Sundae Lunch

Our lives had briefly intersected last fall when I provided some instruction for her honors class, a pleasant introduction. I sensed at once that that here was a person of integrity and character, well worth getting to know, but we travel in different worlds, she and I.

And so my first year unfolded with ever so scarce times of seeing her in action directing faculty workshops or nodding hello across a crowded seminar room. I came to hear some of her honors students' presentations, an impressive array of thought provoking topics, she the proud educator watching her fledglings fly on their own.

A few weeks ago, she came to talk again of instruction for her honors class, and brought the texts she was considering using. We had a wonderful exchange about the required reading texts, about the wide ranging span of intensity (or lack thereof), about the changing landscape of administrative expectations. A refreshing dialogue.

I waxed bold and asked for a lunch date. A flurry of email exchanges later, we had decided to skip lunch and go right for dessert - Abbott's frozen custard to be exact (a woman after my own heart). Despite the pouring rain, I picked her up at the designated hour and we hied ourselves off campus to the unassuming building on Buffalo Road where we both ordered strawberry sundaes, and settling in for some meaty conversation.

Like compatriots in crime, we savored bites of cold vanilla smothered in strawberries and whipped cream while we explored all sorts of topics. Especially interesting to me were the discussions of the women who had sacrificed careers in order to create a library for a struggling young institution that did not know how desperately they needed such a resource. By sheer willpower and determination, Ms. Ora Sprague and her sidekick had spun gold from straw, building collections, forging policies, creating a respectable library.

This woman across from me had sat under their tutelage as both student and faculty, learning, absorbing, becoming fast friends. She bemoaned the fact that the institution scarcely remembers the hours and hours of toil, the sacrifices they made, the incredible dedication.

I value her perspective, recognizing in her elements gone missing in our instant and 'cutting edge' fast paced society. I appreciate her dedication to people, to drawing the best from them, teaching eager minds to think well, to make longterm commitments towards things that will really matter in the end, to find the keys in the rubble that will unlock the life they long for.

She is not so unlike the women whose stories she told with such clarity. We chatted well beyond my usual hour lunch, every minute delicious. I look forward to further conversations of exploration as we connect in ways beyond the classroom and into the universe of life.