Monday August 24 – “to face in the wind’s teeth”
About 35 new freshmen arrived in the residence halls yesterday. They came early to travel together to a retreat center outside the city for a 2 day retreat, a preparation of their souls and imaginations for the challenges that wait for them when classes begin. All three campuses change when students bring their energy and hope and fears to a year long encounter with ways of thinking that will stretch them. All of the rest of us who work here, faculty and staff and administrators, probably take a few deep breaths and square our shoulders. “Here we go.”
The poet William Carlos Williams understood life-weariness and beauty’s restorative powers. It’s very brief. Try reading it aloud once or twice, with pauses.
Happy new year.
john sj
Today’s Post:
The Manoeuvre
I saw the two starlings
coming in toward the wires
But at the last,
just before alighting, they
turned in the air together
and landed backwards!
that’s what got me —
to face into the wind’s teeth.
William Carlos Williams