It was about 10PM last Friday evening when I laid supine surrendering myself to any force that would take me to the Land of Nod (don’t think Genesis); however, the Sandman was not having office hours.
The illuminating declarations of the Anointed Generation walking past my (is using this possessive pronoun against the Front Porch Format?) university-owned townhouse could be heard through the windows as they staggered to and from the administration-sponsored youthful debauches of the evening. But it wasn’t only the external obstacles that prevented me from meeting my slumber – the existential questions which plague the mind had kept me restless as well. What should I wear tomorrow? Will I be able to charge my blackberry? Why am I not asleep yet?
After giving it some thought, I finally had some answers – at least to the first two. Overalls. And I’ll never know, because if I asked someone at the event, the response would probably be, “What do you mean ‘charge’ your fruit?”…… and then I finally found myself in the arms of Morpheus.
Cue Saturday, the day of the Mt. St. Mary’s/ISI/Front Porch Republic Conference on Human Scale and the Human Good.
We woke up at 6AM so we would have enough time to reap the Autumn harvest before we left for the bucolic countryside of Emmitsburg, MD. Tucked away in Frederick County, the location was central: it was decently close for Washingtonians, not too far from those who call themselves Northeasterners, and south of the Mason-Dixon line, just so we can say it was.
Once we arrived on the beautiful Mount St. Mary’s campus (as their university President tactfully pointed out, “the oldest Catholic college in the 50 states”), we were given the pleasure of listening to stimulating lectures warning us of the dangers of globalization, worldly liberal education, and the impending socio-political effects of technology. I would be remiss to not at least name a few of the speakers; Mark Mitchell, Patrick Deneen, Bill Kaufman, Jason Peters, John Schwenkler, and Josh Hochschild all offered great theses. I would love to summarize the lectures of the day, but let’s just say brevity isn’t an Aristotelian virtue.
However, I had an interesting thought throughout the entire day.
WWWD?
What would Mr. Berry (according to the Official Count, his name was invoked 20 times in non-Q&A sections of the day) say about the day?
For some odd reason, I have this vision of him descending the stairs of the Knott Auditorium confounded at the presence of iPads and Powerpoint presentations. The vision continues: as he ironically tosses to the ground “The Peace of the Wild Things” and Jayber Crow, Mr. Berry chastising the Golden Calf of the Windows logo prominently displayed and trivializing the Crucifix hidden in the shadows of the projector (the last addition is my own).
Well, maybe I’m just a purist.
Or, maybe our hallowed prophets just believe in fighting fire with fire. Coming to the realization that small town communities are not going to organically manifest themselves is a difficult recognition, but a truth nonetheless. The audiences are on our Facebooks and our FourSquares. The audiences are “updating,” “checking in,” and finishing the sentence “Nathan Coulter is…”. In order to reach out, we must become. In order to have a conversation, we must be speaking the same language.
Granted, the task is much easier when a community is considered “too big” at 75 citizens.
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Apart from my musings, I would just like to thank those at MSM, ISI, and FPR for hosting such a conference. It has certainly continued the conversation. My prayers are with each of you.
“We should not stay away from our assembly, as is the custom of some, but encourage one another, and this all the more as you see the day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:25
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