July 16, 2013

The lady at the Inn said Thomas Chema is retiring as Hiram president. What good news that is. No doubt he congratulates himself on the new buildings, but he is the destroyer of all things that the college was, all things that made it special and gave it a place among the hundred little colleges nestled in among the Ohio farms. All the things we loved and it was right to love. I’d stopped contributing, I’d stopped looking fondly backward on the place. He was the Smiling Destroyer, and the institution’s only hope is to hire his opposite at the speed of light. One might forgive him except for the cloud of witness–all wiser than himself-- crying to him “Stop!” What do people think when they leave their work and know that it left things worse than before?

Stopped on the way to the airport to walk a little of the Headwaters Trail. I wanted to find Forty Foot Falls, but I never did. I did walk the calm Ohio summer, the familiar weeds and birdcalls on all sides of me.

Sat with Monroe Gilmore on the ride from Detroit. Talked with the Elmores, who were on the same flight. Came home to nothing in particular, which was exactly what I wanted.