The Marble Faun
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Newsletter of the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts Spring 2019 The Paradox of Place By Dr. Paul Connell, Fellow The farther one travels, oftentimes, often given in a way that one might the closer one feels to what one has not expect. Consequently, the shape The attachment to place runs deep in left behind. Therein lies the paradox of a pilgrimage, going and returning, the Western tradition, revealing a deep of leaving and returning, of home and “biglietto andata e ritorno,” traces a type yearning in us for a sense of stability, away. of crescent, or, more precisely, an ellipse. rooted in the familiar. This movement of departure and (Coincidentally—or perhaps not—the There are many accompanying return finds its parallel in the Christian form of the Piazza San Pietro in Rome, images, but one in particular presents a tradition: pilgrimage. One leaves the the point of convergence for pilgrims certain paradox. familiar on settled terrain for a high from all over the world, is an ellipse.) Odysseus, in Homer’s Odyssey, must spiritual purpose to return to one’s native A poem that expresses this paradox of leave his native Ithaka to fight the place having received certain graces home-and-away and the transformative Trojan War. The primary action of the and having undergone something of a effect of the journey may be found in the epic is his return home to achieve his transformation. works of a sixteenth-century French poet "nostos" or homecoming. There his wife Part of the transformation is looking Joachim du Bellay, born into a family of Penelope and his son Telemachus await, at the place one has left with new eyes. some status in the Loire Valley in 1522, a as does the task of putting in order his One may embark on a pilgrimage first cousin of the then-notable Cardinal household after a twenty-year absence. for various reasons, even for motives Jean du Bellay. The attachment that one feels to not completely known to the pilgrim, In 1553 he was sent to Rome as a the familiar, to hearth and household, but there is the fairly constant sense of secretary of Cardinal du Bellay, staying the sadness of leaving what one loves, a “perceived deficiency” in the pilgrim in Rome for four and one half years. the anxiety and anticipation of the that calls for redress. This was a time of maturation in his unexpected, the trials and tribulations In fact, one of the graces that poetry. And though his time in Rome of the journey, and the hoped-for return, a pilgrim may receive could be a was privileged in a certain sense, it was recur in large ways and small throughout purification of motives. (Continued on page 12) life. One might say that one departs as an “old man” to speak in anthropological terms, and returns a “new man.” And Sugar Shack 3 so it is that the journey is never the same going to the destination as it is coming back, even if it is on the same road. THE MARBLE FAUN 4 The path, imaginatively, takes the same pattern as that of the Magi, perhaps the original pilgrimage model Wisdom & Creativity 6 for the Gentile peoples. We are told that after being warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, that the Treasures from the Library 10 Magi departed into their own country another way (Matt. 2:12). America's British Culture 11 Such is the reverberation of an as an Inheritance? Epiphany. What the pilgrim receives, therefore, On Manchester Street 15 at minimum, is the grace of an insight, 2 www.ThomasMoreCollege.edu ommunitas A community newsletter Communitas is published by The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts thanks to the generous contributions of loyal supporters. To support this publication go to: www.ThomasMoreCollege.edu/Support To subscribe: www.ThomasMoreCollege.edu/Communitas Editor Layout Editor Executive Editor Carley Cassella Allison Deardurff Dominic Cassella Publisher William Fahey Spring 2019 3 Sugar Shack By Phil Lawler, Visiting Fellow Cover the buckets as you fill them, and pleasant conversation while you take store them somewhere cold, probably turns stirring the pots and adding fresh Sometimes Mother Nature lavishes outdoors. Be prepared to cool them if logs. her bounties upon us at no cost; sunsets the temperature suddenly rises; warm sap As the first pots of sap boil down, and birdsongs are free to all. At other will “bloom” and give off an unpleasant consolidate them, fill the available times she makes us work for her gifts. odor, presaging an unpleasant taste. pots with fresh new sap, and repeat the Sugar is in that latter category. Before If you have professional-grade process. Gradually you notice that the you enjoy that delicious taste, someone equipment, the next step is equally processed sap is thickening and taking must grow, harvest, and process cane or easy. For a hobbyist, though, the real on a hint of color. You find yourself beet. Or someone must keep bees, and work begins. You have collected sap, treating it with great care, whereas you after a little nurturing and coaxing of the not syrup. If you sample a bit, it will sloshed the pure sap around roughly. industrious little creatures, take away the look and taste like water because that’s And indeed it is precious. Taste it now. surplus of their labor. Or one may tap essentially what it is. To produce one You’re almost there. maple trees and boil sap down into sugar. quart of maple syrup, you need to boil I have found that the last step is best Since someone must do that work, off approximately 40 quarts of water. taken in the kitchen, where it’s easier to why not do it yourself? I myself keep This boiling must be done outdoors; control the temperature. A moderate bees and tap trees, and I find the that much steam would take the paint off amount of steam will not be unwelcome work instructive as well as rewarding. your kitchen walls. You’ll need a fire pit, in a house that has dried out through Instructive, because through the process I several large pots, and plenty of wood the winter heating season. When the learn a bit more about nature, about the for fuel. This might be a good time to precious liquid reaches 219°, it’s maple beauty of Creation. And this rewarding, use up scrap wood or soft pine that you syrup. Congratulations. because—well, because the end result wouldn’t use in your woodstove. (But be Sample the syrup once, and you'll brings quarts and quarts of pure honey careful; pine burns hot and fast; you’ll know that you can never accept the or maple syrup. have to stoke the first constantly and sticky, pallid substitutes again. You'll Making maple syrup is deceptively watch vigilantly so that the sap doesn’t feel a sense of accomplishment because it simple but not necessarily easy. The trees boil over.) Expect to spend several hours was your work that transformed watery provide the sap; all we need to do is boil boiling. sap into this amber elixir. As you share it. And boil it, and boil it. But first, of At this stage the process could be the final product with your friends, course, we must choose the right trees. boring, but I find that it can also be a you’ll find that they want to be invited New England is rich in sugar pleasant social occasion. Invite a few back again next year—or maybe take maples—beautiful trees that help give friends to come join you. You’ll all be up maple-syruping themselves. Can you the region its spectacular autumn colors. warm around the fire and can enjoy a blame them? Sugar maples can be identified by their five-lobed leaves and their distinctive seed fruits. After a bit of consultation with an experienced hand (or a book or a web site), any novice can pick the right trees. Tapping the trees is easy. Late in winter, when temperatures are below freezing at night and above during day— usually mid-February in the vicinity of TMC—the time is right to drill holes and insert taps. Any household drill will work. Taps are available online but can easily be improvised. Hook a plastic bucket to the tap, or better, run clear plastic tubing from the tap to a bucket, and wait. Have plenty of large buckets on hand; a healthy tree can produce a couple of gallons a day. 4 www.ThomasMoreCollege.edu Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Marble Faun Highlights from the Curriculum: Companion Reflections by a Fellow & an Alumnus Pauline Pilgrimage year. For that trip, I and to shatter it with more picturesque brought three books—my Bible, Pope decay. Byron’s celebrated description is Benedict’s Paul the Apostle, and Nathaniel better than the reality.” The party then Hawthorne’s The Marble Faun. goes on to observe other Americans and During that pilgrimage I was cured of English “paying the inevitable visit by two maladies. I had prayed for healing moonlight, and exalting themselves with of the body and mind and, through them, raptures that were Byron’s, and not their the cleansing and strengthening of my own.” Throughout the novel, Hawthorne soul. In all truth, a leg injury that had forces the reader to meditate with him on burdened me for over two decades simply the doom of the thoughtful: How does one vanished after my visit to San Paolo alle Tre untangle the visions of the imagination Fontane—the church built over the site of from the firmness of the world? How do St.