Our theme this year is - "PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL HOME: MEMORY, GRACE, AND STRUCTURE".
Anytime fancy words like "Metaphysical" are trotted out, I start limbering up for some mental gymnastics. To be sure I knew what I was talking about I went and looked up "Metaphysics" in the Dictionary:
Anytime fancy words like "Metaphysical" are trotted out, I start limbering up for some mental gymnastics. To be sure I knew what I was talking about I went and looked up "Metaphysics" in the Dictionary:
- Metaphysics - "the philosophical study of the nature of reality, concerned with such questions as the existence of God, the external world, etc".
Wow! There is nothing I love more than ruminating about the nature of reality. But to be honest, I have floundered a bit with the abstraction of this theme until I was inspired at dinner tonight.
During her introduction, Charlotte Ravioli mentioned how Keystone College President Dr. Edward G. Boehm, Jr has fostered a greater awareness of the school's history. Specifically that in 1868 the founders of Keystone Academy chose to start the school as a memorial to all the souls from this area that did not return from the Civil War.
MEMORY + GRACE = STRUCTURE
- MEMORY The memory of those who did not return home
- GRACE the kindness of those remembering the ones they lost
- STRUCTURE brought this school and this event into being.
Through the farsighted kindness of those remembering their loved ones a far reaching legacy emerged - Keystone College.
This may be an overly literal interpretation of our theme this year, but it works for me.
How do you interpret the theme of "PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL HOME: MEMORY, GRACE, AND STRUCTURE"?
This may be an overly literal interpretation of our theme this year, but it works for me.
How do you interpret the theme of "PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL HOME: MEMORY, GRACE, AND STRUCTURE"?
Please feel free to comment.
Thanks for sharing! Since I am not able to attend many of the sessions, following along on the blog provides an opportunity to be a part of The Gathering. I too had a hard time wrapping my arms around a personal understanding of the theme - until I heard Suzanne speak so passionately about each of the speakers. Your perspective is interesting. Just as home means something different to everyone, I suspect interpretations of the theme may also be as varied as the people attending. I am looking forward to reading your daily comments.
ReplyDeleteSince I named the theme this year (at the suggestion of Susan Dawson and Mary Rhodes and others) this is what I meant: Home for me is the emotional space where my life started out, which was here, in Northeastern Pennsylvania. My connection is to the trees and hills and lakes and meadows where I learned how to be in the world. But that connection turns out to be wider, deeper, broader than this place, extending my sense of ease and comfort to wherever I am. Grace is owning something of value - perhaps a sense of ease in the world - without having to earn or even deserve it. And this builds the ever-evolving construct of who I am. I loved that part of Susan Cooper's beautiful talk last night about leaving the last home behind and building a new one that becomes a part of the person you are becoming.
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