The arrangement was that I would spend a set of days at Highlands Latin School (Louisville, KY), working on a project with Memoria Press. I didn’t, though, know how the days would unfold.
First, I love this place. Our roots at Professor Carol are linked to Memoria Press all the way back to 2008. My links to their prestigious school go back much farther. I’ll tell that story sometime, but it started with a student who was in my piano studio when I was getting my graduate degrees at the University of North Carolina in the late 1970s.
Both Memoria Press and the elegant campuses of this school (plus the Highland Latins Cottage Schools now sprouting around the US) testify to the vision and constancy of their founder, the esteemed, kind, visionary Cheryl Lowe (known here always as Mrs. Lowe). Her spirit, despite her passing a few years ago, still fills the halls in a palpable way. It daily directs the vision of the talented, dedicated people who work here and the fortunate students who study here.
So I knew I would enjoy being here to work, to write, to plan. But I did not expect an invitation to film some sessions, first as part of a panel yesterday for Memoria Press’s series of podcasts called Et Cetera. (Tell me: when did podcasting begin involving cameras? But it does these days.)
Also, I learned a new verb upon being asked if I’d be willing to digitize some of the articles I have written in recent years for the press’s journal The Classical Teacher. See, I thought digitize meant taking handwritten or typed words from a sheet of paper and turning them into a word file. Silly me. Nope, digitized here means delivering written words live, as in a video-taped lecture. Only no one uses tape anymore.
Well, it’s been fun. They picked four of my articles; I grabbed the three best sets of clothes I had with me; and off we went. As always, the chance to talk to a wider audience about the topics so many of you also cherish is nothing short of a gift. The selected four articles focused on music and art, as well as the issue of history wherein the Fine Arts have been cultivated by monarchs who knew what the arts brought to the prestige of a kingdom (e.g., Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great). It was also delightful to have a young crew making it all happen: setup, assistance, technology, feedback, and even help picking earrings!
In short, it’s been lovely. Still, I am ready to drive home tomorrow. I miss my own crew back home. As wonderful as traveling is, inevitably I end up yearning to go home just about the time a trip has run its course. I start fretting about whether someone has remembered to buy eggs, water the coleuses, or reunited the vacuum cleaner attachments with the vacuum.
Those things are not unhappy thoughts. I like to make breakfast. Those coleuses promised great things when I planted them. And vacuuming is my favorite household chore. Home, after all, is where the heart is, even when surrounded by muddy sneakers, wilting (or not wilting) plants, and surprises from the refrigerator.
So I’ll finish up the filming here in a few hours, pack up my widely spread-out “stuff” (books, books, books, paper, paper, paper, tape, markers, more paper), and extend my thanks to all. This evening there is an opportunity to attend a fine performance of Fiddler on the Roof presented by the students of Highlands Latin School. They take their annual musical seriously, plus it’s glorious to consider that each kid up there singing and dancing knows Latin and Greek! Tomorrow I’ll drive along the rolling hills of Kentucky up to gorgeous West Virginia, cut down through my native State of Virginia, and coast into Winston-Salem. I have it planned to get home in time to run a load of laundry before bedtime!