Three Poems for a New Semester!

Dear Members, Alumni, & Friends of the JSMT:

As we begin a new semester at the University of Illinois and Parkland College, I’d like to share with you three poems that have become perennial favorites of mine. The golden thread running through each of them is the sense of adventure that impels us forward to embrace the journey of our lifetime. Along the pathway, we learn various lessons, both from our victories and defeats – and we keep on keeping on, because there are others on the road beside us and behind us, whom we can help by sharing our experiences and insights with them as we travel along together. And what better way than poetry to convey the wisdom and wonder that we gather along the way? :)

“Who Would True Valor See”

By John Bunyan (1628-1688)

Excerpted from Pilgrim’s Progress (1678-1684)

1. Who would true valor see,

Let him come hither;

One here will constant be,

Come wind, come weather.

There’s no discouragement

Shall make him once relent

His first avowed intent

To be a pilgrim.

2. Whoso beset him round

With dismal stories,

Do but themselves confound;

His strength the more is.

No lion can him fright,

He’ll with a giant fight,

But he will have a right

To be a pilgrim.

3. Hobgoblin nor foul fiend

Can daunt his spirit,

He knows he at the end

Shall life inherit.

Then fancies fly away,

He’ll fear not what men say,

He’ll labor night and day

To be a pilgrim.

“A Psalm of Life: What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist” (1838)

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream! —

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

“Dust thou art, to dust returnest,”

Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each to-morrow

Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, however pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act, — act in the living Present!

Heart within, and God overhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.

“Ulysses” (1842) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vexed the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honored of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers;
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades
Forever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the scepter and the isle —
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and through soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centered in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me —
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads — you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Until next time, let's hope that Mr. Groundhog makes a good prediction for us on February 2nd! :)

Rob

Leadership Reflection for January 2015

January Leadership Reflection:

Leadership in Education

        As newly elected leaders take office this month at the state and federal levels, let’s pause to reflect on the relationship between leadership and education. All political leaders from across the ideological spectrum should be ardent supporters of education because educating the next generation ensures the continued growth of knowledge, economic development, and the stability of our emerging global civilization. As administrative professionals at the University of Illinois, we can also exercise leadership by supporting education – not only through donations to educational causes, but also (and most importantly) by encouraging and empowering students to achieve their academic and professional goals.

        Education is something that we shouldn’t try to box into a classroom or laboratory setting. Education is happening all around us, every day, and everywhere. There are opportunities to mentor our coworkers, both within formal and informal settings – and the Secretariat is a great place to begin! Opportunities to mentor students are also available through community-based and campus organizations, too, like the Illinois Leadership Center (http://leadership.illinois.edu), where I have served as a leadership coach for six years. My experience with mentoring four students through the process of completing their Leadership Certificates has been positive and uplifting – both for the students and for myself. I was delighted to take on my fifth “leadership apprentice” last month!

        To bring some historical perspective to the relationship between leadership and education, here’s an overview of the Carolingian Renaissance – a revolution in education that began in France twelve centuries ago under the reign of the Frankish Emperor Charlemagne, who is widely regarded by historians as “Europe’s Founding Father.” To his academicians, we owe a great debt of gratitude for their zealous preservation of Classical Latin literature – including books on agriculture, history, medicine, philosophy, and science.

Charlemagne: Europe’s Founding Father

By Thomas Bulfinch (1796–1867) [Public Domain]

Excerpted from Legends of Charlemagne (Chapter I, Part 2)

Reprinted from Cursus Honorum VI: 10 (May 2006)

        Charlemagne, or Charles the Great [ca. 742-814], succeeded his father, Pepin, on the throne in the year 768. This prince, though the hero of numerous romantic legends, appears greater in history than in fiction. Whether we regard him as a warrior or as a legislator, as a patron of learning or as the civilizer of a barbarous nation, he is entitled to our warmest admiration. At the height of his power, the French Empire extended over what we now call France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, and a great part of Italy.

        One of the greatest of modern historians, M. Guizot, has compared the glory of Charlemagne to a brilliant meteor, rising suddenly out of the darkness of barbarism to disappear no less suddenly in the darkness of feudalism. But the light of this meteor was not extinguished, and reviving civilization owed much that was permanently beneficial to the great Emperor of the Franks. His ruling hand is seen in the legislation of his time, as well as in the administration of the laws. He encouraged learning; he upheld the clergy, who were the only peaceful and intellectual class, against the encroaching and turbulent barons; he was an affectionate father and watched carefully over the education of his children, both sons and daughters.

        Of his encouragement of learning, we will give some particulars. He caused learned men to be brought from Italy and from other foreign countries to revive the public schools of France, which had been prostrated by the disorders of preceding times. He recompensed these learned men liberally and kept some of them near himself, honoring them with his friendship. Of these, the most celebrated is Alcuin [ca. 730-804], an Englishman, whose writings still remain and prove him to have been both a learned and a wise man. With the assistance of Alcuin and others like him, he founded an academy or royal school, which should have the direction of the studies of all the schools of the kingdom. Charlemagne himself was a member of this academy on equal terms with the rest. He attended its meetings and fulfilled all the duties of an academician.

Resources for Further Exploration

        Some of the best Internet resources dealing with Charlemagne include the following:

·  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_Renaissance -- This article provides a good introductory overview of the “Carolingian Renaissance” that grew out of Charlemagne’s educational reforms.

·        http://www.bartleby.com/183 -- The complete text of Thomas Bulfinch’s Legends of Charlemagne (1863) can be found here, along with links to some of Bulfinch’s other works.

·    http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/einhard.html -- This is an English translation of the Vita Karoli Magni (Life of Charles the Great) by Charlemagne’s first biographer, the royal historian Einhard.

Songs of Skies and Seasons

Dear Members, Alumni, & Friends of the JSMT:

Happy New Year 2015! As winter continues to tighten its grip on the American Midwest, here are some poems about the North Wind and the stars (from the archaic Greek Orphic Hymns), along with a poem about the North Star (Polaris) and the planet Venus (which reenters the evening twilight sky this month) from H. P. Lovecraft.

FROM THE ORPHIC HYMNS

Editor’s Note: The annual cycle of the seasons and its effects on our natural surroundings are recurring themes throughout world literature. The Orphic poets – a guild of ancient Greek philosopher-bards named after their legendary founder, Orpheus – celebrated the changing of the seasons, the wonders of the natural world, and their lofty ideals in poetic chants, several dozen of which were preserved in written form after centuries of oral transmission. In the poetic forms of their prescientific age (ca. 1000-500 BCE), the Orphic poets chose to personify the forces of nature, the celestial orbs, and abstract ideals in order to explain how and why the natural world and the human social order function in the ways that they do.

Orphic Hymn #6: To the Stars

With holy voice I call the stars on high,

Pure sacred lights and genii of the sky.

Celestial stars, the progeny of Night,

In whirling circles beaming far your light,

Refulgent rays around the heavens ye throw,

Eternal fires, the source of all below.

With flames significant of Fate ye shine,

And aptly rule for men a path divine.

In seven bright zones ye run with wandering flames,

And heaven and earth compose your lucid frames:

With course unwearied, pure and fiery bright

Forever shining through the veil of Night.

Hail twinkling, joyful, ever wakeful fires!

Propitious shine on all my just desires;

These sacred rites regard with conscious rays,

And end our works devoted to your praise.

Orphic Hymn #79: To the North Wind

Boreas, whose wintry blasts, terrific, tear

The bosom of the deep surrounding air;

Cold icy power, approach, and favoring blow,

And Thrace a while desert exposed to snow:

The misty station of the air dissolve,

With pregnant clouds, whose frames in showers resolve:

Serenely temper all within the sky,

And wipe from moisture, Aether's beauteous eye.

FROM THE POEMS OF H. P. LOVECRAFT (1890-1937)

Editor’s Note: H. P. Lovecraft is regarded by literary scholars as the “Edgar Allan Poe” of the 20^th century. He was an imaginative author of “weird fiction” – a genre that combines science fiction, fantasy, and horror – and also an accomplished poet. His work has inspired, among others, the creators/writers of Babylon 5 and Doctor Who.

“Polaris” (1920)

Slumber, watcher, till the spheres,

Six and twenty thousand years

Have revolved, and I return

To the spot where now I burn.

Other stars anon shall rise

To the axis of the skies;

Stars that soothe and stars that bless

With a sweet forgetfulness:

Only when my round is o’er

Shall the past disturb thy door.

“Evening Star” (1930)

I saw it from that hidden, silent place

Where the old wood half shuts the meadow in.

It shone through all the sunset’s glories – thin

At first, but with a slowly brightening face.

Night came, and that lone beacon, amber-hued,

Beat on my sight as never it did of old;

The evening star – but grown a thousandfold

More haunting in this hush and solitude.

It traced strange pictures on the quivering air –

Half-memories that had always filled my eyes –

Vast towers and gardens; curious seas and skies

Of some dim life – I never could tell where.

But now I knew that through the cosmic dome

Those rays were calling from my far, lost home.

Until next time, keep looking up! :)

Rob