Sunday, October 12, 2008
Homecoming
As I mentioned, I had a lovely time this weekend. We put together some GTA things with very little effort, and what we did came off very well. The department had a reception on Saturday afternoon that I thought was pretty sparsely attended, actually, given the number of people on campus for homecoming. Then we saw suddenlyBLACK, Obehi's one-woman show, which totally blew me away. I didn't know anything about it going in to it at all, but came to find out it's something she just put together because she thought it was interesting and important. And it was interesting and important. I hope they appreciate how lucky they have been at Georgetown to have her there for four years. It is a rare student who chooses not to coast by on the existing structure of campus life, but to bust through and make an intellectual life for herself on her own terms. Not everyone can be an iconoclast but damn if we don't need one sometimes.
The Clean House was charming, a very well chosen script. I said that to a few people and I fear it was taken as a put-down to the directing, but I didn't mean it that way. I was particuarly bad this weekend about saying too much or just generally insulting people inadvertently. I'm always a little that way, but it was really bad this time. I don't know what's wrong with me. But like I said, the Clean House was charming. They have a good new find in the freshman playing Matilde. Oh, so I don't have the script, so I might misquote this slightly, but here was my moment of the play:
In the talkback after the show, the director commented on how there were some challenges in relating to the characters, because the youngest of them is 27--older than everyone on stage. And then proceeded to talk about what this play teaches us about love. Drew corroborated my feeling of extreme age at that point. In fact, since Drew and I were the oldest alumni at the reception that night, I spent the whole time lamenting to the students how old I was. Not ONE of them disagreed with me. They just nodded sympathetically, glad they have at least another 7 or 8 months of blissful student life ahead of them. I AM NOT THAT OLD.
We used the meeting this morning to try to accomplish the transition of leadership away from me and my generation and on to the next group. I can't begin to tell you how heartened I am by the leadership coming up. I was really worried a few months ago about what would happen if I left the board, but I'm not any more. Sarah and Ian and Sally are pretty much taking it all out of my hands and it is GREAT. Ah, freedom.
And being back on campus, I fell hard for Georgetown all over again. The weather was absolute perfection and it's just so pretty there. I like to think that I appreciated my time there when it was happening. I think I did, most of the time. I just keep thinking of those bucolic spring afternoons sophomore year, with Dan playing his guitar and Peter way up in a tree somewhere. I need to remember only to visit when the weather is like that.
The Clean House was charming, a very well chosen script. I said that to a few people and I fear it was taken as a put-down to the directing, but I didn't mean it that way. I was particuarly bad this weekend about saying too much or just generally insulting people inadvertently. I'm always a little that way, but it was really bad this time. I don't know what's wrong with me. But like I said, the Clean House was charming. They have a good new find in the freshman playing Matilde. Oh, so I don't have the script, so I might misquote this slightly, but here was my moment of the play:
Virginia: How old are you?
Matilde: I am young enough that my skin is good. I am old enough that I worry that my skin is not good. Do you know how old I am?
Virginia: You are 27.
In the talkback after the show, the director commented on how there were some challenges in relating to the characters, because the youngest of them is 27--older than everyone on stage. And then proceeded to talk about what this play teaches us about love. Drew corroborated my feeling of extreme age at that point. In fact, since Drew and I were the oldest alumni at the reception that night, I spent the whole time lamenting to the students how old I was. Not ONE of them disagreed with me. They just nodded sympathetically, glad they have at least another 7 or 8 months of blissful student life ahead of them. I AM NOT THAT OLD.
We used the meeting this morning to try to accomplish the transition of leadership away from me and my generation and on to the next group. I can't begin to tell you how heartened I am by the leadership coming up. I was really worried a few months ago about what would happen if I left the board, but I'm not any more. Sarah and Ian and Sally are pretty much taking it all out of my hands and it is GREAT. Ah, freedom.
And being back on campus, I fell hard for Georgetown all over again. The weather was absolute perfection and it's just so pretty there. I like to think that I appreciated my time there when it was happening. I think I did, most of the time. I just keep thinking of those bucolic spring afternoons sophomore year, with Dan playing his guitar and Peter way up in a tree somewhere. I need to remember only to visit when the weather is like that.
