If I could — I would. The discussion was intense for an hour and a half. If I could re-invent higher education, where would I start, what would I change? The question is more than an idle thought experiment, a mind game. Human beings without the benefit of instincts, rely upon the internal map…
Today is the day after Labor Day. We visited the town of Ottawa yesterday. The town is about an hour drive south, near the terminus of the Fox River. Ottawa is the seat of Lasalle County and was the site of the first debate between Stephen A. Douglass and Abraham Lincoln in 1858. The…
Monday, the end of summer. The street is eerily quiet at State and 3rd in Geneva. At the hour of 7AM, there’s not the usual bustle. While driving to Starbucks I listened to a NPR piece covering the aftermath of hurricane Ida’s destruction on the coast of Louisiana. Several individuals were interviewed that formerly…
In that great fatality called Christianity, Plato represents that ambiguity and fascination, called an “ideal,” which made it possible for the nobler spirits of antiquity to misunderstand themselves and to set foot on the bridge leading to the ‘Cross’… And how much Plato there still is in the concept “church,” in the construction, system,…
BURNT NORTON by T. S. Eliot (No. 1 of ‘Four Quartets’) Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present All time is unredeemable. What might have been is an abstraction Remaining a perpetual possibility Only in…
Little to say this morning. The Starbucks room vibe parallels my subdued mood. With difficulty I listened to the morning news report on NPR. A business reporter described the decline in business activity among small businesses, restaurants, particularly in the states impacted with Delta virus. Large numbers of un-vaccinated fellow citizens have wide spread…
Yesterday we were privileged to have a guided tour of the Fabyan Estate home in Geneva, on the bank of the Fox River. George Fabyan, descendant of a wealthy Boston dry goods manufacturing family and his wife Nelle, purchased 300 acres in the early 1900s. The old farmhouse on the property was remodeled by…
The exchange of ideas began with the presentation of research notes. Five of us submitted summaries of our findings, our considerations on the prospect of building-from-scratch higher education. Perhaps it is obvious that college and post graduate studies are out of reach financially for a large majority of high school students desiring to continue. …
Yesterday I took a late August bike ride. I followed the bike path along the Fox River from Batavia to Aurora. The asphalt path eased my fifteen mile journey, following the river under the trees, shaded from late summer sunlight. The journey concluded with a rest, reading for a while under a massive old…
I witnessed, an extended email exchange between two friends which treated the topic of vengeance, rage-filled violence. The pivot point of the discussion had to do with a comparison/contrast between the palpable expression, the gorge-filled uprising of murderous wrath, and the more benign fictional, hypothetical contemplation of this emotional storm, such as we find…
