and communicates Alumni Association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary-Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team ChairTom Geyer, A68 Web site - www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml eoyang@chaos-hmited. com Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapohs, MD 21404 or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. {The College- St. John's College ■ Summer 2001 } �{Alumni Association News} Annapolis. It was a nice conversation among people who didn’t know each other,” he says. The students knew each other, he hastens to add-“we all decided to list each other on the forms the Alumni Office sends out, to be sure we’d be with our friends.” After an initial discussion in which each sen­ ior talked about his or her future plans, the con­ versation turned to more general matters about college life, graduate school, the business world, working as an engineer, and other matters, says Vladimirsky. There wasn’t any purposeful net­ working, but the students all got the feeling that their alumni hosts cared about what happened to them and would be willing to help out in job searches or with graduate school advice. They also learned a fife skill-how to “taste” wine. Mark Middlebrook, who lives near the Napa Val­ ley wine region, demonstrated how to swirl the wines around in their glasses before smelling and tasting. “AU around, it was a nice evening, and it’s great of the Alumni Association to do this for seniors,” says Vladimirsky. Himself, he’s not sure what he’ll be doing come fall. After some rest from academic matters, he’ll probably go to graduate school. He knows he can count on alumni for advice or networking once he has an idea of where he’d like to study. One thing for sure, though, “the chocolate cheesecake at Northwoods was great.” Amending the Amendment Mechanism In order to make it easier to explain proposed changes in the Alumni Association By-Laws to the alumni ofthe college, the Alumni Association Board isproposing thefollowing amendment to the By-Laws: In accordance with Article XIII, Section I of the By-Laws of the St. John’s CoUege Alumni Associ­ ation, notice is hereby given that the following by-laws amendment has been proposed by the Alumni Association Board of Directors. This amendment will be voted upon at the Special Meeting, September 29, 2001, 2:00 p.m. in the Conversation Room in Annapolis. The amendment to Article XIII is indicated in capitals. ARTICLE XIII AMENDMENTS SECTION I. Any and all provisions of these ByLaws may be altered, amended, added to, or repealed by a majority of the membership of the Association, present in person or by proxy, at any regular or special meeting of the member­ ship, provided that a copy of any proposed amendment shall have been mailed to each member at least six weeks prior to that meeting OR PROVIDED THAT A NOTICE, AS SPECI­ FIED HEREUNDER, SHALL HAVE BEEN MAILED TO EACH MEMBER AT LEAST SIX WEEKS PRIOR TO THAT MEETING. THE NOTICE SHALL INDICATE THE ARTICLE(S) AND SECTION(S) PROPOSED TO BE AMEND­ ED; AWEB SITE ADDRESS DETERMINED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AT WHICH A MEMBER MAY ACCESS THE COMPLETE TEXT OF THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT; AND A STATEMENT INFORMING EACH MEMBER HOW THEY MAY RECEIVE A COPY OF THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT BY MAIL OR FAX. Amendments to these By-Laws shall be sub­ mitted to the membership upon the vote of the Board of Directors, or by Petition of at least fifty members in good standing which is received at least ten weeks prior to the date of the meeting. SECTION IL Unless so stated, any amend­ ment to these By-Laws shall take effect immedi­ ately foUowing its adoption. The Croquet Match is a favorite gathering SPOT FOR 1980s AND I99OS ALUMNI (lEFt). At the Match Alumni Association Board MEMBERS sported SHADES PRINTED WITH “Beat Navy” — in Greek, of course. CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE PHILADELPHIA Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-880-2134 Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 ANNAPOLIS PORTLAND Valerie Garvin 410-280-6119 Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 AUSTIN SACRAMENTO Jennifer Chenoweth 512-482-0747 Helen Hobart 916-452-1082 BALTIMORE SAN DIEGO Roberta Gable 410-295-6926 Stephanie Rico 619-423-4252 BOSTON SAN Francisco/ NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 CHICAGO Lorna Anderson 847-467-3069 DENVER Elizabeth Pollard Jenny 303-330-3373 LOS ANGELES Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEW YORK Fielding Dupuy 212-974-2922 NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer soot } 45 Jon Hodapp 831-393-9496 SANTA FE John Pollak 505-983-2144 SEATTLE Kyle Kinsey 206-715-1081 WASHINGTON, DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 972-2-6717608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �{Campus Life} Say It Isn’t So What happened to St. Johns domination in croquet? VI Sus3AN Borden, A87 e were, perhaps, a bit smug. We were, you might say, a tad over­ confident. And we were, no doubt, somewhat drunk. But still, it doesn’t add up. When did smugness become an obstacle for a Johnny? What good is a croquet team that’s not overconfident? And why would a martini or two ever keep us from the Annapolis Cup? And yet it happened. After a nine-year win­ ning streak and a 15-3 series record, St. John’s lost the 19th croquet match against the Naval Academy, held the last Saturday in April on the front campus. While we were unahle to contact Imperial Wicket Paige Postlewait (Aoi) for this story, her teammate and next year’s Imperial Wicket, Jonathan Polk {A02), has some insight into the loss. “We might have heen a little overconfident,” he says, “but I’m tempted to think of it as just a combination of bad luck-lots of people’s different bad luck in combination.” “It’s been a pretty rough year for us,” Polk says. “We didn’t compete in the National Championships and we didn’t start practic­ ing until about a month beforehand.” (Why the team didn’t go to the Nationals, where they were three-time champions, is another story-involving a change in the game from traditional nine-wicket to something called “golf croquet.”) Still, he says, even with the late start the team logged so much playing time they felt they were ready to play and prepared to win. An article in the Trident, the Naval Acade­ my’s newspaper, suggests that the win may be a result of strategy, the players’ lucky ties and lucky mallets, or brainpower-the team included two Trident Scholars and a Pownall Scholar. Word around town is that the Acad­ emy brought in a croquet coach from Yale to beef up the middies’ strategy and skills. Whatever the reason, says former Imperi­ al Wicket Bob DeMajistre (A88), the mid­ shipmen deserved to win. DeMajistre attend­ ed this year’s match, as he does most years. One of the college’s four losing Imperial Wickets {1987), DeMajistre is well qualified to analyze the play. “I watched the court where we played the first lost game and the mids were shooting very well, they were dead on. They were making long shots, they were hitting balls. And we weren’t.” Johnnies, as usual, were a bit more fla­ grantly OUTFITTED THAN THEIR OPPONENTS. {The College. St John’s College ■ Summer zooi } �47 Steven Werlin (A85), St. John’s first defeated Wicket, recalls that losing was no surprise to him in 1985. “Two separate cro­ quet things were happening at St. John’s that year,” he says. “There were serious croquet players and then there was the croquet team. The only person who fell into both groups was James Hapner (A85).” Only later, Werlin says, did croquet play become more serious and practice become intense. Once practice did take hold, it became St. John’s secret weapon. Or perhaps not so secret, as it was revealed in a Sports Illustrat­ ed article, “The Best of Everything” ( April 28,1997, special issue on college sports). Citing the croquet match as the Most Obscure Rivalry, the article quotes a Naval Academy plebe explaining St. John’s strate­ gy: “They’re out practicing croquet every afternoon! Alabama should take football this seriously.” Louis Elias {A91), another former Imperi­ al Wicket, recalls the year his team lost the match (i99r). “I sort of knew we were going to lose all along,” Elias says. “I lost heart Jonathon Polk lines up a long shot (top). Polk AND Imperial Wicket Paige PostleWAIT WAIT THEIR TURN (BOTTOM LEFT) WHILE CURRENT Johnnies enjoy the festivities (bottom Right). {The College -St John’s College ■ Summer 2001 } that year. The hype and media attention [G<2 covered the event] and the reaction to the attention seemed, to me, to detract’from the spirit of the event.” Still he says, the loss was not without a silver lining: “I figured we were due for a loss if only to keep the Acade­ my interested.” DeMajistre agrees that an occasional loss can serve a strategic purpose: “The main reason to lose is so that the mids will come back. You got to throw them a bone every once in awhile. ” * �48 {St. John’s Forever} These photos of student desks were TAKEN BY EdWARD GrAY, CLASS OF I934. The date on the photos is 1933. From the 1933 yearbook, THE Rat Tat, describing the TENOR OE COLLEGE LIFE AT St. John’s: ...Like all other freshman classes we gave lit­ tle evidence of ability, although we did study a bit between building bonfires, attending rat meetings and football, basketball and lacrosse games...One of the outstanding features this year was the inauguration of the new presi­ dent of the college [Amos W. Woodcock]. Another was the coming of Hopkins. What a fight! If you don’t believe me, ask the Annapolis police, the Annapolis firemen or the jail keeper...By the time we were juniors, we had forgotten most of our high school and prep school training and were beginning to realize that it takes a smart man to admit there is plenty he doesn’t know...Each one of us came here with ideals and aims. Some of us have done things we set out to do, others have done more, others have met with disappoint­ ments. Most of us brought little to St. John’s with us. The amount of knowledge and the number of friends we take away with us depends on the individual. Everything the school could offer us was placed at our feet. Who picked it up and who trampled it is another question. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer zoot } �{Alumni Events Calendar} Homecoming 2001 - Annapolis Friday, septemDcrau-siwflay, September 30 Reunion Classes: 1936,1941,1951,1956, 1961,1966,1971,1976,1981,1986,1991, and 1996 Homecoming Highlights Friday, September 28 • Homecoming Lecture by Abraham Schoener (A82): “The Biology of the Fermentation Vehicle” • Wine and Cheese Party in the Dining HaU • Rock Party in the Boathouse Saturday, September 29 • Memorial Service for Mortimer Adler • Saturday Morning Seminars • Children of alumni seminar on Harry Potter (followed by croquet) • Freshman Chorus Revisited led by Elliott Zuckerman • West Street Story, a reprise of the Class of 1981’s senior prank show • Alumni-Student Soccer Classic • Autograph Party • Cocktail party in the Great Hall and McDowell classrooms • Homecoming Banquet: Tom Williams (A51) and Warren Spector ( A81) will receive the Alumni Association Award of Merit; Nancy Lewis, John Moore, and Beate Ruhm Von Oppen will be recognized as new Honorary Alumni • Waltz Party in the Great Hall Sunday, September 30 I • Rock Party in the Coffee Shop: Robert ■ George (A85) will make a cameo DJ 3 appearance i • Champagne Brunch at the President’s House - ? ‘ I t A Johnnie is a Johnnie—no matter if their GRADUATION YEAR WAS IN THE 1950’s OR THE 1990’s. Inauguration of John Balktom as Santa Fe President _____ - ' -1 Friday, September 14 and Saturday; September 15 “Inviting Conversations” is the theme of this inaugural weekend where festivities will include: Friday, September 14 • Picnic on the soccer field • All-college Chicago-style softball game • Performance at the newly renovated Lensic Performing Arts Center Saturday, September 15 • Inauguration at 10 a.m. on Meem Library Placita • Reception for all in attendance will take place on the Upper Placita • Waltz Party in the Great Hall For information on events, contact the Offices of Alumni Activities: Tahmina Shalizi, Director of Alumni and Parent Activities Santa Fe - 505-984-6103; alumni@maiLsjcsf.edu Roberta Gable, Director of Alumni Activities Annapolis - 4io-6a6-253i; alumni@sjca.edu �STJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA PE Published by the Public Relations Office Box a8oo Annapolis, Maryland 21404 ADDRESS service REQUESTED Periodicals Postage Paid � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The College </em>(2001-2017) Description An account of the resource The St. John's College Communications Office published <em>The College </em>magazine for alumni.  It began publication in 2001, continuing the <em>St. John's Reporter</em>, and ceased with the Fall 2017 issue.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The College" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=56">Items in The College (2001-2017) Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context thecollege2001 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The College, Summer 2001 Description An account of the resource Volume 27, Issue 3 of The College Magazine. Published in Summer 2001. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 27, Issue 3 Summer 2001 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Goyette, Barbara (editor) Mulry, Laura J. (Santa Fe editor) Borden, Sus3an (assistant editor) Behrens, Jennifer (graphic designer) Johnson, David Harvey, Keith Eoyang, Glenda Holladay Brown, Alexis Maistrellis, Nicholas Hellner-Burris, Janet Goyette, Barbara Moreno, Ed Fridrich, Sarah Flaumenhaft, Harvey Rankin, John Knight, Mirabai https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/46ec33268c4dacd9a8300dc8b9655bf8.pdf 8d39ce9603c29f99dab973a4f153b4b3 PDF Text Text �On St. Augustine ugustine’s life and works reflect intellectual rigor, curiosity, STJOHN’S and a desire to see beyond the surface of things to find real understanding. Driven by a restlessness that at times turned College to self-loathing, he engaged in a relentless quest with many a SANTA wrong turn and dead end. He was determined to distinguish “the charm of words from the truth of things,” as he writes in the The College (usps 018-750) Augustine was born in Tagaste He (modern dayabout Soukdifficult Ahras) in North Africa in 354. in Confessions. thought questions we confront is published quarterly by As a schoolboy he hated Greek, Latin, and faced was idle many worksloved we read at St. John ’s, beatings from the when Bible he to War andin Peace-. What is sin? St. John’s CoUege, Annapolis, MD, his studies. At times,Why his education waspleasure interrupted because of the family do men take in doing the wrong thing?’sIsfinances, free will real-or an illusion?and Santa Fe, NM but Augustine What is love? was clever, had an excellent memory, and excelled at the art of Known office of publication: rhetoric. He went to Rome and then Milan to teach rhetoric, and did well in his Communications Office St. John’s College public life, seeking out applause and recognition for his talents. He saw rhetoric as a Box a8oo way to “conquer” others, but ultimately, his success as a great orator gave him no Annapolis, MD 21404-2800 real satisfaction. Periodicals postage paid His search for wisdom led him to the Manichaean religion, which ultimately at Annapolis, MD disappointed him with empty answers to his questions. “Nearly nine years passed in postmaster: Send address which I wallowed in the mud of that deep pit and in the darkness of falsehood, striving changes to The College often to rise, but being all the more heavily dashed down,” he writes in Book Three. Magazine, Communications His restlessness and dissatisfaction led him to the works of Plato and Plotinus. Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD He found a harmony between Christian belief and neoplatonism that paved the way 21404-2800. for his eventual conversion. In 387, at the age of 33, and on Holy Saturday, Augustine Rosemary Harty, editor was baptized. His mother, St. Monica, never gave up on him. Patricia Dempsey, Soon afterward he returned to Tagaste, where he lived a monastic life. In 391, while managing editor he was visiting in Hippo, he became a priest. For the rest of his life he remained in John Hartnett (SF83), Santa Fe editor Hippo, where he became auxiliary bishop in 395 and bishop soon after. He died in Jennifer Behrens, art director 430, as the Vandals lay siege to Hippo, and he spent his last days reading in his library. Annapolis 410-626-2539 His Confessions (written in his 40s) is considered a classic of Christian autobiogra­ phy, as well as a compelling account of one man’s intellectual and spiritual journey. Santa Fe He spent 13 years writing The City of God, which he finished in 426. 505-984-6104 Sophomores at St. John’s read from the Hebrew scriptures and from classical Contributors Roman poetry and history before moving on to Augustine, Aquinas, and Anselm. Jason Bielagus (SF98) In the reading list today, Aristotle’s On the Soul serves as a bridge between the great Barbara Goyette (A73) shifts of thought occurring between Roman and medieval times. “Augustine was a Andra Maguran man caught between two worlds: that of paganism and Christianity, of being a Jo Ann Mattson (A87) believer and a nonbeliever,” says Brother Robert Smith, Annapolis tutor. “In the Erica Naone (A05) Libby Vega (SF06) Confessions, he works that all out, and all the moral problems that are connected with Roseanna White (A05) that. Besides that, he’s a very good writer.” A ANNAPOLIS • FE Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} PAGE IO DEPARTMENTS St. Augustine a FROM THE BELL TOWERS How should we think about the concept of sin? Does the average person really have the capacity for evil? Augustine scholar Kim Paffenroth (A88) offers perspective on the Confessions. • • • • • • • Faculty study groups Making Johnnies out of GIs A new vice president in Santa Fe Opportunity Initiative Enterprising Greek scholars A garden grows in Annapolis New tutors 9 LETTERS PAGE l8 Commencement 2005 16 ALUMNI VOICES In Annapolis, one speaker imagines Callicles as the perfect commencement speaker; in Santa Fe, another tells graduates that great riches lie beyond the land of the Phaiacians. PAGE A Johnnie way of life-only different. a8 STUDENT VOICES Through photography, Donald Stone (A06) helps teens find their own paths. 30 BIBLIOFILE 2121 A Long A new two-volume history by Joseph Baratta (A69) explores the world federalism movement. Time Coming In her years away from St. John’s, Peggy O’Shea (SF87) sold BMWs. Nick Colten (A97) worked as a baker. Ultimately, their paths brought them full circle. PAGE 3a ALUMNI NOTES PROFILES 32 Antiques Roadshow’s Peter Fairbanks (A73) knows the real McCoy. 36 An island of her own: Sarah Mara (A61) and life on Lone Pine. 38 Kira Zielinski (SF95) takes to the skies. 42 Chris P. Nelson (SF99)-blogging his way to fame and fortune. 2Zj. Homecoming A birthday party for Eastern Classics, Shakespeare in action, and a new president in Santa Fe make for a lively Homecoming. 46 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS 48 ST. John’s forever PAGE a4 ON THE COVER Augustine ofHippo Illustration by DavidJohnson �2. {From the Bell Towers} Faculty Study Groups Sustaining the Life ofthe Mind Molly Bloom’s soliloquy at the end of James Joyce’s Ulysses is one of the most famous passages of modern literature, with the final few lines punctuated by the repetition of the word “yes”: . Iput my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he couldfeel my breasts allperfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. ” As he prepared for a faculty study group meeting on the novel last July, Santa Fe tutor David Carl planned to play a recording of an actress reading part of the soliloquy. “My opening question will be, ‘what is Molly saying yes to?’” Carl explained. “The book is about the Blooms’ marital problems, her infidelity, the death of their child, and there are a lot of things that have been said no to. But she’s affirming something at the end of book, and I’d like to hear thoughts from the group.” Carl was actually a bit surprised to find him­ self leading an eight-week faculty study group on Ulysses. He had proposed War and Peace, but the Instruction Committee had settled on Joyce, and he gamely accepted. “It’s a very difficult book,” he says of Ulysses. “But it’s been fun, because talking about it out loud helps sort out the meaning.” Faculty study groups have been a part of sustaining the intellectual life of St. John’s tutors since the New Program was established in 1937. Groups of 4-12 tutors meet under a variety of circumstances, reading and working through a variety of texts, both Program and non-Program. This kind of study is important to tutors: it enables them to think in-depth about a certain subject or book, when their normal teaching schedule calls them to cover material more quickly; it helps them consider proposed changes to the Program; and it helps them prepare to teach in areas of the curriculum where they may not have much experience. This past summer, about 25 faculty members in Santa Fe took part in five funded study groups. In Annapolis, 43 fac­ ulty members took part in six funded groups. (On both campuses, several tutors took part in more than one group.) Because it is such an essential part of keeping St. John’s a true community of learners, faculty development-as it is often called in the academic world-is among the college’s most important strategic goals. To allow more tutors to take part, the college has been seeking-and finding, from entities such as the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, the A.W. Mellon Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-outside funding for study groups. A grant supported the Ulysses study group, and Carl was gratified to be paid for the time and effort he put into leading the group. “In the Nichomacean Ethics, we read that a life of study and contemplation is the happiest life a human being can lead,” he says. “Tutors really believe that, and if that’s what you believe, surely someone doesn’t have to offer you money. On the other hand, leading a group is time consuming, and it turns out the compensation is pretty gener­ ous. That helped because of all the things that turn out not to be a part of the life of the mind, but still matter-like rent and insurance.” Spontaneous and informal study groups spring up frequently at St. John’s, says Santa Fe Dean David Levine (A67). However, on a practical level, funded study groups allow tutors to be released from their teaching schedule. “Now that we have the financial support, it means that tutors can concentrate on a study group in ways they haven’t been able to before,” he says. “We’re working Supportingfaculty development is one ofthe colleges most important strategic goals. Thursday afternoon with Joyce: Santa Fe faculty MEMBERS (l. to R. ) BoB Richardson, David Carl, AND Peter Pesic took on Ulysses in a summer study GROUP. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } J �{From the Bell Towers} 3 toward giving tutors more release time to pursue their his most satisfying experiences has been holding the NEH Chair, own inquiry.” which gave him a year off from teaching to study Plato’s Philebus, Study groups solidify the faculty community and feed tutors then lead a faculty study group and deliver a lecture on thumos in with energy and ideas. “At other colleges, faculty study groups The Republic. are the icing on the cake, whereas here, they’re a necessity-they Providing compensation for study groups ensures more oppor­ are part of the cake,” says Levine. Because tutors teach across tunities for all tutors, Dink says. “It levels the playing field to the curriculum, the college asks “everyone to extend themselves allow anyone-regardless of financial need-to engage in the study beyond their area of comfort.” group,” he says. “Tutors will always want to keep learning. Their Last summer, Ingo Farin, a Santa Fe tutor since 2002, took part appetites are not exhausted by the Program.” in a srx-week mathematics study group led by John Cornell and a Tutor Erik Sagengwas asked to lead a faculty study group on two-day session on Einstein’s 1905 paper on Brownian motion, probability and statistics, funded by the Howard Hughes Medical led by Peter Pesic. They were both exciting, says Farin, whose Institute. He spent a year planning, originally expecting to focus doctoral work was in philosophy. “It’s good to offer study groups on techniques of statistical analysis, but the study group eventu­ for those who are not experts, so they can catch up with what ally took a more philosophical look at the topic. “I had no idea more experienced tutors say about the matter,” he says. “But the that there were so many different and actively debated systems of primary focus of study groups should be the intellectual focus of foundations for probability and statistics,” he says. “I found that tutors. That means that [the groups] go outside the canon of really interesting and exciting.” things we teach here. If we don’t do that, there’s a danger we The group had three two-hour meetings each week for eight could become experts in the Program.” weeks. Four members of the group had fund­ For that reason, he was pleased to lead a ing, but one took part without any compensa­ study group on “ Todesfuge” (“Death Fugue”) tion. They read works by Richard von Mises, by Paul Celan, a Romanian-born poet whose Karl Popper, F.P. Ramsey, Bruno de Finetti, parents were killed in the Holocaust and and John Maynard Keynes. “This particular who escaped death by working in a Nazi topic was especially valuable, because it can labor camp. bear on how we learn and how we change our Claudia Honeywell has been on the faculty opinions in the face of evidence,” Sageng says. for 12 years and has yet to teach senior labora­ WTiile some study groups meet for just one tory. After completing a study group on the summer, one Annapolis group has been meet­ Michael Dink, Annapolis dean first half of senior lab, led by Howard Fisher, ing for 21 years, two hours each week, for eight she feels that she can approach Faraday, weeks, to read works in phenomenology. Millikan, and Rutherford with They’ve spent years on each more ease. It was enjoyable to work, just completing a fiveconduct the experiments with year exploration of Hans-Georg her colleagues and talk about Gadamer’s Truth and Method the results. “This has really last summer. The works they opened up something for me. Or, don’t. A/oZ>y-7)ZcA:-considered by some to be the great read may not be on the Pro­ When I go into laboratory. American novel-hasn’t been on the seminar reading list in gram, but they help us under­ I’ll have more confidence, Annapolis since 1974. It hung on in Santa Fe several years stand the Program, says tutor and I’ll feel I can engage the longer before vanishing. Relegated to preceptorials, the Jon Lenkowsi, who also took students,” she says, adding novel has been replaced in seminar by Benito Cereno. part in a Donne study group. with a laugh, “I’m still afraid Here’s your chance, readers of The College. What should be “What we do in our classes can to teach music.” on the official Reading List of St. John’s that is not there now? be traced back to some kind of Annapolis Dean Michael Joyce’s Ulysses, instead of The Dead? Proust’s Remembrance phenomenology. We’re always Dink (A75) still remembers the of Things Pastl Should we bring back Gibbon’s The Decline reflecting on our own experi­ and Fall ofthe Roman Empire I study group he participated in ences and on our own lives,” Make your case in a few hundred words or less why a par­ during his first year as a tutor he says. ticular work should be added to the Reading List. Note that in Annapolis in 1984. “Curtis Lenkowski is one of the The College has no sway with the Instruction Committee, Wilson led a group on the idea original members of the group, which decides such things. We invite your suggestions in the of universal gravitation in which also comprised John interest of sparking lively conversation. Newton’s thought. It made a White (A65), Sam Kutler Those whose suggestions end up printed in the Winter big impression on me.” (A54), and Debbie Renaut 2006 issue will be rewarded with either an Albert Einstein Over the years, he’s partici­ {A68). The composition of or Jane Austen action figure (retail value: $8.95). Please pated in many groups, some the group has changed from mail submissions to: Editor, The College, P.O. Box 2800, with funding, most without. year to year. “The excitement Annapolis, MD 2T404-2800. The current reading lists for Last year, he formed a twocomes in having the leisure the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses can be found on person study group with tutor to do this with like-minded the college Web site: www.stjohnscollege.edu; click on Nathan Dugan. The two met people.” Academic Program. once a week to translate —Rosemary Harty Genesis from Hebrew. One of ''Tutors will always want to keep learning. “Call Me Ishmael” {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } �4 {From the Bell Towers} Making Johnnies Out of GIs At St. John’s new undergradu­ ates forge bonds in shared classes, meals, intramural sports, and parties. At the Graduate Institute in Annapolis, students’ ages range from 22 to 72, they are in different life stages and careers, and they can live an hour or more from campus. But none of that has stopped Annapolis GI Director Joan Silver (A76) from launch­ ing new initiatives to make graduate students feel that they’re part of a wider community. “Creating more community for the GI students both within the GI itself and within the college as a whole remains a challenge,” says Silver, now in her second year as director. Energetic, creative, and familiar with what it’s like to be an older student in a young population. Silver has been determined to make GIs feel like full-fledged Johnnies. When she came to St. John’s as a student. Silver already had a bachelor’s degree. She ended up becoming a parttime tutor while she finished the Program, eventually earning a master of arts from the college. After earning a doctorate in the­ ology, she became a full-time tutor in Santa Fe in 1989 and returned to Annapolis in 1996. There are obstacles to build­ ing a community for a diverse group of students, many of whom are juggling their studies with full-time jobs and family obligations. Silver acknowl­ edges. Some attend part time, and not all can linger late for regular after-seminar gather­ ings on Monday nights. This fall Silver began inviting each of the 93 Annapolis GI students to join her and other students for lunch or dinner. Recently, President Chris Nelson began hosting recep­ Broadening the Search Crystal Watkins grew up in Annapolis and attended The Key School, founded by St. John’s tutors. However, except for attending an occa­ sional event on the campus, she didn’t know much about the college. When it came time to apply to colleges, St. John’s was not on her list. “It was totally based on a stereotype,” she says. “I just didn’t think I’d fit in.” Since July, it has been Watkins’ job to dispel stereo­ types about St. John’s. As part of the college’s Opportunity Initiative, Watkins joined the college as admissions counselor for diversity, sharing regular admissions duties along with taking on special initiatives to introduce St. John’s to minority students. She will attend col­ lege fairs, visit high schools, and establish relationships with community groups. for In Santa Fe, the college has a similar initiative, with a special emphasis on introducing the college to Hispanic and NativeAmerican students. The goal for both campuses is to broaden the college’s recruitment efforts to ensure that qualified high tions for graduate stu­ dents. Silver is helping several GIs who are reviving the Graduate Council as a way to foster academic and social events, while connecting with the undergraduate Student Committee on Instruc­ tion. “As a result, we now have undergradu­ ates participating in our orientation seminars on the Meno at the beginning of each semester,” she says. Krishnan Venkatesh, director of the GI in Santa Fe, says the campus has done much to make graduate students feel like part of the community. In Santa Fe, GIs are invited to attend under­ graduate preceptorials, bring­ ing the two populations together in the classroom. This year, the GI has 71 students in Joan Silver hopes to STRENGTHEN THE GI COMMUNITY. the liberal arts program and 31 in Eastern Classics. “The GIs usually live and work about 15 minutes from campus, so they are able to be here during the day for some­ thing as informal as lunch with fellow students and extracurric­ ular activities,” he says. — Patricia Dempsey Prospectives school students from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds have a chance to hear about St. John’s. Watkins majored in English and African-American studies at the University of Virginia, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts. She became interested in issues of access to higher education and began volunteering in the undergraduate admissions office and as a peer adviser in UVA’s Office of African American Affairs. She later earned a master’s degree in Education, Policy, and Leadership from the University of Maryland. Crystal Watkins hopes to DISPEL STEREOTYPES ABOUT St. John’s. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } Watkins recognizes that many things keep a student from applying to the college, among them, the availability of merit and athletic scholarships at other colleges, the small size of St. John’s, and more than any other factor, the college’s academic program. It’s hard to find students who are right for St. John’s, and Watkins’ work is just one part of a highly developed admissions strategy geared to identifying those students. Watkins’ role is to make sure that unspoken fears about “not fitting in” do not deter prospectives. “I think it’s a valid concern that if you visit a college, and you don’t see many minority students, you wonder, ‘well, why aren’t they here?’ My job is to show that although St. John’s isn’t right for every student, we are a welcoming community. �{From the Bell Towers} 5 Linking a College with a Community Jim Oslerholt Leads Development Efforts in Santa Fe James W. Osterholt heard his calling in 1971, when he was attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City on a Rockefeller Fellowship. Although he soon decided that the ministry wasn’t for him, Osterholt discovered a new vocation while working in Union’s development office. “I decided then that I wanted a job where I could be a part of the sub­ stance of the academic environment but also a part of the world outside the university-to be a bridge between the institution and the society it serves,” he says. In a similar way, fate played a hand in bringing Osterholt to St. John’s College. Santa Fe President Michael Peters and Osterholt had a mutual friend at Pepperdine University. When the friend heard that Peters had accepted the job as president and that the vice president’s position was open, the friend thought Osterholt and Peters would work well together and “played matchmaker,” explains Osterholt. In July, Peters welcomed Osterholt to Santa Fe as the college’s vice president of advancement, successfully concluding a national search for a key position on the college’s management team. The Santa Fe campus and the college are fortunate to have someone with Osterholt’s background and experience, says Peters. “He will be a strong and effective partner, not only for advancement, but also in the broader management of the campus and the college,” he says. Osterholt finds his new position challenging and rewarding. In addition to directing plans for the president’s inauguration in October, Osterholt’s priorities include planning for the college’s upcoming capital campaign, scheduled to launch in spring aoo6. He has begun working to strengthen relationships between the college, the community of Santa Fe, and St. John’s alumni. He also intends to increase the breadth and depth of the college’s friends and supporters. How will he do it? “By working my tail off,” he says. “But I’m fortunate to have a marvelous group of faculty, colleagues, and staff to support these efforts.” Osterholt is a self-described collaborator who most enjoys being part of a successful team of professionals. His ai-year tenure at UCLA culminated in serving as the associate vice chancellor of development. There Osterholt planned a $i billion campaign. Most recently Osterholt worked as vice president of external relations at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, where he managed an array of external programs including development, trustee relations, public information, government relations, and marketing and communications. At the Milken Institute, he served as vice president for development. He also was executive Advancement is all about building RELATIONSHIPS, SAYS JaMES OstERHOLT, Santa Fe’s new VP. director of development at the RAND Corporation, and director of develop­ ment and alumni affairs, director of annual giving, and assistant director of development at Union Theological Seminary. Osterholt attended Stanford University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in American history in 1970. After his year as a Rockefeller Fellow at Union, Oster­ holt went on to earn a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1974. His greatest pleasure so far has been learning to convey the essence of the Program to existing and potential friends of the college. Explaining what St. John’s is all about gives more people the oppor­ tunity to become involved in the life of the college. “There are a number of special attrac­ tions that contribute to the quality of life at St. John’s in Santa Fe, such as really getting to know members of a smaller community. It’s all about building relationships,” he says. “When you have a real relationship, you are sincerely helping friends of the college express something they are already interested in accomplishing. In a way we are working on the same objective­ furthering St. John’s.” Osterholt’s wife of 30 years, Debbie, has been a part of every institution her husband has served. She works as an executive recruiter for development officers, but has never found her husband a job. “She has, however, steered me away from a few,” he says. Throughout his many years in advancement, Osterholt has acquired a collection of interesting anecdotes. One involved a gift request that occurred over lunch with a prospective donor in a uni­ versity dining hall. Osterholt recalls, “There had been a lot of prior discussion about how large a request we should make. When the conversation finally turned to the point where he was asked for his gift, the gentleman passed out, literally. I guess he was asked for too much.” In fund raising, however, no gift is ever too small or insignificant, and even the most modest gifts are appreciated. Osterholt saw this firsthand when his daughter’s school had a financial emergency and he was drafted to do the fund raising. “One of the smallest gifts in that drive was a gift of $5, paid at $i per month for five months,” he recalls. “It was from my daughter, who was in first grade.” The Osterholts’ daughter, Katie, has since graduated from the University of Arizona and is studying to become a paralegal. {The College. St John’s College • Fall 2005 } —Andra Maguran �6 {Bell Towers} Paradigm Shift Initially, self-interest inspired Erikk Geannikis (Ao6) to try to assemble a Greek paradigm handbook designed to “take the heartache out of Ancient Greek.” During his junior year, he had planned to apply to graduate school for study in the classics and was advised that completing an independent project-such as compiling a didactic tool for Greek-would look good on grad school applications. Although he’s now more interested in neuroscience, Geannikis decided to pursue the project anyway. He recruited Andrew Romiti and Paul Wilfordpartners in his Greek study group and both juniors planning to study the classics-to help. Working independently in three different cities and meeting in an Internet chat room to compare notes and exchange their sections, they completed the project over the summer and sent it out for review by the faculty and Dean Michael Dink. Romiti took care of the copying and binding at Kinkos. By the time the fall semester started, loo copies of their “Greek Paradigm Handbook: Reference Guide and Memorization Tool” were sold out. Pocket-sized and spiral bound to lie flat when opened, the little booklets include paradigms for nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, and participles and go for $9.95. The three charged just enough to cover their costs, and may pursue finding a publisher and marketing their project beyond the college. But they weren’t in it for entrepreneurial reasons. They just love Greek, explains Geannikis. They had all been making quick-reference charts they carried in spiral­ bound notebooks, and these served as the genesis of the handbook. Giving up a large portion of their summer vacation to the project wasn’t easy, says Wilford. “But when we saw the copies, it was all worth it.” Dink was impressed with the trio’s final product. “I suspect students-and tutors-will find it useful both for learning paradigms and as a reference tool. It does for Greek morphol­ ogy something analogous to what Green Lion’s The Bones does for Euclid’s Elements^ he says. “People told us it was some­ thing that should have been done long ago, so it’s been very gratifying,” says Romiti. Even though they no longer have Greek in tutorial, the three will use their own refer­ ence guides as they pursue their next independent project together. Last year, they worked on Philoctetes and the Sympo­ sium, meeting every week for most of the year. They’re also compiling notes and preparing an index for the next volume of their handbook. If they ever make a profit on their book, Geannikis, Romiti, and Wilford don’t want to make it from John­ nies. They consider the project a gift to the commu­ nity-even a type of offering-to the Program, to Greek, and to St. John’s. —Rosemary Harty Ancient Greek meets the Internet: (l. to r.) Erikk Geannikis, Andrew Romiti, AND Paul Wilford used a CHAT room to compile THEIR PARADIGM HANDBOOK. Ariel Program Emily Meyer (SF06) pictures herself as a psychologist, helping children with developmental disorders. Her interest in clinical psychology stemmed from a conversation with the mother of a classmate who works with autistic children. Thanks to her Ariel Internship at the University of New Mexico’s Genter for Development and Disability, Meyer has a better picture of what it would be like to work in the field, along with practical experience for a resume and grad school applications. Born out of the Santa Fe Initiative-a college-funded program to improve student services and the physical environment on the college’s Western campus-the Ariel Internship Program provides up to $3,600 to support a student in an internship. In 2005, approximately 30 students applied; Meyer was one of nine whose internships were funded. She administered tests, assisted with research, and visited rural communities in New Mexico, where she helped with consultations. “I got experience in all areas that I could,” she says. “I worked with other profes­ sionals in the field, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists.” The Ariel Program is similar to the Hodson Internship in Annapolis, a program funded by money from an endowment established with a grant from The Hodson Trust. Both programs are coordinated through the Career Services offices on campus. As with the Hodson program, Santa Fe students can use the funding for income while working in an existing unpaid internship or develop their own internships. Her St. John’s studies prepared her well for the internship expe­ rience, says Meyer. “Other interns I met were just not as flexible as I was in the way I could learn. The people I worked with were all surprised that I didn’t come from a psychological educational background and that I could work at a graduate level.” {The College- St. John's College • Fall 2005 } — Andra Maguran �{Bell Towers} 7 A Garden Grows in Annapolis To anyone who has sat in the courtyard of Mellon Hall in years past, the small reserve of green space must have seemed a pleasant enough place to pass an afternoon. A lawn, a few magnolia trees, and concrete benches under a spectacular willow oak gave the courtyard some charm. But now, thanks to a gift from one of the col­ lege’s board memhers, the courtyard has a true formal garden with graceful rows of perennials and annuals, flower­ ing trees, teak benches, and a birdhath in the center of a lawn rich, green, and thick enough for croquet. The courtyard wasn’t an original part of Mellon’s design; originally, the long classroom wing faced an open field. Adding an administrative wing to the building created the courtyard in the late 1980s. For many years, college plan­ ners have hoped to improve the space, but other buildings and grounds projects took priority. The transformation began last year when the college received a gift from Frederika Saxon, a memher of the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors, to fund a formal garden. Saxon is a builder and developer in Baltimore, and she has frequently shared her expertise with the college. Other gifts helped the college complete the project. Both Ted Wolff (A74) a landscape architect and partner of Wolff Clements and Associates, and Cathy Umphrey, a garden designer and wife of tutor Stuart Umphrey, worked on the project for substantially reduced professional rates. Wolff provided the design for the plan, while Umphrey worked closely with Wolff and the campus planning committee to choose the native plants and arrange them in beds. Cathy Umphrey, the director of horticulture at Historic London Town and Gardens, said the magnolias gave her a starting point for planning a garden that will be beautiful year-round. “The magnolias have this wonderful brown fuzz on the underside of the leaves, and we took that color as one to pick up again in perennials and deciduous trees. The crepe myrtles in time will develop this really pretty brown bark structure. The flower heads of the Annabelle hydrangea along the back of the garden will turn brown in the winter,” she says. Local Annapolis firm Eden Contracting did much of the work last fall, returning to add new plants in the spring. Together with the glassenclosed Mellon Cafe, the inviting garden offers the Annapolis community another pleasant refuge for reading, discussion, or just sitting in the sun. “It’s a beautiful natural sanctuary, a private reflective space that students, especially, seem to enjoy,” says Don Jackson, director of operations. {The College - St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } Above: A lush lawn, teak BENCHES, AND A VARIETY OF NEW TREES AND PERENNIALS HAVE CREATED A WELCOME NEW REFUGE IN Annapolis. Left: Board member Freddie Saxon’s generous gift made the garden a reality. Saxon visited the garden last spring when the fall plantings were in and the first annuals were in bloom. “She thought it was wonderful,” Jackson says. In addition to three different planting beds, new sod was laid and an irrigation system was installed. Tutor Nick Maistrellis, who has been on campus long enough to remember when the courtyard was part of an open field, is pleased with the way the garden enhances the natural environment on campus. “The garden looks good no matter where you’re sitting,” he says. “It’s another welcom­ ing place on campus.” —Rosemary Harty �{Bell Towers} 8 News and Announcements New Tutors_______________________ Eleven new tutorsjoined the Santa Fefaculty: Keri Ames received a B.A. from the University of Chicago, where she did her graduate work with the Committee on Social Thought, earning master’s and doctoral degrees. Her disserta­ tion was entitled “The Conver­ gence of Homer’s Odyssey and Joyce’s UlyssesF Lauren Brubaker received his B.A. from Swarthmore Col­ lege, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Political Philosophy from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. His dissertation was titled “Religious Zeal, Political Faction, and the Corruption of Morals: Adam Smith and the Limits of Enlightenment.” He has been a visiting instructor at the University of Notre Dame and at the Air Force Academy. Kenneth Davis (SFGIoa) received his B.A. in Music Edu­ cation from Georgia State University. He holds a Mas­ ter of Divinity from South­ western Baptist Theological Seminary, a Master of Music from the University of Tennessee, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, where his dissertation was entitled “A Performance Analysis of Mendelssohn’s Five Psalm Cantatas.” Jessica Jerome received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where her dissertation was titled “A Politics of Health: Medicine and Marginality in Northeastern Brazil.” She recently completed a research fellowship at the Pritzker School of Medicine. T. Andrew Kingston received his B.A. in English Lit­ erature from Kenyon College. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Aesthetics, History of Music from Boston University, where the title of his dissertation was “Rhythm in the Aesthetics of Western Music.” He has taught and lectured in humanities, phi­ losophy of the arts, and music at B.U. and Kenyon College. David McDonald (SF95) comes to St. John’s from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he was a senior techni­ cian for the Influenza Sequence Database, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group. Frederick Monsma (A82) holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston College, where his dissertation was titled “Descartes and the Gods of Piety and Science.” Before com­ ing to St. John’s, Monsma worked in computer program­ ming, Web design, academic journalism, and education. Laurence Nee received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees in politics from the University of Dallas, and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law. His dissertation was entitled “Lockean Rhetoric and Toleration: Language in the Thought of John Locke.” Previ­ ously, he was on the faculty at John Cabot University and the American University of Rome. Gregory Schneider joins the college from the Gallatin Community Clinic in Bozeman, Mont. He received his B.A. from the University of Dallas and his medical degree from the Moving In With a light to read by and a refrigerator for goodies, sophomores Josephine Drolet and Haley Thompson have the essentials covered for a NEW YEAR. In Annapolis, 149 students became Johnnies; Santa Fe welcomed Z19 One new tutorjoined the Annapolisfaculty thisfall: Matthew Caswell (A96) received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University with a disserta­ tion entitled “Kant’s Conception of the Highest Good.” He has been the recipient of a Presidential Fellowship and a Disserta­ tion Fellowship at B.U. He spent 2002-03 at Philipps-Unitersitat in Marburg supported by a DAAD research grant. Awards___________________ Michael Ehrmantraut received his B.A. in Political Theory and International Relations from Michigan State University and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston College. His dissertation was titled, “Heidegger’s Philosophic Pedagogy.” He received a Bradley Foundation post­ doctoral fellowship at Boston College, where he was visiting scholar for a year. University of MissouriColumbia. Alan Zeitlin received his B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of California, Davis. He received a J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Classics from the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation was titled “Terence’s Dark Comedy.” He has taught at Bard College and Emory University. William Donahue (A67) will serve as Director of Laborato­ ries. Donahue received his Ph.D in the History of Science, from the University of Cambridge. A former St. John’s tutor, he is the publisher of Green Lion Press. He has also worked as supervisor for the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge and as a laboratory technician for the National Bureau of Standards. freshmen. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } _ The builder of Gilliam and Spector halls on the Annapolis campus has been recognized with an Excellence in Construction award from the Washing­ ton, D.C. chapter ofthe Associated Builders and Contractors. Bovis Lend/Lease completed Gilliam Hall late last sum­ mer. Spector Hall, the second new dormitory, will open in January, �{Letters} Fine Memories___________________________ The article on Brother Robert brought back some fine memories for me, and I would hke to share an anecdote to show how Brother Robert influenced other people in addition to his St. John’s students. A year and a half ago, I had occasion to have dinner with the poet Robert Hass, when he came to give a lecture at our school in Monterey, California. His wife told us that she worked at St. Mary’s in Moraga, California, and that gave me occa­ sion to mention Brother Robert. It turned out that Hass had Brother Robert as a teacher and had always considered him one of the most influential people in his life. He also felt that he had betrayed Brother Robert when he was a student, because it was a time when St. Mary’s was deciding whether to remain true to the eternal ideals or to become more contemporary and polit­ ical. Hass sided with the contemporary, while Brother Robert decided to leave St. Mary’s and come to St. John’s. Hass told me that he had always wanted to get back in touch with Brother Robert, but he was reluctant. I urged him to do so. I hope that he has. Gerry Kapolka, A74 Piercing Festival 9 City. Yet, at journey’s end, they found that one of them used more gas. The only dif­ ference was that one of the twins went by way of St. Louis, the other by way of Miami Beach. Voila-the Gasoline Paradox! Wigner’s point was that many things are path-dependent. The only weirdness is that time happens to be one of those things. It is a loss, I believe, that the Program excludes textbooks. Some of the great books were textbooks (the Summa for example). The Program has wonderful benefits. It excludes rote learning, which many an inferior text promotes. And yet, when Johnnies face the original literature without pedagogical support, something else is at risk, and that something is the substance, James H. Cooke BROTHER ROBERT, IN HIS St. MaRy’s DAYS. Welcoming Women This was the inspiration for a career in psychology which has been most satisfying. I think Stuart would be proud to know he has been instrumental in creating another generation of therapy helping families, marriages, children, and above all, teen­ agers. Thanks Stuart, you were right. I was myself, and I did just fine. Joe Tooley, SF69 The College featured articles on Johnnies’ experiences abroad. John Hartnett (SF83) A Clear Account wrote a piece about the piercing festival he I’m sure many Johnnies could respond to witnessed near Kumarakom, Kerala, India. Mr. Newell’s comments on “Weird Sci­ He tried to find out the origin of this pierc­ ence” (Letters, Spring 2005), but as a for­ ing festival during the rest of his trip in mer tutor (Santa Fe, 1999-2001), please India, but to no avail. My husband, Stephen allow me. Neither the “Electrodynamics...” Joseph, is from that area of Kerala, and nor the Minkowski readings state or resolve when I asked him about the festival, he told the twin “paradox.” A clear account is me that it was a Shiite Muslim festival cele­ given in Spacetime Physics, by John A. brating Muharram, the first month of the Wheeler and Edwin F. Taylor, particularly Islamic calendar. Shiites also mark the mar­ in Ex. 49 in the first edition. Briefly, the tyrdom of H az rat Imam Hussain, the grand­ rocketing twin does not remain in an iner­ son of the Prophet Muhammad, during this tial frame, while the earthbound twin does, time. The observances can range from at least approximately, because the surface wearing black to the more unusual practice of the earth is almost free of acceleration. of self-injury witnessed by Mr. Hartnett. The rocketing twin must decelerate and Laura O’Keefe, SFga then accelerate back. The situation is not at all symmetrical, and both the earthling and Remembering Mr. Boyd the rocketeer agree that the earthling’s Stuart Boyd changed my life. As a young, world line is nearly straight, while the confused student at St. John’s, I went to rocketeer’s world line is bent. Stuart for counseling and guidance. After a Eugene Wigner made it a practice to few meetings he asked me to help him lead present “The Gasoline Paradox” to each a therapy group of students. I was a little class he taught on relativity: Two identical taken aback and said I wouldn’t know what twins drove two identical Volkswagens to do. Stuart said, “Don’t worry, just be (with consecutive serial numbers from yourself. You will do fine.” Wolfsburg!) from Los Angeles to New York {The College. St, John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } A small comment on “Coeds Invade St. John’s.” At the time, the 1950-51 academic year, I managed the labs, taught a sopho­ more lab section, edited the Collegian and served as president of the Student Polity. When the subject was broached, Dick pVeigle, president] asked me to convene a meeting of the Polity to assess the student body’s reaction to the notion of co-educa­ tion. The college’s financial problems were well known. We met in McDowell. Members of the Baltimore, Annapolis, and Washing­ ton press were welcome, but as observers only. When the meeting was adjourned, I would answer any questions they might have. All but one [reporter] understood this. He was ignored. There were a few loonies in the group, it was after all, St. John’s. A couple of Roman Catholics objected to the presence of women on traditional grounds. Most of the concerns expressed were practical. The sense of the meeting was that co-ed dorms would be impractical, but women would be welcome. Stuart Washburn, Class of 1951 The College welcomes letters on issues of interest to readers. Letters maybe edited for clarity and/or length. Those under 500 words have a better chance of being printed in their entirety. Please address letters to: The College magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404, or by e-mail to rosemary.harty@sjca.edu. �IO {On Augustine} AUGUSTINE Seeing Our Lives in the Confessions BY Kim Paffenroth, A88 his fall marks the 20-year anniversary of my first having read Augustine’s Confessions. Ironically, the huge role it would play in my professional life was not apparent on that first reading. Although the Confessions are central to the sophomore seminar readings that would lead me in the direction of studying Christianity in graduate school, I was much more moved hy some of the other readings that year: the Bible, Dante, Luther, and Shakespeare. Like many other first-time readers, my initial reaction to Augustine was mostly negative: he was, by turns, too gloomy and pessimistic, and then too triumphalistic, judgmental, and arrogant. I don’t think I ever could have gone all the way down the interpretive roads that I have since found out are so popular in the academic study of Augustine-“Augustine as neurotic” and “Augustine as miner of Western civilization’’-but I did not immediately connect with his life and ideas. But I also did not completely forget or ignore Augustine and his idiosyncracies, mostly because he had one quality that most other theologians lack: he had a story, full of fascinating characters, compelling conflicts, and messy emo­ tions. The often overwrought and melodramatic quality of his story is exactly what puts off many readers, but it is also what makes him undeniably memorable. Such a preference for narration, rather than exposition, is what would lead me to go on to study the Bible, a book almost entirely composed of stories, whose theology usually has to be inferred and is not necessarily completely consistent. It would also lead me not to reread that other giant of sophomore seminar, Aquinas, for whom theology seems to be a series of problems to be solved, not a collection of problematic stories to be lived and told and retold. But appreciating Augustine for his narrative power and his greater sense of ambiguity and drama puts him at a distinct disadvantage in the long run, for it puts him in competition with authors of much greater artistry and beauty. In short, compared to Aquinas, Augustine may sound like a Shakespeare, but compared to Shakespeare, on aesthetic grounds, Augustine is a complete dud, a theologian who rather {The College. St. John’s College Fall 2005 } �{On Augustine} Painting of St. Augustin by Simon Marmion {The College- St. John’s College - Fall 2005 } n �Ta, {On Augustine} “ . .Our sinfulness is almost alwayspathetic and meager and childish, just like Augustine s. ” heavy-handedly uses some episodes from his own life to make his theological points. This is one case, however, where the dialogue begun in seminar decades ago has continued most fruit­ fully for me, because over the years 1 have found many dia­ logue partners for Augustine in the books 1 have read. Although many of those partners-Dante, Pascal, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Melville, Flannery O’Connor-are much more talented artists than Augustine, they engage him in an ongoing dialogue that is enriching to our understand­ ing both of Augustine and of their works. They all draw on Augustine, especially his Confessions, as a source, a source that helps illuminate their work, even as they elab­ orate and complicate Augustine’s ideas. And, of course, the ultimate goal of such a dialogue is not just to put Augustine in conversation with other “Augustinian” texts, but to put all of them in conversation with the intel­ lectual and spiritual problems and questions of living human beings in the present. 1 have had the pleasure of participating in such conversations first as a student at St. John’s, and now continuing as a student and teacher in many classrooms in the years since. In a different, more sustained but more static form, it is also the kind of conversation 1 try to create and encourage in the books I write on Augustine and others. Scholarly work on Augustine strives obsessively to place him in his time period, to understand all the religious, historical, social, political, philosophical, and literary influences of the late Roman Empire, and fit Augustine into them. When this is done, we will presumably “under­ stand” him, the way we would understand some fossil by knowing its geological strata and the other dead objects that surround it. Earlier scholarship tended to put a judg­ mental tone on this process, usually leading up to some statement that maybe crudely given as, “Poor Augustine (or Jesus or Buddha or Mohammed), he was smart, but he was just a man of his times! He thought the sun went around the earth, he thought women were inferior to men, and he thought slavery was okay. Aren’t we lucky we’re not like that?” Postmodern thought may be thanked for being less arrogant (at least on this one point) and acknowledging that we are equally as determined and limited as the poor, benighted people of the past, but the effect on study and an ongoing conversation is just as chilling: the ancient text and person are still utterly irrelevant, because each and every person lives isolated in his or her historical context, a cubby-hole whose walls are transpar­ ent to the enlightened historian, but which are never permeable to anyone. What I propose here instead is a very naive, but constructive, objectivity: of course Augus­ tine and we have our different historical contexts, but I regard them not so much as prisons, but as the unique baggage each of us carries, and 1 assume that baggage is being carried by women and men who are essentially very similar, people who can even discuss and analyze either their baggage or their fundamental human similarity, and who can therefore learn from one another. I offer here three of the striking scenes from the Confessions, three vignettes which, it must be confessed, form the basis of almost all my work on Augustine. I hope this does not only show the narrowness of my own intel­ lect, but the power of Augustine to make his story ours, and to compel us to see our lives in his. Sin Confessions, Book Two Augustine begins his Confessions famously with a scandalous analysis of sin. Having alienated many readers by asserting-not proving, I think, but asserting-that all babies are just bad (Book One), he goes on to analyze a youthful, though not infant, sin of his own (Book Two). Augustine tells us how when he was i6, he and some other naughty boys stole pears from a neighbor’s tree. What focuses Augustine’s attention on this incident is that the boys did not need or even want the pears: “I stole that of which I had plenty, even of much better quality” (Conf a.4.9, my translation, as are all subsequent); they do not even eat them, but throw them away. Augustine, try as he might, cannot come up with a reason for this sin, and this {The College- St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } �{On Augustine} is what bothers him, and what he thinks should bother us. Plato-who, according to Augustine, is correct on many, perhaps even most, theological points {Conf. 7.9.13-15)had taught that sin was always a mistake, an incorrect assessment of the situation, and could never be a deliber­ ate, knowing choice of something evil. But that is exactly what Augustine thinks was going on with the pear tree: “It was foul, but I loved it. I loved to perish; I loved my own ruin, not that for which I ruined myself, but rather I loved my very ruin itself’(Co/^ 2.4.9). Augustine claims here that doing something for no reason does not defuse or diminish the wickedness of that act, but instead increases it beyond all previous estimations and beyond any previous ethicist’s ability to explain or cure it. Even that exemplar of senseless cruelty, Catiline, was suppos­ edly analyzable under the assumption that sin is the 13 In Augustine’s thought, sinfulness is linked to the “fragile, UNPREDICTABLE STATE IN WHICH WE ULTIMATELY LIVE,” WRITES Kim Paffenroth. pursuit of a mistaken good {Conf. 2.5.ii), while Augustine claims that at the other extreme of human behavior-not in the outrageous, powerful violence of an emperor, but in the paltry prank of a teenager-there lies an unexplain­ able mystery of self-destructive evil. Augustine goes on to suppose that this self-destructive urge comes from pride, from the desire to be God, rather than to love and serve God, “a dismal imitation of omnipotence” {Conf. 2.6.14). I think the profundity and longevity of Augustine’s story lie in our ability to tease out its implications and bring it around full circle, as it were. Starting with what is a pretty laughable scene, one can delve into the theological profundities behind it, but then see once {The College. St. John's College ■ Fall 2005 } �14 {On Augustine} 'Augustine bequeathed to Christianity a much stronger divine grace than others had imagined... more both the humor and profun­ dity in it, when one tries to put one­ self in the story. Perhaps more than other episodes in the Confessions^ this is easy to do, for the scene of teenage idiocy is surely universal: I and another dissipated youth ignit­ ed about a half-gallon of gasoline in a dumpster when we were i6, and could offer no better explanation than boredom and laziness, the sense of “ennui” and the need for “diversion” that Pascal would seize on so powerfully in his analysis. In exactly the same way, I remember a student in my first semester teaching at Villanova University also agree­ ing to the plausibility of Augustine’s story, admitting in seminar that he and some friends had stolen watermelons from a store and then gleefully but painfully gorged themselves to the point of physical illness. When another student asked when they had done this, expecting an answer that it had happened in fifth or sixth grade, the first student replied, “The beginning of August.” The whole class laughed, quite appropriately. Laughing at ourselves has an important educational value here, I think: it is not that we are discounting our sins, but that our sinfulness is almost always pathetic and meager and childish, just like Augustine’s. If honest with ourselves, we would realize that we don’t have it in us to be a Milton­ ian Satan, or a Hitler or a Khan: about the most any of us could pull off would be to become a petty thief, liar, or lecher, with little to show for our misdeeds, except the pain we cause others, and the complete buffoons we make of ourselves. And what of Augustine’s assertion of the universality of such pathetic sinfulness? Perhaps my student and I and a few other immature rakes can identify with Augustine, but is it good or accurate for everyone do so? I will only relate another anecdote that suggests that admitting sin, dwelling on it seriously as well as laughing at it, is anoth­ er important and useful lesson that Augustine has taught us in this story. Also at Villanova, I remember one student who didn’t say much in class, often seemed bothered if I said something irreverent about the Bible, and always wore a cross necklace. She literally came undone in the first class on Confessions, however, berating Augustine for hating babies and me for defending him. At first I appreciated her vigor and umbrage, and did not see the harm in someone believing in the innate goodness of babies, or of people in general, even if I didn’t share her estimation. Then I caught her flagrantly plagiarizing later in the semester. She didn’t seem the least bit apologetic or remorseful, only angry at me for catching her, and a little angry at her­ self for not being more adept at cheating. While this is no proof that optimism and hypocrisy go hand-in-hand, it at least suggests that introspection, analysis, and admission of guilt may play some role in moral formation and improvement. As I said above, however, most of us aren’t that sinful, if “sin” means really bad things that we do to hurt other people. Most of us will probably outgrow high school pranks and college cheating, and settle down to a middle age of mediocre virtue, rather than move on to bigger and worse sins. But there is another aspect of sin in Augustine’s Confessions, to which we now turn. Life and Death in Sinfulness Books Four and Nine In Confessions Book Four, Augustine gives one of the most beautiful descriptions of the joys and rewards of real friendship: There were other things done with them that captivated my mind more: talking together and laughing together, and happily taking turns at giving in to each others’ wishes; reading well-phrased books together, joking together, and showing each other respect; disagreeing sometimes, but without anger, as a person disagrees with him-or herself, the infrequency of our disagreements making our many agreements all the more enjoyable; teaching and learning from one another, sadly longing for those who were absent, and joyfully welcoming those who joined us. Such signs, coming from hearts that loved and were loved in return, were shown in our faces, voices, eyes, and a thousand pleasant gestures, and were like {The College. St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } �{OnAugustine} kindling to inflame our minds and make the many of us into one. [Conf. 4.8.13) But the conflict and drama of Book Four stem from the fact that one of these friends has died, leaving Augustine devastated and in despair. In Book Nine, Augustine gives an equally beautiful, if rather more succinct, description of his love for his mother, “A single life had been made out of hers and mine” (Conf. 9.12.30), and then she too dies, leaving him with another conflict over his painful emo­ tions. These two stories together form a profound work­ ing through of the implications of sin: not a dissection of the actual act of sinning, as in Book Two, but a long look at the facts and limitations of human life lived in a sinful world. In these two episodes, Augustine shows vividly the main and unavoidable symptom of original sinfulness: not that we inevitably sin, but that we inevitably die. And dealing with others’ deaths is even more difficult for us than our own mortality, for the sadness in which we live after they’re gone can last indefinitely. This past year has brought this unavoidable and uncomfortable truth home to me more than in previous years, and with Augustine’s help it has become both more meaningful and (a little) less terrifying. In the months leading up to and then fol­ lowing my 20-year high school reunion, I was constantly reminded of Greg, a friend who died right after high school. Never mind the sins that I and others commit every day: I can think of no clearer proof that the world is “fallen,” “broken,” or just plain “wrong,” than to observe that in it a person of such obvious virtue as Greg would die a slow, lingering death from cancer, at such a young age, leaving no progeny, while a lazy, impatient, short-tempered, sinful person like me gets the chance to raise kids, surely with much less success than Greg would have enjoyed. And shortly after the reunion, my father died, after 24 years in which he never successfully mourned or got past the death of my mother: his loneliness and bitterness festered that whole time, till the only emotions he could feel were hate and rage. Again, one needn’t judge him an awful sinner to think that what he did was “bad”-for it contributed to his misery, not diminished it. In both these cases, as in the mysteriously 15 painful deaths that Augustine recounts, the world’s sinfulness is shown most clearly not in the sinful things we do, but in the faulty, sickened, fragile, unpredictable state in which we inevitably live. Augustine offers us not just a diagnosis of the diseases of sin and death, however, but also the hope of a treat­ ment. Though Book Two and the gravity of sin are the most memorable parts of Augustine’s Confessions, they are not the final word-just as hideous punishments are the most memorable parts of Dante’s Divine Comedy, but not his ultimate point. Augustine bequeathed to Chris­ tianity the idea of a much stronger divine grace than oth­ ers had imagined, stronger precisely because only it could cure the horribly enlarged idea of sin that Augustine had developed. And one of the simplest and most frequent graces that Augustine saw in the world was the blessed­ ness that comes from loving, human relationships: “Blessed is the one who loves you [God], and his friend in you, and his enemy for your sake” (Conf 4.9.14). The very relationships that cause us pain, because the people we love must inevitably suffer and die, can bring us joy when God is a part of the relationship, for we acknowledge that every moment spent with the beloved person is a gracious gift of God, a gift meant to lead us back to the giver. As in Plato, but with a far greater appreciation for how difficult the ascent is, Augustine believes this urge to love our creator is built into us from the very beginning: “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is troubled, until it rests in you” (Conf, i.i.i). Frequently titled a “Doctor of the Church,” Augustine-like Socrates, who also claimed to offer therapy for wayward souls-would probably prefer the image of nurse or midwife for himself, for according to him, only God can ultimately heal human hearts that are broken by sin and mortality, but which still retain the unique imprint of their creator and their only physician (Conf. 10.3.3-4). Kim Paffenroth (A88) is associateprofessor ofReligious Studies and chairperson ofthe Religious Studies Department at Iona College in New York. {The College. St John’s College • Fall 2005 } �{Alumni Voices} A JOHNNIE WAY OF LIFE The ExaminedLife Guides a New Journey BY Brother Ezra Sullivan, O.P. (A04) Shortly after he graduated from St. John’s in 2004, Randall Sullivan entered a formation program of the Order ofPreachers, also known as the Dominicans. He moved to Cincinnati to live at the order’s friary, bringing to his small and austere cell few personal belongings beyond his favorite Program books (Plato, Aristotle, Dante). He traded hisjeans and t-shirtsfor a white robe and a black cloak. He took the vows ofpoverty, chastity, and obe­ dience, and a new name, choosing Ezra because Scripture por­ trays Ezra, a priest and scribe, as a man who saw study as a means to holiness. Several months into his new life, Brother Ezra noticed the similarities between a Johnnie’s life ofthe mind and the spiritual and intellectual life ofhisfriary. nyone can tell what a college thinks of itself hy looking at the glossy promo­ tional pamphlets they use to recruit stu­ dents. In one photograph, foothall play­ ers and cheerleaders are prominent; in another, students and professors in lah coats. In the promotional material St. John’s College sent me, one image is predominant: hooks. Stacks of hooks, students reading books, tutors and students discussing books. Books and conversation capture the essence of the college. In a similar way, if you were to leaf through a book of Catholic saints, you would find that they are often pictured with a symbol representing their characteristic quality. St. Peter is shown with keys, reflecting his spiritual power over heaven and hell; St. Augustine is shown with a pen in hand because he wrote exten­ sively. There is one saint that many people do not know about, perhaps because his symbol is so ordinary. It is St. Dominic, and his symbol is a book. Since August of 2,004, I have been a Dominican friar, a follower of St. Dominic, and that means a book-lover. Almost 800 years ago, Dominic started the Order of Preachers, based on the monastic Rule of St. Augustine, known to be a great reader and writer of books. Since then, men and women have been a part of Dominic’s Order, which was founded, like St. John’s, on the insight that good books can do much good for the individual and the community. The order’s mission-ropass on to others the fruits of our contemplation-vs, strikingly similar to the college’s goal to endow young men and women with critical thinking skills in order to take their place as responsible citizens. The Dominicans were founded on the insight that reading should lead a person to contemplate, and contemplation should lead him to share his insights. Though friars preach and Johnnies do not, they are similar in that they read, contemplate and share insight as a community of learners and for a community of learners, with the goal of enriching community life and the world. Consider first the main paragraph on the St. John’s Web site, which describes the aims of the college: “Through sustained engagement with the works of great thinkers and through gen­ uine discussion with peers, students at St. John’s College culti­ vate habits of mind that will last a lifetime: a deepened capacity for reflective thought, an appreciation of the persisting questions of human existence, an abiding love of serious conversation, and a lasting love of inquiry.” Notice its similarities with this passage Ifom the Dominican Constitution: “[A brother’s] intellectual formation consists principally in the development of judgment. Therefore, a critical knowledge of sources, an understanding of principles, and an ability to reason properly must be carefully cultivated, so that the brothers may be fitted to study by themselves and to take part in serious dialogue.” I saw clear parallels between St. John’s and the Order of Preachers during a Dominican studies class earlier this year. The class was structured like a seminar: the novice master (in charge of first-year Dominicans) opened class with a question about a reading we had done the night before. Seated at a square table, we would discuss the reading for a couple of hours. The novice master would guide the conversation, but he certainly did not dominate it. Everything you would expect from a good conversa­ tion arose: opinions, arguments, questions, clarifications, and the occasional dogmatic claim. These conversations, which often cropped up again at dinner or recreation, illustrate a Dominican saying about intellectual disputes: “Never deny, rarely affirm, and always distinguish.” One incident around Lent showed me that friars are like {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 200s } �{AlumniVoices} Johnnies in their desire to be free from the ephemeral in order to think on things that are more lasting. Every morning we had newspapers in our eating area; these papers distracted some friars, who tried to fix the problem by throwing them away. This caused some controversy, which the commu­ nity addressed by keeping papers out of the eating area during Lent. This is remarkably like the controversy at St. John’s about put­ ting a Washington Post\)<yti in the Annapolis coffee shop. (The box prevailed.) At St. John’s, the routine was very much the same for four years: many hours spent alone reading, writing essays, working out proofs, or translating alone in our rooms. Then the bells of McDowell would summon our mandatory attendance to laboratories, tutorials, and seminars. In the friary, I awake at 6:15 each morning to start the day with prayer, read until 7:30, then join the community for common meditation in the silence of a dark chapel. After breakfast, there is usually a lecture or seminar discus­ sion, followed by lectio divina—^xvi2i\i& study of the Scripture in our cells. Midday prayer and lunch are followed by an apostolate in the afternoon; it might mean a speaking engagement or shelving books (I was the librarian this year). A free afternoon can mean time for a walk in the woods or personal reading. We have Mass and vespers at 5:15, followed by community recreation. Dinner is sometime spent in silence (during Lent, for example); when we can speak, theology is almost always a topic. After dinner, it’s time for sacred study, followed by night prayer. Some in the community go to bed afterward, but I stay up to read for a few more hours. Like St. John’s, such a seemingly rigid regimen actually allows for great freedom. It’s like the freedom of writing a fugue or a musical piece: inside those rules that give something its form, there are infinite possibilities. At St. John’s, I could choose what to doubt and what to accept as truth. In the friary, I can choose what to read, I can choose who to speak with and what to speak about-and those are the most important things. I have the free­ dom to develop my own talents or hobbies, like playing the penny whistle in our small Irish band. At St. John’s we had Don Rags each fall and spring. At the friary, I meet privately with my novice master once each month and give him an account of my institutional life: my thoughts about the readings, my performance in class, my relation to brothers here, and what that means about my character. It is like a self-led Don Rag. Once or twice a year I receive an analysis by the senior friars who live with me to determine whether I should continue being here. This June, as I stood in line with other friars 17 In service to his order. Brother Ezra, formerly Randall Sullivan (A04), finds freedom. for our “examinations,” I had very little anxiety. Three years of Don Rags had prepared me for this type of evaluation. While there are many similarities in the life I led for four years at St. John’s and the life I have entered into now, there are of course many fundamental differences. A friar is devoted to a life of prayer, and our order is devoted to preaching the word of God. In addition, a friar is permanently in a Catholic religious institution; a Johnnie may be changed forever by his St. John’s experience, but he will typically go on to many different endeavors in the outside world. Given the special place of St. John’s in American higher education, some might bristle at their secular college being compared to a band of medieval preachers-a perfectly reasonable objection. It is a little like comparing the philosopher Plato with the theologian Thomas Aquinas, men vastly separated by creed and culture. For some, such a comparison will only produce difficulties. For others though, for that rare breed of people intrigued by difficult questions-what is the meaning of life? What is truth? What is virtue?-the comparison might produce a worthwhile conversation. Brother Ezra Sullivan can be reached by e-mail at rg_sullivan @hotmail. com {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 200s } �i8 {Commencement} PARTING WORDS “GREATER EXPERIENCE, MEASURED PASSIONS” Alumni Send Grads on a Magn^centJourney The Perma-Johnnie In this excerptfrom his commencement speech, tutor Joe Macfarland referenced the Gorgias as he explored the idea ofthe ''Perma-Johnnie in one sense, the graduate who hangs around the Annapolis campus as long aspossible; in another, more profound sense, the individual who is never willing to abandon a lifelong questfor a deeper understanding ofimportant ideas: .. .In past ceremonies, when I have sat to the side of the stage, I have wondered. .. .What could I say to persuade you to rejoice, all at once, at your accomplishments here as well as at your departure? At that moment, in a darker, cynical turn of thought, I imagined that the perfect commencement speaker would be Callicles. A strange choice, you’re thinking, given that this Platonic character seems wicked, or at least deeply troubled, since he argues that the rule of the stronger is by nature just. But a few sentences from his speech will explain my thought: For philosophy, to be sure, Socrates, is a delightful thing, if someone engages in it in due measure at the proper age; but if he fritters his time away in it further than is needed, it is the cor­ ruption of human beings. For even if he is of an altogether good nature and philosophizes far along in age, he must of necessity become inexperienced in all those things that one... must have experience of.. .It is fine to partake of philosophy to the extent that it is for the sake of education, and it is not shameful to phi­ losophize when one is a lad. But when a human being who is already rather older still philosophizes, the thing becomes ridiculous.. .For seeing philosophy in a young lad, I admire it, and it seems to me fitting, and I consider this human being to be a free man, whereas one who does not philosophize I consider illiberal, someone who will never deem himself worthy of any fine and noble affair. But whenever I see an older man still phi­ losophizing and not released from it, this man, Socrates, surely seems to me to need a beating. . .It falls to this man. . .never to give voice to anything free or great or vigorous... .(Gorgias, 484c, ff.) Callicles has a low reputation among us admirers of Socrates, and the seniors would, I suspect, never invite him to speak; nevertheless, I find it hard to avoid hearing at least a faint Calliclean echo in many commencement addresses. He does not A “PERMA-JOHNNIE,” SAYS JoE MaCFARLAND (A87), IS ONE WHO NEVER STOPS SEEKING WISDOM. say, after all, that you should not philosophize; he says you should philosophize when you are young so that you may become a free human being, well-educated, and capable of good and noble deeds. So rather than giving you a Calliclean echo. I’ve given you the outrageous original. I’ve even made it partly my own, because whatever the faults of the man, there might be just enough truth in {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } continued �{Commencement} ''What are the sources of this excellence within us?'' Joseph Macfarland (A87) In Santa Fe, Sarah Holmes and Christopher Horne are PLEASED TO HAVE DIPLOMAS IN HAND. { TheCollege.5?. John’s College • Fall 2005 } 19 �ao {Commencement} Annapolis GRADUATES ( L. TO R.) Sandeep Das, Janae Decker, and Marshall Derks. continued this speech for me to adapt it to my own purposes and to send you on your way. I have, how­ ever, two thoughts on how to reconcile his harsh words with the things we admire. . . My first thought is his association of philosophy and youth rings true to me, not because philosophy is child­ ish, as he implies, but because youth seems somehow more philosophical; there’s less of wisdom in it, and more yearning for wisdom. Among these seniors it seems fitting to recall Alyosha and Ivan Karamazov, ig and 33 years old, having tea and cherry pre­ serves at the Metropolis, while they pursue the eternal questionsthe existence of God and the immortality of the soul-and while they weigh the strenuous demands of justice and freedom against a faint hope of forgiveness and love. I find the conversation intoxicating at least in part because it is the conversation of young people: earnest, impassioned, open-ended, revealing a hunger for rebellion that is at odds with a simultaneous longing for solidarity. Wise and foolish in confused ways, their words reach further than they themselves ini­ tially understand because of the way in which their youth blends naivete and audacity. When I go to seminar I count on all these qualities being present. In the afternoon I mull over questions distilled from what I have learned since I was an undergraduate, but in the evening I wait patiently until you no longer feel obliged to discuss my question, when it is safe to shift the conversation to your own, a question arising from your own convictions and doubts; it is often a question I didn’t think of, yet still a question for me, and thus a question I did­ n’t recognize as my own. Thus, I believe that philosophy is rightly associated with youth, but I’ll draw a somewhat different conclusion from this: however much our adult life is occupied with seemingly more serious and urgent pursuits, we must not feel compelled at all times to act our age; we must not be ashamed, in the company of a good friend and prompted by a good book, to recover the intoxicat­ ing audacity and naivete of youth, so that we do not fail to reopen the eternal questions now and again, in the light, we may even hope, of greater experience and more measured passions. The second point I want to touch on is Callicles’ emphatic elevation of an active public life over a private life of conversation and inquiry. It is this emphatic assertion that makes his words seem so fitting to commencement as well as so jarring to us. Recoiling from the shock of the assertion, I am made aware of a tension between the openness of our spirit of inquiry and the customs that bind us together in it. Prompted by the various opinions of our authors, we wonder how to weigh the active life against the theoretical. We wonder: does human excellence take multiples forms, or one above aU? What are the sources of this excellence within us? If the virtues are disparate, how are we to weave them together into a single life? For years we have come together on Monday and Thursday evenings to pursue these and related questions; everything else in our schedule has been organized around this fact. The force of this immutable custom tacitly implies a specific answer to such questions, the answer that lured us here in the first place. After you have crossed the stage, and said your good-byes, when your Monday and Thursday evenings are uncannily free even well into autumn, when you are free from the customs that bound us in practice to a certain kind of a theoretical life, those questions may seem more open-ended to you than they ever did before, and what you then do in your freedom will consti­ tute much more of an answer to such questions than anything you have said here. In the Land of the Phaiacians____________________________________________ After earning an engineering degreefrom Princeton University, water rights attorney John Draper studied consumer law in Swe­ den, then earned a law degreefrom the University ofNew Mexico. He completed the college's Graduate Instituteprogram and earned his degree in ujgr. He spoke, in this excerpt, ofHomer: One of the things that I have found personally rewarding over the years has been a focus on the stories of Homer, both through the Program here, and through weekly meetings over many years of [a] group .. .of about six people who get together for an hour and a half every Sunday afternoon to translate from the original Greek for discussion by the rest of the group. Our progress might look outrageously slow to those outside the group, like my wife, but I think of it as being like sipping a fine wine. {The College. Sf. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } �{Commencement} For me, one who has never formally studied ancient Greek, this weekly exercise of many years stemmed originally from a desire to get as close as possible to the people and gods of Homer’s world. As a result, many of the Homeric episodes have stuck with me. For instance, I imagine you remember, from the Odyssey, how the Phaiacians, after entertaining Odysseus on their island, listening to his stories and showering him with gifts, brought him to a beach in a well-protected cove on Ithaka. He didn’t at first recognize that he was in his own home country. He wondered whether the people in that seemingly strange land were “savage and violent, and without justice,” and whether they were “hospitable to strangers.” Athena arrived and showed him a cave near the beach in which to store his gifts from the Phaiacians. Homer described the cave as having the sea-purple weavings of the nymphs on stone looms and, strangely, as having two entrances-one for mortals-and one for the immortals. Homer left unexplained what he meant by an “entrance for the immortals.” I’m pretty sure I’ve been in that cove and in that cave. Our family had the opportunity a few years back to sail to Ithaka. It’s in a fairly remote part of Western Greece, far from Athens. About 300 yards behind the beach of the cove that is so well protected, as Homer says, that you don’t even have to anchor or pull your boat up on the beach, is a cave. Its entrance is very narrow, so narrow that it was difficult for us to slip through it-but then it opened up into a large room with a high arching ceiling and with the purple weavings of the nymphs on the walls, the work of water seeping down the cave walls since time immemorial. And there was the entrance for the immortals-a shaft of sunlight coming down at an angle through a hole high in the ceiling of the cave-not a place for mortals to try to enter! Those treasures of Odysseus were stored for safekeeping in the cave, while Odysseus and Athena went out and “took care of business.” He had arrived on Ithaka after a dream voyage, and now he had to go out and take care of some practical issues, hke ridding his kingdom of the insolent suitors, rescuing his wife and son, and re-establishing law and order before he could retrieve his gifts. John Draper (SFGI97) likened commencement to leaving a “lovely island of a campus.” Treasures await, he said. Below, Santa Fe grads process to the Placita. This sequence of events in the life of Odysseus may have some similarity to the sequence of events in your lives at right now. You, too, have been in the land of the Phaiacians, sharing stories and lessons on this lovely island of a campus. Today, you are being deposited on what may look like a foreign shore at first, but it, too, is really your home. You, like Odysseus, may be wondering whether the inhabitants of the seemingly foreign world outside this campus are savage and violent, and without justice and whether they are hospitable to strangers. Like Odysseus, you will find, I think, that this new world is not so foreign after all, that it has a place for you in which you can make a home. While there will be battles you will need to fight, just as there were for Odysseus, you are likely to be successful because you are well-equipped from the lessons you have learned here and, like Odysseus, you will have Athena at your right hand whenever it is necessary for you to fight against savagery and injustice.” The complete commencement addresses are available on the St. John ’j Web site: www.stjohnscollege. edu {The Colleges?. John’s College • Fall 2005 } �{Commencement} aa A LONG TIME COMING Graduates Savor Completion after Many Years Away BY Rosemary Harty Santa Fe: Peggy O’Shea In high school, everything came easily to Peggy O’Shea (SF87)*. So it was with shock that she quickly felt overwhelmed after joining the freshman class of St. John’s College in 1983. “Bottom line, I really wasn’t prepared for the kind of personal challenge I found at the college,” she says. O’Shea grew up in Wilbraham, Mass. She chose St. John’s because she was eager for an education that didn’t involve memorizing and repeating back answers. But when she arrived at the college, she found it hard to shift to what her fellow Johnnies seemed to be doing so easily. “I think what I had the most trouble with was that I didn’t know how to read the material analytically and ask the right questions,” she says. “I was still reading the material to spit it back. I didn’t have the skills to challenge the books. When I would go to class, it was very difficult to participate in the discussions. I was intimidated in class, and everyone else seemed to be doing so much better.” After three semesters, O’Shea left the college and took a job in health insurance. She began as a claims processor, but her super­ visors noted her ability to pick up new things and promoted her frequently. “Even though I was only at St. John’s for three semesters, it made a huge difference in my analytical skills and reasoning-I think freshman math helped a lot with that,” she says. “I found myself in the information systems department, even though I didn’t have a computer or a degree. I could look at the software, figure out where the logic was breaking down, and give evaluations to the programmers on how to fix it.” O’Shea prospered in the field for 12, years. “Then managed care came along and took the fun out of everything,” she says. She moved into sales, where she also did well, particularly in a favorite job: sell­ ing BMWs in the Baltimore area. She was making a nice income, she was having fun, and fife was good-until February 16, aoot. “I was driving home from work and was hit head-on in an intersection a mile from my house,” O’Shea recalls. Her car was totaled and she suffered a serious neck injury. Taking customers for test drives seemed less appealing, and after she was rear-ended in 2002 and the lingering injuries from the accident worsened, O’Shea knew it was time for a change. She began job hunting. “For the first time in my life, I found they weren’t even interviewing me because I didn’t have a degree,” she says. O’Shea had attended college part time, off and on, and consid­ ered applying her credits to a program in which she could earn a degree after about a year of full-time study. One program she looked into would grant credit for her work experience. Good grades would probably come more easily than at St. John’s. It was tempting. But instead, O’Shea sat down and filled out an application for readmission to St. John’s. “I really wanted that accomplishment of challenging myself,” she explains. “I chose St. John’s because to me, it’s more about who I’m going to be as a person.” Returning to the college in Santa Fe would allow her to make a fresh start. With Buddy, her chocolate Labrador in tow, O’Shea drove west and settled into an apartment. Being about 20 years older than most of her classmates made her feel a little self-con­ scious, especially when a bookstore clerk tried to give her a tutor’s discount. Overall, O’Shea felt warmly welcomed by the campus community. Through the Career Services offices, she learned of an internship in the Gover­ nor’s Office, applied, and got it. Since it was unpaid, she held down a second job, working on a FedEx loading dock from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. each morning. “It was really hard getting up for work after seminar nights,” she says. Through her internship O’Shea discov­ ered a passion for public service. In Gov. Bill Richardson’s Constituent Services office, she was doing interesting work that she felt was important. At the end of her junior year, she was hired as a contract employee. {The College -Si. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } Celebration: Peggy O’Shea’s parents, Patrick and Mary Ann O’Shea, were on HAND FOR COMMENCEMENT IN SaNTA Fe. �{Commencement} In the classroom, the Program was just as difficult as O’Shea remembered it, and there were times during junior and senior years when the workload became oppres­ sive. After struggling with her sopho­ more essay she took advantage of writing assistance and improved her papers. Her tutors were encouraging. “I worked as hard as I possibly could and just stuck it out,” says O’Shea. “There was no way after so many years away and giving up so much to go back that I would drop out.” “When Peggy O’Shea joined my sopho­ more seminar, after ao years away from SJC, I wondered if this quiet woman would be able to hold her own among her far younger classmates,” says Santa Fe tutor Patricia Greer. “ Well, not only did she hold her own, she shone! With tremendous determination and dedica­ tion, Ms. O’Shea found her voice at the table and her stance on the books. She struggled to remember how to write a seminar paperand then began to produce fine work! During the two and a half years she was with us in Santa Fe, she became such a solid and important member of our community.” On May 21, O’Shea’s parents, brother, and great-nephew; her girlfriend, Susan; and Susan’s parents were all in the audience when she received her diploma. “It was a great celebration,” she says. Within weeks, she had packed up again, this time starting a new phase of her life as a student in the LB J School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. She will take the LSAT this fall, and if accepted into the program, hopes to shift to a four-year joint degree program in which she would earn a J.D. and a Master of Public Affairs. Ultimately she’d like to work as a policy adviser at the federal level. O’Shea can’t help but wonder how her life might have been dif­ ferent if fate hadn’t set her on a course back to St. John’s. Some­ times she misses that thrill of closing the deal. But the same skills she used to put customers in a slick new 3 Series will come in handy when she’s ready for Washington. “In politics, you have to sell your ideas,” she says. “I really think I’ll be good at that.” Annapolis: Nick Golten For many years, Nick Colten (A97) was a baker. Day after day, he’d rise in the dark for his 4 a.m. shift at a neighborhood cafe in St. Paul, Minn., his hometown. Bundled up against the icy winters, he’d walk to work and spend the day baking bread, rolls, muffins, and cakes. Most of the time, he hated it-but he was stuck in a hold­ ing pattern after leaving St. John’s in the spring of 1994. “I just couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do next,” Colten says. Several things had prompted him to drop out. Perhaps he wasn’t quite ready for the full scope of the Program. He loved to read, and he thought St. John’s was the place for him. “Academically, I did all 23 Nick Colten joined clues and made CONNECTIONS WITH OTHER JoHNNIES WHEN HE RETURNED TO CAMPUS. right,” Colten recalls. “And I liked the give-and-take of discussions.” Yet he didn’t feel connected to the community, so after his freshman year, he went home. Colten first found a restaurant job as a line cook, and that led to baking. Baking may seem a pleasant way to earn a living, Colten says, but he found it hard, tedious work. “For one thing, I was chronically sleep-deprived. And managing so many different tasks at the same time-that’s the difficult part. Mix up the dough, knead the bread, get that batch in the oven, start a second batch, check on the bread in the oven.” After work, he’d take a nap, later heading out to the Oak Street Cinema, an art house where he volunteered in exchange for free admission. He loved Buster Keaton and Francois Truffaut films. Citizen Kane and Casablanca. His other intellectual refuge was the Minneapo­ lis-St. Paul chapter of the St. John’s Alumni Association. “The chapter seminars sustained me for a long time and ulti­ mately got me interested in going back to school,” says Colten. Friends and family nagged him. Eva Brann, whom he had visited often while she was dean and he was a freshman, encouraged him. After about eight years with his arms elbow-deep in bread dough, Colten was ready to come back. He started in the fall of 2002. “I was nervous about the Greek-I had my old manual and tried to prepare,” he recalls. After a seminar on Genesis went “especially well,” Colten found himself excited about his studies in a way he hadn’t experienced the first time around. “I also felt a great desire to be connected to the community,” he says. “I joined the fencing club, study groups, EnergeiaC He joined the waltz committee and learned to dance. He became a reg­ ular contributor to the Gadfly, where he found an outlet for his passion for politics and public affairs. Colten worked on campus, in the mailroom and at other jobs he could pick up. Supporting himself and keeping up with the Pro­ gram was exhausting, but it was all so much better the second time around. “I didn’t want junior year to end,” Colten says. Every year, for his birthday, he’d bake a big birthday cake and leave it in the Coffee Shop for others to eat. On May 15,12 years after first coming to Annapolis, he graduat­ ed. His plan is to attend law school and eventually work in public interest law. “Holding public office-I don’t think that would be good. But helping to get the right people elected, get the right things done, that’s something I’m interested in,” he says. *College tradition assigns alumni status based on the originalyear ofmatriculation, for graduates and nongraduates alike. {The College - St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } �{Homecoming} 24 -- ........ JOHNNIES JOURNEY HOME By Libby Vega (SF06) anta Fe Homecoming 2005 welcomed seven nnderHomecoming seminars. “I cherish the seminar,” noted Khin graduate reunion class years back to campus July i BLhin Guyot Brock (SF88), and many agreed. Elaine Pinkerton Goleman (SFGI88) made time for homecoming “for the chance to 3, and also brought together more than 20 to really converse about great literature, and the mental Graduate Institute alumni to commemorate the loth anniversary of the Eastern Classics program. challenges.” Reunions this year included class years 1970, ’75, The Eastern Classics ’80, ’85, ’90, ’95, and 2000. Seminar topics ranged from graduates celebrated a decade of inquiry into the foundational texts Nietzsche to Chekhov to Joyce. of India, China, and Japan with a Alumni this year were also treated special reunion at the Hunt House to Shakespeare Reader’s Theater, a on Friday, hosted by President seminar and minimalist theater Michael Peters, enjoying his first performance in which there are no homecoming. The EC party was full sets or costumes. The script is followed by a lecture and concert used openly, as the emphasis is on by renowned sitar player Allyn the text itself. Both Reader’s Theater Miner, a senior lecturer in the performances, of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, were Department of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, student-led under the direction of where she is a teacher and scholar Marnelli Hamilton (SF05), assistant of Sanskrit, Hindi, and Urdu director of alumni and parent music. Drawing on her extensive activities. musical and historical knowledge. “When I first learned how Reader’s •r.u- Annval Homm-omim; Miner spoke on the cultural Theater works, I thought it would be background and compositional a unique and original way to examine structure of sitar music, demon­ texts many of us have read but few of strating on the instrument. us have performed,” Hamilton said. “In classical Indian music,” Later in the afternoon attendees she explained, “a rag or raga is were treated to a “Speaking Volumes” the melody, whereas a ras or rasa lecture entitled “Euclid Made Me is the emotion of a rag.” What I Am Today,” by William « fc»»> . After the concert, the music Kowalski (SF94), author of the novels played on with a rock ‘n’ roll party X Eddie Bastard and The Guardian. in the coffee shop. Many alumni In his talk, Kowalski discussed why said the spark of memory was his lifelong ambition to be a writer led ignited the minute they caught a him away from creative writing pro­ glimpse of old friends. “I came to grams and toward St. John’s College: reconnect with my classmates, most of whom I hadn’t seen for 10 a desire to study more than just the craft of writing, and to years,” said Ben Friedman (SF95). become a more well-rounded and interesting person. On Saturday morning, alumni gathered for what might be con­ continued onpg. 26 sidered the most familiar and popular offering of the weekend; {The College - John’s College Fall zoos 1 �{Homecoming} Homecoming in July in Santa Fe FEATURED MANY HAPPY ENCOUNTERS: (clockwise from top: Sharing Homecoming yfith a future Johnnie; Danilo Marrone (SF90) catches up with a classmate; Elaine Pinkerton Coleman (SFGI88, left) and Dianne Cowan (SFgzjpERFORM A Shakespeare play; Santa Fe tutor Robert Sacks (A54) engages an alumna in conversation. {The College. John's College ■ Fall 2005 } 35 �a6 {Homecoming} ALEXIS Brown (SFoo, EC03) RAISES HER GLASS IN CELERRATION. continued Continuing the celebration of authors and artists, the doors swung open to the All-Alumni Art Show immediately after the lecture. The show featured works in an array of media, including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, jewelry, video, textile, and glasswork. With children ushered to special games and a pizza party, alumni took part in a Homecoming banquet on the Placita. Each class offered its own group toast, and toasts were made for new honorary alumni Bonn Duncan and Elliot Skinner. Elliot Skinner joined the Santa Fe campus a year after its founding, having studied the classics and philosophy at Princeton University and the University of Colorado. Alumni Association President Glenda Eoyang remembered Skinner as an outstanding tutor and a “gentle spirit” from her student days in Santa Fe. “We know that then, as now, each tutor and each student engaged with others to make discoveries about themselves and each other, the part and the whole, knowledge and opinion,” Eoyang said. “Mr. Skinner was a master at such engagement. One alumnus, a particularly snotty one, reports that in sopho­ more language Mr. Skinner taught him to see that he was a snot and how not to be one-a good lesson that we could all teach and learn more often!” Skinner, she noted, had a talent for drawing out reticent students in seminar. “Though there are many examples of his generosity and insight, one that distinguishes him in this com­ munity is the support he has given to help quiet students find their voices in seminar,” she said. Duncan, Eoyang said, has been a true friend to the collegeone of the many people in the Santa Fe community who donate their time and talents to support the college. As chair of the Philos Society, Duncan leads an organization of Santa Fe residents who support the col­ lege and its program of study through fundraising and other activities. Duncan earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas and his medical degree from the University of Missouri School of Medicine. He completed his residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and specialized in head and neck surgery. After a visual injury ended his surgery career, he became the chairman of Health Systems International, a computer company which he brought from Yale University to the private sector. “Not only is Dr. Duncan, himself, a friend of the college, but as the chair of the Philos Society, he is also a leader of friends and a friend of leaders,” Eoyang said. “Those ofyou who are my vintage may be surprised that the college has committed and active friends in the Santa Fe community-they were a rare breed in my day. Because of Dr. Duncan and his friends, there is a different story to tell today. Under his stewardship, the Philos Society has demonstrated friendship to the college in many different ways, including initiating the ‘Inviting Conversations’ program and hosting events such as Summer Classics and wine tastings.” With hunger then abated and the night sky resplendent, the Midsummer Ball commenced with a swing band. As the weekend drew to a close, the final event was a Sunday brunch at Hunt House, home to President Peters, and his wife, Eleanor. Always well-attended, this year’s brunch gave many alumni their first opportunity to meet President Peters and the new vice president for advancement, Jim Osterhoft, and his wife, Debbie. Glenda eoyang welcomes Elliot Skinner to the ranks OF ALUMNI. {The College -St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } �{Homecoming} a? Artwork Unites Johnnies over the Years t is said that art transcends the hounds of time, and so does the fellowship that unites St. John’s College alumni. The college’s annual All-Alumni Art Show has always been a stimulating venue for alumni of all ages and backgrounds to celebrate the spirit of art and creativity that the Program inspires, but it is not often that the artist and patron are separated by more than 6o years of age, especially when the purchaser is only 21. At the 2005 alumni art show, one piece of artwork stood out for Mia Posner, (SF07). It was a small wooden sculpture entitled Flash Dancer, created by Billy Lieb (A45). Despite the fact that Ms. Posner is an undergraduate student on a tight budget, she knew she had to have it. What com­ pelled her was not only the charm of the piece, but also the fact that it is the craft­ work of an alumnus so much her senior. “It’s so important for Johnnies to support each other, even if we’re separated by generations. There is no formal art The annual Alumni Art Show continues to be a FAVORITE PART OF Homecoming WEEKEND in Santa Fe. Above, Santa Fe SENIOR Mia Posner with Flash-Dancer, by Billy Lieb (A45). Below, I GALLERY VISITORS ARE TAKEN WITH THE ARRAY OF ARTWORK ON DISPLAY. program here, so I appreciate Johnnies who can explore their artistic side as well as the academics,” she says. She wanted to buy the piece before the art show even opened. The sculpture had caught her eye one afternoon while she helped Maggie Magalnick, the gallery curator, set up the exhibit. The artist attended St. John’s College in Annapolis for two years during and just after World War IL He then went on to get his degree in film from UCLA in 1952. He spent 25 years working in film before retiring to become a peace activist and attend art school. Since then, he has studied with Jill Geigerich, Laddie Dill, Georg Herms, and Betty and Allison Saar, and shown his work at the University of California, Riverside. The sculpture is also significant to Ms. Posner because she, too, is very inter­ ested in film and art. She sees the piece as inspiration. “It serves to remind me that St. John’s alumni are a community. We may be separated by years and miles, but nonetheless, we are a family.” —Andra Maguran {The College -St. John's College ■ Fall 2005 } �a8 {Student Voices} “I AM A DISTANT SON 99 Annapolis Senior Joins Youth in a Questfor the Self BY Donald Stone (Ao6) “The whole ofthis doctrine leads as to a conclusion, which is ofgreat importance in the present affair, viz. that all the nice and subtle questions concerningpersonal identity can neverpossibly be decided, and [because ofthis, they] are to be regarded rather as grammatical than asphilosophical difficulties. David Hume. ‘Tam a distant son, a man, a convict and a cousin. lam charitable, smart, strong and talented. lam happiest when I’m on the good side ofpeople and they think lam a good person. ’’-Will P., 17. " ill wrote these simple, poetic words while par­ ticipating in Insights: Identity Project, a Vision Workshops program. Will’s words seem to echo Hume’s conclusion that one’s personal identity is not so simple as to be articulated. According to Hume it is possible for Will to be a convict and everything else he lists. However, it is not possible for one to ozt^be a convict, for Hume would say that is our imagina­ tion creating simplicity in a perception of a person’s identity for the sake of articulation. In Treatise ofHuman Nature, Hume explains that we are inclined to ascribe identity to objects because of our incapacity to always appreciate the great variety of parts that compose these objects. For instance, because of our imagination “a ship ofwhich a consider­ able part has been changed by frequent reparations, is still considered the Justin E., a self-portrait. same” and “an oak that grows from the small plant to a large tree, is still [consid­ ered] the same oak,” although in each case them. More specifically, participants in the not even one part of the whole may be program learn to use the tools of a photothe same. journalist-writing and photography-to As a photography instructor for Vision explore and express aspects of their Workshops, I am introduced to students identities. who have grown and experienced frequent Based in Annapolis, the nonprofit reparations. It is my job and my pleasure to organization Vision Workshops partners learn from the participants what else there is with the Juvenile Drug Court of Anne besides “juvenile delinquency” in their iden­ Arundel County and National Geographic to tities, and then I assist them in identifying cultivate alternative means of expression in parts of their lives, environments, and per­ underserved youth. With the guidance of sonalities that are particularly important to writing and photography instructors and W {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } dedicated volunteers, students are given the opportunity to learn collaboratively with their peers, gaining new perspective on their self-image and controlling which parts are shared with the world. On the first day of the program, held at Maryland Hall, a cul­ tural center not far from campus, each stu­ dent is put in charge of a camera. Over the next month, he or she will be responsible for its safety and will use it to complete home assignments. Some have never used a camera before; others are sur­ prised to be entrusted with it. In the first two hours of the workshop they shoot their first roll of self-portraits, and later print their own photographsalways a highlight of their experience. By the end of the program each stu­ dent creates and polishes a short poem or essay and a self-portrait photograph. A great strength of the program is the gratification the students feel in having success in learning a unique skill, and the pride associated with sharing the final product they create. An effort is made to have the students’ work widely displayed in exhibits at the District Courthouse on Church Circle and at the Chaney Gallery in Maryland Hall. I became involved with Vision Work­ shops at the end of my sophomore year, when photographer Kirsten Elstner, the director of the program, accepted my request to volunteer in the fall of 2004. The exceptional group of people I worked with, coupled with the capabil­ ity of exploring my interests in photog­ raphy and in working with teenagers, made my time volunteering a lot of fun and helped balance out all the time I spend with the “old dead guys’ on the reading list. Along with the support of volunteers. Vision Workshops succeeds through the energy and direction of Kirsten Elstner and freelance writer Cindy Edwards, and with the support of the Anne Arundel County Juvenile Drug Court, Maryland Hall, National Geographic, Nikon, and the Target Corporation. �{Student Voices} Donald Stone (Ao6) volunteered last year with Visions Workshops, helping youth who have heen involved with the court system to express their feelings in words and images. He also drew Chester Martin (Ao6) and Freya Thompson (A07) into the program as volunteers. “I’ve heen grateful for its influence in informing my post-St. John’s thoughts and aspirations,” Stone says of the pro­ gram, to which he returned for anoth­ er year this fall. Self-portraits by (clockwise, top right) Raymond H., Henry M., and Paula T. {The College.Si. John’s College . Fall 2005 } 29 �30 {Bibliofile} World Federalism: Idealism Meets the Cold War The Politics of World Federa­ tion: Vol. i: United Nations, U.N. Reform, Atomic Control. Vol. 2: From World Federalism to Global Governance.______________________ by Joseph Preston Baratta (Praeger, 2004) By Rosemary Harty n his thorough two-volume history of world federalism, Joseph Baratta (A69) shows that the political climate of the 20th century could have heen vastly different, if after World War II the idealists and intellectuals had heen effective in drafting a world constitution to unite governments across the globe, if national leaders had seen the necessity of founding a much stronger United Nations to keep the peace, and if millions of people had been prepared to follow wiser leadership. The Politics of World governments must seek newways to World Federation is a comprehensive UNITE FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL HUMANITY, SAYS history of a movement supported by a wide Joseph Baratta. range of people of differing backgrounds and political ideologies. Instead of world federal government, Baratta shows, the on to establish a new program at world got the Cold War-complete with the SUNY, Old Westbury, inspired in part by Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and St. John’s. decades of arms production that consumed Baratta, who teaches history and resources that could have been directed to international relations at Worcester State more beneficial uses. College, labored for 25 years on the The world federalist movement included project. His interest was first piqued by atomic scientists, such as Albert Einstein encountering the “Preliminary Draft of a and J. Robert Oppenheimer; intellectuals, World Constitution” of 1948, republished including Robert Hutchins and E.B. by Robert Hutchins in 1965. Baratta White; lawyers once connected to U.S. admired the ideals of the movement for government, such as Grenville Clark; many reasons, first, after serving in the energetic and passionate young students, Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, such as Harris Wofford; and seasoned and second, studying works such as the politicians, like Brooks Hays and Henry Federalist Papers and Plato’s Republic at Wallace. World federalists were men St. John’s. “In the Marine Corps, we were and women who reacted to the use of the told that the purpose of a battle is to reach atomic bomb with horror and with the a decision,” said Baratta. “I wondered if deep conviction that nations must join there were not a more rational way to reach together or face an inevitable third a decision. At St. John’s I saw that the world war. reason why wars continue is that the world The movement also attracted the has no working rule of law.” attention of Stringfellow Barr and Scott Baratta began reading volumes of Com­ Buchanan, founders of the New Program at mon Cause, the journal of The Committee St. John’s, and many others intimately to Frame a World Constitution, written by involved with the college, including Mark Hutchins, G.A. Borgese, and Adler. Van Doren, Mortimer Adler, and Wofford, “These people explored the anarchy of the a close friend of Buchanan, who would go national state system in the spirit of the I {The College- St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } conversation of the great books,” Baratta says. He combed through thousands of documents and conducted dozens of inter­ views. He wrote his doctoral thesis at Boston University on world federalism and continued his research for what would become The Politics of World Federation. “I discovered a movement that hadn’t made it into the history books,” he says. His final product is not only an outstand­ ing scholarly achievement, but also a personal testament for his own strong views that today’s governments must seek out new ways to bring the world together for the benefit of humanity. Baratta concentrates on the period after the failure of the League of Nations. In 1939, a journalist named Clarence Streit, alarmed by Hitler and the portents of another world war, published a book called Union Now, which proposed a federal union of democracies against the Axis powers. “If ever a book made a movement. Union Now was such a book,” writes Baratta. Publication of the book led to organizations including Federal Union in the U.S. and Great Britain and World Federalists in the U.S. The most active years for the movement were those immediately following the bombing of Hiroshima. Internal dissent, a lack of adequate funding, and McCarthyism weakened the movement, and by 1954, Baratta writes, it was largely defunct. A pivotal issue in the failure of the move­ ment was the rejection of the Baruch Plan for the international control of atomic energy, presented to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, June 14, 1946. The plan proposed the creation of an International Atomic Development Authority that would manage “control or ownership of all atomic-energy activities potentially dangerous to world security,” ultimately placing America’s nuclear weapons in the hands of an international body, which would have had many attributes of a world government. If the world federalists had the power and numbers to back the Baruch plan, the story might have been different, but “they didn’t unite themselves until 1947,” says Baratta. “Then President Truman announced the Truman Doctrine, which inaugurated the Cold War. Federalists got organized too late.” �{Bibliofile} In his second volume, Baratta devotes a chapter to another pivotal time: the events surrounding the Pocono Conference of T948, when Stringfellow Barr was most actively involved in world federalism. Barr and Buchanan had left St. John’s in 1946, following a successful but bitter fight against a Naval Academy takeover of the campus. They attempted to start a new college in western Massachusetts, but could not attract adequate funding for their vision. Barr took a year off, Baratta writes, but he quickly became very involved in the most revolutionary wing of the world federalist movement. While others worked gradually by U.N. reform, Barr and others felt that the atomic bomb required recourse to a “people’s convention a grassroots approach to working outside of national governments by selecting international delegates who would draft a world constitution. McCormick reaper heiress Anita McCormick Blaine gave $T million to the cause. Barr became chair­ man of a planning committee, aiming at election of 143 American delegates to a constitutional convention in Geneva in 1950. Britain had a similar movement, led by MP Henry Usborne, to elect 2,8 popular representatives to the convention. Scott Buchanan, who later worked with Barr, opposed the people’s convention. He believed the place to start was with the U.N. and with national governments: “World government is a revolutionary idea. It would touch every last item of our political life. Most people who believe in it do not realize this. They also don’t realize Michelangelo’s Mountain: The Quest for Perfection in the Marble Quarries of Carrara by Eric Scigliano (SF75) Free Press, 2005 Eric Scigliano has roots in Carrara, a village in the Apuan Alps in northwestern Italy, that run as deep as the veins of prized marble that have been quarried there for more than 2,000 years. Scigliano’s great-grandfather and his relatives were quarrymen and stone carvers in the quarries of Carrara, the same quarries that Michelangelo frequented to select the finest marble for his sculptures. In Michaelangelo’sMountain, Scigliano offers a historical perspective on Carrara and its famous how much opposition there will be to it. For this reason the PC horrifies me.” Barr, however, continued the approach. The money was used to establish the Foundation for World Government, but it all came to naught in all the difficulties of the time for forming a more perfect union ''Contrary to so many ofmy experiences in life, I continue to have faith in human reason. Worldfederation offers apositive vision ofpeace. Joseph Preston Baratta with adherents of the Communist party. Mrs. Blaine wanted Henry Wallace, the Progressive party candidate for president, to be a board member. Leaders among the United World Federalists feared the Com­ munist strains of Wallace’s challenge to Truman in 1948 and would not take any money. Barr, writes Baratta, “found himself in possession of a million dollar foundation for world government, whose support the American movement would not accept, at a moment when money was marble-pietra viva, “living stone”-as evoked in the gospels, Plotinus, Michelan­ gelo, and folktales. Scigliano unearths surprising Carrara connections, such as how Dante’s wanderings in the marble country influenced The Divine Comedy. Long interested in the Italian Renais­ sance, Scigliano wrote his sophomore essay on Giovanni Bellini’s painting, St. Francis in Ecstasy and Boticelli’s St. Augustine, and drew insight and inspiration from a preceptorial on Michelangelo. “I’m sure I would have gone to Italy anyway, but this preceptorial sharpened my eye and laid the groundwork for this project,” says Scigliano. In recent years, he has made several trips to Italy, where he reconnected with his rela­ tives who still work in the marble business. {The College • St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } 31 never more urgently needed to build up a popular movement for an East-West settle­ ment and permanent peace through world government! ” Nevertheless, the world federalist movement had major achievements. It brought about resolutions favoring U.S. participation in a world government in aa state legislatures, and some 16 bills were introduced in Congress. Hearings were held on the topic in the House in 1948 and ’49 and in the Senate in 1950. Senators Hubert Humphrey, Wayne Morse, Claude Pepper, and J. William Fulbright supported these bills. A large literature from over 70 nations on fundamental U.N. reform has been produced, including the Chicago draft constitution and Grenville Clark and Louis B. Sohn’s World Peace through World Law. Even Barr and Buchanan’s foundation pioneered new international fields like functional eco­ nomic and social cooperation, Gandhian nonviolence, and individual educational field work anticipatory of the future Peace Corps. Most federalists, like international­ ists, have today mended their differences in favor of universal membership, repre­ sentation of democracies, maximal powers affecting both peace and justice, and U.N. reform for the transition. “I’m an idealist,” Baratta says. “Con­ trary to so many of my experiences in life, I continue to have faith in human reason. World federation offers a positive vision of peace. Its history exhibits a new kind of world political wisdom.” The narrative traces Michelangelo’s passion for his art and his grueling journeys into the mountains of Carrara to find mar­ ble that had never before been extracted. He weaves Michelangelo’s life story with the story of Carrara itself-a region of intrigue and rivalries, including Medici conspiracies to overturn the Carrarese marble monopoly. It was also a region of conflicts, such as those that took place between Roman legions and Liguri tribes, Napoleonic and Austrian invaders, and in modern times. Fascists and resistance fighters. Scigliano also considers Michelan­ gelo’s legacy in today’s international sculpture community, —Patricia Dempsey �{AlumniProfile} 3^ Peter Fairbanks, A73, Values the Authentic BY Patricia Dempsey t the Montgomery Gallery in San Francisco, founding director Peter Maynard Fairbanks (A73) cuts a tall figure, wearing his trade­ mark bowtie and sipping tea from a china cup as he confers with clients at a round, inlaid igaB Saarinen table. Trained at Sotheby’s, London, as an art connoisseur, appraiser, and auction­ eer, Fairbanks is also an art dealer and a consultant appraiser to Antiques Road­ show, the popular PBS series now in its ninth season. Fairbanks’s work requires expertise developed over 30 years in the art world: the ability to distinguish the authentic from the false. One afternoon, Fairbanks received a call from a man who had just purchased on eBay two watercolors allegedly by Picasso and Miro; the caller wanted to know if the works were genuine and asked for an esti­ mate of their value. “I told him, T can’t tell you anything from a phone conversa­ tion; I need to see them,’ ” says Fairbanks. “He brought the two paintings to me and besides it being immediately apparent to me that they were fakes, I also recognized the hand of the forger. After 3a years in the auction and art business. I’ve learned to distinguish the authentic from the false-both with objects and the people I meet.” Fairbanks glides easily between describ­ ing the billion-dollar fine arts fairs at which he exhibits in London, New York, Paris, and Maastricht, the Netherlands, to nature. I enjoy the physicality of handling his stint as an instructor at the Hurricane objects, the discovery, the research, the Island Outward Bound School in Maine. He authentication. I needed to see the front often draws upon his roots as a pragmatic, and back of a painting, see what stretchers flinty New Englander for the perseverance and canvas it’s on, not just look at photo­ to succeed in the art world. He combines graphs or slides and learn from footnotes.” his flair for business, nurtured during boy­ Fairbanks’s desire to examine all aspects hood summers when he “farmed” no lob­ of a subject drew him to St. John’s. Fair­ ster pots off the Massachusetts coast, with banks came to St. John’s in his aos, having his love of art. Growing up in Gambridge, first attended Bard College for a year, Fairbanks developed a deep appreciation followed by three years of conscientious for fine art, especially from his mother, objector’s alternative service during the who studied art history in the graduate Vietnam War. “Given my way of learning, program at Harvard’s Fogg Museum. “I thought I would be a professor as well, but I the structure at St. John’s suited me-the regular regime of small classes, daily read­ found that academia was too dry for my A {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 200s } Is IT REAL, OR A VERY EXPENSIVE FRAUD? Peter Fairbanks knows the difference. ings, dialogues, and theorems on the black­ board, and most difficult for me, the fixing of one’s thoughts in the written word. It was a terrific education. It’s impossible to compare St. John’s to any other higher education institution-there is no place like it. It’s like being in a monastery for four years, where the students are speaking their own language, so deeply immersed in the ‘life of the mind.’ ” There’s a connection, Fairbanks says, to the type of careful analysis done in the �{Alumni Profile} Program and the work he does today, “I think it was at St. John’s that I learned the process of how to examine, and that has been invaluable throughout my life, both personally and professionally,” says Fairbanks. “At St. John’s I learned to question accepted postulates.” After graduating from St. John’s, Fairbanks took on a yearlong executive program at Sotheby’s, London. The course was directed by the late Derek Shrub. “His approach to the history of art and antiques was as unique as the education at St. John’s,” Fairbanks says. “I was trained to identify the style, date, nationality, and perhaps author of an object with the idea being that every object is a part of its culture, a part of the spirit of that time. I was expected to examine a leg of a chair, a part of a candlestick, passage of a painting and determine: Is it Southern German, Eastern French Baroque, or Northern Italian Baroque? While wildly annoying at the time, this approach allowed me to look at that Miro watercolor dated 194a and the Picasso dated 1934 and determine they were both most likely executed in the 1960s.” Following his training at Sotheby’s, Fair­ banks worked in the auction business for 15 years as an appraiser, executive adminis­ trator, and auctioneer in New York, London, and San Francisco. He went to San Francisco to “grow” the then-small regional Butterfield Auctioneers, making it the 1949 third-largest auction house in the United States. By 1984, Fairbanks was “consumed” by administrative tasks. “I realized my work was far from the fine art objects that origi­ nally inspired me to enter this profession. So I founded the Montgomery Gallery with two former employees.” Even when he delivers the news that a Picasso purchased on eBay is a forgery, Fairbanks wants people to understand how he arrives at that conclusion. He wants them to be at ease with art. “A large part of this profession,” he says, “is educating your clients about the art they are attracted to, assisting them in understanding that their own-often unexplored-visual vocabulary is valid. I try to help them feel comfortable and show them they already have taste. But many feel a tremendous imbalance between the knowledge I have and their lack of it.” Through his work for the past decade as an appraiser for Antiques Roadshow, Fairbanks has helped make knowledge of fine art accessible to the wider public. “I never thought of myself as a good student, yet at St. John’s the great books were accessible to me. It’s the same in the art world-knowledge is accessible to every­ one,” says Fairbanks. "Antiques Roadshow has helped to demystify the world of fine art. It has also been a lot of fun.’ 1950 The Rev. Fredemck P. Davis John R. Garland is continuing writes: “Let me report to the alumni of the early to middle years of the ‘new’ program that Rachel (Hinman) Hovde, widow of Chris (class of 1945), died at 91 years on May i, 3005. Long­ time organist and choir director at St. Anne’s Church, she became a clergy wife when Chris took orders in Chicago.” in an informal seminar group started years ago by Tom Williams (class of 1951). “After 55 years I’ve finally learned how to finish reading before the discussion,” he writes. 33 Good News, Bad News Fans of the popular PBS series Antiques Roadshow tune in to see some guests discovering a valuable find among their attic treasures, oth­ ers learning that their item is nothing but yard-sale fodder. In a February 2004 episode, appraiser Peter Fairbanks-who has been with the show since its debut-had good news for a California man who brought in a por­ trait of his ancestor. Commodore Thomas Tingey, painted in the early 19th century by John Trumbull. Along with a framed copy of Tingey’s commission (signed by President John Adams) and his uniform, the portrait represented “a great collec­ tion of American history.” History, swell-but the cash value? Fairbanks estimated the well-preserved and dis­ tinctive portrait as worth $30,000 to $30,000. Too bad the painting wasn’t in its original frame though, Fair­ banks noted; that might have brought the value as high as $50,000. 4" attend Homecoming for my 50th reunion, hut I felt poorly and soon was told I had to undergo open heart surgery on October 38.1 am only just now really pretty much back in living trim. I am writing this to assure those of my class­ mates I missed seeing this 50th Homecoming that I hope to see them at the next 50th.” 1964 1954 Richard B. Carter hated to miss Homecoming last year in Annapolis; “I fully expected to William C. Triplett, II, and Eleanor Noon Triplett are pleased to announce the birth of their first grandchild, Evelyn Berwanger Triplett, born July 3. {The College -St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } 1967 Ginger Kenney (Gay Singer) writes with professional and family news: “Along with Sasaki Associates’ principals Daniel Kenney and Ricardo Dumont, I have completed a book on campus design for the ACE/Praeger Series on higher education. Written for institu­ tions leaders and the planners and designers who work for them. Mission and Place: Strengthening Learning and Community through Campus Design shows how institutions can leverage one of the most �{AlumniNotes} 34 powerful resources they have for overcoming today’s challenges: the campus and its environs, providing a foundation for making decisions about the physical campus that are grounded in the institutional mission. Mission and Place is available from Greenwood Publishing Group (www.greenwood.com) andAmazon.com. In other news, my son Adam, 23, graduated last year from Brown University and is now working in software develop­ ment for Microsoft in Seattle. My daughter Margot, 18, has just started her freshman year at the University of San Francisco and is planning to major in Spanish and Latin American studies. Alas, neither one of them a Johnnie, but both happy in their choices, which is, after all, what counts. Now empty-nesters, Dan and I are hoping to travel a little more in our ‘spare’ time. Can you tell we’ll be heading west from time to time? I am now working in strategic academic planning and in edito­ rial consulting, as I progress toward a certificate in financial planning. I’ve also been active in the Boston chapter for a number of years. The chapter welcomes visitors to the Boston area to join in its activities.” 1969 Beth A. Kupe (SF) writes, “I’ve moved to Longmont, Colo., about 12 miles from Boulder and 40 miles from Denver. I love it here-there is so much commu­ nity spirit! I’m just a day’s drive north from Santa Fe, and I wel­ come visitors: 3800 Pike Road #30-203, Longmont, CO 80503, 303-682-0169, bethkuper@ yahoo.com.” 1970 Jeffrey D. Friedman (A) writes: “We are up to eight kids and eight grandchildren. I am now using the analytical and listening skills from St. John’s in Talmud study, teaching, and life coaching. Anyone in Israel, e-mail, or call and come visit! Friedyo7@netvisi0n.net.il.” 1972 David Carey (A) is a philosophy professor at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, “tackling Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas annually. Thanks to SJC for the wonderful preparation.” 1973 Jeff Angus (SF) has publishing news: “In what seems a relatively trivial note, my newest book came out at the beginning of baseball season. Management by Baseball: A Pocket Reader (Occam & Dihigo, $12.95) is a management how-to book predicated on the Truth that almost everything you need to know about management you can learn from baseball. Using lessons and stories from the national pastime, it presents practical tools to teach managers and aspiring managers how to be more effective at the work in any kind of organization. A bit like a Stephen Covey book, but less Mormon. Anaximander, Heraclitus and Lucretius (still The One), are all small but essential ingredients in the mix. The book can be purchased through independent book­ New Beginnings NDREW PiETRUS and ZoE Beatty (both A91) have three news items: Sofia was born April 23; she joins Marcel, a, and Matthias, 4. Zoe finishes OB residency in Jnly and enters private practice back in Raleigh (they planned to move in July from Pennsylvania). Andy wraps up four years of being a stay-at-home dad and will return to teaching middle-school students at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Raleigh. sellers or directly online from the Management by Baseball Web site: http://cmdr-scott. blogspot.com “I’m still doing management consulting, still a contributing editor at Info World, writing product reviews and an occa­ sional feature. I’m now writing opinion columns for the online version of the magazine CIO Insight, and sabermetric analysis for The Seattle Times. “I’m about to become a grandfather for the first time. My step-daughter, Alexandra, who lives in Paris with her French husband, will have given birth to a baby in July.” Joan Heller (A) reports: “David Humphreys (A69) and I, for better or worse, are no longer together, and I have reverted to Joan Heller. Our four sons, dialectically educated at home, are: Justin Heller Humphreys, 20-year-old classics major at Reed College in Portland, Ore.; Samuel Barnes Humphreys, 17year-old aspiring ballet dancer in NYC; Nathaniel Harding Humphreys, 14-year-old student of the Emerald Ozma Home School in Ashville, N.C.; and Nicholas Menzel Humphreys, g-years-old with Down syndrome, arguably our most avid reader to date.” {The College. St. lohn’s College ■ Fall 2005 } 1975 Four exhibitions of artwork by Howard Meister (A) began in August and continue through the winter. “Stilled Lives”-lifesize digital scans of dead things exhibited at the Contemporary Artists Center in North Adams, Mass., in late summer. Other recent life-size scans of food and eroticism were on exhibit at the Last Minute Gallery in Northampton, Mass., December 30-January 29. A selection of Meister’s studio “Art Furniture” from the 1980s and 1990S will be on exhibit at The Modernism Show at The Armory (NYC) in November and at Art Basel Miami in December. Howard can be reached at HMMeister@aol.com. 1977 Judy Kistler-Robinson (SF) moved from Minnesota in Febru­ ary and has enjoyed the long spring in Plano, Texas. She is working as a usability specialist, improving voice user-interface designs for banking, communi­ cations, and other automatic voice response systems. Judy heard recently from Katya Shirokow (SF76) inquir­ ing about next year’s 30-year reunion. Katya shared this news: �{Alumni Notes} 35 Barrelhouse: Pulp, Pop, Prose " hy must so-called “literature” and “pulp” always remain at odds? Why, asks Aaron Pease (A98), can’t there be a bridge between modern and clas­ sic, something that will appeal to both those who already love literature and those who don’t know what they’re missing? Barrelhouse is meant to be just that. A literary journal featuring everything from poems to short stories to essays, inter­ views, and comics. Barrelhouse was created by Pease and a few of his friends who meet regularly to critique each other’s writing. Pease has a day job as a proposal writer; by night, he’s simply a writer, one with a love for both classical literature and modern writing. “We toyed with the idea for a while, and it started making sense,” Pease says. “We thought there was a niche for this kind of thing-something not just functional, but site, where they receive writing submis­ appealing on multiple levels. Something sions from around the country in all differ­ that looks good, has solid writing, but still ent genres. From these, they selected a few manages to reflect our culture without a to put into their first print edition oiBar­ jaundiced eye.” relhouse, published late last fall. The goals Barrelhouse was designed to appeal to for the magazine remain fluid: for now, both those who are already avid readers they’re content to remain mostly Web­ and those who are “interested in ideas and based, while getting the print version out brightly colored things.” in the D.C. metro area. Pease and colleagues started with a Web W “My son, Alexander, is now 10 years old. I am producing nature and wildlife films for television and still live in California. We recently produced two films for PBS called Kalahari: The Great Thirstland and Kalahari: The Flooded Desert. I’ve been spending over 10 years traveling frequently to Africa-mostly to Botswana-bits that are still very wild and very empty of people and very, very far from the troubled parts of that huge con­ tinent.” Katya’s next project will be in Latin America. Asks Judy: “Any other class­ mates thinking ahead to this reunion?” Gene Glass (A) writes: “I have become a grandfather much more quickly than I was pre­ pared for! It’s all good, though, as the son of my stepdaughter is now almost five months old. I’m looking forward to seeing friends at our 30th reunion in 2007.” 1979 A LITERARY JOURNAL WITH AN ATTITUDE: Aaron Pease (aSq) hopes to bring culture TO THE MASSES. “Putting together something like this requires critiquing ourselves and our choices, trying to figure out why we like the stories we like,” he says. In selecting material for the journal, the editors try not to dismiss something because it falls into a “type,” while not publishing a submission just because it fills a “type” they haven’t addressed. Eventually, they want to solicit stories and essays from established authors, take out ads in writers’ magazines to target emerging writers, and assign their poetry section to a full-time poet. They’re off to a good start. The first printed edition A Barrelhouse featured stories from a combination of new and recognized writers as well as an interview with country/folk legend Emmylou Harris. When asked how they managed to get to talk with the legendary singer. Pease con­ fessed that they had an “in”-one of their good friends is a relative. “But,” he says, “we’ve found that people are more willing to talk than you might think. It’s publicity for them, and they’re still just people.” teacher, interpreter/translator, and business owner in Japan; 1993-96, law school at Indiana University in Bloomington; 1998 to present, lawyer. “Married to Carmen, and loving it! Contact me at leslie_westmoreland@ yahoo.com. I would love to hear from you!” 1980 Leslie W. Westmoreland (SF) is a deputy attorney general in Fresno, Calif., and here’s how he got there: 1980-82, Peace Corps (Zaire); 1983-84, ESL teacher in Saudi Arabia; 1985-93, ESL —Roseanna White (A04) 1983 This fall Desiree Zamorano (SF) will be a new member of Occidental College’s Education Department faculty, as well as the director of their Community Literacy Center. 1986 Bob Neslund (SFGI) will teach Latin half-time the next two years and write a history of Shattuck-St. Mary’s School for its 2008 sesquicentennial. {The College. St. John ’5 College ■ Fall 2005 } Susan Read (SFGI) writes that she’s “still enjoying my life in Connecticut, teaching. �36 {AlumniProfile} An Island Refuge Sarah Mara, A6i, Has Deep Roots on Lone Pine Island. ot everyone can experience life on a tiny island in the St. Lawrence River, suffer the thrill of plunging into icy water on a summer’s day, or watch the lights of pass­ ing freighters dance on the water at night. Wanting to share some of the most vivid memories of her childhood, Sarah Robin­ son Mara (A6i) joined with her sister, artist Nancy Rohinson Hammond, in creating A Snug Little Island, a children’s hook that presents the joys of life on Lone Pine Island through the eyes of two children. Sarah and her husband, John, spend five months each year on Lone Pine Island, a quarter-acre granite outcrop where they built a cottage. Lone Pine is one of the Thousand Islands, a group of more than 1,700 small islands in the St. Lawrence River just east of Lake Ontario. Farther east of Lone Pine is the slightly bigger Long Rock Island, where Nancy Hammond and her husband, Robert R. Price, Jr., rent a converted skiffhouse. In joining together on their book project, the two sisters recaptured favorite memories from their childhoods in the Thousand Islands. “I’ve been returning to the river every summer for 65 years-missing only a fewsince I was six months old,” says Mara. “The islands, the river, are my roots, where family gathers. I understand the dangers: hidden rocks in the water, navigating at night, watching out for the looming hulls of freighters in the total darkness. I love the color of the blue water, how it sparkles on a clear day when the wind is from the north. Children who grow up here never forget it.” After graduating from St. John’s and marrying plastic and reconstructive surgeon John Mara in 1972, Mara pursued various career ventures. “You come out of St. John’s a true liberal artist,” she said. She worked in London at IBM, United Kingdom, and for Eastman Kodak in Rochester. She adored her stint as manag­ ing editor of a weekly newspaper in New York, writing the editorials and a regular column, managing stringers, laying out the paper, and taking the photos. When John retired in 1992, Mara became the family bread-winner, for several years commuting by boat to her job as administrator of the Antique and Classic Boat Society. Abandoning the mainstream for a quiet life with time for reading, organic garden­ ing, and watching sunsets was a careful choice the Maras made, one Sarah links to her Johnnie days. “Without St. John’s in my background, I doubt we would have had the courage to make such a dramatic decision, or even have known about the pleasure of such a life.” Along the way, the Maras built their cot­ tage on Lone Pine, which Sarah’s parents had owned, and where she and her family camped out in tents during the summer. On the island, self-reliance is key. “Lifting­ all the time lifting! Bringing over filled water jugs, groceries, boxes of books, and taking away garbage. Slippery docks in the autumn, slippery rocks after rain. No septic system, no public sewer system.” {The College- St. John’s College • Fall 2005 } Sisters Nancy Hammond (r.) and Sarah Mara (A61) brought talents and CHILDHOOD MEMORIES TOGETHER IN A SNUG Little Island. Fog can trap the Maras on their island or keep them from returning from the mainland. They stock up on drinking water, canned tuna, and dried fruit to sustain them through bad weather. Once the couple awoke to a violent storm that shook the house. “Trees were cracking in half all around us,” Mara recalls. “Waves slammed against the shore. The storm cut a swath through the islands, uprooting trees and swamping boats. We lost electricity for five days.” Ultimately, the benefits far outweigh the difficulties. “The island is a refuge,” Mara says. “We can be boisterous, we can be quiet. We can be idle or industrious. It’s snug in the cottage, especially with a fire in the woodstove when it’s cold or rainy.” continued on pg. �{Alumni Notes} 37 Policy. He previously served as executive director of The Philan­ thropy Roundtable. Prior to that, O’Gara was a drug policy analyst for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Earlier in his career, he served as a foreign policy specialist, advising the adminis­ trator of the Drug Enforcement Administration at the Department of Justice. Jennifer Lee (SF) has career news: “My family and I have been back in the states four years now. I am currently teaching third- and fourth-graders at a small progressive school where the money is poor but the teaching is good.” 1990 1989 Matthew Shane Heimann was born to Dave (A87) and Jeannie Heimann on July 4, 2005. He weighed 7LBS. 14 oz and was 19 3/4" LONG. He joins his brothers Jake, 4 z/2, and Noah, 2. parenting, mountaineering, and skiing. I’ve come to appreciate the many natural attractions and cultural events in New England. Best to all.” 1988 James F. X. O’Gara (A) was nominated by President George W. Bush to be deputy director for Supply Reduction at the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He currently serves as special assistant to the Director of the Office of National Drug Control continued Each October, when the days grow colder and the river becomes dark and foreboding, the Maras move to a home in Kingston, Ontario. When they return to Lone Pine each summer, they must reclaim the island from a boisterous gaggle of geese. Though she had never written fiction before, Hammond’s encouragement-and her offer to illustrate the project-were all Mara needed to take on the project. Summer on the St. Lawrence River was translated into words and images, and two children, Richard and Kate, were nudged into life, complete with cheerful curiosity, thin limbs, and blowing flaxen hair. In the story, the two children are placed with their duffle bags aboard Captain Harry’s water taxi to be ferried over to Lone Pine Island for a vacation visit with their aunt and uncle. Kilian Garvey (SF) recently Nathaniel Herz (A) writes: “Alexander Shulman Herz was born on Feb. 27, 2004, and he’s a beautiful baby! He joins Charlotte Shulman Herz, born on May 7, 2002-the apple of her Daddy’s eye. Contact Nathaniel at NH237@columbia.edu Refactoring to Patterns, a soft­ ware industry bestseller by Josh Kerievsky (SF) is now in its third printing and has been translated into eight languages. The adventures and mishaps of Richard and Kate spring not only from memories of Sarah and Nancy, but also from those of the real-life Richard, Nancy’s son, now 33, who loved the island life throughout his child­ hood. (Mara named the young heroine of her book after Richard’s wife, Kate.) Along with illustrating the book, her sister provided editorial advice and encour­ agement, says Mara. “Nancy was my editor, my sounding board, my critic. She insisted on the ‘real’ thing-forcing me to dig deeper into my memory. We exchanged memories. I would ask her, ‘do you remember, did Captain Harry wear a hat? What sound do katydids make? How do waves sound hitting the rocks?’ ” From this partnership grew a handsome book in which the children’s activities are wholly familiar: learning to sleep in a tent, operate a boat, shop for provisions, and outrace a storm. The book captures a {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } finished his dissertation (“Cerebral Laterality of False Memories”) and received a Ph.D. in cognitive neuropsychology from the University of Toledo. “I now do research in social neuroscience and evolutionary psychology at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine.” Alexandra Edelglass Stockwell (A) writes, “Gabriel Thomas joined our family June 9, 2005. He was born at home, weighing ii lbs., 8 oz. Eight-yearold sister Josephine, 6-year-old brother Christopher, and his continued on pg. gg timeless child’s world, an endless summer vacation. Hammond’s bright drawings of rock-strewn islands, herons, and barefoot children bring the island world to life. A longtime friend of the college, Hammond is well known for her artwork, which for years she sold in a shop near the campus. Sarah Mara and Nancy Hammond return to St. John’s in November to speak at the the Caritas Society’s Meet the Authors pro­ gram, an annual fund-raiser in Annapolis that also features journalists Steve and Cokie Roberts. A Snug Little Island can be ordered from Pink Granite Press, PO Box 231, Thousand Island Park, N.Y. 136920231; or on Nancy Hammond’s Web site: www.nancyhammondeditions.com. —Nancy Zimmerman and Rosemary Harty �38 {Alumni Profile} High-Flying Ideals Kira Zielinski, SFgs, Finds Fuljillment in the Skies BY Erica Naone (A05) helicopter, to Kira Zielins­ ki, is “a bionic extension of your body.” The energy of the machine, which can stay still in the air or make tiny motions there, “courses through you and you have to feel it.” Accidents happen, she says, “when it starts flying you; when it is a machine.” Zielinski learned to fly helicop­ ters during a seven-year stint in the Marine Corps, which she joined the day after graduating from St. John’s in Santa Fe in 1995. Now a civilian, she pilots Chopper 4 over the streets of Washington, D.C., toting a WRC news crew covering traffic, weather, and breaking news. Her passage from the academic life at St. John’s to the technical and physical training she received to become a pilot makes sense in light of what matters most to her in the Great Conversation. A ques­ tion she keeps at the forefront of her thoughts and actions is, “What is life?” At St. John’s, Zielinski says, “it was a training in think­ ing-in honing your being to the maximum extent, in living consciously and not as an animal.” In the search for a conscious life, Zielinski has tested herself mind and body. She loved St. John’s for its academic intensity, and she chose the Marines in part for the rigorous physical training. She has bicycled through the Pyrenees. She has immersed herself in the history of the Crusades, fascinated by “the sheer corporeal nature of it all.” What becomes clear about Zielinski after an hour of conversation is that when she says she is “not a cubicle girl,” she means that down to her core. She is not satisfied with being told the answer, with hearing about how something works, or with anything besides going out and trying it for herself. It was this that led her to St. John’s in the first place. Zielinski had always been interested in classics. When a guidance counselor at her Massachusetts boarding school told her about St. John’s, she was attracted to an educational philosophy that required students to “read the books themselves, to go out and chart the sun with the Ptolemy stone, not just sit in the classroom.” Not A CUBICLE girl; Kira Zielinski (SF95) ONE DAY HOPES TO FLY FOR HUMANITARIAN AID MISSIONS ACROSS THE GLOBE. Her decision to join the Marines shocked some of her classmates, but Zielinski was driven by a need to get out from behind a desk and explore “the other side of the Greek ideal.” The transition was a bit of a jolt. After four years of discussing honor and virtue in seminar, she was handed a book on her first day in the Marines that had definitions for both. She respected the definitions she found there, but the contrast in her environment was clear. Zielinski looks back on her time in the military with respect and gratitude, but she is also relieved to have returned to {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } civilian life. The only female in a squad of 13 men, Zielinski felt a pressure far differ­ ent from what she had felt as the only female lab assistant in Santa Fe. In the military, she found herself in a situation where “anyone with a sensitive soul was picked on extra hard.” It was emotionally difficult to be the image of a Marine at all times, to be always reserving a private place in herself apart from her identity as a marine. As a marine, however, her peers trusted her to act with a high level of honor and integrity. She enjoyed the respect she was able to earn as an officer and misses the understanding that “your word is your honor.” Sharp analysis of great historical battles appealed to her, as did getting out from behind a desk and learning to fly. After her discharge, and some time off to travel, Zielinksi wound up in Tucson, Ariz. The military taught her how to fly, but she lacked the flying time most civilian employers require and had a hard time finding a job in aviation. “I was flipping through the Yellow Pages, looking up ‘H’ for helicopter and making phone calls,” she says. Her persistence paid off. She embarked on a series of helicopter odd jobs, such as firefighting and flying short sightseeing tours over the Hoover Dam and the Grand Ganyon. Along the way, she gained the flight hours she needed and made connections in the aviation community. Earlier this year, Zielinski began studying for a master’s degree in aviation. Within a few years, she’d like to volunteer for an organization like Doctors Without Borders. As someone who has always sought to be like Tomb Raider’s Lara Groft, she wants to apply her technical skill, sense of adventure, and passion for languages and learning-always keeping in mind both sides of the Greek Ideal. �{AlumniNotes} father, Rodd, and I are happy and grateful. Our holistic medi­ cine practice is growing, although I will be at home work­ ing on the domestic arts as best I can for an undetermined (long) time.” bi-gay, reproductive, and other civil rights and liberties, Nancy will be going on the market next year as a constitutional law professor. 1994 1991 Akiba Covitz and Miriam Spectre (both A) announce the birth of their daughter, Lilah Spectre-Covitz, born in May 2004. She joins her brother, Abe, who turned four in May 2005. Look for us in Virginia cars with the plates “SJC91” and “FERRIES.” 1992 Brad Hodge (SF) was married in November 2003. “My wife and I are in the process of adopting a child from Guatemala. We are very excited! I see Luke Warren (SF) often, since he also lives in the D.C. area.” 1993 Nancy Marcus (A) has received her LL.M, (second law degree) from the LFniversity of Wisconsin Law School and is now pursuing her SJD (third law degree) as a dissertator at UW. Her thesis article, entitled “Reyond Romer and Lawrence: The Right to Privacy Comes out of the Closet,” is due to be published by the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law in the Winter 2005/2006 issue. Aboard member of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Foundation and an activist and lecturer on lesbian- 39 1996 Marybeth Guerrieri (A) Brian and Lea Brock (Brian, completed her master’s degree in Transpersonal Studies at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, Calif. SF, ECoi, and Lea, A98, ECoi) write: “We are conducting an experiment. Can one exist in the world with his notions of the Good, True, and Beautiful? We are renting a farm near Madison, where Brian is starting Sawhorse Recording Studio and playing with a band called Goodbye Kitty. Lea is training her new horse and exploring equestrian and Socratic summer possibilities. The fact that she received a teaching license­ having admitted to exclusively engaging in Socratic Seminar with students and to never teaching to the standards-is a bit of evidence suggesting an affirmative answer to the aforementioned question. David M. Brooks (SF) has Hanan Mikuasz (AGI) writes of relocated to Florida and has successfully opened his own private practice specializing in adult mental health. He is looking forward to start training to become a psychoanalyst in the next year. a recent homecoming: “I took my live-year-old son in July to see the Pyramids and the land where I grew up. The Pyramids haven’t changed much, but just about everything else did. Congestion, people, and noise are every­ where. Still, I was comforted by the defiance of some aspects of Egyptian culture to change and by my son’s smiles.” “I just wanted to share the news of my second baby boy, Owen Louis, born April 29, 2005,” writes Phoebe Merrin Carter (SF). “Brother Dylan has just turned 4.1 am (still) the Youth Services Manager for the Weber County Library System in Ogden, Utah. My husband is an adjunct professor of history at the university here, and we have this great old house, 86 years old! Greetings to everyone with whom I have lost touch! ” 1995 1997 J. Stephen Pearson (A) recently completed required coursework for a Ph.D. in comparative literature: “My main foci are American minority literature and the history of Christian devotional literature,” he writes. “For my dissertation, I plan to explore the similarities between minority experiences and religious experiences.” Cameron T. Graham (SF) is a specialist with Army Intelligence at the Defense Language Institute, Monterey, Calif. While stationed at Fort Jackson, S.C., earlier, he won the award for a perfect score in the physical program. He’s been serving with the Army for about 15 months. Nice to Reminisce Jennifer Swaim (A) is pleased to announce the receipt of her doc­ toral degree in psychology. She specializes in health psychology and is currently a research fellow at a private hospital in north­ eastern Ohio. She would enjoy hearing from old friends at jcswaim@gmail.com. ara Giles (SF95) writes: “My husband, John, and I are enjoying Nebraska’s good life and all it has to offer. He continues to be a biology professor and conduct research in parasitology at one of the colleges, while I am finishing up a master’s degree at the university in anthropol­ ogy, specifically on Mexican immigration and cultural divers I work with numerous people with connections to St. John’s all have wonderful things to say about SJC, so it is nice to reminisce with them. In other news, our daughter, Sofia, turned 10 this year and won top honors at the Nebraska Summer Music Olympics in piano, and her fourth-grade standardized testing demonstrated that her academic and scholastic skills are at an advanced high school level. We have a lot to be proud of in her, but mostly that she is a wonderful person. If anyone is in Nebraska and wants to meet at the Coffee House in Lincoln, drop me a line atyehkatah@yahoo.com.” M {The College. 5t. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } �{Alumni Notes} 40 Heidi Jacot (A) is starting Yale Divinity’s School’s Master of Arts in Religion program this fall. 1998 Alexandra D.E. Boozer (A) married Daniel Giguere of Windham, Maine, on September 19, 2004. She has even more news: “Last year I received my doctorate in clinical psychology from George Washington University, with a specialization in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. We are currently living in Holmes Beach, Fla., where I am working toward obtaining Florida psychology licensure. I would love to hear from any old friends or to link with other students/alumni with an interest in practicing psychology. I can be reached by email at: alexandra _FL@hotmail.com” writes Brendan Bullock (A). “Currently I’m putting work together for my first solo show at Santa Fe’s Price Dewey Gallery ATHY GarcIa (SF03) was pleased to be accepted in November. I’ve also launched to the Graduate School of Education and Infor­ my own Web site, which I hope mation Sciences at UCLA. This program will, people will visit: www.brendanat the end of two years, award her a master’s in bullock.com. I would love to education and full credentialing so that she will hear from any and all by e-mail. I be able to teach mathematics to high-schoolers can be contacted through my in L.A.’s inner city. (“In the city, city of Compton.”) If anyone Webtosite or at brendanbullock@ is strolling through Southern California, please feel free hotmail.com.” contact her at PHI_PI_E@hotmail.com. Straight Into Compton C her husband, Rob, are excited to announce the arrival of their hrst child, Evangeline Jane, on November 16 at 5:33 a.m. “At birth she weighed 7 pounds, 3.5 ounces, and was 19 inches long. Her name means ‘Good news, God is gracious,’ and that’s exactly how we feel about her; she is good news and God was so gracious to give us this precious baby. She really is the perfect baby. She has always slept for at least four hours straight at night, and she hardly ever fusses.” Lorna Johnson (SF) has recently started her own business in executive IT recruitment. She has also been accepted as an associate director at The Artistic Home, an equity theater in Chicago, and as a faculty member at the Artistic Home’s training studio, which teaches Meisner method acting to professional actors. She also recently became a member of the Board of Directors. Her husband, Aaron Johnson, continues to play piano and organ professionally. Nathan August Scheifer (SF) reports: “Computer engineering degree completed in December 2004; new house closed in April 3005; my son was born on June 3, 3005; and I passed the Patent Bar Exam on July 18, 3005.” Justin Kray (SF) writes: Jackie (Cavim) Travis (A) and 1999 HonorMoody (SF) writes, “I finally graduated from library school and am currently cataloging 17th-, i8th- and 19thcentury culinary works at the Schlesinger Library and looking for an archival processing gig.” 2000 John M Hunter (AGI) and his wife, Lisa, announce the birth of George Brooks Hunter on March 30, 3005. Baby Brooks joins his brother, Jeb, 18 months. Andre Rodriguez (SFGI) earned his law degree in May 3004. He became a licensed attorney in Texas in November 3004. He is currently teaching nth-grade U.S. history and coaching soccer while working part time as a lawyer. Flame Schoeder (SF) and Jeremiah Roper are intensely proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Sasha Ryan Roper. She was born on May 38, 3005, at 11:59 a ™., after 58 hours of labor. She weighed in at 6 pounds, 7.7 ounces, and was 30 inches long. Writes Flame, “She brings new meaning to the word ‘wonderful.’ ” “Shortly after arriving in Brooklyn, N.Y., it came to my attention that Mike DiMezza (SFGI98) was living in the neighborhood. Although reminiscing about books is great fun, the new bond between our lives has been restoring his beautiful brownstone and discussing urban planning. Thom Barry (SF03), a mutual friend of ours, is also an integral part of our new bond. Tom and I worked together doing carpentry in Marblehead, Mass,, and in exchange he introduced me to some great urban thinkers and new wave music. Now, I am in graduate school at the Pratt Institute for urban design while he has become a foreman in Northampton, Mass. Synergies abound!” Suzannah Simmons (SF) is entering her second year of law school at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, Fla., with an eye toward practicing real estate and animal law. “My best to SJC!” she writes. Patrick B. Reed (AGI) celebrated the birth of his first child, daughter Lucille (Lucy), on his 36th birthday in June. 2001 “Though I never attended the campus here, I ended up finding my way out to Santa Fe, where I’ve been working in the art world and pursuing my photog­ raphy for the past three years,” {The Colleges?. John's College ■ Fall 2005 } Floye Heather Wells (A) writes, “Just finished my master’s degree in ecology at Colorado State University in Fort Collins and got a job teach­ ing middle-school and high­ school science out on the plains of Colorado at the Prairie School. Drop me a line if you ever find yourself out this way: floyewells@yahoo.com �{Alumni Notes} What’s Keeping You? T here’s an online community waiting for you to join. About 2,300 alumni have registered to join the St. John’s College Online Community since the college launched the site last year. That leaves a lot of Johnnies out there who have yet to register and update their information (name, address. occupation, e-mail). Your information can only be viewed by other registered alumni, registration is fast and easy, and you can choose which information you want available for other alumni to view. To register, go to vww.stjohnscollege.edu and click on Alumni. Beyond the usual directory information, the site offers you a place to show off pictures, set up buddy lists for friends you frequently e-mail, and do some online networking. Later this fall, the college’s Career Services offices plan to begin building an online resource for career net­ working, connecting men­ tors, and posting resumes. Registered or not, alumni can use the site to learn about chapter happenings, college events, and St. John’s news. Questions or suggestions? Contact the Web master in Annapolis: victoria. smith@ sjca.edu. Classics in Santa Fe. It was Oedipal, except I wanted to kill my brothers and they wanted to sleep with the tutor. One brother, as well as Martha and Ray Wallace, asked about the lovely Ms. Schoux. Where are you Ms. Schoux? I spend my time between live/work offices in NYC’s Gramercy Park (where I lead a Johnnie-style great books group) and L.A.’s Hancock Park (where I lead a great films group-you have to go slow with Angelenos). I can be reached at Jim@Monk.com.” 2003 Meg Eisenhauer Barry and Thom Barry (both SF) are thrilled to welcome a daughter. Aviva Thomas Barry was born at home June 4 in Northampton, Mass. “We can be reached at m_eisenhauer@mac.com in case you find yourself in western Massachusetts!” infantry platoon leader,” writes Robert Morris (SF). “As an infantry officer, I am being afforded the opportunity to attend some additional schooling before I report to my unit. Right now I am in Ranger School. It is very challenging and extremely arduous. I am about to begin my third attempt to pass. The army has taught me a lot. The army’s lessons are not always fun, but they are lessons that I never would have learned from reading and reflection. Later this year I go to 2nd Brigade of the loth Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. I have a lot of difficult work ahead of me, but it ought to be rewarding in propor­ tion to the challenge.” Last summer Justine Stewart (SF) finished up a year in St. Cloud, Minn., where she has been working as an EKG technician. She was next off to California for a two-month stint as an outdoor instructor“leading groups of students on camping trips and living out of my car and a tent. I am nervous and very excited.” Rebecca A. Dwyer (SF) kept it Jim Crotty (SFGI), is still 2002 Amelia Adams (A) writes, “After returning from a year in Zambia working with an NGO on HIV prevention and treatment, I have started at the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.” John Cottrell (A) completed law school at the University of Richmond in December 2004 and passed the bar exam in April 2005. He is practicing law in Alexandria, Va. co-president of MONK, “the company I co-founded several kalpas ago with fellow “Monk,” Michael Lane, as the publishing arm of our travel quarterly Monk: The Mobile Magazine, www.Monk.com. MONK has since birthed several offspring, including seven-year-old Monk Media, www.MonkMedia.net, a cute and bubbly web and graphic design firm; four-year-old Monk Host, www.MonkHost.net, a hitech tomboy; and recent addition Monk TV, which produces and distributes the inflammatory Crotty Farm Report, www.crottyfarmreport.com, among other channels. This past July I attended a Freud seminar with my two older brothers at St. John’s Summer short: “I’m in China!” What’s Up? Michael Kopp (EC) and Jana Phillips (SFGI) were married May 22, 2005, in Sedona, Ariz. After teaching in France for a year, they are now living in Denver, where Michael edits children’s textbooks, and Jana is a prison librarian. Michael has also been accepted for graduate study in an English Ph.D. program to begin fall 2006. The College wants to hear from you. Call us, write us, e-mail us. Let your classmates know what you’re doing. The next issue will be published in January; deadline for the alumni notes section is November 30. Classnotes posted to the col­ lege’s online community will also be included in The College. In Annapolis: The College Magazine St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404; rosemary.harty@sjca.edu 2004 “Since graduation, I have been commissioned in the Army as a 2nd lieutenant and trained as an {The College -Sf. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } In Santa Fe: The College Magazine St. John’s College 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; alumni@sjcsf.edu �{AlumniProfile} Just a Good Ol’ Boy Chris Nelson, SFgg, Gives Dukes Fans the Scoop Wi Jason A. Bielagus, SF98 t sounds like a prank, but it’s the God-honest truth: Chris Nelson (SF99), entered a competition to become the vice president of the CMT Dukes of Hazzard Institute. To get the job, he had to demonstrate fanatical devotion to the 1980s televi­ sion series and draw up a marketing plan. (One idea: sponsor a General Lee dog sled in the Iditarod). He beat out 1,900 other applicants, debuting as the new VP at the DukesFest in Bristol, Tenn., last June. And-this is the part that really sounds made-up-he will earn $100,000 for a year of watching Dukes ofHazzard re-runs, writing a daily blog about the episodes, and making periodic public appearances in his official Dukes of Hazzard Institute orange blazer. The “Institute” is funded by CMT, a country-music cable television channel that airs reruns of the Dukes ofHazzard. For those who missed it the first time around, the show featured cousins Bo and Luke Duke driving down the dirt roads of Hazzard County in an orange ’69 Dodge Charger, the General Lee. Their fetching cousin, Daisy Duke, inspired a new fashion trend in her cutoff jeans, and bumbling sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane-firmly under the wing of corrupt Boss Hog-was regularly foiled by the clever Dukes. To promote the series and the network, CMT announced a nationwide search for a vice president. Nelson, an aspiring singer/songwriter who was then working as a part-time temp, caught an ad for the job on CMT and went after it wholeheart­ edly, creating a Web site outlining his campaign platform, sending telegrams to the network’s executives, and writing reams of Duke-inspired musings. In his application. Nelson wrote: “The Dukes ofHazzard is a wonderful program because it delivers comedy, action, and a Chris Nelson (SFgg) meets THE FAMOUS GENERAL LeE. I positive message wrapped up in lovable characters in a mythical place. It brings joy to people’s lives one hour at a time. It is my thought that the Dukes of Hazzard Institute should mirror the series in this way and strive to bring fun and enjoyment to the legions of fans all over the world and make some new ones in the process.” Nelson was one of three people chosen to be flown down to Nashville for intensive interviews, round-table discussions, oncamera interviews, and a photo shoot with the General Lee. As VP of the Dukes of Hazzard Institute, Nelson is tasked with watching the Dukes ofHazzard on CMT and summarizing each episode in his blog. In addition to publishing a blog. Nelson also makes media appearances promoting the institute. For one such appearance. Nelson appeared on the nationally broadcast Fox and Friends in the Morning. Nelson came on just after Ken Mehlman, chairman for the Republican National Committee, and just before singer Harry Connick, Jr. “That gives you an idea of where my celebrity is in the pecking order,” Nelson says. On a day free from media appearances. Nelson awakes in his Manhattan apartment sometime before noon. After having some {The College- St. John's College ■ Fall 2005 } Nescafe while reading the papers. Nelson does his calisthenics, then settles down to work on his blog. Next, he might give a few phone interviews and write treatments extolling the virtue of the Dukes. Evenings are free for socializing. Asked about the contribu­ tion that the Dukes have made to Western thought. Nelson offers, “Part of the reason why the show’s so popular, why it’s so great, is that you have muscle cars driving around on dirt roads crashing into each other, foxy ladies in skimpy outfits, lots of explosions, good fighting, great slapstick comedy, and justice delivered in just under an hour. That’s good, old-fashioned American escapism.” A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Nelson was “pretty directionless” after graduating from St. John’s. “I had heard some people were making money in this thing called ‘the Internet.’ So I moved to Austin, Texas, began selling bandwidth for an Internet company, and eventually ended up in investor relations.” After the tech bubble burst. Nelson spent many lost months in Mexico, Cuba, South America, and Colorado. The next few years found him working a string of jobs including hotel clerk, graphic designer, and food writer. Although his contract with CMT is only for a year. Nelson hopes his experience will open doors for him. “I’ve been talking a little bit about being the president of the My Two Dads Institute or the chief financial officer of the Starsky & Hutch Foundation,” he says, Lookfor Nelson’s blog at WWW. cmtdukesinstitute. com �{Obituaries} Santa Fe tutor Ralph SwENTZEL, CIRCA 1969. Rai,I’ll SwEMZELL, HA95 Santa Fe Tutor Retired Santa Fe tutor Ralph Swentzell died on June 16, 3005, following a lengthy strug­ gle with prostate cancer. Mr. Swentzell was born in East Paterson, N.J., and attended Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M., where he earned his degree in psychology in 1963. He joined the faculty in Santa Fe in 1966 and retired in 3003. He was one of the most innovative members of the faculty, having a profound impact on the laboratory and music tutorials, and contributing to an ongoing dialogue concerning the language tutorials. His extensive handwritten notes on all subjects of the laboratory, mathematics, and music tutorials were his means of making the subjects completely his own, including, for instance, a resolution of the rod-and-slot paradox of special relativity. He created a computer-based Chinese language lexicon for the college’s Eastern Classics program, and his computer modeling of non-Euclidean geometry yielded fascinating insights. He was also adept in class discussions. Above all, his persistent curiosity, spirit of inquiry, and good-willed enthusiasm inspired colleagues and students alike. A memorial service for Mr. Swentzell is planned for early fall in Santa Fe. The College will publish selections from the memorial service in an upcoming edition. John Sarkissian, HA03 Annapolis Tutor by Gerald Bunker John Ludwig Sarkissian, a long-time tutor at St. John’s College, died July ii, 3005, at his home in Annapolis. He was born in Chicago, eldest son of Eleisha and Araxie, both natives of Istanbul who fled the TurkishArmenian troubles. In 1939, he began his studies in biology at the University of Chicago, hut left the uni­ versity in 1943 to enlist in the Army. For the rest of his life he delighted in regaling his friends and family with war stories, which may have improved in the retelling. Some facts are that he initially trained at Princeton as a military administrator in Italy. After the fall of Italy, he shipped out to the Pacific as an intelligence operative, was stationed in New Guinea, and was part of the retaking of Manila. Resuming his academic career, he received his B.S. from the University of Illinois in 1946 and his M.A. in 1948, He was an instructor in biological and physical sciences at the University of Chicago, the Pestalozzi-Froebel Teachers College, the University of Indiana, and the University of Illinois. The high point of his career as a research biologist came when he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the Institute of Human Heredity at the University of Bologna, Italy. In 1963, he came to St. John’s, where he established a sophomore program that taught biological evolution through dissection. Mr. Sarkissian was an ardent traveler and naturalist. To the end of his life he remained a voracious reader. After his retirement in 1984 he kept active in all his favorite activi­ ties, becoming a docent at the Smithsonian Institution and a lifelong student of world history, Russian, French, Greek, and Latin. He is survived by a daughter, Julia Oaten; his former wife, Flor Bunker; and a brother, Vincent. Jerome LaPides, HA91 Board of Visitors and Governors Jerome LaPides, who served on the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors for nearly two decades, died on May ii, 3005, at his home in Santa Fe. As a board member from 1973-1991, LaPides was a generous supporter of the college, having {The College. St. /oZira’5 College ■ Fall 2005 } 43 established with his father, Joseph, the LaPides Scholarship Fund in 1979. He also played a key role in overseeing construction of Santa Fe’s Meem Library. Born in Baltimore, Mr. LaPides graduated from the Naval Academy in 1951 and later served as an Air Force captain stationed in Japan. In 1956 he entered the corporate world, joining the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company in Baltimore and opening the company’s Annapolis location. His extensive community service included serving on the board of the Anne Arundel Medical Center, and as a trustee of Key School and Severn School. He was president of the LaPides Foundation, which has supported many different causes over the years, including animal welfare, community development, environment and conservation, fine arts, higher education, women’s issues, and child welfare. In 1988, Mr. LaPides retired as the president and owner of Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company in Annapolis. After moving to New Mexico, he and his wife. Allene, opened the LaPides Gallery. In addition to his wife, his survivors include his son, John M. LaPides; his daughters Ann L. Misenheimer and Jane R. LaPides; and five grandchildren. Admiral James Stockdale Board of Visitors and Governors Retired Vice Admiral James Stockdale, who died in July at his home in California, served on the college’s Board of Visitors and Governors from 1981 to 1987. Admiral Stockdale, a Navy pilot who endured seven years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, became one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the Navy. He received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest tribute for valor in action. Admiral Stockdale was born in Illinois and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1947. The Navy sent him to Stanford University for a master’s degree, and there he became enamored of the Greek stoic philosophers. Admiral Stockdale served on the USS Oriskany and flew 301 missions before he was shot down in September 1965. Shackled in leg irons for two years, and in solitary confinement for four, he endured torture and degradation at the Hoa Lo Prison, but would not give in to his captors. continued on nextpage �44 continuedfromp. 40 Admiral Stockdale and his fellow prisoners were freed in 1973. He served as president of the Naval War College, where he also taught philosophy and developed an ethics course, and later was president of The Citadel in South Carolina. In 1981, he joined the Hoover Institution, where he was a senior research fellow. Erik S. Kristensen, AGI99 Navy Seal by Andrew Ranson, AGIoo Erik Kristensen, 33, a lieutenant command­ er in the Navy SEALs, died June 18, 2005, in Afghanistan. He was leading a rescue mission when his Chinook helicopter was shot down by Afghan insurgents. Erik and I were fast friends the minute we met as classmates in the Graduate Institute in January 2000.1 had just moved to Annapolis from San Diego; Erik, a 1995 graduate of the Naval Academy, had lived there off and on for years and was teaching English at the academy. We spent hours upon hours talking about everything we could think of that winter, and during the spring, our conversations continued as we played Frisbee on front campus. Erik lived the examined life that Socrates spoke of; he was the best example of self-reflection I’ve known. Now that he’s gone, those of us who were close to him have been examining our own lives, noting how he influenced us. He had many gifts; he was a terrific writer and had a fantastic sense of humor. Always the life of the party, Erik stuffed a centerpiece into his shirt pocket and then hammed it up for the camera at my wedding. He was smart and creative, laid-back and intense, curious and fearless. Since he had grown up a Navy brat and lived all over the world, he was great at staying in touch with people over great distances and long stretches of time. He had a keen appreciation for the little things in Ufe: the perfect fish taco, good music from all genres, a well-made movie. He was a wonderful listener, making you feel that what you said really mattered. Erik rarely complained about anything; he seemed to see the bright side of life at every moment. One of his most endearing qualities was that he was such a dependable and supportive friend. His generosity, selflessness, and compassion for others were unparalleled. {Obituaries} Erik was sent to SEAL training midway through his studies and had planned to return in a few years, when his Navy commitment was finished. He loved the contemplative life and discussing the Program so much, I had difficulty under­ standing how he could join a Special Forces team where action and danger dominated over contemplation. I realized only after he died that he truly believed that his duty was ''Those who delivered his eulogies spoke ofhis insatiable thirstfor life, his compassion, and his desire to connect with those he loved. Andrew Ranson (AGIoo) to make sure that in potentially volatile situations, there was someone in a position to make decisions who had contemplated the larger truths in life. He knew that others depended on him for just this. At his funeral, more than 2,000 friends and family members filled the Naval Academy Chapel. Those who delivered his eulogies spoke of his insatiable thirst for life, his compassion, and his desire to connect with those he loved. He was laid to rest with full honors on Hospital Point at the Naval Academy. Since Socrates often came up in our conversations, I thought it fitting that this passage from The Republic leapt off the page at me recently. I picked the book up, think­ ing of Erik and how our friendship was cemented over discussions of it. Erik would blush at being compared to Socrates’ description of a philosopher, but I think those who knew Erik will find it quite appro­ priate. Socrates asks Glaucon, “But the one who is willing to taste every kind of learning with gusto, and who approaches learning with delight, and is insatiable, we shall justly assert to be a philosopher, won’t we?” (475d). Farewell to a great man, a true Johnnie, and a wonderful friend. {The College. 5f. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } John David Hindle-Hardt AGI96 A generous nature and giving spirit is reflected in an essay John David HindleHardt (AGI96) wrote on hospitality: “The Greek word Philoxenia means love of strangers. We are apt to forget in our culture that hospitality is not something we extend to friends or neighbors, but rather to the stranger, the outcast.. .The Latin word (hospes, hospitis) specifies the particular shape this love takes: the offering of a place to those who have none. . .” Mr. Hindle-Hardt, who was killed in an automobile accident on September 9, 2004, in Portland, Maine, had dedicated much of his life to helping those who might be considered outcasts of society. He believed that all people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and this shone through in his life’s work and in his friendships. At the time of his death, he was employed by Creative Work Systems, an organization that sought to enable persons with cogni­ tive, physical, and psychiatric handicaps to gain self-sufficiency. Prior to working in Maine, Mr. Hindle-Hardt had worked as a volunteer for a residential community for the handicapped in Toronto. For three years, he was residential director of a men’s home in Richmond, Va. In addition to working as a teacher for several years, he also tutored Asian immigrants at a refugee and resettlement center and taught adults how to read in Annapolis. In these settings, “his compassion and kindness and giving nature found true expression,” according to his friend Joel Werkema. Those who knew him describe Mr. HindleHardt as someone with a great sense of humor and a serious purpose in fife. “When you were with him, he made you feel as though you were the center of attention,” said Paula Swann (AGI97). “And if he wasn’t making you laugh, he would involve you in deep and meaningful conversations about academics, friendship, and life.” “It was common knowledge that amidst all of J.D.’s hilarious stories and jokes there would be these sensitive and supportive words of encouragement right when someone needed them most,” said Jennifer Stanbro (AGI96). Hardt is survived by his mother, Martha Hindle-Hardt Rice; his stepfather, Donald N. Rice; and his sister, Meg Hardt. �{Obituaries} Tevtna Benedict, SF73 Tevina Benedict, 54, was killed in a fall on May 7, aoof), while hiking on the Oregon coast. Born Decemher a, 1950, in Chicago, Ill., she became a passionate advocate for social justice after graduating from St. John’s. She worked on the New Mexico Review and participated in the founding of La Clinica de la Gente. After moving to Portland in 1980, Ms. Benedict served on the staff of the Governor’s Commission of the Uninsured, on the board of Neighborcare Health Clinic, and for Oregon Health Decisions. She staffed the group that created the first Oregon Advance Directive/living will. After moving to Eugene in 1989 she worked at the Oregon Department of Health Policy and with the Oregon Health Action Campaign to support and expand the found­ ing of what is now the Oregon Health Plan. She later earned a master’s degree in public health policy from the University of Oregon. Her survivors include her husband, Dave Barta, and daughter. Erica Benedict-Barta. 45 Ellen Becker, SFGI87 Ellen “Ellie” Becker died at her home in Santa Fe on June ii, 2005, at age 54, from cancer. She leaves behind her husband, Ron Hale, former director of Career Planning and part-time tutor on the Santa Fe cam­ pus; sons Jesse, 27, and Luke, 24; and two grandchildren. Ms. Becker worked as an editor, journalist, and writer, including stints at Mothering Magazine, the Museum of New Mexico, and at newspapers in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. In addition to her master’s degree from St. John’s, she had received a bachelor’s degree from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt. internship and residency in internal medicine at Union Memorial Hospital. From 1966 to 1968, he served in the Navy. He joined Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis in 1970 and maintained a private practice. “He was one of the most eminent cardiol­ ogists in the area, a Vietnam war veteran, and a wonderful person all around,” said Annapolis tutor Tom May. Dr. Brimhall is survived by his wife, two children, and two grandchildren. Also noted: Robert Gamble, AGI97, April 2005 Rodney Brimhall, AGI89 William C. Hill, class of 1946, December Dr. Rodney Lee Brimhall, an internist and director of a cardiac rehabilitation program at, died July 30 in Annapolis. He was 69. In the midst of his successful medical career. Dr. Brimhall enrolled in the Graduate Institute program at St. John’s. Dr. Brimhall was born and raised in Jacksonville, Fla. He earned his medical degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine and completed an 2004 George Lyon, Jr. class of 1940, January 2005 Robert Scott Massey, SF70, July 2004 Henry Clay Smith, class of 1934, July 15, 2005 John B. Traci y III, A83, May 2005 A Poem for Michael Slakey An obituary for Michael Slakey (A85), who died of cancer earlier this year in France, ran in the Spring 2005 edition of The College magazine. We add this remembrance of Mr. Slakey, taken from the many tributes from the classmates who spoke at a memorial service for him earlier this year. It was written by Eric Vesper (A86). The Old Rooms — For Fred and Lesley Israel When Slakey and I correspond in the high language, I address him as S. Croft and he calls me Leopold. Shut off from one another like rooms, passing letters as if through cracks under doors - we take them like wafers, transubstantiate tokens of the land near St. Michael’s where we learned to laugh at ourselves. Once I found Slakey in town Michael Slakey with his CHILDREN slowly rising to meet the swift tide. Perhaps the fabric of old novels weaves into the present in ways we don’t see yet, asleep in a graveyard on the long stone of S. Croft Register. We know a priest who hunts. He curses us for driving in the fields because geese won’t land when they see signs of humans. It is easier to ignore the clergy, for geese and humans, when they don’t have guns. the turn of the binding opening a place where we see ourselves folded into the page. We no longer have need of prophecy. We have given names to the friends in our story, poured late libations on still embers and watched the sun rise through the shelves By day, we plug our ears with electric guitars. At night we open them to the music in the fire, the slow burn a symphony {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } of old rooms where we rest, where even dust, floating in the light, or pulled into corners, proves forces are at work against us. �46 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Dear Alumni, As a student, I didn’t want to be bothered with the administrative life of the college. I cared whether tutors were focused on their work, facili­ ties were clean and safe, lab equipment maintained, and food and mail were delivered on time. Like most adolescents, I missed the connections between these concerns and the focus on truth and beauty that filled my time with friends and books in conversation. My mother’s checkbook and the college’s income statement seemed irrelevant then. Today I understand-for myself and my clients-how administrative decisions directly affect real experience every day. Today, alumni are engaged in all facets of the administrative life of the college. Chris Nelson (SF70) is president of the Annapolis campus. Both deans are alumni: Michael Dink (A75) in Annapolis and David Levine (A67) in Santa Fe. Each of these alumni and many other faculty and staff have committed their professional lives to the college’s academic and institu­ tional well-being. CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowforinformation about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-275-9012 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin Gammon 410-280-0958 BOSTON Diane Cowan 617-666-4381 dianecowan@rcn.com AUSTIN John Strange 210-392-5506 Bev Angel 512-926-7808 CHICAGO Rick Lightburn lightburn@ earthlink.net Others integrate concerns for the col­ lege with their diverse professional and personal lives as volunteers in a variety of college programs. Philanthropia is an all­ alumni organization that supports the fund-raising activities of the college. The Alumni Association Board of Directors, though an independently chartered organi­ zation, works with the college to connect more alumni, more often, and more richly. Local Alumni Association chapters, hosts for prospective receptions, active network­ ers, and class leaders for homecomings and special events-all make significant contri­ butions of time and attention to be sure the college is well cared for and healthy. Another important role for alumni in the college is on the Board of Visitors and Governors (BVG). This body is responsible for governance and oversight of all aspects of the college. As you can imagine, alumni are engaged in many ways in leadership of this body. The chair of the board is an alumna, Sharon Bishop (A65). Of the total 60 members of the BVG, currently 36 are alumni of the graduate or undergraduate programs, and seven are honorary alumni who have been recognized by the Alumni Association for their contributions to the St. John’s community. Nine of these BVG members are nominated and elected by the Alumni Association to serve as contributing participants in decisions that affect the good of the college and its broader community of alumni. In July, three new Alumni Association members joined the board. Michael MacDonald (SF76) has a professional life in the record production DALLAS/FORT WORTH Suzanne Lexy Bartlette 817-721-9112 DENVER/BOULDER Lee Katherine Goldstein 720-746-1496 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 business. He lives in New York City. Sanjay Poovadan (SF83) lives in El Prado, N. M., where he farms and maintains a business consulting practice. Joel Ard (Ag5) is an attorney in Washington, D.C. These three join Susan Allen (SFGI89), Robert Bienenfeld (SF80), Evan Dudik (A72), Bill Fant (A7g), Thomas Stern (SF68), and Steve Thomas (SF74) as Alumni Association representatives to the Board of Visitors and Governors. Our thanks to each of them and thanks to all alumni who commit portions of their busy lives to build and maintain the institutional strength of St. John’s College. If you are interested in exploring ways you can be more involved, please contact me (geoyang@hsdinstitute.org or 763-7837206) or Annapolis alumni director Jo Ann Mattson (jamattson@sjca.edu, or 410-2956ga6). Don’t forget the wonderful online com­ munity that keeps you in touch with the college and with alumni around the globe. As of today, 2,295 alumni have joined the community. That is almost a third of our goal-the 9,000 alumni of St. John’s College. To register, to encourage others, or to use the community to contact your friends, go to; www.stjohnscollege.edu and click on Alumni. I look forward to seeing you online or at our next homecoming celebration! Sincerely, Glenda H. Eoyang (SF76) President St. John’s College Alumni Association NEW YORK Daniel Van Doren 914-949-6811 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 NORTHERN CALIF. Deborah Farrell 415-731-8804 SANTA FE Richard Cowles 505-986-1814 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 5^15-465-0^44 SEATTLE Amina Brandt 206-465^781 PITTSBURGH Joanne Murray 724-325-4151 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 PORTLAND Lake Perriguey lake@law-works .com {The College -Sf. John’s College ■ Fall aooj } TRIANGLE CIRCLE (NC) Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 WASHINGTON, D.C. Deborah Papier 202-387-4520 drpapier® starpower.net WESTERN NEW ENGLAND Julia Ward 413-648-0064 �{Alumni Association News} In South Florida, a Multicultural Group Savors Conversation A certain half-truth makes it easy for Pedro J. Mar­ tinez-Fraga (A84) to get a table at a favorite Miami restaurant. “If I call and use the name Pedro Mar­ tinez, they think it’s the pro baseball player, and I always get a table,’” he says. But a thirst for deep­ er truths inspired Mar­ tinez-Fraga, a partner with an international law firm, to form the South Florida alumni group last year. The South Florida group is one of several informal groups around the country bringing Johnnies together for sem­ inars and social gather­ ings. Some just want to keep the conversations going; others hope to eventually form an official Alumni Association chapter. A little more than a year ago, Pittsburgh Johnnies gained their charter as an official chapter. In Miami, the group has been united by its “collective love of conversation,” says Martinez-Fraga. Jon Sackson (A69) co­ founded the group and helps coordinate events, which so far have focused on revisit­ ing Program books. At one of their meetings last spring, Annapolis tutor Nick Maistrellis and his wife, Judy (A71), joined the chapter for a seminar on the last four books of Plato’s Republic. “We savor the process of getting together, talking, laughing, and sharing a time and space where our only concerns are limited to questioning and discussing those issues that have long fascinated the authors of the great and greatest books written in our Western tradition,” says Martinez-Fraga. He describes the group as a “vivid multi­ cultural, professional tapestry” including lawyers, bankers, teachers, an architect, and a self-employed information processor. Some travel from as far as 50 miles away to attend gatherings. The group votes on what to read, when to meet, which tutors to invite to visit.“That the books can bring us together despite the assaults of everyday life, domestic demands, professional 47 ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION All alumni have automatic membership in the St. John’s College Alumni Association. The Alumni Association is an independent organization, with a Board of Directors elect­ ed by and from the alumni body. The board meets four times a year, twice on each campus, to plan programs and coordinate the affairs of the association. This newsletter within The College magazine is sponsored by the Alumni Association and communicates association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary -Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team Chair- Linda Stabler-Talty, SFGI76 Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, P.O Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404, or tt6o Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. The Miami alumni reading Group stemmed FROM Pedro Martinez-Fraga’s Dedication TO St. John’s. exigencies, and personal preferences, in itself is a source of marvelous wonder,” says Martinez-Fraga. These Johnnies’ devotion to the college extends to the famous St. John’s seminar chair. At their initiative, the bookstore in Annapolis worked with the chair’s manufac­ turer, E.A. Clore and Sons, to make a chair with the St. John’s logo available for pur­ chase. “Like the Johnnies themselves, these chairs are so similar, yet so individual and unique,” Martinez-Fraga says. Here’s a look at two other alumni reading groups and what brings them together: Western New England Peter Weis (SF84), a librarian at Northfield Mount Hermon School, hosts conversations at a seminar-style table in his home in Montague, Mass.: “We’re low key, yet serious at the same time. We meet on Sunday afternoons every two months. There has always been convivi­ ality and food but we focus on the discus­ sion. Speaking for myself, it’s nice to get together for a serious conversation about what on the surface is a neutral topic, not {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall aooj } politics, not current events. When we dis­ cussed the Constitution it was amazing how long the conversations stayed away from current events-it was really about the document. We don’t stick exclusively to Program readings. The first seminar, about two years ago, was on Flannery O’Connor.” Salt Lake City Erin Hanlon (SF03), a graduate student in biology at the University of Utah, launched the Salt Lake City alumni group last year: “I formed the alumni group because I really missed St. John’s and my fellow John­ nies. It was a year since I had graduated and I had just started graduate school at a large research university. The difference between the university and St. John’s was so great that I felt a great deal of culture shock. I missed being more active about my educa­ tion. . .Our first seminar was on Martin Luther Kings Jr.’s birthday, and so we read King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Some­ thing in that made us think of the funeral oration of Pericles. From there we went to Job, then the Myth ofSisyphus by Camus. Our next seminar is going to be on The Dream ofa Ridiculous Man by Dostoevski. Occasionally the readings and seminars are more social. Robert Sacks led our last seminar and his visit inspired a bit more socializing. �48 {St. John’sForever} Room for Improvement he college issues no formal grade report today (students can ask the Registrar for their grades), but in 1873, the parents of prep students at St. John’s received a bi-monthly grade report. This featured a “Scale of Merit as applied to Conduct and Studies” that started with “excellent” (5) and went to “blameworthy” (o). On the back was this printed exhortation from James M. Gar­ nett, principal; “I beg leave to call attention to the accompany­ ing Tabular Statement, in which you will find a Report of the sev­ eral studies pursued by your Son (or Ward) during the last two months in this institution and also of his proficiency and stand­ ing in each separate study. The Scale of Merit explains the nota­ tion employed. All marks falling below 21/2 are meant to signify that his deficiency is so serious as to call for animadversion, deserving to be more or less emphatic in proportion as his grade approximates more or less nearly to o.” Grades were earned through a student’s “daily recitations” along with written examinations held at the end of the term. A student whose recitations and examinations “evince an inca­ pacity on his part” to pursue the studies of his class could face being knocked back a grade. This report issued to Hopewell H. Bar­ roll of the second prep class on April 26, 1873, shows good grades for arithmetic, history, English grammar, and modern geography. Garnett added a personal remark: “Doing well, but room for improvement in Latin.” It’s possible that T Barroll-later to become a prominent Chestertown, M<L, lawyer-received a similar report for his son, L. Wethered Barroll, a member of the class of 1907. Garnett was president of St. John’s from 1870-1880; he later went on to become a professor at the University of Virginia. {The College- St. John’s College . Fall 2005 } H.H. Barroll’s report card shows no “Blameworthy” grade. �{Alumni Events Calendar} Windy City Shindig umni in Philadelphia, Boston, and San Francisco have had the opportunity to attend a special alumni gathering featuring Christopher Nelson, president of the Annapolis campus, and Michael Peters, president in Santa Fe. Now it’s Chicago’s turn. Chicago-area alumni are invited to the “Evening of Conversation” on Tuesday, Nov. 15, at the Standard Cluh, 320 South Plymouth Court. The event has a simple format: socializing begins at 6 p.m. with beer, wine, and hors d’oeuvres. At 7:15, i the presidents provide an overview of the 9 college’s academic and financial status, talk about plans for the future Capital Campaign at the college, answer questions, and visit with alumni. The event ends at about 9 p.m., but Johnnies have been known to gather in small groups and keep the conversation going. The event is free of charge. For more information, or to RSVP, call Gina Lee in the Annapolis Advancement office at 410-295-5557 or e-mail gina.lee@sjca.edu. More events are planned in other for 2006. Matthew Reiter (sFoa) and Katherine Greco (sFoa) were among THE ALUMNI WHO TURNED OUT FOR A GATHERING IN PHILADELPHIA. Santa Fe Summer Alumni Week July aoo6 Santa Fe Homecoming Julya8-3O, aoo6 nd Homecoming in Santa Fe. This year, a special dinner for all alumni, part of the college’s upcoming Capital Campaign, launches the weekend, with picnics, seminars, and parties continuing through the weekend. Annapolis Homecoming Sept. 29-Oct.i, 2006. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2005 } For information on events, contact: Jo Ann Mattson Office of Alumni Activities, Annapolis 410-626-2531 alumni@sjca.edu Marnelli Hamilton Office of Alumni and Parent Activities, Santa Fe 505-984-6103 alumni@sicsf.edu �Periodicals SIJOHN’S COLLEGE Postage Paid ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE Published by the Communications Office P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, Maryland 21404 address service requested »»«»«*»»»«»» DI GIT Q7529 S2SO Pl 15976 ANNl MS. AMV MCCOHHELL FBftHKLlH HC 74 BOX 24512 BL PBftBO HM 87529-9540 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The College </em>(2001-2017) Description An account of the resource The St. John's College Communications Office published <em>The College </em>magazine for alumni.  It began publication in 2001, continuing the <em>St. John's Reporter</em>, and ceased with the Fall 2017 issue.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The College" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=56">Items in The College (2001-2017) Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context thecollege2001 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The College, Fall 2005 Description An account of the resource Volume 31, Issue 3 of The College Magazine. Published in Fall 2005. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-09 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 31, Issue Fall 2005 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Harty, Rosemary (editor) Dempsey, Patricia Hartnett, John Behrens, Jennifer Bielagus, Jason Goyette, Barbara Maguran, Andra Mattson, Jo Ann Naone, Erica Vega, Libby White, Roseanna Johnson, David Pattenroth, Kim Marmion, Simon Sullivan, Ezra Stone, Donald Eoyang, Glenda H. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/107a2859a60bb352dcd9e70f7626062b.pdf 3b0fbf46c49d5777e79fd74606df5b96 PDF Text Text The St. John’s ^EGE • SUMMER Annapolis • Santa Fe Dostoevsky Experiences with Crime and Punishment 2OOa �On Dostoevsky yodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky ’s own life had all the elements Fof a complex psychological novel. Born in 1821, Dostoevsky spent his childhood in Moscow. His early years were defined by the opposing personalities of his parents: the gentle mother who bore seven children; the cruel, repressive father-a physi­ Dostoevsky was educated at home and at a private school. After the death of his cian who was likely murdered by his own serfs during a quarrel. parents, undoubtedly following his rational side and the guidance of his elders, Dos­ Both died by Dostoevsky’s i8th birthday. toevsky studied military engineering at a St. Petersburg college. However, by the time he wa.s in his mid-2os, he had resigned his commission to write novels, the first two of which were Poor Folk (a success) and Fhe Double (panned by the critics). In 1846, Dostoevsky joined a secret utopian society. The socialistic tenden­ cies of the secret group were not favored by the government, and Dostoevsky was arrested on April 23,1849 as he read a tract in public. Although Dostoevsky was sentenced to death, the emperor ordered a reprieve of the sentence. Dosto­ evsky wasn’t informed until moments before his scheduled death, after he and two others had been tied to posts in the prison yard. He served four years of hard labor at a prison in Omask, Siberia, before being exiled “into the ranks” as a common soldier. In the solitude of prison, in the suffering of his body and soul, Dostoevsky began the self-examination that led to his spiritual awakening. He still professed unbelief, yet, as he wrote in a letter from prison, “Sometimes God sends me moments in which I am utterly at peace.” After the stint in prison and the army, Dostoevsky returned to St. Petersburg. He wrote The ImuliedandIrijuredXri&et^ on his experiences, but the book was so unpopular he felt compelled to defend his ideas in a public letter. When he was 36, the struggling writer married Maria Isaev. He worked as the editor of a publication called Time which was shut down because of its political reporting. Personal crises culminated with the death of his wife and brother in 1865. In his middle years, Dostoevsky suffered from frequent epileptic seizures and spent most of his time in dire poverty which he made worse through obsessive gam­ bling. He wrote Notesfrom Underground, Crime and Punisliineru, and The Idiot within a five-year period during this turbulent time. With his second wife, the young stenographer Anna Grigorievna, he began to lead a more stable existence, finally settling in a small provincial town after several years of travel. Proceeds from The Possessed enabled them to buy a house. There he worked on his final book. The Brothers Karamozov, and enjoyed a measure of public admiration. Dostoevsky’s later books were serialized, making him something of a cult figure with his deeply spiritual voice and commentaries on the state of Russian society. Dostoevsky’s novels are marked by the dichotomies he himself experienced: gen­ tleness and cruelty, faith and unbelief, sin and redemption, suffering and love. He knew criminals well and had ample opportunity to reflect on their sensibilities. He had strong political opinions (socialist in his youth, much more conservative later in life) and explored the social implications of evil and sin in his novels. In this issue of The College, we look at some views on crime and punishment formed, like Dostoevsky’s, on the anvil of experience. SC STJOHN’S College ANNAPOLIS . SANTA FE The College (usps 018-750) is published four times a year by St. John’s College, Annapolis, md and Santa Fe, nm. Known office of publication: Communications Office St. John’s College Box 3800 Annapolis, md 21404-2800 Periodicals postage paid at Annapolis, md postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Communications Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, md 21404-2800. Annapolis 410-295-5554 b-goyette@sjca.edu Barbara Goyette, editor Sus3an Borden, managing editor Susanne Ducker, art director Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 classics@mail.sjcsf.edu Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board Alexis Brown Grant Franks David Levine Margaret Odell John Rankin Ginger Roherty Tahmina Shalizi Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} PAGE ZO DEPARTMENTS Grime and Punishment a FROM THE BELL TOWERS • • • • • • • Five Johnnies-two lawyers, a judge, a probation officer and a prison librariandiscuss the reality behind the drama of criminal justice. PAGE l6 Commencement 2002 24 BIBLIOFILE A review of Charles Nelson’s book on Barr and Buchanan A military historian and a novelist known for literary experimentation sent surprisingly close messages to graduates in Annapolis and Santa Fe. PAGE The New Program seal Ancient philosophy in Seattle SJC as international model News about tutors and students Homecoming in Annapolis Santa Fe’s fundraising triumph Letters 26 THE PROGRAM Alumni in the corporate world debate how math is taught at SJC. 20 29 ALUMNI NOTES Remembrances Pranks Past oe ALUMNI PROFILES 32 Holly Miller (SFGIoi) writes for Laura Bush. A short history of senior prank. PAGE 22 PAGE 16 34 Nathan Wilson (AGIoi) parodies apocalyptic novels. 41 OBITUARIES A Buddhist in THE Bookstore 42 CAMPUS LIFE Johnnies reclaim croquet superiority. Santa Fe bookstore manager Andrea d’Amato brings an awareness of Eastern thought to her job and her life. 44 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS • • Minneapolis/ St. Paul tackles tragedy Election Notices 48 ST. JOHN’S FOREVER PAGE ao ON THE COVER Dostoevsky Illustration by DavidJohnson �2. {From the Bell Towers} On Liberalism and Liberos Stringfellow Barr, one of the New Program founders andpresident of the collegefrom 193'2 to 1947, delivered a series of radio talks on WFBR in Baltimore. Here are excerpts of the talk he delivered on June 20, 1938, in which he tells the story behind the ''books and balance ” seal that had come to symbol­ ize the program. Editor's note: Today we use inclusive language to translate the motto: "I makefree adultsfrom children by means of books and a balance. ” confronted with a worldwide decline of liberalism. ...Since the New Program is an effort to restore liberal arts edu­ cation in American colleges, I should like to speak this evening about liberalism and what it means to those of us who are still will­ ing to fight for it. Like most liberals today, I am disturbed by the rise in many parts of the world of government by violence as a substitute for government by reason and consent. But unlike most liberals I know, I am much less disturbed by the overthrow of free govern­ ment in states that were once democratic than I am by the con­ fusing of the liberal mind in states like ours which are still tech­ nically free. You may argue that confusion in the liberal mind disturbs me because I know that such confusion is normally fol­ lowed by the overthrow of free government. I agree that this is what normally happens; but even if you could assure me that “it can’t happen here,” I should still be disturbed by the present state of liberalism. Because I agree with those who founded our Republic that what they and we have called free institutions cannot alone and of themselves make men truly free. Free insti­ tutions are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. The end is the freedom of individual men and women... Is ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY STILL RELEVANT? The original art for the books and balance seal, used until 1997, WAS HAND DRAWN. ThE LaTIN PUN WAS WRITTEN BY A FRIEND OF BaRR’s. The other day an interesting and curious gift arrived at St. John’s College. It was a design in the form of a circular seal, and it was the work of a Harvard man who admires the educational program which this College has undertaken and who chose to express his admiration by designing this symbolic seal. In the center of the seal is a pair of scales, or balances. Around it in a circle are placed seven open books, representing the seven liber­ al arts. And around the open volumes is lettered the motto, “Facio Liberos ex Liberis Libris Libraque.” I suppose the motto may be fairly translated; “I make free men out of boys by means of books and balances.” The punning on the stem of the Latin word for free is a serviceable pun now that liberal education is {The College. Is ancient philosophy stiU rele­ vant? Such was the theme that faculty professors, students, and guest lecturers were invited to address at Seattle University’s 7th Annual Philosophy Confer­ ence held on May 17. Among the visiting lecturers was St. John’s tutor Joe Sachs (A68). I think most of The College readers would agree, the answer to the theme question is a resounding Yes! The distin­ guished panel at the conference shared this opinion and sup­ ported it with readings from their essays. The readings cov­ ered topics inspired by the works of Hegel, Aristotle, Plato, Husserl, Nietzsche, and Diogenes. In his essay “Wholes and Parts in Human Nature,” Joe Sachs tackled the tough ques­ tions of Who are you? and What are you? Drawing on the tradi­ tion of thought established by 5t. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } Plato, Aristotle, and Hume, Mr. Sachs put forward the thesis that our characters are indeed composed of the parts known as Reason and Passion, but added that there is an equally impor­ tant third part. Spirit, which employs Reason and Passion and creates a whole from the triumvirate. Aristotle gave us the analogy of a syllable in the Nicomachean Ethics to illustrate the notion of a whole composed of inseparable parts. A syllable is visually composed of separate letters but is considered a whole when spoken. Take the first syllable of the word “mem­ ory,” for example. If you sound it out slowly you’ll hear that the continuity of sound requires that each utterance be shaped by the following letter. Sound­ ing out each letter individually does not a syllable make. In this way the syllable is a whole com­ posed of parts that are harmo­ niously united. Mr. Sachs drew on this analo­ gy to talk about the soul as being composed of universal Reason, generic Passions, and distinctive Spirit. In a harmo­ nious unity of parts, the Spirit interacts with the Passions as an impetus to action and uses �{From the Bell Towers} 3 St. John’s Education A Model for Myanmar Seattle University professors Corinne Painter, Bort Hopkins, AND Christian Lotz discuss Ancient Philosophy with Annapolis TUTOR Joe Sachs (center). Reason as a guide for action. The Spirit, then, is the source of practical judgment in our daily affairs. Greatness of soul, brought about by the Spirit’s dialectic movement in which it first attains, then disdains, the rewards of virtue and honor, becomes the distinctive differ­ ence that leads to a correct sense of one’s own self-worth, right action, and a happy life. Readings from other visiting lecturers and Seattle University professors and students were similarly interesting and informative. For instance. Vil­ lanova University professor Walter Brogan examined the kinship between practical and theoretical philosophy as illus­ trated with Aristotle’s notion of friendship. Seattle University was well represented by several professors from its Philosophy department. Licia Carlson pre­ sented a holistic picture of ancient Greek music, and con­ cluded with the discovery that philosophy is a form of music in itself. Christian Lotz, also a professor at Seattle University, simultaneously entertained and informed with his power­ point presentation on the important example of Dio­ genes, who practiced philoso­ phy in a wholly public life (eating, sleeping, and philoso­ phizing in the marketplace) instead of exclusive institutions and academies. With these and other fine expositions, the 7th Annual Philosophy Conference was considered a success by its organizers and attendees. Several St. John’s alumni were in attendance to hear Mr. Sachs speak, including Bill Boon (A80), Diana Klatt (A89), and Nina Tosti (A89). The Philoso­ phy Club at Seattle University organized this annual confer­ ence to give students and pro­ fessors the opportunity to pres­ ent their work to an audience of colleagues, peers, and the general public. —wthMinh. Stickford (SFoi) Educators from Myanmar (for­ merly knovra as Burma) visited the Annapolis campus last spring, attending sophomore seminars on Macbeth and Descartes’s Discourse on Method, freshman lab, junior mathematics tutorials, a senior language tutorial on Flannery O’Connor, and a senior oral. “I was asked to help them understand how we teach and learn together at St. John’s,” says tutor John Verdi, who organized their visit at the col­ lege. “They are especially interested in how tutors help each other to become better teachers of discussion classes, and how students learn to sup­ port their positions with rea­ soned arguments.” The visit was coordinated by Dorothy Guyot, a former tutor who is currently working with Burmese educators through a non-profit organization, the Myanmar Foundation for Ana­ lytic Education. Myanmar became isolated from the outside world in 196a, when its military gov­ ernment shut off most exchange in commerce, the arts, and education. New books are scarce and those that arrive are photocopied; Burmese visitors Khin Maung Win and Khin Ma Ma {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } most academics have not been able to receive journals for a long time. The country has begun to encourage tourism and other types of interaction with the rest of the world. Dr. Khin Maung Win, who earned his PhD at Yale and went on to become professor of philosophy at Yangon Uni­ versity and then Minister of Education and Ambassador to France and India, came to observe St. John’s along with his daughter Dr. Khin Ma Ma, who earned her medical degree at Yangon University and now practices medicine in Mandalay. He hopes that what he learned in his U.S. visit can be used to lay the groundwork for new modes of faculty development in higher educa­ tion and a new program to prepare high school graduates to study in the U.S. “Seminars are very important to train future citizens,” says Dr. Khin Maung Win. “A modern socie­ ty needs people to have dis­ cussions... In Myanmar, tradi­ tionally teachers are very highly respected. There is a saying ‘when the teacher says the sun rises in the west, it must be true.’ Students don’t ask questions.” Introducing the St. John’s pedagogy of student-led learn­ ing in Myanmar will not be easy, according to Matthew Ting, a 200a Annapolis grad­ uate of Burmese descent. As an American, Ting says, “I have a tendency to open my mouth and not shut it. But some of my cousins that were raised in Burma are quiet. And a lot of St. John’s educa­ tion is just getting people to talk.” 4—BY Beth Schulman �{From the Bell Towers} 4 Announcements The students Annapolis rising senior Aaron McLean received Honorable Mention for a paper submitted to the Elie Wiesel Ethics Essay contest, a national competition spon­ sored by the Elie Wiesel Foun­ dation for Humanity. Mr. McLean’s essay is entitled “On the Combing of Hair in Herodotus.” The essay is post­ ed on the Foundation’s web site at WWW. eliewieselfoundation. org. The Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest is an annual competition open to undergraduate juniors and seniors in the U.S. and Cana­ da, designed to challenge col­ lege students to analyze urgent ethical issues con­ fronting them. Students are encouraged to write thought­ provoking, personal essays. All submissions are judged by a committee of scholars, and a jury that includes Nobel laure­ ate Elie Wiesel decides the winners. Andrew Hui, of Garland, Texas, who graduated from Annapolis in May, received a Jack Kent Cooke scholarship for graduate study. The award covers full tuition, expenses, travel, and a stipend, and is renewable for up to six years. A first-generation immi­ grant from Hong Kong, Mr. Hui came with his family to America the summer of the Tienamen Square incident. His parents operate a retail aquarium in Garland, where he has worked over school vacations. Mr. Hui plans to study sacred music and com­ parative literature, probably at Yale. He is interested in the religious influences in Dante, Milton, and Racine and will examine how they manage to encompass Greek mythology in a Christian worldview. Officer and Staff Appointments Under an administrative change in the structure of the college, Jeff Bishop (HA99), formerly vice president for advancement in Annapolis, has been appoint­ ed vice president for college­ wide advancement. He will coordinate fundraising efforts and external relations for St. John’s and will travel between the two campuses. On the west­ ern campus, Michael Franco Grecian has been appointed vice presi­ dent for advancement, Santa Fe. Mr. Franco formerly held advancement positions at Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Rochester, and Boston College. Barbara Goyette (Ay3) has been appointed vice president for advancement, Annapolis. For the past eightyears, she has served as director of public rela­ tions and publications (aka communications) in Annapolis. Jo Ann Mattson (A87) has been appointed director of alumni activities in Annapolis. women, an illustration by the new Alumni Director, Jo Ann Mattson, A87 decorated last year’s Homecoming brochure. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } She replaces Roberta Gable (A78), who is now director of placement. Ms. Mattson is a teacher, musician, and artist. She drew the spoofs of Greek statues that decorated last year’s Homecoming and Cro­ quet weekend brochures. Marline Marquez Scally has been named registrar in Santa Fe. She formerly worked at the Santa Fe Waldorf School, where she played many roles: Spanish language teacher, events coordinator, develop­ ment coordinator, faculty chair, member of several boards, administrative council mem­ ber, admissions director, and college member (comparable to the SJC Instruction Commit­ tee). Ms. Marquez Scally received her BA from College of Notre Dame (Calif.) and pur­ sued an MAT at Trinity College in Washington, D.C. Rosemary Harty has been appointed director of communi­ cations in Annapohs. She held a similar position at the Universi­ ty of Baltimore, and has worked on public relations and publica­ tions at Catholic University (Washington, D.C.) and the University of Dayton. She was a newspaper reporter for to years prior to working in higher edu­ cation. As one of her duties she will become editor of The College magazine, replacing Barbara Goyette. David Pierotti has been appointed Entering Director of Laboratories in Santa Fe. He will work closely with current director Hans von Briesen for the coming year. Mr. Pierotti has been working in the fields of environmental science research and education for the past 35 years and has also been a consultant with a number of governmental and commercial laboratories. Some of the agen­ cies with which he has worked include the EPA, NASA, the Cahfornia Air Resources Board, and the National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council. �{From Stafford loans______________ As reported in the last issue of The College, now is a great time to consolidate student loans. For alumni with loans from sev­ eral different colleges, or from undergraduate and graduate study, this option should be considered, according to Bryan Valentine, treasurer in Santa Fe. When student loans are consolidated, the rate is locked in, rather than the rate being re-set each July as it is in the normal repayment cycle. Rates for Stafford loans went to 4.625% on July I. Information on student loan rates can be found at www.staffordloan.com (click on “consolidation”). Changes on the board________ The St. John’s Board of Visi­ tors and Governors has a new chair, new officers, and several new members. Ray Cave (A48) is serving as chairman of the Board. Cave was the editorial director of Time, Inc., and has been a long-time member of the Board and supporter of the college. He was co-chair of The Campaign for Our Fourth Cen­ tury. Greg Curtis has com­ pleted his tenure as chair; he remains an active member of the Board. Stewart Green­ field (A53) and Jonathan Zavin (A68) are serving as vice chairs. Jeremy Shamos, (SFGI76) is serving as secre­ tary. This marks the first time in memory that all officers of the Board of Visitors and Gov­ ernors are alumni of the col­ lege. New members of the Board are Jaune Evans (with the Lannan Foundation), Richard Hoskins (an attorney with the Chicago firm of Schiff Hardin & Waite), Roger Kimball (with The New Criterion), Mark Middlebrook (A83), and Theodore Rogers (with American Industrial Partners). the Bell Towers} Shared Identities in Physics, Philosophy, andLiteratureyta& published by MIT Press in Feb­ ruary. An article, “Quantum Identity,” appeared in the MayJune 2002 issue oiAmerican Scientist. In the article, he addresses some of the ques­ tions that arise when thinking about quantum mechanicsespecially the unusual conse­ quences of “like particles being completely indistinguishable from one another.” “Bacon’s Proof; The Career and Controversies of Edward Teller” is a review of Teller’s memoirs written by Annapolis tutor Adam Schulman and published in the spring 2002 issue of “The National Inter­ est.” A physicist who worked on the Manhattan project. Teller was one of the European theo­ retical physicists who “laid the foundations of quantum mechanics.” Schulman con­ nects the physics involved in 5 the making of the atomic bomb with Bacon’s notion that scien­ tists “would secure and aug­ ment their prestige in socie­ ty...by the mastery of nature that their practicable science would confer on other men. Bacon predicted that the fruits of the new science would include not only inventions for the relief of human misery but also weapons of immense destructive power.” Annapohs tutor emeritus and former dean CuRTis Wilson was honored in April with a festschrift organized by the Dibner Institute, an international center for advanced research in the history of science and tech­ nology established in 1992 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Held at the Annapolis campus, the festschrift featured talks, demonstrations, and tributes to Mr. Wilson, who was honored for his role as an eminent histo­ rian of science. George Smith, a professor at Tufts, noted that Mr. Wilson “has done far more than anyone else to provide all of us with a deep understand­ ing of the three centuries of orbital astronomy from Kepler through Simon Newcomb.” The weekend also featured a lecture by Noel Swerdlow of the University of Chicago on “Sci­ entific Cosmologies” that focused on our understanding of Ptolemy. Other presenters included Bill Donohue (A67), of the Green Lion Press, who spoke about the section in Kepler’s manuscript where he comes to the realization that orbits are elliptical; James Voelkel of the Dibner Institute; Dana Densmore (A65), of the Green Lion Press; and David DeVorkin of the Smithsonian Institution. A surprise finale to the weekend was a musical presentation by Santa Fe tutor Peter Pesic. The Tutors_________________ Santa Fe tutor Peter Pesic has a new book out. Seeing Double: Spring tradition for GIs: At the Graduate Institute dinner in Santa Fe, WEEK ACTIVITIES, MaRY AnN ClEAN TOASTS HER COLLEAGUES AND TUTORS. {The College. St. John’s College - Summer 2002 } part of Commencement �6 A Congress OF Johnnies Homecoming in Annapolis is setfor October 4-6. JoAnn Mattson {A87), the new Director of Alumni Activities in Annapolis, will kick off the fes­ tivities this fall in a personal way: she’s hosting a Friday evening barhecue (with her hus­ band Walter Mattson, A87) for the fifteenth year reunion class, the redoubtable Class of r987 Annapolis. But then she’ll hus­ tle back to campus to preside over a Homecoming filled with events not only for reunion classes but for all and sundry who return to Annapolis when they hear a party’s going on. Eva Brann (HA89) will deliv­ er the Class of ’94 Homecoming Lecture at 8:15 Friday evening (not that any alumni need to be reminded of the time for lec­ ture), in the newly refurbished FSK Auditorium. After lecture alumni will follow their lights, either to the Question Period, to a reception in the dining hall with the Class of 2003, or to the Boathouse, where a traditional boathouse rock party will evoke The Cave, but in a nice way. Saturday morning brings a cavalcade of seminars, on read­ ings from Plato to Emerson, from Dostoevsky to Wallace Stegner. After the big Homecoming Picnic down by the sycamore trees, all are invited to the Annual Meeting of the Alumni Association, where tutors emeriti John Sarkissian and Robert Williamson, and longtime creator of lab equip­ ment Al Toft, will be made Hon­ orary Alumni. Annapolis Presi­ dent Chris Nelson (SF70), Annapolis Dean Harvey Flaumenhaft, and Alumni Associa­ tion President Glenda H. Eoyang (SF76) will give reports. {From the Bell Towers} and the Alumni Association elections will be held. After the Annual Meeting there’s a wide variety of diver­ sions around campus: a Mitchell Gallery Tour (the exhibition will be “The Sweet Uses of Adversity: Images of the Bibli­ cal Job”), Freshman Chorus Revisited (led by Tom May), a Pick-up Basketball Extravagan­ za sponsored by the Classes of 1987 and 1988, the traditional Soccer Classic (us against them), and a happily crowded Bookstore Autograph Party, where ro faculty and alumni authors will autograph their wares, from Complexity and Analysis (Stewart Umphrey) to The Golden Age: A Romance of the Far Future (John Wright, A84), from Strategic Renais­ sance: New Thinking and Inno­ vative Tools to Create Great Corporate Strategies Using Insightsfrom History and Sci­ ence (Evan Dudik, A72) to The Shape ofan Ear (Elliott Zucker­ man, HA95). All reconvene in McDowell at 6:00 for the cocktail party, which stretches throughout the first two floors of the building, with the core party in the Great Hall, and reunion class gettogethers in classrooms. Thence to Randall Hall for the Homecoming Banquet, where the reunion classes will offer toasts, and two members of the class of 1967, Candace Brightman and Howard Zeiderman, will be given the Alumni Associ­ ation Award of Merit. Those with true virtue and endurance will then repair to McDowell, where two parties will parse them according to their taste: in the coffee shop, yet another cave-like rock party, this one with, more appropri­ ately, no water view; in the Great Hall, a waltz party spon­ sored by the class of 197a, with floral decorations (reminiscent of Rose Cotillions), and Elhott Zuckerman at the piano. (Yes, there will also be swing music for you swingers.) Finally, the traditional Presi­ dent’s Brunch will be held on Sunday, with this innovation: we’re moving the apostrophe and this year calling it the Pres­ idents’ Brunch, since Santa Fe President John Balkcom (SFGIoo) will be in town to join Annapolis President Chris Nelson (SF70) in hosting the brunch at his home in Wardour. Interspersed throughout the SiDDiQ Khan, weekend into all these general events are special shindigs for the reunion classes, all the years ending in seven or two: 1937,1942,1947, etc. through t997- Check the Homecoming brochure (with McDowell on the front cover) for details, reg­ istration form, everything you need to know about Homecom­ ing and some fine photos besides. artist and pottery instructor on the Santa Fe CAMPUS, POSES WITH SOME OF HIS CREATIONS. ThE FACULTY AND StAFF Art Show, held every spring, features paintings, drawings, PHOTOGRAPHY AND TEXTILES AS WELL AS POTTERY. {The C o l l e c, e ■ St. John ’5 College . Summer 2002 } �{From Future Farmer of Annapolis As a sophomore, Justin Naylor (A02) worked in the college archives processing the papers of New Program founder Stringfellow Barr. Among the hundreds of Barr’s documents that Naylor indexed were those that explored world govern­ ment, higher education, for­ eign policy, and rehgion. And gardening. Though it’s not on the pro­ gram, Johnnies might be inter­ ested to know that Barr is the author of The Kitchen Garden Book, written in 1956 when Barr was teaching at the Uni­ versity of Virginia. The book, subtitled “Vegetables from Seed to Table,” is part essay, part instruction manual, and part cookbook. It covers soil preparation and garden plan­ ning in addition to detailed sections devoted to 3a different vegetables, from the humble turnip to the popular tomato. “Barr was a lifelong dedicated gardener,” says Naylor. “His brother James was a farmer. I sense Barr was interested in farming in the Jeffersonian tra­ dition-small scale agriculture, the culture around agriculture, the kind of citizen it pro­ duced.” Around the time that Naylor was reading Barr’s book, Masao Imamura’s (AGI99) wife, Jack­ ie, recommended that Naylor read Ehot Coleman’s The New Organic Grower and several other books that fed his interest in agriculture and environmen­ tal sustainability. Interest led to endeavor. In r999, Naylor took a year off from St. John’s to serve a lo-month apprentice­ ship on a small-scale, six-acre organic farm that raised mixed vegetables in Delaware. When he returned to the col­ lege, he started a gardening the Bell Towers} club. Along with about ten other Johnnies (including Librarian Lisa Richmond), he built seven 25-foot beds and three ro-foot beds on back cam­ pus between the tennis courts and King George Street. Work­ ing mainly on Saturday and Sunday mornings, the club members grow spinach, peas, tomatoes, peppers, melons, cucumbers, lettuce, marigolds, cosmos, and sunflowers. At any given time, between 5 and 10 students are actively involved in the work-a respectable showing on a campus of 450. Naylor likens the appeal of gardening to that of the gym or the woodshop: When you spend so much time thinking, you need to find an outlet for doing. “The gardening club meets a lot of needs,” says Naylor. “Club members are interested in working with plants, work­ ing outside, growing food, and working with their hands.” This spring the gardening club teamed up with the envi­ ronmental club to sponsor a talk by Brian Halweil, a research associate at the World­ watch Institute (a policy research organization that focuses on emerging global problems and the hnks between the world economy and its envi­ ronmental support systems). “Halweil focussed his talk around the two major claims of biotech companies: that biotech crops are necessary to make agriculture sustainable and that they are necessary for feeding the world’s growing population. Both of these claims are highly emotionally charged and are difficult to be against,” explains Naylor. “Brian’s approach was to look at what has actually been pro­ duced by these biotech compa­ nies and to show that there is a disconnect between their claims and actual practices. For exam­ ple, the few biotech crops released so far have, if anything, increased chemical usage and are thus less sustainable. {The College. Sr. Agricultural 7 sustainability interests Justin Naylor, shown HERE WITH THE COLLEGE GARDEN HERBS. “Halweil also made the case for an ecologically-based agri­ culture, and used as a case study a particularly noxious weed in Africa that has not been dealt with adequately using conven­ tional chemical means. He pointed out, however, that this weed is only a problem in depleted, over-farmed soils. In soils that have been properly cared for, this super-weed is simply not a problem.” As Naylor learns about mod­ ern approaches to agricultural sustainability, he says that in some ways, not much has changed since the publication of Barr’s book. “He was a thoughtful advocate of organic agriculture when it was consid­ ered a world of hippies and freaks,” Naylor says, reading a relevant passage: “There is a ferocious war of words on between organic farmers and those who depend on chemicals. The case for organic gardening has made great progress; the proof is that more and more of its opponents have begun to argue that both methods are needed. The case would have pro­ gressed even faster if cranks had not overstated it.” John ’5 College • Summer 2002 } Naylor praises The Kitchen Garden Book and recommends it to anyone working the earth. “Even if it weren’t by Barr,” he says, “it would still be a worthy book on my shelf.” Newly graduated, Naylor continues to pursue his inter­ est in agriculture. With the help of a USDA loan, he is rent­ ing four acres on a property adjacent to the farm he worked on last summer. His first crops should be out next spring. BY SUS3AN Borden (A87) The Garden Bookshelf Naylor recommends these books to all Johnnies with an interest in gardens: The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman 7'he Kitchen Garden Book by Stringfellow Barr Heirloom Vegetable Gardening by William Woys Weaver Botanyfor Gardeners by Brian Capon �{From the Bell Towers} 8 Philanthropia Brings Reality to Advancement How many Johnnies does it take to raise $12, ooo? Fifteen—if they Je juniors volunteering their services to help out Reality Weekend. In the Philanthropia spirit of alumni working on alumni fundraising, the Annapolis Reality archon, Justin Jones (A03) put together a team of pre-alumni (St. John’s juniors) to conduct an advancement office phonathon. In exchange for their help, advancement donated $500 to Reality. The April 23 phonathon proved a resounding success, with 457 calls made in 3 hours raising $12,691 dollars (so farmore checks continue to come in). Maggie Griffin, Director of the Annual Fund in Annapolis, says that the most impressive statistic for the phonathon was the number of gifts made in the weeks following the phonathon when messages the students left on answering machines were returned by enthusiastic alumni. Of 331 messages left. 56 have already sent checks. “That number is absolutely astounding! ” says Griffin. “The students delivered the St. John’s message so effectivelythe alumni really responded to them.” By the end of the night, stu­ dents were asking about vol­ unteering for the next phonathon and seeking stu­ dent aide positions in the advancement office. “And they were good,” says Advancement Officer Mary Simmons. “There were quite a few we would have loved to hire on the spot.” Another positive effect of the phonathon will be felt this coming year as the junior class begins to form the senior class gift committee. Perhaps a repeat of Santa Fe’s senior class triumph (see page 9) is in the making. As PART OF PhILANTHOPIA’s EFFORT TO INSTILL AWARENESS OF ALUMNI FUNDRAISING IN THE STUDENTS AT SaNTA Fe (wHO ARE, AFTER ALL, THE ALUMNI OF THE FUTURE) , THE GROUP BROUGHT 6OO KrISPY KrEME DOUGHNUTS TO CAMPUS THE MORNING BEFORE REALITY. STUDENTS BLEARY-EYED AFTER A NIGHT OF FINISHING UP PAPERS AND FACULTY WHO ARRIVED EARLY FOR THEIR CLASSES AGREED—DOUGHNUTS AND COFFEE MAKE FOR A HAPPY BEGINNING TO ANY DAY, PARTICULARLY THE FIRST DAY OF “REALITY.” Letters Winter Warfare_____________ On page 16 of the Winter/Spring 2002 issue of The College, there is a winter scene of Annapohs. In that photo of “Winter Warfare,” I am off stage left with my friend Matt. Matt had the good arm. The targets are Liz Stuck and Wendy LeWin, both freshmen in 1977-1978, which should date the picture more accurately. Both were from Minnesota, I think, two of three Minnesota girls (Marian Sharpe, from Pine Gity, being #3) that started that year, and therefore impervious to win­ ter. - David Nau, A8i Liberty Bell________________ Students delivering the message about the college’s needs were HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR BY ALUMNI. Kudos to St. John’s for refurbish­ ing the Liberty Bell rephca (Win­ {The College - St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } ter/ Spring issue). This symbol of our democracy has an even greater significance since 9/11. As one of the school children who contributed pennies for the yoke of the beU 50 years ago, I have always had a particular fondness for the beU. I am pleased and proud of the stewardship the col­ lege has provided this great emblem of our freedom. -Ron McGuirk , A6o More Calendar Ids _______ In the Philanthropia Calendar for 2002,1 can identify the gui­ tar players pictured for Octo­ ber. Linda Stromberg was at SJC (Santa Fe) from 1973 to 1975. Later she attended Anti­ och College and earned a degree in biology, I think. With her might be Jim Shea (based on the hair), who began with the same class. -Sheri Anderson, SF78 �{From the Bell Towers} The One Hundred Percent Solution February, Paula Maynes {SF77), a member of Pbilanthropia (the alumni group that encourages financial support for the college), spoke to the seniors about life after St. John’s. The class then dis­ cussed what changes they would like to make at the college-from faculty compensa­ tion to scholarship support-if money were no object. By the end of the event, they zeroed in on the film collection as their gift. On the day of Commence­ ment, the seniors were ready to celebrate their success. Com­ mittee members Emma Wells and Sara Abercrombie stepped forward to present Balkcom with the certificate commemo­ rating the gift, as well as their class’s new record for partici­ pation. “There’s one thing they can be certain of,” says Santa Fe Annual Fund Director Ginger Roherty. “It’s a record that can be equaled, but it will never be broken.” The Santa Fe class of 2002 has set a new standardfor giving. Who J next to meet the challenge? On the wall of President John Balkcom’s Santa Fe office hangs a certificate he received at Commencement: “The Senior Class Gift: on behalf of eighty-seven gradu­ ating seniors, each of whom made a contribution,” it reads. The certificate com­ memorates not just the gift, but the story behind the gift. The class is the first to achieve 100% participation in a St. John’s fundraising effort. Each of the graduates contributed to the nearly $3000 collected so far for the gift-a classic film collection for the Meem Library. Work on the project began early in the year when seven seniors- Sara Abercrombie, Erik Barber, Jessica Godden, Maria Goena, Katherine Greco, Matt Reiter, and Emma Wells-stepped forward to form the Senior Class Gift Commit­ tee. The kickoff event was a party at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, a local hang-out, where committee members explained the annual fund. In December, before the winter ball, seniors were invited to a reception at the president’s house, where the committee provided eggnog and appetizers and repeated the message of the role of alumni in the financial workings of the college. At a Valentine’s Day party in Exciting times in the mailroom: Renzo BrundelRe, Michael Sullivan, and Michael Tereby held COVETED STUDENT AIDE POSITIONS IN THE MAILROOM LAST YEAR AS PART OF THEIR FINANCIAL AlD PACKAGE. Financial Aid Factoids • Financial aid at St. John’s is admissions bhnd and need­ based. Admissions blind means that students are admitted to the college regardless of whether they apply for financial aid or not-their family’s financial status is not a factor in their admission. Need-based means that the college con­ siders only the family’s and student’s income in granti­ ng aid and does not offer aid to various categories of students (trombone-playing triathletes, perhaps?) to fill the class with “desirable” students. • St. John’s attempts to offer an aid package that meets the demonstrated needs of students. But, since the college budget is finite, not every student can receive 100% of the funds they need. Applying early in the cycle helps assure that students receive an optimal pack­ age. Students are some­ times placed on a waiting list if the money available for student aid has already been allocated. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } • Students receive a package with some or all of the following components: St. John’s College grant. Federal work-study posi­ tion (student aide job), and loan. Many students seek scholarships and fellow­ ships independently. • In 2001-2003, the average aid package was $20,762. (Tuition for the year was about $25,000.) • 50 % of students on finan­ cial aid last year had an annual family income of less than $60,000. • About 50% of students on both campuses received financial aid from the college last year. �{Johnnies on Justice} CRIME and PUNISHMENT Five alumni who work in thefield tell the real story behind the drama ofcriminaljustice. Wi Sus3AN Borden, A87 A woman lies in waitfor her husband who has just returnedfrom a long trip; she kills him as he relaxes in the tub. A thief is sentenced to be chained to a mountain; each day an eagle devours his newly regenerated liver. rom the bloodbath of Clytemnestra to Prometheus bound, crime and punishment have long proved inspirational for the imagination of writers. This ancient well­ spring continues to inspire the artists of our modern world. Literature on crime and punishment is a mainstay of bestseller lists. Television-“Homicide,” “Law and Order,” “The People’s Court”-feeds our hunger for the subject. Movies-Ziopc, Twelve Angry Afczz-sometimes offer a more thoughtful examination. A criminal act is the essence of drama: man opposes man in con­ flict’s barest form. The killer stalks his prey. The thief plots against the land owner. Even after the crime is committed, oppo­ sition is at the heart of the system; The defense lawyer fights the prosecuting attorney. The witness defies the judge. The guard beats the prisoner. These are the antitheses through which we’ve learned to view crime and punishment. But are they valid? St. John’s alumni who work in the field of criminal justice sug­ gest they are not. Far removed from the seminar table and discus­ sions of justice, motive, and retribution, alumni who work with criminals confront these issues directly. As the dramatic interplay of crime and punishment come together in the province ofjustice, it is justice’s role to resolve, rather than heighten that drama. Jus­ tice is society’s mechanism for placing an irrational act into a rational context. Once a crime is assigned its proper weight, the scales of justice return to balance and society is able to function. Through punishment, the criminal justice system imposes a rationality on the irrational world of crime. This, for the most part, is too thoughtful a process to allow for much drama. The Criminal Mind A desperate young man plans the perfect crime—the murder of a despicable pawn­ broker, an old woman no one loves and no one will mourn. Is it notjust, he reasons, for a man ofgenius to commit such a crime, to transgress moral law—if it will ultimately benefit humanity? —publisher’s copy {Bantam Classics) Punishment for Dostoevsky’s Crime and The idea of the criminal mind-from Smerdyakov to Hannibal Lechter-both fascinates and repels. What must it be like, we thrill to imagine, to loose ourselves from the bonds of morals, to think the unthinkable, to plan the forbidden, to perform the act that will forever set us apart from our fellow man? {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } �{The College- St. John’s College • Summer 200s ) �T2, {Johnnies on Justice} 'Td hate to live in a country in which 50 % ofthe people who are arrested are innocent. ” -Elizabeth Unger Carlyle(A73) Criminal Elizabeth Unger Carlyle (A73), a criminal defense lawyer who lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, has regular and close associa­ tion with the criminal mind. She is neither repelled by her clients nor fascinated by their misdeeds. “I think there’s a group of peo­ ple, a sad group, who really perceive themselves as powerless and at the mercy of circumstances,” she explains. “They get into bad situations by not thinking more than one step ahead and they end In “You Can’t Get Away with Murder,” Bogie’s defense lawyer “I spend a lot of time reminding people that the people who get into trouble are just like the people who don’t,” says Car­ lyle. “In many ways it’s ‘there but for the grace of God go I.’ If you took my current clientele and dressed them in suits instead of prison clothes and took them to some casual restaurant and interspersed them among the patrons, you couldn’t pick them out. When people say ‘how can you deal with people who character seems irredeemable: he’s a thief, douele-crosser, murderer, and blackmailer. up in the middle of the burglary or the middle of the murder and can’t tell you how they got there. A lot of people come to me say­ ing, ‘I don’t know how this happened. Trouble always finds me.’ They don’t know how not to be found by trouble.” David Johnson (A68), a probation officer for 30 years who now teaches in the criminal justice department at the Universi­ ty of Baltimore, says that addiction is often a factor: “Some criminals are what we call sociopaths, but by and large I’ve worked with people who have exercised bad judgment. A lot of people who commit crimes have problems with substance abuse or gambling. That causes them to have problems with the law because first, their judgment is really poor and second, they have a need for money. They resort to crime-to stealing or dealing drugs.” are guilty?’ I say, ‘don’t you ever make a mistake?’ I’ve got a client now who managed to get himself ten years for selling six grams of marijuana. That’s not a bigger mistake than most people make.” Order in the Court Several young girls, caught in a minor transgression, are unjustly accused of a capital crime. In a trial poisoned by petty suspicions, financial disputes, supersti­ tion, and lovers' revenge, accusations fly {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } �{Johnnies on Justice} 13 and soon eighteen citizens are brought— unjustly—before the court. Eleven of them are put to death. When exculpatory evidence is presented to the judges they reject it, fearing it willplace their earli­ er verdicts in doubt. In the end, seven more innocentpeople go to the gallows. —PLOT SUMMARY, ARTHUR MilLEr’S THE Crucible The scenes are replayed every week on TV: Corrupt police arrest the wrong man. The prosecutor pulls out all the stops in the relentless pursuit of a guilty verdict. The jury fol­ lows the lead of a misguided foreman as the judge wearily shakes her head. However common these scenes of injustice are in fiction and drama, front-line profes­ sionals say they are rare in real life. From arrest through sen­ tencing, those involved in the U.S criminal justice system say that, despite its flaws, it’s a sys­ tem that works. At first it seems strange when Elizabeth Carlyle praises the system hy saying that most of the clients she defends are guilty. But then she explains why this is a good thing: “I’d hate to live in a country in which 50% of the people who are arrested are innocent.” Still, despite the guilt of most of her clients, the system is set up to work in their favor. Suave detective Nick Charles, played by William Powell, FOR BAD GUYS IN “AfTER THE ThIN MaN.” {The College • St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } looks “Somebody said it’s better for a hundred guilty people to go free than for one innocent person to be convicted,” says Carlyle. “That’s the way the system ought to be. But I don’t think that guilty people often sneak through. More than 90% plead guilty. For those who go to trial, there is a question of their guilt. It’s not usually a question that they’ll get off, but that they’ll get off with less than five years.” Maureen Barden (A70), an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia who works on gun possession cases, says she’s encouraged by what she sees in court: “The jury system works. In my experience of trying cases, only a very small per­ centage of the time do I think jurors reach the wrong result. They’re careful, thorough, they think hard. It’s heartening to be a part of that,” Once the verdict is deter­ mined, the judge steps in for sentencing. Johnson, the crimi­ nal justice professor, outlines the aims of that process: “There are four classic goals of the corrections system: inca­ pacitation, retribution, deter­ rence, and rehabilitation. If possible, the sentence meets all four goals in the appropriate measures for the particular crime and individual. Incapaci­ tation gets considered first. Then, retribution: how much punishment the person deserves in addition to that. Next is deterrence, and finally rehabilitation.” County Court Judge Pattie Swift (SF82), who works in rural Costilla County, Col­ orado, finds that the goals fall in a different order in her court. She often relies on the deter­ rence effect of prison. “There are people who need the shock of jail for a short period of time. �{Johnnies on Justice} 14 ''Judgment has two cups, a cup ofJustice and a cup ofmercy. -David Johnson, A68, probation I send them in for a week. Our local county jail is benign, but still, they’re locked up and it’s frightening. This is useful for some people who have committed DWIs before and didn’t take it seriously.” Swift turns to long-term incapacitation only as a last resort. Her position limits her to passing a two-year sentence. “For people with whom we’ve tried everything, the last ditch thing is Peter Falk is hitman Abe “Kid Twist” Reles in the i960 victim and their families, and gathering information about the accused’s prior record and social history to make an evaluation and recommendation. When he worked in probation, Johnson appreciated this opportunity to influence the judge’s decision. “I always remembered that judgment has two cups: a cup of justice and a cup of mercy. How much of each does the defendant get?” gangland flick long-term jail to get them out of society. If they are unable to change, if they have four DWIs, it’s the only thing you can do to protect the public.” Johnson discusses the problem of disparity in sentencing: “In sentencing there are no rules to speak of and the judge has virtually complete discretion. Somebody who’s convicted of bank robbery in Brooklyn might get probation; for the same crime in Texas he might get ao years. It’s an oddity because everything is rule-driven up to the point of conviction. Once we go to sentencing in criminal matters, the judge is supposed to exercise the wisdom of Solomon.” In today’s world, fortunately, Solomon has a consultant. The probation officer conducts a presentence investigation for the judge, reviewing the crime, interviewing the defendant and chief “Murder, Inc.” Behind Bars A man is sentenced to two years on a southern chain gangfor a minor offense. His rebellious manner is met with psycho­ logical torment andphysical brutality. The guards seem to enjoy their project of breaking his spirit. In the end, they take his life. —PLOT SUMMARY OF THE 1967 MOVIE, CoOL HaND LuKE {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } �{JohnniesonJustice} 15 This is one area where, unfortunately, the movies have it contraction of prisoner rights. With state budgets in the condi­ right. Prison is often a hrutal place and prisoner rights are fre­ tion they’re in, programs for offenders will be on hold or quently disregarded. Even where efforts are made to protect decreased.” the inmates hoth physically and legally, the difficulties of man­ Carlyle, the criminal defense attorney, shares Booker’s pes­ aging a captive population have yet to he satisfactorily simism and is concerned about how current policy will play out addressed. when prisoners return to society: “In my 25 years of practice, Margaret Booker (SFGI94) directed a state prison library for there’s been pretty much a complete turn from ‘incarceratefour years. She says that the system she worked in was set up to punish-rehabilitate’ to ‘let’s show them how mad we are protect the prisoners and their rights, hut it often didn’t work and treat them like we’re mad for 20 years and then have them as planned. live next door to us.’ ” “During my training I was told not to And Justice For All pay attention to the justice or injustice of the offender’s act or sentence. Missouri Criminals go free, justice Cast of Characters tells the same thing to all new offenders as they enter reception and diagnostics: proves to be not-so blind, Maureen Barden (A70) don’t talk about your crime to your peers; and lawyers andjudges the staff doesn’t need to know either. But Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. that rarely works. Very few can keep their make deals... exceptfor one Department of Justice in Philadel­ lives private to a degree that would keep phia. Before becoming a lawyer she young idealistic lawyer who them safe or lessen the risks they face in I worked on the investigation of the prison.” bucks the system while rep­ Attica prison uprising and the Nison In her own sphere of influence, Booker I impeachment. resenting a ruthless judge saw real-life practice reveal the faulty pre­ sumptions of a legal theory intended to Maruaket Booker (SGI94) accused of a brutal rape. safeguard the inmates’ rights. “While most offenders use the library for educa­ —CAPSULE REVIEW OF THE I979 MOVIE, AnD JUSTICE Library services coordinator for the FOR All, from MoviesUnlimited.com tion, entertainment, and enlightenment, Missouri Department of Corrections every offender in Missouri has access to in Jefferson City from 1998 to 2001. Unlike the corrupt cop, the cynical legal materials,” she says. “This is the She is now manager of the Kansas lawyers, and the jaded judges that state’s way of providing ‘access to courts,’ City, Missouri, Public Library, West­ are so popular in today’s crime stories, the requirement that offenders be able to port Branch. Johnnies in justice veer to the idealistic. represent themselves in their appeals. In When Johnson speaks of his career as a Elizabeth Unger Carlyle (A73) other states, access to courts is interpreted probation officer, he says that the friend­ differently,” Booker explains. “Some have ships he’s maintained with people he’s Criminal defense lawyer. She handles attorneys who travel the system or public supervised over the years are priceless everything from speeding tickets to librarians who do research for the inmates. benefits. murder trials, doing most of her work Arizona just sold off a huge amount of legal Swift treasures the times when defen­ < with appeals and post-conviction material and now provides paralegals who dants who have complained bitterly about remedies. She is married to the Rev. travel a circuit across the state to assist a sentence of alcohol treatment come James Carlyle (A72). offenders.” back for review and say “thank you, it Booker has a dim view of Missouri’s David Johnson (A68) really opened my eyes to see what was approach. “I don’t think any sort of justice wrong.” is given through the collection of materi­ Worked in criminal justice for over 30 Barden, who’s worked as a federal pros­ als to those who might be innocent or have years. Retired as chief of federal pro­ ecutor on large scale fraud cases, says her been tried inappropriately or irresponsi­ bation for the state of Maryland, he work gives her the opportunity to serve bly. The information and organization is teaches criminal justice at the Univer­ justice. “In many cases, you’re vindicat­ too complex, as is the court system, for sity of Baltimore. He is married to ing the rights of individuals who’ve been the offender population on the whole to Sally Johnson (A65). defrauded. It’s very good when you can navigate.” get justice for somebody who has been Pattie Swiff (SF82) Booker is pessimistic about the state’s stolen from or in another way injured. It’s inclination to improve the system, given a chance to do the right thing,” she says. County court judge in Costilla County, today’s political and economic climate. “That’s the luxury of being on this side of Colorado, and municipal judge for the “When I started, prisoners were called the courtroom: the interest of the govern­ town of San Luis. prisoners or inmates. Now they’re called ment is to do justice. That’s not always offenders. In the ’80s and ’90s we saw a simple, but it is the goal.” {The College -St John’s College • Summer 2002 } �{Commencement} COMMENCEMENT 2002 (Santa Fe) Barbara Goyette, A73 (Annapolis) BY Marissa Morrison, SFGIoa AND he graduating seniors-ioa in Annapolis and 88 in Santa Fe-chose as their com­ mencement speakers a military historian and a novelist who has produced a series of literary experiments. Rather than pres­ ent opposing viewpoints on life or on the St. John’s experience, the two gave sur­ prisingly close send-offs to the graduates. Their messages contrasted the education a St. John’s graduate receives with the vapidness of many aspects of modern culture, and both saw St. John’s as supplying the back­ ground necessary for a beginning to a life devoted to questioning and thinking. The Importance of “The Human Thing” - Annapolis At the 210th commencement in Annapolis, 102 undergraduates and 36 Graduate Institute students received their degrees. The day was sunny and bright, the grass was green, the air was still and cool as the parents, family members, and friends gathered on the front lawn. Faculty and students processed from the Great Hall to the click and whir of cameras and the ceremonial strains of the Carrollton Brass. President Christopher Nelson and Dean Harvey Flaumenhaft announced the various prizes and awards, including that for best sen­ ior essay, which went to Katherine Gehlberg for her essay “A Nature Within and Without; An Inquiry into the Evolution of the Moral Sense.” Seniors had chosen Victor Davis Hanson, who teaches classics at the University of California at Fresno and has published books and columns on military history, as the commencement speaker. Mr. Hanson stressed universal human truths that are covered in the Program as those that the graduates will draw upon wherever their lives carry them in the future. “Most of you will ...enter the professions,” he said. “Many-I have no doubt of it-shall become rich and powerful. But I am also equally confident that such success will accrue more because you shall be deft and experienced about what Thucydides called ‘the human thing,’ and resigned about the way humans think and act, rather than because you were simply adept at a par­ ticular skill.” In a perhaps unintended allusion to the famous (among John­ nies) admissions proclamation “The following teachers will return to St. John’s next year; Plato, Sophocles, Kant, Tolstoy, etc.,” Mr. Hanson said that St. John’s has given the graduates “a reservoir of learning from great men and women. These are your intellectual mentors, your friends for life. Each hour, each day from now to the end they will be there with you-to remind you, chastise you, and enlighten that what you experience is neither novel nor unique.” And considering the great books authors as mentors, and their words as universal human truths, Mr. Hanson suggested, is helpful in evaluating current situations that citizens need to understand. “When others suggest that educat­ ed citizens should not profess patri­ otism or think of their culture as unique and worth defending, you will remind them of Aeschylus at Marathon and Socrates at Delium. And when you despair that men with money, degrees, status, and fame can be petty rather than noble, and are as likely as the illit­ erate and impoverished to steal and defame, Juvenal, Dante, and Swift will laugh along with you.” A St. John’s education, he suggested, makes those who have undergone it “empirical and inductive, open to truth when it comes from the uncouth and enemies-and resist­ ant to lies when they come from the {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } �{Commencement } ''Open to truth...resistant to lies. Victor Davis Hanson Eva Brann leads the procession to front campus in Annapolis (left), while in Santa Fe, Genevieve Giddings LIGHTS THE PlACITA WITH HER SMILE (ABOVE). {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } 17 �i8 {Commencement} sweet and friends. You will not just pon­ der and equivocate, but decide, judge, and act.” Mr. Hanson used an extended Homer­ ic image to discuss what the future might hold for the graduates, and what dangers. He characterized their journey as like that of Odysseus and referred to “suitors feasting away at our society’s once ample social capital and spiritual reserves” as those the graduates would have to con­ front. He warned against the Charybdis of the Right, which he said “assures that the university and education itself are simply to be utilitarian and commercial­ certifications of dexterity with spread sheets, glibness with the law, or mere master of regulations, tables, charts, and graphs.” And he identified the Scylla of the Left as “the idea, now almost univer­ sal, that the purpose of education is ther­ apeutic, to change what words mean, to deny how people act, to create absolute equality of results, rather than of opportunity in the here and now-or else!” Acknowledging the power of education, Mr. Hanson urged the audience to use wisdom wisely. He likened knowledge’s strength to that of Tolkein’s One Ring, whose great power was so alluring that it ruined lives and threatened races. “Education used foully for a good cause, is nevertheless foul, and thus the cause not so good after all. Remember instead the first and oldest command­ ments of the humble Greeks-know yourself/nothing too much/ grow old learning.” He suggested that some time spent in smaU pursuits-away from the bigness of our present age’s government, corporations, and overriding materialism-is valuable. “Seek out, or perhaps at least protect and enhance-if only for a year or two of your odyssey-those sand bars and reefs that are washed over but not quite, not quite yet submerged-the love of Greek and Latin, the knowledge of the mason and woodworker, the fami­ ly nursery and small farm, the horseman and the shoemaker, the town of 2,000, and the art and music of rural Ameri­ ca...Like your Great Books, these unobtrusive people, things, and memories-forgotten by WalMart and unknown at Blockbuster-also possess wisdom-learning that we need in our present hour of peril against enemies cruel and medieval.” Mr. Hanson closed with a promise. As a farmer, student of Latin and Greek, resi­ dent of a rural community, writer, and “as one who at times has failed at all that and so much more stiU”-he promised to join the graduates to “keep alive the ancient education that we still know to be good and necessary-and can alone keep the melodious, but deadly. Sirens at bay.” Points of Departure, Not the Journey’s End - Santa Fe______________________ By graduation day in Santa Fe on May i8, the fear and sadness that characterized the early part of the academic year after September ii had given way to a feeling of jubilation. The brilliant sun shining above the Meem Library Placita and a lively commencement speech by John Barth added to the bright spirit of the day. Barth is a Johns Hopkins University professor emeritus and a nov­ elist who delights in literary experimentalism while engaging read­ ers with the power of his storytelling abilities. In a speech titled “The Tragic View of Liberal Education,” Mr. Barth praised the St. John’s program for permitting discourse within a shared frame of reference richer and more stable than pop­ ular culture-which is perhaps all the students at some departmen­ talized institutions have in common. He also presented the down­ side to an education based on a hmited selection of Great Books. While attending Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Mr. Barth often heard debates over the liberal arts program at nearby St. John’s College in Annapolis. According to one half-serious opin­ ion, “the problem with the Annapolis curriculum was that it left out not only all the bad books-which, like bad art, may be indis­ pensable to defining and appreciating the good­ hut also aU the arguably great books that happen to disagree with the ones in the canon.” He noted that no four-year under­ graduate survey could include all the books one ought to read. To illustrate how impossible it is for a stu­ dent to actually read everything, Mr. Barth referred to one of his fel­ low undergraduates who was said to have done just that. “To this day,” Mr. Barth joked, “he is scarce­ ly able to complete a sen­ {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } �{Commencement} tence, much less publish a coherent essay, because every word he utters sets off so many synaptic hot-links in his mind that he has difficulty getting from subject to verb to object, astray in the hypertextuality of his splendid erudition.” The tragedy of a liberal education, according to Mr. Barth, lies in the real­ ization that one cannot read-or learneverything. “Since time, attention, ener­ gy, and opportunity are all finite, we must radically exclude and delimit if we are to learn anything at all well; yet in so doing we may very possibly leave out things that, had we discovered them or they us, might have been keys to the treasure that we were scarcely aware we were seeking,” he said. Mr. Barth lamented that only the books he has actually read can make an impres­ Barth the novelist sion on him. As a fiction writer, he wishes that he could read every other written work. Without reading every description of the dawn and the sea that has ever been recorded on paper, how can he know whether his own descriptions are unique and valuable? However, he comforts himself with the fact that the number of possible word combinations, like the number of stars in the galaxy, is “finite but astronomically large.” Mr. Barth noted that the St. John’s program list is a good start­ ing point for one’s education. The real reason for celebrating com­ mencement is not the completion of an education, but rather the start of a lifetime of exploring new ideas. Santa Fe president John Balkcom gave an overview of the chal­ lenges this academic year had brought, with September ii having impacted our lives and the nature of our college community. Citing Virginia Woolf, who wrote, “One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them,” Mr. Balkcom noted that what the faculty and staff observed this year was the emergence of a greater sense of com­ munity among all of our learners. “We come to­ gether to celebrate these graduates for the learning they have shared and the community they have cre­ ated, for their taking a place now among the wider community of this human race.” He made lighthearted references to many sen­ iors and Graduate Insti­ {The College. 19 tute students he had encountered during the year, and talked about community events such as the holiday concert, the presentation of Senior Essays in Febru­ ary, and Reality Weekend-when hun­ dreds of paper flowers decorated trees and bushes throughout campus. The commencement address of Santa Fe Dean David Levine reminded stu­ dents that hberal education is a great gift. The college gives this gift, he said, in the hope that its graduates will devel­ op proportionally in relation to challeng­ ing thinkers; experience inspiration in their own capacities for original thought; develop new capacities to ascend to undiscovered places; become strength­ ened in facing the toughest human ques­ tions; grow their own sense of responsi­ bility; become more self-resourceful; and achieve a heightened fullness of inde­ pendence. “Make us proud,” Mr. Levine urged the graduates. “Honor this education with lives of distinction.” The class of aooa included 88 candidates for the Bachelor of Arts degree and 25 candidates for the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts degree. The graduates hailed from 33 U.S. states, as well as from Israel and Canada. For the first time in the history of the college, the Senior Class Gift Committee achieved 100% participation from all members of the Class of 2002. Neither campus had ever accomplished this feat. Ms. Abercrombie and Ms. Emma Wells presented the senior gift to the president, accompanied by a swell of applause from the audi­ ence, including loud accolades from class members. The class gift will purchase The Classics Film Collection for Meem Library. Graduates honored with awards and prizes included Benjamin Lorch, who received the Medal for Academic Excellence. The medal is offered by the Board of Visitors and Gov­ ernors and was presented by board member Dick Morris. Anna Canning and Marie-Monique Wentzell shared the Richard D. Weigle Prize for the best senior essay. Among the Graduate Institute graduates, Court­ ney Manson was acknowl­ edged for her excellent essay. St. John’s College . Summer 200Z } Thefull text ofboth comencement addresses is on the web: www.sjca.edufor Annapolis and www.sjcsf.edu for Santa Fe. �ao {Campus Life} REMEMBRANCES OF PRANKS PAST BY Sus3AN Borden (A87) t’s a warm night in early spring. Students sit in seminar reading Euripides, Descartes, and Adam Smith. They work their way through the text and follow the conversation closely, hut spirits are running a little high. They’ve heard the rumors, they’ve seen the signs. Their minds occasion­ ally drift. Is tonight the night? As the first hour comes to a close, attention is drawn outside the classroom. A door slams. laughter bounces down the hall. A few minutes later a team of seniors hursts through the door. Books slam shut, tutors are escorted from the room. Senior prank has begun. It wasn’t always like this. Senior prank started as a daytime event; the prank was the seniors’ way of shutting down the col­ lege. Over the years it has blossomed into a a4-hour ritual, begin­ ning with the nighttime break-in, following with a skit and dance party, and continuing the next day with games and a campus-wide picnic for students, faculty, and staff. For the original prank, pulled in 1964 and talked about to this day, seniors removed all the chairs from the classrooms and tutor offices and stored them in the crawl space in the basement of Mel­ lon. Tutor Samuel Kutler (A54) remembers it well: “I walked to my classroom in McDowell with a prospective freshman and her moth­ er, who were scheduled to sit in on our mathematics tutorial. As we entered the room, I told them to please be seated, but when I looked up the students were sitting on the table. All chairs had been removed from the entire building. I told the students that we were behind and I would hold class anyway. Then President Weigle appeared. He was not amused, and he announced that there would be no classes until the chairs were returned. I shrugged my shoul­ ders, turned to the mother and the prospective student, said that there were some good liberal arts schools in Ohio, and went home.” That simple prank unleashed a legacy of mischief that has driven class after class to put time and energy into creating a memorable prank. The class of ’68 distinguished itself with a four-part prank: all classrooms were locked from the inside, the lobby of FSK was transformed into a used car lot, a thirty-foot purple flag reading “Class of ’68” in red letters flew from the flagpole, and-thepiece de resistance—nearly two dozen steel-belted radi­ {The College. St. als were stacked on the flagpole, a technical feat that was as challenging to remove as it was to install. The flagpole-tire stunt, explains Alec Himwich, was the hrain child of David Roberts. “He devised a contraption with two wooden Vs oriented perpendicularly to a long wood pole. One V was at the top of the pole and the other somewhat helow and opposite the first. On this pole were fasteners that corre­ sponded to those on the rope used to raise and lower the flag. The device was attached to the rope and a tire was placed on the upper V. Guide ropes were attached to the lower V. Then the whole thing was raised up by means of the flag rope. During the hoisting, the guide ropes were used for stability. When the tire finally was above the top of the flag pole the guide ropes were used to orient the tire so that when the device was lowered, the flag pole would be inside the tire. “The whole procedure was complicated by a gusty wind,” recalls Himwich. “Also, the operators were not the steadiest since some of them were already imbibing in anticipation of a day of celebration.” The class of ’75 produced an elaborate skit-“West Street Story,” in which Tony sang “Pure Reason” to the tune of “Maria” and Ben Milner (HA97) was portrayed as the campus’ Officer Krupke. They also put bookplates that read “Gift of the class of 1975” in all the books in the King William Room. Jason Walsh (A85) remembers the class of ’8a’s Alice in IForaderland prank: “It was quite remarkable. Amusement rides were set up on lower back campus, seemingly while we were in semi­ nar. Seminars were of course interrupted by the march hare, Alice, and the hatter, who led us to the rabbit hole (in the audito­ rium stage) down into the Wonderland that was set up in the hall­ ways of the basement, through the now-deserted Mellon class­ room hallways and out by the Planetarium to the waiting amusements. It was remarkably choreographed and seemed quite magical.” “Underclassmen were required to dance the lobster quadrille in FSK lobby,” recalls Peter Green (A84) of the Alice prank. “The next day we played croquet using pink flamingoes for mallets.” The 1984 prank took the Canterbury Tales as its theme. Sem­ inars were interrupted by knights, nuns, maidens, monks, a John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } �ai {Campus Life} jester, and a barmaid wench. Dan Knight and Duke Hugh­ es converted the fireplace room of the coffee shop into an English tavern. Grady Harris, as the Pardoner, stood on the steps of the quad presenting students with penances for the seven deadly sins. For the sin of pride, they were told to dance later that evening with everyone who asked; for sloth, they were to dance five dances in a row. Minstrels entertained the wayfarers outside McDowell and lumi­ naries lit the path from the base of the quad to the gym. There John Ertle presided as archbishop and head of the ecclesiastical court, charg­ ing each tutor with a sin (see sidebar). For the class of ’88’s Odyssey prank, class mem­ bers built in secret an i8-foothigh Trojan Horse of wood, chicken wire, and papier mache. John Lavery and Greg Ferguson constructed the horse’s frame and shaped its outlines with chicken wire. Karin Johns supervised the papier mache effort, using 75 pounds of flour and endless reams of newspaper to sculpt the body. Several dozen sen­ iors worked on the project under Johns’ direction. Students led out of Mel­ lon and McDowell for the Annapolis’ class of 1988 built a papier mache Trojan Horse to rule THE QUAD on PRANK DAY. Prank Skits: A Retrospective g by Chris Denny (Ag^) I99IA: “Operation Dorm Storm” Fielding Dupuy’s haunting portrayal of a crazed army officer shocked 90’s audiences with its stark portrayal of a nuclear apoc­ alypse, as well as a campus without Chase-Stone. The special effects of a cam­ eraperson running forward while shooting with a Camcorder in order to simu­ late a smart-bomb brought the cinematography of SJC Senior Pranks into a new era of artistic brilliance. Rated PG13 (language, and lots of it). i99aSF: “Oscar Night” Matthew Kelty stars in a hilarious parody of Hollywood’s wildest night of the year. Rated R (language, sexual situations and potty humor involving large bowel movements). T993A: “It’s a Wonderful Life” Starring Tom Lind as Clarence and Millicent Roberts J as God, this touching story involved Devin Rushing’s horrible nightmare of a world in which SJC was transformed into an “overpriced basketball school.” With Walter Sterling, Sr. reduced to Up-synching “Achy-Breaky Heart” at Mar­ maduke’s and a demonic Andre Barbera (played by the dashing CoUn Meeder) J bent on reducing Western Civilization to rubble, only the fearless James Beall I can rescue SJC, and a terrorized Patricia Locke (Deirdre Crosse), from oblivI ion. Rated SJC (wicked nasty satire and monogrammed female gludii maximi). {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } start of tbat prank were con­ fronted with the enormous beast. Ele Hamburger (A87) remembers its demise: “A storm hit after the horse had been up a few days. I remem­ ber it being blown up so it reared on its hind feet and then collapsed.” However, she adds, “I am not entirely sure this is not a false memo­ ry, since it is so cinematic in my mind’s eye.” The 2002 prank included a return to the mischief­ making aspect of the tradi­ tion. Assistant Dean Judith Seeger says that the seniors sent letters to a number of students saying that the state of Maryland now required random urine testing for drugs. The letters were accompanied by small paper cups and recipients were instructed to bring a sample to the director of Student Services by 3 p.m. on prank day. Seeger reports that no one showed up at the Student Services office, but she heard that several prankees visited the health center that day. Pranksters also ticketed every car in the college park­ ing lots. “After a few calls from disgruntled drivers, I walked around and removed them myself,” says Seeger. “Except for the one on college presi­ dent Chris Nelson’s car.” �1 2,2 {Campus Life} A BUDDHIST IN THE BOOKSTORE Bookstore manager Andrea dAmato brings an awareness ofEetstern thought to Santa he. hat makes a good college ! bookstore? Surely, as with t any other kind of bookstore, ^^k ^^k t a comprehensive selection ^^k ! of books, current as well as ^^k K ^^k ! classic and attractively dis^^k ^^k^ played, ought to be near the top of anyone’s list. HosY Y pitable environment would also seem a must, encouraging the customer-student or teacherto linger and browse. Then there are the less obvious attributes such as efficient management practices ... but wait. Shouldn’t the more relevant question be not what makes a good college book­ store but who? Untold numbers of the St. John’s community in Santa Fe would have only to point to Andrea d’Amato, who has been man­ ager of the bookstore for more than ao years, for the answer. Personal affection and professional admiration for this unusual woman-she is a novice Buddhist priest and mother of an adopted fifteen-year-old girl as well as successful businessperson-comprise their views in more or less equal proportion. “Bookstore people are special people,” says Georgia Knight, who has been a tutor at St. John’s since 1974. “Andrea personi­ fies the best of them. She has been a close friend for many years and unflaggingly helpful to me. She has made books a real adventure. She helps me trip over things I wasn’t necessarily looking for. But what I admire most are her enthusiasm, per­ suasiveness, and generosity of spirit. She radiates friendship.” Ralph Swentzell, who joined the St. John’s faculty 35 years ago, credits Andrea’s management skills for the “exceptional” qualities of the bookstore and also declares that the whole East­ ern Classics program, which he and a colleague, Bruce Perry, launched as an experiment only la years ago, “owes its exis­ tence” to Andrea. He explains: “I was an amateur at first, assigned to Chinese language. Andrea began auditing my class of IO or II students and got very excited. She helped us work out the language as a computer program. Eventually we had a full lexicon in front of us and translated Confucius, Lao-tse, Chi­ nese poetry, and other works. “But it was a very tumultuous affair bringing the Eastern Stud­ ies program into being. The college was ethnocentric in those days. In that environment we kept asking ‘How (in this institu­ tion of great books) can you ignore Eastern studies?’ The book­ store was a not-so-subtle influence on the college’s decision to adopt the program, with Andrea making sure that there were great books on Eastern studies available and prominently dis­ played on the front table.” It would seem natural to assume that her close association with the burgeoning Eastern Classics program directly influ­ enced Andrea’s decision to become a Buddhist, although such was not entirely the case. Working in a bookstore, however, was a serendipitous situation for her at a time of great personal crisis. “It was a case of having ready access to books that bore on my overwhelming need for a way out of my suffering,” she says. “I was seeking spiritual enlightenment for my pain, for my great heartache. My heart, in fact, broke open to Buddhism as soon as I started reading from a list of texts I had encountered through suggested Eastern Classics texts. I began with the “Acts of the Buddha” by a second-century Indian writer named Asvaghosa. It was the first time I had encountered the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism and as soon as I read those I thought Wow! This is what I’ve been looking for. This is my medicine. This addresses exactly what I’m feeling.” Andrea immersed herself in the great primary sources while continuing with her job. “I realized that this was not a way out of suffering but I had to start meditating. If you want to realize it you have to sit. You have to. I read enough Buddhism to know that it cannot just be read about. I learned that in order to bene­ fit from it you need to practice. One of the main practices is Zazen, which is sitting practice. So I sought a meditation teacher.” After many years of sitting. Buddhism became essential to Andrea. In December of 2000, she shaved her head to become a priest, a novice, she explains, in the Zen Buddhist belief, with its strong traditions of meditation and honoring of ancestors. {The College- St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } �{CampusLife} 23 A novice priest carries forward the form of the practice. The tra­ three-and-a half months in the making. Andrea made a pilgrimage to the Chinese temples that Dogen dition Andrea practices is Japanese Soto Zen, which is based on the four noble truths. The differences in the forms of Buddhism he in (the founder of the Japanese line of Buddhism) traveled to in the the ritual, the services, the practices. The Tibetan tradition is very 13th century. “I was able to sew on my robe in the very room ded­ rich iconographically, with colorful temples, painted demons on icated to Dogen, originally a 900-room monastery Tien Tong. the walls, and beautiful images. The Japanese tradition is very This is of deep importance to me because Dogen is part of the stark, sparse and beautiful, direct lineage,” says Andrea. “Dogen found the true dhar­ but very simple. “A priest is ma again, and brought that trained in the form-how you tradition to Japan. Every approach the altar, how the morning we put the robe on incense is offered, which way you turn from the altar, how our head, and with our chants we vow to liberate all you hold your hands during human beings.” the service. Since I am a Little in Andrea’s early detailed person the Japanese background, except perhaps tradition suits me well,” says a youthful restlessness, a dis­ Andrea. “It’s all in the details. satisfaction with the way her God is in the details. A priest life was going, would seem to can transmit and carry the augur what appears to be its form to the next generation. I present happy resolution. don’t know if I will arrive at She stopped attending the that level of service, as I am in Catholic Church while in training and will be for many high school and dropped out years, but that is what I am of the University of Massa­ doing-paying close attention chusetts in Amherst (where to details.” she worked part-time in a Andrea has made pilgrim­ bookstore) because, she says, ages to China and Tibet, “I had too much living to do.” where she circumambulated She became active in the the hohest of mountains. Her women’s movement and con­ hope was to manifest the sidered for a while opening dharma more in her life. After up a feminist bookstore that experience, she decided somewhere with a friend. to become a priest as a way to During a visit to Santa Fe, she be more involved in Bud­ answered an ad in The Santa dhism. Fe New Mexican for an assis­ To become a priest in this tant’s position in the St. tradition, Andrea had to cre­ John’s College bookstore. ate her own robe by hand, She became its manager in though she hadn’t done any 1981. sewing since home economics “The bookstore, along in seventh grade. She also with my colleagues and copied by hand sacred texts friends, ” she says, “has been from the 13th century. And, my anchor, the stabilizing she had to shave her head. Every stitch is a prayer: Andrea d’Amato wears the robe she made fact of my life in Santa Fe. If I The robe, an okesa, is com­ WHEN SHE BECAME A BuDDHIST PRIEST. am credited with helping to prised of patches of material make it an important part of that she gathered from family the college life I’m grateful for what it has given back to me.” and friends. With an intricate design, it is a personal project. The She enjoys spending weekends with her daughter Nandita at pattern derives from the Buddha, who, standing with his disciple, home in Taos. With this melding of family, career, and belief, it said he wanted a robe with a pattern after the rice fields. “All the is no wonder that she considers herself, as she says, not just con­ stitching shows on the outside and every stitch is a prayer,” says tent, but a person on the path of awakening as well. Says Andrea, Andrea. “Not something that could be done while watching TV or “At night we say, ‘Let me respectfully remind you...Do not doing anything else. It took a lot of concentration, time, and effort, squander your life.’ ’’-i^ accompanied by a candle, incense, and prayer.” The robe was about {The College. Sf. John’s College Summer 2002 } �{Bibliofile} ^4 BEYOND THE BARR-BUCHANAN MYTH Review by John Van Doren, A47 eloquent, the other, quizzical and complex in all he said. Yet their spirits reflected two old traditions in America, of Virginia and Massachusetts, which had met before. Barr, inclined to history, had graduated from the University of Virginia; Buchanan was a philosopher, educated at Amherst and Harvard, who said he got an under­ standing of his subject not from either school but only afterwards, as assistant director of the People’s Institute, offering adult education, in New York. At Oxford, where they were Rhodes Scholars, they found they had a common interest in speculative thought and the dis­ verybody connected with St. cussion of ideas. Buchanan went on to pur­ John’s, and many ontside it, sue both and discovered their sources in know that Stringfellow Barr the Great Books, which he took up with and Scott Buchanan were the students at the People’s Institute as well as founders, in 1937, of the Pro­ with some of the faculty at Columbia Uni­ gram by which the college has since been versity, among them Mortimer Adler, known. Some are aware that when they left Richard McKeon, and Mark Van Doren. St. John’s, both men worked together on Barr, with whom he kept in touch, went other projects, less well defined, having to back to Virginia, where he was an do with what might be called the state of immensely successful but unrepresentative the world, and that after many wanderings they came to the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in California, where both served for a time and where Buchanan worked until he died in 1968. But who were they? How did they come to think they should do the things they did? What did they seek to accomplish by doing them, nearly always together as friends and colleagues in a relationship which, begin­ ning at Oxford in 1919, lasted till Buchanan’s death? These are matters most people don’t know much about. We are thus indebted to Charles Nelson (class of 1945) for having written this fine book, which provides an account of them that will be instructive, even essential, not only to those who cannot remember those years, but also to those who can. Barr and Buchanan made an unlikely combination: the one, hot tempered and Radical Visions: Stringfel­ low Barr, Scott Buchanan, and Their Efforts on Behalf of Education and Politics in the Twentieth Century by Charles A. Nelson. With an Introduction by William H. McNeill. Bergin & Garvey, Westport, CT, 2001 E {The College- St. John ’5 College - Summer 2002 } teacher who sat on his desk in a green suit and purple shirt and talked basic texts with his students. By the end of the iqaos, both men had come to think that American higher educa­ tion was badly in need of the kind of reading and discussion they were carrying on in dif­ ferent places. To this end, and notwithstand­ ing the failure of an early effort to institute such activities by Buchanan’s friend Alexan­ der Meiklejohn at the University of Wiscon­ sin, the two men joined forces at Virginia in the mid-i93os and formulated a plan for a college within the college there which antic­ ipated the St. John’s Program. But Virginia never adopted this, and it was only when they were approached by the trustees of St. John’s, a school in grave academic and financial difficulties, that they found an opportunity which they accepted, not with­ out qualms, to practice what they preached. What happened there is known to every­ one at this college, or if it isn’t, Mr. Nelson will recall it for us. Within four years, the Program was recognized everywhere in the country as a striking innovation, supported in some quarters, disapproved of in others. The effort seemed to have succeeded. But then came the war and the student body went off to fight, while much of the new fac­ ulty disappeared. Barr and Buchanan kept the college going with inadequate funds and students who had not finished high school, but the effort was exhausting. They were further tried by the attempt of the Navy to acquire the college campus for expansion of the Naval Academy, a struggle that ended only in 1946 when the Navy gave up. By then both men, besides being weary, had soured on the college’s prospects in Annapolis and decided to leave, rejecting funds offered for its continuance there, to the dismay of the trustees. In truth the two had come to think that something more than St. John’s was needed �{Bibliofile} 2,5 '"The two came to think that something more than St. Johns was needed to make sense ofthepost-war world.. to make sense of the post-war world they saw emerging-something perhaps with under­ graduate, adult education, and research facilities combined. Then they realized, or thought they did, that even this was less than what the times required, which was a new politics and a new technological and social order. Their subsequent involvement in the Foundation for World Government, their separate sojourns in Israel and India, and their last brief interval together at the Cali­ fornia Center-years in which they both wrote interesting and important books and pamphlets-can be seen as efforts to suggest ways in which these changes could be real­ ized. Nothing they did was successful in terms of tangible accomplishment, but most of it was prescient in its focus on what we now recognize as world realities. Was there a divide between what the two did for education and what they tried to do in other areas later? Superficially, yes, but in essence, no. From the first, as young men with intellectual interests and capacities, they thought the world was in need of a bet­ ter understanding of itself than its educa­ tion gave it. St. John’s was an attempt to provide this. But the forces of technological change and social upheaval that appeared after the Second World War seemed to require a different kind of examination, though with the same objective. Barr and Buchanan, and the associates they got to work with them, sought to discover for themselves and explain to others what the underlying problems of the world were, looking foolish to those who thought “something should be done at once” about these, but seeming wiser now as we realize most of them are still there. All along, both men maintained that inquiry and discussion were propaedeutic to action. Every enterprise they started or tried to start had something of the seminar about it. Always they found themselves questioning first formulations and digging back to the root of things, so far as they could find it. In that sense they seemed to live the life of this college wherever they went, and partly it was so. But in another sense it was the other way around. That is the lesson of this book. Unique though it is, the college imitates something greater than itself. It is but a station of the active intel­ lect, nurturing in its given way an abiding interest in things brought to it by two who were bound on a common odyssey, a con­ cern that comes only (if I may change my figure) from those on lean horses and fat donkeys whose journey never ends. Short Reviews of Alumni Books ters fits well with Bellamy’s other Cleve­ land crime books: The Corpse in the Cellar, The Maniac in the Bushes, and They Died Crawling. Phaethon, of Radamanthus House, attends a party at his family mansion to celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of the High Transcendence. There he meets an old man who accuses him of being an impostor and then a being from Neptune who claims to be an old friend. The Neptunian tells him that essential parts of his memory were removed and stored by the very government that Phaethon believes to be wholly honorable. Phaethon embarks upon a quest across the solar system to recover his memory and learn what crime he planned that warranted such preemptive punishment. 100 Names oe Mary: Stories and Prayers By the staff of The College A Priest’s Journal_____________________ Victor Lee Austin (SF^S) Church Publishing Incorporated Austin writes about his ministry as a parish priest in a small town in upstate New York, about his work as a theologian, and about the intersection of the ordinary concerns and profound questions that priest and parish share and explore. Anthony F. Chiffolo (AGIg4) St. Anthony Messenger Press Calling upon Scripture, the writings of the early Church, the pronouncements of the saints, papal statements, and recent bibhcal and theological scholarship, this book pro­ vides historical and theological explanations of the origins of one hundred of Mary’s most popular and intriguing names. Each of the names includes both traditional and newlywritten prayers of intercession to Mary. OE Cleveland Woe_____________________ The Golden Age: A Romance oe the Far Future_______________________________ John Stark Bellamy II (Ap) Gray & Company This book of Cleveland murders and disas- John C. Wright (A84) Tor Books In this well-received science fiction novel. Killer in the Attic; And Still More Tales {The College -St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 Periodically, The College will list or review alumni books. Please send notice of books pubhshed or review copies (which will be donated to the library’s alumni author col­ lection) for consideration to: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404. } �{TheProgram} a6 STATISTICS VS. PTOLEMY Has St. John s made the right choicesfor the math tutorial? Alumni in the corporate world discuss theprogram. By Sus3AN Borden, A87 igh up in McDowell Hall, math tuto­ rials work their way through Euclid, Ptolemy, Newton, and Lohachevsky. Meanwhile, in a large corporation in Washington, D.C., three recent St. John’s graduates are doing the work of computer science PhDs. Was it the symmetry of the spheres, the ingenuity of the ecliptic, the lucidity of Newton’s lemmas that prepared them for this demand­ ing work? Their boss, Eric Rosenblatt (A74), says no. Rosenblatt, a vice president at Eannie Mae, began hiring John­ nies in 2000 and currently has a hand in the careers of eight John­ nies who work at Fannie Mae, the secondary market enterprise that makes mortgage money available for lenders. He expects to hire more Johnnies. His original decision to take a chance on the St. John’s grads was in part because of a lingering affection for his alma mater, but mostly because he thought it made good business sense. “Corpo­ rations live and die on good labor. I get paid because people who work for me make good decisions,” Rosenblatt says. “I decided that St. John’s would be a filter for employment. The students are intelligent and motivated. Although Fannie Mae has incredibly high standards, programming is something that, if you’re smart and you really want to do it, you probably can.” Rosenblatt continues to do most of his hiring at the annual meetings of the Allied Social Science Association; the staff he finds there are PhDs, which he says are simple to hire because PhDs tend to meet his criteria. But they’re also expensive and not always willing to do the simple charts and tables that convey the most insights. He points with pride to Jon Lawless (Aoo) and Brian Shea (Aoo), who started working just after they graduated. “Those two are already competitive with PhDs,” he says. “They started at around $50,000, but I’ll tell you something: they were worth more. I’m sending them to grad school and over time their earnings and opportunities will climb.” Although Rosenblatt has developed a win-win arrangement for Fannie Mae and St. John’s, he finds himself frustrated by what he sees as the limitations of the St. John’s math program. He says that the program’s lack of emphasis on mathematical mastery is a significant and unnecessary deficiency in an other­ wise fine education. It cuts many graduates off from entering a {The College number of careers that would be of interest to Johnnies. “Stu­ dents at St. John’s don’t have the typical math background of col­ lege graduates entering the social sciences. Sociology, experi­ mental psychology, economics-these are all fields Johnnies would enjoy,” he says. “The prerequisites are a few years of cal­ culus, statistics, maybe linear algebra. If they don’t have it, it seems like a daunting hill to climb, one more thing to keep them from targeting a career objective they would find satisfying and do well in. And if you want to go into engineering or the hard sci­ ences, you’re just in the hole. You avoid making the decision to undertake the work that graduate school would require and then it gets to be too late.” Recently retired Annapolis placement director Karen Krieger says that a long-term undertaking of her office was to make sure that students-from as early as their prospective visit-know that the St. John’s curriculum must be supplemented by additional courses for students seeking careers in math and science. “Stu­ dents have long known this is the strategy in medicine, and now there’s a growing understanding that this is the case in other fields. Once you get your education at St. John’s, you then go back and pick up your required courses,” says Krieger. “Getting enough math for careers is easy to do,” says Annapolis dean Harvey Flaumenhaft. “A number of students go on to careers in math and science. For example, several recent graduates are now studying astrophysics at George Mason University. “It’s true that we don’t do statistics, but our students can go to the commu­ nity college and take elementary statistics for a semester. If we did statistics, we’d have to give up something else. Now don’t get me wrong. The absence of their treatment does not mean that statis­ tics are not important. There are a lot of important things we don’t study here. Not only things we should do, but things that it’s an outrage not to do. We can’t do everything-we have to make choices.” . Sr. John’s The Math Gap A pack of recent Johnnie graduates working at Fannie Mae go to lunch and-no surprise-a seminar breaks out. They’re dis­ cussing Rosenblatt’s ideas and talk turns to Annapolis’ calculus manual (a brief handbook presenting the rudiments of calculus as done with more contemporary notation and notions). Using the manual is one of the few points of universal agreement, but the concord is not positive. The alumni are frustrated that the manu­ al is neither one thing nor another-not an original text, but not a College • Summer sooa } �{The Program} "Distilled modem math alsoprovides excellent mental training, also integrates and reinforces a variety ofprogram readings and labs. ” Eric Rosenblatt, A74 St. John’s College Fannie Mae Misha Hall, and John Lawless campus: Eric Rosenblatt, are a few of the Johnnies who WORK FOR the SECONDARY MORTGAGE ENTERPRISE. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } a? �aS {The Program} textbook either, offer­ ing just two or three problems to illustrate each concept. John Lawless, now a Fannie Mae economist working toward a mas­ ter’s of finance at George Washington University (paid for by Fannie Mae), suggests pages of additional problems to supplement classroom discus­ sion. “The people with me in graduate school are not that smart,” he says. “The advantage they have is that they’ve seen a lot of this stuff before. They have a broad exposure to basic math.” Lawless illustrates his grad-school handicap by bringing up the simple operation of multiplying exponents as part of an equation. “Of course I know how to do it. It’s simple. But I always have to take a second to remind myself how to do it. This makes high level math that much more difficult, having to translate such small things each time.” Rosenblatt knows exactly what Lawless means. He now has a PhD in finance, which he started working on at the age of 35. “I was always translating,” he says. “Math never became my lan­ guage.” Flaumenhaft (not at the lunch, but commenting later) points out the trade-offs St. John’s makes. “I’m not someone who thinks that the program contains everything that’s important, worth­ while, fundamental and deep, but we can’t do everything at once,” he says. “I took some high-powered math courses early on. I did well, but I wish that before taking them I’d done something like what we do here. It might mean you can’t solve some problems as early in your academic life, but if you’re interested in understand­ ing and not immediate facility, if you’re interested in looking at what makes sense and is simple enough to be seen as harmonious and clear, something that is fundamental and fruitful enough to be important when you’re 18 or 19 years old, then this is far more important than getting what seems to be the most useful item in your tool kit.” Rosenblatt says “I understand that math at St. John’s serves a lot of purposes, including training in a priori thinking and inte­ gration with other readings in the program, but distilled modern math also provides excellent mental training, also integrates and reinforces a variety of program readings and labs. Beyond that, it will concretely help Johnnies with their careers. I worry that St. John’s students are not all finding careers appropriate to their abilities, and I think the math gap is part of the problem. Why is Ptolemy more ele­ gant or better train­ ing for future guardians than gen­ uine calculus?” Some of the lunchers point out that the college is not just for people with strong interests in math, and that the St. John’s approach can show non-mathematicians the wonder of mathemat­ ics, can even turn them into mathematicians. Most determined to make this case was Misha Hall (Aoo), a data analyst who writes requirements for and runs tests on the Fannie Mae database. A Beautiful Paradigm “The way we go about studying Euclid in the first year is great. You have the chance to see the beauty of mathematics,” Hall says. “And Ptolemy is really interesting. By the end of the first semester you have to catch yourself, because you’ll end up saying that the earth is really in the center of the universe. Mathematics proves everything Ptolemy says; this makes you question the things that you assume, it makes you question numbers and statistics.” Others in the group were not so fond of Ptolemy, saying that the amount of time spent studying the Almagest is ridiculous, even describing the first semester of sophomore year as “the long death march through Ptolemy.” Flaumenhaft, however, appreciates Hall’s case for the value of Ptolemy. “Ptolemy is maybe the primary example of having expe­ riences that are puzzling precisely because there’s so much about them that seems simple, clear, orderly, and beautiful, yet there’s just enough to bother and annoy. The activity of trying to make sense of observations given to you, while something within your­ self points to an idea-it’s a beautiful paradigm of scientific enter­ prise. I regard the study of Ptolemy as an important intellectual experience. There’s the interplay of the world we see and the world we think, but it’s also a necessary prerequisite for appreci­ ating the absolutely astounding fact that when you start thinking, you can end up with everything familiar looking altogether differ­ ent.” At lunch’s end, Rosenblatt prompts the Johnnies to repeat a line he’s heard before and obviously enjoys. Lawless obliges; “If you want to learn math, go to MIT; if you want to learn why math is heartbreakingly beautiful, St. John’s is the place for you.” {The College- St. John's College ■ Summer 200Z } �{Alumni Notes} 1932 Senior Status, Growing Caseload 1943 J.L. Bean writes: “I hope to make Peter Kellogg-Smith is still my 70th reunion.” making sculpture, writing on edu­ cation, and working on a fuel effi­ cient internal combustion and steam engine. 1933 John F. Wager, Jr. writes: “Still alive at 91 years.” 1935 Richard S. Woodman writes: “My brother Robert G. Woodman, class of 193a, died June 2001.1 am still working at a leisurely pace and still reside in a small dehghtful vil­ lage in central New York state.” “I’m 88 and still rarin’ to go,” says Melville L. Bisgyer. “My best to the alumni and SJC. You sound wonderful-keep it up.” 1936 Gilbert Crandall writes: “Only one member of the class of ’36 attended the alumni reunionMarttn W. Rausch. I had planned to attend but ill health prevented me from doing so. I have improved and hope to make the ’03 reunion.” 1939 After 59 years, Malcolm Silver, DDS, has retired from the practice of dentistry. 1942 Based on national scores of the PGA Rules test, Ernest J. HeinMULLER has been appointed a PGA referee. “This has been a great experience, following the great players on great courses and rul­ ing on situations as they occur,” he says. 1945 Lawrence Levin writes: “I’m cur­ rently leading discussions of the news at Seniors’ Community Cen­ ters, which I enjoy very much as I do singing tenor with the local chorus.” 1947 Steve Benedict writes: “After 50 years behind too many desks. I’ve repaired to a 1754 farmhouse, with barn and creek, in Spencertown, New York-northern Columbia County. My aim: to sort out and maybe chronicle a whole bunch of not very coherent life themes, helping it all go dotvn with plenty of tennis and piano. If anyone can help-or even if you can’t-give a ring and drop by. It’s 518-392-0487 or Box 16, Spencertowu, NY 12165. E-mail is: stevebenedict@taconic.net. Howell Cobb (Class of 1944) writes: “As of March 2001,1 took senior status as a U.S. District judge. But my caseload is growing as it is throughout the Eastern District of Texas. My replacement has been nominated by President Bush, but the Senate Judiciary Committee has not granted him a hearing. After he is confirmed, I anticipate my case­ load will be about 60% of what it is now. Senior judges remain active, and there are over 200 now with about 650 active judges. About 100 vacancies continue.” Howell and his wife have six children-3 sons and 3 daughters-and a total (as of now) of 18 grandchildren. His grandson, Andrew C. Cook, starts in the Graduate Institute this fall. enjoying worshipping in the con­ gregation in the 49th year in the ministry.” 1951 “The college did an exquisite job in arranging our 50th class oncampus reunion,” writes Dr. Lawrence Myers. “It was both a charming and an educational experience for us. Renewing my friendships with my classmates made me feel very fortunate to be a class member of such a noble, intelUgent, and interesting group of men.” 1953 Robert Hazo reports that he is 1949 The Rev. Frederick P. Davis writes: “We ‘3-D’s’ of the Davis clan (wife Rita, son David, and self) are still hanging loose in sunny southern California. Most of the time we continue to take care of each other: Rita tied to tank-oxygen here at home but doing most of the inside house­ work; David in wheelchair from compound fracture of both bones below left knee but doing all the hot cooking of dinner, and the ‘old man’ doing all outside house and garden work while running all errands for food, etc. Relieved of most church work; I’m at long last finishing up 30 years of teaching St. John’s type seminars at the University of Pittsburgh. He also coordinated a lecture series that featured many prominent speak­ ers, including George W. Bush. He’s now working on a book titled “Minority Rule.” 1954 A profile of Sydney Porter was found by Joe Kaufman (class of 1953) in the winter 2001-2002 issue of Radon Reporter. The pro­ file recounts highlights of Porter’s career: He is a founding member and early president of AARST (American Association of Radon {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer zoos } Scientists and Technologists), a Certified Health Physicist, and a fellow of the Health Physics Soci­ ety, the American Nuclear Society, and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. He was one of the founders of Radiation Man­ agement Corporation. 1955 “Maintain imperturbable equa­ nimity! ” writes John Joanou. Harold Bauer is in mid-season of his 40th year as a conductor of symphony and opera. He wiU con­ tinue as Music Director of New Philharmonic and DuPage Opera Theater, two professional organi­ zations in the Chicago area, through the summer of 2004. He has just concluded conducting Massenet’s “Werther,” which he says “shares a quite remarkable union with Goethe’s novella of 125 years earlier.” In addition to a concert of Brahms, Bartok, and Bauer (the premier of his “Cele­ bration for Orchestra”), he con­ ducted a June production of Lehar’s “Zigeunerliebe” for Light Opera Works in Evanston, and a July production of Floyd’s “Susan­ nah” for DuPage Opera. 1957 Thomas Sigman writes: “Henry Ansell passed away summer 2001. Hank had been a successful restau­ rateur in New York City. He was a �{Alumni Notes} lifelong opera buff. In retirement he volunteered in several impor­ tant positions at the New York Metropolitan Opera. We remem­ ber him also as a fine comedian who could have been a profession­ al. I miss him.” Cornelia Hoffman Reese writes: “In the aftermath of the tragedy of 9/11 when our stunned senses had to recreate a semblance of normal­ ity and daily living habits, we decided to go forward with plans to visit my daughter’s (Angelina Kleneburgess, A83) friends in Brussels. On Christmas day after our celebration with children, we departed from BWI. We included myself, Angelina, Edward Burgess (A79), and my Burgess grandchildren—Genevieve, Louis, and Cynthia. Though unable to visit Mary Sullivan Blomberg in Sweden as hoped, I was able to have a most delightful phone con­ versation with Mary, our first voice contact in roughly 30 years. Mary is living in Stockholm.” 1958 BlakelyLirrLuroN Mechau (also SFGI70) and Michael K. Mechau (class of 1959) write: “Both of us are retired, living on a small farm, reading books, and entertaining friends and family.” few months ago from Bank of America, where I ran all informa­ tion technology engineering activ­ ities. Am doing a bit of consulting, but am basically thoroughly enjoy­ ing life. Marie and I are traveling around, indulging our interest in orientalia. We’re frequenting auc­ tions and estate sales. I’m finding life is wonderful after many years of i8-hour frenzied days! ” 1963 Temple Porter has lived in Raleigh 30 years with Brenda, his wife of 35 years. After graduating from Coach University in 1997, Temple founded Triangle Coach­ ing Services, a professional organ­ ization that provides coaching, counseling, and advisory services to businesses and individuals nationwide. In its infancy now, coaching is gaining great credibil­ ity as it spreads to all facets of our culture. Any St. Johnnies interest­ ed in exploring this growing field may contact Temple for informa­ tion. Empty nesters now. Temple and Brenda have three children-a social worker, a property manag­ er, and a photographer-all in N.C. Their oldest grandchild (of 3) is a teenager now, and is ready to take scuba diving lessons as preparation for a career in marine biology. David Benfield writes: “We i960 Col. (RET) John Lane writes: should all try to make the reunion this year. Remember the old advice from Chase and Phillips: ‘The beautiful is difficult.’ ” “Hi, decided to retire completely from a full-time job and retired a Life’s Continuum Virginia Seegers Harrison (Class of 1964) writes: “I’m continuing to learn from the elders with whom I work. Even though they are ‘declining,’ they are storehouses of memories. (Many are old lefties who recall firsthand WWI and so on.) I try to arrange living situations which preserve or promote quality of life for them. In the meantime, my eldest son and his wife had another child-a girl this time. It’s won­ derful to have a two-year-old grandson and a 6-month-old granddaugh­ ter, and to see the continuum of life. 1965 John Hetland is still (since 1973) directing the Renaissance Street Singers (www.streetsingers.org). 1966 really enjoying the one-on-one therapy.” Charles B. Watson (A) writes: “#i son, Ivan Watson, now report­ ing from Kabul for NPR. Busy life continues unabated now that we’re empty nesters and I still only get to New York City two times a year. Recently experienced 3rd world health care as Masha broke her arm on a boat in BVI.” Christopher Hodgkin (A) is Antigone Phalares (SF) writes: looking forward to retiring this summer and having time for seri­ ous reading for the first time since leaving the college. “Our small but longstanding and dedicated Sacramento SJC semi­ nar group chugs along and enrich­ es our lives, most of all because we are lucky to have Tom (HA94) and Marion Slaeiey who have blessed us with their culture and refine­ ment and warm hearts. I strongly recommend to each alumni semi­ nar that they seek out retired tutors and nudge them to move into your area and participate in your seminars.” She describes the Slakeys’ renewal of their wedding vows this past January and notes that she, Arianne Laidlaw (class of 1957), and Curtis and Becky Wilson (HA83 and 82AGI) were among the Johnnies in attendance. 1967 For Helen Hobart (A), March through June 3002 was a season springing with change. She retired as director (and founder) of the City of Sacramento’s Alzheimer’s day program to launch a new pro­ gram of peer support groups for individuals beginning the journey of memory loss-and in June, unit­ ed in marriage with a beloved friend from her Buddhist Sangha. “We take heart from the beautiful renewal of wedding vows that TOM (HA94) AND Marion Slakey held here in Sacramento this winter!” she says. George Partlow (A) is looking forward to retirement in June. His fifth grandchild, Dakota Aragron Watson, was born on Christmas morning. Rick Wicks (SF) was in Alaska 1968 Joy Avery-Balch (SF) writes: “My email is still joy@tums.org. Let me tell you about my new career. I went back to school for three years and got an associate’s degree in Health Sciences in 1999 and am a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant. However, there were no jobs for C.O.T.A.s nationwide until now. I’ve just been hired by a national rehabilitation company and finally earning enough money to live on (my first non-not-forprofit job) AND still helping peo­ ple cope with the problems caused by strokes, heart attacks, acci­ dents, etc. I’m working in two nursing homes with rehab and {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } last summer for the first time in ten years, where he had a chance to visit Carl Bostek (SF) and his fantastic Alaskan lodge. “We visit­ ed our land and the kids and 1 caught salmon in the ocean-a great time!” he writes. ThomasG. Keens (SF) writes: “I am a professor of pediatrics, physi­ ology, and biophysics at the Keck School of Medicine of the Univer­ sity of Southern California. In February 3002,1 organized a post­ graduate course in Non-Invasive Ventilation of Children with Res­ piratory Failure as part of the 5th International Congress of Pedi­ atric Pulmonology in Nice, France. I also spoke on Transition­ ing CCHS Patients to Non-Invasive Ventilation at the Second �{AlumniNotes} About the Four Cats. .. 1970 31 which will be torn down. We expect to spend winters there once both boys are in college.” Marii ynne (Maury Wills) Scott (SF) writes: “My husband David and I enjoyed to our daughter, Emily’s, May graduation from Sarah Lawrence College. She has been accepted at Yale Divinity School where she will pursue a master’s of Art and Religion to combine her interests in music (trombone) and liturgy. I continue to teach first grade in a suburban school outside Seattle. This year will be my asth in public education. The standards/accountability movement has been discouraging to those of us who prefer to view children as human beings glorious in their uniqueness. They say life begins when the dog dies and the last child has left home-both of which have happened to me. So how did 1 end up with four cats?! ” International Symposium of Con­ genital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome in Paris, France. I coor­ dinate one of the world’s largest home mechanical ventilation pro­ grams for children at the Chil­ dren’s Hospital, Los Angeles. We have sent home 346 children on part-time or full-time mechanical assisted ventilation in 34 years.” Ellin Barret (SF) is a member of the board of California Revels-a non-profit performance organiza­ tion. Revels groups exist in nine cities across the U.S. and present non-rehgious winter solstice pag­ eants and other musical events. It’s a great way to celebrate the winter. The website is www.revels.org. 1969 Jamie Cromartte (SF), Frances Burns, and Mark and Linda Bernstein (all A69) met at the Trenton Thunder Minor League game on August 19. A mini-’69 NJ/Phila. Reunion. Wendy Watson (SF) writes: “I’m alive and well in Detroit, Michi­ gan. I’m running three senior cen­ ters and concerned with aging pol­ icy development. My daughter Amy is 15 and interested in theater and is a good actress. She’s mak­ ing her way through Shakespeare. Peace and justice activities on a local level are important to me. Most of my friends are somehow engaged in these activities too.” Beth Kuper (SF) has left the cor­ porate world and is now working as a feng shui consultant. Margaret Gaefney (SF) writes: “My home is now 30 blocks from Luther Burbank’s Home and Gar­ den. I’m planting roses, tomatoes and chilies in Santa Rosa, Califor­ nia. Ahh! The Sun! Good for baby boomer bone marrow. There is a guest bedroom-St. Johnnies are welcome. I’m doing landscaping, nutritional-RN triage (cradle to grave) and photography. Barhara Mordes Ross (A) writes: “To all the ones who have ever known me, loved me, despised me-I just want you to know that I held each and every one of you in my heart as I lay near death after being broadsided by a truck that went three feet into my driver's seat. I was miraculously saved, first by my good dear little Maxima that I’ve loved and taken care of for 17 years because she talks to me. Second, by the red trauma team that wanted to beat out the blue trauma team to rescue me. I ended up with six broken ribs, a broken clavicle, a collapsed lung, and a new love for old friends. Now, when I say I love you to peo­ ple I haven’t talked to for thirty years, I realize how much I do love them.” Barbara would appreciate phone calls (407-493-4047) or let­ ters (3913 Autumnwood Trail, Apopka, FL 33703) from old friends. Flowers would also be lovely. Susan Swartzherg-Rubenstein (SF) (formerly Susan Wood) is working as a foreign correspon­ dent for public radio while living in France. She can be reached at Ssrub@aol.com, or by post at 6, Impasse Pierre Simon, 93340 Malakoff, Paris, France. She writes: “The St. John’s College alumni living in Paris had a reunion last month in the cafe at the top of the Pompidou Center with a magnificent aerial view of half of Paris, sweeping from Sacre Coeur to the Eiffel Tower around to Notre Dame, and looking over the plan of the city and the Hausmannian mansard rooftops. “It was a delightful, unrushed afternoon of fellowship with some discussion about how we would like to continue meeting. The five of us included Bill Randolph (A75), Nathanael Long (SF90), Jennifer Donnelly (A96), Georges Contos (class of 1953) and yours truly. We have plans to meet again on June 31, this time at someone’s home, to discuss the following list of poems: Pierre de Ronsard - “Recueil: Sonnets pour Helene” Robert Herrick-“To The Virgins, To Make Much of Time” W. B. Yeats-“When You are Old” Jules LaForgue-“Autre Complainte de Lord Pierrot” Thosophile Gautier-“L’hippotame” T.S. Eliot-“The Hippopotamus” Ronald H. Fielding (A) writes: “Now in my seventh year with Oppenheimer Funds, managing four municipal bond funds with over $8.5 billion (yes, that’s a B) and 30 staff. Ron was the subject of a three-page spread in Barron’s April 39 issue. Sons Daniel and Michael are in nth and 9th grades, so college planning has begun, and I showed Dan St. John’s this summer. Also, we’ve just begun architectural design work for a new house on the beach on Kiawah Island, S.C. I bought an older house on the property from Archibald Cox three years ago. {The College . St. John’s College ■ Summer 200Z } 1971 Michael ViCTOROFF (A) has left his job as medical director for Aetna and is writing a book on errors in medicine. John Stark Bellamy II (A) is astonished to announce the publi­ cation of his fourth book devoted to Cleveland murders and disas­ ters, The Killer in the Attic: And Even More Tales ofCleveland Woe, published by Gray & Co. Publish­ ers, Cleveland. 1972 Claude F. Martin (A) writes: “30 years? It seems longer! ” Leslie Starr (A) has played a third season as substitute second oboe with the Baltimore Sympho­ ny and took part in the orchestra’s fall 3001 tour of Europe, which included performances in London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. 1973 Wilfred (Bill) McClay (A) was nominated by President Bush to be a member of the National Council on the Humanities, which is the governing board of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Deborah Achtenberg’s (A) book. Cognition of Value in Aristotle’s Ethics: Promise ofEnrichment, Threat ofDestruction, was pub­ lished by State University of New York Press, May 3003. Stephen A. Slusher (SF) is prac­ ticing intellectual property lawprimarily biotechnology patent prosecution and litigation, as a partner at Peacock, Myers & Adams, P.C. in Albuquerque. �{AlUMNIPrOFILE} 3a White House Wordsmith Two bright September days—onejoyful, one tragic—have set the tonefor Holly Miller's White House work. BY SUS3AN Borden A87 t was a crisp sunny Saturday in early September when Holly Miller (SFGIoi), a new writer on Laura Bush’s staff, brought her visiting parents with her to the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress to hear the First Lady speak at Washington’s National Book Festi­ val. “It was a beautiful day and a great event for the city,” Miller says. “We heard Mrs. Bush’s remarks, strolled around, watched children playing on the lawn, and listened to Stephen Ambrose speak.” Three days later, September ii, was also a beautiful day in Washing­ ton, but instead of celebrating. Miller found herself and her col­ leagues from the Old Executive Holly Miller (right) with hoss Laura Bush. Office Building fleeing their work­ space in confusion and fear as a Boeing 767 struck the Pentagon and the thinking that no matter where you live or safety of downtown D.C. seemed unimagin­ who you are, there is a level at which we can all connect. Even more simply, I was think­ ably flimsy. Despite the somber note that tragic day ing that there are so many good people out brought to the lives of Washington workers, there.” Miller says that the excitement of work­ it did not mark the end of Miller’s honey­ moon with her dream job. “After 9/11 the ing in the White House has not diminished position definitely had new meaning,” says over time and adds that she’s never met Miller. “The attacks gave me a greater anyone, no matter how long they’ve sense for where I worked and why I was in worked there, for whom it had. “Anyone public service. Having the opportunity to with any interest in history can’t help but write for someone who is in a position to be thrilled to work here, to walk through offer comfort to so many people made me these hallways. It’s so humbling, so fasci­ realize that I was to contributing to the larg­ nating. I’m always learning about the his­ tory of this place.” er work of the White House.” Miller is learning about a lot more than Shortly after the attacks, Mrs. Bush’s staff relocated to the East Wing of the the history and lore of 1600 Pennsylvania White House where Miller now works in a Avenue. An ongoing challenge of her job is small office next to the Visitors’ Center. to capture the style and sentiments of Mrs. Over the next few months, a number of fam­ Bush to use in the writing she does on her ily members of the 9/ii victims visited the behalf. “It’s a learning process,” she says. “I White House. “It was inspiring to meet them and an honor to have the chance to trained under my predecessor, who had a express my condolences,” she says. “They good sense of Mrs. Bush’s voice. I’ve read were so brave and gracious. I remember her old speeches. Sometimes I can go back {The College -St John's College • Summer 2002 } and find what I want to write in a speech she delivered months ago. Learning to write for her is a matter of marrying of my style and her style; her style changes and I evolve with her.” Of course in Miller’s potentially sensitive position, getting the style right is only part of the challenge. She discusses policy-related corre­ spondence with Mrs. Bush’s direc­ tor of policy. When she writes thank-you letters to foreign heads of state, she consults the National Security Council. And all her work is checked by the First Lady before she signs it. “My communication with Mrs. Bush comes through the written word, which informs my style,” says Miller. “She’s the best editor. Her changes, whether of a word or a sentence, make everything read just right.” Miller’s a competent editor on her own. She notes that all of her jobs-whether in government, television, or public relations-have been writing jobs. After earning a BA in English and creative writing from Denison University in 1995, she began her career as a writer and legislative aide to Sen­ ator Olympia Snow of Maine and enrolled in the Craduate Institute at St. John’s in 1997. “What a great time to do it,” she says. “I was reading texts about early government and how democracy came about, reading The Prince while working on the Hill.” Now Mrs. Bush’s deputy director of corre­ spondence, Miller’s literary focus is prima­ rily on the words and thoughts of the First Lady, although she does make time to read the words of others. “I just finished reading the David McCullough biography, John Adams, and I’m trying to read more from the great collection of books I got at St. John’s,” she says. First on the list for this White House staffer? Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. �{AlumniNotes} Jon Ferrier (A) writes; “I just fin­ ished an introduction to jazz pro­ gram at our local public library where Kayne, my wife, was branch head.” Laurie Franklin Callahan’s (SF) daughter, Erin Callahan, will be a freshman on the Annapolis cam­ pus in the fall. From Steve and Melissa Sedlis (both A): “Steve is chief of cardiol­ ogy at the Manhattan VA Medical Center. He is an interventional cardiologist and associate profes­ sor at NYU School of Medicine. Melissa is a pediatrician in private practice in Manhattan and on the faculty of Weill Cornell Medical College and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Our oldest daughter, Elizabeth, is graduating from Barnard College with a degree in neurosciences. Our second daugh­ ter, Jennifer, is a sophomore at Scripps College studying political science, and Julia is in high school.” School of Architecture. He is also a painter and is presently design­ ing large screens (oil on wood) and continuing to work in pen and ink. Cynthia Kirschner Swiss (A) writes: “My husband and I are sponsoring a coffeehouse for singer-songwriters at St. John’s Methodist Church on Harford Road in Baltimore the first Satur­ day of every month.” “I’ve largely left newspapering for longer forms,” writes Eric Scigliano (SF). “A new book. Love, War, and Circuses: the AgeOld Relationship Between Ele­ phants and Humans was published by Houghton Mifflin this spring.” 1976 Phyllis P. Goodman (SFGI) became a great-grandmother on March 22. After over ao years as a computer consultant serving the healthcare industry, Jan Lisa Huttner (A) is now devoting herself full time to her web site FILMS FOR TWO: THE ONLINE GUIDE FOR BUSY COUPLES (www.films4a.com <http://www.films4a.com/>) and related speaking and writing proj­ ects. Alumni who logged on this summer had an extra treat-a guest editorial by David Chute (Aya). Landrun Hardy Mason (A) writes: “I’m living happily in the Connecticut countryside with my wife and daughter. Our son is now a freshman at MIT, and I’m in my third career. After 10 years each as a computer scientist and then a corporate manager. I’m now an investment advisor and fund manager-and loving it. Would be thrilled to hear from any of my friends from my abbreviated career at St. John’s.” 1974 1977 Alla and Jeff Victoroff (A) are pleased as punch to announce the birth of their beautiful daughter Maia on February 23, aooi. 1975 In addition to his editorial work at the University of Miami in NorthSouth Center, Jose Grave de Per­ alta (A) is teaching art history at the Art and Art History Depart­ ment and freehand drawing in the WalterT. Featherly (SF) writes: “As of July I, 2001,1 joined the Washington D.C.-based law firm of Patton Boggs, but I continue to reside and work in Anchorage, Alaska.” He’d like to hear from any Johnnies traveling to Alaska. Bob Elliott (A) writes: “I have just started my own investment banking/securities boutique after 18 years at JP Morgan. I am happy to discuss careers on Wall Street with interested students/alumni, especially those in the Chicago area where I live with my wife, Stephanie, and three daughters.” 1978 Victor Lee Austin (SF) writes: “In the spring of 2002, three Austins celebrated graduation. I received my PhD in theology at Fordham; my dissertation title: A Christological Social Vision: The Uses ofChrist in the Social Encycli­ cals ofJohn Paul II. But also in the same season, our son, Michael, received his BA from Thomas Aquinas College; and our daugh­ ter, Emily, graduated from high school. My wife, Susan (Gavahan, SF76), doesn’t quite know what to think, but is enjoying some physi­ cal and mental improvement of late. (In 1993 she had brain sur­ gery. ) A book of my meditations, A Priest’s Journal, was published in late 2001 by Church Publishing in New York. Peter Buck (SF) continues his work to set up a year-long rites of passage workshop in North Caroli­ na and continues his work with Quakers. 1980 Peter Grubb (A) writes: “2002 celebrates 18 years of marriage, the 8th and nth birthdays of our two lovely children (Mariah and Jonah), and 23 years owning my business ROW (River Odysseys West/Remote Odysseys World­ wide). ROW’S Missouri river adventures, paddling 34-foot canoes that replicate those of the early fur traders along the Lewis and Clark trail, are selling like hot cakes. Visit ROW at WWW. rowinc .com.” 1981 Chris Mark (A) bought a house in Laurel, Md. in late 2000. “It’s within earshot of I-95, so any 33 Johnnies passing through the area are welcome to stop by for a refreshing beverage. My email address is cjmark@speakeasy.org.” Matt Hartzell (A) writes: “Amongst other fun and frolic. I’m now on the Board of Directors for a new bank we helped organize and start up. The Right Bank for Texas opened its doors May 13. I’m still waiting for my Director’s fees, but I guess I haven’t drawn the right ‘Chance’ or ‘Community Chest’ card yet!” Marilynn R. Smith (SFGI) writes: “I’m retiring this year from the K12 school district for which I’ve worked for 27 years. I’ll continue to teach, though, for the local community college. Also I’ll have time to spend with my 4 grandchil­ dren!” 1982 Gail Donohue Storey (SFGI), a novelist, and her husband. Dr. Porter Storey, bicycled 2400 miles in seven weeks from Houston, Texas to Camden, Maine on their tandem bicycle, fully self-support­ ed with four panniers. Kathi Sue Nash Wilson (SF) has a daughter, Karina, who graduated in June from the University of Cal­ ifornia at the age of 19. The family, which includes her husband Wayne, and seven-year-old son Kennedy, are relocating this summer. Patty (Sowa) Rubin (A) is living on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with husband Eric and children Anna (16), Madalen (12), and Alden (8). “I’m teaching preschool music (best teaching job I’ve had, for the worst pay), directing church choir, singing as soloist and as member of local choruses. Cur­ rent improbable ambitions: to have my own office and sing Die Wesendonk Lieder.” David HershelWeinstein (A) has lived in Florida since 1985 and is still the director of research for a brokerage firm. He’s recently continued on p-jG {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } �{Alumni Profile} 34 Unmasking the Apocalypse A Johnnie parodies a hest-selling series ofapocalyptic novels. BY Sus3AN Borden (A87) rebuilt and the sacrificial system reestab­ lished as the world prepares for the apoca­ lypse) has ridden one wave of popularity after another since it first showed up in the 19th century. He says that, not only does the dispensationalists’ vision rob Christianity of its depth and meaning, but its promoters often have another agendato rob Christians of their worldly possessions. “Dispensational theolo­ gy has always been a rest­ ing place for thieves. In the 1890s they said the end of the world would be in ten years. They got peo­ ple to sell their homes, give them their money,” Wilson says. “Some peo­ ple will take on massive debt, do short term things like not get married and go off to work in the mis­ sion field for what they think is the world’s last few years. There’s nothing shallower than a Christ culture with end-of-theworld fever, because everything’s short-term thinking.” As Wilson has reflected this shallow thinking in the mirror of parody, he’s caused a stir among a number of readers of the Left Behind series. “I was expecting far more anger,” he says, “but I got a lot of feedback that was positive and thoughtful. I heard from people saying ‘thanks for letting people know that the Left Behind books are not the only is sentences are stilted, his ed to demonstrate that historic Christian­ nouns too often abstract. ity is much bigger than what Left Behind His dialogue is plodding presents.” Wilson says that dispensational theolo­ and his reasoning is circu­ lar. His characters are gy (the theological position that holds stereotypes living in a world of cliches. His that God covenants with people in differ­ plot is far-fetched and his descriptions are ent ways in different periods of history-in this case requiring that the Temple be long and largely irrelevant. You’d think a graduate of St. John’s and a lecturer at New St. Andrews College would know better. And you’d be right. Nathan Wilson (AGloi) is the author of Right Behind, a parody of the best-selling apocalyptic novel Left Behind. In Left Behind, the world is confronted with the sudden disappearance of a significant portion of its population as the true believers are raptured, leav­ ing a confused world of non­ believers behind to discover the truth and live out the Bible’s apocalyptic vision. In Right Behind, Wilson mocks every aspect of the book, from the heavy-hand­ ed character development to the clumsy writing. “I wanted to imitate the writ­ ing style, the thought process, the plot structure. I wanted to imitate into car­ icature every literary aspect of the work and its theolo­ gy,” he says. But his main goal was to reveal the perni­ cious thinking behind Left Behind’s theology-and its success. “[Authors] LaHaye and Jenkins have created a Parodist Nathan Wilson with his son, Rory D. false view of Christ. I want{The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } �{Alumni Profile} option.’ And I heard from people who have awakened and started reading those hooks in light of Right Behind. My goal was not to present a theology, hut to trigger an investigation of LaHaye’s and Jenkins’ ideas.” Readers’ comments on Amazon, com include: “It’s about time a Christ­ ian who is concerned with what the Bihle actually says writes a hook,” and “I laughed my evangelical Christian keister off.” Two self-proclaimed authorities on dispensational theology also weighed in, says Wilson: “Tim LaHaye said my hook was funny hut Jenkins got really, really mad.” Those most critical of Wilson’s book saw him as anti-Christian. “Some people got really fired up and thought I was blaspheming against Christianity and attacking God,” says Wilson. “But I was most certainly not doing that. I was attacking a new and not too long-lived movement in the evangelical world.” Far from being prone to take pot­ shots at Christianity, Wilson comes from a Christian background and takes religion seriously. “My parents came out of the ‘Jesus People’ move­ ment in the ’70s. It was a bunch of hip­ pies who moved on from ‘make love not war’ to somehow find the doc­ trines of Christ. My dad became a pas­ tor in a Jesus People church in an auto­ body shop.” Wilson’s father is still pastor of that church, which has become a Presbyterian church, and Wilson describes his parents now as oldguard historic Protestants. “I’ve lived through most of that process,” he says. “I was born into the body shop church, and am now currently attend- From Right Behind BY Nathan D. Wilson Buff sat by his window in business class and watched the sun come up like a single tooth in a bleeding gum. f He remembered that time in Israel. You know, that J time when he became a deist and began to think that I he led a charmed life because he always was, to coin a phrase, in the right place at the right time. An old woman sat across the aisle from him, a passed out drunk next to him. He turned from his window and looked at the old woman. She had a pair of cotton nylon blend underpants in one hand and dentures in the other. She stared at Buff in shock. “Excuse me mister,” she said. “Yes?” Buff said. “He’s gone. My Harold’s gone. He’s just gone, van­ ished, disappeared. Could you help me find him?” “I’m afraid that there is going to be no finding him Ma’am.” “Why?” “Has he left all material things behind him, clothes, dentures, hairpiece?” “’Ves.” “Then he has finally turned his back on this world of matter and all things evil. He has jumped right out of the corruption that matter entails. He has taken every­ thing essential to his being and left the rest behind. He has reached the enlightened world of Forms where there is no jewelry but spiritual jewels, where dentures cannot go, where everyone is naked. He has been Raptured.” “How do you know?” the woman said. “I write bad apocalyptic fiction. 1 know things. Endtimes are my game.” {The College Sf. John’s College • Summer 2002 } 35 ing that Presbyterian church.” In addition to leading the church, Wilson’s father founded the Logos School, a K-ia classical school, and New St. Andrews College, where Wil­ son got his BA in 1999. “I came out of there looking for a graduate liberal arts program. The only thing that was appealing was St. John’s. I was already addicted to great books, having been boiled in them at an early age. After experiences with courses in other schools, I thought St. John’s was ideal.” Wilson has now returned to New St. Andrews College as a part-time lecturer in literature and will teach Euclid’s geometry and classical rhetoric this fall. He’s also managing editor of Credenda/Agenda, a magazine he describes as “a philosophically and reli­ giously Trinitarian cultural journal.” He’s working on study guides for Par­ adise Lost and Faerie Queen for Veritas Publishing in Pennsylvania and is in the process of editing a collection of arti­ cles comparing Islam and Christianity. Wilson’s Right Behind publisher. Canon Press, is thinking of following up with another parody. Wilson favors a Christian romance novel. As for the theology that served as counter-inspiration for Right Behind, it’s still out there, more popular than ever. The Left Behind series has sold over 50 million books in 2,1 languages. Left Behind products include 10 nov­ els, five graphic novels, a6 children’s books, several audio tapes, a calendar, and a movie. For his part, Wilson does not see its continued influence and success as an impediment to his beliefs. “I think the evangelical church is a mess,” he says, “but I still count myself part of it.” �{AlumniNotes} 36 spent some time studying counter­ bioterrorism and Joseph Camp­ bell. Jim (A84) AND Tish Heysell’s (A) daughter, Maria, who was carried across the graduation stage in 1983 as an infant when Tish grad­ uated from St. John’s, has finished her freshman year. She enjoyed her year and loves the “great con­ versation.” Elizabeth Colmant Estes (A) writes: “After nine years climbing the corporate ladder at AT&T, I found myself pregnant and ready for new life. Joined a creative web firm where I was the oldest employee. Got bought out by a bigger firm in moo. Watched the web business disappear and my colleagues with it. Took home the plants and lo-foot giraffes this week. Setting up my home office as a business consultant. Helping companies like the New York Times and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to go paperless. Working 6o-hour weeks but mostly from home where I can watch two-yearold Olivia play in the garden below. This May I joined my son Michael, 17, in Italy where he spent the year with his sabbaticalized dad.” Ruth Ann Smith Plummer (A) says hello to anyone who might remember her. She asks her old friends to email her if they will be attending the aoth reunion: r.plummer@ntlworld.com. 1983 Lyn DesMarais (A) writes: “Our kids are growing, healthy, and active. We are engaged in a lot of music, mainly bluegrass, and hope to have a barn full of animals by winter.” From Margaret S. Mertz (SF): “Santa Fe Class of’83 alums-where are you? I am in my 3rd year as the Dean of General Studies at the North Carohna School of the Artsfinally a winning combination of my St. John’s years in the context of a performing arts conservatory. Email is always welcome: msmertz@mindspring.com.” 1986 Amy Bianco (SF) is living in Sleepy Hollow, New York, and working as a science editor at large for Princeton University Press. Her email address is amybianco@earthlink.net. Daniel Schoos (A) participated in 1984 Liz Travis (SF) writes: “Leaving my role in higher education was tough, but I originally picked St. John’s with the intention of going on to become a lawyer, and when I found that an annual ski pass was a part of the deal I knew I belonged here in Mammoth. If ever you are wandering in the Eastern Sierras, look me up; the door will be open.” Er. Robert John NicoLETn, M.J. (SF) is living in Ukraine and searching for benefactors for an orphanage for 14 children (soon to be many more) and a soup kitchen (serving over 350 people a day). “Greetings to all my friends from St. John’s,” writes Reth KoolBECK (A). “I keep very busy home­ schooling each of our four school­ age children. (We have two preschoolers, as well.) This sounds a lot harder than it is, since the older kids do much of the chores. The hardest part is getting along with each other, which we do for the most part. It’s never dull, and sometimes we have moments of glory.” Elizabeth and John Rush (SF) and Salem and Loran say hello from the mountains ofVirginia. Chris Rutkowski (A) is thrilled to announce the birth of her daugh­ ter, Rose Adelajda Rutkowski. Russell Titus (A) writes: “It’s an Sarah DeKorne (A) writes: “I am exciting year for me. I have a new job with terrific training facilities and my wife and I are expecting our third child in September. Hmmm...ril be 63 when this child graduates high school.” working as a technical writer for a medical software company. My daughters, Cecelia and Helen, are now 14 and 13.1 am remarrying in the fall, Mark Howe. I hope to see my classmates at our 30th reunion.” the Washington, D.C. AIDS ride in June, a 330-mile bicycle trek from Norfolk to Washington, D.C. Stephanie Rico (A) writes: “Todd (Todd Peterson, A87) was hang­ ing out as ship’s surgeon on the U.S.S. Stennis in the Arabian Gulf while Steph was waiting for their first child to arrive. Todd was sorry to miss the birth, but came home in May. Steph taught high school physics up until the day it all happened. Exciting times for both of us.” Elisabeth Long (A) is currently splitting her time between co­ directing the Digital Library Development Center at the Uni­ versity of Chicago and her latest endeavor-getting an MFA in book and paper arts at Columbia Col­ lege. She had her first piece in a gallery show in January. It was based on the 3 Fates. 1987 Michael David (SF) writes: “Left Sandia Labs in October 3000, tried technology marketing con­ sulting until recession arrived. Been teaching algebra and geome­ try at Sandia High School in Albu­ querque. Students loved Euclid Book I and doing propositions. I47 is still fun. Now looking for business position.” Sallie Fine Lewin (A) writes: “On March 34th I married Michael Lewin in Cleveland, Ohio. While not a Johnnie, Mike did win the approval of many of our fold. We were thrilled that Jerry Abrams (A87), Dave Heimann (A87), SheilaMonen’Virgil (A88), Linda Hamm Grez (A86), Tamara {The College- St. John^s College ■ Summer 2002 } (A87) AND Jerome Downey (A86), Jo Ann (A87) AND Walter Matt­ son (A87), and Joe Miller (A89) could join us as we celebrated the start of our new life together. After a fabulous honeymoon in Australia, we’re adjusting well to our new filing status.” 1988 Sarah Waters (A) writes: “I’m back on Kent Island and loving it. I’m senior designer for Vanguard Communications in Washington, D.C., and doing my art on the side. Would love to hear from my classmates. Come visit.” 1989 George Erhard (SF) writes: “I am currently working as an Inter­ net technical course developer and instructor and have recently re­ discovered philosophy by way of motorcycling” Joe Miller (A) will move from Chicago to Portland, Oregon in late May. He will join the faculty of Lewis & Clark Law School as an assistant professor teaching intel­ lectual property and evidence law courses. Heidi Ann Hoogstra (SF) writes: “I am primarily responsible for getting a new Buddhist Peace Fel­ lowship chapter started for Port­ land, Oregon. I am also the con­ tact person for this new chapter. I would love to hear from folks (you know who you are). My email address is enji@earthlink.net.” Sophie Ehrhardt (Romano) (SF) writes: “Mac and I still find our­ selves in the heartland with (his) family business and (my) growing Montessori school, and enough community involvement to drown in. We know we have the two smartest and most beautiful chil­ dren this side of the Mississippi River. If anyone knows where John Ange (SF88) is, drop me an email: orchards@deskmedia,com.” �{AlumniNotes} Jennifer Rogers Hoheisel (AGI) writes: “Eric, Will, Luke, and I are beginning to put down roots in New Jersey. I just got a tenure track teaching job in philosophy at Camden County College. This fall has been quite a time to contem­ plate and ‘teach’ ethics, especially with a wonderfully diverse group of students. I continue to be an evangelist for St. John’s style semi­ nars. Eric is enjoying his 5th year as a pastor at a local church that is geographically and economically between Camden and Haddon­ field, New Jersey. Will is in third grade, and Luke just started kindergarten. We miss everyone at St. John’s!” Joy Kaplan (SF87) came for a quick trip to Texas, where she vis­ ited with Dixie Davis (A), Jim Tourtelott (A73), and ran into Kevin Heyburn (SF86) at a book signing. Beverly Angel (SFGI) graduated in May from University of Texas School of Law. She was recently selected as one of 16 third year stu­ dents (out of a class of 450) for Peregrinus Consul. Consuls are chosen for recognition based on leadership and service to the law school community. She hopes to practice general civil litigation after graduation. She is currently clerking part-time at Hilgers & Watkins, a mid-size Austin firm. Rick Craven (A) writes: “Rick and his wife Debbie were expecting their first baby in July. They can be reached at 2007 Bent Tree Loop, Round Rock, TX 78681; rpcrfaven@hotmail.com. We’d love to hear your news and visitors are welcome! ” Jeanne Blackmore (nee Duvoisev) (A) writes: “I’ve never written into the alumni magazine; after all these years, I guess it’s time! To start from the beginning, I became a lawyer (ugh, I know, how boring) after college, and wound up practicing tax law/mergers & acquisitions for Ernst & Young’s San Jose office. After too many years of that, I met my husband and we decided to take two years off from real jobs to work for an animal rescue group in beautiful southern Utah, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. We ran their mobile adoption program for dogs, and loved it. My firm never let me quit completely, but for some unknown reason asked me to continue working part time from home in a research and writing capacity. This fall, after we fin­ ished our two year stint in Utah, we returned to the East Coast in Burlington, Vermont. We are enjoying it very much, snow and all. I’m back to work full time for Ernst & Young from my home office-much better than a real office. Somewhere in all of that, we had a baby boy named Benjamin Rex. He’s eight months old now, and we think he’s a blast! But, I guess all parents think that about their babies! Over the years. I’ve kept in touch with Garfield Goodrum (A89); he and his wife Lucy just relocated to Vermont. They have a beautiful spread near Woodstock, with horses, guest houses, and the like. We’re contemplating moving in with them. I’ve also kept in touch with Alexandra Kambouris-Alberstadt (A87), who lives in NYC and just had her sec­ ond baby-a boy. And Sandro Battaglia (A90) got married last year and then narrowly (phew) sur­ vived the WTC disaster. All three are lawyers-egads! I’d love to hear from any John­ nies in the area or from any of my long lost classmates! Feel free to e-mail atjeannevt@adelphia.net.” 1990 Kevin Graham (A) has been granted tenure and promoted to the rank of associate professor of philosophy at Creighton Universi­ ty, the Jesuit University of Omaha. Graham Harman’s (A) book, Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects, is available from Open Court Publishing. Jonathan Ying (A) earned a mas­ ter of industrial and labor rela­ tions from Cornell University in 37 May, 2001. During his studies at Cornell he was an intern at Amgen and General Mills. Jon is currently a human resources manager at Texas Instruments’ Wireless Ter­ minals business unit. His email address is jyingioo@yahoo.com. Sean P. Scally (AGI) and Debo­ rah S. Scally NEE Lilly (AGI91) have relocated to 9107 Demery Court, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 (615-373-1094). Deborah is the editor of Bank Director Maga­ zine and Board Member Magazine and can be reached at dscally@boardmemmber.com. Sean is University counsel and Tax Attorney for Vanderbilt University and Medical Center and can be reached at sean.scally@vanderbilt.edu. “We have two wonderful children: Case, age 8 and Molly, age 5,” writes Sean. “Both of us miss all our GI classmates and tutors and the special program that is SJC. We’d also like to hear from Johnnies who are near Nashville even if you are just pass­ ing through!” Ken Turnbull (A) recently changed law firms and is now an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe, LLP, a firm that origi­ nated in San Francisco. On May 4 he married Leslie Spiegel, who also is a lawyer in D.C. “I’d love to hear from old friends at my email address: kturnbull@orrick.com.” From the parents of Mickey MeriCLE (AGI91): “In 2001, seeking to cut back to a 10 hour day from the hectic life of a consultant, Mickey took a pay cut and accepted a posi­ tion with Kinko’s. Six months later Kinko’s CEO laid off most of the California workforce and moved their headquarters to Dallas, so Mickey returned to one of her pre­ vious employers, OFDA. The Office of Foreign Disaster Assis­ tance was glad to have her back and posted her to Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Mali. They also gave her a global positioning system to pinpoint possible landing strips for small planes as she traveled around Western Africa. “From beautiful Freetown, high on a hill overlooking the ocean, via satellite phone, Mickey sighs wistfully and says, ‘Someday I’ll find a job where I can stay in one place long enough to have a per­ sonal life and have Murphy and McDuff’ (her two bassets). “The caretakers of M and M sigh and hope for this too. “Mickey’s diplomatic pouch address is 2160 Freetown Place, Dulles, VA 20521-2160. Her per­ sonal email (bassetpal@aol.com) at 9600 baud is available but not answered often.” 1992 1991 Lani Makholm (AGI) writes: “I’m Deirdre Routt (A) has taken a position as a cataloger and refer­ ence librarian at the main branch of the Omaha Public Library. Sally Henderson Keller (SFGI) writes: “I am in my roth year of teaching Honors Philosophy at the high school level. Bruce Grigsby (SGI95) was a great help during the early design stages. I designed the course featuring the seminar method as a key component. It was approved in 1991 and I’ve been teaching it every year since that time. I was honored to be chosen the Teacher of the year 2001 (dis­ {The College. 5t. John ’5 College ■ Summer 2002 trict #60, Pueblo, Go.). Again, a graduate of St. John’s, Lenore Trujillo (SGI95), was one of my strongest supporters.” } currently through my church tak­ ing a six-month certificate course on the Islam faith. Also through the U.S. Dept, of State I have recently completed a two-week course on the Near East and Africa. When I graduated from St. John’s, I was working for the U.S. Information Agency which merged in 1999 with the State Depart­ ment. For the USIA, I worked pri­ marily with educational and cul­ tural exchanges but since the merger, have had to get up to speed on politics and U.S. policies in the countries for which I am responsible. I hope through my �{AlumniNotes} 38 studies on the Near East to be led to short-term mission work in Islamic countries.” Elyette Kirby, formerly Elyette Block (SF), writes: “I’ve moved to Tunbridge Wells, UK, originally for work but am now a stay-athome mom to Benjamin and am expecting another baby this Sep­ tember. I’m always interested in meeting up with old friends who may be in the area.” Victoria Burgess (SF) writes: “I was able to catch up with Nicole Kalman Levy (SF93) this past August when I was in the U.S. which was super. I am still hving in London and would love to get in touch with any Johnnies in the London area.” Greg Francke’s (A) piece, “Israeli actions toward Palestini­ ans a crying shame,” was published in April in The Citizen. sense that I would become a farmer. My ii-year-old mutt, Judas, and I have been working at Organic Herbs Unlimited in Sara­ sota since September. Among the many reasons I moved to Florida, learning to grow food organically is an aromatic challenge. I am also in the process of publishing a memoir and a collection of shorter work, mostly poetry. At 31,1 am a vegan, Quaker, divorcee without an undergraduate degree! Educa­ tion is a luxury for which I am grateful every day, and hope to finish only with a final breath. In the meantime, Johnnies are always welcome.” Michael A. Baldwin (SFGI) is now a Program Manager for the Community Development Block Grant Program for the Local Gov­ ernment Division for the Depart­ ment of Finance and Administra­ tion for the State of New Mexico. Joseph Walter Sterling FV (A) Jim Cachey (SFGI) has recently opened his own real estate broker­ age firm in Chicago. His website is www.jimcachey.com. Dawn Beltz Pollard (AGI98) and Phil Pollard (AGI93) have three daughters-Eleanore, Anna, and Thea. They’re opening a Waldorfinspired school in Knoxville. Phil plays lots of drums and has about 75 music students. writes: “Since June 2000 I have had the privilege of working for Project H.O.M.E., a non-profit organization in Philadelphia dedi­ cated to helping individuals break the cycle of homelessness. Being a part of this community has been the most extraordinary experience and blessing for me. I continue to work (slowly) on my doctoral the­ sis in philosophy at Emory U.” Kevin Johnson (A) writes: “Even 1993 Sharon Fitzpatrick (A) writes: “Despite prestigious ambitions as an adolescent, I had an intuitive though I was never married, I can faithfully report that I am single again. And loving it.” Sarah Louise Horton Stilwell was born March a, aooa to Millicent and McDavid Stilwell (both A). Laura Anne Stuart (A) writes: “I recently started a new job as the health educator for students at MIT. I am also a new member of the board of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, Publish­ ers of Our Bodies, Ourselves. This spring. I’ll wrap up a sexuality education program for 7th and Sth graders that I’ve been teaching since last fall at the Cambridge Unitarian-Universalist Church. I spend most of my days and nights talking about sex, which is great! ” Thomas Hammerman (A) finished his master’s degree in library sci­ ence and is now the Hebrew mono­ graphic cataloger at University of Chicago. The Ellermans write: “Alex (AGI): Much to my amazement and chagrin, the Navy’s promoting me to Lieutenant Commander this year; just in time for my resigna­ tion. We’re planning to move back to the D.C. area, where I’ll look for an airline job. Vanessa (A): I’m coming up on my and year at my law firm here in Corpus Christi and I’m celebrating by taking up triathlon racing. I’m looking for­ ward to finding a good law firm in the D.C. area and settling down for awhile. Ian (SFaa): I can count to four now! ” Kyle Linzer (SF and EC95) is hav­ ing a great time teaching dance and yoga at Rio Rancho High School, and “living world’s rehgions” and philosophy for UNM. He’d love to hear from alumni. His email is Nikosdad@aol.com. Jeffrey Spencer Wright (SFGI) writes: “I received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship last summer and so got to spend last summer in San Diego, California, as part of a sixweek seminar titled “Greek Values in Crisis: Thucydides, Sophocles, and Plato.” Pat Harnett (SGIoi) was also one of the 15 participants from around the United States. Marvelous experience!! Carmel High School’s philosophy class, utilizing a real seminar method, continues to flourish. Motivated high school kids can read and think and conduct real seminars!” Phoebe Merrin Carter (SF) writes: My husband Greg and I had a baby boy in September, named Dylan Guthrie, and we are really enjoying being parents. I am the Youth Services manager for the Weber County Library System in Ogden, Utah. Since I’m out of touch with many of my old friends. I’d like to say hi to everyone. My e-mail address is pcarter@weberpl.hb.ut.us.” Nancy Marcus (A) has been named the Director of the Nation­ al Abortion Federation’s Depart­ ment of State Public Policy. She continues to live in the D.C. area with her cat Nicoless (whose name reflects Nancy’s ongoing struggle to quit smoking). Nancy welcomes email from Johnnies at nmarcus@prochoice.org. AnthonyChiffolo’s (AGI) sixth book, too Names ofMary, has just been published by St. Anthony Messenger Press. 1995 Aaron Fredrickson (SF) writes: A Year in Tuscany 1994 Mosheh Vineberg (SF) writes: “I Anne Schuchman (A) and James Berrettini (AGI93) write: “We spent the past academic year living in a i6th century farmhouse on the outskirts of Florence, Italy. Anne had a Fulbright grant to do dis­ sertation research on a 13th-century woman mystic and Jim quit his job and is currently a full-time dad to Samuel, now 3. We returned to New York (and to reality) in July. Baby #2 is expected in October so it looks Uke we’re going to miss Homecoming (again). Maybe Croquet 2003? Anne can be reached at; ams8050@nyu.edu and Jim at jpb@alum.mit.edu. think an exciting life is accessible to everyone everywhere, wherever you find yourself, provided that you listen to your heart and make a little time each day or each week to cultivate your dream and life­ purpose. My dream/purpose is to live as a Jew in Israel, build a fami­ ly, learn Torah and make art.” {The College. 5t. John’s College . Summer aooa } “I’ve had an eventful fewyears. The condensed version is that my wife and I have returned to my native soil in the San Francisco Bay Area after finishing law school and spending a mostly futile year in Vir­ ginia. I’d very much like to speak with any Johnny lawyers hving in the area, as I’ll be taking the bar this July and am curious about what is, by reputation, the hardest bar exam in the nation. Also, I’d love to speak with any current or former Johnnies contemplating law school; �{AlumniNotes} Sarah Van Deusen Flynn (A) writes: “We are finishing our tour in Guam, which has been wonder­ ful. In September 02, we are head­ ing back to the D.C. area. I am leaving medical school for good to he with my two boys.” Texts for Tots Mike Layne (SF95) writes: “My wife, Rachael, and I have been mar­ ried three years as of June la, 2002, Our daughter, Audrey Rae Layne, was born on February 12, 2002, in Anchorage. I spend at least 30 minutes each day reading her sections of Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin ofInequality and Emile. Marx is next on our reading list. We are still living in Barrow, Alaska, and I am working as a counselor at an emergency shelter for youth. Would love to hear from SJC alumni and tutors. You can email me at mike_layne@hotmail.com.” Faith Echele (SF) writes: “I am it’s not as bad (or good) as you might expect! I can be reached at aefredrickson@rocketmail.com if any of you would like to get in touch. someone who remembers the peo­ ple who shared her St. John’s expe­ rience more fondly than you might imagine is welcome to do that at webmaster@franzworld.de.” Janet Sutherland (SFGl) writes: Sean Stickle (A) writes: “I am in “I finished seminary, moved to Kansas City, and started a church. Go figure. I’m also writing a book. My web site is www.churchofantioch.org/coakc.html or write me at suncliff@planetkc .com.” love with and married to a woman of profound excellence, who is applying to the Graduate Institute to acquire her own SJC-style edu­ cation. On less important fronts, I am employed as the Senior Manag­ er of Information Systems at the Corporation for Enterprise Devel­ opment, a national nonprofit research and economic develop­ ment outfit, where most of my time is taken up with the spectacu­ lar intricacies of XML routing and financial systems integration. I encourage any Johnnies who want to get into the bizarro world of IT/IS to drop me an email at stickle@cfed.org. The field needs more people who have read the Posteri­ or Analytics. Really.” In August, Aaron Benjamin Rutherford (AGI) will begin his fourth year and his internship at Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee. His address is 543 Par Drive/ Apt. 12/ Marion, Arkansas 72364. Angelika Franz (SF) writes: “One among many things St. John’s made me believe in was to follow one’s call-which I already put into practice with my decision to leave the college after my fresh­ man year. The fascination with Greeks and Romans, however, has never left me and led me to a PhD in classical archaeology last sum­ mer. After having done archaeolo­ gy (among other things like waitressing and organizing humanitarian aid transports into Kosovo) for some nine years, the call to follow was something else St. John’s made me believe in: the power of words. So I traded in the ancient stones for current events and am now working as a freelance journalist. I guess what still sums it up for me today, ten years after having left St. John’s, are the four wise words of Mr. Aigla: ‘Trust no one. Trust yourself. Read every­ thing twice. Enjoy life.’ Anyone who cares to spare a few words for Thea Agnew (SF) writes: “I’m self-employed as a consultant to rural communities, mostly work­ ing on planning community proj­ ects and seeking funding. Still liv­ ing between Anchorage and McCarthy. Getting married this fall out in McCarthy. Saw Mike Layne (SF) and Rachael, his wife, and his beautiful new baby Audrey. Will be seeing them again in Bar­ row later this month.” Gil Roth’s (AGI) publishing com­ pany, Voyant Publishing, has recently released two novels: Paul West’s The Place in Flowers Where Pollen Rests and Samuel R. Delany’s The Mad Man. He hopes to reissue Walter Pater’s On Plato and Platonism in 2003. {The College. St. currently teaching lower elemen­ tary, ages 6-9, at Henson Valley Montessori School in Temple Hills, Maryland. I would enjoy connecting with St. John’s alumni in the Maryland/DC area. Also, Henson Valley Montessori is in need of Great Books discussion leaders. We are looking for people willing to volunteer once a week to guide literature discussions with elementary students.” Tucker Braddock (A) writes: Married an Aussi in Sydney in December 1998. Live in Annapo­ lis, work in Washington making money. Daughter born December 2001: Ivy Elizabeth. 7 lbs. 13 oz... In case you’re wondering, still interested in Jesus; haven’t found Hinduism, Ms. Hack.” Rohert A Gammon II (SGIEC) graduated May 19 from the Uni­ versity of Hawaii with a PhD in East Asian Languages and Litera­ tures (Chinese). His dissertation is titled “A common architecture for expressing linguistic theories: With illustrations from Chinese languages, cognitive grammar, and software engineering.” He was selected to participate in a National Science Foundation summer program in Taiwan. Patricia Greer (AGI) received a PhD from the University of Vir­ ginia in May, in history of reli­ gion. Her dissertation is titled “The Net of the Mahabharata.” Ms. Greer is a tutor at St. John’s in Santa Fe. In December 2001 Benjamin Friedman (SF) earned his MFA in film and television production from the University of Southern California. He’s living in L.A. and looking for a job in the entertain­ ment industry. Tracy Whitcomb (A) and Josh SiLBERSTElN (A94) are now John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } 39 engaged. They’re planning a fall 2003 wedding. 1996 Adrien Dawson nee Gehring (A) finished seminary in May and was ordained in June at the Baltimore Episcopal Cathedral. She and her husband, Sean, moved from NYC to the Towson area following grad­ uation. Adrien is now the assistant rector at Trinity Church, Towson, Md. Amy Jane King (SF), formerly Amy Jane Borsick-Stanton, writes: “I am back in NM, studying Spanish and silversmithing, making arts and crafts. I am also a balloon twister, you know, I make balloon animals.” Ezra Nathaniel Hubbard (SF) writes: “After making movies in L.A. and New York, met wife on tropical island of Hawaii and got married June 23, 2001 in St. Louis, Missouri. Now live in Taos, New Mexico, where we are very happy— would love to have any alums come and stay with us.” 1997 Salvatore Scibona (SF) received a Pushcart Prize for one of his short stories. It was published in the Pushcart Book ofShort Stories: the Best Storiesfrom a Quarter-Centu­ ry ofthe Pushcart Prize in January. Salvatore is currently a Fiction Fel­ low at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Mass. Leslie Norton (AGI) is unem­ ployed at the moment. She is try­ ing to change careers from teach­ ing to working for an international aid organization. If you read this and you can help, feel free to con­ tact her. She’s in the SJC Alumni Directory. Leslie is in touch with Aaron Mannes who spends his days writing serious stuff about the Middle East (he’s looking for a job too) and she also remains in con­ tact with George Strawley-he’s still working for AP in Penna. �{AlumniNotes} 40 Artist Inya Laskowski (SFGI) showed her work at two solo shows in 2,002,: Gallery Route One, Point Reyes, Calif, (encaustic minia­ tures) and Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, Calif, (recent work). She will also exhibit in a two-person show at Pacific Union College, Angwin, Calif, in Septem­ ber as well as several group shows throughout the year. She says her art is moving into a new phase because she now has use of a large press. Larissa N. Parson (A) is still in grad school-slowly working toward her Classics PhD. She’s taken up running marathons. Diane Marie Shires (SFGI) and Christopher Patrick English (SFGI97) were happily married on December 37, 3001 on Santa Catalina Island, Avalon, Calif. They note that this was 135 years to the day Darwin set off aboard the HMS Beagle. Tricia Daigle (SFGI97) was in attendance. Jehanne Dubrow (A) is currently Billy Sothern and Nikki Page at the University of Maryland working on an MFA in poetry. She attended writing workshops at the University of Prague this past summer. (both A) were married in their gar­ den at their home in New Orleans, La. on March 30, 3003. JillNienhiser (SFGI) is now the Director of Writing and Web Development at Mind & Media, Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia. 1998 Stephen Conn (SF) found himself in New York City for most of 30013003, involved in film and art studies, as well as being an intern with the Pulse Theatre. While studying at the New York Film Academy he made three short films, two of which relate to Sep­ tember II, while the third is a little vignette which features Steve as the main character. These films were recently shown at an under­ ground film event in New York City. There is a copy of these three short films on VHS in Meem Library at St. John’s College in Santa Fe. He sends his love to all his old friends at St. John’s. David Turney (AGI) writes: “Wife Stephanie (Bardis) recently gave birth to our first child, Christo­ pher David. I gave up France and goat cheese adventures for a career in scientific publishing with Reed-Elsevier. Contact us: writerscramp@worldnet.att.net.’’ Marjorie Roueche (A) writes: “We are expecting a baby girl, though we’re still working on a befitting Greek name.” Dawn Star Borchelt (A) sends what she calls a silly rhyme: “Though I live not far away/To Annapolis, I rarely stray./Early Autumn, Early Spring/Never work. You see the thing/Is that work requires my presence/Most often at these times ofyear./Alas my fond, fond alma mater-/Many moons shall pass’ere I draw near.” Lorna Anderson (SF) became Lorna Johnson on May 35, when she married Aaron Johnson at the Woman’s Club of Evanston in Evanston, Illinois. Aaron is a clas­ sical pianist who received his mas­ ter’s degree in music performance from Northwestern University in 1993 and has been performing original and classical composi­ tions in the Midwest and east coast. Lorna is pursuing publica­ tion of her poetry in various jour­ nals and has become an active member of RHINO: The Poetry Forum, an annual poetry journal based in Evanston. She welcomes anyone passing through Chicago, and can be reached at velvet_6o636@yahoo.com. 1999 Paul Ronco (SF) writes: “Hi all, hope everything is going well for you out there in the real world. What more should I say? The Army was fun, St. John’s was fun­ ner [sic]. Drop me a line at pronco@hotmail.com anytime.” Cheryl Hut (AGI) writes: “I am living in Scotland with my 3-yearold son, Gabriel, who was born a week after graduation. I am work­ ing on an M. Litt in Shakespeare Studies at the University of St. Andrew’s and love this town by the sea. I would love to hear from any St. John’s alumni in Great Britain.” TracyNecroux (A) graduated from St. Andrews in June. She’s now living in Ilhnois and hopes to begin teaching soon. Greg W. Koehlert (SF) writes: “Moved from Atlanta to New York City in June. Teaching in an LD High School-Enghsh, History, Outdoor Education, and yes, Euclid Book i.” Ruth Busco (SF) writes: “I am currently enrolled at the Tradi­ tional Acupuncture Institute in Columbia, Md., where I am pursu­ ing a master’s degree in acupunc­ ture. I ivill start seeing patients in September-anyone in the area interested in the institute or in acupuncture treatment please feel free to contact me by phone 410313-0991 or email (rmbusko@hotmail.com)!” 2000 Abigail Weinberg (SF) has been accepted into a masters program at the School of Forestry and Environ­ mental Studies at Yale University. Andrew Burgard (SF) is attend­ ing an intensive Czech language program at Indiana University. Anne Berven (SF), Alexis Brown (SF), and RaifeNeuman (SFoi), will not leave the college. Mr. Neu­ man is constantly outside smoking, contemplating which office he will work for. Ms. Brown is attempting to finish the EC program and her last pack of cigarettes. Ms. Berven is communing tvith the young minds of America while she attempts to find her car keys. Eowyn Levene (A) has been work­ ing in an organic, brick-oven bakery (The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } for the pastyear or so and has recently spent a few months travelhng in New Zealand. She is begin­ ning a two-year apprenticeship to get her diploma in biodynamic agri­ culture. She will be doing this at a community for the mentally dis­ abled in Gloucestershire, England. Paul Spradley (A) writes: “Hello ya’ll! I’m still teaching math in the Mississippi Delta and am fixin’ to graduate from the University of Mississippi with a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction. In addition to my teaching duties I have been made head baseball coach. Unfortunately, that sport was not well covered in intramu­ rals in Annapolis.” Anna Marissa Abbott (SF) writes: “I am interested in knotving about job opportunities in Santa Fe. I’m currently working part-time at a Sylvan Learning Center (as I have been for the past year). Hello Kelsey Bennett, wherever you are, I hope you are happy. Jennifer Rogers, Matthew Duffy, and Kathy Pluth-1 send you my regards and God bless...” Karina Noel Hean (A) writes: “I am moving back to New Mexico to start an MFA program in fall 3003 at NMSU in Las Cruces. Feel free to stop by for a visit! Have had a lot of luck getting artist residen­ cies, one in Harper’s Ferry, W.V. and one at VSC, Vt. And a few small shows. (P.S. did not go to Amsterdam, not enough $$.) email: karinahean@hotmail.com” Christopher Vaughan (A) recent­ ly visited Fletcher Cunniff (A) in Catonsville. Christopher writes: “I’m attending and loving every minute of Flagler College. I hope to get my degree in deaf education by 3005. All of my former class­ mates are in my prayers. If anyone is near St. Augustine let me know. I would love to hear from any alums. Best wishes to old friends like Tim Freeman (Aoi), Adella Fay (SF), PaulNino (A), and Claudine Cristoforides (A). At first I was bitter about getting dis­ enabled. Now I am just proud of the time I had with you all at such a wonderful school! ” �{Alumni Notes} Alice Baldwin (SF) writes; “I hope everyone is well!” fall. I thought four alumni in one department was strange enough to be worth noting.” Alan Rubenstein (A) won a Uni­ versity Fellowship to study lin­ guistics at Georgetown University this fall. Lizzie Jump (A) writes: “I just fin­ ished a year of service to Volunteer Maryland (an AmeriCorps pro­ gram) in Baltimore at the Neigh­ borhood Design Center. I’m prob­ ably going to move to North Carolina and start working towards a master’s degree in psy­ chology. Folks should feel free to email me if they’ve questions about AmeriCorps.” Lizzie’s email is iameloise@yahoo.com. Wyatt Dowling (A) writes: “I just finished my first year of graduate school at Boston College in the political science department. Eric Dempsey (Aoo) is here too and two other Johnnies, Steve Ide (SFoi) and Jonathan Culp (Aoi) are starting grad school at BC in the 2001 so that I may really focus on this opportunity. I’ll most likely try to make a move into journalism and catering when I return. If I return.” Ian Mullet (SF) and Ben Judson ing forward to retirement. Big ups and much love coming out of Crimebridge.” (SF) are both teaching in San Antonio, Tex. at Judson Montes­ sori School, which is run by Ben’s parents, James Judson (SFGI95) and Gay Judson. Talley ScROGGS (A) writes: “Upon Basil Bryan Thorpe Cleveland finishing my seven weeks as a “debutante” student at L’Ecole Francaise at Middlebury College my goal was to move to France. Follow­ ing my budding passion for food as an object of study and of course immense pleasure, I found an apprenticeship with a Frenchtrained American chef and teacher named Robert Reynolds. From March to May 2,002, I’ll be living in Montesquieu, France, going to mar­ kets and cooking regional cuisine. I have yet to plan the next move­ leaving my desire to plan behind (A) writes: “I will gladly host any Johnnies passing through the Chicago area-I’ve got a futon and some floor space you can borrow just for the asking.” EbenLasker (SF) writes: “Look­ Joel Hopkins (SF) is working in a program for troubled youth in Santa Fe right now. He took cours­ es in art history at Tulane Univer­ sity and at the College of Santa Fe. He has received a scholarship to pursue an MA in art history and criticism at SUNY Stonybrook starting this fall. Calling All Alumni The College wants to hear from you. Call us, write us, e-mail us. Let your classmates know what you’re doing. The next issue will be published in December; copy deadline is October 15. In Annapolis: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800. Annapolis, MD 21404; s-borden@sjca.edu. In Santa Fe: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Public Relations Office, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; classics@mail.sjcsf.edu. Alumni Notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at: www.sjca.edu - click on “Alumni.” {Obituaries} Rogers Albritton Rogers Albritton, class of 1945, a professor of phi­ losophy at University of California at Los Angeles and at Harvard, died on May 21. He was 78. Mr. Albritton was born in Columbus, Ohio, to a physiologist and a chemist. He began his stud­ ies at St. John’s but left to serve in the Army Air Forces in World War IL He returned and gradu­ ated in 1948. Mr. Albritton received a master’s and a doctorate in philosophy from Princeton. He taught at Harvard from 1956 until 1970, and was chair of the philosophy department for seven years. He then taught at UCLA until retir­ ing in 1991. Mr. Albritton has been praised for the breadth and depth of his philosophical interests, which included ancient philosophy, philosophy of mind, free will, skepticism, metaphysics, and the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. At St. John’s, his senior thesis defended lyric poetry from log­ ical positivism. Although he did not publish much, he was nevertheless widely known and admired in the academic world. A colleague at UCLA, Gavin Lawrence, wrote in an obituary, “Rogers had the finest philosophical mind I have ever encountered. He never rushed to a facile answer and was a wonderful sounding board.” Mr. Albritton was awarded the Alumni Association Award of Merit in 1995. He is sur­ vived by his sister, Heloise Frame. Paul Krol Paul G. Krol (A76) died in May. He was a loved and respected international businessman. He was fluent in German and Polish and spoke some Spanish, Korean, and Japanese. He was financially responsible for the building of the Southwest CARE Medical Center in Santa Fe. Paul was a computer engineer who published the book ORC AD Capture, a text used to teach the teachers in that industry. He also wrote many poems and short stories. Paul spent half of his hfe volunteering and giv­ ing to others. After being diagnosed with a ter­ minal illness, he requested permission from Catholic schools in New Mexico to talk to stu­ dents about death and dying. His talks were so successful they have been published in a book. Although he was only 47 years of age, he affected so many people in the world in such a positive way, that I have no doubt there is a “new star” in Heaven. —submitted by Ron Moar H. Ralph Lewis H. Ralph Lewis, a former tutor in Santa Fe, died in March in Hanover, N.H. Born in Chicago, he was a physicist who studied at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, and the Uni­ versity of Heidelberg. In 1963 he joined the staff at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he worked on the controUed thermonuclear fusion project. He taught at St. John’s and then at Dart­ mouth, where he was on the physics faculty. Mr. Lewis is survived by his wife, Renate; two daughters, and a sister. Admiral Robert Long Adm. Robert Long, commander in chief of U.S. military forces in the Pacific and a former mem­ ber of the Board of Visitors and Governors, died June 28 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. He was 82 and lived in Annapolis. Born in Kansas City, Mo., Robert Lyman John Long graduated in 1943 from the U.S. Naval Academy. He served during World War II in the Pacific. In 1972, Adm. Long was named com­ mander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet Submarine Force and vice chief of naval operations. He saw combat in the Vietnam War. He headed the American military forces in the Pacific from 1979 to 1983, when he retired. Soon after retir­ ing, he was caUed to assist President Ronald Reagan and Defense Secretary Caspar Wein­ berger, who asked him to lead the commission continued on p.43 {The Colleges;. John’s College ■ Summeraooi } �{CampusLife} 4^ THE TWENTY YEARS’ WAR Johnnies reclaim the Annapolis Cup, brinp^ing the croquet series to i6 and4. BY Sus3AN Borden (A87) he opening shots of the St. John’s-Naval After Heyburn returned to campus, he remembered that several students had been Academy croquet series have long been playing croquet and that they were pretty the subject of speculation and rumor. good, so he decided to challenge the acade­ my. “My main aim was to get the two groups Some say the first match was the result of of students together and my hope is that the a barroom bet. Others say it was a last- match is still a way to foster better relations between the two schools,” he says. minute substitute for a barroom brawl. And so it has happened. The spirit of the has remained, The truth, says Kevin Heyburn (SF86), wasmatch much more more or less, one of peaceful camaraderie. The team uniforms simple-and peaceful. (footloose and fanciful for the Johnnies, T campy-casual for the Mids) bespeak a play­ ful rivalry, not war games. The crowd’s attention is on picnicking, not the score­ board. And the goodwill that the opponents display after each match is no clenchedteeth affair, but rather a hearty handshake for a job well done. At this year’s match (in April), however, there was just the hint of a martial edge to the Johnnies’ attitude. The Middies had won last year’s match, breaking a nine-year St. John’s winning streak. An article in the Washington Post quoted senior Louis Kovacs announcing before the match, “I’m out for blood. I’m out to hurt people and humiliate them.” Newly inaugurated Santa Fe president John Balkcom hit out the opening ball. Next the freshman chorus, under the direction of tutor Tom May, in an apparent welcome to our comrades-in-croquet, launched into a stirring rendition of the Navy Hymn: Eternal Father, strong to save. Whose arm hath bound the restless wave. The few, the proud, the victorious: the aooa sjc team. Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep It was 1981 and Heyburn, then a freshman in Annapolis, was curious about the Naval Academy. He and a friend went to the acad­ emy’s pep rally for the Army-Navy game. On the way back to St. John’s, they found themselves walking behind the Comman­ dant of the academy. “Being a bold fresh­ man, I started to talk with him,” Heyburn recalls. “I told him that in the old days, St. John’s had quite an athletic program and would often beat Navy at sports like foot­ ball and lacrosse. The Commandant said that now there was no sport where the St. John’s students could beat Navy.” {The College ■ St. John’s College • Summer 2002 } Its own appointed limits keep: O hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea. As the chorus sang the next two verses (penned by Tanya Hadlock Piltz, A05), their loyalties became clear: �{Campus Life} Oh Johnnies who doplay croquet. 43 greeting, offering its now-traditional menu of cucumber sand­ wiches, college-logo chocolates, and champagne. Tote bags with an image of a Greek-style statue play­ ing croquet on front campus wear­ ing nothing but Birkenstocks and a fig leaf were prized souvenir giveaways. The games ended just before 5:00 and the alumni office packed up its champagne and chocolates at 6:00. But the crowds, enjoying the spirit of croquet and the thrill of victory, lingered on the lawn until dark. Congratulations go to Imperial Wicket Jon Polk, next year’s Wicket Ben Porter, and team members Lucas Ford, Nick Whit­ tier, Mike Maguire, Jon Cooper, Lou Kovacs, Tom Juskevich, Peter Speers, and Terry Duvall. > Protect our honor on this day. Our battle cry: Let Middies kneel! To them theform ofGood reveal. Oh hear us when we boldly say Defeat the Middies at croquet! Oh ye who books do seldom read Your unexamined lives concede Beware each Middy girl and boy; We are the Danaans to your Troy! Oh hear us when we boldly say Defeat the Middies at croquet! The Johnnies on the field pro­ ceeded to answer the pleas of the singers, shutting out the Middies 5-0 before a crowd of over 1000, including more than 300 alumni. Throughout the day the alumni tent was a locus of meeting and {Obituaries} continuedfrom p.41 to investigate the bombing of the marine bar­ racks in Beirut, Lebanon. The commission looked into security lapses in its fact-finding mission on the incident, in which a terrorist drove a truck laden with explosives into the barracks, killing 241 marines. He served on the St. John’s Board from 1986 to 1992. Later, he maintained his ties to the col­ lege by encouraging the croquet rivalry between St. John’s students and the residents of the retirement community of Ginger Cove, where he served as chair of the community associa­ tion. He is survived by his wife, Sara, and his three sons, Charles, William, and Robert. Roberts. Parr Robert E. Parr, a former tutor in Santa Fe, died Sept. II, 2001 in Ada, Oklahoma. He was 77. Mr. Parr taught music at St. John’s and was a life-long musician and active in theater. Born in Norman, Oklahoma, he graduated from the University of Oklahoma. During World War II he served in the military in Europe. After the war, he studied at Yale with German composer Paul Hindemith, then moved to San Francisco, where he received a master’s degree in composi­ tion from the University of California, Berkeley. He taught at Candell Conservatory and at pri­ vate schools in New Mexico and St. Louis, in addition to St. John’s. He also ran a wheat farm in Oklahoma, raised Arabians, and enjoyed his involvement with puppet opera. Mr. Parr is sur­ vived by his lifemate, Dianne Stowers. Charles Wallace Charles “Charlie” Wallace, the superintendent of buildings and grounds for the Annapolis cam­ pus for many years, died in April. Mr. Wallace was born in Baltimore and served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War. He worked as a construction superintendent for Dunton, Inc. for 20 years, building many public schools in Maryland. He retired from his job at St. John’s in 1998. Surviving are his wife, Emily; two sons, Charles and William; one daughter, Lisa Delasko; a sister, and six grandchildren. John Wirth A long-time Board member of St. John’s Col­ lege, John Wirth passed away on June 20. He was 66. Mr. Wirth and his wife, Nancy Meem Wirth, were active members of the college for many years. Beginning with the donation by Nancy’s parents. Faith and John Gaw Meem, of the land for the Santa Fe campus and continuing into the present with their involvement on the faculty housing project, their dedication to the mission of St. John’s has always been exemplary. Mr. {The College- St. John’s College - Summer 2002 } Wirth served as vice chairman of the Board of Visitors and Governors, and worked on the Cali­ fornia property project. Mr. Wirth was born in Dawson, New Mexico in 1936. He graduated from Harvard University in 1958 and received his doctorate in Latin American History in 1967 from Stanford Univer­ sity. He served in the army in 1958-59. He was the recipient of numerous awards, prizes, and fellowships related to his expertise in Latin American history. He commuted weekly to teach undergraduate courses in contemporary Brazilian history, environmental history, and Canadian history at Stanford University where he held the Gildred Chair of History. He retired from Stanford in June. He founded and was president of the North American Institute, based in Santa Fe. The tri­ national organization is dedicated to better rela­ tions between Mexico, Canada, and the United States. A prolific writer, his latest book is Smelter Smoke in North America: The Politics of Transborder Pollution. He recently completed a history of the Los Alamos Ranch School, which wiU be published shortly by the University of New Mexico Press. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Meem Wirth; sons, Peter, Tim and Nicholas; and four grandchildren. �44 {Alumni Association News} Letter from THE Alumni Association Dear Johnnies, What does it mean to “come home?” For most colleges and universities. Homecom­ ing means foothall, old haunts, a few old friends, and lots of people you hardly rememhered the day after graduation. At St. John’s, Homecoming is some of those things, and many more. It might mean coming hack to a place that smells and looks and feels not so different from when you left it. Homecoming might also mean visiting a place you’ve never been. If you spent your college years in Santa Fe, you might just as well enjoy Homecoming on the water and in the midst of colonial red brick in Annapolis. If Annapolis was the locus of your personal memories, you might also come home to the wonderful mountains and desert sun­ sets of Santa Fe. The places, though both beautiful and significant, are not the essence of Homecoming for Johnnies. Yes, you’ll see old friends, especially if you choose a Homecoming for one of your class’s special five-year reunions. But even if you come when other classes are having their reunions, you will still see old friends-tutors, staff, members of classes before and after yours. The community on each campus is surprisingly constant with the familiar names and faces scattered among the new ones. Chances are that you’ll also meet new “old friends,” includ­ ing many who are familiar because they shared the experience of reading and talk­ ing about the same books in the same ways that you did. Everytime I return-whether to Santa Fe or Annapolis-I discover inter­ esting and stimulating people whose his­ tory makes them part of an intellectual and institutional family. The family resemblance is striking, regardless of when or where or for how long they lived in the Program. The Homecoming Dinner last October in Annapolis was an excellent example for me of the cross-generational nature of the Johnnie experience. According to tradi­ tion, after dinner is served and awards are presented, each reunion class gives a toast. Sometimes the toasts are funny and some­ times they are poignant, and last year was no exception on this count. It was an excep­ tion, however, because all of the toasts revolved around a theme very near to each of us on that evening, just three weeks after September ii. Each class toast reflected, as only Johnnies can, on the meaning of the college in the wake of our national trauma. Classes from the ’40s remembered the dis­ ruption of their lives during World War II. Classes of the ’50s talked about what it meant when women entered the campus as fellow students. The ’60s reflected on a rediscovery of patriotism that had not been part of their early engagement with the world. The ’70s talked of Vietnam and the dissention that war introduced to personal and social self-knowledge. Classes of the ’80s and ’90s opened our eyes to a genera­ tion that approaches self and institution with confidence and assumed security. Together, the toasts framed a social history of America from the point of view of thoughtful and admirable individuals. For me, it was a touching and powerful mes­ sage about my self, my community, and my nation But most of all, for me. Homecoming is coming home to the books. There is always a formal time when alumni and guests meet in official seminars to inquire togeth­ er as we did in the old days. Sometimes the books are different, and usually the tutors and students are different, but always the experience is the same. I come to the table with certainties and questions and leave with fewer certainties and more questions. My real measure of a good seminar is whether it inspires me to read the text again. Seldom does a seminar fail to meet this expectation. Just like our student {The Colleges?. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, under­ graduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, all alumni have automatic membership in the St. John’s Col­ lege Alumni Association. The Alumni Associa­ tion is an independent organization, with a Board of Directors elected by and from the alumni body. The Board meets four times a year, twice on each campus, to plan programs and coordinate the affairs of the Association. This newsletter within The College magazine is sponsored by the Alumni Association and communicates Alumni Association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary -Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-tke-Word-Out Action Team ChairLinda Stabler-Talty (SFGI76) Web site - www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, Box aSoo, Annapolis, MD 21404 or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. days, however, coming home to the books is not restricted to the time around the table. Informal conversations over food, drink, or dance remind me of the wellgrounded conversations of my student days. Themes emerge and common refer­ ents are invoked. The conversations are decidedly different from those I have dayto-day, and they feed my curiosity and my ever-developing view of the world and myself. Homecoming is an opportunity to revisit whatever lives in your memory of your days at St. John’s. It is also an invitation to reflect on current aspirations and activities in the context of personal, institutional, and intellectual history. I hope that you will plan to join the next Homecoming party, and I hope you find, as I have, that coming home is a richly varied experience that transforms memories of the past into reali­ ty of today and hopes for tomorrow. See you there! For the past, the present, and the future, Glenda Eoyang President St. John’s College Alumni Association �{AlUMNiAsSOCIATIOnNeWS} As will not surprise any Johnnie, our progress could be measured more in the improvement of our questions, or in the introduction of new ones, than in reaching final answers. On one conclusion there did seem to be a consensus: the efforts of Aristotle, Hegel and Nietzsche to capture the essence of tragedy pale in comparison to the real thing. The profundity and variety of the dra­ matic experience exceed their descriptions, and analysis of it is like trying to “catch lightning in a bottle.” ♦ Report From The Hinterlands What the Minneapolis/St. Paul Alumni Chapter Has Been Up To For the Last Few Years The Minneapolis/St. Paul chapter of the Alumni Association has recently completed its second set of readings and seminars organized on a theme. Politics was our first theme. Tragedy our second. Each extended over a year. Prior to that, for over 20 years, we had read books more or less at random; and, although there were some memorable seminars during that period, the theme approach has generally produced more con­ tinuity of thought and depth of discussion. We would recommend the approach to other chapters. Our Tragedy list: • Agammenon, Aeschylus • Oedipus Rex. Sophocles • Poetics, Aristotle • Othello, Shakespeare • The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche • Three Sisters, Chekhov • Bartleby the Scrivner, Melville • Mourning Becomes Electra, O’Neill • The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald • The Tragic Sense ofLife, Unamuno We were somewhat naive in our choice of readings. For example, none of us knew what to expect from Unamuno’s Tragic Sense of Life, and we were divided after­ wards concerning its intrinsic value; but most agreed that it produced some of the best discussions. It helped us discuss Tragedy as Philosophy, not merely as a dra­ matic form. As evidence of the continuity, some of the same questions persisted throughout the year. For example: • What is Tragedy? Is a precise defini­ tion possible? • Are Greek Tragedy and Elizabethan Tragedy essentially the same or diff­ erent? (and the same question when comparing the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides). • The Bacchcie, Euripides • Is Cosmology an essential ingredient of Greek Tragedy? Can we ever fully appreciate Greek Tragedy without sharing its cosmological view? • Poetics, Aristotle • Is Christianity anti-tragic? • The Orestia, Aeschylus • On Poetry, Hegel The list is eccentric and somewhat acciden­ tal. We discussed Agammenon twice, once by itself and once in the context of the Oresteia. We also read and discussed Aristo­ tle’s Poetics twice, once at the beginning (with the help of Santa Fe tutor Matt Davis) and once at the end, when we had a “theme overview” discussion. In the middle, and at their suggestion, we did Bartleby the Scrivener with the help of Santa Fe presi­ dent John Balkcom and then-vice president Robert Glick. 45 • What is the “tragic effect”? Does either Aristotle’s “catharsis of fear and pity” or Hegel’s “resolution of substantive values” adequately describe it? • Why didn’t the Greeks have an inter­ mediate dramatic form, like Tragi­ comedy? • What is the role of Tragedy in Educa­ tion? Is it central? • What is a Tragic Sense of Life? Is it healthy or unhealthy? {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } Regular contributors to the monthly discus­ sions were: Glenda Eoyang (SE76), Judy Kistler-Robinson (SF77, SGfg), Robert Neal (Abo), Walter Burk (SFgo), Nick Colten (Ag?), Garol Freeman (AGIgg), John Hart­ nett (SF8g), Graig Lefevre (Ag2), Kait Schott (SFgi), J. Shipley Newlin (Afi7), Lori Williamson (Agg), Mike Woolsey (Afig) CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 5O5-=i75-9ora ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin 410-^80-0958 PITTSBURGH Robert Hazo 412-648-2653 AUSTIN Jennifer Chenoweth 512-483-0747 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 SACRAMENTO Helen Hobart 916-452-1082 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 CHICAGO Lorna Johnson 773-338-8651 SAN FRANCISCO, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jon Hodapp 831-393-9496 SANTA FE John Pollak 505-983-2144 SEATTLE Amina Stickford 206-269-0182 DENVER Lee Goldstein 720-283-4659 LOS ANGELES Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Garol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEWYORK Joe Boucher 718-223-1957 NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 WASHINGTON DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 972-2-6717608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �46 {AlumniAssociationNews} Election Notices Election ofAlumni Representatives to the St. John's College Board of Visitors and Governors In accordance with Article VIII, Section II of the By-Laws of the St. John’s College Alumni Association, notice is hereby given that the following alumni have been nomi­ nated by the Alumni Association Board of Directors for election to the St. John’s Col­ lege Board of Visitors and Governors. Notice is also given that nominations may be made by petition. The rules governing submission of nomi­ nations bypetition are asfollows: • Petitions must be signed by at least fifty members of the Alumni Associa­ tion in good standing. • Nominations must be accompanied by a biographical sketch of the nominee. • The consent of all persons nominated must be obtained. • The petition must reach the Directors of Alumni Activities NO LATER THAN DECMBER 1, 2002. c/o Alumni Office St. John’s College P.O. Box 2800 Annapolis, MD 21404 Mr. Bienenfeld has worked for Honda for 21 years in a variety of areas in the U.S. as well as Japan. Mr. Bienenfeld served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1998, and more recently on the Board of Vis­ itors and Governors since July of 2000. He served as the president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Alumni Association in the early eighties. In addition, Mr. Bienenfeld helped organize alumni to support the Cam­ paign for Our Fourth Century. Thomas Stern Sl- '6g Palo Alto, CA Mr. Stern has been involved with motion pic­ ture production since receiving an MA from Stanford University in r97i. In 1981 he began his association with Malpaso Productions at Warner Brothers, Clint Eastwood’s produc­ tion company. Mr. Stern works as a lighting consultant, and has been responsible for the lighting more than 40 feature-length motion pictures including “Risky Business”, “Pale Rider,” “Goonies,” “Bird, The Unforgiven,” “Space Cowboys,” and “True Crime.” Steve Thomas SFJ4 New York, NY Following a few years as a computer opera­ tor, Mr. Thomas spent the academic year 1976-77 in graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, in the Ancient Philoso­ phy program. Remaining in Austin, Texas, but dropping out of graduate school, he worked as a computer operator by day and became active in local and state politics as a gay activist. In r98o, Mr. Thomas was named as an at-large alternate delegate to the National Democratic Convention, which means that he gets hohday cards from the White House whenever it is occupied by a Democrat. He proceeded to attend the Uni­ versity of Texas School of Law, initially to acquire credentials for his political career, when he discovered an actual interest in the law. He served on the Texas Law Review and was a member of Chancellors, which is the highest honor society based on grades at the school. He graduated with honors in 1984. He then moved to New York City, where he has been admitted to the bar since 1985. He worked as an associate at the Wall Street law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton from 1985 through 1991, and since 1991 has been employed by Financial Security Assurance (a monoline bond insur­ ance company), most recently as associate general counsel. Mr. Thomas has also been involved since r989 with HIV Law Project, an organization that provides legal assis­ tance and advocacy to low income people infected with HIV, for most of those years in If nominations by petition are received, there will be an election conducted by mail ballot. If there are no such nominations, the nominees listed above will be considered elected. Terms will begin in July of 2003. Robert Bienenfeld SF’8o Long Beach, CA The Senior Manager of Product Planning for American Honda Motor Co. Inc., Mr. Bienenfeld is responsible for planning the vehicle line ups for Acura and Honda cars and trucks in the U.S. In addition, he is responsible for the sales and marketing of electric, natural gas, hybrid and, believe it or not, fuel cell automobiles. In addition, he serves on Honda’s Environment Committee for the Americas, and operates a small ven­ ture capital operation for American Honda. Great moments in croquet history (circa 1985): St. John’s teammates (l-r) David Kidd (A85), Andrew Bi'.ckman( A87), Steven Werlin(A85) and Bryce Jacobsen (class POSE WITH THE AnNAPOLIS CuP AND MiDDIE RIVALS. {The College. St. Jo hn’s College ■ Summer 2002 } of 1942) �{AlumniAssociationNews} his current capacity as chair of the Board of Directors. Since 2000 he has served on the SJC Alumni Association hoard. Mr. Thomas is a fanatical opera fan, and is devoted to the New York Mets. In his spare time he still, helieve it or not, reads philosophy hooks; and he still doesn’t understand Plato. Election ofDirectors of the St. John A College Alumni Association In accordance with Article VII, Sections I and II of the By-Laws of the St. John’s Col­ lege Alumni Association, notice is hereby given that the following alumni have been nominated to serve as directors on the St. John’s College Alumni Association Board of Directors. Notice is also given that nominations for the positions as officers and directors of the Association may be made by petition. The rules governing submission of nomi­ nations bypetition are asfollows: • Petitions must be signed by at least thirty members of the Alumni Associa­ tion in good standing. • Petitions must be presented to the Secretary of the Alumni Association prior to the Annual Meeting at which the election is to be held. Petitions should be sent to Barbara Lauer, c/o Alumni Office, St. John’s College, P.O. Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404. • The election will be held at the Annual Meeting on Saturday, Oct. 5, at 1:45 p.m. in Annapolis. • The candidates for Directors receiving the highest number of votes for those offices shall be declared elected. Terms will begin on January i, 2002. Mark Middlebrook A ’8g Oakland, CA Mr. Middlebrook currently is testing the truth of the well-worn dictum “in vino veritas,” as well as his hopeful corollary “in vino pecunia.” He has worked in the wine industry in Oakland, California, for a year. As he waits for both truth and money to flow from oenophilic endeavors, he continues his mercenary masquerade as a computer consultant. In addition, he teaches litera­ ture and philosophy seminars at St. Mary’s College of California. When he isn’t too busy juggling three jobs, he enjoys playing flamenco guitar and oud. Jonathan Sackson A ’6g Miami, Florida MBA in Finance, Wharton, 1982. Mr. Sackson worked in various controller and finance positions at Ryder System (1982-1989) and served as Vice President and Controller of the Bekins Corporation (1982-1992). Since 1992, he has been an investment advisor to private and institutional clients in Miami, Florida. He is currently Senior Vice Presi­ dent at UBS PaineWebber. Mr. Sackson has served as an at large member of the Alumni Board since 1999. For many years he has functioned as liaison to South Florida appli­ cants to St. John’s. He was also Class Chair for the Campaign for Our Fourth Century. C. Frank Davis SFGI’gg Santa Fe, NM Mr. Davis has a BA in economics/govern­ ment from the University of Texas (1958), and he completed the Small Company Man­ agement Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Business in 1981. From 1963 to 1969 he was a broker for Bache and Co. in Corpus Christi, Texas and from 1969 to 1998 served as the Chief Executive Officer of Whataburger of El Paso, Inc. and Taco Cabana of El Paso. In El Paso he has served on the boards of Renaissance 400, the Rad­ ford School for Girls, and the Bank of the West, and has also served on the board of the Texas Nature Conservancy. He has trav­ eled extensively in Africa, Europe, and Asia, and has participated in several Earth­ watch projects in Nepal and Thailand, as well as flying his own Cessna 185 for Wings of Hope in Guatemala and Nicaragua, for Lighthawk, and for local Santa Fe conserva­ tion organizations. He volunteers in the Santa Fe public schools, and has been a longtime participant in Summer Classics and Community Seminars at the college. Gary Edwards Sk ’-g Arlington, VA Surgical oncology physician assistant, Washington Cancer Institute, Washington Hospital Center, 1995 to present. Surgical physician assistant, Sibley Memorial Hos­ {The College ■ St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } 47 pital, Washington, D.C. 1990-1995. B.S. Physician Assistant program. The George Washington University 1990. Medical transcriptionist. The Neurology Center, Washington, D.C. 1984-1990. Customer service representative, Tulsa Oklahoma 1981-1984. Reporter KLMN television, Fayetteville, Arkansas 1980-1981. Editorial Assistant, National Review magazine, summer 1979. Participated in class fundraising efforts Campaign for Our Fourth Century. Co-class leader Philanthropia 1999. Appointed interim member SJC Alumni Board member 3/02. Joanne Murray, A ’^o Pittsburgh, PA Ms. Murray took her PhD in solid state physics at the University of Maryland and gradually slid into a profession in metallur­ gy at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (1977-1986) and then Alcoa Technical Center. Although she is a con­ firmed theorist, she also takes great pleas­ ure in donning steel-toed shoes and hard hat and heading out to the plant floor where aluminum is being melted, cast, and rolled. At Alcoa, she is leader of the Alcoa Techni­ cal Center Women’s Network and presi­ dent-elect of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. She maintains ties with the college through local alumni seminars, the summer sessions in Santa Fe, and the online Johnny-list. Proposed Amendments to the St. John’s College Alumni Association By-Laws_____ In accordance with Article XIII Section i of The St. John’s College Alumni Association By-Laws (as amended 9/29/01), notice is hereby given that certain proposed amend­ ments to the by-laws (to Article III, Section III; Article IV, Sections II, II a, II b, II d, II e, II g, II i, VI; Article V; Article VII, Sec­ tion I; Article VIII, Seciton V; Article X; and Aritcle XIV) will be considered by the membership of the Association and brought to a vote at the Annual Meeting, 1:45pm, Saturday, October 5, 2002, in the Conversation Room in Annapolis. These proposed amendments are posted at http://www. sjca. edu/aassoc/main.phtml (see navigation sidebar). Call the Alumni Office in Annapolis (410-626-2531) if you prefer to receive a copy via mail or fax. �48 {St. John’s Forever} ack Landau (top, class of ’44) and picking them up. The ones that stick James Waranch (class of ’43) together, we put in the same room.” Seriously, though, Ranson’s method is undoubtedly had a memorable year rooming together. But not every­ rather more effective. The roommate form one ends up a winner in the room­ asks a series of questions relating to smoking mate lottery. Luckily, the odds are practices, sleeping habits, noise tolerance, and inclination towards neatness or slobbery. good for freshmen arriving this fall. Andrew Ranson, director of Student Services on the Ranson enters the answers into a computer Annapolis campus, puts a great deal of for an initial match-up. Then, he looks at thought into the roommates he matches: answers to a more general question asking if “We have a roommate questionnaire we there’s anything else he should know about send out,” he says. “When they all come the respondent’s ideal roommate. “I get the back we throw them on the floor and start best and easiest matches from that ques­ J {The College- St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } tion,” says Ranson. “When two people men­ tion they play instruments, say that they’re rehgious, talk about their interest in travel, or note that they’re vegans, we put them together and it usually works out well.” Some answers to the “anything else” question, he says, are so vague and subjec­ tive as to be unhelpful. Incoming freshmen might say they want a cool roommate or a laid back room-mate, or someone who’s not a moron. “We took the moron question off the questionnaire a couple of years ago,” Ranson says. �{Alumni Events Calendar} Homecoming aooa—Annapolis Friday, October 4—Sunday, October 6 ilieanion Glasses: 193?, 194a, 1947, i 1957,1962,1967,197a, 1977,198a, 1987, 199a, and 1997 ■■ ■: Homecoming Highlights Friday, October 4 by Eva Brann (HA89): “The Empires of the Sun and the West” Career Panel Wine and Cheese with the Class of 2003 in the Dining Hall .Rock Party in the Boathouse ■ • • g' Saturday, October 5 PPaturday Morning Seminars ‘ Homecoming Picnic and Reunion Class Luncheons • Mitchell Gallery Tour;” The Sweet Uses of Adversity: Images of the Bibli­ cal Job” *•--------- • Classes of 87 and 88 Pick-Up Basketball Extravaganza (all alumni are invited) • Freshman Chorus Revisited led by Tom May Philanthropia, the alumni A COCKTAIL PARTY AT THE BrOWN PaLACE HoTEL IN DeNVER IN JUNE. ThIS WAS THE GROUP’s SEC­ OND event; the first took place last (piCTUED above). Events Chair ROLE OF Philanthropia and its porting • Alumni-Student Soccer Classic • Bookstore Autograph Party • Tour of the Renovated Mellon Hall • Cocktail Party in the Great Hall and McDowell Classrooms group that works on fundraising for the college, sponsored pated THE IN the college. for December in New York City. Stef Takacs, A89 Philanthropia, familiarized those gathered with the goal of informing alumni about the importance of sup­ The Denver/Boulder chapter of event, with the Alumni Association partici­ Lee Goldstein, Liz Jenny, and Craig Sirkin choosing the ele- GANT LOCATION. NoT THAT JoHNNIES WOULD NEED THE PERFECT SETTING FOR CONVERSATION TO TAKE PLACE.... John Balkcom (SFGI 00), president of the Santa Fe campus, initiated a lively discus- SION AMONG ALMOST 50 ALUMNI ABOUT THE CURRENT STATE OF THE COLLEGE. “ThIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH St. JoHn’s COLLEGE,” HE SAID. “ENROLLMENT IS STRONG; WE ARE DOING FINE FINANCIALLY—ALTHOUGH WE COULD DO BETTER. ThE QUALITY OF CONVERSATION IN • Homecoming Banquet: Candace Brightman (A67) and Howard Zeiderman (A67) will receive the Alumni Association Award of Merit; John Sarkissian, Robert Williamson, and Al Toft will be recognized as new Hon­ orary Alumni • Waltz Party in the Great Hall THE CLASSROOM IS SUPERB. WHENEVER I LOSE SIGHT OF WHAT WE ARE HERE TO DO I GO SIT IN THE DINING HALL AND A HALF-DOZEN TO TWO DOZEN STUDENTS SIT DOWN WITH ME. I DON’t KNOW WHAT YOUR CONVERSATIONS WERE LIKE WHEN YOU WERE THAT AGE, BUT WHEN I WAS 18 YEARS OLD MINE WERE NOTHING LIKE THESE. ThOSE CONVERSATIONS RENEW MY INSPIRATION AND SENSE OF COMMITMENT TO WHAT WE DO AS AN INSTITUTION.” Topics ranged from what the college is doing to become more involved with the local COMMUNITY IN SaNTA Fe TO HOW THE COLLEGE HAS CHANGED OVER THE YEARS TO THE POSSIBILITY OF INCLUDING MORE WOMEN AUTHORS ON THE READING LIST. For MORE INFORMATION ON PHILANTHROPIA AND UPCOMING PHILANTHROPIA EVENTS CALL OR EMAIL Maggie Griffin TY IN Santa Fe at in Annapolis at 410-626-2534, 505-984-6099, groherty@aol.com. Sunday, October 6 uflch at the President’s ouse {The College. St. John’s College ■ Summer 2002 } m-griffin@sjca.edu or Ginger Roher- �STJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE Published by the Communications Office Box aSoo Annapolis, Maryland 21404 DAVID TROZZO ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Periodicals Postage Paid � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The College </em>(2001-2017) Description An account of the resource The St. John's College Communications Office published <em>The College </em>magazine for alumni.  It began publication in 2001, continuing the <em>St. John's Reporter</em>, and ceased with the Fall 2017 issue.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The College" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=56">Items in The College (2001-2017) Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context thecollege2001 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The College, Summer 2002 Description An account of the resource Volume 28, Issue 3 of The College Magazine. Published Summer 2002. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 28, Issue 3 Summer 2002 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Goyette, Barbara (editor) Borden, Sus3en (managing editor) Ducker, Susanne (art editor) Mulry, Laura J. (Santa Fe editor) Johnson, David Morrison, Marissa van Doren, John Eoyang, Glenda H. The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/57b157947f831f4d09eab130ae796d52.pdf 194fa35ced5525e3ce56b35e980b9ede PDF Text Text �STJOHN’S College On Eliot ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE " ith his slicked back hair, prissy round glasses, and exact gray W suit, T.S. Eliot looked the part he played as a mid-level worker in Lloyds Bank of London. In his spare time, he wrote The Waste Land, a hallmark that in framed theSt.attitudes of the Thomas Stearns Eliotpoem was born 1888 in Louis. His post-Great WarBrick generation. father was president of the Hydraulic-Press Company, his mother was an amateur poet who volunteered as a social worker. Eliot, the last of seven children, was sickly and his moth­ er and older sisters doted on him. The family’s origins were strongly in Unitarian New Eng­ land, and Eliot, after a prep school upbringing in St. Louis and Boston, followed the family tradition and went to Harvard. Not a stellar student, he nonetheless completed his BA in three years and stayed a fourth to get his master’s. He traveled to Paris, worked on some poems (one of which became “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’’—completed when Eliot was 21), and then returned to Harvard to begin work on a PhD. His circle of friends and mentors included George Santayana, William James, Bertrand Russell, and Josiah Royce. Eliot grew more deeply interested in philosophy, especially the workof F.H. Bradley, and was occupied by questions of the psychology of con­ sciousness. In 1914 he studied in Germany, then moved on to Oxl()rd. In England, he dropped his usual reserve long enough to become infatuated with Vivian Haigh-Wood, beau­ tiful but emotionally disturbed. Much to his parents’ dismay, he married her and they moved into Bertrand Russell’s apartment. Eliot supported himself by catch-as-catch-can teaching gigs and writing assignments with literary magazines. Because he was fluent in several languages, Eliot landed a steady job in the foreign section of Lloyds Bank. He began to produce poetry more prolifically, and to be published and admired. When in his late 30s, Eliot joined the Ghurch of England and also became a British citizen, both iconoclastic decisions that reflected his philosophical and intellectual develop­ ment as “a classicist in literature, royalist in politics, and anglo-catholic in religion.” Although poetry never paid a living wage, Eliot was able to drop the bank job in favor of pub­ lishing once he became better established as an editor and critic. This issue of the magazine contains two brief references to Eliot’s poems; “April is the crudest month,” the beginning of The Waste Land, is cited in a story about how the sea­ son of winter impacts our psychology; and Eva Brann’s review of The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes includes a reference to British workers’ recognition of but slight distaste for modernists like Eliot. T.S. Eliot is an amalgam of traditional and mod­ The College (usps 018-750) is published four times a year by St. John’s College, Annapolis, md and Santa Fe, nm. Known office of publication; Public Relations Office St. John’s College Box 3800 Annapolis, md 31404-3800 Periodicals postage paid at Annapolis, md Send address changes to The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, Box 3800, Annapolis, md 31404-3800. postmaster: Annapolis 410-395-5554 b-goyette@sjca.edu Barbara Goyette, editor Sus3an Borden, managing editor Susanne Ducker, graphic designer Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 classics@mail.sjcsf.edu ern; his ideas have their basis in mythology, classical thought, established religion; but Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor the expression of those ideas and the rhythms of his poetry are so innovative as to set a Advisory Board style that has come to define modernity. Eliot demonstrates for us the power of poetic language. Somehow, the words and lines and rhythms are inside us, and certain phrases become part of the way we think of things. As he said; “[Poetry] may make us ... a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves, and an evasion of the visible and sensible world.” Alexis Brown Grant Franks David Levine Margaret Odell John Rankin Ginger Roherty Tahmina Shalizi Mark St. John -BG Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} PAGE I2l DEPARTMENTS Here Comes the Sun 2 FROM THE BELL TOWERS Alumni discuss how the seasons affect our psychology-and why some are glad to see April while others regret the end of ice and snow. PAGE The Roots of OUR Program PAGE I a Eva Brann reviews a hook about the intellectual life of British workers, who gravitated to the books that eventually found their way onto the St. John’s reading list. PAGE 21 HISTORY About John McDowell, St. John’s first president l8 23 ALUMNI NOTES ALUMNI PROFILES 24 Edith Updike (A86) - Business writer and Japan hand 28 Mark Adler (A60) - Harpsichord maker Santa Fe tutor Linda Weiner spent a summer working with Mexicans who are trying to bring new life to their cultural traditions. 30 Melissa Skilondz (SF78) - A life in improv 32 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS Networking for careers, discussing an Eastern Classic in L.A. 3'4' 36 BIBLIOFILE Questioning History Short reviews of books by alumni An alumna’s quest to understand her parents’ work on the Manhattan Project. PAGE 37 OBITUARIES 3P Myths About Senior Essays 40 ST. JOHN’S FOREVER PAGE 38 IO Why Moby Dick was taken off the reading list, and which alumni tutors wrote the shortest essays. The inauguration of John Balkcom Mellon Hall gets an update Summer Classics slate Running in the Olympic relay Santa Fe astronomy Alumni survey results An Annapolis lynching remembered Philanthropia stages New York event Tutor chess champ Liberty Bell repairs New art for Meem Library IO LETTERS Turning Ideas INTO Action PAGE • • • • • • • • • • • ON THE COVER T.S. Eliot Illustration by DavidJohnson �<2 {From the Bell Towers} Inviting Conversations The inauguration ofJohn E. Balkcom aspresident in Santa Fe. Amid the pomp and ceremony of his inauguration as president of the Santa Fe campus, John Balkcom raised his arm toward the audience and asked for a show of hands from undergrad­ uates and GIs. “Just for the sake of clarity,” he said, point­ ing toward the students, “this is why we’re here. It’s certainly why I’m here for this inaugura­ tion.” That simple gesture symholized the new president’s clarity of focus, his spontane­ ity, his friendly regard, and his seriousness of purpose. More than 500 students, alumni, faculty. Board memhers, Annapolis colleagues, and friends from Santa Fe gathered in the new Student Activities Center on January a6 to wel­ come John E. Balkcom as presi­ dent. Although he had heen on the job since November of aooo, and the more elaborate inauguration scheduled for September 14 of aooi was can­ celled, the ceremony brought a fresh sense of beginnings to the western campus. The theme chosen for the event-which stretched over a weekend-was “Inviting Con­ versations.” The inauguration’s planners wanted it to be an open invitation to all to partici­ pate in the college’s unique form of education. Representa­ tives from the many spheres within which St. John’s oper­ ates came: students, faculty, and staff of the college from both campuses; representatives of the city of Santa Fe; the Alumni Association; the stu­ dent government; and the Board of Visitors and Gover­ nors. Events included seminars for students, alumni, and Board members on “As You Like It” (Friday afternoon); an Inaugur­ al Dinner for students, faculty, staff, and visitors; the inaugu­ ral ceremony on Saturday at 2 p.m.; a reception; and an Inau­ gural Ball Saturday night. For John Balkcom, becoming president of St. John’s is an inauguration into a different life. After graduating from Princeton and earning an MBA from the University of Chicago, he spent 25 years as a manage­ ment consultant, advising organizations on how to grow, measure, reward, and govern talented people. When he visit­ ed St. John’s in Santa Fe with his daughter, who was looking A CROWD OF MORE THAN 5OO WATCHED THE INAUGURATION IN THE NEW Student Activities Center. John Balkcom: From manage­ ment consultant to summer GRADUATE STUDENT TO COLLEGE PRESIDENT. at colleges, he decided he want­ ed to find out more about the college. He spent several vaca­ tions in the Summer Classics program, became a member of the Board of Visitors and Gov­ ernors, then enrolled in the Graduate Institute. He received his MA in liberal arts in 2000. The inaugural ceremony included speeches from repre­ sentatives of all the groups important to the college, and as such served as a source of unity. John Cornell, a tutor at the college, said, “It always makes teachers proud to see one of their students appointed to high office...We are sharing the joy of an old friend who under­ stands the transforming power of a unique institution.” Cor­ {The College- St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } nell referred to Balkcom as someone whose life was gen­ uinely changed by the college. “[He] combines the speculative powers and easy eloquence of a senior colleague, with the wild energy and uninhibited capaci­ ty for wonder of our most youthful, new freshman,” said Cornell. Annapohs dean Har­ vey Flaumenhaft spoke of Balkcom’s “cordial inter-campus collegiality,” and Graduate Institute student John Larkin praised his ability to convey the essence of the St. John’s experi­ ence to those who were new to it: “I came here with... a cer­ tain romantic and musty notion of reading quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore... But right from the first, Mr. Balk­ com told us it was about some­ thing else...This is where we were going to learn about who we were.” Two of Balkcom’s fellow alumni, Glenda Eoyang (SF76), �{From the Bell Towers} president of the Alumni Associ­ ation, and Chris Nelson (SF70), president of the Annapolis campus, spoke of his ability to bring together disparate ele­ ments. “His is the model of the contemplative-practical life,” said Eoyang, who added, “He bridges the chasm between the Program and the institution.” Nelson recounted a conversa­ tion the two had early in their acquaintance, when Balkcom was a new Board member. They talked about The Aeneid. not about the Board or the college. They discussed the rule of law, the need to be grounded in a community in order to govern effectively, the problem with having a vision of the future in order to make it a reality. “It seemed to me that I had met a man my own age of a similar professional background who cared about the books because they were alive for him-what they had to say mattered because they might influence his life in action.” That the new president has made an impression on the stu­ dents was clear from the com­ ments of Leah Willcox, class of 2003. She described the St. John’s education as a kind of unlearning. “This unlearning is not just for breaking bad high school habits, nor is it simply a reversed process like Pene- Tutor emeritus William Darkey HOLDS THE ChAIN OF OFFICE. Students swing at the Inaugural Ball. lope’s unweaving during the night of all her day’s work. Rather, it is a tool that must be employed within the pro­ gram... It would seem, then, that wherever traditions are broken, wherever innovation occurs, unlearning is somehow present. For this reason it appears that Mr. Balkcom has already taken this paradigm of St. John’s learning to heart. Regardless of where he ever actually learned the job of col­ lege president, he has certainly unlearned its vices. Most importantly, he has unlearned the commonly practiced notion that the head of a college should remain aloof and sev­ ered from its student body.” David Levine (A67), dean in Santa Fe, spoke about “the sense of promise and optimism that comes with new begin­ nings.” Gregory Curtis, chair­ man of the Board, stressed that Balkcom’s presidency made him “the most hopeful for the future of this campus that I’ve ever been.” Victoria Mora, a Santa Fe tutor, seemed to sum up the opinions of all who spoke when she said: “I’m con­ fident that this former student and Board member, and now leader of our fine staff, has not come to us either unprepared or unwilling to learn-and this bodes well for St. John’s, which lives on the funny juxtaposition of knowledge and naivete, experience and experimentalism, in its radical attempt to ground individual perspective through the hard work of coop­ erative insight.” Representatives of the differ­ ent communities of St. John’s participated in an unusual part of the ceremony, the “Chain of the Insignia of the Office of the President.” The chain of office is a cast sterling silver medal­ lion suspended from a silver chain of open books. It was cre­ ated by Annapolis silversmith Judson Martin and first used at the inauguration of Edwin Delattre as president in 1980. In the ceremony, the chain is passed from participant to par­ ticipant, signifying the unifica­ tion of the diverse communities under the new president’s lead­ ership. In his inauguration speech, Balkcom outlined his vision for St. John’s, and asked all those who participated in the day’s ceremonies to “help shape the future of this institution.” He began by offering a view of the program that was couched in terms other than are usually used. Reading a poem called {The College -Sf. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } 3 “The Mouse and the Camel” by the Persian poet Rumi, Balk­ com made the point that “our conversations have as much to do with listening as with speak­ ing.” A mouse holding the lead rope of a camel in imitation of the camel drivers is stumped when he comes to a great river. The camel says, “Maybe you shouldn’t be leading a camel. Stay with those like yourself. A mouse has nothing to say to a camel.” He then lets the mouse ride across the river on his back, and the poem continues, “you are not a prophet, but go humbly on the way of the prophets, and you can arrive where they are.” But Balkcom was not content to dwell on the philosophical underpinnings of the program or on what the college accom­ plishes with students, which can be truly seen by consider­ ing the tremendous variety of career paths in which St. John’s alumni succeed. He also took care to outline some specific areas where improvement is needed: providing more time for faculty to “read, reflect, and to prepare themselves for our program; building faculty hous­ ing near the campus”; offering greater financial support to students (perhaps not to the extent of his alma mater, Princeton, which is attempting to replace all student loans with outright grants); correcting the misimpression that the study of the great books excludes math­ ematics and science; and pro­ viding “a warm welcome to all our constituencies-students, parents, alumni, friends, facul­ ty, staff, and neighbors.” He concluded by thanking all in attendance for “joining to celebrate the relationships, the challenge, and the partnership-both locally and nationally-that is St. John’s College.” For thefall text ofmany of the speeches delivered at the inauguration, see the web site at WWW. sjcsf edu/comcal/ inauguration, htm. �4 {From the Bell Towers} Mellon Updated The vertical steel louvers meant to move with the progress of the sun never worked. There was no air con­ ditioning in the classrooms, while it was suh-arctic in the summer in the auditorium and Conversation Room. The hall­ ways were dreary. The clock in the physics wing hadn’t worked since the early 1970s. The slate workbenches in the biology and chemistry labs had deterio­ rated so much you got brown stains on your hands if you touched them. Recently, the seats in the auditorium had become so worn that their springs were popping out. All these traits characterized Mel­ lon Hall, the behemoth class­ room building opened in 1959. Aside from a 1989 revamp of the Conversation Room and the addition of the Mitchell Gallery and administrative wing, Mel­ lon remained in its virgin state. No one’s sure what to call the glass-enclosed seating area being CONSTRUCTED IN THE MeLLON COURTYARD. With the current $12.9 milhon renovation of Mellon, here’s an update on the above: One set of the louvers is now working-thanks to the efforts of CharUe Berliner (A70), an Annapolis contractor who has been fiddling with them; hopes are that the remainder will be working by the time the con­ struction is complete this August. A new, state-of-the-art air conditioning and ventilation Summer Classics: Books AND Opera in Santa Fe Summer Classics, the program that brings book and opera lovers from across the country to the Santa Fe campus, will be held July 14 through August 2. This year seminars are sched­ uled for both morning and after­ noon sessions, with opera and chamber music in the evenings. The program is appropriate as an introduction to the college and also for alumni and those who have participated in other St. John’s outreach programs like Executive Seminars or community seminars. For more information, check the web site atwww.sjcsf.edu, e-mail classics@mail.sjcsf.edu, or call 505-984-6104. Week I, July 14-19 Morning session: • Aeschylus, Oresteia and Prometheus Bound. Led by Sherry Martin and Judith Adam • Melville, “Bihy Budd” and “Piazza Tales.” Led by Jim Forkin and Tom Scally • Tolstoy, Anna Karenina. Led by Eva Brann and Janet Dougherty Afternoon session: • Leonardo da Vinci the Painter. Led by David Carl and Stephen Houser Virgil, • The Aeneid. Led by Michael Bybee and Gino Thomas • Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations. Led by Claudia Honeywell and CalebThompson SoLARIUM? CaFE? system has been installed; it employs giant ice cube trays through which warm air circu­ lates and gets infused with cool­ ness before being pumped to the far reaches of the building. The hallways are wide, bright, and cheerful, with red linoleum retro-looking floors, light pine doors and trim, and lots of lighting. The clock is gone; either no one could fix it or the architects decided a clock didn’t Week II, July 21-2,6 Morning session: • Opera - Verdi, La Traviata and Mozart, Clemenza di Tito. Led by Wilham Fulton • Shakespeare, Cymbeline and A Winter’s Tale. Led by William Alba and Krishnan Venkatesh • Virginia Woolf, To the Light­ house. Led by Jan Arsenault and Elizabeth Engle Afternoon session: • Euripides'. Five Tragedies. Led by David Carl and Claudia Honeywell • Hans Jonas and the Ethics of Biotechnology. Led by James Forkin and David Neidorf • Locke, Second Treatise of Government and Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. Led by Michael Rawn and Robert Richardson {The College. St. lohn’s College . Winter/Spring 2002 } fit with their concept for the building. All the laboratory and project rooms have been reno­ vated, with new cabinetry, new fixtures, and new workspaces. Seats in the auditorium are being reupholstered. And there’s more...An addi­ tion on the College Creek side contains a meeting/seminar room with teleconferencing equipment and tutor offices. The basement has been opened up by the addition and a new pottery studio and darkroom constructed. The hallway between the lobby and the music library has been bumped out into the courtyard; it will be enclosed with glass and become a light-filled cafe. While opinions on Mellon as an example of architectural sig­ nificance vary, students and tutors seem to like the new look of the renovation. Alumni, parents, and friends of the col­ lege will be invited on tours of Mellon in September and at Homecoming-so they can judge for themselves. Week III, July 28-AuGUST a Morning session: • Opera - Pushkin’s Onegin with Tchaikovsky’s opera. Led by Wilham Fulton and Robert Ghck • Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II and Henry V. Led by Judith Adam and Warren Winiarski • Proust, Swann’s Way. Led by David Carl and Patricia Locke Afternoon session: • Faulkner, Go Down, Moses. Led by Michael Rawn and Robert Richardson • Plato, The Apology, Crito, and Phaedo. Led by William Alba and Krishnan Venkatesh • The Rig Veda. Led by Patricia Greer and Michael Wolfe �{From the Bell Towers} Olympic Inspiration This past January, Julie Francisca (SFGI93) had occasion to learn about the traditions sur­ rounding the Olympic torch. “The Olympic Flame is ignited by three women during a sacred ceremony in Olympia, Greece,” she says. “A single ray of sun­ light is caught in a mirror and the reflection is then magnified to initiate a spark. Following the ceremony, a Guardian of the Flame escorts the flame, safeguarded in a lantern, to the Olympic host country and trav­ els with it throughout the Olympic Torch Relay in case the torch needs to be relit from the original flame. “On December 4, 2001 the Olympic flame arrived in Atlanta. Muhammad Ali was the first in the United States to carry the 2002 Olympic flame. The relay covered 46 states, 250 cities, and 13,500 miles,” says Francisca. “On January 14, the 40th day of the Olympic Torch Relay, the flame had made its way to Galifornia, where I was the first to carry it.” Francisca carried the torch as an Inspiration Partner. She had nominated a friend, Mar­ sha Gilden, to carry the torch and Francisca was given a place in the relay along with her. In her essay nominating Gilden, Francisca wrote that her friend, a teacher, was “dedicated to bridging diversity whether it be found in physical challenges, generation gaps, or ethnic mul­ tiplicity.” The day before her relay leg in Ghula Vista, Calif., Francis­ ca was too excited to get any rest. “I could no longer pretend to sleep and finally threw the covers off at 5 a.m. and began getting ready to ride the Wild Wave for the ride of my life! ” she later wrote. “Even so, I never slacked on my responsi­ 5 bilities and paid very close attention to the ABSOLUTELY NO HAIRSPRAY rule, which was repeated several times in the long list of rules.” When Francisca arrived at the relay site, the Guardian of the Flame was there, ready to coach her on how to light her torch from the flame burning in the 2002 Olympic Cauldron. “I waved at the few spectators sprinkled along the path as I rounded the lake... Just as I approached the last curve lead­ ing to the top of the hill, the sun broke through the gray overcast of the cold morning sky. The crowd caught their first glimpse of me carrying the Olympic Torch and went wild! I had not anticipated how uplift­ ing the wave of emotion would be when I felt the roar of the crowd break over me, but it was awesome,” she says. During the day, Francisca signed scores of autographs and was interviewed by a television reporter. “It was a long, long interview, which was reduced to two sentences when it aired,” she says. “Even so, they were the most important sentences: ‘It is a thrill, an honor and a privilege. The flame reminds us that we are inspirations to one another.’ ” 4" Santa Fe Astronomy equipment, so that the sky­ watch program will not be lim­ ited by the busy schedules and family commitments of faculty. After a year or two of a success­ ful program, the college will be positioned to plan for an obser­ vatory structure. Presently, the on-campus skywatches are held on the west deck of Evans Science Lab, cov­ ered last year with walking pads so that it can be fully used with­ out causing roof leaks. With motivation and leadership, we shall also be able to conduct skywatch sessions at the foot of the Santa Fe Ski Basin as well as other sites, such as the Abiquiu area and the Galisteo area. Our location on campus is imperfect because of two factors, namely campus and city lights that are not dark-sky compliant, and the air currents to be found at the foot of our mountains. As we become more experienced and skilled, these may become sig­ nificant limitations. At present, we are yet beginners, so they don’t matter as much as they might. At the end of November, the Santa Fe campus acquired an eight-inch reflecting telescope with a sophisticated computer drive, paid for by the class of 2001. For its size, this tele­ scope is as good as it gets, and should greatly enhance our nas­ cent skywatch program. We also purchased with the same senior class gift a CCD camera for electronic image capture, to be put into use when we have gained considerable experience with the new telescope. We —BY Hans von Briesen, Director of Laboratories 'Tor its size, this telescope is as p^ood as itgets, and should greatly enhance our nascent sky­ watch program.'' already have an 8-inch reflector with a less refined support structure, and a 3.5-inch Questar telescope augmented by a heavy-duty camera tripod. I hope to recruit two or three highly responsible students to be stewards of the astronomy Santa Fe Johnnies can now look at the phenomena described by Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, thanks to the new TELESCOPE ON THE ROOF OF ESL. {The College -John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �6 {From the Bell Towers} Alumni Opinions Now Knowledge eor SJC One of the earhest lessons freshmen learn at St. John’sheginningwith Plato’s Gorgias-'xs that opinion is dif­ ferent from knowledge. Opin­ ion is not rehahle; knowledge, of course, is; opinion is based on thought that skims the sur­ face of truth. And yet opinions are not without value. They are openings to conversation, prel­ udes to ideas. Still, a philo­ sophical distrust of opinion made the college think long and hard about conducting an opinion survey of alumni. St. John’s did commission an opinion survey of its alumni last spring, and the results show a strong support of the college, and in particular of “The Program”-the idealistic educational mission statement that the college curriculum embodies. The consulting firm Kane, Parsons & Co. conduct­ ed a telephone survey of 600 undergraduate alumni and 150 alumni of the Graduate Insti­ tute. The random group of alumni called represented a cross-section of decades on both campuses and was weight­ ed toward the ig8os and 1990s, since 60% of alumni come from those two decades. The sur­ vey’s aim was to assess alumni attitudes toward the college, find out what features on the web might be of interest to alumni, and assess alumni atti­ tudes toward fundraising. Here are some of the findings: • 66% of undergrad alumni and 91% of GI alumni rated their overall experience at St. John’s as very positive. a8% of under­ grads and 7% of GIs rated their experience as more positive than negative. Overall approval rating: 94% for undergraduates and 98% for GI alumni. • When asked to cite two ways that St. John’s had an impact of their lives, alumni focused on the Program. 61% cited reading and studying the great books, 49% cited “the St. John’s approach to learning” and 37% (52% of GIs) cited their experiences in tutorials and seminars. These results are in contrast to the experiences that alumni from other liberal arts colleges usually emphasize-friendships with fellow The alumni message: The Program brings about TRANSFORMATION. intellectual students and faculty members (38% at SJG). • WTien asked if any of their St. John’s experiences were less than satisfactory, 56% of under­ graduate alumni said yes. (Sur­ prisingly, 42% could find noth­ ing to complain about!) Of those who said something was unsatisfactory, 49% named career preparation, 39% named “developing specific skills such as writing,” and 37% named “helping one’s emotional development.” • 97% of alumni expressed a high degree of support for the college and its aims. • The most requested feature on a proposed new St. John’s web site is an online, update­ able directory of alumni. • 65% of undergraduate alumni say it is very likely they will give a gift to the college in the future. • Alumni support their dona­ tions to the college being used for student financial aid, “preservation of the Program,” and bringing tutor salaries up to par with those at comparable colleges. For a summary ofthe report, interested alumni can contact the Public Relations office in Annapolis at 4io-626-253g oremail b-goyette@sjca.edu. Ugly Moment in History Between 1891 and 1906, ten lynchings occurred in the state of Maryland. The last of those, on December 21,1906, was in Annapolis. A mob of men stormed the jailhouse on Calvert Street and dragged a black prisoner named Henry Davis, who had been accused of raping a white woman, to the banks of College Creek. The mob hung Davis and shot him; one account says that more than 100 rounds were fired. Ninety-five years after the horrific lynching, the details of the crime are coming to light. WTien a group of Annapolitans began to look into the history of lynching in the city, they questioned the role of St. John’s in Davis’ death. The legend in the community was that the lynching had occurred on the college’s back campus. But newspaper accounts from the time show that the mob took Davis further upstream-to the end of what is now Clay Street and was known in the early 1900s as Brick Yard Hill. The Washington Post reported on December 23,1906 that St. John’s students, can­ didates for the Naval Academy, and Annapolis youth were the cul­ prits. But the following day, Thoms Fell, the president of the col­ lege, denied the reports. He noted that almost all the students were gone from the college on the night of the attack, since Christ­ mas break had begun earlier that week. The paper retracted its story. Evidence does suggest that the lynchers-who were never identified-gathered to formulate their plan on the St. John’s cam­ pus, either on the far back campus or in Randall Hall. Nelson Hernandez (A99) is a reporter for the Anne Arundel bureau of the Washington Post. He began investigating the 1906 lynching when community leaders in Annapolis decided that it was time to acknowledge this ugly moment in the city’s past. Hernan­ dez’s article in the Post (December 20, 2001) laid out the history of the event and described current efforts to commemorate the lynching. On the 95th anniversary of the lynching, a group of com­ munity leaders gathered in the Brewer Hill Cemetery to dedicate a plaque in remembrance of Henry Davis. Regardless of Davis’ guilt, his death was racially motivated, said Carl Snowden, who headed up the commemoration effort. “That must never happen again,” said Snowden. “No one believes that is justice.” {The College-5:. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{From the Bell Towers} Philanthropia in New York The music was loud, the food was tasty, and the drinks were flowing, but in the end, it was the conversation that kept New York Johnnies out late on a Thursday night in early Decem­ ber, Over 50 alumni, mainly from the last two decades, gath­ ered at the Tenth Street Lounge in the East Village for a chance to meet fellow Johnnies, recon­ nect with old classmates, and, of course, talk. Elizabeth Powers and Sapna Gandhi met again after Z3 YEARS. The event was sponsored by Philanthropia, the alumni organization dedicated to fundraising for St. John’s. Stefanie Takacs (A89) spearheaded the event. “I thought it might be fun, especially after Septem­ ber II, for people to get togeth­ er, and I thought it was a nice way for Philanthropia and the college to reach out to alumni,” she says. “The invitation had a picture of a seminar chair, to help people remember what St. John’s is all about and how important conversation and community are to the college and its alumni.” Among the alumni attending the event was Annapolis cam­ pus president Christopher Nel­ son (SF70), who had the chance to talk to the group about the relevance of St. John’s in today’s world. He discussed the heartfelt and strongly focussed seminar discussions on the Odyssey, held just after the ter­ rorist attacks. He told of two current students, Maya Alapin (A03) and Kelly O’Donnell (A04), whose letters to The Gadflycited in a story that appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Bal­ timore Sun and the Los Angeles Times. The writers first described the feelings of guilt, uselessness, and selfishness they experienced immediately after the attacks, but then explained their newfound understanding of the impor­ tance of a St. John’s education. Alapin wrote: “It seems to me that now is a better time than any for us to show our commit­ ment to answering that special question about living a good life so that when we are ready, we can give to the world the best thoughts we can muster.” Nelson says that even though the music was wild and the crowd pretty loud, “the quality of the conversation was nonetheless high. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing so many good friends and thought Philan­ thropia provided a wonderful way for alumni to revisit the college. The sense of communi­ ty that exists among such friends is just great.” Sapna Gandhi (A91) describes Nelson’s talk as very warm and said it made her feel connected to the community. She also enjoyed meeting up with Elizabeth Powers (A89), with whom she once shared a short but intense Johnnie friendship. “It was at the end of her senior year; I was a sopho­ more. We had the chance to spend a little time together and we really connected,” Gandhi says. “But I hadn’t seen her since 1989. We spent the evening catching up on each other’s lives.” Takacs also passed most of the night in conversation, which she says was the primary purpose of the gathering. She was pleased to see how plenti­ ful and intense discussions were throughout the room and she attributed the success of the event to these talks: “Unlike some group events that start to dwindle when the free alcohol runs out, this con­ tinued into the late hours.” Several alumni at the Tenth Street Lounge took note of this phenomenon, reporting that, although the gathering was scheduled for 7:00 to 9:30 p.m., the last Johnnies-including Ghris Nelson-left close to midnight. Takacs, now Philanthropia’s Events Ghair, will organize gatherings in other cities. While plans are still prehminary, Denver and Boston are being considered for aooa. The goal of Philanthropia is to educate alumni about the importance of supporting the college financially; their efforts focus on fundraising for the col­ lege’s Annual Fund. Gifts to the Annual Fund support the yearly operation of the college in areas like faculty salaries, financial aid for students, and academic instructional expenses. For more information on Philan­ thropia and Philanthropia events, call Maggie Griffin at 410-626-3534. 4- Chess Champ Jesse Kraai has been keeping busy these days. In addition to the usual round of seminars and tutorials, paper confer­ ences and faculty meetings, he’s been playing a lot of chess. Luckily, he’s found a way to maximize board time during the few spare hours in a tutor’s demanding schedule-he’s been playing many of his games simultaneously. Last October he played 3a opponents at once in a chess exhibition in Santa Fe. All 3a (including Johnnies Andrew Smith and Devin King) lost. In March he played nine of New Mexico’s top youth players simultaneously. Although his age and experience gave him the distinct advantage, he agreed to level the field-by never looking at the boards (he recorded their moves on paper and envisioned the games from his notes). Two of the players earned draws. Kraai won the other seven. Kraai, a graduate of Santa Fe High School, attended Shimer College, which features a great books program similar to St. {The College- 5f. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } Kraai studies the board in a MATCH with multiple OPPONENTS. John’s. He pursued graduate work in Germany, where he received his MA in history and philosophy of science. Kraai achieved the rank of Senior Chess Master in 1994. In 1999, he became the first person from New Mexico to attain the rank of International Chess Master. This past January, he was one of 56 players who qualified to compete in the U.S. Chess Championships in Seattle, where he finished as one of la players tied for i6th place. ->■ �{From the Bell Towers} 8 Announcements Director of Labs Opening The Santa Fe campus has a position open for Director of Laboratories, who supervises and supports the operation of laboratory science at the col­ lege. Hans von Briesen, the current director, plans to retire after academic year 2,002-3. Responsibilities include: • Hiring, training, and supervising undergradu­ ate lab assistants • Advising faculty on exper­ imental work • Maintaining facilities and equipment and procuring supplies • Supporting the on-going development of the labo­ ratory curriculum and manuals. Prior expertise in all parts of the laboratory curriculum is not required; rather, candidates should demonstrate love of lab­ oratory science, interest in expanding beyond prior expert­ ise, and interest in studying sci­ ence through its original his­ torical sources. A master’s degree in a scientific field or a bachelor’s degree and equiva­ lent education and experience are required. Candidates should send a resume and a brief letter explaining their interest in the position to Mr. Jorge Aigla, Chair, Search Committee for Director of Laboratories, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM, 87505-4599- Tuition and Fees Announced Tuition and fees for the aca­ demic year 2002-2003 will total more than $34,000. Tuition will be $27,210 (a 5.5% increase over 2001-2002 rates), room and board will be $6,970 (a 3% increase), and the student activity fee will remain at $200. In the Graduate Insti­ tute, the tuition per semester for the Liberal Arts program will be $5,190 and for the East­ ern Classics program it will be $8,072 (both are 4% increases over the previous year). Tuition rates at the college The St. John’s Search and Rescue Team officers pose in their steel­ iest POSTURES. The team, estaelished in 1971, unites Johnnies with Santa Feans in search and rescue operations for anyone lost or INJURED IN REMOTE AREAS OF NeW MeXICO. LeFT TO RIGHT: DeVIN KeNNEMORE, Treasurer; Cinnamon Blair, Secretary; Chris CoucheronAamot (SF04), President; Brendan O’Neill (SF93), Training Offi­ cer; KoryGoold (SF04), member-at-large; John Laurino (SF02), Equipment Officer; Mary Freitas (SF80), Vice President. are similar to those at compara­ ble liberal arts colleges nation­ wide. More than half of St. John’s undergraduate students receive a financial aid package from the college. And since it costs about $36,000 to educate a student at St. John’s, even those who pay full tuition in effect receive a subsidy. The difference is made up through contributions to the Annual Fund and income generated from the endowment. Flaumenhaft Appointed Dean Harvey Flaumenhaft, a tutor at the Annapolis campus since 1968 and dean since 1997, has been reappointed to a second five-year term as dean. “The work of being dean unfortunately leaves little time for study, writing, and reflec­ tion, which I sorely miss, bit it is very interesting-especiaUy to someone with my scholarly interest in the theory of organi­ zation and administration,” says Flaumenhaft. “I would nonethe­ less regard my five years of it as quite sufficient were there not several projects that I’d like to carry further forward, among which are: the estabhshment of faculty development on a more solid basis; the institution of a more regular and better sup­ ported system for improving our use of supplemental instruction­ al materials; the working out of arrangements for joint accredi­ tation that will include academic review by an organization devot­ ed to hberal education; and the enhancement of cooperation between our two campus com­ munities without undermining local enterprise, commitment, and self-government.” Hodson Grant to Fund Mellon Renovation The Hodson Trust has given St. John’s College $1.1 miUion, to be used as a challenge to other donors for the renovation of Mellon HaU. The Trust will match gifts for the renovation. {The College . St John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } “The Hodson Trust is providing valuable leverage for the college to raise additional money to sup­ port the Mellon Hall renova­ tion,” said President Chris Nel­ son. “The challenge program is both extraordinarily generous in itself and extremely encourag­ ing of further generosity from the college’s other friends and alumni.” The Hodson Trust, estab­ lished in 1920, has given more than $118 million to four Mary­ land colleges: Johns Hopkins, Washington, St. John’s, and Hood. The annual grants fund student scholarships and internships, research, building construction, faculty endow­ ments, and special programs. Jobs for Johnnies Alumni who are in the job mar­ ket can check out www.sjca.edu/ placement/office.phtml, the web site for the Placement (Career Services) office. Many online resources are available, from a listing of current jobs suitable for recent grads and alumni of the college (updated daily) to links to job banks and other resources. Alumni who are looking for employees also send job postings to the site. Karen Krieger, Director of Placement in Annapolis, reports that many alumni land jobs at Johnnie-friendly compa­ nies and schools through net­ working with other alumni they find on the site. The Santa Fe Placement Office site offers a resume-posting service (http://WWW. sjcsf. edu/placement/index.html) as well as additional job listings. Poet Zuckerman Elliott Zuckerman, tutor emer­ itus in Annapolis, has pub­ lished a book of his poetry. The Shape ofan Ear. The 30 poems in the volume were written over a period of more than four decades. Many were published either in their current versions or in earlier versions in The St. John’s Review, or its predeces- �{From the Bell Towers} sor. The College. The volume is available at the college book­ store in Annapolis. Happy too Dr. Thomas “Tommy” Turner, who graduated from St. John’s in igai and went on to become dean of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, celebrated his looth birthday in January. An article in the Baltimore Sun quotes Turner as saying that he originally wanted to be a coun­ try doctor but settled in at Hop­ kins instead. He considers his legacy to include the shift in emphasis in med school admis­ sions from “who you were or what race or religion or sex you were” to “intelligence and brainpower.” Dr. Turner is also a member emeritus of the St. John’s Board of Visitors and Governors. Twenty-Six Characters FOR Meem What more appropriate greet­ ing for a hbrary than a work of art celebrating the possibilities of language? “An Environmen­ tal Study of Twenty-Six Charac­ ters,” a sculpture of the alpha­ bet’s characters by Taos artist Melissa Zink, is now displayed at the entrance to Meem Library in Santa Fe. The piece combines painting, sculpture, and mixed media. A gift to the college from Board member Jeremy Shamos and his wife Susan, the sculpture was dedi­ cated on January a6. At the dedication, Ms. Zink spoke about the work: “In the fall of aooo, I began to understand the alphabet as an infinity and to see the anthropomorphizing of letters as a way to convey the infinite possibihties of our language. As it always is with satisfying 9 Replica Repair In the early 1950s, the Treasury Department presented a replica of the Liberty Bell to each state as part of a campaign to sell defense bonds to support the Korean War. The bell given to Maryland ended up on the campus of St. John’s College, with a base paid for with pennies col­ lected by Maryland school children. The bell has sat on the front campus since then, pointed out to tourists as a minor landmark, and used as a mini-jungle gym for children visiting the cam­ pus. (For the record: The bell is four feet tall, is made of 80 percent copper and ao percent tin, and has no clapper.) On January 10, the bell was removed from campus by the McShane Bell Foundry in nearby Glen Burnie. The foundry will replace the wood­ en yoke that supports it with a new one of white oak, as well as the hardware damaged by the pull of gravity on the a,5oo-pound bell. The work is estimated to take 8 to 10 weeks, so the bell should be back on campus before Croquet Match visitors even notice it’s gone. ideas, the task seemed simple and self-evident. Although it wasn’t quite so simple as I imagined, my beUef that the characters could convey the wealth inherent in our alphabet never wavered. “Since the overarching idea propelhng this work concerned Unhinged: The Liberty Bell’s yoke is lifted from ITS support. The bell was taken to a special bell foundry for repairs. the infinite possibilities of let­ ters and words and thoughts, no particular symbolism applies to each character. The A could be Abraham or Arabian Nights or Aleph. L doesn’t equal dog, but the image could be associated with love and loyalty or laziness and lassitude. Every associa­ “Art that celebrates the elements of our language seems per­ fectly suited to the library,” says Meem director Inga Waite OF THE PIECE BY MeLISSA ZiNK (PICTURED). {The College- St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } tion leads to another, and with those associations, worlds can be built. What I hope I have made is both a game and a reminder. A game of associa­ tions and journeys into places real or imaginary and a reminder of the extraordinary, ultimately indescribable wealth of thought and image, the benign galaxies of possible com­ binations waiting to express thoughts yet unthought. “John Man, in his book Alpha and Beta, says: ‘To the many millions who use it rou­ tinely, the alphabet seems the essence of simplicity, as easy as ABC. But the sense of simplici­ ty is deceptive, for the alphabet is a surface impression of hid­ den linguistic depths. Its few symbols are nothing compared to the complexity of sounds they represent, while those sounds merely hint at the com­ plexity of language itself.’ “I hope that ‘An Environ­ mental Study of Twenty-Six Characters’ reminds viewers of the extraordinary marvel of lan­ guage and the minds that use it and the worlds we occupy.” �{Letters} More Animal Books Re: Hearts of Animals Yes!!! But how are so many people blinded by the Nietzschean-Darwinian red-intooth-and-claw dogma? Can’t they see we and nostri fratelliti live in a universe of exploration, play, love? May I add to your excellent booklist Christianity & the Rights ofAnimals by Andrew Linzey? —Boyd Kyle, class of 1951 SJC Plaudit I know that St. John’s is not lacking in plaudits but recently I found a special rec­ ommendation. It is in The Cat Who’ll Live Foreveriy Peter Gethers, who was the companion of Norton, the Perfect Cat. This book was preceded by The Cat Who Went to Paris and A Cat Abroad. Peter and Nor­ ton traveled a lot and one place they went was Annapolis, which “has one of the great universities in the country, St. John’s.” I had the good fortune to meet Norton when he came to Berkeley. I wasn’t alone there was a whole roomful of people to meet the famous cat. Norton did not disap­ point. He was wonderful and it was a mem­ orable evening. Norton has since passed on, a beautiful, beneficent cat. Even if you don’t like reading books about cats some­ thing of his persona comes through from his picture on the cover. Thanks for the nice obituary of Bob Arne (Fall issue) written by John Carroll Pollak. I knew Bob in Berkeley, a place he described as “urban but not urbane.” Bob walked his own path, leisurely, gravelyBob was not an employee-and philosophi­ cal, a rare man. —Joseph Barrett, A73 A Question of Accuracy On pages 6 and 40 of the Fall 2001 issue you report the honors showered on me in Washington and Annapolis in one week. May I point out, however, that I did not edit Religion and Resistance to Nazism? I wrote and delivered it as a series of lectures at Princeton (which were followed by very good discussions). The lectures were subse­ quently published as a monograph. It was work on that subject that led me to the Moltke letters. On p. 40, after saying that I “document­ ed the resistance of the German people to Nazism,” you quote Elliott Zuckerman’s mention of my insistence upon “accuracy as opposed to the glib generalities we all encounter.” May I insist on accuracyindeed on the facts of history once more? Once Hitler had come to power, “the Ger­ man people” obeyed him and his apparatus of propaganda and coercion, swooned before his charisma, and patriotically fol­ lowed him into war in Poland, in Scandi­ navia, and Western Europe, in Africa and Soviet Russia-until the Russians, fighting back with tremendous losses, exertions, and fortitude, reached Berlin and he killed himself. Against this background of non-resist­ ance of “the German people” I have over more than half a century, ever since those events happened, taken a passionate inter­ est in the brave individuals and groups of individuals who did resist. I wondered and still wonder about what animated and enabled them to risk and in many cases lose their lives, opposing rather than toler­ ating and supporting that regime. —Beate Ruhm von Oppen Class of 1961 Reunion Update We regret the omission in the Fall issue of The College of any report of the central event of the 40th reunion of the class of rqBi at Homecoming last year. That event was a magnificent and very well-attended luncheon at the home of Nana and John Dealy, organized to honor Eva Brann. Our class’ guests included several members of the college faculty who were tutors during the period 1957-61. Here is the text of our tribute to Eva; The Members ofthe St. John’s College Class ofigbi on the occasion ofour 40th Class Reunion hereby convey to Eva Brann, who shared, as afreshman tutor in 1951, ourfreshman year at the College, our unbounded gratitude, respect, apprecia­ tion, and affectionfor the great gifts she has given to us, enjoyed these 44 years, whose essential nature ispartly reflected in thefollowing texts: “Some things I have said of which I am not altogether confident. But that we shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to inquire, than we should have been if we indulged in the idle fancy that there was no knowing and no use in seeking to know what we do not know; that is a theme upon which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power.” (Socrates in Plato’s Meno) The study of texts...can foster apprecia­ tion for the ingenious wisdom of founding efforts, patience with the slow develop­ ment of depths and complexities, and a reluctance to wield the tool of reason too nonchalantly. Surely these intellectual habits are exactly such as are convertible into the civic virtues most needful...Yet far from being incompatible, they are precisely coincident with the desire to delve into all abysses and to leave no question unasked. A period given to inquiry is therefore indeed an appropriate preparation for republican responsibilities.” (Eva Brann, Paradoxes ofEducation in a Republic) —Cynthia Blesdoe Daley, Nana May Dealy, MarCIA Goldberg Mathog, Linda McConnell, Harri­ son Sheppard, Theodore Stinchecum, The Class OF 1961 Reunion Committee Corrections In the article “First All-Alumni Art Show” in the Fall issue, a name was omit­ ted from the list of participants. Christo­ pher Zerendow (SFga) also exhibited art­ work in the show. In “The Report of the Presidents - 1999aooi” mailed to all alumni in January, the extracurricular activities of Annapolis tutor Andre Barbera were incorrectly reported. Mr. Barbera is president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Mary’s Church. Photo Recollections In the 200a “One and Many” calendar coordinated by Philanthropia mailed to all alumni, we asked for help with the identifi­ cation of people in the photos, since the photos used from the college archives had minimal notations. Thanks to everyone who wrote, e-mailed, or called. Here are some of the responses: The mystery people for November are: sitting on windowsill, Linda Grimes; lying on bed, Sandy Culbertson; sitting in chair, Priscilla Bender Shore; sitting on floor, Emily Martin Kutler. It was dehghtful to find the photo in the calendar. I had never seen it before. —Priscilla Bender-Shore, A55 I recognize several of the people in the November photograph. On the bed is Sandy Culbertson, a tall, statuesque and sweet beauty from California. The picture does not do her justice. She had an incredi­ ble creamy complexion with cheeks that had a slight rose glow to them, especially when she smiled, which was often. Her {The College • St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } �{Letters} The NOVEMBER WOMEN, NOW IDENTIFIED. eyes were large and, I think, brown. Her hair was a medium-dark brown, and when she walked in the sunshine, there were auburn highlights throughout it. She worked in the dining hall to help pay her expenses, and I remember being horrified that she didn’t make the trip home for Christmas. I would have liked to take her home with me, but it wasn’t possible as I was one of eleven members of my house­ hold. As I was from a very close-knit family, this also astounded me and made me ache for her. She was in the class of ’55. The name of the student sitting on the floor escapes me, but I remember her as very sweet and kind. I read in one of the alumni newsletters that she later married Sammy Kutler, a junior who worked in the mailroom the years I was at St. John’s. He would have been in the class of ’54 and his wife was in the class of ’55. The student at the window I do not rec­ ognize at all. I do recognize the study desk with its lamp and chair, the bedspread and the radiator at the window. Many of the stu­ dents got extra study tables, as weU as an extra mattress and spread. The study table fitted perfectly between the two closets and into the window space. The extra mattress became the pad for the “window seat” with the extra length folded up to provide a cush­ ion for one’s back. And, of course, the spread finished the whole thing off. It was a great arrangement. My room was on the third floor overlooking the quadrangle about midway down the hall. In those days the maid came in, cleaned the room, made the bed and hung up the clothes. I guess that is a thing of the past today. One thing... I would never have recog­ nized Barbara Leonard! But then I don’t look the same as in 195a/53 either. —Mary Alice McWilliams Muir, A56 I am the student in the photograph on the page titled “About the people and the pho­ tographs.” The shirt I’m wearing is from Africa. I can’t be certain, but it is a high probabil­ ity that I am the student in the white T-shirt on the left in the photograph for August. —George Filz, SF76 I enjoyed the SJC 2002 calendar. I can identify a couple of the students who are unidentified in the photos. March 2002: The student beside tutor Barbara Leonard is John Rees, A74. October 2002: The student with the gui­ tar is Linda Stromberg, SF77. She is sitting on a bench in the courtyard of the upper dorms in Santa Fe. I would date the photo­ graph circa 1975, because I remember that she hved in the upper dorms that year. April 2002: The tutor in the photo looks to me like Ray Davis. I think that I can be of some help in identi­ fying people in the photographs in the lat­ est edition of the St. John’s calendar. I think that the identifications of the April and May photographs are switched. Although I don’t remember Eva Brann from my days at St. John’s, I believe that she is the woman in the May photo. ( She looks mighty like that even now.) I am cer­ tain that the man seen in perfect profile behind her is Harvey Poe. I am less certain about the two other people whose faces can be seen. The person sitting next to Eva appears to be Jeremy Tarcher. The person sitting directly behind her seems to be Tom Heineman. If I am correct about either Tarcher or Heineman, this photo could not have been taken later than 1953 when both graduated. The identification of the January photo is probably correct, and it is only coinci­ dental that two of the five men in the photo bear a striking resemblance to men I knew. The man sitting on the table looks like Peter Grimes (the husband of Linda in the November photo). He even has the pipe from which Peter was never separat­ ed. Sitting directly opposite him at the far end of the table is someone who looks very much like my senior year roommate, Frank Polk. —Martin Dyer, Ago The February photograph is of Steve Gold­ man, SF73; the photographer was probably J. R. Thompson, but it could have been Maria Kwong. The tutor in the April photograph is not Tom Slakey; it is Ray Davis. —Michel R. Barnes, SF73 The CollegeviAcwae.^ letters on issues of interest to readers. Letters maybe edited for clarity and/or length. Those under 500 words have a better chance of being printed in their entirety. Please address letters to: The College Magazine, St. John’s Gollege, Box 2800, Annapolis MD 21404 or The College Maga­ zine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s Gollege, 1160 Gamino Gruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: b-goyette@sjca.edu, or via the form for letters on the web site atwww.sjca.edu chck on “Alumni,” then on “Gontact The Gollege Magazine.” —Carol High saw, A76 {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{Johnnies on Winter} HERE COMES THE SUN Johnnies across the country bid winter afondfarewell. By SUS3AN Borden, A87 Ithough T.S. Eliot named April the cruelest month, many Johnnies on the Annapolis campus would nominate Fehruary for the title. While the Santa Fe winter offers outdoor sports and a near-daily hlue sky, the Annapolis win­ ter is all about overcast days, slushy streets, and promises of snowstorms that are rarely kept. Alumni across the country are divided in their approach to win­ ter. Some find much that is bitter in the bitter cold. For them, win­ ter is a three-month-long battle with icy roads, itchy sweaters, and a lingering case of SAD (seasonal affective disorder). Others think of December, January, and February as one long winter carnival filled with sledding, skiing, roaring fireplaces, and hot cider. Kersti Tyson (SFga), a native New Mexican who studied in Annapolis and Santa Fe, describes a special approach to winter she discovered when she was a high school exchange student in Norway. Her host family introduced her to koselig (pronounced kooshlie). “It’s a word that I find untranslatable in English. Cozy is the best way to translate it, but it’s more the spirit of being cozy,” she says, “The Norwegians have this way of going around making things cozy for themselves in the wintertime. When you go into a house there are candles lit and good treats on the table. It’s a kosehg atmosphere.” Tyson, now living in Santa Fe, makes her home koselig by lighting candles, curling up on the couch with a blanket and book, drinking hot chocolate, and eating grot, a rice pudding she learned to cook in Norway (see sidebar). Who better than a baker living in a northern climate to recom­ mend some koselig recipes native to America? Juliet Burch (A88), who has worked in bakeries (Miss Nancy’s) and restaurants (Con­ rad’s) since her college days in Annapolis, now works at the Clear Flour Bakery in Brookline, Mass. It turns out that the old saw about the cobbler’s children going shoeless holds true for Burch and her husband, Dave Vermette (A85), “I don’t bake and I don’t cook. I live on carryout food,” she confesses. “For us, cabin fever doesn’t mean warm stews simmering on the stove; it means there’s nothing to eat in the fridge.” A native Annapolitan, Burch says it’s taken her a long time to adjust to Boston winters. Several years ago, she began a non-food tradition to combat cabin fever. When the malady hits, she and her sister-in-law drive north through the snow in search of adven­ ture. “If it’s winter, we might as well embrace it,” she says. “The first time we drove to Quebec. It was just incredible, driving through places with three feet of snow on the ground. People were riding snow mobiles, they were skiing, it was a winter wonder­ land. We drove past a father and son walking together, the father holding a big rifle, the son holding a winter hare. I thought, ‘Wow, these are people for whom winter means something entire­ ly different.’ ” Burch was right about such people, who are to be found every­ where but are in greatest numbers in the coldest regions. Among them is Carl Bostek (SF68), who moved to Alaska in 1993 when he was in the Air Force. “I wanted to be someplace with a low popu­ lation density, with wilderness, mountains, and ocean,” he says. “After I got here, I realized there was not really any ocean, at least around Anchorage, suitable for sailing, but there are mountains and wilderness and lots of outdoor activities.” Bostek rattles off a long list of Alaska’s popular winter sports, then explains that the cold weather and lack of dayhght take their toll even on the snow enthusiasts who choose to hve so close to the Arctic Circle. “A fair number of people move to Alaska thinking it’s going to be just wonderful,” he says. “But most of them first come in the summer and fall in love tvith the land when the sun {The College- St. John's College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �14 {Johnnies on Winter} open a season-appropriate shines ao hours a day. The book like those Fetterer flip side is, come winter, enjoys. Matthew Gildea you’ve got close to ao hours (A8i), associate director in of darkness each day. Sunrise the merchandising depart­ to sunset is not very long.” ment of Borders, explains Still, Bostek says, a lot of that people usually read to people stick it out because escape winter, not celebrate they love the Alaska summer it. “Only in the deep south so much. “But I think every­ will people read books with a body gets somewhat de­ winter theme,” he explains. pressed in the winter,” he For those willing to buck that adds. “There’s a big business trend (or living in the deep in SAD hghts, dayhght simu­ south), Gildea makes some lators. I try to keep very recommendations: In the bright lighting in my house Heart of the Heart of the and office, but the real way Country by William Gass, you fight the winter is to get Moist winter air in Annapolis causes snow and ice to coat the trees. Worst Journey in the World out and be active.” by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Colorado resident Flo­ and Endurance by Alfred rence Fetterer (A8i) is not so Lansing. sure. “While most of my There are some among us friends and colleagues love for whom winter is neither a winter sports, I hunker down season of snow sports nor an by the fire and wait for May,” -Juliet Burch [A88] she says, describing an un­ occasion for koselig. Suffer­ usual approach to the cold for ers of SAD battle depression brought on by winter’s short someone who works at the hours of sunlight. The National Mental Health Association National Snow and Ice Data Center. “It’s pretty ironic that I spend my days thinking about the cryos­ (NMHA) describes SAD’s symptoms as the same as those of phere (‘where the world is frozen’) when I hate the cold so much,” depression: “changes in sleeping and eating habits; persistent sad, anxious or ‘empty’ mood; loss of pleasure in activities once she says. The closest she comes to embracing winter is when she enjoyed.” While the NMHA reports that SAD isn’t totally under­ curls up with a book: “I enjoy reading about the Arctic and Antarc­ stood, it says it is a real illness with sometimes severe symptoms. tic explorers. I recommend The Coldest March by Boulder atmos­ Jennifer Coonce (A97) first discovered her susceptibility to pheric scientist Susan Solomon. It makes the case that Capt. Robert Falcon Scott was done in on his return from his South Pole SAD as a St. John’s student. “I grew up in the south, so I never had expedition in igia not by poor planning, but by the bad luck of a problem with tvinter. When I moved to Annapol is as a freshman, abnormal weather conditions.” I had a lot of trouble in the winter, but it was the first time I was For many Johnnies, curling up with a good book is the very defi­ away from home, so it was an emotional time anyway. I never thought about SAD until my junior or senior year when I realized nition of kosehg. But it turns out to be the rare reader who cracks 'If its winter, we might as well embrace it. {The CoLLEGE-St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring ssoosi } �{Johnnieson Winter} 15 People usually need to escape winter, not celebrate it that I was always extremely recent death of George depressed in February. I’ve Harrison led the perform­ paid more attention to it ers to include a “Sun set,” since then.” featuring “Here Comes Coonce spent all four the Sun” and other sunyears in Annapolis, but it’s themed songs. likely that February would As the group planned have been a happier time the performance and for her in Santa Fe. Mark talked about other songs St. John (SF82), director of they’d play, Seeger says, it athletics and outdoor pro­ became clear that many grams in Santa Fe, says “sun” songs are actually that winter is an exciting depressing. “Like ‘You Are time on the western cam­ My Sunshine.’ It starts bad pus. “We have cross-coun­ and gets worse,” she says. try and downhill skis, snow­ The group decided to sing boards and snow shoes, and it anyway, along with now we have the indoor “We’ll Sing in the Sun­ facility, too. Students are shine,” another suplaying basketball and prisingly depressing num­ using the weight room. ber. Interviewed shortly Some get into Search and before the performance, Rescue, some are out mak­ Seeger described the musi­ ing snow caves and doing cians’ strategy: “I guess winter camping and back­ we’ll just play loud and country skiing. And even hope that people don’t lis­ Average annual snowfall in Santa Fe is 3a inches. when they’re inside, ten to the words.” they’re sipping lattes and doing their reading,” he says. Tutors on the Annapolis campus have for many years noted Gr0T, SCANDINAVIAN COMFORT FOOD the dark mood that hovers over the campus in February. To make Grot, you’re more likely to follow a narrative than a “Begone Dull Care,” a folksong sing-along scheduled yearly to recipe. Here’s Kersti Tyson’s version; lift the February blues, was started ten years ago when tutor Joe “It’s basically rice and milk. You pour a bunch of cooked Sachs (A68) suggested to then-dean Eva Brann that such an rice into a pot and put in a bunch of milk. You add the milk, event was necessary. then cook and stir until you get a creamy oatmeal consistency. This year’s performance was held February 16 and led by Assis­ Then add some butter and sprinkle it with sugar. Some peo­ tant Dean Judy Seeger and her husband Tony; tutors Chester ple put cinnamon on it.” Tyson adds: “It’s always good to Burke, George Doskow, Henry Higuera, and Jon Tuck; and for­ have some fruit juice with it.” mer music librarian Tina Davidson. Judy Seeger says that the {The College - Si. John's College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �i6 {Johnnies on Winter} Winter warfare: A snowball fight erupts on the quad, ca. 1975. Whither Winter? By Florence Fetterer (A81), National Snow and Ice Data Center Snow and ice data sets gained importance when global chmate models predicted that greenhouse gas-induced climate warming would be amplified in polar regions. It makes sense to look at parameters such as the mass of glaciers, permafrost extent, and sea ice extent and thickness as indices of chmate change. Arctic sea ice extent, for example, has decreased by an average 3% per decade since the 1970s, when the satelhte data record began. A study based on data from U.S. Navy submarines suggests that sea ice (which has an average thickness of 3 meters) has thinned in the western Arctic by about 40% since the 1950s. A study based on records of the timing of when lakes freeze over in the fall and melt in the spring shows that the average length of the melt sea­ son in the northern hemisphere has increased by about 18 days in the last 100 years. The lake ice data set upon which the study was based is quite interesting. The oldest continuous record is from Japan and dates to the year 1443. Holy people of the Shinto rehgion kept careful records for Lake Suwa because of the belief that the ice allowed the male and female deities on either side of the lake to get together. While some of the observed changes in the arctic, like melting permafrost and a longer growing season, can be attributed to higher average temperatures (and a shorter winter, if you hke) , the big picture, of course, is much more complicated. Changes in large scale atmospheric circulation appear to be behind the changes in arctic ocean ice cover, and may explain why antarctic sea ice extent has not decreased while ice shelves on the Antarc­ tic Peninsula are melting at a rapid rate. The complex of inter­ related changes in the Arctic have been characterized by some researchers with the Yup’ik word Unaami, meaning tomorrow. The Inuit are immediately affected by these changes, and oral histories from Inuit community elders are another resource for researchers. In one eastern Canadian community, for instance, a new word for “rain in the winter” has appeared in the language to describe this previously rare phenomenon. {The College -St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } �{TheProgram} ROOTS o/OUR PROGRAM By Eva Brann Review of “ The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes” by Jonathan Rose, 534pp., Yale University Press, 2001. ur ever-alert librarian Lisa Richmond sent me a review of a book she had acquired for us which she thought I might find interesting. I picked it up right away. Interesting! It kept me up half the night. What was so engaging about a book with such a title? I’ve long been, with respect to our program, what you might call a Populist Great Bookster. I mean someone who thinks not only a. that the great books canon is an indispensable tool for (and an inevitable result of) the reading life, but also b. that these are the books that, given a chance, people of all sorts, from leisure-rich college kids to hard-driven working stiffs, will care about most. The book I would like to bring to the notice of our alumni corroborates this faith with a lot of well-attested fact. Moreover I had long heard rumors that the St. John’s Program has among its deep and early roots English workers’ self and mutu­ al improvement efforts. If someone were to trace the precise connections-a project requiring a lot of historical research-7%e Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes would be a great starting point. [Winfree Smith’s A Searchfor the Liberal College: The Beginning ofthe St. John’s Program (St. Johns College Press, 1983) is another. Smith sets out not only the American antecedents of our program but pointers to the English connec­ tion: Scott Buchanan, the intellectual founder of St. John’s, read Plato’s Republic with A. D. Lindsay at Oxford. Lindsay, as it hap­ pens, was the “tutor” for this course in the Workers’ Educational Association which figures largely in Rose’s book. Buchanan him­ self related our reading list to that published in 1895 by Sir John Lubbock and made for the English Workers and Mechanics Insti­ tute.] What comes over as a first impression is an exhilarating sim­ ilarity of spirit. The spirit is that of the “autodidact,” the type of intrepid, inde­ pendent soul who will find out a great book in the most adverse circumstances and absorb it into his-and remarkably often, given the social situation-her soul. The aim is “self-improvement,” but though this term includes a desire to rise in the ranks of class, to better oneself, it is a wonderful fact-almost miraculously wonderful-that these people read most often for the mere excitement, the expansiveness, the elevation of it. In other words, they do on their own what we, also against considerable social pressure, do in concert: they learn for the sake of the object of learning, for the delight of it. Their autodidacticism (self-teaching) and their learn­ ing for its own sake are clearly connected, and it occurred to me while reading Rose’s book (though not for the first time) that this college is a contradiction incarnate: institutionalized autodidacti­ cism. For the sake of a certain kind of learning we each teach our­ selves, but we do it together. The workers too eventually established institutions to learn together, most influential among which in the last century were the Workers Educational Association and Ruskin College based in Oxford. A survey conducted in 1936 showed that the worker stu­ dents raised “a chorus of ‘Noes’” to the introduction of vocation­ al courses: “Knowledge for its own sake is a better principle.” The same working-class readers turn out to be practically impervious to ideological pressures; they are avid readers of Marx and openeared listeners to their socialist tutors, but in a jovial, masterful way they reject what they find unrealistic: a primary motive of the autodidact is intellectual freedom (30a). And it turns out that great fiction-designated by the Communists as an opium of the masses (316)—is a fail-safe inoculant against ideology, meaning prepackaged theory mechanically and universally applied. In fact these workers are realistic dreamers who have experience of a hard world and therefore love the imaginative-not the ideologi­ cal-ideal. They are radicals on their own. They read the classics beginning with the Iliad in inexpensive editions like Everyman’s Library (the practical realization of Great Books lists like Lub­ bock’s). They also drink with the thirst of real readers from that vast and wonderful reservoir called “Middlebrow” by Virginia Woolf. What they don’t like much is Modernists like Virginia Woolf herself, E. M. Forster, and T. S. Eliot-for their snobbery and their exclusionary difficulty. These are just the authors I’ve myself read with mere, largely loveless, admiration. Their reading is as spotty as it is avid. Consequently each work continued onp. 20 {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{Tutor Profile} TURNING IDEAS INTO ACTION Santa Fe tutor Linda Weiner spent last summer working on low-tech solutions for a group ofMayans evolving their own sef-sustaining society By Ed Moreno ixteen years ago, Linda Wiener abandoned a career in academic science to search for greater understanding and meaning as a St. John’s College tutor. Last summer, she tem­ porarily took leave of the abstractions of the great books and became a Zapatista companera, a comrade working alongside mem­ bers of a Mexican community. For her month-long reality check, the Santa Fe tutor worked with the Mayan population in the state of Chia­ pas, helping devise low-tech methods for improving their gardens and farms. The bonus was experiencing an incipient democracy and the evolution of a self-sustaining society in that troubled region. “For all of the abstract stuff we do at the college, this was a real grounded experience-working with real people with real problems in real time,” she says. The Transition from Biologist to Philosopher Wiener grew up with a love of bugs and plants and a feeling that the land was “alive.” Naturally, she pursued a career in entomolo­ gy and, with a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, she became a curator of Harvard University’s entomology collection in the early igBos. But at the pinnacle of a career in hard science, Wiener says she found her colleagues considered insects and ecosystems only as mechanisms, while she developed more philosophical interests such as “what it means for something to be ahve.” Her colleagues were hostile to the inquiries she wanted to pursue and she realized that “hard science was not where I wanted to be.” She responded to an advertisement to teach at St. John’s in Santa Fe in 1985. “I came to St. John’s and it turned out it was a place where I could ask the questions that were taboo for a professional scientist to ask,” she says. She found much of what she was missing in the writings of Bergson, Aristotle, Goethe, and other authors. Wiener also found a way to stay close to the insects she loves. In 1990, she founded The Bug Lady, consulting with gardeners, nurs­ eries, museums, and government agencies about non-toxic pest control, identifying bugs for people, and conducting butterfly sur­ veys. Then last year, Wiener got a letter from a Graduate Institute alumnus she had known from her politics and society preceptorial-Rick van Savage (AGI91)- who had gone to Chiapas to help the Mayan people with development projects. He invited her to spend a month sharing her knowledge with the people of the region. She left in mid-July with her two children, 14-year-old Alex and 12-yearold Vicky. Weiner had seen the drawbacks of American-style aid projects when she worked for a think tank on international development projects. “I saw attitudes that I disliked. For instance, a view of the people as ignorant and helpless. In the aid projects, we were to tell them what to do and what their real interests were, so the projects tended to disempower people. At best, they did some good in the short term and left nothing useful behind when the project ended two or three years later,” she says. But what was happening in Chi­ apas was different. Weiner was attracted by the autonomous, selfcontained approach toward development the Mayans were pursu­ ing. It is known as “solidarity” work, as opposed to typical development or charity work. “With ‘solidarity’ work, the people decide what they need, how they’re going to get it, and what their relationship with the outside experts is going to be. I was very curi­ ous to see how that would work in practice,” says Wiener. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{Tutor Profile} 19 ''For all ofthe abstract stuffwe do at the college, this was a realgrounded experience—working with realpeople with realproblems in real time. Helping a Democracy to Evolve The world learned about Chiapas in 1994 when Mayan insurgents, invoking the memory of agrarian rev­ olutionary hero Emiliano Zapata, took over the capital of Chiapas, San Cristobal de las Casas, to protest Mexican and global policy that affect­ ed indigenous people. “The Mayans in Chiapas have long been marginalized in terms of land, economic opportu­ nity, political influence. They are extremely poor. They want to be able to pre­ serve their native cultures and they want basic services such as potable water, elec­ tricity, health care, and edu­ cation. They also want digni­ ty and respect,” she says. While an uneasy truce with the Mexican govern­ ment has continued, the indigenous people under the Zapatista banner have been organizing themselves into an independent, egalitarian society. They have their own government, which is well-organized and decentrahzed. Because of their relation­ ship with the Mexican gov­ ernment, the Zapatistas are secretive about the details of their activities and do not talk about their work in public. And while the insurgency carries the aura of romance, most of the work is tediously basic, delivering water, electrici­ ty, health care, and educa­ tion to people who have none. Weiner cites the case of women whose daily twohour walks to fetch water were eliminated by the con­ struction of a simple, gravi­ ty-fed water system from a remote mountain spring. Since the rebelhon, women have slowly begun to take on stronger roles in these traditionally patriarchal societies, she says. Wiener’s role as a companera in the ongoing revolution was with the Mayan women, helping them improve their horticultural practices. The indige­ nous people grow corn, beans, and other diet staples, while other plants are used for medicinal teas, salves, and tinctures. “Before I could teach anything, I had to find out what their understanding {The College. Sf. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �2,0 {Tutor Profile} continuedfrom p. stands by itself, a peak of lovely grandeur, closer to other peaks than to any surrounding landscape. When you come to think of it, that’s how we read: contextlessly, book speaking to book. The reading schedule of the WEA is also faintly faimiliar: twentyfour two hour sessions on the books a year, divided into half-lecture, half­ discussion. I’ve heard of tutors who achieved a similar proportion in seminar. Rose could not have written this book had it not been for the fact that these working learners were copious writers of memoirs, which have now been collected and pub­ lished. The fashionable academic the­ ory of reader-response. Rose points out, relied on hypotheses derived from texts; he is dealing with the real readers’ recorded responses. Here is the conclusion, stated in the preface: Rose is commenting on the radical epiphany that struck one Will Crooks, Labour MP (readers of Great Books often became labor leaders) on reading Homer: As for noncanonical literature, by (1 and large it did not perform the same ■ function for proletarian readers. I ...|r]omance novels, school stories I and tough-guy detective fiction ... I had a certain educational value for S common readers. But they usually 4 did not do what the Iliad did. n To say why, he goes on, we would R have to explain why books enter the J canon, “an intimidatingly complicat­ ed question.” Amen to that. There is a sad postscript to all these glories: In recent times the working class has been “bypassed by Britain’s state-supported Bohemia,” squeezed out between the hostile social forces of the intellectual’s obscure postmod­ ernism and the yuppy middle class’s cultural consumerism. There must be more to it; I don’t know. But I do know that this huge product of illu­ minating research gives us our marching orders: to go and read our books as if there were no such things as social forces. Rose could not have written this book had it not beenfor thefact that these working learners were copious writers ofmemoirs, which have now been collected andpublished. Eva Brann is a tutor in Annapolis. continuedfrom p. tg was of plants and insects, and what words and concepts made sense to them,” she says. She ran a workshop on composting, beneficial insects, and the use of simple treatments such as a soap and water solution to keep aphids and other bugs off plants. She created low-tech tools, such as a plastic bottle with holes in the cap, to spray the solution on the plants. The local people would not use, and could not afford, commercial pesticides. “They have no alternative but to do organic gardening,” she says. Beyond agriculture, Wiener found an enthusiastic population eager to discover values Americans have taken for granted. In town-hall style meetings, they make sure that everyone is heard and all resources are equally shared. “It’s exciting to see. They’re inventing democracy for themselves,” says Wiener. “To hear peo­ ple talking about liberty and dignity, and trying to articulate the principles, is really quite moving.” Even though the population has little education or access to books, much less great ones, Wiener found them to be articulate about the principles they were espousing. “In tutorials at St. John’s,” she says, “my Chiapas experience is a reminder that T’m not as smart as I think.’ You think you have all the answers, but you go down there and you don’t. It helps to keep me grounded. In general. I’m in favor of that.” Ed Moreno is the executive director ofNew Mexico Independent Colleges. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �I S T O RY PRESIDENT JOHN McDowell Thefirstpresident ofSt. John spersonified thefrontier spirit and brought to the college basic ideals that are still held dear. By Barbara Goyette, A73 the wings of a senior practitioner. To he Rev. William Smith (who probably under support himself, McDowell ran a school for wrote the 1784 charter for St. John’s Col­ boys. He passed the bar in Maryland and Pennsylvania and soon had a successful lege) was serving as president pro tern of practice in Dorchester County. His many the new college. When the trustees adver­ years of scraping by had taught him to be shrewd in business dealings and he began to tised for “a Stranger or some Gentlemen invest his earnings. When the new college of Great Character from Europe” to serve of St. John’s was looking for professors in 1789, McDowell jumped at the chance to as the first president. Smith suggested instead they might move to Annapolis, which was the center of look for a man who would “suit the Americanpolitical Genius. action”in Maryland. An ardent Fed­ T When no gentleman from Europe showed up interested in the joh, the Board offered the position to John McDowell, who was already heading up mathematics and natu­ ral history studies at the infant college. McDowell was definitely a product of Amer­ ica-born in r75i and raised on the Pennsyl­ vania frontier, he learned his math from surveying the family farm, his economics from the barter system in effect before the time of paper money and banks, his theolo­ gy from the Presbyterian catechism, his empathy with the common man from serv­ ing as a private during the Revolution, his political savvy from working his way through the College of Philadelphia and reading law. When he was a child, his family lived in a stockade as protection from Indian raids that occurred in Cumberland County, Penn­ sylvania, during the French and Indian War. For three years he attended John King’s Latin School, his only formal learning as a youngster. In 1768 he went east to the Col­ lege of Philadelphia (now University of Pennsylvania). He had no money for tuition, so he arranged to attend classes in He had no money for tuition, so he arranged to attend classes in exchange for tutoring other students. exchange for tutoring other students. At commencement he gave an oration entitled “On the Advantages of Studying History.” Commencement exercises in the i8th cen­ tury were not the celebrations for the stu­ dents and family that they are today; instead, students were to demonstrate to the public that they had attained a level of learning by delivering addresses. McDow­ ell’s oration was, in effect, his senior essay. After serving in the Revolution as a pri­ vate (most of his friends were officers, but his lack of means prevented such a posi­ tion), McDowell traveled to Cambridge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to read law. In 1782, professional training often took place eralist, he found a group of like-minded friends in the town. The Board of the col­ lege, recognizing the elements of “Ameri­ can Genius” in him, appointed him presi­ dent (called principal at the time) in 1790. For the first decade of his presidency, McDowell had a successful run. Students came from across the state and some from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia to attend St. John’s. In 1791, George Washing­ ton paid a visit to the campus where his two nephews and step-grandson were enrolled. McDowell taught Euclid, algebra, spher­ ical trigonometry, logarithmical arith­ metic (“with its applications to compound interest, annuities, and recessions”), sur­ veying, navigation, conic sections, natural philosophy, and more. The college com­ bined a preparatory school course-Latin, Greek, basic math, etc.-left over from King William’s School with the three-year university course. McDowell lived on the second floor of the school’s one building (later named McDowell Hall in his honor); classes were held on the first floor and stu­ dents lived on the third floor. He was a bachelor and must have devoted most of his waking hours to teaching and shepherding his charges. {The College -Sf. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �2.2. {History} In the early i8oos, debate raged in the state legislature about the best ways to pro­ vide for the citizens. Educa­ tion was a frequent topic as the Federalists and the Democrats argued about whether the college was using money that could be better spent on local schools that would reach out to all economic classes of students. In 1806 the legislature cut funds to St. John’s. McDowell left. If letters he wrote to a business associate, Henry Maynadier, are an indication of his true state, McDowell considered himself to be in John McDowell: teacher, lawyer, college president. ill-health and in need of rest. He accepted a post teaching and as provost of the University of Penn­ not active as president and most college sylvania. When he left Annapolis, he took functions were carried out by the vice prin­ with him a slave, Joseph Williams, because cipal, Henry Davis. In a letter to his friend he knew that slavery was not permitted in Col. Maynadier dated October 17,1816, and Pennsylvania and the young man would be written from Pennsylvania, McDowell says: “I have not yet recovered sufficiently to free after a period of service to him. When St. John’s again received money engage in business, but expect to visit from the state, the Board asked McDowell to Annapolis, probably in the beginning of next return; he didn’t accept their offer right month, with such a stock of health, I hope, away, but did agree in 1815. In his absence, as will enable me to give some assistance, if the college suffered from low enrollment it should be wanted. At present, the business and, of course (since the legislature had cut [operating the college] can be very well con­ funds), lack of resources for improvement. ducted without me.” One consequence of McDowell’s return The Board may have been desperate for McDowell’s leadership, but his letters was an infusion of support from the col­ referred constantly to his ill-health and low lege’s alumni, including Francis Scott Key. spirits, and he seemed unengaged in activi­ The alumni chipped in to keep the college afloat in 1817 and a few years later founded ties that had formerly given him pleasure­ discussions of pohtics and teaching. He was one of the country’s first alumni associa­ tions. Key might have remembered the message of McDowell’s commence­ ment address, dehvered to Key’s class in 1796: “The end of education is to direct the powers of the mind in unfolding them­ selves, and to assist in gaining throughout bent & force, to teach it rather how to think...than what to think...” By April of i8ao, McDowell was living on the Eastern Shore, elderly and frail, but still presi­ dent of St. John’s in name. He wrote: “My time has been fully occupied in teaching and reading, par­ ticularly Greek of which I have become fonder than of any other study.” He died in December of that year in Pennsylvania. McDowell had lived on the cusp of the new world order that was to become the United States, and he brought to the college the skills and sensibilities he had devel­ oped. He did indeed “suit the American Genius.” Sources used in this article are: “John McDowell, Federalist: President of St. John’s College, ” by Charlotte Fletcher, in The St. John’s Review, 1990; The Early His­ tory of St. John’s College in Annapolis, by Tench Francis Tilghman, St. John’s Press, 1984; letters from John McDowell to Col. Henry Maynadier, in the collection of the Greenfield Library. {The College- St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } �{AlumniNotes} 1948 George Trimble was asked by the Biographies Editor of the “IEEE Annals of the History of Comput­ ing” to write his memoirs for pub­ lication in the Annals. They are in the July-September issue, titled “A Brief History of Computing: Mem­ oirs of Living on the Edge.” Trim­ ble credited St. John’s with con­ tributing to his success in the computing field by teaching him how to think. Trimble was the first St. John’s graduate to enter the computing profession, starting in 1949 on the ENIAC, the first electronic com­ puter. After three years he joined IBM and was involved in the design of virtually every one of their early computers. Three years later he was part of a group that formed the world’s first software company. Computer Usage Com­ pany. Trimble spent the past 30 years as an independent computer con­ sultant at T-Logic, Inc. He writes: “I am still ‘living on the edge’ hav­ ing been involved for the past three years in the development of an advanced inference engine implementing a method of auto­ mated reasoning based on Term Functor Logic. It can be used in automated reasoning, expert sys­ tems, sophisticated network secu­ rity, and in natural language pro­ cessing. There are still leading edge (read bleeding edge) uses of computers to be exploited.” we are coping well with the help of our church and neighbors.” 1950 Ted Hendricks writes that he won a dispute with his cat. Chiggers. “The cat would not eat the 23-cent cat food I bought. If I smoked a cigar while writing, he wheezed and gasped. He groaned when I played the recorder. I finally hit him in the head with a volume of Aristotle and he gained some sense. He ate the cat food.” We had to walk on raised ramps to keep dry. America seems like a ‘baby’ when one sees places stand­ ing since 500 AD or the 1100, laoo, or 1300S, and walk the same streets their people walked. This was different from my previous trips and gave us a better view of us in the world.” Arianne Laidlaw retired last year and spent three weeks in Vietnam in quest of a family she sponsored in 1975. She also saw Thailand and Hong Kong. i960 1955 “People say life is short. The years pass quickly,” tvrites Carolyn Banks-Leecwenburgh. “Well, they are right. It seems only yes­ terday I was a student at St. John’s. Many former students are still in my life for which I thank my asso­ ciation with the College. And-I still recognized them! These are good years. We are still in the trav­ el business but we have more time to travel together. Helge and I remarried in 2,000. Our son, Todd (A85) and his wife held us up. No children yet just grandchildren. I’m still teaching ESL and singing locally. We’ve been in Princeton 30 years now. It’s a neat town. Drop by, any time.” Carolyn adds a P.S.: “I miss my friend and class­ mate, Hilyer Gearing Shufeldt, who just recently died of cancer.” 1949 1957 The Rev. Fred P. Davis writes: “Since our report a year ago, we’ve been engulfed with some problems: Our son David (who has been our handyman, living with us since ’90, fell and broke his left leg below the knee-both bones, cutting main nerve and still mostly confined to a wheelchair. Wife Rita went on 24hour oxygen in March (emphyse­ ma) hooked up to rotating tanks in our house. I’m the outside man, doing all errands for food, etc. But Joan Cole writes: “Just returned from a whirlwind tour of Europe with my sister and a friend. We were there when the tragedy hap­ pened. One can understand how shocked and helpless we felt. I was afraid to fly home. The trip was tiring, one which helps you deter­ mine where you want to stay awhile. If anyone wants to see Venice, go before it floats away. Every day water comes up between the stones and floods the streets. Ed Mini writes: “I came to Con­ necticut in 1970 and got stuck here above the Arctic Circle. Along the way I married a Connecticut lady and (after USNA and St. John’s) finally got a math degree from the University of Hartford. Although I spent many years in the corporate computer jungles I managed to keep tangent to those values and emerged from my latest (and last) takeover war with a nice buyout, three pensions, and (since 1997) a small software development shop in an iio-year-old machete factory on the Farmington River. My older daughter, Angela, lives in Florida and my younger daughter, Kate, graduated in 2000 from Bard; she is actually employed in her odd degree field (Community Resources/Environmental Studies) as Program Coordinator for the New York City Urban Park Rangers. (She even has an affordable apart­ ment in Washington Heights). I very much enjoyed telling Leon Botstein, Bard’s president, on parental visits, how conventional I found Bard compared to St. John’s (Bard prides itself on its out-of-themainstream status). I do not acknowledge New England winters and spend March thru October, when not in front of a computer, on my boat and bicycle. I am gradually convincing my wife, Gretchen, that it is not immoral to be warm from December thru February by taking her to places with no snow or freez­ ing rain (such as Honolulu) at least once each winter. “I’m sure there are a lot of St. John’s students worried about the relevance of the liberal arts in today’s money- and tech-dominat­ ed world. I don’t know if The Idea ofa University is still discussed at St. John’s, but it sure was in my time, and is no less relevant today. If the values of St. John’s are inter­ nalized they are pure gold in the marketplace. Unfortunately for many, internalizing those values is the key-IMHO, those who treat SJC as a sort of cultural smorgas­ bord (as I myself was accused of in my first Don Rag) have wasted four years and a lot of money, and give us unreconstructed liberal artists a bad name. “It occurs to me that, in the interests of full disclosure, I should make it clear that I did not graduate. I was expelled in the spring of my junior year for over­ In Demand: Islamic Studies Lecturer am no longer serving the Stratham Community Church,” writes I J.J. Bodine (Class of 1963). “I am presently (and into the fore­ seeable future) Pastor and Teacher at the United Church of Warner, New Hampshire. I remain bonded to New Hampshire in many ways-not least of which is discovering in Warner a very small Roman Catholic undergraduate school, Magdalen College, whose curriculum and approach to education is extraordinarily like that of St. John’s-their first academic dean was a tutor at the Santa Fe cam­ pus. I discovered all this when they asked me to deliver a Friday evening lecture on Islam (my PhD is in History of Religions: Arabic and Islamic Studies, and I have been in high demand since 9/11, as might be expected). The student body is bright, articulate and several on the faculty are fascinated at my having been a Johnnie. Best to all.” {The College ■ St John's College . Winter/Spring 2002 } �{AlumniNotes} 2.4 cutting, during a particularly rocky stretch of my life, Simon Kaplan’s German tutorial. The ‘unexcused absence’ rule in those years was Draconian but its enforcement was, to put it mildly, flexible. However, my relations with then-Dean Curtis Wilson were not of the best, and I suppose that I didn’t help my case any by responding to his ‘I’m sorry this happened, Mr. Mini’ with ‘I’m never sorry to see justice done, Mr. Wilson. I’m just sorry you picked me to be just to.’ That aside, my St. John’s experience was of profound importance to my life, especially as I am now slowly becoming a free man. kalepa ta kala. My e-mail address is: edmini@inftek.com.” 1964 John Hetland has joined The Art Mob, a small a cappella group that sings shape-note and other unlike­ ly music. Concerts in December and May. See www.artmob.org. peace. The reading and our discus­ sion were unsettling, so we turned to ‘The Optimist’s Daughter’ by Eudora Welty for our next discus­ sion. Our group includes Tom and Marion Slakey, Arianne Laidlaw (A57), and Marjory Beamish (SF78).” 1971 Sarah Sarai’s (SF) story “The Wild Night I Was Born” will be published in the Tampa Review. The journal’s url is Tampa Review. http://tampareview.utampa.edu/ subscribe/. Michael ViCTOROFE (A) writes a regular monthly column on ethics in Managed Care magazine. Dolores A. Strickland (SF) has been taking art classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and had her first art exhibit this past September. 1973 1966 Julia Busser du Prey, en route to a family funeral in Maryland in October, stopped at the campus. “It’s looking more beautiful than ever and bringing back memo­ ries,” she writes. Laurie Franklin Callahan (SF), (formerly Laurie Ellen Franklin) is director of university communica­ tions at Marymount University in Arlington, Va. 1968 Antigone Phalares (SF) writes: “Our alumni seminar group read portions of the Koran searching for the words to back the news reports that Islam promotes Stephen Slusher (SF) is in Albu­ querque practicing intellectual property law at the firm Pencock, Myers, and Adams, PC. He works primarily in biotechnology patent prosecution and litigation. He can be reached at sslusher@pencocklaw.com. Carol Calhoun’s (A) book. The Governmental Plans Answer Book, was published by Aspen Publish­ ing, Inc. in January, 2002. It is the first book to discuss both federal and state laws that apply to retire­ ment systems that governmental agencies run for their employees. Carol appeared on the CBS Evening News on February 4, 2002, discussing employee bene­ fits law aspects of the Enron situa­ tion. 1976 Victoria Hanley (SF) recently won the Colorado Book Award in the Young Adult Category for her book. The Seer and the Sword. 1977 Christian Kip Smith (SF) reports that his work involves the neu­ roimaging of dreams, risk, and trust. Carla Schick (A) had a poem published in The Peralta Press, 2001 and will be published again in 2002. In 2000 she won an honor­ able mention for her poem, “Lost Working Class Heroes,” in the Reuben Rose Memorial Contest. 1974 Carol Highsaw (SF) writes: “I am looking forward to our 25th reunion in July 2002. See you in Santa Fe!” 1967 William Schreitz and his wife Lee became grandparents April 25, 2001. William Clark Gleasner is the son of his eldest daughter who lives with her husband, Steve, and Clark in Appleton, Maine. What goes around comes around. Jena Morris (SF) reports that it was with great pride that she watched her son, Jeremy BrenINGSTALL (AGI01), graduate from the Graduate Institute in Annapolis last May. Itwas truly a deja vu expe­ rience since the keynote speaker was Elhott Zuckerman. One of Jere­ my’s favorite tutors was David Townsend, who was the fourth per­ son to see Jeremy following his birth in Santa Fe in 1975. Jeremy’s father Galen Breningstall (SF 73) was David’s co-intern tutor at the time. 1978 Amy McConnell Franklin (A) writes: “I have moved to Taos from New Orleans with my hus­ band Bob and our children ages 14-3. Glad to be in the west again and grateful for continuing news from the college. I’m a practicing mental health counselor still {The College. St. John’s College . Winter/Spring soos } involved in preventive care and education.” 1979 Kathleen JiRCiK (SF) is a practic­ ing architect and PTA president in Houston, Tex. She and her husband Mark have 2 sons, Daniel and Allen. 1980 Steven Barkhimer (A) and (EC96) has a CD of original music-“Time Was’’-available at www.cdfreedom.com. John J. Byrnes (A) writes: “Credo! ‘Out from a very small beginning-onto undiscovered ends-there is nothing worth the wear of winning-save laughter and the love of friends.’ Slainte!” 1981 Thomas Brintle (A) and his wife, Denise, celebrated twelve happy years of marriage. They have lived most of that time in New Hamp­ shire. Amy Silver (A) writes: “Although I attended St. John’s for only one year (one semester at each campus in 77-78, and my name was Amy Silverman then), I continued to read the books over the years, often in the company of one of the DC-area alumni reading groups. The influence of the college’s approach will be apparent to any Johnnie who comes across my book. Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education with or without School (Wiley, 2001, co-authored with Grace Llewellyn). Grace and I argue in the book that education is largely something that takes place in the context of the family and life as a whole, and is best guided by love and curiosity, and not something that happens primarily in schools, where coercion and political con­ trol are often in the lead. Among the families whose stories we tell �{AlumniProfile} 2,5 Memoirs of a Geisha Business Writer How Edith Updike paid her dues as ajournalist and Japan hand. By Roberta Gable, A78 ometimes the achievement of escape velocity at graduation catapults the freshly minted alum an impressive distance, and thus it was with Edith Updike (A86), who, although she had a positive experience at the col­ lege, was ready to shake the dust of this lit­ tle town off her feet. She decided to go to teach English in Japan-“I couldn’t get any further away! ” After a summer sojourn at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), where she learned enough Japanese to be “capable of framing ques­ tions but often unable to understand the responses,” it was off to Tokyo. In the mid-eighties, remember, it was more or less reasonable for native English speakers to expatriate themselves to Japan with nothing waiting on the other end, and find a decent job teaching English.Tokyo was boomtown, bigtime. Foreigners were much in demand, even those who didn’t know a word of Japanese. And although Updike had put plenty of distance between herself and Annapolis, she wasn’t far from the college community: her classmates Chuk (pronounced “Chewk”) Besher (a Japanese citizen), Maggie Kinser (A85) and Nathan Walker (A86) were living in Tokyo. Updike touched down, drank her first $6 Coca-Cola, and set to work finding a place to live and a job. Her first home was an $8oo-per-month ten-foot square room (toi­ let and shower down the hall) which she and Walker shared. Her first job was not as an English teacher, but as a hostess. Now there’s a St. John’s education at work! Her job was to hang around in a club every night from seven until midnight, being a (chaste) companion for the men who showed up to drink and sing karaoke. By day she studied Japanese, and by night, she was a modern-day geisha. Her club. Petit Rose, specialized in international (i.e. non-Japanese) hostesses. Meanwhile, she started teaching English on the side. Enter­ taining Japanese “salarimen” got pretty old in a few months, and Updike was glad to land a teaching job, working for a com­ pany that sent her to teach small classes of businessmen and “office ladies” (a gra­ cious version of the western “administra­ tive assistant”). She taught all kinds of folks, from Kentucky Fried Chicken man- Wanderlust led Edith Updike to Japan. agers, who needed English specific to the Colonel’s cookin’, to Formula One race engineers at Honda, who arrived for class with oil often on their fingertips but almost never on their white coveralls. After taking a break for international travel, Updike easily found an ESL job. But she was keen on getting a job in journal­ ism, so when Tokyo Today, an English-lan­ guage arts and entertainment magazine, was looking for “contributors” (read “vol­ unteers”), she presented herself. She start­ ed working round the clock: teaching from seven to nine in the morning, at the maga­ zine all day, then another class at six or seven in the evening. The magazine even­ tually started to pay her a pittance. After six months, she became managing editor. After a few years with Tokyo Today she went for the big money in corporate com­ munications, writing annual reports, cor­ porate magazines, newsletters, and brochures. This was around 1991-92, when the economic bubble of rampant specula­ tion was just about ready to burst. She soon resolved to take the next step toward developing a truly professional journalism career, and she returned to the U.S. to enroll in the Columbia Journalism School, in September 1993. She loved it. She enjoyed her classmates and she had a swell time learning more about New York in the first three months there than she had ever known growing up on Long Island, as she sat in night court, dug through building code archives, and accomplished other journahstic trials. Updike says that the more you put into a country, the more you’ll get out of it-exponentially. A lot of those who want to go abroad figure they’ll just be there a couple of years, and then return to life as we know it, and they don’t become invested in their temporary home. After four years in-country, though, Updike had become some­ thing of a Japan hand, and her work at Tokyo Today had earned her one of two East-Asia Fellowships (which entailed a full scholarship to Columbia), plus a subse­ quent internship. Ayear after graduation she was a full-time Tokyo correspondent for Business Week. Ah, the happy life of she who has paid her dues! She spoke the language, knew the cul­ ture, and had a terrific job that got her into all manner of inner sancta. She covered the auto industry, which was a swell assign­ ment, and whatever else came her way. Her job eventually developed into the trade beat. She interviewed people from the president of Toyota to the Prime Minister of Japan. But our restless heroine was still hanker­ ing to repatriate, and angled for Busines Week to transfer her stateside. Between luck and finagling, she landed a position in New York covering emerging businesses, just at the dawn of the internet boom. After a few years, she got out, and became a free agent. She dabbled in public relations and hated it. She advised some start-ups on business plans. For the past two years she has edited a monthly newslet­ ter on labor force diversity. Last June she had her first child, and is glad to have a skill that enables her to work at home. Writing suits Updike well. “The great thing about being a writer is that you have the flexibility to live wherever you want,” she says. And with that recognition of the opportunity for wandering, she and her husband are planning to move out to the country and settle down-at least for a couple of years. {The College - S?. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } �{AlumniNotes} 2.6 in the book are the Gushues— Susan (A79) and Michael (A78)whose flexible mix of homeschool­ ing, public schooling, and charter schooling for their five children we present as a model. In my other life I’m a singer­ songwriter, gigging occasionally in the region around my Shenan­ doah Valley, Virginia, home and travelling to Nashville periodically to beat my head against the walls of Music Row. I’m also coordina­ tor for the Kid Pan Alley project, an organization that puts song­ writers in schools to write songs with kids and has produced a real­ ly excellent CD that raises funds for music education. My children Carsie (16) and Elijah (9) and 1 would love to hear from any John­ nies who want to canoe the Shenandoah River this summer.” essay in Civil Society and Govern­ ment (Princeton University Press) and he’s got a major essay on James Madison and multicultural­ ism coming out soon. 1982 1984 Path Nogales (A) writes: My son, Alex Ozdemir, and my daughter, Zoe Ozdemir, have both learned how to read. And their favorite responses to the statement of any given fact are ‘How do you know that?’ and ‘Why?’ ” MarkTimoney (A) writes: “1 am married. My wife is named Maria (nicknamed Pachi). We have four kids ages 3, 5, 7, and 9.1 work in finance, mostly with Latin Ameri­ ca. I would welcome hearing from 1986 1983 “After a 33-year residence in New Mexico, 1 recently moved from Santa Fe to Ellicott City, Mary­ land, where 1 live with my daugh­ ter, Julia (SF84), her husband, GregToppo (SF85), and their two children plus assorted ani­ mals,” writes Mary Morris Neidorf (SGI83). “1 always enjoy hearing from former students of mine and of my husband Robert. My address is 10356 Tuscany Road, Ellicott City, MD. 21043.” Tom Palmer (A) just published an Fairy Tales with a Modern Twist omehow, between parenting and teaching at my son’s preschool, renovating our old Victorian, and working as a graphic and web designer, I have surprised myself by writing the libretto for a full-length comic opera,” writes Kristen Baum­ gardner Caven (SF86). ‘Shoes, a Mirror and a Big Pink Rose’ (a.k.a. Trittico delle Principesse) is about three young women and is based on the fairy tales Cinderella, Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast with a modern twist, of course. For example, Cinderella’s fairy godmother is a drag queen, and Snow White takes refuge in a frat house. To create the fraternity, I imagined a small community of Johnnie wannabes: ‘Welcome to the Brotherhood of Greek Geeks! / No one knows exactly who we are! / Legend on the campus for our high I-Q’s / But scorned by gorgeous women near and far! ’ The Upsilon Psi brothers make ter­ rible jokes with the Greek alphabet, and a quote from Ptolemy hangs on the wall. And of course they deduce the chemical reactions that cause her to fall into a coma! “My goal now is to find a composer, an opera company to produce it, and/or a grant or other source of funding. I would deeply appreciate any recommendations or introductions from alumni. My e-mail is kristen@littlepig.com. A synopsis and librettos are available at www.zaftigopera.org if anyone is looking for a fun read (and who isn’t?).” “ any colleagues and friends.” His address is 209 W. 107 St. #iW, NY, NY 10025. Todd Masilon (A), his wife Renee, and children Molly and Ian (due in early May) are finally overcoming their culture shock and getting somewhat settled in Darmstadt, Germany. Todd is the Executive Officer for the Headquarters Com­ pany of the 66th MUitary Intelli­ gence Group. He says he has a very difficult-if somewhat un-glamorous-year ahead. Todd writes: “As public trans­ portation (Molly is quite fond of riding the ‘Strassenbahn’-and does a great job pronouncing it) is a gazillion times better than anything found in the States, the three of us have gotten to know the city pretty well over the past few weeks. As Renee is getting well into her third trimester, extensive travel through­ out Europe will have to wait for some time. We’re still awaiting the bulk of our household goods from Ft. Stewart. The bulk of Molly’s important stuff is here, however, so things are manageable.” The Masilon’s new address is: CMR 431, Box #1947/APO AE 09175. In addition to indexing, L. Pilar Wyman (A) is now also working at the Key School in Annapohs as assis­ tant librarian in the Manse Library (Pre- and Lower School). “It’s fasci­ nating, seeing how kids search and use libraries,” she writes. 1987 Margaret Elizabeth “Betsy” Williams (SF) writes: “I began making pots in 1992 in a small Japanese workshop in Manhattan. In 19941 entered an apprentice­ ship to Mr. Yutaka Ohastu in Karatsu, Japan. I trained under Mr. Ohastu in the Karatsu tradition, known for its spontaneity and grace—especially among tea cere­ monyware, for four and a half years. I came back to New Mexico in 1999, and my home/studio and {The College. Sf. lohn’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } wood-fired kiln were completed in late summer 2001, near Dixon (about an hour north of Santa Fe). I will have my first solo exhibition beginning on April 5, 2002 for onemonth at the Touching Stone Gallery in Santa Fe. The show will he available for viewing on the gallery web site: www.touching­ stone.com. 1988 Rachel Ankeny (SF) writes: “I moved to Sydney, Australia in mid-2000 for a mixture of person­ al and professional reasons, and am the director of the Unit for History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney, where I teach philosophy of science, his­ tory and philosophy of biomedical sciences, and bioethics. Sydney is an amazing place to live (and visit! Friends should contact me if you will be coming through town). My partner and I live near the beach and enjoy cooking for crowds-just warn us if you don’t like kangaroo.” Rachel’s e-mail is r.ankeny@scifac.usyd.edu.au. December saw the publication of two books by Kim Paffenroth (A). He is a coauthor of Beyond SelfInterest: A Personalist Approach to Human Action (Lexington Books), and the author ofJudas: Images of the Lost Disciple (Westminster John Knox Press). He will appear (however briefly) on a documen­ tary on Judas to be aired at the end of March on the History Channel. William E. Gattis (SF) and Stephanie Porter (with their son, Beno) are moving to Matrose, Colo., to start a medical practice. 1989 Sophie Romano-Ehrhardt (SF) writes that she and her husband Mac are still married and their children, Isabel (age 5) and Sam (age 2) have not run away from home yet. Sophie is studying vio­ lin and playing bridge. She says, “Hi to all Johnnies. Give a call.” �{Alumni Notes} 1990 The Rev. Gerard Sparaco (A) writes: “I was married October 4, 1998 to Jessica. Graham Harman (A) was best man. I studied at Con­ cordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind. and was ordained June 3, 2001 in Evansville, Ind. I’m now Pastor at Crown of Life Luther­ an Church in Mt. Laurel, N.J.” 1991 Patrick Cho (A) and his wife, Suzanne, welcomed their daughter to the world June i, 2001! Michael David Sasson (SF), who was recently elected president of his local union in Oakland, Cahf., still harbors an ambition to give an SJC Friday night lecture on Pascal, Genesis, and the Gospel of John dealing with themes of love, faith, and original sin. He can be con­ tacted at simcha3@msn.e0m. Andrew Schwartz (A) has joined the regional defense litigation law firm Marshallo, Dennehey, Warn­ er, Coleman & Goggin as an asso­ ciate in its Philadelphia office. He is a member of the firm’s profes­ sional liability practice group. 1992 Michael Zinanti (SF) writes: “Susan Svetich (SF93) and I got married right before I went to engineering school in 1995.1 grad­ uated from the University of Den­ ver in 1998 with a BS in electrical engineering about a year after the birth of our only child (so far) Anna. I worked at Ball Aerospace designing antennas for low observ­ able military applications for about three years. The work was exciting, but the high security stuff got old. Now I work for a company that makes antennas for wireless LAN and cellular phone applications. In all I have six patent applications being processed, five for antennas and one for a roller skate wheel. The only one I actually own rights to is the roller skate/skateboard wheel and I am developing that right now. I hope to have a working pair of skates by this spring, and if things look right I may get out of antennas altogether and make roller skates. Who knows? I am anxiously awaiting the class reunion this summer. Please go to it if you were in the class of ’92.1 hope that this catches you up a lit­ tle bit on me, and I hope to catch up more this summer.” Christopher Hadley, S. J. (A) writes: “I took my first vows as a Jesuit in August 2001 in Portland, Oregon, and I have moved to the Bronx to study philosophy and the­ ology at Fordham University. I live with 18 other Jesuit scholastics and two priests in a converted apartment building. Being in the city for the terrorist attacks and aftermath has been heart-rending, but the beauty and goodness of this place and its people have been shining through. I would love to hear from anyone, especially New York Johnnies.” Hadley’s e-mail address is chrishadleyi@juno.com; his street address is Ciszek Hall, 2502 Bel­ mont Ave., Bronx, NY 10458. Sean and Deborah Scalley (AGI) have recently moved to 9107 Demery Court, Brentwood, TN 37027. Sean is university counsel and tax attorney for Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Deb is edi­ tor of Bank Director Magazine. 1993 Thornton C. Lockwood, Jr. (AGI) married Karen J Andrade, Esq. on September 22. Kevin (AGI 92) and Amy (Marcetti) Topper (A98) attended the wedding. Jeffrey Natterman (AGI) now has 3 children: Elizabeth (ir), John (7), and Sarah (S). He attends law school at the University of Balti­ a? Studying Songbirds Passing By (A94) writes: “After a forced exodus from New Mexico, I am enrolled in the PhD program in Wildlife Biology at the University of Montana in Missoula-hy-God, Montana. I am attempting to model fitness parameters of Neotropical migrant passerines (songbirds) with remotely-sensed landscape data. Dry material, certainly, but I spend the summers in central Idaho, which remains remarkably wild and pleasing to behold (despite the locals). If any members of the St. John’s community are passing through Missoula, please stop by and see me. A pot of pinto beans is always on the stove, the coffee is the blackest in town, and Tuesday is came adovada night.” ndrew Kroll A more and specializes in constitu­ tional law. Jennifer Rychlik (SF) has received her PhD in Microbiology from Cornell University. She is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Biochem­ istry and Molecular Biology at Oregon Health and Sciences Uni­ versity in Portland, Ore. She can be contacted at rychlikj@ohsu.edu. Claire Darling (SF) is living in Portland, Ore., with her husband Jim Magee. Their daughter Regan (18 months) is talking lots. “What a surprise!” Claire says. 1994 David M. Brooks (SF) writes: I am currently living with my talent­ ed partner of six years here in south-east Florida, and complet­ ing my pre-doctoral internship in clinical psychology at the Universi­ ty of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center in Miami, Fla. Jeffrey Spencer Wright (SFGI) received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship last summer. He spent six weeks in San Diego, Calif, participating in a seminar on “Greek Values in Cri­ sis: Thucydides, Sophocles, and Plato,” and reported it to be a wonderful experience. 1995 Richard Lee (AGI) writes: “I thought it was about time that I sent a note and update. I am living in Atlanta and still working in edu­ cation. This past year I was pro­ moted to Vice-Principal of a small private school located in the heart of the city, Atlanta New Century School. Our school is K - 8th grade program. We would love to hear from graduating Johnnies that are interested in teaching, especially at the middle school level. I am easily reached at Rlee857610@aol.com or RichardL@atlantancs.com.” Justin Maddox (A) writes: “I’ve been working in various defense positions since graduating, begin­ ning with a Special Operations stint in the Army. They sent me to Russian school and gave me a fan­ tastic haircut. After my Army time, I did some policy work at the Pentagon until I moved to Las Vegas in ’99. In Vegas, I worked for a company that does emer­ gency response work. Last year they moved me hack to DC, where I work on security issues for the NNSA (look it up). I began work­ ing part-time on my master’s degree at Georgetown in the fall. It’s been wild. I hope everyone’s doing well.” April Walters (A) writes: “This May I’ll be graduating from Tow­ son University with a Master’s in Professional Writing. I currently continued on p. 31 {The College -5f. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �2,8 {Alumni Profile} Reluctant Johnnie For harpsichord maker Mark Adler, choosing St. John a was definitely not an act ofrebellion. By SuS3AN Borden, A87 electronics; I took cars apart. At St. John’s I ne way I find worked at a record shop on likely sub­ College Avenue, the Hi-Fi jects for pro­ Shop. I ended up repairing files is to ao to 30 hi-fis a week. It thumb was my undoing as a St. through the John’s student.” St. John’s Alumni Register While Adler may have taking note of the unusual devoted more time to jobs included in the entries. stereo repair than to study­ Several years ago, the listing ing, his troubles at St. for Mark Adler (A60), harpsi­ John ’s had more to do with chord maker, caught my eye. I his background than his later placed an asterisk next interest in electronics. to it and finally, this fall, I While it’s easy to imagine decided to write to him and that the son of Mortimer ask if he’d be willing to be Adler would breeze profiled. through St. John’s, this He e-mailed to say he was was not the case, Adler willing, and when I called him faced a number of stum­ to set up an appointment for bling blocks at the college. an interview, he mentioned The first was bred of famil­ that he had not graduated iarity. from St. John’s. “For my classmates, St. “That’s okay,” I said. John’s was a new experi“You’re still an alumnus.” ence, a new way of think­ “You know, I never wanted After a start as an engineer, Adler wanted to do something more ing, ” he recalls. “I was so to go to St. John’s,” he said, CREATIVE. intimately aware of the perhaps to explain why he had­ new program, its novel­ n’t graduated. Suddenly, I knew. ness was not a stimulus for me.” Along “No? Did you have a state scholarship?” “ You ’ re not... ” I said. with overexposure to the program came I remembered that at one point, a Mary­ “ Yes I am, ” he said. the problem of Adler’s parents’ enthusiasm land scholarship came with an assignment “I had no idea.” for the school. He points out that the age of of the institution the recipient would “It’s true,” he said. I started to laugh. 18 is not a good time to follow your parents’ attend. Maybe this assignment was a com­ And so did Mark Adler, the son of the late vision for your future. plete mismatch for him. Mortimer Adler. “ For almost everyone I knew, coming to “I didn’t have a scholarship, although So that’s what he meant. Mark Adler St. John’s was an act of rebellion,” he says. my wife did,” he said. “But I didn’t want to really hadn’t wanted to go to St. John’s-he “They found something new and different go to St. John’s.” wanted to go to engineering school. But and interesting there, something their par­ Unsure of what he meant, I tried to come great books were in the family blood and ents had not been exposed to and perhaps up with an explanation: “You were one of business. His father demanded he get a lib­ did not find valuable. They showed their those students who applied without know­ eral education before specializing. independence by going to St. John’s.” ing what St. John’s was all about?” I “ I was not a very good student, but I was In addition to asserting their independoffered. always good with my hands,” Adler says of ence, Adler’s classmates, like other young “No, no,” he said gently. And then: “You his interest in engineering. “I understood adults, were also constructing their identireally don’t know who I am, do you?” O {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{AlumniProfile} 2,9 Great books were in thefamily blood. Hisfather demanded he get a liberal education before specializing. ties. But in the world of Great Books, Adler’s identity was assumed known. “I was not in the position to forge my own path. The senior members of St. John’s were well known to me-the deans, the president. Throughout high school I more or less knew them all. I was not anonymous as a freshman.” Adler was also keenly aware of being measured against his father. “It’s a problem when you have a father who is very bright academi­ cally,” he says. “It’s hard to follow in that vein. I was not a good stu­ dent, my interests lay elsewhere. I loved the labs and was good in math, but I’m not a great thinker. I was not good in seminars. And St. John’s brought me into an environment where I was going to K HANDBUILT HARPSICHORD MODELED ON AN i8tH CENTURY be measured against my father.” FLEMISH INSTRUMENT. In December of his senior year, Adler left St. John’s. At the time, interestingly enough, tutor Dou­ under contract before setting up shop on glas Allanbrook suggested he work for his own. harpsichord maker William Dowd, but He couldn’t have picked a better time. Adler chose to work for General Electric. “ The great baroque revival was so strong, “I stayed there for eight years before facing the limits of my career,” he says. “I became you couldn’t avoid it,” he says. “Institu­ tions had to have instruments, students disillusioned with what I could do as an had to have them, harpsichord-making was engineer. The individual can do little, he’s booming. ” just one tiny cog in one gear, even in a However, no matter how strong the benevolent corporation.” demand, hand-building fine instruments is A stint at G.E.’s think tank showed him labor-intensive; not the best way to make a what was lacking: “I liked the work, it was living. Married since 1962 to the former new and interesting, but I found I wanted Nancy Clark (A61), the Adlers had their to do something a little more creative,” he first child, Clark, in 1968. When they were says. Fortunately, Adler already had some­ expecting their second child. Winter, in thing creative in the works-a relationship 1972, Adler set aside his harpsichord busi­ with harpsichord maker Frank Hubbard, ness and went into computer programming which began in the late ’60s when Adler to support his family. built a harpsichord from one of Hubbard’s In 1990, after his children were suffi­ kits. Adler ended up working in Hubbard’s ciently launched, Adler returned to mak­ studio, then built 12 instruments for him ing harpsichords. Today his business. Cembaloworks, specializes in three regional instruments: English, French, and Flemish. The harpsichords are reproduc­ tions of instruments found in the Smithsonian. They range from a small bentside spinet costing $12,500 to a fully deco­ rated late 18th-century Flemish double manual instrument, which costs close to $30,000. The late i8th- century Flemish harpsichord he keeps in his workshop is rented out for con­ certs and has seen most every major player, including Pinchas Zuckerman, Andreas Schiff, and Sir Neville Mariner. Although constructing instruments is by far the most satisfying part of his work, Adler explains that most of his business now comes from repairs, tunings, and rentals. Still, he tries to make one instrument a year. “Good instruments tend to last,” he says. “As a result, every institution that wants one already has one. That puts me in a mainte­ nance mode.” Among his current clients for maintenance and tuning are Douglas Allanbrook and St. John’s College. Adler came to Annapolis in 1956, under protest, to study the liberal arts. Today, he visits the campus several times a year to practice his trade. Looking back, he says that his St. John’s education was worth­ while after all. “Some analytic techniques stay with you forever and get more and more valu­ able as you get older,” he says. “Induction and deduction-they’re important-and, by gosh, we did learn them. Now I have to say I do believe in getting a liberal education first. Forty years later, I see it wasn’t a mistake at all. {The College* St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{AlumniProfile} 30 At The Improv By SUS3AN Borden, A87 iscover. Take the unlikely choice. Further the action. These are some of the guidelines of improvi­ sational theater. Melinda Skilondz (SF78), aveteran of improv, has made them part of her everyday life. The guideline “discover” seems to define her life, as she is forever investigat­ ing interests, pursuing those she finds inspirational. She decided to “take the unlikely choice” early, when she chose to leave St. John’s after one year to become a mime. Shortly thereafter, she managed to “further the action” when, working as a waitress down the street from the Second City Theater in Chicago, one of her cus­ tomers (actor Dom DePollo) encouraged her to join the group. Skilondz ran to the theater during her next work break. That very week she started attending workshops with the improvisation-based company. Skilondz spent four years with Second City at a time when the company was regu­ larly furnishing actors for the cast of “Sat­ urday Night Live.” For Skilondz, who worked with the theater’s touring compa­ ny, it was the beginning of a lifetime in improv. Improvisation refers to all forms of act­ ing without a script, where the performers invent both dialogue and action. Today’s most popular example is the TV show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”, where each performance is short and comedy is the focus. Improv, however, can be practiced across the entire range of theater, from the height of slapstick to the depths of tragedy. In 1981, Skilondz auditioned for a proj­ ect with Chicago’s Organic Theater, which was then developing an emergency room drama. She won a part with the company and helped develop the characters and script of “E.R.”-the stage show from which the hit TV series would later be drawn. Skilondz describes the method used for developing the production: “Dr. Ron Berman collected the most common emer­ gency room stories: the overweight teenage girl who doesn’t realize she’s preg­ nant, the bag lady hypochondriac, the doc­ tor who has to fight the hospital to care for patients who have no insurance, the nurse taking a business administration course in Melinda Skilondz: Is life like theater? search of a better job, the guy who signs out against medical advice. The company did scenario improvisations based on each story and the script was written based on the material they came up with. With that script, rehearsals started, but before the opening there was an intense preview peri­ od where the writers would interview the audience after the show, then rewrite the script based on their comments. They brought a lot of hospital workers to the audience to help make it more real, more honest.” As it turned out, the intense preview period was well worth the effort. The show was a huge success. “They’d sell out the house to certain hospitals,” recalls Skilo­ ndz. “We’d have St. Joseph’s night, Evangehcal Deaconess night. The hospital work­ ers would be crying, laughing, screaming. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Skilondz played several roles in the stage show: the shaken child’s mother, the ambulance driver, the float nurse, the pregnant teenager-all young characters. Unfortunately, when it was time to audition for the E.R. television show, she was 25 and too old to play her roles on TV. When “E.R.” finally closed, Skilondz found a job with a children’s theater in Michigan and not long after was able to study in California with Viola Spolin, con­ sidered the mother of improv. Skilondz took in all Spohn had to teach, and was particularly drawn to what are known as Spolin games-improvisational games that have uses beyond the theater, often in education and therapy settings. “The Spolin games are circle games, they keep everyone on an even playing field. The group leader is part of the community, not the boss. This is an important technique in a learning situation, particularly when you’re working with teenagers,” she says. It also proved important when Skilondz was hired to direct a show at a medium security prison. “It was a huge success,” she reports. “There were lots ofVietnam veterans involved. The games open you up; you really can’t hide behind barriers.” WTiile Skilondz has remained fascinated by the world of improv, she has maintained a number of other “dayjobs” and projects that have provided both food for the table and food for thought. Her day jobs have run the gamut from waiting tables and doing data entry to booking comedians and working with film production companies. Today, she works with a mortgage broker at a police academy, helping newly trained police officers buy their first homes. In 1988 Skilondz started “The Melinda Show,” a public access cable interview show that’s gone through several metamor­ phoses. The show’s early successes were video collages based on interviews with musicians. For a time, she featured the work of comedians. Now she uses it as a platform for covering charity benefits. After studying improv for more than a quarter of a century, Skilondz is tempted to live her life by its principles. However, she warns, that’s not always the best choice. “In improv, you get used to playing openly, but when you do it in real life, it’s not that great of a strategy,” she says. “After a while you learn to use it judiciously.” Still, Skilondz sees the principles of improv at play in a number of settings: “The seminar at St. John’s has a lot in com­ mon with improvisation because of the way that everyone is included, everyone’s view­ point is respected. I really appreciate that kind of openness, not learning by rote, but by discovery. You discover the scene as you go along.” On stage and in seminar, she explains, when you take the unlikely choice, it’s going to be more interesting. Skilondz invites any Johnnies with inter­ ests in improv and skills in web design and coding to join her in launching improvgames.com, an interactive web site where visitors can explore improv onhne. Her e-mail is melindyrose@juno.com. ->■ {The College- St. John’s College • Winter/Spring sooa } �{AlumniNotes} continuedfrom p. 21 work at the Maryland Institute College of Art as the Writing Stu­ dio Coordinator. My rarely updat­ ed (in actuality-in my mind it’s quite current) webpage is still at http://www.webptxie.com/ and people can write to me at april @webpixie .com.” Emily Murphy (A) writes: “I’m happily settled in Salem, Mass.“The Witch City” as it proudly caUs itself. I’m in the PhD program in American and New England Studies at Boston University and really enjoying myself. I’d love to hear from any Boston area Johnnies. My e-mail is eamurphy@bu.edu.” 1996 Stella Marie Schindler (AGI) has recently released a debut CD “New Horizon.” She encourages classmates to check it out at amazon.com or contact her at www. stellaschindler.com. “Haven’t quit my dayjob, though,” she writes. “Am still a high school teacher in the Washington, D.C., area.” “After a couple of rainy years drinking beer and going to movies in Portland, Oregon, I’m studying law at Columbia Law School in NYC,” writes Renate Lunn (A). “I spent last summer working for the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania and I’ll spend next semester studying at the Cen­ tral European University in Budapest. If you want to distract me from my homework, e-mail me: KLJ135@columbia.edu.” 1997 Owen Gabriel Hoggard, the sec­ ond child of Lee (A) and Melina Hoggard (Aoo) was born on August 10 in Helsinki where the Hoggards now live. Taffeta Elliott (SF) is a gradu­ ate student in neuroscience at Columbia and spent last summer at the Marine Biological Laborato­ ry at Woods Hole, Mass.” Jessica McAllen (SF) married Lowry McAllen on August 35, 2001 in Corrales, N.M. They now manage a sheep farm in Wisconsin. 1998 The parents of Deirdre O’Shea (A) write in with the latest news: “Deirdre has traveled far since her graduation. For about two years she worked for Walker Digital/Priceline until her divi­ sion evaporated 18 months ago. At that point, she went to Thailand to visit her cousin, and also traveled through Cambodia and Vietnam. She returned to New York in Janu­ ary 3001 to announce that she was going to stay in Cambodia for a few years. Some of you may remember that she worked in a bakery in Annapolis during her last two years of school. Well...Deirdre has opened her own bakery in Sihanoukville in Cambo­ dia. She works with two American physical therapists who are taking care of disabled children and adults. Deirdre’s bakery provides employment and training for some of their clients. They are all part of a larger project called “Starfish” which also helps the “orphaned elderly” who lost their children to the Khmer Rouge. She loves visi­ tors. In fact, her brother Brian, cousin Kevin, high school friend Laurel, and Matt Braithwaite (A97) flew to see her for Christ­ mas. She gets her mail at The Angkor Inn, Sihanoukville, King­ dom of Cambodia.” 1999 Tallie Don Maule Taylor (SF) proposed to Corey Amber RudNICK (SF 00) on October 30th on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The wedding date is still to be determined. Mr. Taylor, a regis­ tered associate at Salomon Smith Barney, is pursuing his MBA at New York University; Ms. Rudnick is in her second year at Fordham Law where she writes for the Intel­ lectual Property Journal and works for ASCAP. The couple lives in Brooklyn with their two house pets, Kippy (the better-fed favorite) and Patrick Martin Nash (SF97). Carisa Armendariz Petrie (SF) writes: “Geoff Petrie (SF or) and I were married on October 13, 2001 in El Paso, Tex. Geoff is the media director at Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, and I am a math teacher at Santa Fe High School. We plan to honeymoon when fife settles down a bit.” Last October I just finished a gru­ eling and exciting Peace Corps service in the Islamic Repubhc of Mauritania,” writes Damian Richard (A).“I lived and worked in a little village among the Pulaar people of the Senegal River. They learned about wells and I about their beautiful traditions and hos­ pitality. I was surprised to run into a Johnnie in Mauritania, our Peace Corps Country Director, Kateri Clement (A87). Now I am off to San Francisco to check out gradu­ ate schools and find work.” 2000 Michael Fisher (A) writes: “Hey Gang! Just a note to all you with inquiring minds: Yes I do have two adopted boys, Enoch Seth (3) and Methuselah Uz Fisher (5)-good kids from the South, I think. We generally take turns reading The Fountainhead aloud or the boys design business cards for me-I’m still unemployed! Write me a note to say when you can visit our shan­ ty and remember to bring your own drinking water. All the best! ” Elisabeth Batchelder (A) writes: “Here I am in Ohio, pretty well settled. The school is huge (800 students) compared to where I taught last year (100 students) and not too many of the kids have a burning desire to learn Latin. But they’re learning, whether they like it or not, and I’m hoping they occasionally enjoy them­ selves.” Elisabeth’s e-mail is erbatchelder@juno.com {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } 31 Sandy Green (A) is in his first year of medical school at Temple University in Philadelphia. “From what I have seen,” he writes, “BA’s do make better MD’s than BS’s, especially gra­ duates from SJC.” 2001 David Jennings (A) is now at Ford­ ham University working on his master’s degree. Talley Scroggs (A) is still in Annapolis working at Chez Amis B&B. She tutors French classes in D.C. at the Alliance Frangaise. She spent the summer in L’Ecole Frangaise at Middlebury College. Gregory Bamford (SFGI) is teaching English and humanities at the Hawken School in Cleve­ land, Ohio. Calling All Alumni The College wants to hear from you. Call us, write us, e-mail us. Let your classmates know what you’re doing. The next issue will be published in July; copy deadline is June i. In Annapolis: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 3800. Annapohs, MD 31404; h-goyette@sjca.edu. In Santa Fe: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Public Relations Office, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; classics@mail.sjcsf.edu. Alumni Notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at: www.sjca.edu - click on “Alumni.” �32 {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President One experience is common to all alumni of St. John’s-the leaving of it. All of us remember stepping off the campus and into what we had come to call the “real world.” Some of us took this step before graduation, and some after. Some of us left eagerly, and others reluctantly. Some of us moved on to well-planned work or further learning, and others followed more wind­ ing paths. Each of us has moved, is moving, or will move through this time of transi­ tion, and all of us approach it with mixed emotions. My own experience of leaving the col­ lege was shaped by economic necessity-I needed a job. I knew I wanted to teach, but I had no idea where or how. In those olden days, before the Placement Offices were established, I depended on the people I knew for help. Burch Ault (HS83), then Vice President of the college and my fresh­ man seminar tutor, gave me sage advice and the names and phone numbers of pri­ vate schools that might be interested in hir­ ing me and teaching me to teach. One offered me a contract, and my first career was launched. A challenging and stable job did not resolve all of my anxieties about separating from the college. I found myself lonely for a good conversation, isolated from the edu­ cational experiences of others, confused about how the ideals of the books could be translated into the reality of life. It took several years, a wonderful non-Johnny hus­ band, and many long-distance phone con­ versations with thoughtful friends to shift my focus from the transitions of the past into the possibilities of the future. Stimu­ lating Homecoming reunions at five-year intervals helped mark my progress. Receiv­ ing the Alumni Register and reading the Reporter helped me keep in touch with the community and to remember that it contin­ ued even when I was not in contact daily. Through the years. I’ve had other transi­ tions of place and work. At each juncture I returned to my friends in the college com­ munity for advice or reassurance, and they always came through. Michael Woolsey (A65) pointed me toward the Association for Women in Computing. Alan McVay (SF76) and Charlie Weber (SF77) checked out some property for me in Santa Fe. Joan Bogucki (A87) tamed the bookkeeping jun­ gle that was my first company. Bill Tilles (A59) shares intriguing insights with me about organizations and the people who make them tick. The list goes on and on. I have come to think of the St. John’s College community as a network of wildly diverse individuals who share a common passion for books and the conversations they engender. I know that this community continues to exist regardless of whether or not I call upon it. I know that it is there to receive support I offer in the form of volun­ teer time, information, or financial resources. I also know that it will be there to respond to my questions, concerns, or need for support. That time of leave-taking from the col­ lege was confusing and difficult for me, but I also realize that it was a time rich with discovery and learning. In many ways the questions of Montaigne, Hume, Kant, and Socrates were clearer to me in the world’s context of action than they had been in the student’s context of reading, talking, and writing. During that time I lived in and with the questions of the books. I thought about my experiences as filters for my learning, and I thought about the learning as filters for experience. In many ways the years of searching and stretching, which are not yet finished, are a continuation of the education that began at the college. My current connections with the St. John’s community and my Johnnie friends contin­ ue to enrich my life of learning and growth. The Alumni Association Board has spent a good bit of time lately talking about this turbulent time for alumni and what, if any­ thing, the Association should do to help younger alumni navigate these rough waters of transition. The Placement Offices at the college do a lot to help today’s graduates-everything from running internship programs, to researching graduate schools, to running forums on various careers. The ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapolis or Santa Fe, under­ graduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, all alumni have automatic membership in the St. John’s Col­ lege Alumni Association. The Alumni Associa­ tion is an independent organization, with a Board of Directors elected by and from the alumni body. The Board meets four times a year, twice on each campus, to plan programs and coordinate the affairs of the Association. This newsletter within The College magazine is sponsored by the Alumni Association and communicates Alumni Association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary-Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team ChairLinda Stabler-Talty (SFGI76) Web site - www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404 or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Placement directors assist not only stu­ dents in Annapolis and Santa Fe, but also alumni (check out their web pages at www.sjca.edu and www.sjcsf for the many job listings and helpful contacts they post). To complement these efforts, the Alumni Association has established a new Action Team called Next Steps. Its goal is to design and implement programs that will help alumni provide support to other alum­ ni as they move out of daily contact with the community and into a life-long rela­ tionship in which the college experience is integrated into the rest of a productive life. We on the Alumni Association Board and on the Next Steps Action Team would like to hear from you. What is the story of your transition? What do you think the Alumni Association or individual alumni could do to help make this turbulent time as fruitful as possible? Please take a moment and share your thoughts with us via -emad. We look forward to strengthening the network in which each of us is able to give and receive the gifts of learning and friendship. For the past, the present, and the future, {The College. 5t. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } Glenda Eoyang SF76 Eoyang@chaos-limited.com President St. John’s College Alumni Association �{Alumni Association News} Eastern Classic FOR THE Far East Southern California alumni gather to readMencius By Melinda Skilondz, SF78 Southern California Johnnies met in Janu­ ary to discuss Mencius, a Chinese disciple of Confucius circa 400 BC. Seminar lead­ ers were Santa Fe president John Balkcom and Graduate Institute director Frank Pagano. We met in Los Angeles with the gracious help of Elizabeth Eastman (SFGI84) and Susan Allen (SFGI89). A bit reminiscent of Machiavelli and Plato, Mencius discusses political ques­ tions such as the qualities of a good king. Frank Pagano, who is GI director and has taught in the Eastern Classics program, posed the opening question: “Is this book an ‘attack on profit’?” The group of approximately 30 alumni f engaged in a spirited discussion that cov­ ered the whole spectrum of viewpoints, including “strategy for strategy’s sake,” a personal favorite of mine. The issue of long term versus short term profit was discussed. Is it justifiable to earn profit with unfair working conditions if a final portion of the profits is used for phil­ anthropic purposes? A discussion of the “goods are good” theory was helpful, but frankly, in the wake of the Enron scandal, it was hard to stom­ ach the thought that mere wealth accumu­ lation had any morality whatsoever. The Arthurian concept of the king’s hap­ piness reflecting the happiness of the land was noted; for people living in a simpler society the king’s life might be a great source of entertainment or a barometer of the society’s well-being. (Or, as Eric Idle says so aptly in “The Life of Brian.” “ow, didn’t know we ‘ad a king! ”) 33 Thankfully, Jesus was brought into the discussion, providing an alternative to the notion that simple profit is the only motive for society. The topics of benevolence and respect for elders were also raised. I found Men­ cius’s theory of profit leading to benevo­ lence suspicious, although the king’s hon­ esty about fondness for money and women was refreshing. Is it possible that someone can be edu­ cated to become compassionate? Does the king embody wealth, and/or the command of the wealth? Is he the dawn of leisure activities? And is leisure not necessarily in the equation for the peasants? I found the idea of the philosopher trolling the king for a “job” enjoyable. I can’t help thinking as I edit this piece while watching the winter Olympics that a good Johnnie seminar is not unlike an Olympics of original thinking. Mencius grabs the gold, and all of us have profited from the Finally, the Thai food was great! CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter^ reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-^75-9012 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin 410-280-0958 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 PITTSBURGH Robert Hazo 412-648-2653 AUSTIN Jennifer Chenoweth 512-482-0747 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 BALTIMORE Deborah Cohen 410-472-9158 SACRAMENTO Helen Hobart 916-452-1082 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 SAN DIEGO Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 SAN FRANCISCO, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jon Hodapp 831-393-9496 SANTA FE John Pollak 505-983-2144 SEATTLE Amina Stickford 206-269-0182 CHICAGO Lorna Anderson 773-338-8651 DENVER Lee Goldstein 720-283-4659 LOS ANGELES Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-r934 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 Jonathan Zavin (A68)(left) and Keth Harrison (SF77)(right), both alumni members of THE Board of Visitors and Governors, participated in the inauguration ceremony for President John Balkcom in Santa Fe in January. Board members wore academic gowns, WHICH THEY DONNED IN THE NEW WEIGHT ROOM OF THE STUDENT ACTIVITIES CENTER. NEWYORK Fielding Dupuy 212-974-2922 NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 {The College -Sf. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } WASHINGTON DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 972-2-6717608 boazl@cc.huji.ac.il �{Book Review} 34 QUESTIONING HISTORY Mary Palevsky g^rew up ililukiriy the atomic bomb was a mistake—one that herparents, who worked on the Manhattan Project, helped to create. By Mark Sanfilippo, SFGIoo n Mary Palevsky’s (SF74) book Atomic Frag­ ments: A DaughtePs Questions (University of California Press, 2000), we are witness to (and participant in) her jonrney to come to terms with what Joseph Rotblat in his 1995 Nobel lecture referred to as a “splendid achievement of science and technology turned malign.” I Palevsky’s parents worked on the development of the atomic homh during World War II; fol­ lowing the bombing of Hiroshi­ ma both left the Manhattan Project and never returned to the development of war tech­ nology. Her father expressed deep regret over America’s use of the bomb and Mary grew up believing deeply that deploy­ ment of the bomb was in fact a mistake. She believed along with her parents that the United States should have provided a demonstration to the emperor of Japan of the city-destroying power of the bomb, thus avoid­ ing the deaths of some 150,000 Japanese civihans, not counting those who died after the initial blast from injuries or fallout. Atomic Fragments is, among other things, a fascinating mixture of genres. It is at once a very personal journal writ­ ten by a woman attempting to come to terms with the death of her parents and what their lives may or may not have stood for, and at the same time it exists as an inti­ mate look into the different ways in which ATOMIC FRAGMENTS participants in the Manhattan Project dealt with (and continue to deal with) the development and utilization of a weapon that has the potential to destroy our species. Through the course of these “daughter’s questions,” Palevsky talks with Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, Joseph Rotblat, Herbert York, Philip Morrison, Robert Wilson, and philosopher David Hawkins, each of whom provides insights into various aspects of the project. We gain an insider’s look into themes ranging from fears about the likelihood of the bomb setting the Earth’s atmosphere on fire, to Niels Bohr’s desperate attempt to circumvent what he saw as an inevitable arms race through the establishment of an international committee to control the development of nuclear arms. During the course of the book Palevsky’s questions and focus sharpen. Themes emerge and develop as she pushes the interviewees (albeit politely) to elaborate on their answers and opinions. Of particu­ lar interest is the sharp division that arises between those who chose to leave the proj­ ect and those whose chose to stay. Hans Bethe, for example, explains that he stayed on the project in the hopes that by being privy to developments that were taking place he might have some ability to control them. After the war he served on a Presi­ dential advisory committee and was a leader in the effort to ban nuclear weapons. He says; “Anyway, it would be a totally different matter from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And from the word go, that is, immediately after the Japanese surren­ der, I was completely devoted to arms con­ trol to preventing nuclear war.” On the other hand, Joseph Rotblat, who initially joined the Manhattan Project out of a fear that the Germans were developing a nuclear bomb, left the project in 1944 when it became clear that not only did the Germans not have the bomb, but in fact their entire bomb project was kaput. Palevsky’s search possesses a compelhng {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{Book Review} 35 THE BOOK AS SEMINAR How a book got started, and where its story led By Mark Sanfilippo, SFGIoo O how does one go from Johnnie to grad student to acclaimed author to the subject of a docu­ mentary film directed hy a famous Japanese director? For Mary Palevsky, the story begins at the Field­ ing Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, where she was doing dissertation work for her doctoral degree in Human Develop­ ment. Prepared as a narrative investigation, the dissertation eventually turned into an honest-to-goodness full-length book. “St. John’s gave me the ability to really look at both sides of an argument” (the pro- and Mary Palevsky anti-nuclear bomb factions) and “to be truly curious about how each side arrived at its respective conclusion,” she says. St. John’s tale is unique and presents, in a new and spurred a healthy curiosity about why peo­ fresh way, a story that continues to haunt ple think what they do and she finds this us. She’s literally traveled the country, curiosity at its peak when a person’s opin­ going from major universities to bookstores ions are the opposite of her own. With a and small colleges, talking with people book, of course, Palevsky knew she could about her journey of discovery. She’s had reach a much larger audience and thus get the chance to engage professors, teachers, the arguments circulating in a much larger students, and people from all walks of life in the conversation. “seminar.” While in North Carolina to give a talk, With the help of friends and colleagues Palevsky met another person who was to Palevsky got her dissertation to the Univer­ help her take this series of questions yet fur­ sity of California Press. Stanley Holwitz, the ther. In an elevator she noticed the fabric on assistant director, asked her if she would the suit of a woman who was standing in like him to show the book to some people. front of her. She complimented the woman She thought he just meant some people on her suit just as the latter was noticing (note the subtlety). In reality he was passing Mary carrying a copy of Atomic Fragments. the book to the review committee. Before she even knew that she should be nervous, The woman with the good taste in suit fab­ Palevsky’s book was given the green light ric was professor Kayoko Yoshida, a visiting scholar at Columbia. She teaches English and was on its way to publication. Atomic Fragments was well-received. In and, after talking with Palevsky about the retrospect it seems quite natural that peo­ book, decided to translate Atomic Frag­ ple wanted to hear from her in person; her ments into Japanese. S Yet again this daughter’s search would grow to reach a wider audience and open the discussion to a round table possessing a much larger circumference. As it turned out, Yoshida happened to know acclaimed Japanese film director Yoshihiko Muraki. She told him about the book and he found the story fascinating. Unfortunately he couldn’t read English, so Yoshida then began translating as fast as she could so that Muraki could read the material. Palevsky ended up e-mailing summaries of key chap­ ters to be translated, which were then passed along to Muraki. Muraki soon knew that he wanted to make a film about Mary, her parents, and her narrative exploration of the bomb ques­ tion. After a sufficient amount of negotia­ tion, the film was finally shot in conjunc­ tion with NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai-the equivalent of the BBC in Japan) and released in August in Japan. A stateside release is planned in the near future. They filmed her at her home in Ojai, back east at her childhood home, at the bomb test site in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and also at St. John’s in Santa Fe. One can only imagine what it must have felt like for this daughter of Manhattan Pro­ ject scientists to stand and talk about her unique viewpoint with a Japanese filmmak­ er at the bomb test site in the desert. Palevsky’s childhood questions have grown up and matured along with her, and have stretched and expanded from her mind to those around her, to those directly involved in the Manhattan Project, then to the American public, and now to Japan as well. Questioning History... dynamic. Throughout the course of the book she becomes increasingly open to new ways of comprehending man’s develop­ ment of nuclear arms and the effect they have had on the human race. Her tone is diplomatic, and while we know from the outset what her views are, she still treats each person’s viewpoint fairly and with utmost respect. True to the nature of the questions asked, she walks away without a clear answer, but a real triumph of the book is that she successfully brings to light the seemingly necessary ambiguity in Ameri­ ca’s decision to develop and use the nuclear bomb. Mary Palevsky presents to us, through her personal insights and the thoughts and feelings of those working on the Manhattan Project, a fine addition to the exploration of the historical and moral gravity of this scientific revolution. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{BookReview} 3® BIBLIOFILE A selection ofbooks written by great books readers. t. John’s alumni not only like to the capacity of leaders and facilitators of read books-they seem to have a organization and system change to adapt to deep passion for writing them as the complexity inside and outside of their well, heedless of the sometimes- systems. expressed worry that they won’t What I’d Say: The Atlantic Story attempt to write an extended piece because (class of i(j44) they have for comparison the mostAhmet imporErtegun ­ Welcome Rain Publishers tant and most beautiful books ever written. Here is a sampling of the many works by This coffee-table book by Ertegun, founder Johnnie authors, representing every genre of Atlantic Records, covers six decades of and discipline from memoir to corporate music-making history with anecdotes from Ertegun, recording artists, and music self-help. industry colleagues. Musicians with the Periodically, The College will list or Atlantic label include Ray Charles, John review alumni books. Please send notice of Coltrane, Bobby Darin, the Drifters, Aretha books published, or review copies (which will be donated to the library’s alumni Franklin, Mabel Mercer, Wilson Pickett, author collection) for consideration, to: The and Sarah Vaughan. S College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404. The Insanity Factory: A Psychiatric Memoir By Joshua Berlow (SF81) iUniverse.com Insanity Factory Xi a peekbehind the scenes of ’80s America. It addresses such issues as the implications of “for-profit” healthcare, the connection between school curricula and the behavior of children, and the “war between the sexes.” Strategic Renaissance: New Thinking and Innovative Tools for Creating Great Corporate Strategies...Using Insights FROM History and Science Evan Dudik (A7‘2) AMATOM Dudik’s book proposes to demonstrate why “sustainable competitive advantage” doesn’t work and how it should be replaced with “opportunity creation and exploita­ tion.” By applying his techniques, compa­ nies should be able to create a strategic ren­ aissance as they enter a new era of business. Facilitating Organization Change: Lessons from Complexity Science Edwin E. Olson and Glenda H. Eoyang (SF16) John Wiley & Sons This book presents concepts about complex adaptive systems (CAS) that will increase Somewhere South of Here: A Novel William Kowalski (SF(j4) HarperCollins In this sequel to his highly-praised first novel, Eddie’s Bastard. Kowalski continues the story of Billy Mann as he travels to Santa Fe to find the mother who gave him away as a baby. Postfoundational Phenomenology: Husserlian Reflections on Presence and Embodiment By James R. Mensch (A66) Penn Sate Press This book offers a fresh look at Husserl’s philosophy as a nonfoundational approach to understanding the self as an embodied presence. Radical Visions: Stringfellow Barr, Scott Buchanan, and Their Efforts on Behalf of Education and Politics in the Twentieth Century By Charles A. Nelson (class ofig45) Greenwood Publishing Group This book tells the story of the life-long friendship and collaboration of New Pro­ gram founders Barr and Buchanan. Its three sections, “Partners in Creation,” “Friends in Adversity,” and “Carrying on Apart and Together,” include discussions of Barr’s attack from the McCarthyites, Buchanan’s five-month visit to the kibbutzim of Israel, and their extensive writings. Judas: Images of the Lost Disciple Kim Paffenroth (A88) Westminster John Knox Press Paffenroth’s book traces the development of the stories about the most famous traitor in the history of Western Civihzation. Its purpose is not to find the Judas of history, but to provide readers with a map or family tree that shows the similarities and connec­ tions between generations of Judas’ story. From Calcutta with Love: The World War II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard Edited by Elaine Pinkerton (SFGI88) Texas Tech University Press Elaine Pinkerton has edited a collection of letters sent to her mother by her father, who was serving in Calcutta during World War IL A series of essays by Pinkerton about the letters appear throughout the book. My Father, My Daughter: Pilgrims on the Road to Santiago By Maria Schell and Donald Schell (SF68) Church Publishing Incorporated Donald Schell, rector of Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, and his daughter, writer and journalist Maria Schell, write of their physical trek across Spain and of their spiritual journey of discovery of the self and of the other. They discover the way of the pilgrim: full of unexpected and challenging bumps and detours, humorous turns, and moments of grace. Ptolemy and the Foundations of Ancient Mathematical Optics : A Source Based Guided Study A. Mark Smith (A67) American Philosophical Society Smith traces the development of ancient ray-theory from its earliest systematic artic­ ulation at the very beginning of the third century B.C. to its culmination in the late second century A.D. Built of four cardinal sources: Euclid’s Optics and Catoptrics. Hero of Alexandria’s Catoptrics and Ptole­ my’s Optics, the monograph introduces readers to key issues in ancient mathemati­ cal optics. {The College- St. John’s College • }Vinter/Spring zoos } �{Obituaries} Richard W. Barton Class ofiQ4O Richard W. Barton, an attorney with the Office of the Corporation Counsel for 35 years, died in December. Mr. Barton was born in Asheville, N.C. He was educated at Christ School in Arden, N.C., at St. John’s College, and at the National University Law School, where he received his LLB in I94r and LLM in 1943. During World War II, he worked as an intelli­ gence officer at the British Embassy in Wash­ ington, D.C. He then joined the Office of the Corporation Counsel, where he served in many divisions, including Criminal, Juvenile, and Civil Proceedings. From 1956 until he retired in 1980 he served with the Appellate Division, and for 13 years he was chief of that division. After he retired, Mr. Barton was appointed a magistrate for the 17th Judicial District of Vir­ ginia in Arlington County. He retired in 1988 when he moved to Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Mr. Barton was a lay reader at St. George’s Episcopal Church. He is survived by his wife, Joanna, and by a son, a daughter, two sisters, two brothers, and numerous nieces and nephews. William Nealy Class of1^76 I regret to inform the college community of the death ofWilliam Nealy (SF), a writer, cartoon­ ist, avid outdoorsman, and author of ten books and innumerable illustrations. He died on July 19th, 2001. He was 47 years old. He is survived by his wife, Holland Wallace, who shared his life for more than 30 years. A world-famous cartoonist, William is best known for his groundbreaking book Kayak, which combined, to both hilarious and practi­ cal effect, expert paddling instructions and art­ ful caricatures and parodies of the whitewater enthusiasts themselves. The quality of his work transcends its subject; this book, and the oth­ ers which followed, spawned a host of imita­ tors, and made William a cult living legend in the world of outdoor sports. In an autobiographical introduction to his recently published anthology. The Nealy (Gay ofKnowledge William wrote of his year at St. John’s, which he applied to after dropping out of high school in Birmingham, Alabama, and knocking about England as a countercultural cartoonist: “St. John’s had a great search and rescue team which I immediately joined. It was my first opportunity to do some real climbing and mountaineering. Ironically, I had just suc­ cessfully dodged the Draft and suddenly I found myself jumping out of Huey helicopters onto mountaintops on paramilitary-style ‘missions’! “As members of the S&R team, we learned how to rappel, treat hypothermia, spbnt bro­ ken bones, and, in general, how to deal with wilderness trauma (usually our own!). My expe­ riences in New Mexico were the beginning of what has become a lifelong interest in anatomy, kinetics, and emergency medicine. Paramedic training has made it easier for me to visualize the physiology and body mechanics required to learn and to illustrate the complex physical moves involved in adventure sports. I can also envision the first aid procedures I will need to repair my buddies and myself while learning.” William’s father died after his freshman year and he did not return to the college. William’s diverse interests ranged from fly-fishing to rock climbing, criminology, geology, military history, spelunking, metaphysics, archery and tree surgery. All contributed to his cartooning. As his obituary atwww.williamnealy.com says: He brought a thorough and rigorous intelli­ gence to his interests and avocations, all of which, in his hands, became arts. —NealAllen, SFyfi John E. Robson Member ofthe Board John E. Robson, former chairman and member of the Board of Visitors and Governors, died in Washington, D.G., on March 20 after a sixmonth battle with cancer. He was 71. At the time of his death, Robson was president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank, a posi­ tion he assumed in May 2001 after being appoint­ ed by President Bush. The bank is a government agency that provides loans to U.S. corporations to support their sales to foreign countries. Robson joined the coUege’s Board in 1973, and served with distinction for almost thirty years, including as chairman from 1983 to 1985. He was named an Honorary Alumnus in 1999. Along with his wife, Margaret, he was deeply committed to the college. As a generous con­ tributor to St. John’s, Robson was instrumental in securing scholarships for students on both campuses, as well as funding for the Student Activities Genter in Santa Fe. As a candidate for the presidency on the Santa Fe campus, he credited former Annapolis Dean Robert Goldwin for involving him in St. John’s. He wrote in his application that “what attracted me to St. John’s was the Program and the ferocious dedi­ cation of the college to conferring on its stu­ dents the inestimably valuable capacity to ana­ lyze and think for themselves, orderly and rationally, about any issue.” He consistently maintained that if learning to think is what a college education is about, no program does it as well as St. John’s. Gommitted to continued learning, he participated in many seminars, including those specifically developed for the Board and the Summer Glassies program in Santa Fe, where the Robsons have a home. In his biography distributed to Board mem­ bers, Robson said: “I never set my cap to be one thing. If there is a theme in my life, it is starting something or changing things.” 37 Indeed, his professional endeavors ranged from law, to business, to government service. After graduating from Yale and then Harvard Law School, he was a partner and associate at Liebman, Williams, Bennett, Baird & Minow. He opened the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He joined the just-established Department of Transportation in the Johnson Administration and became its second ranking officer in the late rpbos. From 1975 to 1977, he served as Chairman of the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board, where he initiated airline deregulation. His business endeavors also were successful. In 1978, he joined G.D. Searle & Co. as Execu­ tive Vice President. He served as CEO and President of the Fortune 500 pharmaceutical firm until 1986. He then became Dean and Pro­ fessor of Management at Emory University’s School of Business Administration. In 1989, government service again lured him and he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Trea­ sury in the first Bush administration. From 1993 on, he taught and served as Visiting Fel­ low at a number of institutions, including the Yale School of Organization and Management, the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and The Heritage Foundation. In addition to his work on the St. John’s Board, he was a member of the board of the University of California at San Francisco Foun­ dation. His corporate directorships included Monsanto Company, Northrop Grumman Cor­ poration, Rand McNally & Co., and the Securi­ ty Capital Industrial Trust. Robson pursued his hobbies with an intensity equal to that of his professional life. He loved fly-fishing and tennis, and two years ago he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with his son, Douglas. He is survived by his wife Margaret and by Douglas. Also noted: Kenneth R. Cossaboom, Class of i960, died in 2001. Alexandra Culbertson, Class of 1955, died in January. Edward Daley, Class of 1949, died in August. David F. Gilmore, A72, died in 2001. E. Brian Lewis, Class of 1962, died in 2001. Charles A. Norris, Class of 1957, died in January. Rosemary Petke, A68, died in December. J. Oliver Purvis, Jr., Class of 1934, died in December. James Iglehart Randall, Class of 1938, died in November. Col. C.E. Roache, USAF, Class of 1939, died in January. Penelope Rowe Fabrocini, A71, died in January. Cara Gendel Ryan, A70, died in January. Charles Townshend, Class of 1931, died in January. {The College. St. John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{GampusLife} 38 10 MYTHS ABOUT SENIOR ESSAYS Perhaps these stories that have ppown up about the labor ofwriting^ the dreaded Senior Essay are the ^secret teachings ” ofthe Annapolis campus. wi Sus3AN Borden, A87 I. Senior Laura Lyon demonstrates the stages of essay writing. One month is a long time. “One month is not a long time,” says Annapolis dean Harvey Flaumenhaft, “You have to remember that our students write things that they have not done sustained work on before. At other schools they would have already taken courses on the book or the subject and been ready to go at the beginning of the writing peri­ od. Here, their essays come from a question that’s been gnawing at them or a book they want to explore. They have not really sat with it for a long time. They need a musing period and a time for living with an idea. That’s something that can’t be rushed.” a. During essay writing, underclassmen are forbidDEN TO ASK SENIORS HOW THEIR ESSAYS ARE GOING. “I don’t think that’s true,” says senior Katie Cox, who reports that people came up to her all the time to ask about her essay. “They asked about it in the same tone they’d use to ask about someone who’d died.” 3. Ms. PAPER. ReNAUT won the essay PRIZE WITH A FIVE-PAGE Tutor Debbie Renaut (A68) disputes this rumor, although her essay on Aristotle and language was a prize winner. “It was a per­ fectly ordinary-length paper: ai, 35 pages,” she says. In an attempt to dispel a very different rumor about the same paper she adds, “It was also not a 500-page essay.” 4. Moby Dick was taken off the reading list because NEARLY EVERYONE WROTE THEIR SENIOR ESSAY ON IT. Although the exact reasons the Instruction Committee removed Moby Dick from the program are not well remembered, Flaumenhaft says that there is some truth to this rumor. “When a sizable number of seniors are writing their essays on a 594-page book, you’ve got an even larger number of tutors reading that work each spring,” says Flaumenhaft. “The question must be asked: Is this the best use of so much of our community’s time?” When asked to speculate about why so many students chose Moby Dick for their essay topic, Flaumenhaft points out that it, along with Huckleberry Finn, were at the time the only two pro­ gram works of American literature. “It’s a work that seizes the imagination,” he adds. “You get to read a story that gives you a wild ride while you stroke your beard and think deep thoughts.” 5. Mr. Schoener wrote his prize-winning essay in a SINGLE DAY. Schoener (A8a), a tutor on leave studying viticulture in Califor­ nia’s Napa Valley, found this myth particularly interesting. “When I was teaching in Annapolis, the story I had to dispel wasn’t about a one-day essay, but a one-page essay,” he says. “The truth is that I wrote my essay in the same amount of time everyone else does. Maybe the only interesting thing you can say is that I wrote it on a portable manual typewriter.” {The College -John’s College ■ Winter/Spring 2002 } �{Campus LIfe} 39 ""My oral was an interrogation. The committee, which included Jacob Klein, was exhausted by haring to turn all thosepages. Howard Zeiderman (A67) 6. Generous contributions from Kinko’s are what’s 8. A CLEVER TITLE WILL ADD TO YOUR ESSAY’s APPEAL AND KEEPING THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF PAGES AT 20 AND THE NUMBER OF COPIES AT 4. BOOST YOUR GRADE. No record exists of donations from the chain of photocopying stores to either the Annapolis or Santa Fe campus, but there is no disregarding the number of students who show up at the Annapohs branch in the hours before the senior essay party. A recent count revealed that approximately 40% of seniors copy their essays there. The Delegate Council is looking into appointing a special investigator to determine the impact on Kinko’s bottom hne should 15-page essays ever become the norm. 7. Mr. Zeiderman wrote an 8o-page prize-winning essay; since joining the faculty, he has always been ASSIGNED TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE STUDENT WITH THE LONGEST ESSAY. “The number was much higher than 80,” Howard Zeiderman (A67) admits, although he declines to state exactly how much higher: “Let’s just say it was a finite number.” Zeiderman recalls that his oral was much more than an oral: “It was an interrogation. The committee [which included Jacob Klein] was exhausted by having to turn all those pages. I had to do penance for many years.” Zeiderman’s penance was no myth: he was indeed assigned to the committees of long-essay writers. Zeiderman’s essay-a senior thesis in those days-was about how Kant and Hegel could both be correct. “If I had to rewrite it now it would be much less than 80 pages,” he says. “If you can’t say it in 20 pages, you can’t say it.” Flaumenhaft has seen more than a few cute and clever titles in his time as a tutor, and more than a few jokes and puns. He’s not against a clever title as long as it conveys what the essay is about. As for jokes, he says, “Abad joke is worse than no joke at all.” 9. A ONE-HOUR EXTENSION IS ALWAYS GRANTED AT MIDNIGHT. “Not exactly,” says Flaumenhaft. “Shortly before midnight we start asking friends about the people who have not yet shown up. We usually learn they’re part of a back-up at Kinko’s [see myth #6] or wrestling with the printer in the computer room. If they’re not there at midnight, we’ll turn the clock back so they can all make the deadline,” he says. 10. One month is a short time. While Flaumenhaft says that one month is not a long time, he says it’s not a short time either. “One month can seem like a short time, but having it longer than one month means that seniors might become even more frantic about their essays. The essay writing period is already an immense thing, but at least they know it will come to an end soon. With more than a month to work on their papers, some seniors might become paralyzed, delay start­ ing, and feel that the essay writing period has to be the peak of their lives,” he muses. His conclusion: “One month is not a short time. It’s just about right.” ♦ {The College- St. John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } �40 {St. John’s Forever} n 1966 Santa Fe tutor Dean Hag­ their animals were charged a $10 monthly gard heard about a string of horses maintenance fee. Don Cook, now a tutor that spent the summer in the Pecos emeritus, rode his stallion up to St. John’s and needed a home for the winter. every day during the 1970s, and built his horse a separate corral. Cook thinks that Haggard thought that taking care of horses would be a wonderful there were very few colleges in the coun­ activity for Johnnies. With the college’s try where students and faculty could bring blessing. Haggard and some students built a horse to campus. He remembers a stu­ a corral for the Pecos herd out of old posts, dent named Kyle Schultz (SF80) who kept up beyond the men’s dormitory. her horse at the college. When she gradu­ Caring for the horses proved much ated, she rode her horse from the Santa Fe more of a challenge than anticipated. campus to Missouri, a distance of 1,000 Shoeing and other maintenance costs miles. were high, so the horses were not brought As the campus grew and other athletic back the next winter. Later, the corral was pursuits became available, student inter­ expanded into stables, and the students est in horses waned. The stables were torn down in 1992 to make room for new dor­ helped board horses in exchange for per­ mission to ride them. Students and tutors mitories. Because the corrals had fallen who owned horses were encouraged to into disuse, there wasn’t any protest from bring them to school. Those who boarded the students when they were demolished. I {The College -St John’s College • Winter/Spring 2002 } Students in the I97OS FOUND RIDING HORSEBACK A GREAT WAY TO EXPLORE THE HILLSIDES AROUND THE CAMPUS. �Ken Vaughn (SF87) with his paintings at last year’s Alumni Art Show. H H Croquet Reunion St. John’s vs. U.S. Naval Academv H Saturday, April 27,1 p.m., Annapolis The twentieth annual croquet match with the Naval Academy-honor, glory, and revenge for last year’s loss. ^^^ date: April 28) The Republic is not only the mother of all liberal arts curricula, but indeed a reflec­ tion on all kinds of ideal constitutions. It contains rousing critiques of poetry and visual arts, a startling understanding of justice, and trenchant criticism and justifi­ cation of democracy. Summei June 30 - July 5, Santa Session \-Democracy In America Led by Janet Dougherty and Delba Winthrop It is always timely to read de Tocqueville’s work, but perhaps especially so now when we are re-examining the character and foundations of this imperfect and great nation of ours. Session Il-Invisible Crossroads: Readings from New Mexico Led by Julie Reahard and Krishnan Venkatesh We will approach this land of crossroads not through O’Keeffe and Lawrence and modernist cliches, but through a handful of neglected classics: Left Handed, Frank Cushing, and Robert Coles. Session II-The Koran and the Life of Muhammad Led by John Cornell and Michael Wolfe The Koran, a difficult book to read for the first time, rarely follows a steady narrative line. Most Muslims insist that the beauty of the Koran is inseparable from the beauty of the Arabic language. We shall address these challenges. Si^turday, July 6 - Sunday, July 28 in Santa Fe Homec Friday, October 4 ~ Sunday, October 6 Reunion Classes: 37, 42, 47, 52, 57, 62, 67, 72, 77, 82, 87, 92, and 97 For information on events, contact the Offices of Alumni Activities: Reunion classes: 72,77,82,87,92, and 97 Sunday, July 7 - Friday, July 12 wSanta Fe Tahmina Shalizi Director of Alumni and Parent Activities Santa Fe-505-984-6103 tshalizi@maiLsjcsf.edu Session I-The Republic Led by Eva Brann and David Carl Roberta Gable Director of Alumni Activities fwi Illi ' {The College ■ St. John’s College ■ IVinter/Spring 2002 } �SIJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE Published by the Public Relations Office Box 2800 Annapolis, Maryland 21404 address service requested Periodicals Postage Paid � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The College </em>(2001-2017) Description An account of the resource The St. John's College Communications Office published <em>The College </em>magazine for alumni.  It began publication in 2001, continuing the <em>St. John's Reporter</em>, and ceased with the Fall 2017 issue.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The College" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=56">Items in The College (2001-2017) Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context thecollege2001 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 40 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The College, Winter/Spring 2002 Description An account of the resource Volume 28, Issue 2 of The College Magazine. Published Winter/Spring of 2002. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2002 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 28, Issue 2 Winter/Spring 2002 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Goyette, Barbara (editor) Borden, Sus3en (managing editor) Ducker, Susanne (graphic designer) Mulry, Laura J. (Santa Fe editor) Johnson, David Fetterer, Florence Brann, Eva Moreno, Ed Gable, Roberta Eoyang, Glenda H. Skilondz, Melinda Sanfilippo, Mark The College https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/938f6f2472711f9912b0822a2e68aac0.pdf 6335d8f431ff3f801f2daa2f9f765041 PDF Text Text The FALL Santa F e 2002 Library Darwm Understanding Our Fellow Animals St. John’s College S?nta Fe NM 2 0 0 1 �On Darwin he name Charles Darwin carries a lot of baggage for us. It’s T difficult to find the man—the great scientist—under the popu­ lar misconceptions about evolution, the emotional debates that have raged for decades over the place of humans in the Darwin was born ingrand 1809, scheme the fifthofofthings six children of his physician father in and artis­ post-Darwin, the movement some tic mother. As a childAmerican he collected pebbles, plants, bird eggs, and shells; he was elementary and high schools to teach “creation­ STJOHN’S College ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE slower than his sistersism, in school-what ’d symbols politely call today late bloomer. “The ” the Darwin we fish above car abumpers, the concept school as a means of education to me was applied simply atoblank, ” Charles wrote to his of social Darwinism everything from anthropology to business. brother. His father complained: “You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat catching.” Sent to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine, Darwin devel­ oped an interest in sea creatures and microscopic beings, even discovering that the polyzoon ova of/Z/zrz/zz had cilia. He failed to develop any interest in anatomy, however, and was sickened by watching surgery performed without anesthesia. Dad sent him off to Cambridge in hopes that he would study for the clergy. There, he spent three years and amassed a wonderful collection of beetles in addition to learning bird taxidermy. In 1831, when Darwin was 22, a family friend arranged an unpaid internship for him—as a naturalist aboard the HMSBeagle. The captain, a believer in phrenology (the study of the shape of the head and features), hesitated to take Darwin along because he was worried about his large brow and nose. He relented, and the young man spent the next five years traveling 40,000 miles to lands around the globe. Carrying a book of Milton’s poetry in his pocket, he rode horseback through the south Amazon jungle. He watched phosphorescent plankton, formulated theories about coral reefs, observed tortoises and finches, searched for fossils, and docu­ mented hundreds of species of plants and animals. Back in England, Darwin married, fathered ii children, and retired to live like a country gentleman, his inheritance assuring a comfortable life for his family. The material he gathered on his voyage proved enough to keep him busily thinking for many years. Evolution wasn’t a concept introduced by Darwin, but he did describe a mechanism for it to happen—natural selection. His deep analysis of the natural world is shown in Origin ofthe Species by Means ofNatural Selection or the Preser­ vation ofFavored Races in the Stragglefitr Life. The book was published in 1859 and went through five editions in his lifetime. Darwin’s importance—and the source of all the hubbub—stems from how his theories bring humankind into the same fold as other species, into the natural world. In this issue of The College, wc look at some St. John’s alumni who spend a lot of their time thinking about or working with animals-from the fairly common interest in dogs to the more exotic devotion to elephants. In the tradition of Darwin, they are fascinated by the inner workings of the lives of animals and find that their com­ munion with other species somehow enriches their understanding of their own. -BG The College (usps 018-750) is published four times a year by St. John’s College, Annapolis, md and Santa Fe, nm. Known office of publication: Public Relations Office St. John’s College Box 2800 Annapolis, md 21404-2800 Periodicals postage paid at Annapolis, md postmaster: Send address changes to The College Magazine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, md 21404-2800. Annapolis 410-295-5554 b-goyette@sjca.edu Barbara Goyette, editor Sussan Borden, assistant editor Susanne Ducker, graphic designer Advisory Board John Christensen Harvey Flaumenhaft Roberta Gable Kathryn Heines Pamela Kraus Joseph Macfarland Eric Salem Brother Robert Smith Santa Fe 505-984-6104 classics@mail.sjcsf.edu Laura J. Mulry, Santa Fe editor Advisory Board Alexis Brown Grant Franks David Levine Margaret OdeU John Rankin Ginger Roherty Tahmina Shalizi Mark St. John Magazine design by Claude Skelton Design �{Contents} PAGE 12. DEPARTMENTS a FROM THE BELL TOWERS Great Books for Tough Times William Pastille muses on the place of the college in the larger community, in light of this fall’s events. PAGE l6 Hearts of Animals PAGE la Alumni who work with animals explore what we can understand about dogs, horses, elephants, and other species. PAGE The events of 9/11 Barr and Buchanan: St. John’s and Beyond Santa Fe swordplay In New York for a St. John’s musical New tutors Announcements Miss von Oppen honored Remembering Bill O’Grady Rebound math Catastrophe summer Santa Fe community day 10 LETTERS 11 BOOK REVIEW 20 William Alba’s An Oz Album Job’s Life Through New Eyes Robert Sacks’ translation of Job, along with a commentary, brings new insights into the mysterious story. • • • • • • • • • • • ag ALUMNI NOTES ALUMNI PROFILES 31 Jim Rooney (A74) is a homeowner helper 34 David Maclaine (SF74) - an almostmillionaire PAGE 16 36 Samantha Alderson (A86) conserves art PAGE 22 objects of the past Much Ado About Nothing 39 ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AWARDS 41 CAMPUS LIFE Eva Brann’s trilogy covers the imagination, time, and non-being. PAGE Not your usual summer jobs 4a ALUMNI association NEWS 26 Tale of Two Homecomings Alumni Art Show 44 OBITUARIES 46 ALUMNI VOICES PAGE aa Alumni love to return to campus for seminars, prank reprises, and other fun stuff. How basketball can soothe the soul. 48 ST, JOHN’S FOREVER ON THE COVER Charles Darwin Illustration by David Johnson �<2 {From the Bell Towers} Alumni Response 9/11 September ii was a difficult day on the campuses of St. John’s. Students found out about the news from the few televisions around, from the Internet, from radios set up in the coffee shops, from their friends; col­ lege officials in Annapolis and Santa Fe called everyone together to tell what was known and try to answer questions. Phone banks were set up so that students could call home, and counselors were sum­ moned. “We at the college are a community,” said Annapolis president Chris Nelson, “and we have available to us the ben­ efits of community.” Classes were held so that students might gather and discuss events; with most students far from home, the presence of their friends and tutors proved reassuring. Some classes opted to proceed with their scheduled tutorial tasks-“They found comfort in close, finite work that was free of uncertainly,” said David Levine, dean in Santa Fe. Community dinners and services of mourning were held on each campus on the Friday following the attacks so that students, faculty, and staff could acknowledge together the tremendous loss to the nation and express personal sadness. In Santa Fe, David Levine noted that students would “never read a political science book in the same way again,” while in Annapolis, President Nelson cited passages from Homer’s Odyssey that had been read that week by freshmen and noted that Odysseus’ suffering and griefboth in his reactions to battle and in his dilemma about the suitors-must seem more imme­ diate to all of us now. Santa Fe alumnus Matthew Lippart, a ''Now, more than ever, dialogue must continue. aooi graduate, talked at the dinner about his brother and two friends who worked at the World Trade Center. After not talking to them for months, he had spoken with them by phone the previous night. The tragedy, he said, had made him think about the importance of staying connected with loved ones. “You shouldn’t be taking people for granted,” he told those assembled. In Santa Fe, a weekend’s worth of activities planned for the September 15 inauguration of president John Balkcom were cancelled. Carlos Fuentes, the Mexican novelist and diplo­ mat, had been scheduled to speak on the topic of “The Great Books” on Thursday. Even though travel was almost impossible that week, he drove a car from Texas to Mexico, then took a small plane to New Mexico, then drove to the cam­ pus to keep his engagement. He spoke movingly about the importance of reading and the significance of the college’s program. When asked why he {The College- Flags everywhere, including THE SJC COFFEE SHOP. made such an extraordinary effort to reach the campus, Fuentes said, “Now, more than ever, dialogue must continue.” Students on both campuses felt called to act in some way. Many donated blood; others began to organize to raise money for relief efforts. In a very Johnny-like way, they questioned their place at the college, and the college’s role in the world. Maya Alapin, a junior from Canada, wrote in The Gadfly: “We have all been catapulted into what we could probably deem the most real identity crisis of our lives. What are we to do? And why weren’t we doing anything before? We feel guilt that our now seemingly selfish St. John’s pursuits have no ‘real life’ benefits, and that people doing the dirty work... have probably never read Plato or learned about a conic section.” Several students, including Alapin, met with a columnist for the Baltimore Sun, who reported their conversation in an article that was published in papers across the country. St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } By the afternoon of September II, alumni began to try to con­ tact their friends in New York and Washington. The listservs on the Internet proved to be a way for people to check in with each other and to let others know they were safe. Alumni in the reserves and on active duty are participating in the assaults on Afghanistan; others have found their lives affected in ways they could not have anticipated. Bart Lee (A68), a lawyer who is an amateur radio operator, served as the night shift super­ visor for the New York City Red Cross Radio during the week following the attack. The Red Cross managed about a dozen shelters 24/7 via ham radio, he says. “The cell phones, land­ lines, and internet connections didn’t work or were spotty at best...My earliest traffic per­ sonally handled was an emer­ gency evacuation order, and traffic at that level was all too common in the first couple of days.” One recent alumna, Sylvaine Rameckers (Aoi) had just fin­ ished an internship with NBC Dateline at Rockefeller Center in New York. On September la, her supervisor, a senior pro­ ducer, called and asked if she’d like to come back to the net­ work full time. “That first week, we worked round the clock,” says Rameckers. “The pace has been incredibly intense. At first, we would interview, get footage, try to document what was happen­ ing, and get pieces on the air the very same night...By the time a month had passed, things were a bit calmer, but it’s still an intense pressure to get the news out. I feel like I’m at boot camp. I feel disconnect­ ed from what has happened, but I do feel like we’re doing something to help.” Another alumnus, John Sifton (A96), had just returned �{From the Bell Towers} from Afghanistan when the Trade Center was attacked and the political and social situa­ tions in that country suddenly became of importance to everyone in America. Sifton wrote an article for the Sep­ tember 30 issue of the New York Times Magazine, “A Last Road Trip Through Premod­ ern, Postmodern Afghanistan.” As a human rights attorney and humanitar­ ian aid worker, Sifton had trav­ eled the country and worked in desert areas, bargaining with local Taliban leaders for the opportunity to document con­ ditions. “I was just fascinated by the realness of it all,” he said in the article. “You look out an office window, and you see a displaced family living in a bombed-out school, sleeping on the balcony and cooking Barr and Buchanan: St. John’s AND Beyond “Radicals are a dime a dozen among us, but radicals who suc­ ceed in imprinting their ideas and ideals on other human beings and transmitting them to future generations by reshaping actual institutions are few indeed,” says William W. McNeill in the Foreword to a new book about the radicals St. John’s knows best; New Pro­ gram founders Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan. The book. Radical Visions: Stringfellow Barr, Scott Buchanan, and Their Efforts on behalfofEducation and Pol­ itics in the Twentieth Century, is by Charles A. Nelson (A45) and represents the culmination of an effort that began as early as 1994, when Nelson started col­ Carrying On Ambassador Carlos Fuentes TRAVELED TO SaNTA Fe TO SPEAK ABOUT THE GREAT BOOKS. some birds they caught, doves. This is their life. They can’t change the channel.” lecting material for two books commemorating the looth birthdays of Buchanan and Barr. Those books were pub­ lished in 1995 and 1997. Researching the hves of the two men who started the great books program at the college in 1937, Nelson became interested in their friendship. (Barr was outgoing and multi-talented, a voluminous writer and ener­ getic speaker. Buchanan was quieter, with a “quicksilver quality” to his ideas and con­ versations. The two were friends for life, having met at Oxford in the igaos.) Nelson himself knew both men during their early days at the college since he served as administra­ tive assistant to Barr while a student. In the new book. Nelson dis­ cusses Barr and Buchanan’s early collaborations and their work at St. John’s. In the sec­ ond half of the book, he lays out what they did after they left the college in 1947-both had a sincere interest in world gov­ ernment, which they conceived {The Colleges?. Following the attacks, students have tried to carry on with their work. In Santa Fe, stu­ dents who wanted to learn more about Islam joined a study group led by tutor Michael Wolfe(SF94), who con­ centrated on Islam while earn­ ing a master’s degree in the his­ tory of religions at the University of Virginia. “Unfor­ tunately, oftentimes the only source of information people get on Islam is through events like these,” said Wolfe. “It tends to produce a distorted view of what Islam is about. In the study group, I hope we can help to distinguish between Islamic terrorism and more tra­ ditional views of Islam.” The college also collaborated with the Council on International Relations and presented a lec of as dependent on economic development of the Third World. Buchanan spent time in Israel, where he was interested in the cooperative living of the kibbutzim. Barr went to India and met with leaders who want­ ed to use an agrarian society model to benefit the people and make the best use of the land there. Nelson speculates that the desire to transform society manifested in their John ’5 College ■ Fall 2001 } 3 ture, “The Islamic Perspective of Current Events,” by Fethi Benhalim. At the Friday night lecture the week following 9/ii, Har­ vey Flaumenhaft, dean in Annapolis, took a moment to talk about why it is important for the college to continue nor­ mally. “Our work, at this col­ lege, does in fact, in various ways, make us better able to defend our country,” he said. “And it also makes us better able to preserve what’s best about it, and even to improve it; but above all, the work that we do here helps to make our country worth defending.” The title of the lecture, by Neal Weiner (A64), was “Generosi­ ty, Truth and Tolerance.” — Reported by Marissa Morrison in Santa Fe and Barbara Goyette in Annapolis. Charles Nelson (A45) shows DAUGHTER JaNET BeRGGREN (A72) HIS EARLIER BOOK ABOUT Buchanan. work at St. John’s carried over into the political realm later in their lives. Radical Visions is published by Bergin & Garvey, Green­ wood Publishing Group. A review will appear in a subse­ quent issue of The College. �4 Santa Fe Swordplay The newly completed Student Activities Center in Santa Fe played host to a regional fenc­ ing tournament for over 50 fencers from as far away as Amarillo, Tex. on September a8. A major tournament at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs was cancelled due to heightened security concerns following the tragedies of Sep­ tember II. James Odom, head coach of the High Desert Fenc­ ing Club in Santa Fe, decided to host a smaller, replacement tournament, giving half of the Heather Upshaw (SF04) WAITING TO FOIL AN OPPONENT. proceeds to the relief effort. St. John’s College donated the use of its gym. The tournament, along with a youth tournament held in town, raised $400 for the World Trade Center-911 Relief Fund. Swordplay has had an inevitable role in the history of the civilized world. Man has been poking stuff with sharp, pointy metal things long before he took the time to write great books-or any books for that matter. Sword duels continued to solve personal disputes until the end of the nineteenth cen­ {From the Bell Towers} tury (sort of like paper, scis­ sors, rock that really counts). Modern fencing as a sport con­ tinues the tradition and at least in form preserves the ceremony and prestige of swordplay from its aristocratic hey-day. The weapons used in fencing are foil, epee, and saber. Foil, by far the most popular, is a fast-paced point weapon used for poking, not slashing. Only the torso is a legal target. Epee (the author is an Epeeist at heart) is a slower-paced, men­ tally-oriented point weapon that has the whole body, even the toes, as a target. Saber is a curved, slashing weapon with everything above the waist a target. It originated from saber­ bearing cavalry charges and is fast and aggressive. The three weapons draw distinctly differ­ ent fencers. Saberists are usual­ ly short and angry. Epeeists are usually tall and relaxed. And foihsts are everybody else. Fencing bouts take place along a fourteen-meter strip. A bout between two fencers lasts, depending on the importance of the bout, either five or fif­ teen touches (not gashes. Mom) or until four or twelve minutes have elapsed. The point weapons have buttons that are depressed on the oppo­ nent, whereas saber blades are electrified (you really don’t want an explanation of how this works). There are two things fencing is not-dangerous or easy. Fenc­ ing is one of the safest contact sports. The blades are made of treated metal that among other things will break flat, reducing the already small chance of serious injury. And fencing is truly difficult. It doesn’t matter to me how many times you might have seen The Princess Bride. Skilled fencing resem­ bles playing good chess at a full sprint. The Santa Fe campus’ club, the Sexy Fencers (get it, SJCSF) has just this year gotten togeth- {The College Giving Regards to (Off-) Broadway About 100 New York City alum­ ni began their “getting back to normal” attempts on October 3, as they gathered for an evening at the theater-for a properly thoughtful, entertain­ ing, and inspirational show called The Spitfire Grill. The musical is based on the movie of the same name, written and directed by Lee David Zlotoff (A74). A Sundance Festival win­ ner, the movie was picked up for national distribution in 1996The college purchased seats in the Duke Theater on 42nd Street for New York alumni. The evening proved to be both a celebration of community- er to form an actual club, thanks to juniors with more dedication and organization than the author. Local coach and foil fencer Rob Madril, who happened to finish third in the recent tournament, instructs the team with help from talent­ ed tutor Krishnan Venkatesh. Representing St. John’s at the September 28th tourna­ ment were intrepid leader Eric Baldwin, intrepid lefty Jonathan Zecher, the dedicated and over-worked Erin Hanlon, sophomore talent Stephen Vorkoper, fellow transfer St John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } Lee Zlotoff(center) with Joe Boucher and Fielding Dupuy. Johnnies from every era seemed glad to see each other and spend time at a very St. John’s-related show-and great entertainment. The musical was first performed in Wiscon­ sin, where a writer/composer duo adapted the story of the lonely young woman, newly released from prison, who finds her way into the hearts of a group of small-town residents. After the performance, Zlotoff and James Valcq, who wrote the songs for the musi­ cal, talked with the alumni and answered questions about the production. “It was wonderful for the college to bring us all together,” said Zlotoff (who had traveled from LA for the event). “The play seemed to have the right kind of messages for us at this time, and we enjoyed meeting and talking with one another about it.” 4" Heather Upshaw, and 1. Indi­ vidual scores and rankings among the 33 foil fencers attending would not convey the satisfaction and personal pride that the Johnnies gained from simply competing. And hey, if Rob Madril places third, it was a tough meet. Any alumni still fencing are encouraged to contact the author by mail at the Santa Fe campus. I’d like to see what kind of fencer base we have in our community. -4 — BY Evan Hancock, SFoa �{From New Tutors The college welcomed nine new tutors thisfall. Joining the faculty IN Santa Fe:_____________ Martha Franks (SF78) earned a law degree from the University of New Mexico Law School. She clerked for Chief Judge Seth of the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, then practiced law in Washington, D.C. and Santa Fe, developing an expertise in environmental law. She also attended the Virginia Theologi­ cal Seminary. She is an attorney for the U.S. Department of the Interior. She taught a sopho­ more seminar first semester. John Gibson (SF88) is finish­ ing his PhD in the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Depart­ ment at Cornell (his disserta­ tion is “Dynamical Systems Models of the Turbulent Boundary Layer”). At Cornell he worked in the Computation­ al Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, managed the Graduate and Fac­ ulty Computational Research Facilities, and was an instruc­ tor in mechanical and aero­ space engineering. He also studies piano and vocal per­ formance. Patricia Greer has a BA from Notre Dame of Maryland, an MA from Johns Hopkins, and an MA from the St. John’s Graduate Institute. She received her PhD from the University of Virginia (her dis­ sertation was “The Net of the Mahabharata: Reading the Epic as Literature”). She lived in India, where she co-founded and ran a documentary film production unit, taught Eng­ lish, helped establish and administer the International Educational Institute, and was head of the International High School. She speaks Sanskrit, Tamil, and French. Ewan Harrison earned a BA in biology from the University of Cahfornia, San Diego, and the Bell Towers} an MS in Biology from the Uni­ versity of Michigan. He’s fin­ ishing up his PhD there (with a dissertation on “Mate Choice and Life History Evolution in Mexican Mollies”). He has taught at the University of Michigan and at Eastern Michi­ gan University. Jay Smith (SF77) received an MA in philosophy from Mar­ quette University and has been working toward his PhD from Fordham University. His disser­ tation explores our obligations to future generations. He has worked for the Environmental Protection Agency and has also worked for a range of interna­ tional organizations on projects in the South Pacific, Nepal, Somalia, Nairobi, and Fiji. Lise van Boxel earned a BA in political science from the University of Toronto and an MA from Boston College. She received her PhD in political science from the University of Toronto, with a dissertation titled “Revealing Perspectives: A Study of the Standard of Truth in Nietzsche’s Philoso­ phy.” She has taught at the Uni­ versity of Toronto and in a con­ tinuing education program modeled on St. John’s called Classical Pursuits. In Annapolis: Dylan Casey received a BS in physics and a BA in political theory from Michigan State University, and an MA in physics and a PhD in experi­ mental particle physics from the University of Rochester. He has designed, constructed, and tested equipment to be used at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He is interested in the nature of measurement, probability, and quantitative decision-making as these mani­ fest themselves in determining what are the smallest pieces of matter and how they interact and are related. Jeffrey Smith received a BA from Emory University with a double major in philosophy and political science, and a PhD from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He is completing a book on human nature in Rousseau’s Emile, which has been accepted for publication. His interest in community 5 development in Chicago led him to found and edit an annu­ al journal of urban affairs and to host a weekly radio program on which he interviewed com­ munity leaders and local politi­ cians about community issues (like the participation of gang leaders in the political process) and about innovative policy ini­ tiatives (like community devel­ opment banking). John Tomarchio received a BA in English from Columbia University and an MA and PhD in philosophy from the Catholic University of America, where his work focused on the relationship of the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas to that of Plato, Aristotle, and the Neoplatonists. He has taught at Catholic University, in the Core Curriculum at Boston Universi­ ty, and at Villanova University. He has published articles on the metaphysics of Aquinas and on the computerized research methods that he used in doing his research and in producing the indices upon which it is based. Crash Proof: After years of the “Camp St. John's” entrance sign for the Santa Fe campus being dam­ aged REGULARLY BY ERRANT DRIVERS, ANEW (HOPEFULLY IMPENETRABLE) SIGN WAS FINALLY INSTALLED - AT A SAFER LOCATION, NoW ALL THAt’s NEEDED IS LIGHTING. PICTURED ARE MEMBERS OF THE CaMPUS PLANNING COM­ MITTEE, FROM left: TUTORS MiCHAEL RaWN, CHAIR; JuLIE ReAHARD; JaCQUES DuVOISIN (A80); Hans VON Briesen, director of Laboratories and past chair; Kathy Mizrahi, director of Housing and Residen­ tial Life; tutors Judith Adam and Mark Rollins; and student representative Christian Blood (SF02). {The College. 5f. John^s College ■ Fall 200/ } �{From the Bell Towers} 6 Announcements New Dorms Slated FOR Annapolis A confluence of factors led to crowding in the Annapolis cam­ pus dorms this fall. As a result, freshmen were assigned to triples in the largest rooms in Humphreys, and some former singles were made into doubles. Although total enrollment is only slightly above the opti­ mum of 460, a greater number of upperclassmen requested rooms on campus, leaving fewer rooms available for incoming freshmen. The largest landlord in Annapolis had changed some rental poli­ cies over the summer, and more apartments close to cam­ pus that had formerly been rented to Johnnies were being “upgraded” for the upscale market. The Campus Planning Com­ mittee (a group of faculty and administrators who examine physical plant issues and make building decisions) resurrected the perennial question of whether another dormitory should be built. Currently, there are enough dorm room spaces for about three-quarters of the students to live on-campus. Because improvement in off-campus housing availability is not likely, the committee decided to go ahead with plans for a new dorm. Student forums and a faculty discussion of the project brought up important issues: should the college sacri­ fice any more back-campus space to dorms? would a new dorm change the social pat­ terns of students? how about suites, or rooms with kitchens? During the coming semester, the committee will address the questions, find an architect, decide on a location, and secure permits. Projected date for the new dorm’s opening: in time for the Febbies who will arrive in January 2003. Shopping Benefit Alert OK-so the Internet has not proved itself to be the best place to buy furniture, find a job, make investments, or order groceries. But plenty of stuff is being sold online, and now there’s a way for shoppers at some of the best-known web sites to benefit St. John’s. GreaterGood.com has set up an online system for benefiting a number of charities and non­ profits. Here’s how it works: go to their site at www.greatergood.com, choose a cause (St. John’s!), click on Shop to visit sites like Barnes and Noble, Lands End, and Dell Computer. A percentage of your purchase will be donated to the collegeat no extra charge. New Vice President FOR Santa Fe Sought The college is conducting a search for a new vice president for the Santa Fe campus. The vice president, in partnership with the vice president on the Annapolis campus, helps supervise all areas of develop­ ment, including corporate and foundation relations, planned giving, annual giving, alumni relations, government rela­ tions, and public affairs. The advancement staff on both campuses work as a single team for advancing the national pro­ grams of the college, while pur­ suing and supporting local and regional programs of interest to each campus. Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to major donor cul­ tivation and stewardship, devel­ opment and implementation of capital projects, participation in strategic planning, manage­ ment of staff, and maintaining local community and govern­ ment relations. The qualifications are a bachelor’s degree plus eight to ten years experience in advancement/development work with a major institution, preferably in higher education. The candidate must have exceptional communication and organizational skills. Also, he/she must have experience managing staff and volunteers, and in participating in annual fund and capital campaigns. Letters of interest along with a current resume should be sent to St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM, 87505-4599, Attention: Director of Personnel. Lower Rates for Student Loans A notefrom Caroline Chris­ tensen, director offinancial aid: Now is an excellent time for alumni to consolidate student loans-interest rates are the lowest in the history of federal student loans and with consoli­ dation a student can lock into these rates. Excellent informa­ tion is available at www.loanconsolidation.ed.gov. Miss von Oppen Honored Annapolis tutor Beate Ruhm von Oppen was honored by the Republic of Germany in Sep­ tember, when she was present­ ed with the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington, D.C. An authority on the German Resistance during World War 11, von Oppen grew up in Ger­ many, moved at 15 to Holland, where she attended high school, and then moved to Eng­ land, where she attended the University of Birmingham. During the war, she served with the British Foreign Office and later worked in the Royal Institute of International Affairs and on the research staff of Nuffield College, Oxford. After coming to the U.S., she was a member of the staff of the microfilming project of the American Historical Associa­ tion’s Committee for the Study of War Documents. Her translations include Konrad Adenaueher’s Memoirs. She is the editor of Documents on Germany under Occupation 045'54 and Religion and Resis­ tance to Nazism. She is also the {The Colleges?. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } Beate Ruhm von Oppen (right) Glenda Eoyang (SF76) WITH editor and translator of the wartime letters of Helmuth James von Moltke, published in German as Briefs ann Freya and in America and England as Letters to Freya, 1939-45. Moltke was a member of the German government staff who was executed just before the end of the war because of his opposition to the Nazis. Von Oppen has also recently edited and translated a second voL ume, this of letters from Moltke’s mother Dorothy to her family in South Africa, A Life in Germany. Ironically, Dorothy’s letters were written in English and had to be trans­ lated for publication in Ger­ many. The book awaits an Anglo-American publisher. Von Oppen has taught at St. John’s since i960. This fall she was made an honorary alumna by the St. John’s Alumni Asso­ ciation (see p. 40.) �{From the Bell Towers} Remembering Bill O’Grady Every year Philanthropia, the group of alumni volunteers who help the college with fundraising, looks for reunion class leaders who will bring members of their class together in common cause. When Kate Lufkin Day (A76) was asked to be a reunion class leader, she decided to bring her class together to give a gift to St. John’s in the name of a tutor who meant a great deal to them: the late Bill O’Grady. O’Grady, a tutor from 1970 to 1986 who taught on both campuses, was well known for his open heart, his poetic spir­ it, his commitment to students, and his love of the college. Stu­ dents assigned to his lab classes considered themselves lucky and called the class “poetry lab,” a reference to O’Grady’s ability to shed light on the lyri­ cal side of any subject. The class of ’76 felt particularly close to him. Having been freshmen early in his tenure, they shared fond memories of his classes-especially an O’Grady-Simpson freshman seminar and an O’Grady-von Oppen sophomore seminar. To honor the tutor they so well remember, the class will give a gift to the college’s O’Grady Fund, whose purpose is to provide money for stu­ dents on both campuses in times of emergency. The fund is used to help students who face unexpected needs. The fund could help a student afford a plane ticket in the event of a death in the family. If a parent loses a job, the fund could help the student buy books. When a financially-stretched student breaks a leg and can’t walk to an off-campus job, the fund could be used to help cover necessary expenses. Day herself came up with the idea for the fund shortly after William O’Grady (far left) at a Senior Oral in the 1970s. O’Grady’s death in 1986. The seeds of the idea were sown years ago, when Day was a friend of O’Grady’s in Santa Fe, where she lived after gradua­ tion as her husband. Bill Day {SF80), finished St. John’s. “I remember agonizing to Mr. O’Grady one day about how we could not afford to move back to Minnesota after my hus­ band’s graduation,” Day wrote in a letter to her class suggest­ ing they make the gift. “In typi­ cal fashion. Bill offered to lend us-no, give us-the money. T have much more than I need. Really. I’d be happy to help you out,’ is how I remember his words at the time.” Although Day and her husband did not have to take O’Grady up on his offer, his compassion and gen­ erosity have stayed with her. And it seems that his spirit of compassion and generosity is also alive among her class­ mates. So far, the class has responded with ii gifts totaling $20,970, and contributions continue to arrive. Day is pleased with the results. “It was certainly successful beyond anything I had hoped for,” she says. “Everybody who respond­ {The College -St ed seemed to really care about current students and their needs-and to remember keenly their own needs as students. I don’t know if current students realize this, but a lot of alumni really do care about their lives and want to help them make it through. We all know how hard it can be.” Rebound Math All basketball fans can rattle off the basic statistics of a game: field goals, free throws, rebounds, assists, turnovers, blocked shots, and fouls. But how many know about the working man’s stat? The trillionaire’s club? The plus/minus? Annapolis senior Randy Pennell can explain them all, now that he’s finished a Hodson Trust internship working in the statistics department for the Philadelphia 76ers. Pennell spent last summer in a small, cramped room in Philadelphia’s Spectrum gathering every kind of NBA statistic you can imagine for both teams and individual players. The working man’s stat? “That’s when a player gets something in every category in the box scores: shot attempt­ ed, shot scored, shot blocked, free throw, foul committed, turnover, etc.” explains Pennell. The trillionaire’s club? “It’s more or less the opposite-when a player gets a one and nine zeros.” Plus/minus, Pennell says, refers to the points scored by the team while a player is on the floor over the points scored by the oppos­ ing team while that player is on the floor. While Pennell sticks with real basketball rather than fantasy (he’s a Druid), the summer satisfied some basketball fantasies he never knew he had. He attended home games for the Eastern Con­ ference and NBA finals and met all of the Sixers, as well as Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Pennell’s internship should prove helpful as he pursues a career in sports-writing. He’s already gotten a jump start: he published a series of human interest articles on the basketball playoffs in the Chester County Press while working for the Sixers. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �8 {From the Bell Towers} and Grounds crew worked extra hours to accommodate the pipeline contract crew, “People stayed until nine o’clock many nights just in case the gas came back on, because they would need to re-light the pilot lights to start the water heating process,” said B&G Director Ted Gonzales. Without the use of gas apphances in the dining hall kitchen, Aramark adjusted the meal service to include veg­ etables, hamburgers, and hot dogs cooked outside on a char­ coal grill. Catastrophe Summer When my husband, tutor William Alba, and I moved onto the Santa Fe campus in July to take on the role of sen­ ior residents, we found it hard to contain our excitement. Our new position would provide a beautiful little apartment at the base of the mountains plus a chance to become more closely connected to the college we love. What could go wrong? We didn’t know then that we were moving onto campus just in time to experience Catastrophe Summer. A TWISTER BLOWS THROUGH CAMPUS Wilting plants SIGNAL GAS POISONING At the beginning of the sum­ mer, Grounds and Landscape Supervisor Pat McCue (SFGI83) started to worry about campus trees that were dying. A large cottonwood as old as the Santa Fe campus, which for decades had wel­ comed visitors at the parking circle, was dead. Nearby a tall ponderosa, nine pinon trees, and a number of chamisa bush­ es were all on their deathbed. “I couldn’t find any sign of disease,” said McCue. “I was sure it was some type of pollu­ tion.” He asked tutor Linda Wiener, an entomologist, to look at the trees. “Herbicides or pollution didn’t seem likely, and the only other thing I could think that would have that kind of effect would be a gas leak,” she said, “Pat took a shovel and started digging. He said it just reeked of gas.” The gas had been killing the trees in the same way it would a human being or other living body-by interfering with the ability of the organisms to carry oxygen, McCue explained. “Gas doesn’t really poison a tree. It suffo­ cates the roots,” he said. Luckily, McCue and Wiener discovered the problem before Taking down the cottonwood TREE WHICH HAD BEEN POISONED BY A NATURAL GAS LEAK. any explosions occurred. Since the campus gas lines belong to St. John’s, the college needed to fix the problem. A contractor was hired to test every campus pipe for leaks. For the next month, the grounds and roads were torn up and gas was large­ ly unavailable on campus. For those staying in campus housing, this meant taking cold showers for about three weeks, Jennifer Brookes, director of Conference Services, worried that summer conference atten­ dees living in the dorms would be unsettled by the lack of hot water, but she heard few com­ plaints. “Most everybody was very understanding,” Brookes said. “One group leader said he {The College - Messagefrom the switchboard: a mother bear and cub had been sighted on Atalaya trail. could give up coffee if he con­ tinued to have cold showers in the morning, because they were so exhilarating.” Presi­ dent John Balkcom offered the use of the guest shower at the Hunt House, less than a mile from campus, and the showers at the Student Activities Center had hot water after less than a week. An understaffed (two employees were out on short­ term disability leave) Buildings St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } During one of these outdoor meals, when the soccer field was set up with canopies and grills for a staff picnic, a twister passed through campus. It picked up the canopies and dumped them in the middle of Camino Cabra, The canopies were replaced before the party started and no one got hurt. But Gonzalez couldn’t believe the string of near-misses the campus was facing. “We had so many things going on-one after another,” he said. Brooks agreed: “It was totally wacky.” Lightning STRIKES Atalaya From July 8 to July ai, I worked as an RA (resident assistant) for the Monte Sol Writing Work­ shop, a residential program that helps high school students develop their creative and ana­ lytical skills. On the morning of Saturday, July 14, the students headed up Atalaya Mountain, just above campus, for a hike with the workshop’s other RAs, John McCarthy (SFoi) and Liz Borshard (SF99). At breakfast, shortly after saying farewell to the hikers, I opened the local newspaper and panicked. According to a news report, a fire had started near the top of the mountain the previous day and had not been extinguished. Luckily, the fire was out between the time �{From the Bell Towers} the newspaper was printed and the hike began. The fire, caused by a lightning strike near campus, occurred on Fri­ day the 13th. A WOODPECKER STRIKES The next exciting event was a brief power outage caused by a woodpecker. On July aa, the bird landed on a transformer near the gym, causing a short. “It fried the woodpecker and knocked out the electricity,” Gonzales said. This time the affected struc­ ture was not on college proper­ ty, so St. John’s did not bear the cost of repair. The utility com­ pany had power back on within a few hours. Magic on Campus Santa Fefreshmen dig deep on Community Service Day. While most freshmen come to St. John’s expecting to embark on a rigorous intellectual jour­ ney, few expect to be handed a shovel and asked to do some hard, physical labor. But on Community Service Day, held the Saturday before the first full day of classes, roughly onequarter of the new freshman class volunteered to roll up their sleeves along with upper classmen, faculty, and staff (including college president John Balkcom) and tackle some labor-intensive jobs on campus. Participants cut down a mature cottonwood tree (a landmark meeting place on campus) that was killed by a natural gas leak so that it could be replaced with a young sycamore. They also dug a trench-50 feet long and a feet deep-for a new gas line that Toilets stop flushing Throughout July and the begin­ ning of August, I often con­ soled myself during a cold shower with this thought: “At least the toilet works.” One morning in early August, the water lines in the walls of our apartment moaned, then the water stopped flowing. I ran down to the academic build­ ings, hoping to find a function­ ing lavatory, but they were all out of order. The water short­ age was caused by an accident during work on the water lines. Yes, in addition to the gas lines being replaced, water lines were being replaced to increase the water pressure in case of fire. This was a project the col­ lege had planned long before the other catastrophes will run under the beautiful grassy lawn north of Weigle Hall. “The lawn is one of the most central landscape areas of the college, both socially and physically,” said assistant gar­ dener Mike DiMezza (SF98 and EC99). It was DiMezza who first suggested the college dig the trench by hand to save the lawn from the ravages of a backhoe. The day had a festive atmos­ phere, reminiscent of barn rais­ ings and filled with good humor. Some staff members teased the students, saying that when they finished digging the trench they could start on the hole for the long-proposed swimming pool behind the gym. Those whose physical exertions rarely surpass haul­ ing heavy backpacks worked alongside the more muscular members of the crew. When the day was over, the volunteers were rewarded with a barbecue on the Fishpond Placita, spon­ sored by the senior class. DiMezza estimated that the 35 volunteers contributed at least 140 hours of labor that day. “I cannot tell you how {The College. occurred. The crew had hit a water main and needed to get a part from Albuquerque before they could repair it. The col­ lege reacted swiftly, procuring porta-potties as well as bottled water for the washrooms and the dining hall kitchen. At this point in the summer, I was enrolled in the Summer Classics program in a seminar on The Plays of Kalidasa. When it was time for the mid-morn­ ing break, we stepped outside and were happy to see that porta-potties had arrived. They were painted a bright yellow, which helped boost spirits. By this point in Catastrophe Sum­ mer, people were eager to be cheered. “I only told a couple of peo­ ple that I wanted my mommy,” said Gonzales. Digging WITH student backs— NOT A BACKHOE—SAVES THE LAWN. deeply grateful I was that I didn’t have to dig that trench by myself,” he said. Brendan O’Neill {SF93), director of college events, said that Community Service Day is about building community. St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } 9 Bears head TOWARD CAMPUS By the time students began mov­ ing into dorms for the fall term on August ai, I breathed a sigh of relief that Catastrophe Sum­ mer had ended. But later that morning, Vivian Duran at the switchboard delivered a voice­ mail message to the college community, alerting us that a mother bear and her cub had been sighted on Atalaya trail. As I listened to Duran’s recorded advice on how to behave during an encounter with a bear-hold your hands high to seem taller and back away slowly-I smiled. Surely, this was just one more potential disaster that the col­ lege would manage with grace and determination. 4— BY Marissa Morrison (SFGI03) “We are fortunate because of our small size, but we still have to work on ways to bring every­ one together,” he said. “When we come together as a commu­ nity - faculty, staff and student^ helping each other out - that’s when the magic happens on this campus.” -4 — BY Teri Thomson Randall �{Letters} IO Wrong Author I’d like to correct an easily made but signif­ icant error in John Rankin’s series of pro­ files on Johnnies in the world of policy (“Rousseau and Realpolitik,” The College, Summer aooi). Mr. Rankin cites me rec­ ommending reading Karl Monger as an economist. It should have been “Carl Monger,” who published his path-breaking and revolutionary Grundsatze der Volkswirtschaftslehre [Principles ofEconomics] in 1871. His son Karl Monger became a noted mathematician, who also occasional­ ly wrote on such topics as the role of uncer­ taintyin economics. It was Carl Monger (with a “C”) who dissolved the great prob­ lems that had bedeviled classical econom­ ics by introducing the concept of choice at the margin. The confusion between the two is a common mistake, but one with signifi­ cant consequences when one goes to the library or the bookstore. — Tom G. Palmer, ''Iknow that the St. John s oftoday is not the St. John s of my day, but it still hets a very tender spot in my heart. sections are central to his main thesis. I’m not sure if it exists in an easily acquired print medium, but it’s on the web at http://www.abelard.org/turpap/turpap.htm. I don’t know what the current Sopho­ more readings are, so I can’t propose some­ thing to drop to make room for this. That’s always the rub, isn’t it? — Thomas N. Day, A71 A8a there must be more pictures out there. I know that the St. John’s of today is not the St. John’s of my day; but it still has a very tender spot in my heart. My connection goes back to 1913, when my father was on the faculty. — Edward E. Gray, Class of 1934 An Adler Rememrrance Just another of those examples of how seemingly minor events can impact one's entire life: Why or how it came about, I can’t recall, but in late 195a I began read­ ing Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book, wherein, of course, he mentioned St. John’s and the great books program. Two years later I was enrolled at St. John’s. Although there may have been an opportunity-he lectured once while I was there-I never made a point of thanking him for what turned out to be a seminal experience in my life. — Jerry Milhollan, Class of 1958 Reading List Suggestion I finally got a chance to read A. M. Turing’s paper “Com­ puting Machinery and Intelli­ gence.” I’d like to propose that SJC include it as part of the sophomore seminar read­ ings. The paper is extremely accessible to a non-technical student, reading almost like one of Maxwell’s papers. It contains the original description of the famous Turing Test. It also contains the germ, though not pursued, of Chaos Theory. It makes predictions about the future of Artificial Intelligence which coincide with the present time. It also pres­ ents, in very general terms, the function­ ing of a digital computer. It represents a source document that much of our present society rests upon. If Johnnies are sup­ posed to understand the roots of their cul­ tural assumptions, then this is a very acces­ sible way into the beginnings of the impact of computers. On the down side, Turing makes a pitiable response to religious objections to Al, mostly because he doesn’t take religion seriously and doesn’t make a serious effort at a counter-argument. He also has a touch­ ing faith in the statistical provability of ESP. On the other hand, neither of these Sje DESK -1935 St. John’s Forever I was amazed to see pictures of my desk in my room at the Delta Psi Omega fraternity house in the Summer issue of The College. I was intrigued with the comment about my neckties that were hanging on the wall. I wonder if the students of today have any neckties. My roommate in 1935 was Robert H. Lampee of the class of 1935. His desk is the one on the left of the picture. He was the editor of the St. John’s Collegian, the college newspaper. There was an Under­ wood typewriter under that cover. Several years ago I sent my collection of photographs of St. John’s to the Alumni Office. I suggest that alumni of my vintage send their collections to the college also. Our ranks are getting thinner, but I feel {The College - St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } The CoZZege welcomes letters on issues of interest to readers. Letters maybe edited for clarity and/or length. Those under 500 words have a better chance of being printed in their entirety. Please address letters to; The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis MD 21404 or The College Maga­ zine, Public Relations Office, St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. Letters can also be sent via e-mail to: b-goyette@sjca.edu, or via the form for let­ ters on the web site atwww.sjca.edu - click on “Alumni,” then on “Contact The Col­ lege Magazine.” �{Book Review} POETRY PUZZLES William Alba combines visual andpoetic whimsy in his book An Oz Album. BY James Idema R obert Frost defined “The Figure a Poem Makes” in an introduction to the 1949 col­ lection of his complete poems. “It begins in delight and ends in wisdom,” he wrote. “The figure is the same as for love.” William Alba, a Santa Fe tutor, could have had something like that in mind with An Oz Album (Pulley Press), a chapbook of his own delightfully eccentric verse, inter­ spersed as it is with fragments from the writings of Sandburg, Blake, Dante, Woody Guthrie, Whitman, and L. Frank Baum (author of The Wizard of Oz). In a whimsi­ cal tribute to Walt Whitman, for example, Alba frames verses from Whitman’s “Song of the Open Road” between lists of the zip codes of the places the author has lived and their corresponding dates. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and other characters from The Wizard of Oz-i ncluding the Wicked Witch of the West (aka Sister Frances Dolores, his first grade teacher)-drop in on the fun. We open the book to a boldly abstract four-color map of Oz and close it on a high­ way map of Chicago. We discover that Oz and Chicago (where the poet lived for four years before coming to Santa Fe) have had major influences on his writing. Their landmarks appear throughout. This is a poem he calls “Madison/ Wabash.” It is printed in bold type over a faint reproduction from Sandburg’s “Chicago.” There’s different kinds, I want to say. There’s different kinds of pain. It takes all kinds: your ears go deaf from squealing trains. Your eyes get stares when you forget, and smile at a commuter. A blast of cold chills your soles. The broken heater. Your temples tense. Your mind goes flat as highways, suburbs, prairies. The land is flat for miles and miles. You wait. You wait. “A BEAUTIFUL BOOK IS A CONSERVATOR OF KNOWLEDGE,” SAYS AlBA. Your tongue tastes smoke. That’s nothing new. Your throat turns dark as night. The sun falls down as lights appear. Not stars. Lights. Here is a pair of winsome, haiku-like poems under the heading “wakes of innocense”: 1/ memory of 1968 this Monarch alights on my chest, opening, closing, opening its wings I run through the park; look, mommy, look it flattens and flutters away 2/ mystery the one I love like my constant dog is never in my dreams the places I’ve lived recur after I move like the seasons in a year {The College- St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } Some of the material in this small book is set in acrobatic arrangements and various sizes of type, some of it minuscule strips across the top of a page requiring serious squinting to discern the message, which is, in this case, to follow the yellow brick road. Several poems describe driving experi­ ences. One limns road rage on Chicago’s Edens Expressway. It is composed in the shape of a balloon. The invocation is reprised in tiny type in the shape of a butterfly. When I met Alba, he was teaching a sum­ mer writing and thinking workshop for high school students in a Bard College pro­ gram held at St. John’s. I told him my first reaction was that his poetry, which I found compelling and entertaining, but at the same time challenging in both content and typography, seemed a cross between Wal­ lace Stevens and e.e. cummings. He seemed to find the observation amusing, which is how I intended it. Still, when I suggested some readers might be put off by having to turn his book upside down or reach for a magnifying glass to read it or leaf backward to confirm elusive refer­ ences, he defended his approach earnestly. “Poems are the hardest writing to make public, to get read by people I don’t know,” he said. “My poems are revealing and inti­ mate, so I needed to publish them myself. But I wanted most of all to make a beautiful book, something one cannot see on the Internet. A beautiful book is a conservator of knowledge, not easily discarded, and its content should engage the hands and body as well as the mind of the reader. Touch is as important as sight, which is why I ask the reader to handle my book, move it around.” Please don’t attack these pages hoping to squeeze messages from my verses, he seems to be saying. Rather, loaf, as Whit­ man says, invite your soul, pause frequent­ ly, read aloud, open yourself to my experi­ ences and, of course, read them more than once. As T.S. Eliot entreats us in the open­ ing lines of The Love Song off. Alfred Prufrock: “Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’ / Let us go and make our visit.” �{The Program} GREAT BOOKS FOR TOUGH TIMES In a speech delivered to the Caritas Society on October 2001, a tutor muses on the events ofthisfall and the role ofSt. Johns in the larger community By William Pastille HEN I WAS FIRST ASKED TO speak on this occasion, the suggested topic was the role of the college in the larger community. That was last summer, a time that now seems unapproachably distant-a lifetime ago. What I am about to say has become a cliche, but I will say it anyway: On September ii, everything changed. Our shock at the terrible loss of life in New York and in Washington reminded us of the meaning of mortality; it reminded us that we are creatures of a day only whose light can be extin­ guished at any instant; it reminded us that every moment is a pre­ cious treasure, given to us on loan and hkely to be withdrawn with­ out the slightest notice. Some Americans even seem to be changing the way they live as a result. Some things that seemed to make sense before September ii no longer seem to make sense now. It is only fitting, therefore, that the topic of this talk should change somewhat as well. I will still speak mostly about the role of St. John’s in the larger community that is our nation; but it might be appropriate also to say a few words about what the study of the Great Books offers to us at a time of crisis such as this. The best way, I think, to give some impression of the value of Great Books in these times is to tell some recent stories from the classroom. Just yesterday, for instance, I was leading a small study group which was discussing Plato’s Crito, a dialogue that takes place in Socrates’ prison cell as he awaits his execution. At one point in the text Socrates makes the following statement: “One should never do wrong in return,” he says, “nor injure any man, whatever injury one has suffered at his hands.” Immediately, one of the students replied to this with a question: “If Socrates is right,” she asked, ’’does that mean we shouldn’t have responded to the terrorist attacks?” This sort of thing has been happening frequently ever since September ii. The students are finding the events of this time to be intimately connected to the books they are reading. It is this ability to make a personal connection across the centuries that makes a book great. The Great Books speak just as powerfully to us as they did to our forefathers and to their forefathers. This is a time of conflict, and conflict is a major theme in many of the Great Books. The first book that the freshmen read in their seminar classes, Homer’s Iliad, focuses on the conflict of the Tro­ jan war. It is about the overweening wrath of Achilles, the strongest of the Greeks. In the week following the attacks, the stu­ dents were coming to the end of the book, and another tutor told me that, in his class, one of the young men became very upset at various criticisms of Achilles that had been leveled by some of his classmates. “How can you say such things about Achilles?” he finally said. “I want to be like Achilles! ” When pressed for his rea­ sons, it came out that he admired Achilles’strength and the power it gave him to destroy his enemy utterly. And he added, “If we had a few more Achilles today, Afghanistan would already be in ruins.” At this juncture, my colleague said, anotheryoung man pointed out that Achilles’ victory, which was motivated by an unconsid­ ered and self-absorbed thirst for revenge, was won at the cost of a great deal of death and suffering for his own people. You can imag­ ine, in those days shortly after the attacks, when it was not clear what the American response would be, that these issues were intensely critical for the members of that class. This sort of timely and intensely personal conversation can only happen because the books speak so directly to us, no matter where or when they were written. And that brings me to the first digres­ sion I want to make concerning the contribution St. John’s makes to the larger community: we contribute our graduates to the nation. St. John’s believes that the truest service a college or uni­ versity can do for its country is to educate the young to be the best citizens they can possibly be. The principal obstacle preventing this is a certain particularly American parochialism described by Tocqueville-a widespread tendency in this country to ignore other places and times. We are so chauvinistic about our national superiority that many of us quite unconsciously seem to feel that if it’s not happening in America, then it really doesn’t count. And we’re so pragmatic as a people that many of us quite unconscious- {The College -St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } �{The Program} adults to discuss a series of the ly seem to feel that if it’s not Great Books over a long period happening right now, it’s of time. Two weeks ago I was either dead and huried in the leading one of these seminars past or inaccessible in the in Philadelphia, and we were future. Consequently we live discussing the second half of far too much in the moment to Homer ’ s Odyssey, in which develop the kind of long-term Odysseus returns home to find and global perspective that we his household being preyed need to see the larger picture of upon by the many suitors of his hfe on earth. abandoned wife Penelope. One The program of study at St. of the women in the group, John’s is meant to counter this after listening to lots of talk focus on the present and the about the action and plot of the close-to-home. St. John’s story, finally said, “I’m sorry, believes that the study of the but all 1 could think about while Great Books opens up the larg­ reading this was the extra­ er perspective an American ordinary restraint Odysseus really needs to conscientiously showed. I know exactly what he perform his function as a citi­ must have felt: 1 am so angry zen, because, unlike the citi­ about these attacks that I just zens of some other nations, we want to do something, any­ are not merely the subjects of thing, to strike back. But 1 have the rulers, but the rulers of the to keep restraining myself, rulers. We must keep our eye on because 1 know that lashing the larger picture so that we can outwon ’ thelp. It’s almost tear­ direct the actions of our repre­ ing me apart. ” This was, of sentatives to the right ends, so course, a few days before the that we can criticize and correct bombing began. them when they are wrong, and Again, the book was speak­ so that we can urge them on ing directly to the experience of when they are right. The Great this woman, and again on a very Books, we think, are the finest timely topic-the matter of self­ preparation for citizenship restraint. The Great Books are available to our nation’s young replete with discussions of this men and women, and St. John’s issue. For instance, in Tolstoy’s contributes to the nation each War and Peace, the masterful year about 200 young men and old commander-in-chief of the women who are well-prepared Russian army. General Kutu­ for the duties of citizenship. William Pastille zov, spends most of the book Let me return to another restraining the younger generclassroom story now. Some of als and officers under his command from taking any action against you may not know that St. John’s offers what we call “Executive the invasion by Napoleon. He suffers great criticism for being Seminars” in Annapolis, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, senile, unpatriotic, even treasonous, criticism levelled by those Washington, and Chicago; these are monthly meetings for busy John s believes that the truest service a college or university can do for its country is to educate the young to be the best citizens they can possibly be. Theprincipal obstaclepreventing this is a certain particularly American parochialism... ” {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �14 {TheProgram} So knowledge can be taught, but it cannot govern; wisdom,on the other hand can govern, but it cannot be taught. who feel that some response simply had to be mounted. But Kutu­ zov was deeply in touch with the tide in the affairs of men; he sensed that Napoleon was riding the crest of a wave and that to attack that wave before it was ready to turn back from the shore would simply lead to ruin for his forces and to subjugation for his country. And he was right; once Napoleon reached Moscow, the tide began to turn. Only then could a response from the Russians be successful. Kutuzov’s restraint in the face of horrible losses ended up saving the Russian nation. We might ask ourselves. What do people like Odysseus and Kutuzov know that allows them to exercise restraint when neces­ sary and to act at the right moment? But it seems to me that this question is improperly formed, because it is not their knowledge that makes the difference, but their wisdom. And this brings me to the second digression 1 want to make concerning what St. John’s offers the larger community: through the study of the Great Books we offer an entry into the love of wisdom, which is even more important than knowledge when it comes to leading life well. If colleges and universities take seriously the welfare of their stu­ dents and their countries, they ought to be concerned about grad­ uating people who not only have knowledge but who also have a sense for how to use it well. But no amount of knowledge is suffi­ cient for this end. Something besides knowledge is required for the proper employment of knowledge. Why is that? The simplest route to understanding the limitations of knowl­ edge is to meditate on two familiar adages: “Knowledge is power” and “Power corrupts.” Though we tend to accept both of these adages quite readily, we seldom make a connection between them. And yet the connection could not be simpler: if knowledge is power, and power corrupts, then knowledge corrupts. Of course, this is facile syllogizing that cannot stand up to logical scrutiny, but the conclusion nevertheless contains a kernel of truth. Knowledge can certainly be wielded as a sort of power; indeed our society tends to advertise education and training as a source of empowerment. And although power does not necessarily corrupt, we all understand the temptations offered by power to bend the rules, if not break them, for oneself and one’s inner circle. There­ fore it simply is a fact that a person who uses knowledge as a source of power will be tempted, and may succumb, to the cor­ ruption that is offered by all sources of power. Consequently, something besides knowledge is necessary if one is to avoid using one’s knowledge poorly. What is that? The answer, as the founders of the St. John’s program of study knew, is wisdom. And so they wanted to add to the idea of the uni­ {The College - versity as an institution devoted to knowledge the further qualifi­ cation that it should also be devoted to wisdom as the higher source to which knowledge answers. But here they encountered a problem that is truly insurmountable: wisdom, unlike knowledge, cannot be taught. Wisdom requires judgment, and judgment requires not just knowledge and the ability to draw conclusions from knowledge, but also the sort of life-experience that engen­ ders habits which make us tend toward the Good even when we do not know what is right. And the sort of life-experiences that lead to such habits cannot be provided by someone else, not even the most skillful teacher; they must be lived through in the concrete and practical situations that come up in daily life. So knowledge can be taught, but it cannot govern; wisdom, on the other hand can govern, but it cannot be taught. How, then, could wisdom, being unteachable, take up a position in higher education beside knowledge, which implies a great focus on teaching as the correl­ ative to learning? The answer is that it cannot. Wisdom itself stands above teach­ ing and learning; as Socrates pointed out, it is either divine or almost divine. But it is well within human capacities, as Socrates also pointed out, to cultivate the love of wisdom, even if wisdom itself lies beyond our reach; and perhaps the love of wisdom, if pur­ sued diligently, can somehow communicate some of the qualities of wisdom to the seeker, in the same way that any lover begins to take on some of the attributes that are admired in the beloved. What is more, love of wisdom is both teachable and learnable as a form of contagious enthusiasm: the teacher’s love of wisdom can be communicated to the student by example. So whereas wisdom itself cannot find a place in the academy, love of wisdom can. Indeed it should, if colleges and universities are concerned with the good of the students who attend and the good of the societies in which those students will be citizens; for it is love of wisdom alone that can keep the students on track until they have enough judg­ ment to guide themselves and their society well. And St. John’s takes this obligation seriously: in addition to contributing to the nation graduates who are well prepared for citizenship, we also send forth graduates whose love of wisdom will steady them until they acquire experience, judgment, and perhaps even wisdom itself. Let me return to another story from the classroom. The week after the attacks, 1 was leading a discussion with about eighteen graduate students on Francis Bacon’s very brief essay On Revenge. Bacon makes the following bald statement about the prudence of taking revenge: “Wise people,” he says, “know that they have enough to do in the present and with whatever might St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �{TheProgram} 15 Ifcolleges and universities take seriously the welfare of their students and their countries, they ought to be concerned about graduatingpeople who not only have knowledge but who also have a sensefor how to use it well happen in the future. They don’t spend their time taking revenge. People who spend their time worrying about past injuries just waste their time.” Nowyou can imagine the electrifying effect that statement had at a time when so many innocent lives had been so recently lost, and when some people in the room desperately hoped for retribution, while others were confused about the prop­ er course that should be followed. Nevertheless, because all of the students had been at St. John’s for a while and had learned how to converse intensely but politely, we had a civilized, if highly charged, conversation, and I think that everyone left the meeting feeling that he or she had seen just a bit further into the complex­ ities of justice and retribution. This classroom story about graduate students and the earlier one about the participants in the Philadephia Executive Seminar bring me to the third and final point I want to make about St. John’s contribution to the larger community; In addition to con­ tributing to the nation young people who are very well-prepared for citizenship and whose love of wisdom will help them to help the country in years to come, St. John’s also offers its experience in the study of the Great Books to adults. St. John’s takes seriously this commitment to adults who are long past school age. After all, those of us who teach here are adults, and we do not keep doing it only because we enjoy helping the young to find themselves, although we certainly do enjoy that calling. We keep doing it also because continued exposure to the Great Books and to the ideas of others keeps us steadily growing in the same skills we hope to give to our students. For although we are adults, we are also mindful of Socrates’ continual admonition that we don’t really know who we are, because we always take ourselves to be much more knowledgeable than we actually are. And the best way to keep an awareness of this ignorance alive in ourselves is to be constantly talking with others about the most important things in hfe. The infinite variety of responses to life’s most important questions will always keep us on our toes if we let it. Since those of us who teach here are adults, and since we can benefit from the Great Books in this way, there is no reason to doubt that other adults could also benefit from what we do with the Great Books, as long as they are willing to engage in civil discus­ sion and are open to really trying to hear and understand the opin­ ions of others. So St. John’s also has programs for adults that allow them to participate in the conversation with the Great Books in a number of different ways. In addition to the Executive Seminars and the Master’s degree program already mentioned, our Santa Fe campus has what is called the “Summer Classics” program, and we {The also offer what is called a “Continuing Education” program. So, as I see it, St. John’s makes a three-fold contribution to the larger community in times such as these: first, it produces young people who are well prepared to shoulder the burdens of citizen­ ship in these difficult times; second, it produces young people whose love of wisdom can help them to make better choices in these difficult times, both for themselves and for the nation; and finally, it offers us adults the opportunity to continue to grow both as citizens and as lovers of wisdom. Let me leave you with one more story about a discussion with students. This conversation happened outside of class, and, as it happens, I do not even know the students I was speaking with, a young man and a young woman who had joined a conversation already in progress and remained after the other students left. The young man had been reading Matthew Arnold’s famous poem Dover Beach, which many of you probably learned in high school. Well over a century ago, Arnold looked out across the English Channel on a breezy evening, looked out on the ancient world that had been bloodied so terribly in the European wars during the hundred years before his time, and wrote the following lines: Ah, love, let us be true To one another! For the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams. So various, so beautiful, so new. Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light. Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight. Where ignorant armies clash by night. The young man recited the last line slowly. Thinking about the current situation and the recurring violence in human affairs, he said “Have we learned nothing at all? How can there be hope when the ignorant armies continue to clash, year after year after year?” The three of us stood in silence for a while. Then the young woman said, “But the poem gives the answer: ‘Ah, love, let us be true,’ it says.” The two of us looked at her quizzically. “Well,” she drawled, as if she were belaboring the obvious, “where there is love there is hope.” 4" William Pastille is a tutor in Annapolis. He’s currently the direc­ tor ofthe Graduate Institute. COLLEGE'S:. John’s College ■ Fall noot } �{Johnnies on Animals} HEARTS o/ANIMALS Reflections on our relationships with other members ofthe wild kingdom. By Sus3AN Borden, A87 an an elephant hold grudges? Can a dog experience separation anxiety? What makes a horse love its rider? Do animals have souls? Intelligence? Emotions? Johnnies have read Aristotle’s Parts of Animals, dissected a sheep’s heart, strug­ gled with the foundations for and implica­ tions of Darwin’s Origin of Species. In today’s lah curriculum, freshmen observe squirrels, spiders, and seagulls. Seniors trace the ancestry of fruit fly families. In seminar and tutorials, love and friendship are frequent topics of discussionfrom Plato’s Phaedrus to Yeats’ “When You Are Old And Gray.” Alumni who enter careers that involve working with animals continue to think about the relationships between humans and animals-they are confronted with the conundrums of under­ standing between the species every day. But even after years of observing and caring for animals, they say there’s much they don’t understand. In the end, we are left to wonder: what can we really know about the heart of another? Tales of Two Critters Claudia Probst Stack (A88), a horse trainer, riding teacher, and competitive rider, tells the story of a boy she once gave riding les­ sons and his old, arthritic horse. “The boy wasn’t a bad kid, but he was raucous and loved to ride hard,” she says. “He could be rough on the horse. When he took off the tack and bridle, he didn’t unbuckle it, he just pulled it off. Typically, a horse in his condition would not want to have a lot to do with a boy like that, but this horse loved that little boy. Every time the boy showed up at the gate, the horse would come running over. He didn’t mind being galloped around, even though I’m sure it hurt his joints.” “What made that horse rise above his discomfort?” she asks. “What was he getting out of it? Why did he enjoy that relationship?” For Stack, these questions reflect the mystery of love-not only between people and animals but, in a larger sense, any love. “What brings any two critters together? Whether it’s a horse and a person or two people, you always think to yourself: why are these two together?” she says. “I guess it’s hke many relationships that aren’t perfect and yet are working. There seems to be some kernel at the heart of the relationship that’s either good or bad. If it’s wrong from the start. {The College- it doesn’t matter how many supplements you give the horse or what kind of equipment you buy for him.” If it’s right, she sug­ gests, then a raucous boy can “ride the bejeesus” out of an arthrit­ ic horse and the two will be happy together. It’s not just the four-legged creatures who can find joy in a seemingly mismatched relationship. Emergency veterinarian Elizabeth MacDonald (SF83) says that in many cases, it’s the nature of the person that determines the relationship. MacDonald has worked with difficult dogs, including those she calls “real problem children,” who are adopted from the pound after living in stressful, often abusive situations. These dogs can thrive in the care of committed, responsible pet owners. “They may shred the house from stem to stern, they might constantly have accidents, they may be barkers, yet these people are absolutely bonded to them,” she says. “These are the lucky dogs. When it comes to pound dogs, there are very few lucky dogs, but I’ve see them.” MacDonald is convinced that the strength of the bond comes from the person involved. “It’s not so much the temperament of the animal. It comes from the people-how much they’re willing to give, to sacrifice. My feeling is that animals are our responsibility, our charge, not our right, but not everybody thinks like that.” MacDonald sees a range of people in her practice. Some agree that, once pets are taken in, the owner is responsible for them no matter the inconvenience. At the other end of the spectrum are the people who asked that their cat be euthenised after they’d changed the color of their decor and it became obvious that the cat shed too much. She has even encountered people who, when told the cost of treating their cat, said it would be cheaper to buy another than to treat their sick pet. For the most part, people who would balance their cat’s life in their checkbook have opted out of the game before they even meet veterinary behaviorist Barbara Simpson (A71). Because she’s a specialist, Simpson’s clients’ willingness to devote time and money to their pets is demonstrated in the very fact that they are consulting with her; they’ve shown they have a commitment that goes beyond standard veterinary care. “It’s sometimes astounding,” Simpson says. “There seem to be quite a lot of people who have a very close relationship with their companion animals. They share their beds with their animals and work their schedules around them. They celebrate animal birth­ days and take them on trips.” In a few cases these are single peo- St. John's College - Fall 2001 } �{Johnnies on Animals} ''Myfeeling is that animals are our responsibility, our charge, notour right, but not everybody thinks like that. ” —Elizabeth MacDonald [SF83] “Are you my mother?” is the title of AnNAPOLIS PHOTOGRAPHER Amy Raab. The rancher raised the THIS PICTURE BY HEIFER, which HAD BEEN BORN DURING A Wyoming spring snowstorm and ABANDONED BY ITS MOTHER. {The College . St John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } 17 �i8 {JohnniesonAnimals} y^nimals use the same signals to communicate with people as they do to communicate with each other.'' —Barbara Simpson pie for whom a pet is a substitute for other companionship, or adults who don’t have children but treat their dog like a child. But this is by no means the rule. “These are often people who have very normal relationships with other people, but are incredibly attached to their animals,” she says. Brain Eater Unfortunately, man’s relationship to animals is not exclusively one of love and devotion. Eric Scigliano {SF75), a Seattle-based journalist whose book about elephants will be published this spring, has explored in depth the relationship between man and elephants. A key to understanding this complex relationship, he says, is to realize that elephants are “uniquely non-domesticated domestic animals.” Although they have been captured, trained, and worked for more than three thousand years, elephants have never been bred for docility or any other qualities. Genetically, they’re still “pure,” wild animals. Whatever qualities of loyalty, affection, and gentleness they show are those they are naturally endowed with. This lack of genetically-manipulated docility means that, while in some cases elephants are dominated by affec­ tion, there will always be a role in the relationship for coercion and intimidation. Dominating a 12,000-pound creature through coercion and intimidation is at best an uncertain enterprise. At worst, it can be lethal. Scigliano describes the traditional relationship a mahout (elephant keeper and driver) has with the Asian logging elephants in his care: “It’s a lifelong relationship. The young elephants and young boys grow up together, sleep together, live together. The elephants have been known to sacrifice their lives for them,” he says, “yet the mahouts can get themselves killed if they abuse their elephants.” He tells a story he heard in Sri Lanka about one rogue elephant whom the national elephant catching team had been sent to catch and relocate. The locals had named him Molekanna, Brain Eater. This nickname seemed unthinkable, Scigliano says, because ele­ phants are vegetarians, but the team had been dispatched after the elephant was believed to have killed his eighteenth human. Eventually, the team found the nineteenth victim, a school teacher, with his head missing. When they finally captured the elephant, they learned what had turned him into a carnivore. He was a study in animal abuse: he had been blinded in one eye, per­ haps by acid, was half blind in the other eye, and was full of gun­ shot wounds. “Elephants remember abuse. They remember friends and enemies,” Scigliano says. “They can take revenge years later. That bit about an elephant never forgetting is pretty {The College. [A71] close to the truth.” Scigliano describes the roots of his own interest in elephants in his book. Love, War and Circuses: The Age-Old Relationship Between Elephants and Humans: I still remember when I first felt the allure, though I never saw circus elephants as a young child; we hved in Saigon, between Vietnam’s French and American wars, where circuses fol­ lowed European tradition and lacked grand animal spectacles. But Saigon’s zoo had many beasts and few barriers separating them from visitors; crocodiles lazed beneath a footbridge, monkeys would escape their cage, and ayoung elephant would reach her trunk across to visitors, nuzzhng their faces and tak­ ing peanuts from their hands and whatever else seemed inter­ esting from their pockets. I imagined that she recognized me out of all the kids who thronged around her. Elephants’ noses and memories are so discerning, perhaps she did. Horse Midwife____________________________________ Lyn Desmarais’ (A83) introduction to animals was far less exotic; she grew up working a family dairy farm in New Braintree, Massa­ chusetts, with her brothers and sisters. She began milking cows at age six and delivered her first calf by the time she was ten. It was Desmarais’ responsibility to know when the cows were about to calve so that, when the time neared, the cows could be kept in the barn in case any problems arose during delivery. “Every once in a while you’ll have miscalculated the due date or a cow will outsmart you and run off,” she says. “We had 100 acres-plenty of pasture running in and out of woods, and springs and brooks as well. When a pregnant cow ran off to calve, it was often my job to get on a horse and ride back and forth covering every foot of ground.” Desmarais remembers one occasion when, after searching the farm, she finally found the missing cow and her newborn calf. She put a halter on the cow and tried to lead her back to the barn. “I was yanking and yanking, but the cow was not going anywhere. The next thing I knew, my horse was behind the calf, nudging it to its feet and pushing it all the way to the barn.” The cow, of course, followed her offspring. Desmarais says there are two aspects of this story that interest her. One is the horse’s understanding of how to get the cow and her calf back to the barn. The other is the horse’s concern about the calf. “I understand animals having a very strong sense of sur­ vival,” she says, “but I don’t understand why they’d be so gentle with the young of others.” St. John’s College ■ Fall aooi } �{Johnnies on Animals} Simpson, the veterinary behaviorist, gives the broad strokes of an explanation: “Mammals are highly evolved, sophisticated beings and they share the vast majority of their physiologi­ cal systems with us-their brain structure, hor­ mones, reproductive modes, maternal care-we have a tremendous amount in common,” she says. “Many animals also share complex social behavior. They live in societies, have long-term relationships, and demonstrate clear individ­ ual recognition. These can be fairly complex societies and with that goes complex communi­ ty behavior.” Behavior can become even more complex in a society made up of more than a single species. The result can be a bemusing positive, as with Desmarais’ horse and calf. But the complexity of inter-species societies can lead to negative behavior as well. If I Could Talk to the Animals In her practice, Simpson sees many such nega­ tive cases. Often they are the result of miscom­ munication. “One of the disorders I treat is separation anxiety in dogs,” says Simpson. “A dog can get very attached and when the owner leaves the house, the dog misbehaves, or is destructive, or gets so nervous it eliminates in the house. When the owner comes home and finds what he’s done, he may punish the ani­ mal. He may interpret the behavior as spiteful rather than understand it as an anxiety disorder for which sympathy and treatment are needed rather than disciplinary measures.” Simpson says this is a common failure to understand and respond to what the dog is communicating. “Animals have their own systems of commu­ nication,” says Simpson. “Some of it is innate, some learned. It is especially refined in social species like dogs or horses. Animals use the same signals to communicate with people as they do to communicate with each other.” As pet owners try to understand what ani­ mals are communicating to them, horse riders work to help their horses understand what they are saying. Stack, a rider since age 8, began to learn natural horsemanship when she turned 25. She describes the method: “You use body language to show the horse the direction you want him to go, if you want him to speed up or slow down. You either come at him or back off, you kind of dance with him a little bit to show him what you’re looking for.” Stack uses dance as a metaphor for training within a single ride. It also works as well to Animal Bookijst Claudia Probst Stack Think Harmony With Horses by Ray Hunt and Ground Work by Buck Brannamanboth these books are by the natural horse­ manship experts whose work inspired the book and movie The Horse Whisperer. Eric Scigliano Bonobo by Frans de Waal and Frans Lanting-a good introduction to our neglected and fascinating “next of kin.” The Elephant in the Greek and Boman World H.H. Scullard and The First Fos­ sil Hunters by Adrienne Mayor-elephants in classical history, war, and myth. The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy-this novel is a remarkable effort to imagine the African elephant’s consciousness and world. To Whom It May Concern: An Investiga­ tion ofthe Art ofElephants by David Gucwa and James Ehmann-a quirky but intriguing account of the first elephant­ drawing project. Elephant Tramp by Shm Lewis-the best circus memoir. Burmese Timber Elephant by U Toke Gale, and Elephant Billby J.H. Williams­ best memoirs of working with elephants in Asia. Ganesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord ofBegin­ nings by Paul B. Courtright-a scholarly study of the elephant-headed god. Lyn Desmarais Lassie Come Home by Eric Knight AU Creatures Great and Small and other books by James Herriot BeautifulJoe by Marshall Saunders Black Beauty by Anna Sewell “The Most Dangerous Game” by Roald Dahl (a short story) Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White Barbara Simpson Know Your Dog: An owner’s guide to dog behavior\sy Dr. Bruce Fogle Know Your Cat: An owner’s guide to cat behartorWXIt. Bruce Fogle The Expression ofthe Emotions in Man andAnimaki by Charles Darwin {The College- 19 describe the communication between a horse and rider throughout a long-term partnership, allowing the rider to communicate more abstract things, such as good judgment and trustworthiness. “You have to put horses in situations where you can show them they can do what you’re asking them to do,” Stack says. “You build up a trust, let them know that you’re not going to put them in a bad fix. In eventing [an equestrian triathlon, more or less], you can’t really fake it. There are some disciphnes where, if you can hold the horse together for 10 or 20 minutes, you can fool the judge. But in eventing, when you hit a cross country course that the horse has never seen, you know really fast where you are in your training.” Trust. Communication. Anxiety. Gentle­ ness. Revenge. Love. Devotion. Are our relationships with animals really that complicated? What about the role of dependence? Maybe we’re reading a lot into animals’ good-sense policy of not biting the hands that feed them. “People think it’s all about food but it’s not,” says Stack. “I never hand-feed my horse and I don’t give him treats. But if I call him, he comes right over.” She describes a time when she was pregnant and unable to ride. She still, of course, fed and cared for her horse. “He knew something was up,” she says. “Every time I came to the barn my horse would just look at me in a way that said, ‘What happened? We used to do things together. We used to go out all the time.’ ” 4" Lyn Desmarais (A83) grew up working a dairy farm in Massachusetts. She raises butterflies, is part of a program to reintroduce bluebirds to Massachusetts, and has near-future plans to raise honey bees and begin small-scale farm­ ing. She lives in Weston, Mass. Elizabeth MacDonald (SP83) is an emergency veterinarian. Her clinic is in Ardmore, Pa. Eric Scigliano (SE75) is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Outside, The New Yorker, Mother Jones, Newsweek, and the Utne Reader. He lives in Seattle. Barbara Simpson (A71) is a veterinary behavior­ ist. Her clinic is in Southern Pines, N. C. Claudia Probst Stack (A88) is a horse breeder, trainer, riding teacher, and competitive rider. She lives in Rocky Point, N. C. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �{Faculty Books} JOB’S LIFE THROUGH NEW EYES Robert Sacks'trarbslation ofthe Book ofJob helps readers re-examine some important questions. By Mark Sanfilippo, SFGIoo he Book of Job...is a constant play between the way in which a lovely surface can obscure a darker center and the way in which our view of the deeper intent of things can often obscure our view of their simple surface.” In many ways, this quotation from The Book ofJob with Commentary: A Trans­ lation for our Time (Scholars Press) by Santa Fe tutor emeritus Robert Sacks sums up the book’s effort. Sacks’ translation focuses not only on the simple surface-level beauty of the text, but it also tries to present a way to comprehend the deeper secrets housed within those words. Sacks never seems to lose sight of the nature of the work at hand-that the Book of Job, in addition to being a theological/philosophical text, is just as importantly a work of literature. While accuracy is indeed a moti­ vating factor for a scholarly translation, a bit of an artist’s hand is required of the translator when the piece is to be enjoyed for the beauty of its words and phrasing as much as for their content. Sacks prefaces his translation with a brief introduction in which he recalls the dichotomy of Greek philosophy and the Hebrew Bible-or Athens and Jerusalem, as he puts it. Sacks states that these two traditions, while they address many of the same ques­ tions, do so from such different standpoints that oftentimes mak­ ing a comparison of the resulting “answers” is all but impossible. He believes that the Book of Job touches on some of the questions most central to Greek philosophy and does so in such a way as to make a comparison of Athens and Jerusalem not only possible, but inevitable. This has led him to an exploration of the Book of Job. Luckily for the students of both the Bible and the develop­ ment of Western thought, Sacks was kind enough to make a good record of that exploration. The first half of the book consists of the translation. Here one notices immediately that he does indeed have the necessary “artist’s hand,” for the text flows effortlessly and its images come {The College- across in clear, striking tones. Sacks has provided ample footnotes to aid those tvith little or no knowledge of Hebrew. He makes dis­ tinctions between the various usages of words like LORD, GOD, God, and The Almighty, which are consistent and correspond to the original text. In addition, he attempts to convey in English the ambiguities latent within those all too frequent Hebrew words that have multiple definitions, e.g. horn/light/ray. Sacks says that one verse in particular inspired him to produce his own version of this difficult text: verse 6 in chapter 42. The King James Version reads: “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Sacks explains that this line brought to a cUmax his misgivings about the existing translations. The verse comes after God has rumbled from the clouds and left Job awestruck; it is in many ways the summation of what his experi­ ence has been. But Job doesn’t abhor himself, and to have him say so in this final part of the book distorts the thrust of the story. Robert Sacks’ version of 42:6 reads: “Wherefore I have both contempt and compassion for dust and ashes.” Job’s realm of understanding at this point has far surpassed the solipsism of a “why me?” character; Job is not simply concerned about himself or his lot. That wasn’t his dilemma to begin with, and Sacks felt that the existing translations were incorrect in conveying this meaning. Job’s was a cosmic question dealing with the nature of justice. By this time. Job has come to possess a balance of con­ tempt and compassion for the necessarily dual existence of man (“dust and ashes”)-his existence as both a part of Nature and sep­ arate from Nature. The second half of the book consists of commentary. This por­ tion remains true to its name in that Sacks resists trapping himself in a “Job theory” and then simply applying such a theory to the text in its entirety. Instead, he comments on the chapters and does so with a driving inquisitiveness that pulls the reader along. While he does track and expand on themes like the realm of human logic vs. the realm of cosmic/Godly logic and civilization vs. the Land of the Jackals, Sacks doesn’t resist the urge to explore whatever St. John's College ■ Fall 2oof } �{Faculty Books} ai Sacks never seems to lose sight ofthe nature ofthe work at hand— that the Book ofJob, in addition to being a theological/philosophical text, isjust as importantly a work ofliterature. might seem of interest in each chapter, be it a word that is used in a noteworthy fashion, or the history of a phrase’s usage throughout Biblical literature, or even a comparison of other translations. The question that Sacks feels is most central to the text“Shall a man be more just than his God?”-is played with throughout the commentary, inevitably becoming a question of “What is Justice?” Job is forced to deal with his prior “knowledge” of justice being shattered or superseded. How is he to come to terms with the dissolution of what he previous­ ly held to be permanent? Sacks says: “The surface world, to which Job has commit­ ted himself to taking seriously, is a crazy, contradictory world. full of wisdom, valor, and madness, full of roads to glory that lead nowhere. The simple world of growing corn and barking dogs has become more like a Picasso still life which when it first comes to sight seems to be no more than a blue bottle and a bowl of fruit lying on a country table. Yet as one looks on, order begins to evap­ orate, and one begins to wonder how, if Durac is right, Ptolemy could ever have even seemed to be right.” The rules/maxims that had formerly ruled Job’s life (and had apparently “worked”), no longer apply. Even Job’s “friends” (hav­ ing never experienced his level of disillusionment and pain) can offer no sympathy or compassion, and their bhnd adherence to tra­ {The College- dition just simply won’t jibe with Job’s new-found perspec­ tive. Of particular interest in the commentary section is the chapter entitled “Reflections on ir:6.” This chapter delves into the nature of the word “perversion” as it is used throughout Bibhcal literature. The word comes from the Latin meaning “to twist through and through.” The effect of perver­ sion, this twisting, necessarily spans generations. Sacks explains it like this: “In the Torah there is a general tenden­ cy to use the wordperversion to refer to those acts of the fathers which have a lasting and devas­ tating effect on the whole of the nation: for example, black slav­ ery in early America. Or, to put it in other words, even an immigrant who has newly become a citizen of this country, although he. like all others, is innocent of any crime his father may have com­ mitted, has by virtue of becoming part of us, inherited a debt to the Native American Peoples, a debt which we shall never be able to pay in full.” These perversions of the fathers affect the branches of the children for generations, and the only relief in sight hes in ritu­ al and, in the case of the Old Testament, sacrifice. There is much ofinteresttobe found in The Book of Job, and Mr. Sacks’ translation and commentary serves as a good guide book. It points us in several different directions of possible interest, but leaves the ultimate decision of what to explore to the reader. St. John ’5 College ■ Fall 2001 } �{Faculty Books} MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Eva Brann examines three subjects of non-being in aphilosophical trilogy. By Barbara Goyette, A73 t first glance, the imagination, time, and negativity don’t seem to have much in common as topics of thought, except perhaps that no single philosopher or writer has produced the definitive book on any of them. Threads of their myster­ ies are woven into many of the great books though, from Plato to Newton to Tolstoy. They tickle our minds with feathery wisps of interest but don’t become as solidly consuming as the larger questions of being, human emotion and perception, knowledge, or nature. But to Eva Brann, a tutor since 1957 and dean in Annapolis from 1990 to 1997, these three are related in more profound ways. She’s written a trilogy of books about how we deal with and think about them. And for her, the topics all derive from a fascination with­ it’s hard to express this without sounding like one of the impossi­ bly dense St. John’s metaphysics readings-that which has no real being. Imagination is “a vision of something not actually there,” time trades in memory, a picture-as in imagination-of what no longer exists, and “naysaying,” our ability for negativity, is some­ how a font of dialectic and understanding. She may be examining what’s not, but everything Eva Brann writes is full of ...stuff. Open her book The World ofthe Imagina­ tion randomly, for example to pages 750 and 751, and find discus­ sions of or references to: Bachelard on Herman Hesse, a Chinese landscape painter who “wandered off into the space projected by his own imagination,” Wordsworth, Don Quixote’s grand notion of reality, Santayana’s “normal madness,” T.E. Lawrence on the fort of ancient Azrak, Guy Davenport on Grant Wood’s images of Iowa, and Louis L’Amour’s westerns. The acuity of her examples and her ability to bring disparate ideas into contact with each other are hallmarks of Brann’s writ­ ing. Pages 750 and 751 contain the end of a discussion about Proust and the beginning of a discussion about imaginative places. That the imagination can turn “space into place insofar as it is ... a propensity for projecting human feeling into space and a readiness to be affected by its local presences” can be demonstrat­ ed by citing examples from literature. Brann’s Don Quixote exam­ {The College- ple is particularly illuminating. Don Quixote attacks a band of windmills which he sees as monstrous giants. He is dragged off his horse and suffers bruises. Sancho Panza delivers the obligatory “I told you so.” Everyone knows the basics of this story. But Brann finds the imaginative wellspring of Cervantes’ hero to make her point. “An old enemy, a sorcerer wise in the black arts, wishing to cheat the Don of his glory, has turned the giants into windmills. It is Sancho Panza’s prose, not Don Quixote’s poetry, that is delud­ ed,” she writes. “The point, implicit but crucial, is that it is our mundane soulless world of flour-grinding windmills that is under a spell, a reverse or disenchanting spell cast by the enemies of glory. This spell is the ... pervasive notion that the ordinary is the actual.” Through Don Quixote’s imagination, the spell is broken and the true landscape emerges. The deep mystery of the imagination Brann attributes her initial interest in the imagination-which ultimately led to development of the themes in the trilogy-to the heavily intellectual content of the St. John’s program. “We always focus on the use of reason. That induces an appetite for imagining and reading works of fiction,” she says. Although she wrote many articles and two interpretive books during the first thirty years she was teaching, Brann says that the push to think more thor­ oughly about the faculty of imagination was different in character. She felt her own imagination coming alive, “blooming,” as a com­ plement to the rigors of the program. “It’s the opposite of what people might think,” she says. In 1978-9 she spent ayear away from St. John’s at Whitman Col­ lege in Walla Walla, Washington. “It was beautiful there, so dif­ ferent. The landscapes reminded me of that Beatles movie The Yel­ low Submarine. I used to ride around the golden and mauve hills and look at the little cabins, and I began to think I’d like to write about the workings of the imagination.” She began the project by reading everything she could find on the subject. Whitman had a good hbrary, so she read widelyphilosophers, psychologists, artists. She found few serious books on the imagination, but much material that was useful to her proj­ ect. When philosophers wrote about the faculty, she found, they didn’t seem to uncover it completely. “Kant called it a mystery too St. John's College • Fall 2001 } �deep to write about,” she notes. In the new science of cognitive psychology Brann discovered some important leads. “The psychol­ ogists had gotten into a terrific battle about whether or not we actually have a mind’s eye,” she says. “It was plain to me that we do have internal pictures. But what does that mean? What are they?” When she actually got down to writing the book, she found that her real work would be to bring together the thousands of things she had read, thought about, and seen. Once the organization was clear, however, the book quickly took shape. The World of the Imagination: Sum and Substance (published in 1991 by Rowman & {The College- Littlefield) is a large book-800 pages. There is a chronological accounting of how various philosophers from Plato through Wittgenstein dealt with the imagination; a discussion of the psy­ chological aspects of the imagination: consciousness, representa­ tion, direct perception, and theories about how visual imagery occurs physically; a consideration of the metaphysics of images (are they nonexistent entities? are fictional objects real in any way?); a discussion of literature as the words representing the visions of imagination; an examination of imagination and space, including various geometries and visual art forms; and, finally, a St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } �{FacultyBooks} ^4 ^Ifl di^ up a Greekpot, that is not ancient, it ispresent. The only aspect ofantiquity is what I imagine about it. look at “worldly” imagination: images of the divine, creation of utopias, public vision, common imaginative landscapes. “I tried to write about what, in each discipline, the essence of the imagination is, and then I wrote a soberly romantic conclusion,” says Brann. Her conclusion-which she unashamedly calls her favorite part-outlines the important role that imagination plays in human action. “You can’t act purposefully unless you have a mental image of how things ought to be,” she says. This imaginative mechanism applies to pohtical and social action, and also in a deeper way to everyday life. “Unless there are days on which you are filled with the image of something loveable, your life, your job, your work will be dry as dust,” she says. Where do the images come from? From reading, memories, your childhood. “Good images, those that are usable for us, have a certain gauziness about them,” they are not too precise, she says. Precise images don’t give us enough breathing room, space for actions and reali­ ty to interact with what our imaginations devise. Brann doesn’t use Don Quixote as an example for this point, but it’s helpful to think of how broadly the errant knight takes his charge: every event, every item in daily use takes on a new and different mean­ ing under his gaze; imagination has the power to transform. The what, when, and where of time Brann’s second book. What, Then, Is Time?, yN^s, written in 1998, after she spent seven years as dean of the college. During her tenure as dean, she didn’t “think anything out, there wasn’t reflection.” Administration calls for a different type of thinking­ deliberating rather than contemplating. She was hungry for reflection, and for what comes from reflection when you’re Eva Brann-writing. “When 1 handed the keys to the dean’s office to Harvey [Flaumenhaft], I sat down and could hardly stop writing,” she says. (Indeed, after the book about time, she produced two more-7%e Ways of Naysaying, published in aooi, and a book about the Odyssey, to be published this spring. ) In answer to the question of how time became the second sub­ ject for her consideration, Brann says in her introduction: “My previous preoccupation had been with the imagination. It turned out that to think about the imagination entailed thinking about its treasure-house and workshop, that is, memory. But memory is largely (though not altogether) of the past, and the past is a phase of time.” Another source for the imagination is more elusive yet: {The College- memory of things that never were. Fiction writers, she notes, draw from a deep fund of such memories. And as readers of fic­ tion, we shde in and out of worlds that are constructed of such memories; strangest of all is that we can somehow share the land­ scapes of these worlds. She approached the book about time in the same way as the book about imagination-with extensive reading on the subject. However, the organization of the book is not based on the approaches of the various disciplines to the basic questions, as the first book was. Instead, Brann devised an ingenious pairing of thinkers. Plato and Einstein, she notes, both view time as a clock (Plato posited a cosmic clock, Einstein a local and “artificial device”); Aristotle and Kant consider time as something meas­ ured by the human soul. Other pairs include Plotinus and Heideg­ ger, Augustine and Husserl, Hegel and Bergson. The pairings show, among other things, that the problems we have with under­ standing time have not changed over the millennia. The second part of What, Then, Is Time? contains Brann’s own reflections on time; here the connections to imagination are made more clearly. She looks at what it means to have memory: “You go into the storehouse of your imagination and flip through a file. If you flip for a long time it is an old memory, if not, it is newer. Therefore the past arises by the study of the imagination.” Even concrete objects from the past do not give a true sense of time, because “we always live right on the cusp of the present.” She offers an example from her former life as an archaeologist: “If I dig up a Greek pot, that is not ancient, it is present. The only aspect of antiquity is what I imagine about it.” In a discussion of what she calls time pathologies, Brann explores some of the “practical effects on the economy of life and the choice of ends” that certain attitudes toward time bring about. She is particularly interested in the future, since she considersalong with the minor devil of C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Lettersthat “nearly all vices are rooted in the future” and that there is a “widespread current enslavement to the future.” The examples she cites to confirm her view are well-known. We revel in the fast tempo, the novelty, of modern life, but an ever-increasing push for novelty will lead to things happening at a speed that human expe­ rience can’t take in. The emphasis then switches from thoughtful reaction to past experience as a basis for dealing with what the St. John ’5 College ■ Fall 2001 } �{Faculty Books} as We revel in thefast tempo, the novelty, ofmodern Ife, but an ever-increasingpushfor novelty will lead to things happening at a speed that human experience can i take in. future might bring to a kind of frantic projection toward what is imagined to be inevitable (“prepare to meet the future or be overwhelmed by it,” as the saying goes). Brann worries about the effects of this futuremindedness on our ability to be happy because it so strongly burdens our present. She quotes Octavio Paz: “Whoever builds a house for future hap­ piness builds a prison for the present.” Something from nothing In the third book Brann under­ took, she considered what was common to imagination and timethe “non-.” Imagination is of what does not exist and time is what no longer exists. “Both capacities for seeing images and for hav­ ing a sense of time are governed by something intellectual. It’s the ability we have for negativity, for non-being,” she says. In The Ways ofNaysaying: No, Not, Nothing, and Nonbeing, published in 2001 by Rowman & Littlefield, Brann explores our many kinds of negative saying and thinking. She begins with children and the ubiquitous tendency among them, when aged around two, for saying “no” and refusing to accommodate our wishes for them. She points out that the saying of “no” is often in conflict with the child’s action (every parent has seen a dashingly independent toddler refusing to drink her juice while simultaneously clutching the cup to her lips); “the naysaying does not concern the objective issue but the ownership of the will,” she says. “Along with the will and from the same source, from naysaying, comes thoughtfulness.” A child includes “no” among the very first words uttered, and as the child’s capac­ ity for exerting will develops, so too do language and thought. Brann argues that this delight in negativity is the beginning of the ability to discriminate and make reasoned choices. Brann cites a saying which “happens to be the fundamental dic­ tum pinpointing the crucial constructive function of naysaying,”-Ozn«M determinatio est negatio, which translates: All deter­ {The C o ll eg e • mined devotion involves some naysaying. Thus, far from being a dark, dreary path, the study of negativity is “the most wonder­ ful subject,” says Brann. She goes on to discuss the logical implications of non-existence, fictions of imagination, the metaphysics of non-being, Hegelian negativity, the noth­ ing that is the “supreme attain­ ment of the East,” and finally, how “nothing” becomes, for philosophers like Heidegger, the source of Being. Along the way there are side-routes that investigate many of the most mysterious of the St. John’s perenni­ al seminar questions like how the appearances are both not the original being and yet like the original (Plato’s question in the Republic, the Sophist, and other dialogues). Perhaps it is this reiteration of the questions called to mind in the St. John’s seminar readings that makes Eva Brann’s books so interesting. One needn’t be a Johnnie to recognize the impor­ tance of these questions, but for those who’ve read the same books Brann has spent the past 30 years with, her treatment of the issues is a re-illumination. The startling juxtapositions-Plato and Ein­ stein, for example-and the insights into the books-Don Quixote’s world as the rightside up one, the flour-grinding wind­ mills as the upside down one-seem to epitomize the places we’d all like our minds to carry us. In addition to raising and discussing the perennial issues, Brann has a knack for reminding us of the moral dimensions and implications for human action that accom­ pany philosophic points of view. Half apologetically, Brann calls her books the Trilogy of the Human Center. They are about what lies between the sense and the intellect. While students we were sometimes abashed at living in any world other than that of the intellect, and as we’ve grown we’ve become more comfortable in the middle ground-the place of imagination and memory. That she shows us so much of the “stuff’ at the human center is certainly not nothing. St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } �{Homecoming} TALE OF TWO HOMECOMINGS Whether to Santa Fe in July or Annapolis in September, alumni like revisiting their college days. Santa Fe another. At the post-lecture reception, they showed their books, he Program, the tutors, the students, the campus: talked about their publishing work, and displayed no persisting alumni remember their time at the college as a func­ rancor from their deep disagreement earlier in the evening. tion of all four (and perhaps of some unnamed factors The later evening led inevitably to the coffee shop party, where as well). At Homecoming in Santa Fe this July, where the class of ’76 reveled in the contribution of A.T. Michael Mac­ alumni flocked back to campus to celebrate the Donald reunions of the classes of 1996,1991,1986,1981,1976,1971, and (SF76), who burned a hit parade CD of dance tunes from room parties from their era. We’re talking Hollywood 1966, all the elements of nostalgia were present in force, as commons class­ Swingin’, Signed Sealed Delivered, and Respect. mates reunited, returned to seminar and lecture, and partied the Saturday morning, on the other hand, brought seminar, a more night away with the traditional gusto of liberal artists. programmatic experience. There was the gamut to choose from: From the very first, all went well hatted: at registration Friday Mr. Carey on Dostoevsky’s Notesfrom the Underground, Ms. Reaafternoon. Alumni Director Tahmina Shalizi and her able assis­ hard on Basho’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Mr. Davis tants Leslie Wolfe (SF03), Anna Perleberg (SFoa), and John and Ms. Adam on Balzac’s Gobseck, Mr. Cornell on Chekhov’s The McCarthy (SFoi) gave out stylish low-rise khaki baseball caps Black Monk, and Mr. Bybee on Plato’s Meno. From there, all with the SJC monogram on the front and “aooi” on the back. repaired to the soccer field for the traditional fiesta picnic, with After the barbecue dinner on the Placita, it was time for lecture fun for kids, including a pinata, and group photos for the reunion in the newly outfitted Great Hall. The universally deplored buck­ classes. et-slouch chairs, used in the Great Hall from the start (because the The Annual Meeting of the Alumni Association was held after chairs in the Great Hall must be stackable), have at long last been lunch in the portico of the new Student Activities Center. For supplanted by-brace yourselves-comfortable chairs. Still stack­ many of the alumni, it was their first encounter with the buildingable, but with actual arms, and straight backs, and attractive the most frequently overheard remark was “Wow.” At the meet­ maroon upholstery. The alumni gasped. The alumni stared. The ing, John Balkcom (SFGIoo), president of the Santa Fe campus, alumni sat. The alumni smiled. and David Levine (A67), dean of the Santa Fe campus, reported on The lecture was also a treat. Dana Densmore (A65) and Bill the state of the college; and Glenda Eoyang (SF76), president of Donahue (A67) gave a point-counterpoint talk entitled “Bringing the Alumni Association, reported on the association’s year. Elec­ the St. John’s Ethos Into the Real World.” Ms. Densmore defend­ tions were held: Jason Walsh (A85), Mark Middlebrook (A83), and ed the thesis that all the Great Books are true, while Mr. Donahue Clint Lively (A78) were elected as alumni representatives to the maintained that all the Great Books are wrong. Bold assertions on Board of Visitors and Governors; and Bill Tilles (A59), Valerie both sides! The Densmore/Donahue team does more than argue Pawlewicz (A89), Martha Jordan (SFGI86), Robert George (A85), politely about extreme ideas: they are the founders of Green Lion and Amber Boydstun (SF99) were elected to serve as directors on Press, which publishes works in the history of science, from New­ the Alumni Association board. Michael Rodriguez, Director of ton to Aristotle to Faraday to Euclid; and they are married to one T {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �{Homecoming} Tutor Peter Kalkavage with alumni from the ’80s - top left; Dana Densmore (A65) and Bill Donahue (A67) lecturing in Santa Fe - bottom left; a group meets up on the quad, just like 2,7 Annapolis_____________________________ uring Homecoming weekend in Annapolis this September, the St. John’s-bred dichotomy of “Same and Other” seemed to take center stage. Johnnies attend Homecoming looking for the Financial Aid, and Richard Lampert, a founder of the Library and same: they want to talk with their same tutors, Fine Arts Guild, were made Honorary Alumni. Mr. Lampert said enjoy the same mental excitement they once felt in semin he hoped that the new Student Activities Center would spur the eat in the same dining hall where they once spent hours disc college on to fielding a foothall team, because it had been his life­ virtue, justice, and whether the coffee shop’s milkshakes were as long dream to he able to relax in front of the television with a heer good as those at Chick ‘n’ Ruth’s. of a Saturday afternoon, to root for his alma mater. But while Johnnies come seeking the same, they’re often most The Saturday night banquet saw the reunion classes gather in excited by what is other. They explore the the Great Hall for a fine meal, toasts to renovations of Mellon Hall and wander themselves and each other, a few short and ii5TH eunion for i ks through the Greenfield Library and the excellent speeches (Mike MacDonald Barr-Buchanan Center. When they get the SF76 received the alumni award of Meritchance, they chat with current students to see p. 39), and dancing into the wee hours. The first event of the weekend was a private party hosted by Rick Lightburn (SF76) and his brother-inlearn what effects MTV and the Internet The hallmark of a successful Homecom­ law, Claiborne Booker (A81), to celebrate the reunion have had on the logos. And in seminar, in ing, it seems, is exhaustion, happy exhaus­ of the class of 1976. A warm summer evening on the the same classrooms where they once sat, tion. Not too much exhaustion, however, Bookers’ pristine courtyard provided the perfect perhaps even discussing the same text, to go to the President’s Brunch at the Hunt backdrop for catching up and reminiscing. Victoria they sometimes learn just how “other” House Sunday morning, the laid-hack yet Hanley (SF76) showed classmates her new book The Seer and the Sword, while Glenda Eoyang (SF76) they themselves have become. elegant end to the weekend’s festivities. shared her thoughts on being president of the Alum­ Homecoming itself is a play of same and All in all, what was heard around the cam­ ni Association. And everyone got a kick out of an old pus this weekend was delight at the event class picture: there they were in their flashy 70’s garb other. Some activities have been repeated so often you’d think they were started hy itself, pleasure in seeing the college thriv­ with flaring collars, feather boas and all. The party Barr and Buchanan: the alumni soccer ing and improving, and renewed fondness was a great success and proved to he a perfect kick­ off for the weekend’s events. classic, the picnic lunches, the coffee shop for all things St. John’s. party, and the Sunday brunch stay largely by John McCarlhy(SF01) IN THE OLD DAYS - RIGHT. D R {The College -St -6 John ’5 College . Fall 2001 } �2,8 {Homecoming} The class of ’8i reprises “West Street Story,” their prank skit TOP left; typical seminar gestures are never forgotten - BOTTOM left; alumni children discuss Harry Potter during their own seminar-RIGHT. the same from year to year. But this year the Alumni Office (Roberta Gable, Ay8, assisted by Dolores Strissel) tinkered with a few of the old activities and introduced some new ones to make the weekend just a little more “other” than Homecomings past. One new event, a career panel, started the weekend with a bang. A panel of la alumni discussed their careers and career paths before a standing-room-only crowd of current students and young alumni. During the discussion the room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. When the formal part of the panel ended, students were invited to step up and talk with the alumni whose work interested them. The students positively (but politely) lunged for the alumni, and many talked for so long at the 6:30 p.m. event that they missed lecture. While those who stayed were happy with the way they spent their time, those who attended lecture said it was not one to miss. Annapolis tutor-on-leave Abraham Schoener (A8a), who is study­ ing viticulture in Napa, spoke about “The Biology of the Fermen­ tation Vessel,” a suitable prelude to the wine and cheese party with current seniors that followed. For those whose tastes ran to beer and chips rather than brie and cabernet Sauvignon, a boat­ house party was held with music requested by the class of’76. “No disco” was the rule, although a Rod Stewart song managed to fall into the mix. The incident spawned no complaints. The next morning brought alumni back to the classroom with leaders Douglas Allanbrook (HA85), Eva Brann (HA89), Samuel Kutler (A54), Chaninah Maschler (HA98), Bill Pastille, John Sarkissian, Malcolm Wyatt, Peter Kalkavage, Joan Silver (MA76), Nick Maistrellis, and Curtis Wilson (HA83) leading seminars on {The College. readings from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye to Augustine’s Con­ fessions to Robert Frost’s “Black Cottage.” Susan Ashmore (A76) and Adam Wasserman (A76) led a seminar on Harry Potter for children of alumni. Afternoon events included Freshman Chorus Revisited, where tutor emeritus Elliott Zuckerman (HA95) led alumni in classics such as “Gaudeamus Igitur,” “The Heavens Are Telling,” and “Ave Verum.” The class of 1981 staged a reprise of their senior prank skit, “West Street Story.” Outside by the gym, the soccer classic proved an exciting game despite the students’ victory, and in the bookstore an autograph party brought together nine authors and scores of readers. One of the best changes made to Homecoming this year was the moving of registration and the Saturday evening cocktail party to McDowell Hall. With the fireplace room of the coffee shop pro­ viding a warm backdrop for registration, the bright elegance of the Great Hall and McDowell classrooms made the cocktail party a special affair. A series of moving toasts-thankfulness for com­ munity in the face of what had happened earlier in the monthgraced the Saturday night banquet and Mr. Zuckerman played the piano for the waltz party afterwards. A coffee shop party DJ’d by Robert George kept alumni dancing until the wee hours. Those who managed to turn in early were able to play croquet on the front lawn Sunday morning and still make it to the President’s House in time for a champagne brunch. While Homecoming’s “other” events were a hit with alumni, the “same” seemed to carry the day. Bill Pastille’s seminar on Augus­ tine’s Confessions was as enjoyably contentious as any sophomore ever witnessed. Eva Brann, whose seminar was on an essay by anthropologist Clifford Geertz, said that not only was the reading about a cockfight, but a cockfight almost broke out in the class. Homecoming reports were written by Roberta Gable and Susgan Borden. St. John’s College ■ Fall siooi } �{AlUMNiNoTES} 1941 Bruce Graybeal writes to say that he helps his wife Barbara manage and operate a private conservative school at Ohve Branch, Mississippi: De Soto County Academy. He is studying homeopathy. Davies spent time with Jacqueline and Dave Rea (class of ’49) while the fisherfolk fought the fish and seasickness (just joking). This trip has become a long-standing tradi­ tion for St. John’s alumni who live on Long Island.” i960 1951 1945 William Lieb attended the Santa Fe Homecoming where he had two pieces in the All Alumni Art Show: “Unreal” and “Original Bliss.” After 25 years in the film business, he graduated at age 70 from Santa Monica College of Design Art and Architecture in 1993. He had a seven-year retrospective solo art show at the University of Califor­ nia, Riverside, in 1996. He has two grandsons: Danny, 5, and Alex, 3. In the fall of 2000, George Wend took a river cruise from Amsterdam to Vienna. Tony Hardy is semi-retired, still working half-time as a psychologist. He plays tennis and gardens in his “spare” time. He’s working on a book on phenomenology, with roots in Kant and Cassirer. as an active partner in the Philadel­ phia office of the law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP since January i, 1993,1 am now Senior Counsel to the firm. I continue professionally active as cochair of the Joint Philadelphia Bar Association/ United States Dis­ trict Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, as judge pro tern in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Day For­ ward and Commerce case-manage­ ment programs, and as chair of the latter program’s advisory commit­ tee. I am certified by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. as an arbitrator in the BBB Auto Line program. I take an occasional engagement as an expert witness on issues of professional responsibihty, as an arbitrator, or as a medi­ ator.” had a hip replaced; gotten a novel. Naturally Bad Manners, accepted by a publisher (it is scheduled to appear before next May); am presently beginning to negotiate a position as a resident Research Scholar at Hanazono University’s International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism in Kyoto, Japan, and hope to become a Rinzai Zen lay brother; have been invited to attend the 2001 meetings of the Eranos Circle at Ascona in Switzer­ land as their guest because of my translations and books concerning Adolf Portmann and his work; and otherwise I am enjoying the life of a penurious seventy-year-old Liberal Artist. My e-mail address is presently rbcc@erols.com. Jerry M. Hynson, retired teacher, school principal, and coordinator of Baltimore Public Schools, has been elected a trustee of the Mary­ land Historical Society. {The College. Donald Schell (SF) writes: “In sings polyphonic sacred music out­ doors in New York City. You can read about it at WWW. streetsingers. org. 1968 1969 John Falencki (A) reports that his Mabshall Clark (SF) is purchas­ oldest child married this June. He is living in New York and enjoying work as a family physician in a col­ laborative office with a physical therapist, family therapist, manual medicine therapist and homeopath. ing energy for the state of Califor­ nia with fellow St. Johnnie Jonathan Teague (SF75). At the time he wrote in, he was expecting a very interesting summer. Johanna Evans is owner and CEO ofXenopus I Inc. Medical Research. Tipping the Scale Lawrence G. Myers (1951) writes: “We all know that we improved our minds at the college, but let me give high praise (greek word epainos} to those at the college who helped me to improve my physical health. Six weeks prior to starting my freshman year, I left the U.S. Army’s Tilton General Hospital where I had been a patient for 23 months after being wounded in the Battle of Luzon in 1945. When I left the hospital and arrived at St. John’s, I weighed 135 pounds. After my sophomore year, I tipped the scales at 175 pounds. So let me thank the dining hall staff and those who provided the hundreds of hamburgers, fries, and cups of chili that I ate in the Coffee Shop while poring over Euclid or looking up the aorist passive for of some Greek verb. Now at age 79,1 stiU weigh 175 pounds but I look forward to putting on a few pounds when I return to the college this fall to celebrate our class’s 50th anniversary. If some of you guys are on a diet. I’ll gladly take your desserts.” r. 1959 Charles B. Watson’s (A) son, Ivan is NPR correspondent in West Africa-Lagos, Nigeria. His daugh­ ter, Anya, graduated from high school and wiU attend Connecticut College in the fall to study Marine Science. 19981 walked the Camino de Santi­ ago with my second daughter, Maria. Our book about that pil­ grims’ walk came out this spring. My Father, My Daughter, Pilgrims on the Road to Santiago. We’ve read at the College of Preachers in Washington, D.C. and in October will be part of a symposium on pil­ grimage at Stanford University and then traveling up to Seattle to open a forum on pilgrimage at St. Mark’s Cathedral. We carried small stones from the windmills in Navarra to add to the mound at Cruz de Ferro and I thought frequently of Don Quixote as we walked. In our read­ ings, I finally noticed that I’m the Don Quixote character in the book. Maria is the Sancho Panza charac­ ter, of course.” John Hetland leads a group that Richard Carter writes: “I’ve just On 7/20 at Montauk the SJC Annu­ al Striped Bass and Bluefishing Charter sailed again with Allan Hoffman (class of ’49), Harvey Goldstein (class of’59), Cora and Peter Weiss (class of’46), Peter Davies (class of’48), his brother and nephew. Says Allan, “Mary Goldstein (class of’59) and Phyllis George B. Jones HI writes: “My wife died in June 1991 and I retired to play golf. Met my current wife Randi playing golf in Hilton Head Island, S.C. We married in August 2000 and honeymooned in Vegas, Hawaii, San Francisco, Monterey. Had a great visit with Harrison Shepard (A61) while in San Fran­ cisco. Now living in Hilton Head. Since the telephone company didn’t list our number, 843-8376657 will get us. 1964 1954 Edward Mullinix writes: “Retired 1949 "^9 D St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �{Alumni Notes} 30 The Helping Life ebecca Thompson (SF71) writes: “My first community serv­ ice job at St. John’s was helping an elderly Hispanic family and tutoring a young Hispanic girl. Thirty years later. I’ve just left a migrant education job with 3-4-year olds, preparing the children and families for entry into kindergarten. This year I worked with middle school kids, tutoring and ESL. I must be where I want to be! My kids are 18 and 21, and continue to provide us with interest and debate. We bought our home in Petaluma and have an endless vista of landscaping and improvements, should we choose to follow that road...love to hear from old friends.” R Michael Anthony’s (A) son. Will, graduated from Lake Oswego High School and is now attending the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In addition to teaching at Thomas Aquinas College, Richard Ferrier (A) is president of the Declaration Foundation, and with another tutor has co-authored a hook for high school civics. The book is America’s Declaration Principles in Thought and Action and is available from the foundation’s website at declaration.net. 1970 William Wade Douglas (SFGI) is CEO of Sangraal by the Sea Confer­ ence Center, hosting groups, churches, and colleges. Sangraal is also a youth hostel and provides lodging to worldwide members from many countries as part of hosteling international. St. John’s College staff, faculty, and students may stay one night free. His wife Linda (SFGI83) is coordinator of gifted education for Middlesex Co. public schools in Virginia. 1971 After finishing St. John’s, Dwight Platt (A) went to Virginia Theo­ logical Seminary and ended up in Baltimore teaching at St. Mary’s College. In 1975, he started a busi­ ness in commercial real estate to supplement his salary at St. Mary’s. Today that business owns 42 build­ ings around Baltimore, and Dwight’s younger son. Sage (Haverford ’96), runs the Con­ struction Division. Dwight and his wife Nina live in the Greenspring Valley at a farm they have owned peacefully for over 27 years. This year they decided to totally reno­ vate the house, and within the last 2.7 months, the peace has been lost forever. (“Just kidding!” he notes.) Dwight sees David Johnson (A68) quite frequently and has kept up with the college over the years. He and David ran a seminar for adults for a couple of years at the Mary­ land Club. Dwight win not be at the 2001 reunion because his oldest son, Charlie, is getting married the same weekend, but he hopes to see more of his class at the 35th reunion in 2006. Nick Patrone (A) graduated in 2001 with a BM in composition from the East Carohna University School of Music. Now he’s in the Master’s program for composition. He’s still practicing medicine as a rheumatol­ ogist in Rocky Mount, N.C. His son, Paul, wiU be entering St. John’s in the fall of 2002. 1974 Richard Ferguson (A) received and accepted an early retirement offer from his company. Who says that a soft economy is bad news? He is tak­ ing a year off to decide what he wants to do. He is still hving in Boulder Colorado, with the same address, the same phone number, and the same wife as he has had for the last twenty years or so. 1975 Mark Habrel (SF) writes: “I have Paul Eitner (SF) and his wife Denise Roy are enjoying their first grandchild. Turner Gene Eitner, born December 1999. Paul is an aerospace/communications engi­ neer and Denise is a certified nurse midwife. They have settled in Southeastern Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia. Barry Sher (A) closed his office last year and is now running a virtu­ al design studio out of his dining room. “My staff is stretched across two states,” he writes. 1973 Donnel (A) and Janet O’Flynn (A74) write: “Our son Aidan will be a freshman in Annapolis in the fall of 2001! Our daughter Kathleen is also starting college, at Simon’s Rock College of Bard in Great Bar­ rington, Mass. Our empty nest is on {The College- Martha’s Vineyard where Donnel is rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven. I am doing pediatric occupational therapy in the Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools. We look forward to lots of parental visits to St. John’s.” this year been named Director of Music at St. Edward the Confessor Episcopal Church in Wayzata, Min­ nesota. For those who don’t know, I have a six-year-old son: Aaron John Rening-Habrel. I have also been married three times and, at each wedding, fellow SF75 alumnus G. Kevin Johnson has been my best man. (Talk about overworking a friendship!) 1976 Betsy Davenport (SF) received a PhD in psychology in 1989. She married Joe Kaplan in 1987 and has one child, age 9, two stepchadults, 33 and 36, and two grandchildren, 5 and 4. Her work includes writing a column on parenting, public speak­ ing, the occasional local talk-tv show, private practice psychothera­ py, parenting consultations, diag­ nosis and treatment of St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } ADD/ADHD. She is preparing a book for publication and has more in the works. Victoria Hanley’s (SF) book. The Seer and the Sword, is being pub­ lished in the U.K., the U.S., and Canada, and translated and pub­ lished in Holland, Norway, Fin­ land, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Japan. Her second book. The Heal­ er ’s Keep, will be pubhshed in 2002. “I’m happy!” she writes. 1977 Corry Miller Weierrach (A) reports she’s enjoying two years off from work, keeping busy with daughters Madeleine and Helen, and engaging in several volunteer activities. Andrea Williams Ham and Robert James Ham (both SF) write: “Jim and I were thrilled to be able to attend our niece’s gradua­ tion with St. John’s College Santa Fe campus in May 2001. INDIA Clarke (SFor) is a third genera­ tion graduate of St. John’s College. Both her grandfather, John L. Williams (class of ’50) and her mother, India Williams (SF73) preceded her as did Jim and 1. Con­ gratulations India Clarke. We‘re all proud ofyou!” News from Marlene Strong (A): “I just found out last week that I passed my licensing exam for my Marriage and Family Therapist license! I’ll continue to work as a social worker at a foster care agency until I figure out what to do nextone of these days I hope to find a job that combines my research skills and my clinical skills. Right now I’m exhausted from all the studying-there was a four-hour written exam in January and then an oral exam in April-it all comes down to you and two strangers in a hotel room with a tape recorder for 35 minutes! Anyway, I’m very relieved it’s over and I can go back to having a life instead of studying all the time.” Deborah Cohen (A) writes that her firm, Cohen Marketing Ser­ vices (CMS), has been granted a patent for a new process of formu­ lating soy products. The process �{AlumniProfile} 31 Household Name Jim Rooney’s days arefilled with the nightmares that homeownersfear. By SuS3AN Borden, A87 e’s the Click and Clack of the home­ front, Annapolis’ answer to Sherlock Holmes. Jim Rooney (A74), a home inspector and house maintenance columnist, is the man to call about mysterious leaks, odors, drafts, and buzzes. Not long ago, a woman called Rooney about a sewage smell whose source she couldn’t trace. He asked her if she had a family room. She said yes. He asked if she had a bar sink. She said yes. He asked if she drank. She said no. “So there’s the problem,” Rooney says. “The trap in the bar sink dried out.” Rooney sees his ability to diagnose problems-sometimes over the phone-as a legacy of his St. John’s days. “I’m just using what we learn at St. John’s,” he says, “a way to approach a prob­ lem.” Rooney has always put his problem-solving abilities to good use, even during his St. John’s days. He organ­ ized and headed a carpentry crew while a student at St. John’s, framing single family homes and light commercial and town­ house projects. Later he became a project manager for commercial construction proj­ ects costing from $200,000 to $5 million. Rooney is a licensed Maryland home improvement contractor and a member of the National Historical Trust. He has writ­ ten instruction manuals for the Stanley Tool Company and lectured on residential homebuilding, repair, and restoration. He has acted as an arbitrator and served as an expert witness in construction-related cases. And, he is known throughout Annapolis as the author of “Homefront,” a popular house maintenance column. Rooney has been writing Homefront for the Annapolis Capital since October 1994, “The VENT PIPE DOWN THERE NEEDS TO BE EIXED,” NOTES JiM RoONEY (A74) AFTER A TRIP column to “On The Level” and is now offering it to newspapers across the coun­ try. While he is pleased to join the organization that syndicates Ann Landers, Molly Ivins, and the comic strip “Andy Capp,” Rooney says it was a long road to syndication. “The first thing you do when you’re trying to get syndicated is get used to rejection,” he says. “Some of my letters just barely made it over the transom before they came flying back.” Rooney finally got a break when the Capital announced the results of a readers survey: Rooney’s column was the favorite, beating every col­ umn in the paper, including Dear Abby. He sent the syn­ dicates the survey and rewrote the opening of his cover letter to read: “This column sells papers.” The approach worked. Creators signed him on, and Rooney is now poised to become a household name to house­ holders nationwide. AlUMNI HoUSE Reverdy Johnson House ). INTO THE BASEMENT OF THE (AKA giving Annapolis residents advice about hot water heaters, ductwork, gutter guards, roof venting, replacement windows, con­ crete, and septic systems. What are the things that are most on a homeowners mind? Rooney says that the most common problems are wet basements, leaky roofs, inoperable heating and cooling systems, and plumbing malfunctions. But he prefers solving more esoteric problems. “I’ve investigated everything from bat odor in an attic to a mysterious houseground causing lights to brighten and dim,” he says, clearly fond of the very nightmares that cause homeowners to lose sleep. This past August, Rooney signed with Creators Syndicate, which retitled his {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } On the Bookshelf The Reader’s Digest Guide to Home Repair - Jim’s comment: Oddly enough, this is one of the best books for do-it-yourselfers on the market. The Old House Journal Guide to Restoration - For more aggressive projects The following periodicals are for anyone who wants to turn pro: The Journal ofLight Construction Fine Homebuilding �{AlumniNotes} technology makes a whole new gen­ eration of soy products possible. The range of products span the bakery and snack categories; a press release lists soy tortilla chips, soy tortillas, or even soy “wraps” and soy “Chinese wrappers” as pos­ sible products. 1978 George Harper (A), an attorney at large, reports that he “holds court (up) at 14744 Main Street, Upper Marlboro, MD 2,0772.” 1979 Greg Cowell (SF) writes: “With my second child on the way I thought I would send in an update of my life, not having done so since I drove away ar years ago. My wife Jeannine and I have been married 8 years. We have two future St. John’s candidates at our house, our daugh­ ter Cathryn is three and a half, and we are expecting a son in the next month. I have been practicing med­ icine for r6 years and currently I am the medical director of a medium­ size emergency room in Illinois. Music is my passion, but I have yet to figure out how to make money as a musician. My e-mail is gcowelled @aol.com. Regards to all, but espe­ cially to old E and F dormers who might be reading.” 1980 and Etym(bi)ology, Omnidawn Press, 2002. 1981 Warren Spector (A), along with Alan Schwartz, has been named co­ president and co-chief operating officer of the Wall Street firm Bear Stearns. Spector continues to head the firm’s fixed income division and other units. 1982 Randy Linder (SF) writes: “Life rolls on. (Anyone out there have any ideas how to stop/slow this train?) I’m starting my sixth year as a professor at the University of Texas in evolutionary biology. Which means I’m up for tenure. Oh the joys of stress. Otherwise, life is good. Well, except for truly infernal summers, rra degree heat is not compatible with cycling home from work. Lord help Austin when global warming really kicks in. I hope there’ll be a good turnout for our ao- year reunion next year. I’m very interested in what youse guys have been up to. Do feel free to stop by if your travels bring you to Austin, Texas.” Pedro Martinez-Fraga (A) was selected as the 2001 Lawyer of the Americas by the University of Miami Interamerican Law Review and the School of Law. The award recognizes extraordinary accom­ plishments in the area of interna­ tional law. Pedro’s successful repre­ sentation of several countries in federal district court in the U.S. and arbitral proceedings in Europe and South America gave rise to this most prestigious hemispheric recognition. Pedro also chairs the Greenberg Traurig International Litigation Department. Melanie Longoni (SF) is currently in her third year of study at Austin Presbyterian Theological Semi­ nary, where she is enrolled in the Master of Divinity degree program, in preparation for ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She is especially interested in min­ istry with children and with adults with developmental disahihties. Erik Jacobs (A) has two daughters: Ada, who turned four on June 12, 2001, and Katie, who is nearly a year old. 1983 Linda Douglas (SFGI) is coordina­ tor of gifted education for Middle­ sex County Public Schools in Vir­ ginia. For news of her husband, William, see notes for the class of 1970. Steve Barkhimer (A) writes that Elizabeth Travis (SF) writes: “I’m since graduating from the Eastern Classics Program in rggb, he has been enjoying an extremely active life in the Boston theatre world, and has just released a CD of origi­ nal music called “Time Was,” which can be obtained through www.cdfreedom.com or sbarkhimer@aol.com. still in California. Turning 40 too soon. Heard from Dave Larom (SF83)-he is in San Diego with wife Nancy Lovinger and their new baby. Sounds like life is good for them these days, too. What’s up with the rest of us that came together dur­ ing the fall of ’7g to first discuss ashtrays and the capital ‘G’ Good?” Roh Crutchfield (A) e-mails that the info for him in the Alumni Reg­ ister is about a year out of date. He’s currently living in Henderson­ ville, North Carolina and his e-mail address is robcrutchfield@yahoo.com. Liz Waldner (A) writes that she has three new poetry collections coming out: Selfand Simulacra, Alice James Books’ Hawley Prize winner for 2001; Dark Would, Uni­ versity of Georgia Press Contempo­ rary Poetry Series winner for 3002; {The College. 1984 Beth Lohr Koolbeck (A) writes that she and her husband Gregory had a new baby girl, Joy, born in January. 1985 Jeffrey Wilson (A) writes: “I was granted tenure at Loyola Marymount this year. My first publica­ tion, an article on Kant’s sublime, is forthcoming in the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly. I am in my fourth year of co-teaching graduate philosophy seminars in Germany through the University of Frankfurt. I am increasingly involved in St. John’s Episcopal Church in South Central Los Ange­ les with parishioners from 27 coun­ tries. St. John’s is one of the Epis­ copal parishes that already 5t. John’s College ■ Fall 200/ } performs same-sex unions-and I’m still looking for the boyfriend to make that commitment with.” Beth Anderson and David Stahl (both A) have moved to Camp Hill, Pa. Their new address is 853 Wynnewood Road, Camp Hill, PA 17011-1635. 1986 Linda Hamm Grez (A) writes: “My husband Joe Grez and I got married on the steps behind the Quad in Annapolis in June of 2000. Guests included Roger Lowe (A86) and Sallie Fine (A87). I’d love to hear from classmates in Annapohs or Santa Fe. E-mail: llhamm2@earthlink.net.” Barbara Roherts (SFGI) has returned home to the Denver area, where she is a special educator in a public elementary Montessori school and a school for the gifted and talented. From Todd Masilon (A): “After having served for about six months in Bosnia as an enlisted Intelhgence Analyst (to Tia Pausic (A)— just missed you while you were working in Croatia), I have recently returned to the U.S. and have grad­ uated from the Army Officer Candi­ date School (euphemistically referred to as “Charm School”). Currently, as a newly commissioned Second Lieutenant (at 37 years of age, I think I’m the oldest 2LT in the Army), I am at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., preparing to attend the Mili­ tary Intelligence Basic Officer Course. Wife Renee and daughter Molly (three years old) will join me here shortly (I’ve seen them for a total of about three weeks since leaving for Bosnia last Septemhera welcome reunion indeed). “Upon graduation in December, my orders take us to Darmstadt, Germany. This is a good thing, since I’m sure to be deployed to Bosnia/Kosovo/Macedonia at least twice during the three years that we’re there, and Renee and Molly will be at liberty to have adventures in Europe while I’m away. “Despite the fact that I’ve yet to use the Arabic language skills the Army has taught me, I continue to �{AlumniNotes} maintain my fluency (thank God for the BBC and their Arabic broad­ casts on the Internet). “As a former Johnny, and holder of two MAs in Unguistics, friends and family thought I was nuts for joining the Army a little over three years ago. While there have been many trying times, and a lot to gripe about. I’m happy to say that, upon reflection. I’m proud to be a philosopher-warrior. Yes, the mili­ tary trains me to be ready to destroy and kill, but it also trains me to pre­ serve and protect. Happily, my philosopher-wife is consonant with this life and its requirements.” O’Neal, and his wife, Lynn Thomp­ son, is the Director of the Southern Pines Public Library. Across Spain.” “Any Johnnies pass­ ing through San Francisco give me a call!” he says. Teresa Jeanne Fullinwider (A) and Christopher John Bailey (A) Picot Floyd (A) reports that he is working at Citibank, for the Latin American Consumer Banking Divi­ sion. He is the UNIX systems man­ ager. His wife Suzy is alternately homeschooling and Montessori schooling their daughters, Myrina, 6, and Daphne, 4, got married in October of 1996. She now goes by the name Teresa Bailey. They live in Pittsburgh, where Chris is a free-lance writer and Teresa is a Doula. On March 20, 3001, they had a baby boy named Simon David Bailey. 1988 1989 Jennifer Lee (SF) writes: “After Christina Paige (A) writes: “Since 1987 “It would be nice to hear from old friends,” writes Mira Skadegard Thorsen (SF). “We are moving to a little horse farm not too far from Copenhagen (ao min.). Since I just finished a degree in Literary Theo­ ry and Anthropology, I assume I’ll be working either in some sort of research or on a PhD within the next year or so. Having three kids does keep us fairly busy though...Anybody interested in Danish dressage horses should drop me a note. I’d also love to hear from anyone working with post­ colonial discourse theory, and race and gender theory (and human rights and business). There aren’t too many people working in these areas in Denmark. Our new address is: Mira, Sune, Tess, Tara and Tai Skadegard Thorsen, Sortmosen 6, 3520 Farum, Denmark.” Sai,LIE Fine (A) e-mails that she’s recently completed her education administration program and is now certified (and certifiable!) to serve as a principal for grades 7-13. “I plan on teaching one more year before making any career decisions. I moved last March and my new address is 3136 Richmond Road; Beachwood, OH 4412a. I also made a cyber move and can now be reached at salhefine@msn.com.” Bob Howell (AGI) is Director of Technology and English Depart­ ment Chair at the O’Neal School in Southern Pines, N.C. Bob’s daugh­ ter Emma is a sophomore at 1999 I’ve been teaching math, sci­ ence and literature classes at Kino School in Tucson, Ariz. Now I’m in charge of the Junior High Reading and Writing Program, which suits me to a T. The best part of teaching at an alternative school is that my daughter goes to work with me every day. After all those different sur-names (Smith, Freeman, etc.). I’m very comfortable as Christina Paige. I miss Chris Colby and the Annapolis campus print shop, and Mr. Starr, but I’m still friends with Deirdre McGlynn (A86) and Robert Beeson (SF88).” Diana Shaw-McCarthy (A) is working on a master’s degree in public administration at New York University. Her husband, Jonathan, is a research economist at the Fed­ eral Reserve Bank of New York. Elaine Pinkerton Coleman (SFGI), having committed to fulltime writing, has completed editing of her father’s World War II letters. Her book, titled From Calcutta With Love, is being published by Texas Tech University Press in early 3003. In July 2002, she will have a book signing and talk at the St. John’s Santa Fe campus as part of the “speaking volumes” program. Jeffrey Falero (A) reports that he graduated in June with an M.S. in Civil Engineering (Structures) from Stanford University. He also co-authored an article about the construction of the latest leg of Spain’s bullet train; it appears in Civil Engineering magazine, June 2001, Vol. 71, No. 6, “Speeding eight wonderful years in Greece, Dimitri and I are returning to the States with our two daughters. Our new address is: 2804 Goodwood, Baltimore, MD 31314.1 haven’t held a proper job in all my time in Greece, but I did get a masters in education and plan to teach middle school math. Lots of new begin­ nings...” The first big-screen appearance for Christopher Sullivan (A) was in Metropopular in Spike & Mike’s 200! Classic Festival ofAnimation. He was the voices of Los Angeles and New York. Metropopular won Honorable Mention in Short Film­ making at the Sundance Film Festi­ val and tied for runner-up for Best Short at the Texas Film Festival. Brad Stuart and Sara Larson Stuart (both A) are delighted to report the birth of their daughter, Eleanor Kay Stuart, on June 18, 3001. Marty Gelfand (A) had an article published in the American Bank­ ruptcy Law Journal, “How a Com­ munity Saved Their Hospitals from Unnecessary Liquidation.” His arti­ cle tells the story of how Cleve­ landers rallied to stop a bankrupt hospital system from selling its neighborhood hospitals to a com­ peting local mega-hospital on con­ dition that the hospitals shut down before the Delaware Bankruptcy Court hearing. {The College -St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } 33 1990 John (“Johno”) Obenauer (A) emails: “I have some news I am extremely relieved to report: after starting graduate school in physics and then working in data analysis and computing jobs, I finally com­ pleted a PhD in, of all things, bio­ chemistry. I just started working as a research scientist at MIT’s Center for Cancer Research this past month (June 2001) and am very excited about it. In my personal life, I married a cutie named Michelle Blackwell (now Obenauer) in 1994 and am surprised to find that I like being married, even after seven years. Michelle is a bio­ chemist too, at a private company in Cambridge, Mass. To all the other Johnnies out there in grad school, hang in there! It feels a lot better when it’s over! ” David Ruy (A) is residing in New York City, where he has been in practice as an architect since receiving his M.Arch from Colum­ bia. He currently splits his time between his practice and teaching duties at Princeton Univ. His e-mail address is david@ruyklein.com. Dahra Latham (A) is still living in Seattle, and has completed her first year of law school at the University ofWashington. “I’m spending the summer as an extern at the Fair Access to Contraception Project,” she says. “I would be delighted to hear from auld acquaintance: my snail-mail and phone are the same, and e-mail is dahra@u.washington.edu. I would also like to hear from any Johnny attorneys out there who might be interested in the project.” 1991 Lena Skadegard (A) is currently working on an MFA at Hunter Col­ lege in painting. Professionally, she works as a clothing designer and buyer. She lives in New York City. �{AlumniProfile} 34 Quiz Show Which Johnnie wants to be a millionaire? By Sus3an Borden, A87 Mattise. Goya. Dali. Jasper Johns. Can you place these artists’ lives in chronological order? How quick­ ly? What if you were competing against 500 other players for speed and accu­ racy? What if the chance to win one million dollars was riding on your answer? These were not hypothetical questions for David Maclaine (SF74). One August day in the summer of 2000 he found himself scanning his memory bank for artists’ bios in an odyssey that took him to ABC Studios in New York to compete on the hit game show “Who Wants To Be a Mil­ lionaire?” To win a spot on the show, would-be contestants call a tollfree number and answer three questions that require them to arrange a group of items (such as people, places, or events) in a given order (such as oldest to youngest, east to west, or earliest to latest). Five hundred of those who get all three questions right are placed in a pool and of those, forty are selected for a further qualifying round of five questions. Maclaine says that the odds of selection for the second round are about r in 300. He’s heard of people winning a spot in the pool one hundred times without being selected. For Maclaine, it took only four times. It was during this second qualifying round that Maclaine was asked about the artists. The question gave him no trouble; Jasper Johns, he explains, had recently been on the “Simpsons.” Other questions involved putting celebrities (Geena Davis, RuPaul, Dr. Ruth, and Winona Ryder) in order of height and putting poets in chronological order. The selection of poets-WiUiam Carlos Williams, Rita Dove, Sir Philip Sidney, and Galway Kinnellwent far beyond the Robert Frosts and Emily Dickinsons that haunt most game shows. Luckily for Maclaine, he had an MA David Maclaine attributes his game show SUCCESS TO LUCK, St. John’s, and “The Simpsons.” in literature and a St. John’s education under his belt. And-current students please take note-Maclaine, who had faith­ fully attended Friday night lectures, was able to answer this question correctly because the poet Galway Kinnell gave a lec­ ture at St. John’s during Maclaine’s fresh­ man year. “I still remember him, wander­ ing up and down on the stage in the Great Hall,” he says. “He had no prepared speech, but spoke impromptu-a discussion of Walt Whitman liberating poetry from the strait jacket Milton had put it into.” Maclaine put the poets in order, hung up the phone, and two hours later received the call-he would be flying to New York to compete on the show. While Maclaine had beaten some very tough odds to get that call, he was not com­ pletely surprised that he’d done so. In high {The College- St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } school, he was part of a champi­ onship quiz team and discovered that he had the poise to compete. “There are plenty of people who know a great deal but freeze up dur­ ing competition,” he says. “Two of the people on my high school team ended up co-valedictorians, but during the games they’d sit with fixed grins on their faces while the rest of us answered the questions.” While Maclaine was not the type to freeze up, his early attempts to get on “Millionaire” were thwarted by a lack of focus brought on by depression. At the time Maclaine started to call into the show, his mental health was suffering. His freelance writing career had taken a downturn. A book he was working on fell apart. A day job ended poor­ ly. When he finally found himself unemployed, he was too paralyzed to look for work. His game show phone-ins reflected his mental state. He called the show while he was in the middle of reading a book on medieval history and got a ques­ tion about the medieval kings of England. “I botched it,” he says. “I was not focused enough to get even a handit-to-me question.” Not long after, Maclaine took part in an experimental program to test a new anti­ depressant. His depression lifted. “It turned on some switch in my brain that remained on after the study was over. I went back to calling the show and it was a lot easier,” he says. There are countless factors that influ­ ence our lives, and even if no one can say what’s causal and what’s coincidental, it certainly seems that Maclaine earned his way on to the nation’s hottest TV show with the help of experimental drug TAK637, the towering height of RuPaul, the appearance of Jasper Johns on the “Simp­ sons,” and a Friday night lecture by Galway Kinnell. Competition on “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire” begins with the Fastest Finger round, where players are asked a question similar to the call-in questions. The con­ testants punch their answers into a keypad �{AlumniProfile} and the one who gets the question right in the shortest time makes it to the Hot Seat, where he has a chance to win up to one mil­ lion dollars. Before taping, contestants are given a Fastest Finger practice session, where Maclaine says he made every kind of blunder possible. When the show started, the contestants were asked to place a series of actresses in order according to age. Maclaine got them right but mistakenly held dovm a button too long, entering one actress for two slots. While the winner of the round was sit­ ting on the Hot Seat, Maclaine had plenty of time to think about his mistake. “Your wrong answer stays locked on the screen in front of you the whole time you’re watching the winner play,” he explains. “1 knew the next round would be my last chance and I was determined not to botch it.” During the next practice session, Maclaine doggedly worked with the keypad, choos­ ing several sequences to enter over and over again. The next question asked the contestants to place four rock songs in order of release. “I didn’t recognize a single one,” Maclaine says. “I just punched in one of the patterns 1 had been practicing. I sat there thinking, ‘OK, that’s it. I’ll be going home soon.’ Then I heard Regis call out the first answer and I though it was amusing I’d gotten it right. Then the second one was also right. I was thinking clearly enough to know I was only a coin flip away from getting them all right and sure enough, I had. Only one other poor schmo got it right, and he had actually spent some time thinking about it.” Maclaine, clueless about the question, had entered his answers faster. He went to the Hot Seat laughing giddily. “If anyone needed a break at that point, I did,” he says. The Hot Seat is what “Millionaire” is all about. It’s where the contestant sits across from host Regis Philbin and is asked rs questions of increasing difficulty, winning increasing amounts of money. After hear­ ing each question, the player can decide to try to answer it (and risk losing much of the money he’s won), or to walk away and keep the money. One difference between “Millionaire” and other game shows is that contestants on the Hot Seat are given no time limit for answering the questions. Although the show is known for how easy its early ques­ tions are, Maclaine ran into trouble on only his third: How many claps did it take to operate the original Clapper? Maclaine couldn’t remember, or perhaps he had never known. “Ever since they invented mutes, I haven’t been listening to commer­ cials,” he admits. Still, he managed to get the question right and answer some harder questions, like what did Michael Jordan announce he was going to cut back on: endorsements, film-making, baseball, or golf? Maclaine had no memory of such an announcement, but he took his time, allowed the nervous energy that clouded his thinking to dissi­ pate, talked through everything his mind could dig up about Jordan, and let his brain do its work. “I didn’t panic at the questions I didn’t have nailed. That’s one way that going to St. John’s really helped me,” Maclaine says. “People who have gone through a more conventional education, where they think in terms of answers that they either do or don’t know, become paralyzed when they don’t have the answer. But when you’ve had the kind of education where there aren’t many fixed answers, where you’re used to sitting down and discussing things, you can sort through your thoughts and work out the answer. The idea of talking your way through it is natural for a St. John’s alumnus.” Maclaine was asked several middle-level questions he considered easy: What kind of art was Frederic Remington famous for? How long ago did dinosaurs became extinct? Whose nickname was the Desert Fox? He had no trouble with these, yet was unsure where the Pentagon was located. “That was before September rr,” he says. “Now it’s a question we all know the answer to.” Eventually, Maclaine reached the $350,000 question: What’s the material inside an etch-a-sketch: carbon, silicon, aluminum, or magnesium? “Somehow, I knew how it worked. A light metallic sub­ stance is attached to the surface by static electricity. The black lines are not set down, they’re cut through the background. That told me it was something metallic, either aluminum or magnesium. If I’d remembered my chemistry, I would have had the answer instantly. Magnesium, after all, would explode.” He decided to take a chance. “I knew that a quarter-million dol­ lars was worth the gamble, that it would change my life significantly more than $125,000” He gave his answer. After learning that aluminum was cor­ rect, there was a pause in the taping. A pro­ duction assistant reminded Maclaine that {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } 35 Millionaire Questions Answered Artists: Goya, Matisse, Dali, Johns Celebrities: RuPaul, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Dr. Ruth Poets: Sir Philip Sidney, William Car­ los Williams, Galway Kinnell, Rita Dove It took two claps to operate the origi­ nal “Clapper.” Michael Jordan announced he would cut back on endorsements. Frederic Remington was famous for western art. Dinosaurs became extinct around 65 million years ago. Erwin Rommel’s nickname was the Desert Fox. The Pentagon is located in Arlington, Virginia. he needn’t be embarrassed to walk away with $250,000 if he didn’t know the answer to the next question. When filming resumed, Maclaine was asked, for half a million dollars, which type of tree most of the world’s supply of cork comes from: oak, hickory, aspen, or birch. Unsure of the answer and unable to reason it through, Maclaine walked away from the show with $250,000. But not before Regis told him the answer: oak. Since then, the relation of oak and cork seems to pop up everywhere in Maclaine’s life. While watching a golf tournament from Spain (a major supplier of cork), he saw an informational segment that dis­ cussed the country’s oak trees and cork industry. Reading some literature on cork floors, he saw their origins as oak explained. But such reminders of his decision not to answer the cork question never trouble him. “I’ve spent no time regretting my play. I’m so delighted to come away with what I did,” he says. “The day I’m embar­ rassed to walk away with a quarter million dollars is not anywhere on my horizon.” �{AlumniProfile} 36 Object Lesson Samantha Alderson (A86) found a career that mingles art and history—cls an art conservator. By Roberta Gable, A78 he liberal arts were kind of a shift for Samantha Alderson (A86) when she came to St. John’s, because in high school the arts she concerned herself with were the fine ones. She attended the High School of Music and Art in New York City, which gave her equal doses of studio work and art histo­ ry. She figured the college experience ought to be heavy on the academic side, since she wasn’t sure if she wanted to pursue an art career. She chose St. John’s “because I wanted to go to col­ lege for an education, not for a profes­ sion.’’ She kept up with drawing and painting while she was a student, and even helped set up the first visual arts preceptorial. Then, in one of those clearas-a-bell moments, the idea of becoming an art conservator occurred to her. Alderson had traveled in Italy before col­ PUTTING THE PAST BACK TOGETHER: SaMANTHA lege and had seen people doing restoration work. Alderson applies acrylic resin to the EDGES of a ceramic VESSSEL FROM EqUADOR That image had apparently lurked in her subcon­ BEFORE REASSEMBLING IT. scious until its sudden manifestation during her senior year. Since she had no idea what was involved in such work, she had some serious servator, and then she was able to volun­ research to do. teer at the Guggenheim in the painting She went up to NYU (which has one of conservation lab. She worked as a paralegal the three major art conservation programs to pay the bills, and eventually the Guggen­ in the U.S.) and had a talk with the direc­ heim offered her a paying job. Meanwhile tor, who spoke to her of the prerequisites: she took classes, all over the place: at the i) at least four to six courses in art history, Art Students League, working up her port­ anthropology, or archaeology; a) a science folio; and at Hunter and Gity Gollege in art background, including at least one year history, general chemistry, and organic each of undergraduate general chemistry chemistry. In three years she’d acquired and organic chemistry; 3) formal course the brute minimum to apply to the gradu­ work in a wide variety of fine arts media ate programs, so she did, but she didn’t and a portfolio of your own artwork; 4) and expect to get in, because she’d been told some previous conservation experience. that most people had to make a second run Despite being, shall we say, technically before they did, the programs being small unprepared in many ways for this pursuit, and competitive. Alderson resolved to pursue it anyway. In fact, she did get into NYU and And this is where her St. John’s educa­ enrolled in the fall of 1990, beginning a tion kicked in. “St. John’s gave me a sense four-year program (three years of course­ of being up to the challenge, the confi­ work and then an internship) for an MA in dence that I could do anything.” First, she art history and, concurrently, a certificate volunteered (which is in many fields an in conservation. excellent way to get your foot in the door, “Art conservation” is the modern field as many Johnnies have discovered) at the that has evolved from the tradition of “art Morgan Library working with a book conrestoration.” The idea is that with a tripar­ T {The College. 5t. John’s College ■ Fall 200/ } tite background in science, fine art, and art history, the conserva­ tor has both the hand skills to clean, repair, and restore art objects, and the sensitivity to do so in ways that will preserve them for future generations. Gonservators have to understand materials, their strength, how they age, their solubility, etc., and choose the proper tools (even, for example, formulating their own adhesives) to do what’s proper. As a part of that, they often research many aspects of the object including its chemical constitution, its history, and its anthropologic signifi­ cance. And it turned out that for Aiderson that “object” was the right word. The other main areas for conservation are paintings, paper, textiles, photographs, and library materials but early on she decided on objects, which includes sculpture, deco­ rative arts, and architectural, archaeologi­ cal, ethnographic and natural science materials. She spent three summers work­ ing on an archaeological dig on the island of Samothrace in Greece (the island’s high­ est peak Fengari was where, according to the Iliad, Poseidon watched the battles during the Trojan War). There she cleaned, reassembled and stabilized ceramics, glass, stone and metal objects from the classic period. In her last year in graduate school, how­ ever, she concentrated more on objects from less familiar places, what you call your “ethnographic” material. Generally this is not ancient stuff-being anthropology as opposed to archaeology-and often the objects were not created to be art but intended for functional, religious, or cere­ monial use. “You handle these objects very differently. If you have a pot covered with a thick gooey black residue, you don’t neces­ sarily clean it off-you have to ask if that residue is important.” For her internship (the fourth year of the graduate program) she decided to focus on ethnographic objects, and got a spot at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where she worked on a wide �{Alumni Notes} Deirdre Routt (A) and Kevin Graham (A90) are overjoyed to announce the birth of a child, Nora Elizabeth Routt Graham, on April II, aooi. JEANNINE K. Bramwell (SFGI) got her master’s degree in counseling from Adams State College in 1998. She became a national certified counselor in 1999 and retired from public school teaching in aooo. 1992 Cynthia Millington Brandreth (AGI) has a baby boy, Zach, born October 19, 2000. 1993 Miriam Spectre (A) and Akiba Ashley Waring Victor (A) writes: CoviTZ (A) report that their son, Abraham Joseph Spectre-Covitz, was born on May 7. They are also happy to report that they have finally disentangled themselves from the “Ivy League” and moved on to saner and simpler academic groves. Akiba is now professing to know something about constitu­ tional law and civil rights at the University of Richmond (www.richmond.edu/ ' acovitz), where he is also the liberal arts-oriented pre­ law advisor. After years of work and grad school (getting her second master’s degree, in history, in 2000), Miriam has welcomed the opportunity to take time away from being an archivist to explore moth­ erhood. They are enjoying living in Richmond, where they purchased and moved into a house only two weeks before Abe was born! If you see a car with Virginia license plates that read “SJC 91,” stop and say hi. “We are still at Chatham Hall School where Oliver is the Chap­ lain (he was ordained on July 21 at St. Paul’s School in New Hamp­ shire) and I teach Latin part time. Elizabeth and Lucy (ages 3 and 2) love all the horses, fields, and ‘big­ girls’ at Chatham Hall but are thrilled by the busy harbor life of Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, where Oliver is teaching sailing for the summer. Would love to hear from Bryce Heavner and Donald Eubank!” John MacFarlane (SF) is featued in an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. After beginning at Harvard, he switched to St. John’s and then returned to Har­ vard. He earned a PhD in philoso­ phy at the University of Pittsburgh and was hired for the faculty of the philosophy department at Berkeley. In addition to his focus on logic and classical philosophy, he plays the fiddle in a bluegrass band and is known as “The Fiddlosopher.” 37 Eveline Smilack (A) recently received her MFA in film produc­ tion and direction at USC and is beginning at CAA (Creative Artist Agency). Her film Ripen is now starting the festival circuit. William Edelglass (SF) writes: “For any old acquaintance who hap­ pens to be passing through northern India, I have a beautiful house nes­ tled into the Himalaya, with plenty of space, or at least suggestions for good hotels, as well as great climbs and fascinating people. Half the year I am based in Dharmsala, as Assis­ tant Director of Emory’s Tibetan Studies Program, and Visting Facul­ ty at the Institute of Buddhist Dialects. I teach Tibetan philosophy to students from the States, and western philosophy to Tibetan monks making their way through a fourteen-year curriculum in Bud­ dhist philosophy.” variety of objects, “as much as I could get my hands on, as much as possible on things I hadn’t worked on before.” The folks at the museum liked her, and after her gradu­ ation kept her for another year in an advanced internship, and then she was able to stay on there the next year with a Kress Foundation grant (to do a technological study of Zapotec urns, archaeological Beth Martin snapped this photo of her classmates-and assorted friends—FROM THE CLASS OF 1994. ThEY WERE ATTENDING THE CRO­ QUET Match last April. 1994 Ross Vineberg (SF) writes: “I am living in Jerusalem, Israel. I am learning modern Hebrew, involved in fine-art photography, poetry, and learning Torah. It’s intense liv­ ing here, for obvious reasons, but I’ve met many quality people and love living here so it makes it aU worthwhile, all my love to class 1994-Moish.” MattTebo (A) is enjoying living in San Francisco with his wife, Arnie, and playing in a band with Garth Klippert called Suisol. LisaMabli de Jong (SF) reports that she received her PhD in Envi­ ronmental Science, Policy, and Management from Berkeley. Her dissertation subject was forest fire behavior and she is now working as ceramics from ancient Mexico), and then, sure enough, after the grant year was over, they hired her as an Assistant Conservator, and then promoted her to Associate Con­ servator. Alderson continues to work on a wide variety of archaeological, ethnographic, and natural science material from the museum’s collection, researching, docu­ {The College- St. John’s College • Fall 2001 } a research scientist for the USDA Forest Service in Davis, Calif. “I also just got married to a Dutch man named Arend Jan de Jong, so my new name is Lisa de Jong,” she adds. 1995 Jennifer Garmaise nee Berger (SFGI) writes: “I worked in jour­ nalism for five years and now I am teaching world literature and Eng­ lish at an orthodox Jewish High School. My wonderful husband Mark moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in August. Last year, I spent a lot of time learning Torah. I hope everyone I graduated with is doing well. I would love to hear from anyone in the Los Angeles area (or anywhere)! Jgarmaise@yahoo.com.” menting, repairing, cleaning (or deciding not to clean), and establishing the parame­ ters for the display, transport, and storage of objects. A basketry hat from the Pacific Northwest, a featherpiece from the Ama­ zon, a wooden Hindu altarpiece, a Mayan ceramic vessel, you name it. The world has passed through her hands. 4" �{AlumniNotes} 38 Katherine Spencer (SFGI) is teaching art in elementary school and loving it. She can he contacted at klark_kat@hotmail.com. “Con­ tact me, Susanne and Juha,” she writes. a tutor position at St. John’s one day. I wonder if they’ll hire me. My husband is starting a construction business here in Santa Fe so I think I’ll be here for a long time.” Greet­ ings may be sent to AmythestCM@msn.com Marissa Colleen Mkal Misiaszek (A) writes: “I have a wonderful, outgoing, and inquisitive one-yearold son. I was married on the sum­ mer solstice at dawn on the beach. I received a grant to study Anasazi communities in the four-corners region near Santa Fe. I completed my landscape architecture thesis on creating a community in a flood plain. I’m still looking for a job.” Mike Layne (SF) writes: “I am a Counselor III at a youth shelter here in Barrow. This is my second year here in the Arctic. My first year I worked for the state of Alaska as a social worker and I absolutely hated the punitive aspects of the job. I took a summer off and returned as a counselor at the local youth shel­ ter. Been happy ever since. My wife and I have been married two years now and hopefully will have our first child in the spring of 2002.1 would love to hear from alumni and tutors. All visitors to our neck of the woods have a free place to crash. E-mail me at mike_layne@hotmail.com. If any­ one knows how to get hold of Dan Meyers, please give him my contact info.” 1996 Loreen (AGI) and Greg Keller announce the arrival of their third daughter, Alison Marie Keller, who was born May 23, 2001. David Longjohn Stanton (SF) is living in Los Angeles and practic­ ing law. 1997 Paula Ruhin (AGI) and John Swann (AGI) announce their engagement. A spring 2003 wed­ ding is planned. Paula will be pur­ suing a BS in computer science this year and John will be starting a PhD program in the history of technolo­ gy. Paula and John still reside in Annapolis and would love to hear from any Johnnies. John’s e-mail is cygnnus@hotmail.com and Paula’s is psrubin@aol.com. InyaLaskowski (SFGI) reports that she showed her encaustic monotypes in eleven art shows last year. In May she returned to Santa Fe to create new work at the Col­ lege of Santa Fe Printmaking Cen­ ter. At that time she also had a oneperson exhibition at Hand Artes Gallery in Truchas, N.M. In September/October 2001 her newest series, “Songs of Munnin and Hudinn,” will be featured at Gallery Route One in Point Reyes, Calif. She says that the Norse god of old, Odin, had two ravens as advisors, one called Munnin, mem­ ory, the other Hudinn, thought. Her works are abstract deductions about our existential dilemma. She likes to refer to them as “visceral philosophy.” have been teaching at Loyola High School for the past four years. I have decided not to return. I am now ungainfully unemployed. I hope to find a job in foreign policy. Here is my fantasy: Corporation X offers me my Wonderjob but says Wonderjob starts in a few months so I have time to travel and when I get home, know that a paycheck will be waiting for me.” 1998 Nathan Schleifer (SF) got his JD from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis in May 2001. Stephen Conn (SF) spent an inter­ esting year studying lighting design in the New Mexico State University Department of Theatre Arts. He was a cast member of the American Southwest Theatre Company’s pro­ duction of the Lorca play “Blood Wedding,” and on that experience, based his short independent film project titled “Backstage.” As always, he sends his “greetings to the great class of 1998!” 1999 Brent Hinrichs (AGI) recently moved to San Jose where he is Upper School Head at Hillbrook School, a K-8 independent school in Los Gatos, Calif. “While not at work, I enjoy the warmth and sun­ shine of Silicon Valley I ” he writes. Dominic Crapuchettes (A) writes: “Still doing web programming in Flash 5 for an internet math tutori­ al company named BoxerLearning. com. Still living with Amanda Dulin (A) in Charlottesville and having a great time with her. Still {The College. Elaine Spidle Ataha (A) recently bought and is running her own business. One Stop Body Shop. She is a licensed massage therapist and a veterinary technician focusing in anesthesiology in orthopedic sur­ gery. Leslie Norton (AGI) writes: “I Amy Borsick Stanton King (SF) got married on June 21,1999 to Shawn King, and they are “happily living just outside Santa Fe and truly enjoying life.” She writes, “My daughter Allison has a daugh­ ter, so I suppose that makes me a grandmother. Who’da thunk it? And I’m only 36. Presently, I am a balloon twister. I know about 40 different balloon animals and shapes. It’s really nifty. I can make everything from a dog to a guitar. I am considering applying to UNM’s PhD Program in Anthropological Linguistics and hoping to apply for thinking about returning to school for either business or technology. Not playing Magic any more or going fishing in Alaska this sum­ mer.” Rodino Anderson (A) writes: “I’m finally leaving Florida and moving to New York. I will attend Teachers CoUege, Columbia University in the fall, where I am enrolled in a PhD program in philosophy of edu­ cation. I guess the two years I took teaching philosophy and mathe­ matics at a high school have paid off. I’m looking forward to reunit­ ing with close friends in the New York area. My other non-New York living friends can continue to write 5f. John’s College ■ Fall aooi } me at rodino69@yahoo.com until I get settled. God bless you all! ” Hagop Varant Krpanian writes: “Although I only spent one year at SJC during the 1995-1996 school year, it was one of the most memo­ rable experiences of my li fe. The skills I’ve acquired during my short stay have served me well and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. I would love to hear from any of the class of ’99 who remember me. After St. John’s, I spent two years at a local junior college and finished at Berkeley with a BAin political science. I just finished my first year at the Medical College of Wisconsin, which was as difficult as it was rewarding.” Paul Ronco (SF) writes: “Hi, everyone, hope you’re all doing well. I had a great year. If you want to drop me a line, I can be reached at pronco@hotmail.com.” Sara J. Elzerman (SF) will begin her final year of law school this fall at the University of Southern Cahfornia. She looks forward to prac­ ticing in the Los Angeles area. Kristin Jacob and Steve Dumont (both SF) write: “We were married on July 27, 2001. We are currently living in Seattle where Steve is in the second year of his union electri­ cian apprenticeship and Kristin is an office manager at a veterinary hospi­ tal in Federal Way. We still haven’t decided what we’re really going to do with the rest of our lives, but we’re having fun in the meantime, attending as many Seattle Mariners games as we can afford! We’d love to hear from anyone-e-mail Steve at imacurioso@aol.com or Kristin at radinsgirl@aoLcom.” Josh Hendrix (A) writes: “After two years of silence, I suppose an update is overdue. Shortly after graduation I was hired to run the summer camp at a small, private pre-school in Wilmington, Del. After a successful summer I stayed on to teach pre-kindergarten and remain still a pre-K teacher and head of the preschool department. I love my work and I’m ecstaticaUy happy to have the time at night (free from homework and paperwirting) to play in three bands. P.S. I recently spent a lovely week in Jamaica with Kelly O’ Malley (A) �{Alumni Notes} and Rob Holbrook (A). Mr. Hol­ brook is flourishing in the Peace Corps there.” 2000 Christopher Vaughan (A) has received his Associate of Arts degree from the University of Alas­ ka, Anchorage. He will be attend­ ing Flagler College in St. Augus­ tine, Florida, enrolling in the education program. He hopes to teach elementary education to deaf children. V. Leslie Hendrickson (SF) writes: “Class of 2000: Greetings all! I have just moved to New York City and will start work at Colum­ bia University soon. I’d love to hear from friends!” Greetings maybe sent to vlesliehendrickson@hot­ mail.com Michael Baetz (SF) writes: “It looks as if I’ll be spending my sec­ ond winter in Big Sky, Mt. If anyone I know wants to ride a great moun­ tain, come on out! My e-mail is mpbaetz@netscape.net. Hope you are finding your little niches and enjoying life.” John Hunter (AGI) and his wife Lisa live in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he teaches ancient world his­ tory and Latin and coaches basket­ ball and lacrosse. Lisa does technol­ ogywork for a local manufacturing company, S.I. Corporation. James E. Lewis (SFGI) is now a stu­ dent in the psychology department at New School University in Man­ hattan. “This semester,” he writes, “either I will learn to distinguish the various forms of schizophrenia. 39 or I will develop a form of schizo­ phrenia in which I find some meas­ ure of comfort. Otherwise, I have spent more than one hour attempt­ ing to form a connection between Times Square and the desert, which I miss.” Mehmet Can Atacik (A) hoped to finish his master’s degree in gov­ ernment administration at the Uni­ versity of Pennsylvania’s Fels Cen­ ter of Government this past summer. Calling All Alumni The College wants to hear from you. Call us, write us, e-mail us. Let your classmates know what you’re doing. The next issue will be pub­ lished in March; copy deadline is February i. In Annapolis: The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404; b-goyette@sjca.edu. In Santa Fe: Karina Hean (A) just returned from a Post Bacc year in Florence, Italy, where she spent time draw­ ing. She got a scholarship to spend a semester at the Rietvald Academy (an arts school) in Amsterdam. She is back in Maryland for a while, working at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in their galleries and funding research. The College Magazine, St. John’s College, Public Relations Office, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599; classics@mail.sjcsf.edu. Alumni Notes on the Web: Read Alumni Notes and contact The College on the web at; www.scja.edu - click on “Alumni.” {Alumni Association Awards} Alumni Award of Merit At Homecoming in Santa Fe and Annapolis, three alumni werepresented with the Alumni Award ofMerit by the Alumni Association. A.T. Michael MacDonald (SF76) has devel­ oped his career around a love of music. MacDonald runs AlgoRhythms, a digital mastering studio in New York. He records, masters. and produces jazz, rock, and Broadway; he also restores archived analog master tapes of classic performances on the Ed Sullivan Show-which featured such artists as Louis Armstrong, The Rolling Stones, and The Doors. MacDonald has received several Grammy nominations for his recordings and two Grammy awards for McCoy-Tyner recordings he recorded and mastered. Opera is also on MacDonald’s list: he’s restoring and digitizing historic concert performances made between 1935 and 1985. MacDonald has presented several benefit concerts for St. John’s. Warren Spector (A81), the co-president and CEO of the Wall Street firm Bear, Stearns, was intro­ duced by Brother Robert Smith, who has known Spector since his student days. Brother Robert declined to describe the importance of his position, saying that there are ample reports in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Instead, he told how Spector first went to Princeton and studied mathematics. Becoming disen­ chanted, he left and supported himself for a year as a professional bridge player be­ fore coming to St. John’s. “Princeton just wasn’t the sort of community I was looking for,” said Spector in accepting the award. “After reading the catalogue I was taken by the idea of St. John’s. I found here some­ thing much greater than the catalogue described.” {The College- St. John’s College . Fall 200/ } Tom Williams {A51), a teacher of middle school math for 28 years, was introduced by president Chris Nelson, Williams has lived the philosophic life, said Nelson, because he spent his time leading young people to knowl­ edge. In addition to his many years of teach­ ing, Williams inaugurated the local St. Vin­ cent de Paul Society and helped with the last St. John’s fundraising campaign. “He supports the life of learning and the institu­ tions necessary for learning,” said Nelson. Williams attributed his interest in math to St, John’s; he said that after he finished high school math he celebrated because he didn’t think he would have to take the sub­ ject again. But he fell in love with it at St. John’s and ended up teaching it. �{Alumni Association Awards} 40 At Homecoming this summer andfall, five were named honorary alumni by the Alumni Association. Honorary Alumni Rjchart Lampert is president of the Library and Fine Arts Guild in Santa Fe. Under Lampert’s leadership, the Guild has grown from 123 members in 1996 to more than 250 today. Co-owner of Zaplin-Lampert Galleries, he provides a valuable resource to St. John’s for art history, appraisals, and general art information. He contributes to the college by serving as master of ceremonies at college-communi­ ty functions, providing his gallery for col­ lege dinners and receptions, and donating rare and collectible books and fine artwork for college auctions. Michael Rodriguez, director of financial aid in Santa Fe, has been with St. John’s since 1985. He works hard so that students can afford to attend, balancing the total amount of money available for aid with the strictures governing disbursement of money from St. John’s College grants, as well as from other sources. Sympathetic with the concerns of students, he is respected for his sensitivity and discretion, his spirit of cooperation, and above aU, his desire to help others. John B. Moore, Jr., Beate Ruhm von Oppen, and Nancy Lewis with Annapolis president Chris Nelson (SF70). Nancy Lewis, long-time registrar in Annapolis, was introduced by Sus3an Bor­ den (A87), who spoke about the former registrar’s “grace, elegance, kindness, care, senstivity, and intelligence.” Lewis served as registrar from 1976 until her retirement in 1999. She started the F-i Club for foreign students and is known for her tireless advocacy on behalf of all John­ nies. “When I was a student,” said Borden, “I thought of the campus as her home and her office as her living room. She was the gracious, graceful hostess who did every­ thing she could to make you feel welcome.” retirement in 1987 he has become involved in the cultural community, especially at St. John’s, where he is admired for the care and wit he has exercised in guiding the Mitchell Gallery and the Board of the Friends. John B. Moore, Jr., founding chairman of the Mitchell Gallery Board of Advisors and a past president of the Board of the Friends of St. John’s, was introduced by Jeff Bishop, vice president in Annapolis. After a career in engineering and business, Moore served with the U.S. Commerce Department and then in Maryland state government, where he established the Division of Cultural Affairs. Since his Beate Ruhm von Oppen, a tutor at the col­ lege since i960, was introduced by Elliott Zuckerman. He described her as one of the tutors who “brought to the college some­ thing of a different and wider world” and talked about how she had been moved many times during the first half of her life “by what we take to be the darkest and most dreadful events...” A scholar who doc- {The College. St. John’s College ■ Fall aooi } Michael Rodriguez umented the resistance of the German peo­ ple to Nazism, von Oppen continues to “insist upon accuracy, as opposed to the glib generalizations we all encounter.” This and a love of language, added to her love of music (especially that of Bach and Mozart), she conveyed to students at the college over the course of many years. �{Campus Life} What I Did on My Summer Vacation They didn Y scoop ice cream and they didn't wait tables. They weren Y lifeguards or temps or bookstore clerks. Instead, these Johnnies set offon their own kinds ofsummer adventures. By SuS3AN Borden, A87 Musical Interlude spent my summer doing one of the sweetest jobs I can think of,” says senior Mirabai Knight, “I played violin, trumpet, and bas­ soon for the Bigfork Sum­ mer Playhouse in Bigfork, Mon­ tana.” This was Knight’s fourth season with the Playhouse’s pro­ fessional repertory musical the­ ater company; she started right out of high school. It was her first job ever, but one she was well-qualified for: she’s played violin since she was four, trum­ pet since fifth grade and bassoon since sixth. Although she had never intended to play profes­ sionally, her trumpet teacher (who had worked at the Play­ house before) suggested she take the job, one which Knight found to be both fun and easy, at least for the musicians. “They audition actors from all over the country-17 of’em have appeared on Broadway since-and put them through frigging boot camp: 4 musicals and i play up in about a weeks each. But we pit musi­ cians hardly break a sweat,” she says. And for what she considered minimal effort, Knight earned $200 a week plus free lodging at the edge of the biggest natu­ ral lake in Montana. “Bigfork is an hour from Glacier National Park and a spit and a jump from four rivers and two mighty mountain ranges,” she says, explaining that she spent much of her free time swim­ ming and hiking. During performances, when she wasn’t playing, Knight sat in the darkened theater and read by the light of her music stand lamp. Her reading list included War and Peace and she made an attempt to reread the junior lab manual. “It was fun work,” she concludes of the four summers at the Playhouse, “at least during those moments when I didn’t have ‘June is Busting Out All Over’ stuck in my head.” ’***S Erin Hanlon(SFo3) Mirabai Knight (SF02) performing in “Fiddler on the Roof” Easier Than Aristotle Junior Erin Hanlon spent the summer working with scientist Mac Post at the Environmental Science Division of Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee. Hanlon investigated the effects of elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide on soil sam­ ples. Her work will eventually play a role in establishing a scientific understanding of issues addressed by the Kyoto Protocol, a global treaty for environmental protection. Hanlon’s work used soil cores that Post had previously buried in the Oak Ridge PAGE (Free-Air COa Enrichment) Site. The site, a sweetgum plantation, is provid­ ed with controlled amounts of elevated car­ bon dioxide to simulate conditions that are predicted to occur within a few decades. Hanlon and Post retrieved the buried soil cores, took samples, and then returned the cores to their previous positions. Samples were prepared and analyzed. Then it was up to Hanlon to determine what the data meant. “There were some interesting {The College. Sf. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } results,” she says. “The general trend was what we were expecting: a decrease in carbon in the isolated soil cores while the surrounding soil carbon levels remained steady.” Hanlon explains that microbial respiration was most likely taking carbon dioxide out of the soil and releasing it into the air. While this does not happen in all types of soil, it has implications for the Kyoto Protocol’s car­ bon dioxide credit program, where coun­ tries producing excess carbon dioxide can pay other countries whose production falls below maximum levels for their credits. Hanlon’s internship was part of the Global Change Education Program. The program gives undergraduate and graduate students research experience in fields related to global change (commonly referred to as global warming) and intro­ duces them to the work environment of the national labs. What equipped the liberal-arts educated Hanlon to work in an internship for science majors and students already studying sci­ ence on the graduate level? St. John’s lab and seminar. “There were times when I wished I had taken a statistics or a bio-geochemistry course, but that was generally when I wanted to have the knowledge handy in my brain and not have to read another paper to get the information I needed,” she says. “Freshman lab and Aristotle were def­ initely helpful, though. Anything is easier to read than the Metaphysics^ �4^ {Alumni Association News} From the Alumni Association President Surveys can be great, but they are always less than half of a conversation. I am hop­ ing that this letter can continue the conver­ sation started by a recent college telephone survey of alumni. The primary purpose of the survey was to find out what alumni wanted to see in the new college web site­ coming sometime in aooa. The data helped give a profile of who our alumni are today and how they think about the college and their relationships to it. One of the most interesting findings was that alumni, like you, wanted to be more involved in the college today. Memories of experiences past are wonderful, and the opportunities to extend and expand connections with the college are even better! The college provides many different ways for alumni to stay in touch with each other, with the Program, and with their friends on both campuses. A new CollegeWide Alumni Strategy has been developed to examine and improve opportunities for alumni to continue their life-long partici­ pation in the college community. It out­ lines the current programs that are avail­ able and suggests new avenues for making the most of our common history and cur­ rent interests. Here are just a few of the ways that you can participate in St. John’s College today. Enjoy a face-to-face meeting with other Johnnies who live in your area. Alumni Association Chapters are available in many large cities. The Chapters meet regularly for a variety of events. Seminar, food, drink, chat, and career networking are a few of the most frequent activities at Chap­ ter meetings. Baseball games, theater, and general revelry also find their ways into Chapter plans. If you live in an area that has a Chapter, check it out. If you are not one of the “geographically privileged,” consider starting a Chapter in your area or take advantage of other opportunities to connect. The on-line presence of Johnnies is expanding quickly. In addition to the web sites and listserves (both those officially sponsored by the college and unofficially run by tech-sawy alumni), alumni around the country are participating in on-line conversations with other Johnnies. If you want to get involved, drop me an e-mail, and I will point you to one of the “electron­ ic coffee shops” that are springing up around cyberspace. The college and the Alumni Association host three homecoming events each year (Croquet Weekend in spring in Annapobs, Homecoming in Santa Fe in summer, and Homecoming in Annapolis in fall.) These are great times to visit the campuses to catch up with old friends and make new ones. You might also enjoy the two weeks of Alumni Summer Programs in Santa Fe. During the weeks before and after Homecoming, alumni gather to read and talk about a topic. The topics are suggested by the Association Board. If you have one that you’d like to have considered, drop me an e-mail. There are also wonderful opportunities for you to support the college with your time and talents. The Alumni Association Board is always looking for Directors to help plan and implement Association activ­ ities, alumni members to serve on the Board of Visitors and Governors, and nom­ inees for Honorary Alumnus or Award of Merit. Philanthropia (the Alumni Develop­ ment Council) offers the opportunity for alumni to be involved in fundraising efforts. The Placement Offices need alum­ ni who will provide information about career opportunities and graduate schools. The Admissions offices need alumni to contact prospectives and provide the “inside look” at the college and its pro­ gram. Both campuses are expanding their summer internship programs to provide current students with chances to explore career opportunities prior to graduation. You may be able to offer such a rich experi­ ence through your own professional con­ nections. If you are interested in any of these opportunities, or if you think of another way that you’d like to participate in the college community, check out the college web site to find out who to contact. {The Colleges?. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } Or, you can drop me an e-mail, and I’ll for­ ward it along to someone who can guide you. As alumni we know the joys and chal­ lenges of the St. John’s approach to learn­ ing. Each of us has integrated those experi­ ences into our lives, and the college provides us many opportunities to contin­ ue our life-long journey of learning in com­ munity. Some of us choose to build on our personal relationships. Some pursue the intellectual challenges. Some focus on financial support. Some find the time and energy to support the college as volun­ teers. If you are among the Johnnies who want to reconnect or maintain your con­ nection with the college, you can choose the ways or combination of ways that suit you at this time in your life. When you do, you benefit, the college benefits, and so do all of your fellow alumni who share your love of books, of conversation, and of the institution that brings the two together in such a unique and powerful way. For the past, the present, and the future, Glenda Eoyang SF 76 Eoyang@chaos-limited.com President St. John's College Alumni Association ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Whether from Annapobs or Santa Fe, under­ graduate or Graduate Institute, Old Program or New, graduated or not, all alumni have automatic membership in the St. John’s Col­ lege Alumni Association. The Alumni Associa­ tion is an independent organization, with a Board of Directors elected by and from the alumni body. The Board meets four times a year, twice on each campus, to plan programs and coordinate the affairs of the Association. This newsletter within The College magazine is sponsored by the Alumni Association and communicates Alumni Association news and events of interest. President - Glenda Eoyang, SF76 Vice President - Jason Walsh, A85 Secretary-Barbara Lauer, SF76 Treasurer - Bill Fant, A79 Getting-the-Word-Out Action Team ChairTom Geyer, ABB Web site - www.sjca.edu/aassoc/main.phtml Mailing address - Alumni Association, St. John’s College, Box 2800, Annapobs, MD 21404 or 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 87505-4599. �{AlumniAssociationNews} First All-Alumni Art Show By Elizabeth Pollard Jenny, SF8o The Santa Fe campus Fine Arts Gallery hosted its first All-Alumni Art Show this July, coinciding with Homecoming. The multi-media show was eclectic and reflected the many artistic viewpoints of the partici­ Billy Lieb, a scupltor from the Annapolis CLASS OF 1957, CAME BACK TO St. JoHn’s FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE HIS GRADUATION TO EXHIBIT HIS ART IN THE ALUMNI SHOW. pating artists who represented both cam­ puses. Twenty-five alumni, spanning class years from 1959 through 2001, were able to connect with the college in a new way. Some alumni who participated are profes­ sional artists, while others are art teachers or enthusiastic dabblers in such media as ceramics, drawing, fiber, glass, mixed media, mosaic, photography, sculpture, and painting. Artistic styles were as varied as the media, and included conceptual, rep­ resentational, abstract, impressionistic, and a multitude of other approaches. As I consider the work in the show, it occurs to me that while we were in school we were encouraged to develop an original­ ity of mind as well as of conviction - that we had a right and a responsibility to develop our opinions. We also were encouraged to cultivate the learning skills that serve to enhance the reservoir of experience neces­ sary for creative inspiration and insight. I think these qualities of mind explain both the diversity and harmony apparent in this year’s show. One observer, tutor Cary Stickney (A75), beheves that art rounds out a liberal educa­ tion. In his opinion, there is a mimetic quality to art that allows one to render a subject without quite knowing how one did it. To him, this is delightful and gratifying. Perhaps this explains, in part, the addition of studio art to the senior year curriculum in Santa Fe. Mr. Stickney also said that the All-Alumni Art Show provided an interest­ ing addition to the college community shows that are held annually on the Santa Fe campus. I hope that a conversa­ tion will emerge among St. John College alumni about how, if at all, the St. John’s educational experi­ ence has influenced their artwork. This year the art­ work spoke for itself. We hope those who partici­ pated this first year will be joined by other under­ graduate and graduate alumni in the All-Alumni Art Show in July 2002 on the Santa Fe campus. Thanks to the following 2001 participants: Karen Andrews SF91 (Mixed Media) Joseph Baratta A69 (Printmaker) MaryBeth Bliss SF76 (Glass) Beatrice Butler SF80 (Painter) Jennifer Chenoweth CI SF95 (Sculptor/Photographer) Steve Conn SF98 (Collage) Donna Contractor SF80 (Tapestry) Rebecca Einsig A86 (Photographer) Beatrice Eleftheriou SF82 (Glass) Elizabeth Faulhauber SF85 (Sculptor) Cinda Graham Kelly A62 (Sculptor) Liza Hyatt SF85 (Printmaker/Mosaics) Margaret Inbody GI SF90 (Printmaker) Elizabeth Ivers SF82 (Painter) Elizabeth Pollard Jenny SF80 (Painter) Billy Lieb A57 (Sculptor) Ebby Malmgren GI A88 (Ceramics/Printmaker) Abbey McAndrew A78 (Painter) Frank McGuire GI SF69 (Sculptor) Kay Maureen Moses GI SF82 (Painter) Christopher Quinn GI SFoi (Photographer) Roberta Razafy SF74 (Painter) Vivian Ronay A65 (Photographer) Ken Vaughn SF87 (Painter) Nancy Westheimer GI SF94 (Painter/Calligrapher) {The College -St John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } 43 CHAPTER CONTACTS Call the alumni listed belowfor information about chapter, reading group, or other alumni activities in each area. ALBUQUERQUE Bob & Vicki Morgan 505-^^75-9012 ANNAPOLIS Beth Martin 410-280-0958 AUSTIN Jennifer Chenoweth 5x2-482-0747 BALTIMORE Roberta Gable 410-626-2531 BOSTON Ginger Kenney 617-964-4794 CHICAGO Lorna Anderson 773-338-8651 DENVER Elizabeth Pollard Jenny 303-530-3373 LOS ANGELES Elizabeth Eastman 562-426-1934 MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL Carol Freeman 612-822-3216 NEWYORK Fielding Dupuy 212-974-2922 NORTH CAROLINA Susan Eversole 919-968-4856 PHILADELPHIA Bart Kaplan 215-465-0244 PORTLAND Dale Mortimer 360-882-9058 SACRAMENTO Helen Hobart 916-452-1082 SAN DIEGO: Stephanie Rico 619-423-4972 SAN FRANCISCO, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jon Hodapp 831-393-9496 SANTA FE: John Pollak 505-983-2144 SEATTLE Amina Stickford 206-269-0182 WASHINGTON DC Jean Dickason 301-699-6207 ISRAEL Emi Geiger Leslau 15 Aminadav Street Jerusalem 93549 Israel 972-2-6717608 b0azl@cc.hu3i.ac.il A special thank you goes out to the Library and Fine Arts Guild Arts Commit­ tee for its enthusiastic support of the idea for an alumni art show; to Ginger Roherty, Art Gallery Director, and Maggie Magalnick. Art Gallery Assistant Director, and to Glenda Eoyang, president of the Alumni Association, and to the Association for their generosity in helping to make the show a resounding success. All alumni interested in being involved in next summer’s show to be held in July 2002 on the Santa Fe Campus should contact Maggie Magalnick byphone: 5O5-g84-6tgg, or by e-mail: maggie@mail.sjcsf.edu; or by mail c/o St. John’s College, 1160 Camino Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM 8’^5os-45gg. �44 PaulT. Beisser Class ofig42 Paul T. Beisser, a retired produce broker, died in August. Born in Reading, Pennsyl­ vania, Mr. Beisser graduated from St. John’s in 1942. He was a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and a member of the Knights of Columbus. After working as a produce broker in St. Louis, he retired to Lampe, Missouri. Surviving are his wife, Winnie; three sons; three daughters; 20 grandchil­ dren; and four great-grandchildren. Robert O. Davis Class ofig48 Robert O. Davis, a writer and editor who was a member of the class of r948, died in May. He was Chief Editor of Reports and Publications at the U.S. Steel Research Laboratory in Monroeville, Penn., from 1967 to 1982. Following retirement, he was active as a freelance editor and writer for the Association of Iron & Steel Engineers and other technical societies. He graduated from McKeesport High School in Pennsylvania in 1938. A naviga­ tor in the 8th Air Force in World War II, he received the Air Medal and a Presidential Unit Citation. After service, he attended St. John’s. Active as a sportsman and envi­ ronmentalist, he was a past president of the Fort Pitt Retriever Club and the first chair of the Pittsburgh chapter of Friends of the Earth. He is survived by his wife, June, and by a son and daughter, two granddaugh­ ters, and a sister. Robert Moody McKinney Member ofthe Board Robert McKinney, financier and publisher of the Santa Fe New Mexican, died in July. Born on the dining table of a church par­ sonage in Shattuck, Oklahoma, in rpro, Mr. McKinney went on to become a major play­ er in the financial world, an advisor to pres­ idents and senators, the ambassador to Switzerland, an authority on the uses of atomic energy, and the publisher of the Santa Fe New Mexican. He was instrumen­ tal in bringing St. John’s College to Santa Fe and served on the Board of Visitors and Governors from r953 to 1968. In a tribute to McKinney written shortly after his death, David Boren, U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, said, “The history of Robert’s hfe reads like an adventure story.” From humble beginnings, Mr. McKinney put himself through the University of Okla­ homa. Determined to make his own way, he set out for New York in 1932. His luggage {Obituaries} was stolen, and with the small amount of insurance money he received, he started investing. Within a decade he had attained financial success by purchasing solid assets from bankrupt companies. He served on the boards of many companies including ITT, TWA, Martin-Marietta, and the Rock Island Railroad. He served in the Navy dur­ ing World War II, where he helped develop the Tiny Tim rocket. After the war, he served as ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, ambassador to Switzerland, and in posts in the Treasury Department under Johnson and Nixon. McKinney learned about St. John’s when as a young naval reserve officer he led a suc­ cessful drive to forestall the Naval Acade­ my’s expropriation of the Annapohs cam­ pus for expansion in the mid-i94os. He later served on the Board. He led Richard Weigle to Santa Fe and arranged for him to meet John Gaw Meem, who donated land for the new campus. Lucille Murchison Member ofthe Board Lucille Murchison, who served on the Board of Visitors and Governors from 1988 to 1994, died in July. Born in Dallas, Mrs. Murchison became a passionate advocate for the arts in that city. She married John Murchison in 1947. The John and Lupe Murchison Chair at the Santa Fe campus is the result of a 1979 challenge offered by the couple. Mrs. Murchison also served 18 years on the University of North Texas board of regents and was co-owner of the Dallas Cowboys from 1979 to 1984. Hilyer Shufeldt Class ofig55 Hilyer Gearing Shufeldt, an elementary school teacher in Annapohs for 30 years, died in October. Born in California, she traveled with her Navy family as a child, liv­ ing in many cities before settling in Annapolis. She graduated from Annapolis High School and attended St. John’s for one year. She married and while her hus­ band pursued an academic career, she raised four children. In 1967 she moved back to Annapolis fol­ lowing a divorce and taught at Anne Arun­ del County elementary and middle schools. She completed her BA degree in teaching at Bowie State University and earned a master of arts from the Graduate Institute in 1983. Surviving are her sons, one broth­ er, and five grandchildren. {The College -St John ’5 College • Fall 2001 } Samuel V. Stiles Class ofig54 Samuel V. Stiles, Jr., a longtime supporter of the college, died at the age of 75 on August 3. He served as the president of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Alumni Association from 1993 until his death. A resolution of the Alumni Association says: “The leadership that he provided the group was not only efficient and organized; he was indeed the heart, soul and spine of the chapter. As a discussion leader his pres­ ence was subtle, gentle and profound, encouraging and validating all points of view. He loved books and he loved to understand. Even when his illness made it hard for him, he seemed to thrive in the meeting of the minds around the discus­ sion table. His manner was always gentle and reserved; he set the tone for the group to have thoughtful discussion.” He was a native of Louisville, Ky., and a resident of Rockville, Md. He served in the Navy in the Atlantic during World War IL He graduated cum laude from Emory Uni­ versity before attending St. John’s. He received a master’s degree in political sci­ ence from the University of Indiana and taught that subject at the University of Kentucky before moving to the Washing­ ton area to work at the National Institutes of Health. He also worked in the Peace Corps and was deputy administrator in Togo. He retired in the mid-eighties from the Public Health Service, after working as an administrator of the Volunteers in Ser­ vice to America. His hfe was dedicated to helping others. He is survived by his wife, Sally West­ hofen Stiles, and two sons, David and Steve. Rev. David Streett II Class ofig$o The Rev. David Streett, a retired Episcopal priest, died in August. Born in Baltimore, Father Streett graduated from City Col­ lege. He served in the Navy during World War II in the Pacific. After being dis­ charged, he earned a BA from St. John’s in 1951 and an MA in theology from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1954. He served at churches in Baltimore and Cumberland and founded the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Ruxton. He moved to Georgia in the rpBos and worked with Planned Parenthood and anti­ poverty programs. Later he was the clinical chaplain for the Augusta State Medical Prison. He retired in 1993 from the Missis­ �{Obituaries} sippi State Prison at Parchman. He is sur­ vived by his wife, Betty Lou; three daugh­ ters; two brothers; two grandchildren; two stepdaughters; and two stepgrandchildren. Charles H. Watts II Member ofthe Board Charles H. Watts II, former president of Bucknell University and a member of the St. John’s Board of Visitors and Governors for many years, died in September. Born in Bronxville, New York, he earned a bache­ lor’s degree and doctorate in American lit­ erature from Brown University and a mas­ ter’s from Columbia University. He taught English at Brown from 1953 to 1963. At the age of 37 he became president of Bucknell University. He served for la years, handling a variety of situations including the protests against the Vietnam War. In 1975 Mr. Watts returned to Boston and became general director of Beneficial Finance Corporation, which was founded by his father. He served on the boards of academic, corporate, and civic institutions. He was a member of the Audubon Society and the New Hampshire Forest Society and was devoted to conservation causes. At St. John’s he was known for his straightforward analyses, common-sense questions, and persevering attitude. Most recently, he served on the Search Commit­ tee for the president of the Santa Fe cam­ pus. Mr. Watts was made an honorary alumnus, class of 2000, by the St. John’s Alumni Association. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; two daughters and a son; and six grand­ children. In Memory Of Robert Arne, SFGI83 Last autumn many in the St. John’s College community lost a friend, Robert Arne, SFGI83. Diagnosed with a swiftly acting terminal illness, Robert Arne faced the last few weeks of his life as he had lived much of it - reading Plato in Greek and discussing politics and philosophy with the numerous friends who visited him. Although his last days were painful he took only the mildest doses of medication so as to remain lucid in order to converse with his visitors and, as he said, “to experience as fully as I can this passage.” It may surprise some who knew Robert that his first passion as a young man was art, and he attended art school before studying engineering at Berkeley to honor his father’s wishes; but the emphasis on practicality in engineering left his budding interest in theory unsatisfied, so he switched his major to physics. It was while pursuing a graduate degree in physics that he met philosophy in the person of one of those rare beings-a genuinely philosophi­ cal soul who is also a splendid teacher. It changed his life. He studied and loved clas­ sical Greek, philosophy, and particularly Plato. His life from then on was governed by these loves. Anything that did not serve these ends was jettisoned. He lived austere­ ly; his habits were simple and his dress was plain. Hoping to make his living teaching philosophy he pursued a PhD, but a degen­ erative retina problem diagnosed some years earlier worsened, and he was declared legally blind. With effort he could still read, but only slowly; he was forced to leave the program. He taught at private schools for several years, but his condition required him to seek a community where he could attend to his needs by walking; furthermore it had also to be intellectually stimulating. He learned of Santa Fe and St. John’s College. For the sheer joy of the conversation he earned yet another mas­ ter’s degree through the Graduate Institute and taught Greek privately to any who were interested; for several years he taught Greek to Institute students through the auspices of the college. Always the conver­ sationalist, he was instrumental in forming a weekly reading group which was one part of what became the Santa Fe Chapter of the Alumni Association. Five days before he died Robert put down the dialogue he had been reading for lack of strength to make sense of the text. It was the Parmenides. To the end he was trying to understand. —John Carroll Pollak, SFCI80 In Memory Of Constance Darkey It is a melancholy pleasure to write about Connie Darkey, who died last May at the age of 84. We had known each other for 44 years. Her husband. Bill Darkey, was my co-leader in 1957 when I was a freshman tutor. It was a memorable freshmen semi­ nar-some of its members have been life­ long friends-and to top it off, every Thurs­ day after seminar Bill would take me to his house. There, over a glass of wine with crackers and cheese (I remember the hos­ pitable details vividly over the decades), I was initiated into the college as a living community. Connie took a strong part in these con­ {The College -Sr. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } 45 versations. She had played a role in this world for a dozen years before I came, as bookstore manager and faculty wife. In those early days the bookstore was the veri­ table center of the college, located right next to the coffee shop, and the manager knew a lot of what went on. Connie was very much on the inside of the place. She was passionately interested in the way the program worked on students and in the effect the faculty had on them. It would not be too much to say that her keen observa­ tions, censorious and generous, excited and penetrating, first showed me that I was committed to become part of a quarrel­ somely loyal working family, that the absorbingly intellectual program of the college was carried on by a band of glori­ ously human colleagues. No young tutor could have undergone a more candid and therefore a more engaging induction to this college. When Bill and Connie moved to Santa Fe as part of the founding generation of that campus, I discovered before long that Con­ nie kept an eye on my doings and writings from afar. Eventually part of the pleasure of producing anything was to send it to her. Before too long would come a letter with illuminating questions followed by that most gratifying compliment a reader can give: an appreciative pouncing on the sen­ tences closest to the writer’s heart. Connie was the most empathetic of readers. Of course she was that much the more a discerning reader of great books. It was delightful to talk to her about a novel, or any book. I would have loved to have been in seminar with her as I once was with BiU. We might have had some blazing battles for the benefit of our students as well as moments of perfect concord. I always thought of her as a fellow tutor and the three of us almost always got together for a couple of hours of conversation when I was in Santa Fe; even in the last years, when she wasn’t well, she hadn’t lost her spirited acuteness. I shall miss her, and I think often of Bill’s loss. — Eva Brann Also noted... Alfred Franklin, Class of 1951, died in August. Mary J. Navratil, SFGI71, died in May. Samuel Schenker, Class of 1939, died in September. Dr. Francis Townsend, Jr., Class of 1938, died in August. �46 {Alumni Voices} COURTLY LOVE On the intimate experience ojplayinp basketball. By Jane McManus, A93 M y one regret after my mother died was the archon of the athletic department, took my mother aside. “Your daughter,” he said, that she never saw me play basketball. I choosing his words carefully, “she’s a very player.” She got a big kick out of never played in high school and parents tenacious that, and so did 1.1 liked to think of myself don’t generally travel hundreds of as the Bill Laimbeer of women’s intramural hoops. miles to see their kids play a game of College was my first experience playing basketball, though we fielded no intercolle­ college pick-up. They don’t pack the giate teams. Never formally coached, I like to think of myself as a pure player, which sideline at the YMCA to watch their adult children in knee only means I don’t know many plays. I don’t braces and with taped fingers pretend to be 18anyagain. have memories of suicide sprints or Pulling my basketball shoes out last Janu­ ary, two weeks after she died, lacing them up slowly, I tried to clear my mind of all the thoughts that had kept me inert on the couch all morning. The local Y sets aside two hours a day starting at noon for basketball. I figured it was time I worked on my shot. I had been constantly by my mother’s side in a hospice watching her gradually deterio­ rate. I’d talk to her about local games I’d seen. She seemed to find a pleasant diver­ sion in my words. Maybe she just hked lis­ tening to my voice, and I was desperate to find something to fill the stale air in her room. After all the necessary things have been said and done, there is little left but make vain attempts to give comfort. She took her comfort in the mundane details I supphed. Those days ran together. I stayed up late unable to sleep. Nothing else mattered. And then suddenly, but expectedly, my days were empty in late December. Friends, proverbially well-meaning, dis­ pensed awkward words and half-meant invi­ tations to get out of the house. Their plans took too much energy. I drew in, spending all my time thinking about what was lost, no conversation could alleviate any part of my sadness. My worn leather ball had gone flat in the months I hadn’t played. At St. John’s Col­ lege, the game had been as much a part of school as class. We chmbed on the roof to Jane McManus and her mother break into the gym on summer nights to play pick-up. During the school year there were games every night. We’d play until well after midnight, exhausted and with sweat drip­ ping into our eyes. The gym was built in 1909, and its insides look like one of those courts on old reels of grainy basketball footage. Hot in the sum­ mer, cold in the winter, the gym was filled with outdated equipment; balls bounced funny if at all. The ceiling beams were exposed, ehminating the half-court shot and the cross-court pass. The weekend I graduated, Leo Pickens, {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } dribbhng exercises. The concept of a pick was a revelation. I’ve worked hard on my game, but I’ll take whatever credit I come by. When I tell peo­ ple I played in college, sometimes they assume I mean St. John’s the university and not the college. Admittedly, I don’t always go out of my way to correct them. I figure a couple of permanently jammed fingers justi­ fy any fack of clarification. Basketball has become so much a part of who I am it is hard for me to imagine a time I didn’t play. I bought an official leather ball when I graduated. It seemed a huge expense at the time but it was an investment. Last winter brought the first prolonged period of time I didn’t play. The gravity of trying to finish graduate schoof, look for work and bury my mother so overwhelmed me that I sat still all day, never exactly tired, but unable to get up. My stepfather called to tell me I should come over and go through my mother’s things; jewelry, photographs and clothes still fresh with her scent. Get up. That January day I dragged myself to the Y and started practicing foul shots in another ancient gym. I was trying not to think about anything, just the rim and the ball and the muffled sound of a runner on the overhead track. The ball felt too heavy and my first shot dinked off the front of the rim and landed hard back in my hands. A few other people wandered into the gym and began to warm up. A game of half-court three-on-three was organized and I was the �reluctant sixth. I felt self conscious, but as the game got going the familiar competitive tweak returned. January bled into February, I spent weeks doing httle but going to the Y to play ball. The routine was the only thing that made me even shghtly comfortable again. The rules don’t change once you think you have them down. The structure of the game, things hke clearing the 3-point hne after a change of possession, checking the ball, the sound of four bodies coUiding for a rebound, all of it was ingrained. And unhke other social situa­ tions where people tried to be helpful or consoling, the guys at the Y just wanted to know if 1 was up for another game of 21. ''Built in igog, the gym had exposed ceiling beams, eliminating the half-court shot and the cross-courtpass. 1 usually was. Just on the off chance that, although tired, I might make the open shot or get a rebound against someone with a couple inches on me. Something that made me feel hke everything was working and order had returned. {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } There is something immensely soothing about a game of pick-up with a regular group of people you don’t know well. You know their game, who always takes the shot, who always passes, who blows the layup. At the end of two hours, knees aching, 1 would walk out into the grey afternoon without my coat on and, before the sadness returned, 1 felt for a moment that there was nothing but my face and the cool air. And that, more than anything else, was exactly what I needed. Jane McManus is a sportswriter at The Journal News in Westchester County, New York. �48 {St. John’s Forever} uring the Second World training of the intellect that happens in War, students at St. the learning and practice of the manual John’s received some use­ arts as well as the liberal arts. Also, ful education. According Buchanan knew that one learns quite a bit to Winfree Smith’s histo­ of physics if one acquires a full under­ ry of the New Program (A standing of all the transformations of Searchfor the Liberal College, energy 1985), they that take place in the internal com­ were offered a three-hour, oncebustion a weekengine.” course in radio. There was a course in Franz Plunder spent the summer of navigation. And Franz Plunder-a sculp­ 1942 designing and building new desks tor, marine architect, and boat-builderand beds of walnut to outfit dormitory taught a course on the gasoline engine. rooms (he also made the Coffee Shop “No one knew which St. Johnnie might be tables). Said a student in the yearbook: stranded in a tank somewhere on the bat­ “The desks, when swept clear of all intel­ tlefront, where there would be no hard­ lectual material, made excellent bars. The ware store and mechanics for him to turn beds were designed without head or foot to,” explains a student in the 194a Year­ and thus made excellent daybeds; they book. Winfree Smith’s account adds: gave, as it were, a range of two-hundred “Actually the course was in line with and seventy degrees of attack.” [Scott] Buchanan’s view that there is a D {The College - St. John’s College . Fall 2001 } Franz Plunder in the WOODSHOP WITH THE WALNUT BEDS HE MADE FOR DORM ROOMS. St. JoHn’s �■ s {Alumni Events Calendar} a On a prefect southwestern July day, Santa Fe alumni enjoyed their perfect southwest­ ern RELAXED PICNIC. Croquet Match April 37, aooa, i p.m., Annapolis A stunning comeback is predicted for the 15 and 4 Johnnies who unexpectedly lost last year’s match. Will revenge be sweet? 8 T TIC June 30 - July 5, Santa te • Arts and Letters of New Mexico; Alexis de Toqueville, Democracy in. America July 7 - la, Santa Fe Plato, The Republic, The Qur’an and the life of Muhammad i—Santa Friday, July 5 - Smd^, juiy 7 Reunion classes: 1972,1977,198a, 1987, 199a, and 1997 imecoming, aooa-Annapolij Friday, October 4 - Sunday, October 6 Reunion classes: 193a, 1937,194a, 1947, 1952,1957,1963,1957,1962,1967,197a, 1977’ 1982,1987,1993,1997 Secontfl LShi Santa 1iSia The show will take place during Homecoming aooa. If you’re interested in par­ ticipating, please contact Maggie Magalnick (505-984-6199) or Elizabeth Pollard Jenny (303-530-3373). For information on events, contact the Offices of Alumni Activities; Tahmina Shalizi Director of Alumni and Parent Activities Santa Fe-505-984-6103 tshalizi@mail.sjcsf.edu Roberta Gable Director of Alumni Activities Annapolis-4io-6a6-a53i alumni@sjca.edu {The College- St. John’s College ■ Fall 2001 } �STJOHN’S COLLEGE ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE Published by the Public Relations Office Box aSoo Annapolis, Maryland 21404 address service requested Periodicals Postage Paid � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The College </em>(2001-2017) Description An account of the resource The St. John's College Communications Office published <em>The College </em>magazine for alumni.  It began publication in 2001, continuing the <em>St. John's Reporter</em>, and ceased with the Fall 2017 issue.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The College" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=56">Items in The College (2001-2017) Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Santa Fe, NM Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context thecollege2001 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 48 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The College, Fall 2001 Description An account of the resource Volume 28, Issue 1 of The College Magazine. Published in Fall 2001. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2001-09 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The College Vol. 28, Issue 1 Fall 2001 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Goyette, Barbara (editor) Borden, Sus3en (assistant editor) Ducker, Susanne (graphic designer) Mulry, Laura J. (Santa Fe editor) Johnson, David Morrison, Marissa Hancock, Evan Randall, Thomson Idema, James Pastille, William Sanfilippo, Mark Gable, Roberta Eoyang, Glenda H. The College