Florida Southern College - Interlachen Yearbook (Lakeland, FL)

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ALPHA

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FLORIDA SOUTHERN COLLEGE LAKELAND, FLA.

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SEARCH OF WISDOM The weeks, the months, the years we ' ve spent at Florida Southern seem to blend to- gether as we stand at today looking at the post. Time, the gentle deceiver, ploys its fa- vorite tune as the outline of one day fades into the outline of the next. We are left to re- member with affection and appreciation those people and times in which we invest- ed a part of our lives, and through which we found con- tentment and joy. We ore on odd assortment of people, we who moke up the Florida Southern population, but though our backgrounds and goals differ greatly there is still a binding factor. That factor is the quest for knowl- edge. We ore here, as stu- dents, to learn and grow and find the truth of things. And in that search for tr uth our quest takes on a higher goal. Many begin to seek wisdom as well as knowledge. Knowledge is defined as all that can be known or learned. Wisdom is not simply the intellectual pro- cess of learning that takes place in our classes. It is an inner knowledge, strong and steadfast. It is the knowledge of God. For most of us, our journey through Florida Southern be- gan in the foil. Autumn is a time of change, of uncertain- ty. But it is also a time of ex- pectation and so we come . . . expectant, eager, willing to learn, anticipating new ex- periences. We built relation- ships. We sought to under- stand in more depth than ever before ourselves, our neighbors and our world. For some, winter came too quickly. The winter of our jour- ney brought the chill of disillu- sionment, the face-to-face confrontation with reality that makes us long for the wonder world we used to live in. Gone were the streamers and the glitter. Life was a serious busi- ness in which success or failure was up to us alone. It was time for us to begin the search for this elusive thing called wis- dom, suddenly so necessary to our survival. With spring come a new surge of strength, the energy to pur- sue regardless. Wisdom be- came a concrete goal, something to strive for with heart, mind and soul. Spring is a time for remembering, counting the past as exper- ience to learn and grow from. And it is perhaps in the spring of our journey, at last, that we meet with God and find it is He who we have been seeking oil along. And a new journey be- gins. Wisdom is the goal, and the candle is the Christian symbol for wisdom. It symbolizes Jesus Christ, that flame in the dark- ness. Two candles together portray the dual nature of Christ, that of human and di- vine. Three candles stand for the trinity, the unbreakable circle of Father, Son, and Spir- it. Six candles portray the six attributes of the Creator: wis- dom, majesty, power, love, mercy, and justice. The candle, with its burning light, represents the wisdom of eternity, that truth that we seek. There is but one answer and it is that answer we must find. It is the light that we strive for, that illumination of man- kind that Jesus meant when he said, I have come into the world as light ... (Jn. 12:46). In order to understand our- selves, each other, and our world, we must first come to on understanding of God. This is the essence of wisdom.