Dominican College of San Rafael - Firebrand Yearbook (San Rafael, CA)

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CONTENTS Editorial . . Senior Sketches .... 1968-lVIa1'y Lou Bordoni . Offering-Catherine Weiss . . . Once A Year-E. Rhonda Jeniiings . . Essential-John J. Savant . Sister Thomas-Ellen Mintz ..... Drezun-Poem-lVlary Prentice Lillie Barrows From Dominic to Alcott-Suzanne Stella . Plea-Catherine Weiss ...... Running-Catherine Weiss ..... The Lost and Found-Mary Kay Speakman Flight-Cynthia Mobraaten .... Berlranrl 1965- A Happy lVlemory-Suzanne Stella . Page 9 14 152 157 158 163 165 167 168 171 171 173 174 175

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EDITORIAL Dominican College is ivory tower . . . an escapist society . . . totally cut oii from the reality of the world . . . isolated in a small community. Four accusations which are very common, very over-stated, but definitely not new. When you think about it, no situation is really new, what is new are those people who face the old situa- tion forthe first time. Consequently, it is not surprising to find these same accusations directed at Oxford University by a student-and argued by a college professor-both in the l930's. The name of the student is incidental, the name of the professor is pertinent: J. R. R. Tolkien, who has in the last few years been udiscovered by college students everywhere, primarily by way of the Hobbit and the Ring trilogy. In the l93O's, Tolkien commented: Not long ago-incredible although it may seem-I heard a clerk at Oxenford declare that he welcomed the proximity of mass-production robot factories, and the roar of self-obstructive mechanical traffic, because it brought his university into con- tact with real life. He may have meant that the way men were living and working in the twentieth century w-as increasing in barbarity at an alarming rate, and that the loud demonstration of this in the streets of Oxford might serve as a warning that it is not possible to preserve for long an oasis of sanity in a desert of unreason by mere fences, without -actual oiiensive action tpractical and intellectuall. l fear he did not. In any case, the expression real life in this context seems to fall short of aca- demic standards. The notion that motor-cars are more alive', than, say centaurs or dragons is curious, that they are more real than, say, horses is pathetically absurd. How real, how startlingly alive is a factory chimney compared with an elm-tree: poor obsolete thing, insubsitantial dream of an escapist. -J. R. R. Tolkien, Tree and Leaf. 9