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Mirror of True Seeing
Each semester I think about this question again. . . have I answered the call or is it yet to come? As we talk about heroes and how the Hero represents all that best defines a civilization or culture, I wonder how I follow that pattern. Am I a mirror of my society? Do I rather reflect the light of a path being forged anew? Am I Hero, Sidekick, Mentor, or Guide, and how can I know in my own life and times?
I often count myself most fortunate: to every day encounter terrific students while simultaneously teaching a subject I love. The dialogue with the past is a lifelong discovery process, and as we look towards our own Imagined Future, this becomes an Adventuremental Journey because the exchange of ideas never ends.
I agree with fellow medievalist Jocelyn Wogan-Browne in her assertion that historians have a responsibility to recognize relevant topics in the dialogue between the past and present, and clearly acknowledge accomplishments in the past so they can be tied to new and ongoing thinking that falls into similar categories. She maintains that this process is one of the duties of the scholar, and sees “community” as one of those terms often fraught with meaning, yet tied to different times in both particular and universal ways and needing to be addressed. I believe both the classroom and the campus are forms of community and I would suggest that the ability to define the direction of a movement is to experience or be at the heart of a liminal shift.
Liminality: the power of stepping across a threshold. It is nothing new for a younger generation to step into the role of interstitial power, but WOW! The ability to articulate the charting of a course, especially at a time when the nature and identity of society is in flux can be a powerful force.
The power of liminality, which might just operate as its own form of power can combine with an emerging interstitiality, and maybe this existence will pull the direction of the dialogue –both local and global because IT IS NEEDED in these times and in the same crucial arenas we are studying towards new ways of thinking and doing.
Liminality holds its own kind of power. Perched on the edge of the future, the liminal figure often determines the direction and the pace of the narrative of events. As long as he or she is on the threshold, the direction is a matter of choice. Once chosen, events flow in the direction of movement. I am grateful and excited to be part of the journey.
