Blog
The Global “Us”
Peace often seems far from the world of today. We are reminded daily of the violence that threatens us on all sides, the disastrous health of the environment and its consequences, and the hatred and distrust that we hold against our neighbors. Is this how we want to live? Is this how we want the 2010s to be remembered through history? We need to change this story and it starts with rethinking our concept of “us.”
A Conversation with Writer Lore Segal
Posters came up, as they do for all events, announcing author and Holocaust survivor Lore Segal’s reading from her forthcoming book “The Journal I Didn’t Keep”. My attention was caught less than I now wish it would have been. Although I hadn’t realized it at the moment, I had recently read and thoroughly enjoyed one of her stories published in The New Yorker.
The Past is Not a Place for Strangers: Beer in Special Collections
“Three liters of first-rate beer,” according to alumni Seth Richardson ’90. Beer, both a refreshing (and safe!) beverage as well as a gift from the goddess Ninkasi, dates back at least 3,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq). Our protagonist’s proto-Venmo request was (hopefully) handed to the local keeper of beer in exchange for a jolly night out.
Coming to Schumann with Heart
On a dark and snowy night, the Middlebury community gathered in the warmly lit Robinson Concert Hall to sing about Love. Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis, a tenor-pianist duo from the UK, performed a selection of “Lieder,” German romantic poems set to music, by Brahms, Mahler, and Schumann. The program was built around Schumann’s “Dichterliebe,” or Poet’s Love, which he wrote in 1840 after being smitten by his future wife, Clara Wieck.
Is Our Meat Really So Bad? A Meat-Lover’s Vegetarian Apologia
My motivation to be a vegetarian, on the other hand, is far from reasonable. Whether it was to prove that I can deny myself meat, to better understand vegetarians, an amusement at my own whims, or perhaps a secret desire to prove that vegetarianism at Middlebury isn’t worth all the complaints it receives, I am not sure. All the same, on January 4, 2019, I gave up meat for a month with the vague thought of a bloody carnivorous celebration on February 1.
Jupiter Quartet Leaves Listeners Starry-Eyed
Claude Debussy, the French composer perhaps most famous for his piece “Clair de Lune,” died in 1918. To mark the 100th year since his passing, the Jupiter Quartet came to the MCA last Friday to remind us why we love art and the impressionists in particular.
Could it Be that Simple?
We are in another age of heroism. With every great struggle of each national and international drama, protest, activists and general outcry fill the air. Hope for a better future may seem, at times, in short supply,
Lessons from the Jamboree
Describe the World Jamboree in one sentence
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“That’s a really hard question!” says Welsh participant to the 23rd WSJ Tilly Livingston.
She’s not alone. Everyone we asked took a good few moments of hemming and hawing before finally attempting an answer.
Jamboree Origin Story
August 1 is the anniversary of Baden-Powell’s famous Brownsea Island camp and is celebrated the world round as World Scout Scarf Day, a celebration of Scouting everywhere. To celebrate World Scout Scarf Day, we are starting a World Jamboree history series looking at how Scouting spread from the UK around the world and how Baden-Powell eventually brought it back from across the world to the first World Scout Jamboree.
Bach Festival Brings Emotion
Yet the question remains, why Bach? What about 300 year old German religious music is important to celebrate in 2018 at a secular American college town?
Magic of the Summit
With the close of the Olympics in PyeongChang today, we wanted to look at another important similarity between the games and the Jamboree. These events wouldn’t be the same without the constantly changing venue and the unique challenges and opportunities that the venue provides. James Williamson, the 2017 Order of the Arrow Summit Experience (OASE) director and long-time Summit staff member, talked with us to share some of what makes the Summit a special Jamboree venue.
Community of Scouts
Peanut butter and jelly, snow and snowmen, World Jamboree and friendships; some things are made for each other. As we looked at in our last post, the World Jamboree, like the Olympics, brings people together. As such, there is no place like the World Jamboree for making friends. What exactly does that mean?
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