Giant Rabbit Caves

Well, I was not in class on Tuesday to hear the discussion on O’Conner, and I hate a cold response to a work right after reading it.  I am sure Schuler is well aware of this after the reading journals he has to endure from me every MWF.  Instead of responding to the works, I would like to take this opportunity to tell all of you how much honors has meant to me—how much all of you have meant to me. 

It has not been an easy journey, nor has it been the most consistently joyful journey.  There are days I leave class wanting nothing more than to stay and chew the fat with you until we go mad, and then there are days I want to climb a tree and hide from the ideas and all of you and especially the professors.  But I say this: despite the fountain of emotions that spring forth within me when I think about honors, if I move all of my emotions aside to look at honors as clearly as possible, I see that the journey has been difficult but worthwhile.  I have heard the following phrase from three teachers over the course of my education (once in middle school, once in high school, and once in college):  “We are dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants.”  Now, I cannot tell you who said that but I can tell you that explains honors very well in my mind.  I have not done anything revolutionary, new, or innovative with the thoughts that I have encountered, written about, talked about, dreamed about, or blogged about.  But together we have climbed into realms of thought I never believed possible.  I have been challenged and shattered and restored, only to repeat the process time and time again.  My opinions change with each rabbit we chase, and I have never felt so consistently inconsistent.  But I would not trade it in or change it. 

As my time in the honors seminar comes to a close, I think back to the Cave that Mashburn awakened me to, Mitchell coaxed me through, and Schuler pulled me out of…I think of this place I stand now, in the light by the reflecting pool with Abernathy, until Talmage under the shade of the tree reminds me I cannot stay here and reflect forever.  And so, I must return to the Cave to awaken others the way I have been awakened, to take what these giants have shown me—shown us—and chase rabbits with a new crowd.  Note that I did not say a better crowd, but simply a new and different crowd.  As you make your way through the Cave, keep in mind that you must return to the Cave again one day to tell others what you have learned.  So learn, and learn well by not studying and instead encountering.

It has been fun chasing rabbits with you all, and I hope that we shall do so again one day even after this semester is over.  Do not fear the giants.

Tantum e tenebris receptum constabit.