A LOVELY THING

“You said a lovely thing,” I said.

“Oh?” you said, one eyebrow raised.

A little laugh.

“What lovely thing? What lovely thing off the Lovely Thing List did I say?” you asked, both eyebrows raised.

Another little laugh.

“Yes” I said, “when I was fussing about our trip, about not knowing where we would stay, you said ‘We have our plane tickets and a rental car waiting for us, and we have each other.’”

I told you it was a lovely thing.

REMEMBER AND RENEW

One of the happiest memories I have is the excitement I felt as a freshman in college. I was excited about living away from home, about meeting new people & making new friends and, yes, about applying myself to the challenges & opportunities of college life.

That I was able to attend college at all is a wonder. It’s not that money was tight. It was practically non-existent. My mother could have kept me home, told me to get a job, but she didn’t. I think she undestood my love of learning, & I think she understood the value to my life of a college education.

Wherever I attended college, short of a convent but somewhere with a lot of supervision, I would need financial assistance. Lawrence provided that assistance in the form of scholarship, loan & work.

Lawrence took a chance on me, & I am the beneficiary. As a freshman, I was headstrong, immature & self-adsorbed. Lawrence widened my perspective & expanded my horizons. My professors, full of those special graces given to educators - enthusiasm & patience - encouraged me to learn for the sake of personal enrichment & to do it well. As a result, my liberal arts education became an education for life, for living.

When the time came for our sons to consider college, I hoped to show them that a liberal arts education at Lawrence gives you a chance to find something you love & that when you find your passion you are, as we say in the current vernacular, good to go!

Or, to borrow a slogan registered with The Greater Springfield, MA Convention & Visitors’ Bureau: ARRIVE CURIOUS, LEAVE INSPIRED.

I did!

WHY READ?

It was said of my mother, by her mother, that she could not walk through a room without stopping to read something. I’m like my mother in a lot of ways, & that is probably one of them, although in my case I would also want to straighten the row of books on the bookshelf!

Speaking of books: that’s why we’re here, right?

I’m frequently reminded of a line in the movie SHADOWLANDS, staring Anthony Hopkins as British author & Oxford University professor C. S. Lewis. In the movie, Lewis confronts a student he observed stealing a book from the University book store. In his defense, the student claims that at least the book he stole will be read & offers as an explination for his actions something his father used to say:”We read to know we’re not alone”.

I love that: We read to know we’re not alone.

You?

AT A LOSS

Ever been at a loss for words? For a time, I was. I know, I know: hard to believe.

Recently, a beloved family member underwent open heart surgery. The seriousness of her condition & the uncertainly of her future brought my language skills to a stand still.

I yearned to find just the right combination of words that might bring comfort & hope to my loved ones. In the meantime, I did a lot of laundry & swept the floor more times than it needed.

As though to compensate for something, I have borrowed 3 more books from the library, adding another pile to the several near my bedside. It’s as though I want to surround myself with words. Yes, I do!

And you?

THE ALPHABET PAYS OFF

One of my favorite cartoons features a little girl, sitting on the floor with a book in her lap. “Finally”, she says, “the alphabet is paying off.”

Out of the mouths of babes
According to the family archives, some of the first words I learned were the names of my favorite cowboys, Roy Rogers & Gene Autry. Well, of course!

Classic Comic Books were readily available at my grandfather’s drugstore &, for me, they were free! I loved helping the magazine man spread the new issues out on the display shelf.

The Public Library, a Carnegie Library, was just a block away, & I loved choosing new titles for myself, bringing them home & reading them, at leisure, for pleasure.

And you?

WORDS: YOU GOTTA LOVE ‘EM!

Words: you gotta love ‘em. Well, I do, especially the English ones. They’re one of my favorite food groups, right up there with butter, sugar & chocolate.

Do you remember the childhood rhyme, “Sticks & stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”? Try as I might, that admonition never worked for me.

Then there was “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”. I heard that one a LOT from my mother. Gee, I wonder why?

Let me get this straight: I’m to not let other people’s unkind words affect me, AND I can’t say anything unkind to anyone else. Wow, that doesn’t seem fair!

Words hold a powerful attraction for me. You?