9-20-03 Symposium.html

Here is a photo gallery of pictures from the Society of St. Romanos Orthodox Symposium “Hope Amidst Decline” held September 20, 2003 at Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois.

Today we walked on a new path for us, west of the Pampered Chef building on a patch of land where Christmas trees are grown. But not all the land is cultivated—some is in a semi-wild state. Sally wanted to show me the teasels she had seen there from the road. A rough path (don’t drive it in rainy weather) led to a clearing strewn with pieces of wood and machinery. On both sides of the path were fields thick with grasses and wildflowers. We found the teasels, but they couldn’t be picked without gloves; they’re covered with prickly thorns. Two deer leaped across the path ahead of us. We kept on until we came out on the same small road where we started.

After work I returned with my car and parked it in the rough path. The owner of the tree lot drove a truck up behind me and I had to move. I asked him could I take some wild flowers. Sure, take as many as you want. He said there used to be coyotes and a lot more deer and other animals on that land before Pampered Chef came. So I cut some teasels with my little scissors and carried them away wrapped in paper towels.

Earlier I had picked up some pine cones in the Center West “office park,” where I work. Pristine, just having fallen, they never would have moldered on a forest floor. These are perfect suburban pine cones, to be raked up and taken away by the landscaping people—or fall into the parking lot and be flattened by cars.

I had a tremendous surge of nostalgia as I put together my first “photo album” on this blog (they make you call it a photo album; I want to call it an image gallery but there’s no way to change the name). Anyway, I made a gallery of my photos and drawings from the Split Rock art class I took last year at the Cloquet Forestry Center.

I was miserable for much of that trip: my roommate gave me the creeps, I was unsure about my work, especially the photography, I felt quite shy and separate from the group, especially in the non-class social encounters, and the mosquitos ate us alive. Still, I loved the work (especially the drawing), I learned a bit about photography, my photos improved, and I have warm memories of both instructors.

But what makes me feel the nostalgia, that longing composed of good memories and regrets? For one thing, I didn’t follow through with my drawing goals and resolutions during the year that followed the class. That’s a huge regret. It seems like a lost opportunity, especially since I got such a good start in the class. I did do a couple of pieces, but then my efforts drifted into the background of the rest of my life.

The other part of the regret is that the Split Rock art workshops will no longer be held in Duluth. The program is moving to the Twin Cities as of next year, according to what I heard from people who attended Split Rock this year.

So that cuts out the possibility of going back and doing it again, in which the hope is that this time one can re-live the experience with all of the good parts and none of the bad. Is it a trick the mind plays on us?

In Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis talks about a kind of longing that he felt as a child when he read about the Norse myths. He later realized that his feeling of pleasure connected with the myths was really a longing to be united with God. Is this what nostalgia really is? A kind of grieving mingled with the hope that some day we will be united with the Divine, where we will experience perfect love and never again feel the ache of loneliness?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines nostalgia as being “a bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past.”

I see that one of my favorite magazines, The Atlantic, now charges for articles in its online archive, which used to be free (too good to be true). It’s probably part of their new goal to make the magazine profitable, or at least to pay for itself. I’m not complaining; better this than for it to go under. The price is $2.95 per article.

Today has been exhausting, partly because I started out not getting enough sleep, and partly because I am trying to do to much, be involved in too many things. But I can’t choose. I hate the idea of giving up on any of these possibilities. What are they? Taking more art classes or simply drawing and painting more, taking an ancient Greek language class, reading Byzantine history or taking a class in it, studying music, learning cascading style sheets and/or taking a web design class, taking a technical writing class, pursuing photography.

Here is an article that explains how the suppression of homosexuality made western civilization possible: Why Judaism (and then Christianity) Rejected Homosexuality. Perhaps that’s why theese days it feels as though that civilization is quickly coming to an end.

Well, the color of our sky was certainly nothing like the picture below today—either in River Forest or in Addison. Instead, it’s a muggy blanket of pale gray-blue tinged with yellow. Well, we haven’t had too many such days this summer, luckily. The Sierra Club has a good page on the contribution of SUVs to global warming, however. It’s nice to have something to blame for hot sticky days! Lucky also that we’re not experiencing anything like the power outage on the east coast. Well, I’m about to leave work now and head for church. Today is the Vigil of the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos.