Hot Inside and Out

4" x 4" Encaustic - "Red River"

August weather has arrived here in Walla Walla and it's been a scorching couple of days measuring in the 100's.  We feel pretty lucky that the soaring temperatures of our sister states across the country have taken so long to reach our valley.  In the meantime, our air conditioner is finally on and we're giving thanks for having it!

That's the outside weather while indoors my studio has been cooking with hot wax.  Posting three new pieces of encaustic work today;  you're invited take a look in the Browse section of my site!  If you've never heard of hot wax artistry, just google ENCAUSTICS and you can find several primers describing the ancient art of waxiness.

Waxing Away

In the midst of beautiful, busy summer days, a couple of weeks ago I shared an adventure with friends in Portland and Salem - shopping scrap shops, art supply stores, art galleries and small museums, along with attending an informative and inspirational workshop entitled EncaustiCamp.  EncaustiCamp is the baby of an amazing encaustic artist, Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch and is in its second year of existence.  (For the workshops, Trish brings together other artists/instructors/extraordinarily talented women as instructors in wax prep, application, inspiration*).  

Many of you may never have heard of encaustic art before - painting, imaging in molten to hardened beeswax, it has now become THE love of my studio life! 

For some time now, I'd been looking to this medium to punch up my collage work.  Just missing the deadline for last year's Encausticamp, I've been dabbling in the wax on my own for about a year now.  Since this year's workshop, no more dabbling, I've been able to wax eloquently (couldn't resist) in my studio for more hours than I've seen there for months! 

All of this is to say that if you're here now reading this post or seeing it on Facebook and have been unable or uninterested in visting diannawoolley.com lately, I invite you to click on over and take a look at the new work!  Hope you like it as much as I do.....

With warmest, waxy, wegards.....

*by visiting the Encausticamp link, you'll have an opportunity to visit the instructors' bios and their personal website links.

P.S. No bees are harmed in this process - rather it keeps them employed full time!

July 5 Leftover Food and Thought

After a lively and most enjoyable July 4 evening shared with friends and family, what another treat this evening to sit back with a cool breeze off the patio and delicious leftovers from yesterday's feast...... small piece of chicken, green bean salad, fresh raspberries and a dab of vanilla ice cream - yep - yum!  How blessed we are to count our blessings in this land of the free and home of the brave!  Would that ALL of us in America could, can and will share the bounty of our times.

July 4 - though certainly not a religious holiday does seem a logical time for prayer for our politicians - global, national, and local - a prayer that we the voters and those elected would and will use the good sense that we have been given to care for all people, for all lands and all peoples.  The founding fathers only interested in their own special needs and without real looooooong distance forethought set about a Declaration of Independence that would be beneficial to at least the first citizens of the "new" republic.......I'm not so sure they were at all concerned about those who fell outside of the white, anglo-saxon, protestant description but they did outdo themselves in a document that still stands today as one worthy of reading.

Featured Collage - "Why Not Red?" -  diannawoolley.com

Whadda they do now?

Late last Sunday a.m. under threatening skies with just a touch of sunlight now and then, we attended the Whitman College graduation ceremony here in Walla Walla.  A beautiful small town affair - bleachers, folding chairs and blankets on the lush college lawn, stately trees overseeing us all with small children and dogs perfectly comfortable in the outdoor setting. Red fire truck with EMS at the ready, flower vendors for those last minute bouquets, and the town band playing lively getting ready music and then the procession of students, professors, past graduates and college hierarchy marched in to cheering and applause - truly a picturesque scene!

As the "friendship family" to an international student for his past four years in Walla Walla we were his representative family; his mother in Bulgaria and sister in England were unable to attend and we were it besides his many fraternity pals and fellow student admirers.  We felt honored and fortunate to be representing this young man and duly proud of his college achievements.

The prior Thursday evening we entertained our friend and his friend for dinner at a lovely WW dining spot.  As they arrived so handsome, so beautiful, so full of life and expectation - I commented to my spouse that I was in awe of their mere presence as young adults well educated and comfortable to enter the social sphere or whatever sphere they happen to choose or land in.  We had a lovely dinner full of conversation, friendship, reflection and anticipation.  Four adults sharing dinner and life - special!

Back to commencement - the diplomas were handed over, each graduate recognized and cheered by their different audience particpants and then the reverse order took over for the recessional.......the rain held off, the gowned scholars and alumnae smiling and laughing with probably some of the giddiness of college memories as well as the calling out of their names from us waving and cheering and then the seniors - the celebrities for the day - marched triumphantly out and off the scene.  Brilliant students, opportunities galore - they WILL change the world, success at hand......as they recessed......for me they suddenly shed their young adulthood and became as though young children once more - perhaps even graduating from preschool or middle school - they were STARTING OVER, commenceing onto yet another unknown frontier in their lives - so prepared, yet so vulnerable. 

I prayed and do pray for them all - what an amazing time in their lives - I wonder as they must - "whadda they do now?"

The Obsolesence of a Child's Toy

Heartthrob

Quite a number of years ago.....possibly when our grandchildren were toddlers, there was a new toy/gimmick introduced into the world of toys and games.  It was, for better want of a word, a sort of "live" object that had to be "cared" for on a very regular basis.  Designed for the child to carry it in a lunch box or pocket, it could easily be accessed at any time of day or night.  The accessing meant that each time you "loved" the thing, its life was expanded and continued.  The obvious dread downside of the "thing" was that if you didn't check it enough, love it enough, pay close enough attention to it, the "thing" would - oh my gosh - DIE!  

Personally I thought the concept was ridiculous, potentially disappointing, maybe even devastating to the child who absentmindedly meant to care for the "toy" and found that sometime during the day or night it had died - the child had neglectfully let it perish.  Again, oh my goodness - what a ridiculous idea - checking it constantly, carrying it everywhere with you, rejuvenating it (possibly via a battery charger?) peeking at it all of the time to ensure its place and importance in your life?  RIDICULOUS!  No wonder the toy never really caught on - 

Whoops!  Oh excuse me, my IPhone is ringing and not only do I need to answer it, I need to charge it - the battery is almost down...........don't you hate it when that happens??????

An Extraordinary, Ordinary Week

Juniper Canyon - WA State

Last week was just one of those - an extraordinary, ordinary week - one in which a life, or lives, or many lives were changed by small everyday actions.  It's taken me really until today to unload it all from my mind.  Family birthdays, anniversaries, celebrations, training runs, hikes in unknown canyons, new acquaintances - just an extraordinary, ordinary week.....I know, it's the third time I've said it!

One of the birthdays was a dear brother's, one of them was for a 90 year old friend's.  Both men in their own ways extraordinary, ordinary men - having accomplished a great deal in their lives but seldom speaking of their prowess. 

The 90 year old - How must it be to live 90 years and still be full of life, love, not to mention your right mind?!  With a lively lady friend on your arm and a skip in your step even if aided by a cane?

And the brother - still a mystery to his sister, wondering what goes on in his mind, what makes him happy - the speed of the bike (I mean a big bike), the footfalls on a jog when he expected his lungs to have claimed him at a young age, the giggle of his grandchildren as he stands on his head?

The camaraderie of women young and old packaging custom made chocolates for a YWCA fundraiser luncheon - watching each other carefully that no chocolate was "popped" rather than packaged:)  The luncheon celebration itself - with a speaker extraordinaire.  A former career Naval Officer and retired Navy Captain, Barbara Bell by name - a pioneer in the integration of women at the Naval Academy, to grad in her flight school and pilot "with distinction" in Naval Test Pilot School.  She's flown F-14, F-15, F016 and F/A-18 planes - again an extraordinary woman now sharing her life by leading and mentoring women (and men) both young and old.

As speaker of the YWCA luncheon, Barbara spoke candidly to women and men of all ages about her living out the life of a minority woman among men, sharing her dramatic journey from supportive parents (she had to squeeze them a little for support of her education) into the highest ranks of the navy.  In an extraordinary act of graciousness, Barbara took time prior to the luncheon to meet with a group of YWCA sponsored Hispanic teen girls, telling them the sky was the limit for them in more ways than one.  Not a recruiting speech for the navy but a recruiting speech for their claim of life's rewards. 

An hour spent volunteering at the local Farm Labor Camp, engaging in tutoring, talking, just generally engaging with grade school boys and girls - seeing the light in their eyes when a new craft or skill was tried and conquered - a whole new demeanor from last year's sullen, angry child - this year smiling and eager to learn alongside his senior adult male tutor - ordinary? No, extraordinary!!

A hike in the sunshine into an unknown but from the distance mountain canyon with geology and biology professors as our guides - about 40 of us - along a narrow trail at times, one slip on a rock and but for a craggy sagebrush, which broke her fall and prevented a disaster,  we could have lost one of our women hikers.  She being an octogenarian at least - none of us knew her age exactly but she was a shining star of the hike.  One particular sandy (the geologist explained why the sand was suddenly in the middle of our rocky trail), extremely uphill, slippery slope must have been a challenge to her as it was to many of us 20 years her junior, but she never let on that it wasn't just another extraordinary, ordinary day!

How many extraordinary, ordinary days do we let pass by without acknowledgment - many I'd guess, but they feel very good in recollection and in gratitude I give thanks that I'm able to celebrate them, healthy, full of life, and mind - ordinary?  No, extraordinary!!!

From her recently published book, author Kayce Stevens Hughlett, shares a reading entitled "When Pigs Fly."  Take a few minutes, enjoy and maybe, as I do, you'll find yourself relating to the special little piggie in the story - Pedrita and her amazing life!

"West Maui News" reports alien creature......

Dateline:  Friday, March 16, 2012

Observers:  Whales, fishies, an eel and several sea turtles

Creature: Unknown, strange, possibly rare female snorkeler

Eye witness whales, colorful fish, one fabulous eel and several monster sea turtles, reported a creature previously unknown to them in these waters.*  It was clad in what appeared to be a black and red outer skin wetsuit with pale lower legs, hands and head exposed to the warm (?) Maui coastline waters.  Said creature was wearing a neon colored apparatus on its head with what looked like a breathing tube above the water.  Oh, and yes LARGE black fins were attached to its lower extremities - the supposed feet.  To make the sighting even more impossibly rare, said creature was reported to be wearing a Clinique lipstick - color - "Red-y to Wear" with an SPF of 15!  The sighting in general was sudden and frightening, although upon close inspection the creature seemed perfectly harmless with a silly grin plastered on its face!  It was swimming among other pale bodied specimens - all of them having a wonderful time and squealing from time to time, what sounded like "turtle, turtle!

Alien Creature Spotted off of Maui Coastline

*Molokini Underwater Preservation Site and Turtle Arches off the west end of Maui

First Half or Second Half - Go for it!

Frankly there are days, more than less, that I feel as young and vibrant as I did as a girl.

• I love the sunshine on dewy morning grass between my toes
• I don't fret endlessly about a little rain
• I enjoy a first snowfall
• I'm intrigued by lightning and thunder
• ....well that covers the weather.  
• I still think I can jump (I was a cheerleader for many years) at least I know the moves are in my head - the nerve to try it does lead to thoughts of the paramedics saying....."she was doing what?!" 
• I still love, love, love dogs - I would have 3 or 4 if the practical side of that situation didn't pop up in my mind's eye and so pour all of my doggie love out on my one doggie pal, Riley.  
• I still love ice cream
• Riding a bike
• Driving a car
• Singing praise Jesus songs with my arms in the air - (whoops, Episcopalians don't do that, do they?)  
• I still love to munch on chicken bones like my Grandma taught me to do
• Indulge in just a great big bite of steak fat, like my uncles always did
• I remember long car trips (where car sickness was sometimes a problem) and knowing now to always face forward I find car trips more fun than ever
• I remember Red River summers and fishing for trout in a stream
• Horseback riding with no skill at all - only nerve - 
• Square dancing with boys met at the dance
• Slow dancing to Elvis Presley songs on a record player 

I'd say I still do or would still love those things if I had the occasion to frequent such activities.

I was always an optimistic, let's-be-friends sort of kid, and was sideswiped more than once in my life by a "friend" who was NOT!  I never got used to that and can remember the tears vividly, letdowns from overly and misfed/misread expectations, but I learned.  The same lessons came with a spoiled first marriage - I was in it to trust - that's a huge 'nother story.  In business, a boss I wasn't crazy about occasionally, but still and all, I've remained as much an optimist now as I was as a first halfer.......remembering, looking back that first half can be beautiful in its naivete and also extraordinarily brutal in its let downs.....and hopefully one always has another chance in the first half.

And the second half, here it is, maybe more than the second half.  I believe that in this part of my life that you and I are here now to recognize the lessons we've learned, to realize that we ARE to be the grown ups, the wise ones, the leaders, we ARE the persons others want to look up to, we ARE the ones who know more than we think we do, who ARE called to teach, to lead and to mentor others who have not yet found themselves.  We ARE the people that we can work to make ourselves with God's help.  We are the THEY that are the leaders and adults now........we just need to recognize that of ourselves and get about living it. We need to Celebrate - Live it!

Too much expectation for the second half?  You don't want to lead, or teach or mentor, or exercise, or eat right, or read more, or study more, or work for a political candidate or cause, or go to church anymore, or take up a new hobby, or fly somewhere you've always dreamed of, or tried a yoga class because what would people think?.......The whole deal is, in my ever so humble opinion, is that other people don't think about you and I, (after all, we're old now) they think and worry about themselves so holding ourselves back because someone else might not agree with us can be a huge mistake for our bodies and our souls.   So first half or second half - first half fly, fall down, get up, learn.  And second half - fly, fall down, get up, and learn.  Time's running out and think of the fun you could miss if you don't go for or it today! 

First Half of Life?

First & Second Lives - Fully Integrated

Reading Richard Rohr's - "Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life", I was reminded last evening about viewing from the second half. Having dinner in a beautiful Maui restaurant at the casual setting of the bar - in close proximity to other diners -  a darling young couple settled into their places next to us. Both, almost simultaneously, asked the bartender for some sort of delicious non-alcoholic beverage for the wife as "they" were pregnant.

We struck up a conversation about the strawberry, frothy milkshake libation that came and then laughingly engaged in conversation with them about when the baby was due, their first, how exciting......etc. As we visited a flash of Rohr's rhetoric came into my head as I clearly observed them chronologically and experience wise in their first half, with us observing and visiting with them from our second. We imparted parent-like, congratulatory, loving comments on their expected treasure knowing that they had NO apparent reason to be overly concerned with first half/second half issues - only with the now, only with their youth, only with their child.  I believe that's the only way the first half of life can be viewed when you're in it.

Maybe to the point though, this is not the first time I've felt myself looking "back" at couples, and youth in general, living life as though there were no second half - only the now of youthfulness....  a wonderful time of innocence and naivete.   There is really no reason they should be looking at the second half (aside from financial planning, healthy living, and retirement investments:) ONLY IN THAT how much better off could we all be if we had put more planning into our living as long as we have and as long as we hope to live.  

It seems to me that if we've had the good fortune to reach the second half of our lives (and I'm talking to most of us over 40, hoping to make that 80 number at least) we might give some thought as to how we might influence first halfers a bit more  - without heavy handed preaching or advice.

First half can be so rough - we of the second half have much to offer, much to pass on, much love to give those in their first halves! With just a little more effort toward mentoring, exhorting, and influencing of young adult lives toward their spiritual development - their lives walked with God - their financial decisions, their healthy life styles - couldn't we make their paths less rocky, not rockless, just less rocky - offering them a rake to smooth their gravelly path?  Yet advice, rather than mentoring or influencing, can be viewed as second-hand (not as good as first hand) advice.....not really worthy of taking......I mean, did we listen, did we think those in the second half of their lives were anything other than old?  If only we could figure out how to share more together between the halves.

Does God Play Fair?

So there I was just minding my own business, enjoying Maui, the worship service, the sermon, the fresh air, the prayers............just settling back into the pew after receiving the Eucharist this a.m., when, BAM!, a familiar face from our hometown was coming back from just having received the Eucharist also.  I nudged my seatmate and was that a gasp I heard?......well, almost.

There in the midst of the 10 Commandments and Jesus turning over the tables in the temple sermon was a person who used to be a fellow Episcopalian, who we used to socialize with in friends' homes, who used to, well......until....... the gay issue lit some kind of fire in his belly and he turned away from the Episcopal church, determined in so doing to take away as many Episcopalians as he could with him and then when that wasn't enough, he went back (?) and took more of his Episcopal friends to the true and holy Roman catholic church of his childhood, of his imagination, of whatever?

O.K. God, this is dirty pool but something I've seen You use before - a big fat in-my-face REMINDER of what those 10 commandments mean, of whom I am called to love, of whom I am to forgive, of whom I am to be as Christian whether, Episcopal, Baptist, Roman Catholic, or Presbyterian.  A REMINDER that just because I would argue vehemently, disagree totally, and have been really hurt by another's actions, I can't pretend to be Christian unless I forgive, unless I greet, unless I love, unless I repent (turn) in the direction you would have me go.  A REMINDER that I must offend you often, behave outrageously often, forget to love, to forgive, to repent and still you love and forgive me.........may I remember your love and with gratitude show it to those I might not choose, convincingly and with sincerity......it doesn't seem fair ALL of the time but then again, thanks for the REMINDER - I'm willing to give it a go again!

Top almost 9 Maui Restaurants

Polenta Stack at Lahain Grill

This post has little relevance to most of my readers but can't resist - we've had amazing food on this trip and these restaurants are just fabulous!  Excellent menus, service, ambiance!

1.  The Lahaina Grill - Polenta Stack was outstanding - flavors just melting in my mouth.  This night I had lobster ravioli to begin!.......the management decided our party of 6 needed a variety of desserts, creme brulee, berry pie, warm chocolate cake with ice cream

2.  The Pineapple Grill - Short Ribs Ravioli appetizer with Surfin' Goat Dairy Cheese - rich enough for a meal - saving room for dessert, oh my - one night was warm chocolate cake and another their famous pineapple upside down cake with fresh pineapple topped with Roselani's macadamia ice cream and coconut phyllo shreds on top - oh and surrounded by an amazing caramel sauce!  Rombauer bottle completed this delish dinner

3.  I'O - amazingly imaginative fresh fish dishes - beautiful ocean breezes

4.  Roy's Kahana, now Roy's Kaanapali - they've moved - but still the best butterfish ever!!! Just order the appetizer size

5.  HONO - 2 lunches and 2 dinners with take-home boxes as well.  Steve does takeout non-dairy chocolate mousse cake here!  The turtle watching as well as the manta rays surfing were enchanting evening time entertainment

6.  MALA - room for toasted brussels sprouts - it'll change your definition of bs forever!

7.  Leoda's Kitchen and Pie Shop - lunchtime, I've never had a BLT to write home about but this place deserves the accolade, thick bacon, avocado, sweet maui onion, sweet mountain grown fresh lettuce,  the piecrusts - soft and flaky, the secret - lard, of course - definitely on Steve's non-dairy dessert list.  He chose dairy free, I chose coconut creme pie and chocolate macadamia, carmel sauce

8.  Kai Sushi - well, it will ruin your idea of sushi for anyplace else!  So fresh!

9.  Star Noodle*




*review pending - we haven't been able to actually get in to Star Noodle YET - their beautiful, rather small restaurant is always hoppin' and we keep trying to catch them on an "un-hoppin'" night:)

Scared and Sacred

“Scared and sacred are spelled with the same letters. Awful proceeds from the same root word as awesome. Terrify and terrific. Every negative experience holds the seed of transformation.”  ― Alan Cohen

An interesting quote........I came upon it earlier this week while visiting the blogsite - "Word In The Hand".


I highly recommend you visit the site today and read the post entitled - "No More Fear"
Enjoy!

Eating Dessert First

Plumeria tree beginning to bloom

Following if you will posts at MindSieve....... the last few weeks have been from the sometimes sunny, sometimes rainy island of Maui.  Planning our trips here in the months of January or February, we are accustomed and entertained by the sight of enormous humpback whales and their calves enjoying Maui's warm ocean water.  We also always enjoy the beautiful garden and roadside foliage abundantly displayed  in greenery as well as blossoms.

When we arrived, my spouse remarked on the plumeria trees - fragrant with beautiful creamy white, yellow, and pink blossoms everywhere on seemingly lifeless or dying branches.......yet not so, as we've had the pleasure of observing, as if for the first time - the blossoms come first and THEN the leaves begin to appear.  Strange to our mainland eyes as the reverse is often the rule for our foliage, the leaves coming first and then the blossoms......making me think of "eating dessert first".  What a wonderful Mother Nature idea!

What?!  You've never thought of blossoms first?  Well then maybe you've never eaten dessert first...a grand idea, don't you think?!

  

Aloha!

Rainy - Sunny day!!

Stormy day on the Maui coast

In spite of days of rain on Maui, we optimistically showed up at 7:30 a.m. for a scheduled snorkel trip......laughing about the rain and the not so great temperature showing on the dashboard (66 degrees - up to 70) we drove the 45 minute highway to a particular boat harbor and were astonished to be generously awarded for our optimism!

Woohoo - fabulous day of sunshine, delicious boat food, breaching whales, sailing, along with the sea turtles putting on an amazing underwater snorkeling show for us:)!  It started raining again as soon as we left the boat - but finding that "sunny window" was terrific!  

Hoping you find your "sunny window" today - even it it turns out to be only in your mind:) xoxo

Whole Sermons....notes or none -

Church of the Holy Innocents, Lahaina

I'm married to an Episcopal priest - one who gives sermons from notes and can seldom recite verbatim all the words said in a sermon, a eulogy, a lecture..... that's a good thing a lot of the time but often I wish he had the words written down for me to chew over, discuss, debate, etc. 

While on Maui, we worship at our favorite Episcopal church, The Church of the Holy Innocents in Lahaina and the priest, Father Bill Albinger, does write out his sermons, refer to his notes, publish the text later.  Although I recognize Bill must be a gifted speaker without notes, he used to address juries, I think, the text of his sermons to be reflected upon later after a service is always welcomed by me.  Below were the closing words of his text last Sunday..........

"Perhaps this Lent we might give more thought to what we fear and what we wish for and then ask if these leave enough room for God to enter our lives. Are we as individuals, as a church, as a nation so fearful and angry and so determined to be who we are or think we must be that we cannot see who God is calling us to become? (My underlining:) Perhaps everybody has room for improvement in this area.*

My words now - Who do you think you are and who do you think you must be?  Have you reached GOD'S plan or potential for yourself or are you - oh here it comes - to blind to see the forest for the trees?! ............how's Lent going for you?

*Sermon, Father William J. Albinger Sunday March 4, 2012 Lent 2B 2012 (Sermon delivered from notes – this is a recreation)

Celebrate - Live It!*

In a phone conversation with a kindred spirit this past week, we were both weighing in on the good, the very good, and some of the bad, not a place we choose to dwell in, the bad that is from time to time in our faces, and asked ourselves where would we both be if we hadn't risked, stretched, studied, examined, tried, failed, tried, succeeded, etc. etc.?......and again, risked, stretched, over and over and over.

Well, I for one, and I think she also would say, might be in a heck of a depressed and complicated life.  I've learned and when I don't remember, try to remind myself that I am not responsible for everyone else's happiness.  I am responsible for my own life and happiness.  I can't make life easy for someone else nor can I predict, outline, insist upon the way or style in which another person lives, breathes and has their being.    I can only affect my own being, my own actions, my own happiness.

That being said, I can be momentarily – maybe a loooooong momentarily – distracted, derailed, disappointed, sad, depressed, angry, just down right miserable about another's actions AND I know I can not stay there in those down places.  It won't help the other and, shoot, the other probably won't even know or suspect that they've affected me with their actions! 

All of this is to say, what works for me and for my spirited kin is that risking, stretching, trying, examining sometimes seems counter productive yet most of the time brings us out to that beautiful rainbow's end with the pot of gold – our lives –  just waiting to be lived!  

Celebrate - Live It! – Words I'm living by and into this year – this is #3 of the Celebrate – Live It! theme*

"Sacrificing all our individual.........

You haven't heard me quote Martha Beck in a long time but I think she often has words of wisdom - these I like –

"Sacrificing all our individual needs doesn't strengthen a relationship.  Mutually supporting each other's personal growth does."

Would that we would all remember to support each other for even tiny spurts of growth in awareness, accomplishment, and spiritual development.  We never know when and what a few well placed words of support from us will do for a friend, family member, or even a relative stranger.  Certainly in my life I am grateful to remember words of kindness and  support from totally unexpected sources – hopefully you too can remember receiving and giving those words.

Take time......rediscover yourself

 Episcopal Relief and Development Lenten Devotions – Reading in Mark......."In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.  In the midst of demands on his time and energy, Jesus took the time to find a quiet place, a deserted place,  and there found renewal and refreshment.

I cannot prevent the calls and appointments and emails and texts that fill my day, but I can be intentional about taking time to find my own quiet place, rediscover myself as God's beloved child and breathe once more the healing air of wholeness."

 - C. K. Robertson

It's A College, Not a Cloister

"because it's the 3rd day of the 3rd month:)"

A few days ago, I was reading a NYTimes, Op-Ed piece by Columnist Frank Bruni. It was a column re candidate Rick Santorum's remarks about college being an anti-conservative, and liberals' indoctrination site for young people.  It was quite upsetting to me and as I usual I ranted to my spouse about it a little and then set it aside.  Today I am calmer while re-reading it, yet it does bring up my own college memories and the effect that experience brought to my own life.

By the way, if you don't read the entire article, this is a quote from it -

"What good are ideas formed and fortified in a protective cocoon, without exposure to other ways of thinking? Or convictions that haven’t been tested by, and defended against, competing ones?"

But to my comments - when I left the somewhat cloistered environment of my small town in Oklahoma, I attended the University of Oklahoma.  I lived in a single sex dormitory (no one had even thought about mixed dorms yet!) where I met a diverse group of young women.  I had an assigned roommate who smoked - horrors! - we were not a good match - and the roommate experience was only the beginning of habits and personalities that I came up against, disliked, embraced, argued with,, despised, loved.

I met my first Jew, my first black person, my first sophisticated/rich (those were my descriptors then) person, I met young people with unlimited spending money, and those of us on a strict budget.  I met kids who knew how to study and did and those who seemed to have no need for study and blanched about the fact that we were actually supposed to attend classes.  (I was scared to death to skip a class for no reason!) Coming from an encouraging teacher/student high school atmosphere, I met an assistant professor who scrawled awful red marks over my first English composition with words of contempt for my style and content.  I attended my first economics class and was surprised by the fact that I actually enjoyed that class the most of all.  I was part of discussions into the night about college, fraternities, politics, religion, branded clothing and periods.  I had no idea at the time that other girls probably also discussed sex, birth control pills, and abortions.

I would say that reflecting upon the totally small town mindset and "cloistered" family life that my parents, teachers, and religious leaders had surrounded me with from childhood, that college was a huge surprise to me and for me.  It didn't turn me into a liberal nor a conservative.  It didn't insist upon nor deny that I could attend religious services nor even my classes - if I could pass without attending, that is - I didn't feel that I was being indoctrinated into anything (perhaps one is never aware of brain washing) yet, I do know it was a time I needed to grow out of my teens in an environment other than the safety net that had been devised by my parents up until that time.  I'm not denigrating that safety net, yet endorsing that college, whether it is four years at a university or two years at a community college, is a bit of a holding pattern in which the child begins to step near the edge in order to fly on its own - it is neither a den of thieves nor a cloister.

Mr. Santorum, the possible political candidate for president, is right when he says that college often exposes children to unhealthy and dangerous situations, yet would he have us all home schooled as his seven children were? What of those seven, have they all left him (with schooling outside of the home) and become right wing liberal crazies? I doubt that.  Even Mr. Santorum has, I believe, three proud letters of educational superiority attached to his performance record - an undergrad degree, an MBA, and a law degree.  Would he have all of us and all of our children remain unschooled, unfledged, uninformed, while he and his clan are or were offered their American dream and allowed to form their own opinions and way into life - perhaps in the only way that would have led to their success and foundation in life - a college education?

It's a college, not a cloister, it's an opportunity not a sentence to hell, it's life - with exposure to those we agree with and those we don't agree with..... Praise for college rather than denigration, I hope any president of the USA would endorse that opportunity for all of those who desire it, not just those who can afford it.