STONEHILL SCENES

“And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone:  and he poured a drink offering theron.” (Genesis 35:14)

Today has been a day that was both special and surreal.  For one thing, today, Mary Ann and I are observing our 26th wedding anniversary.  To me it seems like I got married six or seven years ago, but NOT twenty-six!  Twenty-six doesn’t even seem possible, and Mary Ann said she feels the same way.  In years past, we’ve often gone away to celebrate our anniversary, but since Mary Ann has a key position at Marian High School in Framingham, and since school starts there next week, this was just NOT a week in which we could consider taking time off.  (That’s why we took that mini-vacation to Cape Ann last week!)  The day was also special and surreal because Mary Ann and I journeyed to Stonehill College in Easton this morning and I had some wonderful time to walk and pray and reflect.

Some of you know I’m a graduate of Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri.  What many of you don’t know is that I had a life “B.C.” well to be more accurate, “B.C.B.C.” or Before Central Bible College.  I went to Stonehill College in Easton from 1972 to 1976 and I graduated from there with a B.A. in History.  THAT period of my life SEEMS like something out of “History”!  Well, in a way, IT IS!  In my first semester at Stonehill I got to take advantage of the brand new “eighteen-year-old vote” Constitutional Amendment.  All my Republican pals, PLEASE don’t smash your computers, but I voted for George McGovern that Fall.   And, shortly after graduating, I voted for Jimmy Carter for President in 1976.  Now, at Central Bible College, I was part of things.  I had friends, and some of them turned out to be lifelong friends.  I got involved in campus ministries.  During my final semester there, the wife of a married student gave birth to twins prematurely.  The babies’ lives hung in the balance.  The whole school was praying.  I was that couple’s closest friend on campus, and I was the contact person when things were very private and difficult for that family.  

Things had been so different at Stonehill.  At Stonehill, the campus mice were probably better known than I was!  I was as quiet as a mouse and very much in the background in those days.  I’m not sure what the ratio of commuters to on-campus students is today at Stonehill, but in those days it was around 75% residents and 25% commuters.  The residents tended to be VERY involved in activities on campus.  Now, SOME of the commuters got very involved, but probably at least half of us commuters just showed up, went to class, and went home.  It was like going to work at I.B.M. or something.  At Freshman orientation, they warned the commuters that if we treated the school like that we would, “miss out on a lot of college life”.  Well, I did.  But then again, I was not very brave nor was I very cool in those days.  Speaking of Freshman orientation, we ALL had to live on campus for a few days during Freshman orientation.  I had a “roommate” for that experience.  Well, he did not make it through the night, at least not in our room.  I woke up to find an empty bottle of vodka in our room.  I forget the kid’s name.  He gave me some crazy excuse about what happened, but really he just wanted to hang with some friends of his and drink.  I met another kid who had a brand new Chevy Nova his parents had BOUGHT him.  He took me for a ride in it and drove like a nut.  To my parents and their peers, in the early 1970s, sending your kid to Stonehill was like sending your kid to, “Bells of St. Mary’s” College or something.  All they needed to make it complete was Bing Crosby saying the rosary and Ed Sullivan featuring the Singing Nuns from Belgium.  (If you’re under 45 you have no idea who the Singing Nuns from Belgium were; I know!)  Stonehill WAS a Catholic College, and still has a loose Catholic affiliation.  It’s run by the Holy Cross Fathers, and in fact, Stonehill’s “sister school” is Indiana’s Notre Dame!  Incidentally, my parents always pronounced it, Stone-HILL.  I noticed Catholic World War 2 Generation people from the Boston area almost always pronounced it that way!  At school we all said, STONEhill.

The reality in the 1970s is that Stonehill was pretty much U. Mass. with a Catholic Imprimatur!  I hope no Stonehill alumni or staff are reading this and getting angry.  In fact, for the most part, Stonehill had high academic standards.  80% of the faculty were “lay people”- most quite well educated and well qualified.  There were some nice people attending Stonehill. But Stonehill was a pretty liberal and pretty worldly place .

Mary Ann went to Stonehill today to attend a meeting with some leaders from Marian High.  Stonehill has a Marketing program to help non-profits, and Marian is going to have a student intern in Marketing working to help promote the high school in the coming year.  (Stonehill has always been an excellent school for business and especially Marketing.)  While Mary Ann was in the meeting I took a walk around campus and spent time in prayer and reflection.

I must say I WAS IMPRESSED.   There are at least twice as many buildings on campus as there were when I was a student there.  The whole place has a classy, expensive feel to it.  The property is lush and beautiful.  It looked “O.K.” thirty years ago, but they’ve really cranked the place up a few notches!  I’d guess the student body size has at least doubled since I graduated- maybe tripled.  I know Stonehill has been written up in magazines as one of the best small colleges in America.  I know their academic standards have gone up.  Frankly, even during my tenure they rose.  My own SAT scores weren’t that hot.  By the time I was a Senior, the school had raised the SAT standards, and I knew I’d never have qualified to be in the Fall 1975 class of incoming Freshmen!  When Stonehill does well, it can’t help but benefit everybody who holds a Stonehill degree, so I’m happy to see the school doing well.  We never started classes for the Fall until after Labor Day, but times have changed, and school was already in session for Fall 2008.

The campus was a WONDERFUL place to walk around.  I couldn’t help but think of my student days at Stonehill in the 1970s and of my wedding on this date in 1982.  I sure look a lot different!  I’m around forty pounds heavier, and have that rapidly graying look of a guy in his 50s.  Stonehill has changed and so have I.

The timid, uncool kid of so long ago is today often seen in a very public, vocal role today...not only in the church I pastor, but in the Framingham community.  In fact, I’ve spoken to classes at Marian High School on several occasions with no restrictions, and have been quite well received.

It’s  “doing the math” on days such as this that can scare me.  Yes, my wife and I got married twenty-six years ago today.  In another twenty-six years, if I’m still alive I’ll be 79 and just a few weeks away from turning 80!  I graduatedfrom Stonehill in 1976.  That day, former Boston Mayor John Collins and Boston Pops conductor Arthur Feidler received honorary doctorates.  I was 21.  In thirty-two years, I’ll be 85!  My own parents died in their mid seventies.  At 75, my father had full blown Alzheimer’s Disease.  

Yes today’s Stonehill scenes brought many and varied thoughts and reflections.  I guess I need to remember the words a senior citizen told me many years ago:  He said, “This is no time to retire- this is time to REFIRE!”  Yup!  That’s it!  Time to refire!