What We Talk About When We Talk About Liberal Art

Dear Colleagues,
 


Obsession: a sitting weight, thorn in  the flesh.
Pea under my mattresses.
 
My compulsion obsessively compulsive.
 
Normal people are well-advised & common
sense dictates: diversify.   Jack Squat of All
Trades, Renaissance myn for all Seasons, 
Polymath  & well rounded.. .
 
He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men
appears to them useless and selfish; but he who
gives himself partially to them is pronounced a
benefactor and philanthropist.        (H.D.T.)

Obsession compels, repels, marks the line between
my attention efficiency and massive deficiency and
ignore-ance..
 
“To entertain and instruct” is the purpose of literature,
says Richard Russo quoting Isaac Bashevis Singer,
emphasizing entertainment over instruction, imagination
over information which we know now is always at
hand laptop dancing for young and for old,  come to
class or don't, civil or uncivil in our obedience and
behaviorial psychology. ..
 
“Most enduring structures (in nature, society,
the human psyche) are resistant to fundamental
change. by which I mean change that alters the
givens of these structures themselves. It’s almost
a matter of logic:

            no self-contained world
            can induce its  own
            fundamental change,
            because self-containment
            means it knows nothing
            beyond its own givens.

In such cases, accidents are useful. indeed.”
 
Lewis Hyde, Trickster Makes the World,
 
It's impossible to think out of the box.
Something there is that loves a wall &
don't want it down..

Turn it up: what compels,
what obsesses: surely local food
for thought worthy of  ongoing
public rumination if not argument.

Elephants in the room.
Emperor’s bare buts.
A  faculty that brays together stays together.
 
“I don’t know if we have enough discussion
on our  campus of what we mean by the
liberal arts.”        Joel Adams, returning
Chairmyn of the Board. See  current  Echo, pg. 16