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| Aaron Vance Class of 2017 |
By Aaron Vance, Class of 2017
Needless to say, my first trip to Mecosta was nothing short of enchanting. Nowhere on this Earth do the annals of history pivot back upon themselves like they do in this place. And nowhere else on this Earth, would you have expected to truly be able to take in the spirit of Russell Kirk. While this place serves as the home of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, and as the de facto Mecca of the conservative pilgrim, it offers something that many others cannot when exploring the works of the minds that used to inhabit them.
Needless to say, my first trip to Mecosta was nothing short of enchanting. Nowhere on this Earth do the annals of history pivot back upon themselves like they do in this place. And nowhere else on this Earth, would you have expected to truly be able to take in the spirit of Russell Kirk. While this place serves as the home of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, and as the de facto Mecca of the conservative pilgrim, it offers something that many others cannot when exploring the works of the minds that used to inhabit them.
Having explored many of the residences and homes of some of the greatest minds, from Lewis’s Oxford home, to the city that hosted the likes of Burns, Scott, and Hume, Mecosta brought to life something unparalleled by the others. And while Oxford and Edinburgh offered immense perspective and context, they ultimately seemed to be lacking the same feature that brought Mecosta in to this very special rite. They were missing the people, the lore, and the stories that turn circumstance into feeling and illuminate the works of the past minds.
Surrounded by those who knew Dr. Kirk, Mecosta still offers a special treat for those who want to immerse themselves and see for themselves how the conservative mind works. And in no other place could I believe that the spirit and letter of the study of ghost stories and the afterlife would have reverberated as much. The stories of Kirk supplemented by their real life roots in the stories of Mrs. Kirk proved to be something remarkable in our time there. The works of Lewis under the guidance of Dr. Wood began to take a clearer and more powerful meaning. Eliot’s Celestial Railroad rounded out our survey of the Conservative greats and brought together a study of the ideology.
But with this blog, hopefully I made two things very clear. The first is that Mecosta and the home of Russell Kirk are not only destinations that scholars need to consider when mapping out their academic road trips and developing their schedules of academic conferencing, but are also places of true and somewhat surreal fortitude. The people that still inhabit and breathe life into the center at Piety Hill encapsulate what I find to be so admirable about the conservative mind: the constancy of history. The second is that our time in Mecosta, and the hospitality of the entire Kirk family, didn’t not go unnoticed nor unappreciated. It lent itselfto a wonderful and inspiring time, ultimately making it into the conference and unforgettable weekend that it was.
Aaron Vance, of Vine Grove, Ky., is a junior McConnell Scholar majoring in political science.
Aaron Vance, of Vine Grove, Ky., is a junior McConnell Scholar majoring in political science.