Salem College - Sights and Insights Yearbook (Winston-Salem, NC)

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■• For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face. . . . Prologue Glass: a fusion of sand and lime— translucent or transparent; used in windows, mirrors, and art and to contain things. Glass: a confusion that needs inter- pretation—imaginary or real; also used as a symbol of our four years at Salem. I We first see in the glass a reflection. It » ourselves. We have come from Washington, and Apex and Florida, and Yad- kinville and Tennessee and Sao Paulo, each bringing something of herself. And th, ien we turn to look at others. We compar e our own image with what we see. Adding knee-high boots and perhaps a cable-knit sweater to our image, we looh again to the reflection. Thus we mold ourselves, until one day we walk downtown and, seeing our mirrored image in a store window, we are satisfied. ■en, suddenly, the glass that so firmly holds our studied image seems to shift. The surface is no longer smooth and the ' on ciacks and blurs. We see ourselves superimposed on the glass frame of a picture in II Th A lain Hall and the reflection is dis- torted. We are no longer sure. Appearances change. The cable-knit sweater is exchanged for black leotards and a copy of Camus ' L ' Etranger, or blu ejeans and a guitar, or alligator pumps and a fur hat. Quickly we look around. We do not know where we belong

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■■■■HHB or which image belongs to us. We try to identify with all and none and yet to find onrselves. Ill We investigate. We experiment. And one day, p erhaps looking through the dusty window of the antique store, we notice th at the glass has changed again. It no longer reflects— even distortion— but has become a murky transparency. On the other side, not reflected, not confused, but barely visible, is an object, a tangible something. It is our first hint of what is beyond the glass. Because of, in spite of, our dai.y routine-frenzied fraternity parties, 8:30 lectures, and midnight talks-the object begins to take form. We are eager; we want to wipe the glass clean; we want to see clearly. I V The change is gradual but unceasing. The opaqueness of the glass disappears. The last speck of cinder and dust vanish. Looking out the dormitory window, we know, for the first time, the tree outside. We see a girl reading a letter as she walks slowly toward Clewe..; we see a little boy chase his sister around the water pump on their way home from school; we see half-grimy cars move slowly down Main Street and stop to let two girls run across to the Dairy Barn. We feel we are rea dy to step beyond the glass, to meet, face-to-face, what we see clearly from our side. We have seen, we have beg un to understand, we shall achieve Sights ... and Insights