Miami University - Recensio Yearbook (Oxford, OH)

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UBLISHED AT THE INSTANCE OF THE JUNIORS OF NINETEEN THIRTY -SIX MIA HI LNIVEC§ITr OXFORD OHIO

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A limited edition by Robert S. McConnaughey, Editor Richard J. Biery, Business Manager

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I VI NG T€ LE ACN LEARNING TC LIVE Hungry for knowledge and truth, not long ago we turned our steps toward the hallowed grounds and century-old buildings of old Miami. Here we spent long hours in the day and in the night seeking facts and theories — longing to know the meaning of names like Con- stantine, Benvenuto Cellini, Voltaire — learning to appreciate the grand mad symphony of Shakespeare ' s drama, and the coldly brilliant logic of Kant ' s philosophy. Dazzled by the magnificence of the world ' s knowledge spread before us, we became obsessed with lust for learning. We glutted ourselves with facts till our eyes and heads ached. We have known sometimes the torturing turmoil of indecision. We have felt the crushing weight of despair, the scorch of self-disgust at the end of a day which seems to have brought nothing, the utter inability to cope with so much knowledge, fairly engulfing us. But then there were times of rich happiness, and we knew the supreme bliss of complete mental and physical exhaustion, our task completed. And slowly as we matured, as we acquired a basis for comparative judgment, we began to realize truths far more vital than facts and figures. We learned something of the complexity of human personality — that people are not entirely good nor entirely bad — not wholly black nor wholly white — but an intermediate grey. Here before us unfolds life ' s tragi-comedy in miniature — reflections in the collegiate puddle of tragic ruin and magnificent success in the bud. Slowly knowledge resolves itself into distinguishable outlines of division. Slowly we learn the value of simplicity, of being one ' s self — we construct a philosophy, raze the structure, build another. Slowly we learn to live — acutely, richly, gloriously.