by Dr. Gary L. Gregg
Russell
Kirk once described the American Political Tradition as being the product of
five cities--Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London and Philadelphia. It is difficult to argue with this
understanding of America's patrimony as our founders who framed our Constitution
in Philadelphia were themselves so profoundly influenced by the literature,
traditions, history, language, and institutions of these four great cities that
predated their own.
During
the 2011-2012 academic year, the McConnell Center set out to explore the
history and influence of one of those great cities--London--and it all
culminated with a visit to that world capitol in May.
Our
curriculum started with a visit to Williamsburg, VA in the fall where we
explored the four great migrations from the British Isles to North America as
laid out by David Hackett Fischer in his magisterial Albion's Seed. We are
still today being influenced by the cultures, including the cultures of liberty
that those four migrations brought with them. We explored how their influence continues as the Cavaliers
of Virginia vote and think differently than the descendants of puritan
Massachusetts which has a completely different tradition of liberty than those
living in areas settled by the back country Scots and northern British immigrants. America today is the product of many immigrations from much
of the world, but it is hard to argue with Fischer's contention that these four
from Great Britain established the basic parameters of American political life.
Dr. John
McLeod led us in a series of history lessons going back a millennium and
particularly exploring the political evolution of Great Britain into its modern
form of constitutional monarchy.
We read literature from Shakespeare's The Tempest and Samuel Johnson's Rasselas to G.K. Chesterton's powerful epic poem Ballad of the White Horse. We read C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien
and T.S. Eliot along with a smattering of more contemporary British poets and
writers. We explored great
leaders, including Winston Churchill, and searched for lessons that would make
us all better servants and leaders in our own worlds.
The year
was an intellectual feast that expanded our horizons and helped us understand
ourselves better by coming to understand our inheritance from London.
And then
the day came when we left America to live in Oxford and then London, if but for
a short time. Our trip deepened
our understanding and fueled our imagination. Living at St. Clare's College and exploring the colleges of
Oxford University helped rededicate us all to our lives as life-long
students. Visiting Blenheim Palace
and learning of the Duke of Marlborough and seeing the birthplace of Winston
Churchill helped us all reconsider leadership and public service. The chance to
follow a seminar with an Oxford Shakespearean with a visit to the grave of The Bard himself and all just hours before watching a production of A Comedy of Errors in Stratford, was the kind of
day countless literary students have dreamt of but few have ever experienced.
Last fall
the students enacted Joseph Addison's Cato--A
Tragedy and while we were in Oxford we relived that moment on
"Addison's Walk" inside the walls of Magdalen College. More than one student found time to go
back and sit quietly along this beautiful walk where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S.
Lewis had a conversation whose reverberations shook the modern world and
continues to change lives even in 2012.
After
spending the spring reading Tolkien's Lord
of the Rings together, we ended up staying just a few blocks from the home
where Tolkien lived and wrote what many consider the greatest novel of the 20th
century. One crisp morning Zach
Barnes, Eric Kiser and I walked to that house where Eric pulled a copy of The Hobbit from his bag and read aloud
from its pages. Later we had lunch
at the Inkling's favorite pub, The Eagle and Child before heading to C.S.
Lewis' home, The Kilns, for a lecture and a private tour. Lewis and Tolkien have been two of the
most influential writers on the last decade of my life and to sit in Lewis'
home was an honor I will never forget.
Rather than being a distant and abstract figure in our lives, I think we
all now feel like we have closed the gap a bit between us and these great
writers from across the pond.
The part
of our trip we spent in London was equally profound. To sit in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese where Charles Dickens and,
before him, Samuel Johnson sat and raised a pint was a wonderful
experience. Westminster Abbey and
St. Paul's Cathedral were inspiring.
Upon discussing our visits, we discovered that there are St. Paul kinds
of people and Westminster kinds of people.
Some of us were moved by the open, dramatic, and more distant majesty of
St. Paul's where others of us found more meaning in the cluttered nooks and
crannies and turns and gilded tombs of Westminster. I am sure there are deeper psychological divisions to be
explored here. Though we had a
wonderful experience, including taking in a service at St. Paul's, Westminster
is the place that will keep me coming back to London.
Part of
what I will remember most about this wonderful trip, though, are the people we
experienced it with. The informal
learning and joy that was created in evening sessions in ancient pubs or around
the dinner table at ethnic restaurants in London was as profound as anything we
did. In Oxford we had the honor of
the company of Paul Sinclair and Alisdair Clayre, two learned and generous
guides and new friends.
In London
we had the pleasure of a McConnell Scholar Alum tour guide in Dr. Susan Gaines
('05) along with her wonderful husband, Dr. Rod Abouharb. These two were generous with their time and even with their
home, hosting us for the last hours in London (after we escaped a broken elevator with a cute British accent!). It was wonderful
seeing Susan again and remembering her as a young undergraduate helped me
appreciate the fine and worldly young woman she has become. Sitting with her on a bench in the
courtyard at Westminster Abbey helped me think more deeply about the McConnell Scholars program and what a wonderful thing
we have going here. Being a McConnell
Scholar (or their director) is not a temporary stop along life's way, but it is
part of who we will be for the rest of our lives.
If
America is the tale of the five cities I outlined above, we are all the tales
of the many people who have come in and out of our lives. Our stories are shaped by their stories
and by the stories we make together.
Our tales are partly the tales of the authors we have read. Our experiences are tinged by the
experiences we have had in our lives.
This year has been a profound one in shaping my own story and I will
never forget the experiences, learning and laughs that Janna, Meagan, Meghan,
Zach, Eric, Mary, and Max brought into my world during this wonderful trip to
Oxford and London in May 2012.