[Alumni-chat] The view from the river

[Steven Duffy]

Hello friends, romans and countrywomyn....hip hop horray!!  but  still
much to worry about....there IS a shopping list!

I have been meaning to send a note but was out of adrenalin last
week......and probably also in a state of deep anxiety
.....wondering if the Lord would answer my prayers.    Oh me of little
faith......I need to work on dat.

At Homecoming or Reunion 2.0 it was as if everyone were in deep waiting or
anxious mode.
Folks from every decade were floating around and many were different from
the June reunion faces.

People passed through the library and Antiochiana at intervals...
Good to see folks from the seventies like Jill Wolcott '74 ...eighties
like Angela Amel ....and Ginger Lines  '81 who once hitchiked with me all
the
way to West Palm Beach for Thanksgiving.  (in 1975) not only is she
wearing shoes now but teaching
English at Palm Beach Community College.  and doesn't seem to have the
first gray hair yet. Maybe five or so...if you look real hard.

As the BoT/alum board talks progressed there  were circles here and there
of folks waiting with each other.....and making small talk while
worry-warting. I sat in
Weston (Now the Instititutional Advancement office which used to be Horace
Mann)..with folks from town, Toledo, the
fifties and sixties and Don Wallace, ..a local alum board member...and a
new friend Flan Fry who  drove 400 miles from
Pennsylvania...

At one point our circle nervously talked about gardening...and a sixties'
alum from Toledo explained to me the perils of
too many coffee grounds in your compost heap.....well..earthworms like
caffeine anyway..

And when I really  got ansty I peeked outside and saw other anxious
circles.......Some of the folks outside were smokers...
and some were on their cell phones...we were all waiting for the baby to
be born, eh?

BTW campus during homecoming was also full of Peak Oil people...who pretty
much looked just like us....and probably
think very much like us.. I was also amazed that they were older, like
us..quite a few gray hairs!!  That weekend there were more prius' and the
like everywhere...with great vanity plates like
7ty mpg.......

When I first got into town Saturday I stopped by the farmer;'s market to
get some organic sweet potatoes (ah, better
than pumpkin pie.mm)..and there was buzz in the air.....

in fact all week long...in a town where most folks say hi....last week
"hi" was mostly replaced with "what's da news?"

So there was great tension all over......one day I sat downtown in a sunny
place trying to be un-tense while eating a cup of chili ...and heard
a local college  student who decided to sing her heart out right in the
middle of downtown.  It was was if Deanna Durbin were
belting out her loudest l940"s MGM operetta excerpt.  ah more fun than Key
West sunset.

I thought...what a pity...a town and campus with so much wonder and a
little eccentricity.....what a great loss it would be.

Any way...the first set of  prayers have been answered.     

and we now have a newborn  to nurture.  or a critical-care  patient to
nurse..whichever metaphor suits you.

During the Community Meeting where the good news was given...Ellen
Borgersen '72..alum board member and great
example of what stewardship can be....explained that the Alumni are
starting to push things in the right direction.
and helped field anxious questions over tenure, money, admissions and much
more.

I hope folks will keep pushing and keep helping with whatever skill sets
they may have..money as well....lots or little...whatever
folks can do....

Dan Friedman '69 came from Portland ( btw also taught psychology here
until he retired) ...said.. I would love to come
back and teach again and would do it for very little......

Anyhow...that also reminded me of some of the psych books they used to use
for a while in the early seventies here...  Fritz
Perls....things like "Don't push the river, it flows by itself"..  That
book always got stolen along with others like Soul on Ice..
we were up to copy ll. eh? but now it's outta vogue.

well ...Antioch... and having been here is just like riding on a river..a
river of students, faculty and staff that keep rolling
through.     Right now this river doesn't flow by itself...it will need
more pushing and like Ellen might say...some pushing
in the direction we would all like....all the way from Art Dole and Katy
Jako to more recent folks like Tim Noble, Chad
Johnston and Laura Fathauer.

So eager beavers and riverkeeps...come and help  the river get flowing.  
We will need so much assistance to rebuild...
money, money, mo' money and sweat equity and intellectual sweat equity.

Stay involved......please


keep checking Antiochians.org  and the College Website and
call some friends...... network if you can.....or cruise down the river
solo.

and for all the skeptics....even under the worst of  times the college has
had a number of wonderful
students who are nothing less the incredible.

I may not be like the Katy jakos and the Ruth Churchills of the
world...they are data hounds
but I can be an "anecdota" hound.   I am witness to folks' growth.......

Thanks to all of you who have been helping.


Duffy 77 and the years since.

PS  I thanked the Lord first.....