THE UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND PEOPLE AND IDEAS FOR SPRING 2015 jj '] Shadows in the night ii o I'm on Alaska Flight 3 out of D.C. members of Congress and staffers and under- twisted a little and made strange. Its Dylan !l National, somewhere Pittsburgh-ish secretaries and think-tankers and high- doing “Autumn Leaves.” But the well-known on my way back home after a week profile TV news commentators and college lines are given a completely new and entirely ins our nations capital. Coast to coast, in presidents singing a different tune. About ancient (if rather painful) cast. “Since you’ve the darkness, about six hours in the air. I’m the sad state of higher-education public pol­ been away, the days grow long ... my darling, taking my first listen to Bob Dylans freshly icy; the myths and facts around the student when autumn leaves start to fall.” Almost released Shadows in the Night, an album of debt “crisis”; the scandal of the Department unbearably slow tempo, like the leaves can’t ft classic American tunes all of which were once of Education s misguided college rating sys­ quite make it all the way down. And soon recorded by Sinatra but in this collection defi­ tem; the achievements and new challenges after, to lift the spirit, another chestnut, nitely done Bobs way. I d added the music to entailed in Title IX; the short-lived declara- “Some Enchanted Evening,” spins its odd my iTunes playlists just before takeoff as an tions of bi-partisanship in the new Congress; enchantment in the air. “You may see a early birthday present to myself. It’s oozing its the dysfunction of our democracy; the curse stranger,” oh yes, “across a crowded room.” lugubrious way into my ears right now, grim of federal overreach; and the big challenges There’s hope here, once you have found her. melodies impeccably transmitted up close and of a changing demography. Made Dylan And once you have, my friend, never let her f personal through my Bose headphones. sound downright upbeat. goooooo. 1 am left in some kind of incanted, The songs are mostly unfamiliar to me One speaker, cutting sharply through decanted enchantment. Maybe it’s the Bose. and take me on a monochromatic journey of the dull clutter of the others, asked us all I spent the other half of this same day betrayed love, heartache, despair, disappoint­ why there can never be another “great” walking the halls of Congress, talking with ment and disillusionment, hope lost: “I’m a president of the United States, why greatness Washington representatives and senators in Fool To Want You,” “The Night We Called is so real and important to us but so elusive, their offices about the value of investment It a Day,” “Stay with Me,” “Full Moon and why we have an ambivalence about personal in higher education for the next generation, l Empty Arms,” and “Where Are You?” greatness in our American exceptionalism, for the economy, for access and equity and I admit, I find its liturgy of abandonment and why we no longer seem to be able, as a social justice, and for the good of the soul strangely affecting. Bobs voice is melancholy, nation, to commit ourselves to a great collec- of the country. We spoke of the urgent need authentically earnest, respectful—so much rive cause in which our own self-interests arc for bipartisanship, for encouraging American more melodic, true, resonant than we’ve sacrificed to something, well, great. Greater innovation, for focusing on the important t heard from him for years. But so him, totally, than ourselves. Did you know that the first things, for thinking about the future, for sup­ truly. Old Blue Eyes is back there, all right. person singular pronoun “I” appears only porting education that lasts a lifetime—and Somewhere. But this is clear-eyed Dylan once in the U.S. Constitution? Do you know more. They offered hope, but caution, too, crooning. where? In the president’s oath of office: “I do and a warning about expectations. Seems like the perlect soundtrack to fol­ solemnly swear that I will faithfully ...” Blending seamlessly with those conversa­ low a few days in our nation’s capital. Suddenly I recognize a familiar tune tions were my encounters with other, younger I had spent half of this day listening to coming through the ’phones, but it’s been people who were walking those same halls Cover illustration by Roger Dahl '75 from the president that day. Not long ago I had seen them in encouragement and resolve to move us on to him become that sun: “Send down that cloud more familiar halls back home, some 3,000 the next song, and the next, and is joined by with the silver lining, lift me to paradise. ... miles away—in Wyatt and Collins and Whee- another, Show me that river, take me across, and wash lock and Jones. They were carrying backpacks But Dylan’s vocal phrasing is the thing— all my troubles away.” Its Sinatra’s “Knockin’ on their shoulders then, sipping coffee from always just dead on—and that’s the magic that on Heaven’s Door” done Dylans way. “Mama, paper cups, spinning Frisbces across the makes this whole thing work. Every single rake this badge off of me. 1 can’t use it any­ quad, sitting in trustee meetings, or in my line, without fail, is delivered with maximum more.” It’s at once a vision of paradise and a office across from me, dreaming about the truth. What I thought might be a weird nov­ surrender to time. future. Now they are legislative aides, deputy elty (Dylan sings Sinatra) turns out more like So, I’m sold on the record as a great thing. communications directors, chiefs of staff, a great American novel, one that takes the It’s gonna get me clear over the Rockies for and researchers on public policy, shaping the material of life and transforms it into a tale sure tonight, and maybe all the way to the course of things to come. All dressed up, bus- worth telling—and hearing—over and over, Emerald City and the silver sea beyond. But tling with clipboards and pens in their hands, Echoes of those conversations with former the songs’ strange power is not in their col­ fire in their eyes. Some working for global students melt into the melodies—phrases lective resignation but in the counterpoint NGOs; some doing graduate work in diplo­ about how it all works on the Hill, how it they form with a different tune I keep hear­ macy; some consulting with organizations to doesn’t, how things get done. They can follow ing, the silver lining of no surrender sung by build capacity, enhance effectiveness. 1 knew the tune, know how to change it, sound the those younger voices I once heard humming them all so well, I thought, one enchanted trumpet when the bass declines too deeply in our more familiar halls, now all singing in evening, before the autumn leaves fell. and runs off the tracks. They remember what harmony in D.C. and across the country and But they now look taller than I remember, they learned in those other halls on campus around the world. About how the sun has smarter—and as optimistic and determined and how it sustains them now in these capitol not set, has not even risen yet, bur is coming. and committed as ever to make a difference. hills. And they sing the praises of others who They are crowing, announcing the dawn of They still believe in greatness and have great went before them there, and now here, and the next big thing. They are knockin’ on a dif­ expectations. who help them find a way through to the next ferent door. Putting on the badge, not laying A recurrent slide guitar slides and slithers thing, the next note, the next tune. They hum it down. Solemnly swearing to faithfully ... through a pace of excruciating slowness from with a commitment to that something greater Dylan is great, still. But these others are melody to melody, pushed by a plucked bass than themselves, to a collective good. Never about to be. line that is sometimes joined, just perfectly, let her go. by the haunting moan of a bow stretching It all ends with Dylan’s take on “That across the same strings of that acoustic bass. Lucky Old Sun” (that “has nothing to do but Then, precisely when you need a lift to ease roll ’round heaven all day”). The song has the you up and over the long incline, a lonely weary singer (who has “slept till I’m old and horn sounds hesitantly but with just enough gray”) offering a fervent plea to heaven to let Ronald R.Thomas spring 2015 arches 1 •r4 Jf'.'. .; V iMimnjLt m Mulhausen a i svgj KV S?> COMICRELIEF At the Asian Studies program's Chinese New Year , ■:'W. Celebration, Katie McGee '17 shows off the face paint • / > u- artwork of Master Michael Hsia, a retired professional . Opera performer and teacher from Taiwan. The (Blof white around the eyes and nose is distinctive pupfor a chou or clown character in Beijing opera. ‘gMasterWang specializes in the role of chou, which pdah be a civil or martial character that provides comic ^relief. BBC Pop Up (a U.S.-based mobile subsidiary of -BBCyVojid News) covered the UPS Chinese New Year ■M festivities on its blog. ... photojournal just visible back there, stage right.To see a close-up of the UPS musicians who are in the orchestra, turn to page 40.