Let's Be Outrageous

I had a teacher at Cornell, Professor Frederick Marcham, who died in the middle of his 70th year – of teaching. He was 94 years old at the time he died and my mother had been his student too. Prof. Marcham was a cross between Socrates and Merlin because he helped us discover our own answers by showing us the magic in everyday things, like the way sunlight dances through tree leaves when caught by a spring breeze. I used to visit him after I graduated and he’d tell me about the new students who were in his seminars. He always talked about “stirring them up,” by which he meant igniting the engines in their brains. How did he do it? By having us all read Shakespeare and Spencer aloud, by having us listen to and discover the passion of words so that learning became not just an exercise of the mind but of the spirit as well.

For the first time in my adult life we finally have a U.S. President I want to listen to. The others I’ve had to ignore because their disingenuousness, their arrogance or policies that made my innards drag. When I listen to the President’s speeches, I’m reminded of Professor Marcham because I find my imagination rekindled and that I’m once again “stirred up.”

And given the recent events in Iran, I now feel a strong determination to see not only change but transformation. “Hope” is an uplifting thing, but to forge what hope envisions words like “intention” and “focus” must come into play. I’ve been disappointed with how the media and people in general have forgotten about the situations in both Iran and North Korea (they’re still firing missiles, according to Seoul reports) and instead are focused on the celebrities that have passed on recently. Sad as these things are, my concern is that people prefer this simpler - albeit sad - news rather than the more complicated sort.

Remaining focused on things like the Iran protests and North Korea’s pathetic but perilous foot stomping is so much more difficult because it’s a prolonged process layered with uncertainties and great frustration – plus there aren’t any tunes you can dance to.

Let’s be outrageous and keep our minds attuned to the larger, untidier issues because they have the far greater rewards and, somehow, doing that makes those subtler moments when the sunlight plays among the trees that much more transcendent.