Office of the President

New Student Convocation — September 3, 1995

Epiphanies

Mayor Antaramian. Parents, Friends, Guests of our Honorees. Carthage students, faculty, and staff colleagues. Thank you for being here and making this event possible. Most especially, members of the Class of 1999 and entering transfer students in the Classes of 1996, 1997, and 1998.

This New Student Convocation honors you and welcomes you into the Carthage community. Today, each of you is becoming a lifetime member of a group of people whose common identity will be the "Carthage Class of 199-something." For most of you, that means the Class of 1999.

You will be making a lot of new acquaintances and friends the next few weeks. You may already have begun with roommates or teammates. Most important, you are, or will be, encountering those special individuals with whom you discover a particular affinity. They may well become your lifelong friends. One of them may even become your spouse — we hope for a lifetime.

Right now is not too soon to meet some new people. Let me request all new students here on the first floor to stand. Look around you and find two or three people whom you don't know. That should not be too difficult. Shake hands, introduce yourselves, and tell each other where you are from.

Before you sit down, look again, very closely, at the people you have just met. Try to engrave in your memory the way they look right now. ... In the year 2049, when you first-year students return to campus for your fiftieth anniversary Homecoming, you quite possibly will encounter the same individuals you have just met. Perhaps for the first time in years. You may be shocked at how much they will have aged. Just to be sure who they are, you may even have to risk a quick glance at their name tags. So remember them the way they are right now, in all their youth, vigor, and promise.

Ours is a culture that prizes youth. Americans spend billions of dollars each year on efforts to remain, or at least to appear, young. We all know the legend of Ponce de Leon, who searched the new world for the fountain of youth. He may have failed, but I have found it. Moreover, I am willing to tell you what it is. Are you ready? — The secret of youth is "epiphanies."

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Many of you growing up in the church know the celebration of the Epiphany. Observed in Christian tradition on January 6, it commemorates the revelation of the divine nature of Christ to the Gentiles, as symbolized by the Magi or Wise Men. The word epiphany therefore means a special revelation of a divine being — or a sudden manifestation of the essence of something — or a comprehension of reality by means of a sudden intuition. An epiphany is an abrupt insight that can transform your life.

This is midday on a Sunday, we are in a chapel, and it is therefore appropriate to draw examples of epiphanies from the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Let us reflect on two of them. Many of you will remember the story of Moses and the burning bush. Moses was a young man with an adventurous past. As an infant, he had escaped the Pharaoh's orders that all Hebrew baby boys be killed. The cunning of his mother and sister, and the pity of the Pharaoh's daughter when she discovered him floating in the ark of bulrushes, had combined to save his life. Growing to manhood, Moses had developed a strong sense of ethnic identity, to the point of killing an Egyptian for abusing another Hebrew, and then having to flee from yet another death sentence by the Pharaoh.

In his flight, Moses had befriended the daughters of a shepherd, who, in gratitude, took him into the family. Moses was given one of the daughters as a wife, and then was put to work shepherding the flocks of his new father-in-law. The author of the book of Exodus — by tradition, Moses himself — describes these early events in Moses' life almost as succinctly as I have just done. But then comes the story of the burning bush. Suddenly, the reader encounters tremendous detail, featuring a verbatim account of the encounter between God and Moses. As readers, we quickly realize that the burning bush was of a wholly different order than anything Moses had experienced before. It was his epiphany. It is worthy of our attention.

Speaking from out of the bush, God commanded Moses to go back to Egypt and to lead the children of Israel out of captivity. That was a patently preposterous idea. What could a mere shepherd do against the might of Egypt? How could one man bring communal order to such an unruly group as the Hebrews themselves?

Moses let God know just how far-fetched the whole idea was. But for every objection, God had an answer. God kept conferring powers on Moses and promising a guiding presence to him. Finally, only after angering God through his persistent resistance, did Moses acquiesce and follow the command.

At that point, the encounter at the burning bush became a transforming event in the life of Moses. The man who had bargained with God proved capable of bargaining with the Pharaoh also. Moses even succeeded in restoring both leadership and community among the children of Israel themselves.

The work of Moses saved the identity, indeed the very existence of the children of Israel as a people. For well over three thousand years, a religion and a culture have survived, developed, and even flourished because of the opportunity Moses provided. It all began in Moses' epiphany at the burning bush.

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Let us stay with the scriptures for one more sterling example of a famous epiphany. You will remember the young man Saul — well-educated, energetic, violently anti-Christian. We first encounter him witnessing and approving the stoning death of Stephen. The book of Acts asserts that "he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison." He then requested and received permission to journey to Damascus, to ferret out the new believers, and to bind and send them back to Jerusalem for judgment.

But then on the road outside Damascus, suddenly there shone a brilliant light from out of the sky, knocking Saul to the ground and blinding him. What followed was a fateful exchange: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" "Who art thou, Lord?" "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." "What wilt thou have me to do?" "Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do."

Saul did indeed arise and go. He quickly became a Christian, and he followed what he believed to be the will of his lord the rest of his life.

It is difficult to exaggerate the historical impact of Saul's epiphany. He became the apostle Paul. Through his preaching and writing, as he traveled tirelessly, he placed his mark on the teachings and beliefs of the early church as did no other. He profoundly influenced the culture of which every one of you is a product, regardless of your personal religious beliefs. It all began in Saul's epiphany on the road to Damascus.

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Now you may well find it bewildering to think that these stories are somehow meant to honor you on your first day in college. As you move in and get settled on campus, you have many more immediate needs and priorities than listening to talk about epiphanies.

Please indulge me for a few more minutes, however, and let us think together about the common traits of Moses and Paul. First of all, when they encountered their epiphanies, they were already very committed and engaged human beings. Moses possessed a strong sense of ethnic identity, and Paul was passionate in his religious views. They were neither neutral nor passive, and both had demonstrated their willingness to act upon their convictions.

Second, their epiphanies came as complete surprises to them. Neither man had any idea those events were going to take place. Neither had sat around waiting for some sudden revelation in order to make sense of things. Neither realized just how much potential he had, nor what marvelous things he could accomplish with proper inspiration and guidance.

Third, both Moses and Paul showed great strength of character in their willingness to face the truth and to come to terms with it. The experience was acutely painful for them both. It confronted them with their own errors and failures, even as it challenged them to daring undertakings in the future.

Finally, those epiphanies produced results. Neither man was content with personal enlightenment alone. Moses led his nation out of bondage. Paul laid the foundations of Christian belief. The reverberations of their actions still resound today, and will for centuries to come.

We therefore have a portrait of two young people possessing commitment and moral courage, who were willing to be educated and to act upon what they learned. They sound like good students, don't they?

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Of course, Moses and Paul are personalities from scripture. For some of us, they may seem too sacred, too august for us to be able to adopt them as personal models. Or, others of us may harbor doubts about all that supernatural stuff. Burning bushes that are not consumed, sudden lights shining out of heaven -- such is not our own experience. Nor can we conceive of any good scientific explanation for such phenomena.

Yet, the theme of epiphanies characterizes cultures around the world. It permeates secular literature, ancient and modern, as well as religious texts.

Within a few weeks, all of you who will be in Heritage I will be reading Plato's myth of the cave. It is an unforgettable story. I don't want to steal the thunder from the course, but let me drop just one hint. Look for the epiphany in that story. It is central to Plato's view of reality. Some of you may read Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace here at Carthage. Tolstoy's characters experience a series of epiphanies throughout the novel. Tolstoy believed that life's ultimate value is to be discovered through simple, everyday existence -- not through feats of military prowess, not through political affairs of state, and not through the amassing of great wealth or social prestige in an aristocratic social order. In other words, for Tolstoy, what was truly important in 1812 in Russia was not Napoleon's invasion but the ongoing lives of common people who personified the Russian soul.

Therefore, something so simple as standing on a veranda and watching a placid lake in the dusk could inspire an epiphany. Certainly, the long, tortuous death of Prince Andrej led him to a higher consciousness before he died.

I recently heard a university president characterize James Joyce's Ulysses as the greatest English-language novel of the twentieth century. Looking back from 1995, we remember that a court order was necessary to allow publication of Ulysses in the United States in the 1930s. At that time, the novel was thought to be obscene and therefore subject to censorship.

In attempting to master the art of writing, the young Joyce concentrated on short prose passages he called "epiphanies." By that, he meant those fleeting moments when the real truth about a person or situation comes out. Joyce's practice in writing his epiphanies honed his powers of observation and brought his prose to sharp, succinct expression.

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Finally, although among modern writers I admire Leo Tolstoy and James Joyce, I have a special fondness for Charles Campbell. He is our youngest son, and this is a school paper he wrote last spring when he was a few weeks short of fifteen.

My Epiphany

"First I'll start off by telling what an epiphany is. It has more than one meaning. The most popular is the biblical season, but I'm going to talk with you about a different meaning. The meaning I'm talking about is a flash of insight, or a moment of true understanding. Like the day that Isaac Newton understood gravity, the day Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the day Michael Jordan scored 63 points, and the day Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in a World Series game. All of these seem to be epiphanies, but I can not know for sure since I don't know these people. They all seem to have reached a peak in their respective professions, so I consider all to be epiphanies. As far back as memory goes I can only remember having one epiphany.
" It was a cold day in February. Down in the Carthage College gym. A friend from my old school wanted to play basketball, so we decided to meet them down there. He brought a friend and I brought my neighbor so we could have a game of two-on-two. I was walking down there and remember thinking that we could beat them and remember thinking that I would have a good day. Even though my neighbor was the worst player there he played good and didn't mind having me taking more shots. We played five games; two going into overtime. We won four out of five, because I was having the day of my life. My neighbor said, "I remember that you hit everything." He also said that I was playing like Jordan, and he has never seen somebody shoot that good in a game before. Even when they double-teamed me I managed to score. They just kept on doubling me up towards the end so I then could pass the ball to my open teammate. That feeling of being unstoppable was the best feeling on earth.

"I had an epiphany because I'm committed to play basketball and improve. You can have an epiphany if you are truly committed to a study or activity or anything that means something to you. For me it was basketball; for Alexander Fleming, it was medicine. I feel upset if I don't play basketball everyday. So in order to have an epiphany, you need to be truly committed to something and you have to go through the ups and the downs in order to get it. I only wish everybody could have one in their respective field. It is the best feeling on earth."


Perhaps Charles could write more of my speeches. I cannot put the idea more eloquently than that.

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Like Charles, I hope you have had an epiphany in your lives. I very much hope you will have such experiences here at Carthage.

Epiphanies cannot be willed or induced, but they can be enabled. The College has a faculty superbly qualified as enablers. Their job is not so much to put facts into your heads or to teach you special skills — although you will need both factual knowledge and a command of intellectual skills. The ultimate responsibility of the faculty is to stimulate and to coach you in pursuing your own intellectual passions.

An epiphany can happen at any place at any time. It need not come in a sudden light from heaven; something as simple as a calm lake at dusk can stimulate it. The truth is that an epiphany comes from within, and depends purely and simply on what you have inside yourself. In my own teaching, the greatest reward always has been the involuntary flicker of a smile or the gleam in the eye of a student when suddenly he or she understands something for the first time.

But it is also true that new insights and new understanding can be as painful for us, as it was for Moses and Paul. That is the price we pay for growth and maturity.

Long after you leave Carthage, I hope you will continue to have an occasional epiphany. That will mean that you are alive, that you are still growing, learning, and developing. Years later, Moses returned to another mountain in the desert for yet another encounter with God when he received the Ten Commandments. The apostle Paul experienced new revelations throughout his life. Witness passages such as, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." When you return to Carthage in the year 2049, the truth is that others will have to sneak a peek at your name badge to be sure who you are. You realize that very well. But if over the next fifty years, you will have continually brought yourself to new plateaus where new epiphanies are possible, you will still be looking to the future.

In your early 70s, you will still be as full of youth, vigor, and promise as you are today.

Welcome to Carthage!