Monday August 18<\/p>\n
A lot of athletes moved into Shiple these past few days, Beth Ann Finster tells me, and the c. 25 freshmen who will head out to a camp near Jackson for a retreat designed to help them enter the world of the university with grace and playful courage. \u00a0You can almost here the university buildings whispering to each other \u201cHere they come! \u00a0Another year<\/span>.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Teilhard de Chardin, sj \u00a0(1881-1955) wrote about beginnings; he was a Jesuit and a world class paleontologist who found promises of the future by looking deep into the past. \u00a0 One of my favorite quotes came to mind just now while contemplating these beginnings emerging all around the university. \u00a0 Here is a pretty close approximation: \u00a0 \u201cNothing is so elusive and basically unknowable as a beginning.\u201d \u00a0 Isn\u2019t that one of a university\u2019s identities? \u00a0We are a place that takes beginning seriously; we respect the effort, the fears, the hope, the courage that marks the act of learning and marks the beginning of relationships, term after term, between students and faculty, between students and each other, between students and all the people who make the university function. \u00a0 \u201cHere they come! \u00a0Another year<\/span>.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n I like the poem Tagore chose to lead off the 100 sacred poems in his\u00a0Gitanjali<\/span>. \u00a0I have sometimes given it to friends as they get married, one of life\u2019s deep beginnings. \u00a0It makes a good read for the first formal day of the Academic year too. \u00a0 Try reading it out loud.<\/p>\n Blessings on your new year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n john st sj<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Today\u2019s Post \u00a0 Rabindranath Tagore \u00a0Gitanjali<\/span>\u00a0 # 1<\/b><\/p>\n Thou hast made me endless,\u00a0 such is thy pleasure.<\/p>\n This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again,<\/p>\n and fillest it ever with fresh life.<\/p>\n This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales,<\/p>\n and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.<\/p>\n At the immortal touch of thy hands my little heart<\/p>\n loses its limits in joy and gives birth to utterance ineffable.<\/p>\n Thy infinite gifts come to me only on these very small hands of mine.<\/p>\n Ages pass, and still thou pourest,<\/p>\n and still there is room to fill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Monday August 18 A lot of athletes moved into Shiple these past few days, Beth Ann Finster tells me, and the c. 25 freshmen who will head out to a camp near Jackson for a retreat designed to help them … Continue reading