Leave of absence ...

I will take my leave of Blogsville today and be gone until Monday (May 22). I will be assisting as a discussion faciliator in an annual Great Books program sponsored by the Hickory Humanities Forum of Lenoir-Rhyne College through its Lineberger Center for Cultural and Educational Renewal at the Blumenthal family's Wildacres retreat in Little Switzerland, North Carolina. We will be discussing Nikolai Gogol's "The Overcoat," a selection from the Bhagavad-Gita, Gregor von Rezzori's "Troth" (from his Memoirs of an Anti-Semite), Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge," and William B. Yeats' "Lapis Lazuli," Wallace Stevens' "Sunday Morning," Robert Frost's "Design," and Elizabeth Bishop's "The Armadillo." Other discussion leaders include George Anastaplo of Chicago, John Van Doren of New York, Eva Brann and Laurence Berns from Annapolis, Don Just from Austin, Texas, and several colleagues form North Carolina, including Ronda Chervin. The sessions include great dining, at least one concert (e.g., a string quintet, but we've occasionally had blue grass), hiking trails just minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Accommodations are commodious, with motel-style rooms, large common spaces, including a canteen, a spacious lodge with a fireplace, and refrectory, as well as meeting rooms. Participants come from many parts of the country, with a significant Jewish and Christian representation. The cost of $175 per participant includes tuition, text, room, and board. If any of you would like to be put on the mailing list for future meetings, please call Larry Yoder (next week) at Lenoir-Rhyne College (828) 328-7276.