As someone who has attended two of the Center of the Constitution’s weekend programs, I was overly excited when I was accepted to the 2009′s National Institute. Of course I couldn’t wait to pick Will’s brain for more and more insight, but quickly I have learned this Institute is much more than that.
This institute is a way not to just learn about polity and community, but to also build our very own community and polity. As I climbed the mountain behind Occidental,with a few of my friends, to watch the beautiful California sunset, I finally figured why we were here at Occidental. We are Scipio, climbing to the top of our own little world, looking down to see the wholeness and order that is so clearly there. We are here to build a republic, a group of citizens of common interest, putting the theories that we are learning into practical applications. But we will be building our own community on the foundations of all the former institutes. Because the institute’s whole is truly greater then the sum of one of its years part.
It is really interesting to watch a group of people, with no more then a common interest to learn and living on the same floor of a building, in just a few short days turn into a community. I just hope my initial optimism wont give away to the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
After speaking to Shellee, and her wanting to try to include the former institutes by tweeting her experience. I thought that I too had an obligation as citizen of this world to build common interest between all members, past and present. I hope to blog every few days about what is going on in the institute, I just hope, you will all join in with comments.
Absolutely! My dream is the free flowing exchange of ideas between alumni groups through Politicolor. Thanks for picthing in! Maybe it’s true… write it and they will come!
FT, what a great post! The Ciceronean perspective hits the nail on the head. Perhaps without realizing it, you have encapsulated the experience we had in 2007: we started with no more than a common interest, developed 3 weeks of shared experience, and built a community of brothers and sisters.
As verbose as I am, I have yet to find words adequate to express what this group of people means to me. Thanks, Step & Hobbes, for keeping the family together, and for including new generations!
God bless all of you (therein, Step, you know what I believe!),
Puck
I second my fellow ’07 Alum, Puck.
Perhaps best illustrating this notion of bonding is the fact that Puck and me rode in to LA from the airport as strangers, and now feel like soul-siblings.
What did that? Shared discourse, respect, the All-Star game, dinners at roundtables… We re-constructed ourselves within the amazing framework that Will and the Preceptors (intriguing notion for a band, that) offer.
Hang on for the ride, and realize that you’re providing the energy for liftoff.
Keith
Hey English-major Hobbes! Shouldn’t that have been “Puck and I”?