Furman Magazine. Volume 33, Issue 2 - Full Issue Furman University

Furman Magazine Volume 33 Article 2 Issue 0 1989 All Issues

9-1-1989 Furman Magazine. Volume 33, Issue 2 - Full Issue Furman University

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UNIVERSITY

Editor: Marguerite Hays Contributing Writers: Vince Moore, Jim Stewart, Terry Walters Photographer: David Crosby Design: Beth Tankersley Tankersley Schroeder Graphic Design Consultant: Tom Hays CONTENTS

ALUMNI BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Pilgrimage to the Top of the World by Linda julian 2 David G. Ellison '72, president; Robert H. In Iceland, English professor Linda Julian finds the same harsh climate and Lutz, Jr. '71, president-elect; R. O'Neil Rabon, Jr. '81, vice-president; Harold F. desolate beauty that once inspired legendary heroes to acts of bravery. '69, Gallivan III secretary; Robert L. Twenty�Four Days in a German Hospital by Olaf Sorensen 7 Thompson, Jr. '60, past president; Joyce A simple nosebleed, or so it seems, forces Olof Sorensen to take a close Burris Bagwell '54; William L. Ballenger '59; Mary Barr Behlke '59; Gordon L. look at the German health care system. Blackwell '60; Breck S. Bolton '83; John Traveling toward a Global Perspective by Marguerite Hays 10 Richard Cassady '62; Beth Hicks Fisher '79; Claire W. Geddie '64; Sarah W. Furman students who study abroad learn to see the world through the Herring '66; Trescott N. Hinton '38; eyes of others. Martha Lattimore Hughes '70; Carol Capell Play It Again, Sam by Vince Moore 22 Newsom '66; Paul B. Nix, Jr. '77; Henry L. Parr, Jr. '73; Robert Pinson '61; J.C. Sam Wyche's penchant for the unusual has made the NFL sit up and Plowden '48; Chartee M. Plyler '59; Wayne take notice. A. Price '81; Alice D. Pugh '60; Wayne D. Reid '68; Keith A. Shelton '58; Constance COVER: A sacred horse race held for the Snapp '71; Linda A. Tuck '66; Charles F. entertainment of the gods at a shrine in '62; '84 Turner Fred E. Vereen III Kyoto is one of many festivals Furman Ex-Officio: John E. Johns '47, president, students in Japan may see. History professor Furman University; Jerry E. McGee, vice Jim Leavell photographed this young priest president for development; Don Fowler, who was waiting to be blessed after riding director of development; Mary Brown Ries in the race. See article about Furman's '79, director of alumni programs; Dana E. foreign study program on page ro. Evans '88, alumni programs field representative; William J. Lavery, faculty liaison; Larry Lee '91, president, Association of Furman Students; Scott Kester '90, president, Senior Class; Mark Eckels '89, past president, Association of Furman Students; Danny Grover '89, past president, Senior Class

Furman University offers equal opportunity in its employment, admissions and education activities in compliance with Title IX and other civil rights laws. PILGRIMAGE TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD

BY LINDA JULIAN

A passion for Icelandic sagas led Linda Julian to visit uthe land of

n top of the world- I Fire and Ice.'' Keller and I had not made hoteheserva� was virtually there, at last. tions past the first night- and these Standing by the flag that geologists and psychiatrists caused us to 0 marked the place of the Law� do our tour upside down so that we Giver atop the Law Rock, I looked out could return to Reykjavik after they had over the wide valley that is Thingvellir in vacated the hotels. western Iceland and imagined myself a Iceland is holy ground to geologists, sturdy Viking come to recite the law at too. A relatively late land mass, it has live the annual parliament, the Althing. The volcanoes as well as glaciers. Travel moment was profound and holy for me as brochures like to call it "the land of Fire many moments were in this tw�week and lee." The geologists, as it turned out, pilgrimage to Iceland. had chosen an excellent time to convene The trip, to celebrate completing my since a major volcanic eruption was ex� Ph.D. requirements, grew out of my keen pected in northern Iceland within hours. interest in Icelandic sagas and their in� And northern Iceland was exactly fluence on the 19th century British poet where Keller and I were headed, thanks William Morris, the subject of my disser� to the geologists' appropriation of all of tation. My interest in these sagas had the hotel rooms in Reykjavik. But we developed into a passion, one shared only found out about the impending volcanic by my friend,· Keller Cushing Freeman, a eruption in a most unlikely way: we historian and philosopher, who had joined stumbled into the studio of Willi me on the trip and whose enthusiasm Knudsen, the man who, with his father, matched my own. has filmed all of the major eruptions in Scorn and ridicule were the emotions Iceland in the past several decades. that had surfaced in remarks from our Evenin August, LindaJulian (left) and Behaving like real tourists, we could families and friends when we announced traveling companion Keller Freeman brace not resist taking in one of the chief our intention of visiting Iceland. Most of against the icy wind in northern Ireland. attractions of Reykjavik, a film show our acquaintances who had been there called The Volcano Show. Tracking down had, after all, been there on the way to for vastly different reasons. Most were the tiny film studio for a Sunday morning somewhere. Sane people, it seemed, just taking advantage of Icelandic Air's showing, the day before we were to leave didn't go to Iceland as a destination. But package flights to Euro� which included Reykjavik for the North, we found from the moment we landed at the s� several days in Reykjavik for shopping in ourselves in the company of only two phisticated new aifP9rt at Keflavik, near the justly famed wool shops. Indeed, most couples and a distinguished looking man the capital, Reykjavik, and had our first of the pre�trip literature we had received who began to lecture as background to glimpse of the gray lava and brooding gray touted Reykjavik as a shoppers' Mecca. the films of the serious eruptions, clouds that even Ruskin and Turner More to our liking were the geologists particularly the one on Heimaey in the would have envied us, we knew we were of the world, who had convened in Westman Islands in 1974. on holy ground. Iceland that week, as had an international During that eruption the entire popu� The ground may have been holy to us, group of psychiatrists. Since we had not lation of several thousand people had to but it was interesting to our fellow travelers expected Iceland to lure conventions, be evacuated. More than 300 houses were

2 z <(:::; 2 <( c:l :::;z buried in ashes and it took the inhabitants and routes of escape. He assured me that The capital of Iceland, Reykjavik is a months to clean up and resettle the island. when we heard the alarm bell from our modem, sophisticated city bestknown to But such a fight with the elements is hotel, we would have at least 10 minutes tourists for its wool shops. second nature to the Icelanders, and film� to make travel arrangements! ing it is second nature to Knudsen. It was The full absurdity of that statement did schedules are coordinated with airline only after about two hours of lecturing not become apparent until we actually schedules so that the whole Icelander that our modest speaker identified himself arrived in