What an amazing day – I hardly know where to begin. . . and as tired as I am (it’s 10:15 pm) I feel like I want to write about this day while everything is still very fresh in my mind. This was one of those days – and I have had more than my fair share of them – in which I find myself saying repeatedly “I love my life- I am so tremendously blessed.”
It started well at the radio station with a very complimentary email from someone who appreciated our broadcast of the Fabiano funeral and the way I anchored our coverage. That broadcast seems to have had a tremendous impact on a lot of people and I’m so glad that my boss made the decision or us to carry it. And yesterday Dave McGrath gave me a thank you note from his wife Guida which I’m tempted to put in a frame and hang on the wall.
Then came an interview I did at 9:00 which felt so good- even though it was quite an unhappy topic. I spoke to the author of a book called “Buried in Bitter Waters” which talks about a dozen different instances of Racial Cleansing in American history- incidents in which an entire county would be almost completely (or sometimes completely) rid of its African-American inhabitants by whites who forced them out one way or another. It’s a terribly disturbing and very little known part of our history, and I felt such satisfaction in helping listeners in this little corner of the world to learn about this as I had in reading this terrific book.
Then I was off to Carthage for a meeting with my two fellow faculty representatives to the Board of Trustees- Christine Rener and Jean Quashnock – with Matt Zorn and Doug Arion there as well to enhance our discussion. We were talking about our presentation at the afternoon meeting and discussing what we should and shouldn’t say as part of our report. And for once, I didn’t feel like the Village Idiot in a roomful of fellow professors, and I even felt like I made a very important contribution to the proceedings. I like and respect all four of these colleagues – and felt liked and respected in return – and it just felt great to be working together.
That afternoon was the spring meeting of Trustees – and things got off to a very interesting start with a screening of the student-produced video which is going to be shown at Commencement on Sunday (in place of a commencement speaker, as a matter of fact.) I was one of the faculty interviewed for it (there are maybe four of us quoted in the film) and as the film began rolling, I started praying to myself “Please don’t let me look stupid. Please don’t let me look stupid. Please don’t let me look stupid. . .” And lo and behold, I didn’t look stupid! It was an honor to be included- and especially gratifying to have a chance to talk about my student Trevor – who in turn talked a bit about me and about our close relationship. It was a great way to begin the meeting and everyone assembled there seemed very pleased with the film and its well-rounded depiction of life at Carthage.
It was probably 45 minutes into the meeting before it was time for the faculty report- and we split it three ways with Christine handling the nuts and bolts, Jean offering a summary of faculty professional activities – and I agreed to offer some warm and fuzzy closing remarks. I had gotten out maybe three words when Mr. Smeds, head of the trustees who was chairing the meeting, interrupted to say “Wait a minute! You have to tell us more about this extraordinary student of yours! Don’t leave us in suspense.” So I got to talk about Trevor and his many and varied skills and gifts- and President Campbell then chimed in himself with a reminiscence of the memorable moment when Trevor was given the football team’s top award as the guy who made the most important contribution to the team… a huge honor, especially for someone who hadn’t played much – but who nonetheless was a tremendous contributor to a superb ball team. I finished up with a few words about how exciting it has been to see the quality of the average Carthage student rising so dramatically over recent years, and how great it is to teach at a school where there are students like Trevor that we get to teach – and befriend. I felt good about what I said- especially since I hadn’t uttered a single word at the fall Trustees meeting. This time they could hardly shut me up.
Then I ran home for a few lovely minutes in the backyard with Kathy and the dogs- sitting under a cloudless sky with a refreshing breeze. . .which felt SO good. . . before heading back to Carthage for the afternoon convocation – which included a lovely choral performance by a group of seniors… and then it was time for the spectacular dinner served in Hedberg Library. There were multiple stations where one could partake of all kinds of elegant fare, but what was even better than the wonderful food and drink was just the chance to enjoy each other’s company. I started out the evening with Trevor and Megan, who so generously came and scooped me up as soon as I arrived and who probably would have let me hang with them the rest of the evening. But I did eventually peel off to give them some space – and had a blast talking with faculty colleagues like Leonard Schultz, Jim Lochtefeld, Charlotte Chell, Dr. Sjoerdsma, Mimi Yang, Ross Larsen, – and tons of students. . . voice students such as Anthony Gullo, Dawn Gallt, Bryan Anderson, Jennifer Ledanski, Andrew Lenox, Bryan Behrens, Aaron Steckman, Eric Leitzen. . . and lots of miscellaneous students I’ve had in various classes over the years. . . Scott Hood, Eric Comiskey, Brad Voss. . . and especially great was the pleasure of talking with Joshua Russell, a black kid from Milwaukee who I had in three classes over the years- Exploring Music, Heritage II, and Opera. ( The last was one he did as an Independent Study.) I’m not sure why I made a point of saying that he’s black except that somehow that was part of what made me appreciate him so much – a kid from fairly limited means but with a heart of gold- so appreciative to be at Carthage- so hard-working- a football player who had never been to an opera but who was still willing to give Opera class a try and earned himself an A. Just a wonderful guy in every way. He actually graduated a year ago and it was terrific to catch up with him.
Walking around Hedberg tonight, I just felt so tremendously fortunate to work at a place like Carthage where I not only love the work I do – but where I also have such interesting and stimulating colleagues as well as fine, inspiring students with whom to share the experience. Who could ask for more?
As if all of that wasn’t enough, I popped in at the Racine Theater Guild to drop off Kathy’s cell phone, which I had mistakenly taken, and it gave me a nice excuse to eavesdrop on a few minutes of “Gypsy.” What a great production this is. . . and there was a capacity crowd there tonight eating it all up.
The only fly in the soup was that I had to drive all the way up to Milwaukee to retrieve a package which FedEx had been unable to deliver and which they were about to return to the sender. It turned out to be a book for an interview which I recorded back on Wednesday, so it was a fairly useless trip- except that it was nice to take that drive by myself and reflect a bit on this rich, full day. And now I’m finishing up this entry with my wife back home at last, our two dogs sitting at our respective feet- and with this sense that life is so good and that I am SO blessed, far beyond my deserving (as a certain song says.)
Pictured: Board of Trustees meeting at Carthage – with the commencement video playing with yours truly up on the screen.