Ah! Weather! For 30 years, I raised my family in Southern California. People would say to me in envious admiration, “What beautiful weather you have!” “Actually,” I would reply, “we have no weather, and I think I miss it.”
I’ve got it now. Living in northwest Iowa on the border of Minnesota, we’ve had quite the ride this year. A gorgeous surprise spring in February was followed by a return to winter, then 10 inches of rain leading to record flooding, which all dried up during the long drought of summer. An unseasonably warm October clothed the bean fields with flaming yellow, often surrounding hollows still colored inky green with late planting, while the reaping machines turned the dry cornfields from ochre to harvest gold. October ended with a Halloween snowfall, which I enjoyed watching through our warm bedrooms bay windows – beautiful white flakes blustered about by a fitful wind against a mixed background of still green and bright yellow and bare naked trees, the last reaching their fine bronchial branches up to the luminous gray-white clouds. What will November bring? One thing I know – no matter how harsh the winter, spring will come again.
October 28th witnessed the passing of Eva Brown, for over 60 years a Tutor, and inspiration, and leader of St John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. I only met her once, at a Circe Institute gala honoring her with The Russell Kirk Paideia Prize, but I owe her a great personal debt. Her institution inspired the founding of Thomas Aquinas College, the dear mother that inflamed and informed my love of learning, and kept me in weatherless SoCal for so long. More personally, she had a profound impact on my mentor, colleague, and friend, Richard Ferrier, in whose spirit of infectious wonder, joy in life, and passionate love of learning I was blessed to bask for countless hours. Whatever I have done in the service of the classical liberal arts renewal we are enjoying has been the fruit of Eva and Richard and the many other exemplary teachers I have had, who labored to keep the flame of learning alive as it fell into winter elsewhere.
We are now into the third or fourth generation of this recovery, and it is beautiful to see many new shoots arising in the United States and around the world. This issue of the Bulletin features more fruit from the Eva tree. David Arias, a student of mine some years ago, is now leading the unique efforts of the Albertus Magnus Institute, while Jean Carlos Guerreiro, another Thomas Aquinas College graduate, has returned to his native country of Brazil to contribute to the recent upsurge of parents and educators planting new classical liberal arts schools there. I look forward to meeting many of those involved in Brazil in May, when I will speak at a conference organized by the Instituto Newman de Educaçao Classica.
Speaking of Brazil, I am excited to announce that Lucas Fonseca Dos Santos, one of our Boethius Fellows and a master of classical languages, is translating many of our Arts of Liberty materials into Portuguese. We are blessed to be able to offer the abundance of these resources to a population eager to receive them. We have already seen the number of website visitors from Brazil jump from dozens to hundreds!
I also had the joy of visiting two schools that have been at the classical renewal long enough to count as established. Immaculata Classical Academy in Louisville and Sacred Heart Academy in Grand Rapids impressed me with the unity of their faculty and their desire for excellence. I was inspired to write a blog account of my visit to the former and to share the fruits of discussing leading Discussion Classes at the latter. I hope that you are blessed to be associated with schools like these, as parents, teachers, alumni, or supporters, and pray that beautiful educating communities like these will continue to spread throughout the world.