Tag: Houghton

Categories
Arts

Annual Faculty Art Exhibition

The start of the new school year offers opportunities not only to grow academically and spiritually on campus, but also to enjoy what the art department has to offer with this year’s Faculty Art Exhibition. Originally featuring the work of two professors, this exhibition has occurred annually since the art department was founded at Houghton College and was expanded eight years ago to become the comprehensive group faculty exhibition that it is today.

Faculty_Art_Show_1Jillian Sokso, chair of the art department, said that the purpose of the Faculty Art Exhibition is to “engage the community in what’s happening with the art faculty,” similar to the faculty recitals that happen within the music department. Twelve different medias from six professors are featured this year, which Sokso said would help students to get a good idea about what is available to study in the art department. Additionally Sokso said that the exhibit also “benefits the faculty” involved, as it is “good to get to work together” and will foster “helpful conversation” amongst colleagues. Faculty members featured this year include Ted Murphy, Ryann Cooley, Jillian Sokso, Dave Huth, John Rhett, and Gary Baxter.

Professor Ted Murphy, who teaches fundamental art courses such as painting, drawing and Intro to 2D Design, as well as the art history course, Renaissance to Early Romanticism, has over 26 pieces featured in the exhibition. One of his series, Drawings In and Out of Context, was completed “during the lectures and seminar discussions of the past year in the Contemporary Context class” he helped to teach, according to his artist’s statement, noting that “in order to better concentrate on [the class] discussions [he] began to draw.” Concerning his part in the exhibition overall, Murphy said in his artist’s statement, “these works grew out of a process” and that this “current body of work reflects [his] overlapping interest in representational art and degrees of abstraction,” as well as reflecting “an interest in Zen painting”.

Houghton’s new photography and digital imaging professor, Ryann Cooley is also featured in the exhibition, and is showing an installation conceptual piece entitled “The Last Supper”. Cooley’s typical work in the light-based mediums of photography and video is reflected in this piece, which employs twelve working TVs. The twelve TVs represent the Twelve Apostles, giving the piece its name. Cooley plays Mel Gibson’s “The Passion” on a loop while arranging the TVs to face the wall, allowing the viewer to only observe the light given off as its reflected. He said that as observers walk amongst the piece they are unaware that “Christ is continually being crucified” and that this “mirrors the conditions of the Last Supper where Christ said that his disciples didn’t ‘get it’,” as the viewers will at first miss the true meaning of the exhibit. “Yet,” Cooley said, “one can still enjoy the piece just like the apostles enjoyed Christ’s presence,” by evoking a reflective nature in the observers.

Chair of the art department and professor Jillian Sokso said that her work in this exhibition is “all relatively recent and was done over the summer.” Her works include drawings, an installation piece and book sculptures. When asked about the inspiration for her work here, Sokso said that much of it stemmed from her recent residency at the Woodside Art Center in Troy, NY.  Her installation piece is also inspired by the concept of “strategic reuse,” something Sokso said she is interested in.

The exhibition formally opened the 30th of August and will continue to run through the 6th of October. A reception will take place the 20th of September complete with live music and food, as well as featuring the artists themselves speaking about their work.

 

Categories
News

New Dean of Extension Services

In hopes of expanding Houghton’s education opportunities, Scott McClelland has been hired as Dean of Extension Studies. McClelland will have an office in Buffalo and will be primarily located there when the adult education program is launched. In addition, he will be traveling back and forth to Houghton in order to work with faculty in exploring the college’s options for a potential online program for students who want a Houghton education but are not able to attend on campus.

Courtesy of Scott McClelland
Courtesy of Scott McClelland

Mark Hijleh, Associate Academic Dean said that “as Houghton considers how we will translate our mission of providing access to high-quality Christian Liberal Arts to students from diverse backgrounds, we need to expand the entry points to what we have to offer.”

Recently Houghton has had to make cuts in the areas of faculty, staff, and athletics. This leaves many wondering why a full time position is needed for this job. Academic Dean Linda Mills-Woolsey explained, “One of our current initiatives aimed at strengthening Houghton’s ability to serve a diverse range of students while creating a sustainable economy for all areas of the college is expanding our arena of vision and service.” Mills-Woolsey also stated, “to be a viable college for the current age we need to explore more ways to use online options to provide flexible access to Houghton College programs. In order to move forward we need someone to manage all our extension study endeavors.”

McClelland will be moving from southern Florida to Buffalo on October 7th in order to work with the Houghton City Semester program which is already underway.“Houghton is exploring how to best make its top tier education available to a wider group of students than it has traditionally,” said Dr. McClelland “So my work will be to explore several options to do this within the Adult Education, online and by offering some new teaching opportunities in Buffalo.”

McClelland has experience in extension studies from his time as the Director of the San Francisco Urban Program based out of Westmont College. He then gained more experience at Trinity College. “My experience with Westmont and Trinity allows me to know how special it is when a campus wishes to reach out to meet the needs of ‘non-traditional’ students by working through many delivery systems now available to higher education institutions like ours,” said McClelland.

Students currently attending Houghton could also benefit from the online program. Junior Glenn Hampson said “I’m thrilled that Houghton is looking into expanding their online education programs. I’m graduating this year, and although I want to continue my education, I got to start paying off my loans here pretty soon. If I could take classes offered by Houghton online, I would be able to fulfill my academic goals while sticking with the school I love.”

 The extension program is seen by many as a crucial next step for Houghton. Mills-Woolsey said, “In the long run we hope that investing in this position will provide benefits not only for our extension programs, but for students on the main campus, as our extension programs provide more visibility and accessibility while contributing revenues to the overall college.”

Categories
News

Science Honors Launches Balloons

After a year of hard work and long coffee-fueled nights, the 14 students that make up Science Honors have launched weather balloons they have constructed to take measurements of the upper atmosphere.

Leading up to the launch, Science Honors student Jonathan Yuly remarked, “It will be really exciting to watch what happens with our year’s project, and how future years will move forward with it.”

Each balloon was outfitted with its own set of sensors and instruments. The sensors were run by onboard processing chips called a BASIC Stamp Boards. These boards act as the brains of the boxes. They tell the sensors how to work and then deliver the information they collect to a radio that sends it back to the students at Houghton.

Four teams were collected from the students to design an experiment that would use the balloons and sensors to analyze data about climate change. Groups did experiments that ranged from measuring CO2 to the refraction of light through clouds and how it affects the sun’s rays hitting Earth.

The balloons were launched on Tuesday, April 23rd at nine in the morning after a short press conference. Unfortunately, as science is wont to do, the live experiment was met with many challenges. On the night before the launch, two of the radios on the boxes were fried after being overcharged with current.

R.D. Marek’s radio was one of the two that was ruined. At 2 am, in the Paine building, he was quoted as saying “I’m looking for a ‘Lazarus moment’.”

Eventually, he got it when his radio resumed normal function. The other radio did not however and that group’s balloon was not able to launch.

The teams prepared to launch 3 balloons from the quad on Tuesday morning when they were met with several unforeseeable misfortunes.

The first group to launch had no issues in launching their balloon. However, once it was up in the sky, they found that although it was transmitting data to the computer on the ground, the computer was not properly recording the data.

The next group was disappointed when their cut-down system, meant to release the box from the balloon in case of an emergency, was activated by a faulty radio transmission and cut the balloon from the box as it was beginning to lift off the quad.

Lastly, the third group found themselves similarly unlucky. When released, the knot that tied their balloon to the box came undone and the team watched as their balloon floated away.

The balloons, costing around $300 each, were not able to be replaced immediately and the two launches that failed were not able to relaunch.

Despite these issues, the crowd watching the launch still enjoyed getting to see the experiment unfold. Said freshman, Myra Mushalla,“I got to see many science honors students work on their balloon projects for a long time and getting to watch the launch off the quad was very satisfying, even for me; so I imagine it was great for them.”

The teams retired to the Science Honors Lab after the launch to watch the one successful launch travel northward on a GPS tracker that was linked to the box. Once the balloon showed that it was in a constant position for several minutes, the teams piled into three Houghton vans and drove to Dansville, NY to retrieve it.

A woman who owns the property where the box landed led the teams up into the woods where they found the box 50 feet up, hanging on a tree limb, unable to be retrieved. With this last disappointment, the teams got back into their vans and went out for ice cream.

Plans to retrieve this box have been set into motion, but at the present time, it is still swinging away from the top branches of a tree in Dansville.

news_sciencehonors

Categories
Arts

Things to Do: Wiscoy Falls

Wiscoy Falls is one of those places that should be on every Houghton student’s bucket list. Set back a mile or so from the well-frequented Route 19, this chain of three waterfalls is a gorgeous sight to see and explore. To get there, simply drive 10 minutes north of Houghton on Route 19, and take a left at the sign denoting Wiscoy. As you follow its direction, you will come to a Y in the road, at which you should continue to the right. Very soon, you will reach the bridge that overlooks the first of the falls. Most Houghton students that expedition here will make use of the small dirt parking space next to the condemned mill building just past the bridge, and then proceed along the path that extends from there.

Courtesy of Maribeth Olson
Courtesy of Maribeth Olson

Visitors should follow this pathway through the woods, and then there is a hike across a firm dirt trail along the river. After dodging briars and climbing the dry sides of the waterfall’s shale, visitors can splash through the shallows on their way upstream. As they chase the river toward its source, visitors will encounter three waterfalls before finally being faced with the dam that spills the water down toward the Genesee. All three of these waterfalls are accessible to the adventurous expeditionary, and they all hold secrets of their own for the discovery.

As visitors approach the second waterfall from downstream, they will find the riverbed to be hazardously pot-marked with greater or lesser depressions in the rock. The deepest of these begins a short way from the strongest portion of that particular fall and extends right up to the crashing of the water. However, there is a ledge that can be traced from the right side of the falls (facing upstream) that will lead visitors along the edge of the falls. Visitors will be led to a point where their faces are stung by the spray of the water and they have no more ledge to trace, and it is at that point that visitors may let themselves fall into the powerful curtain of water and startlingly find themselves safe in an open cavern beneath that very curtain. This moderately sized cavern is my personal favorite place to explore when I travel to the falls when the water is warm.

Since it is only early spring, I would not recommend swimming at Wiscoy just yet. But you may still enjoy the picturesque scenery and take the opportunity breathe the clear air of a white-water Spring.

Categories
Arts

Houghton Palooza

Spring came just in time for Houghton’s annual outdoor music extravaganza, the Houghton Palooza, taking place this Saturday April 27 on the quad at the townhouses. This year’s event will host a musical line-up featuring of a mixture of local musicians and Houghton students.

Courtesy of samecity.com
Courtesy of samecity.com

One of the bands performing this year is Samecity. Headed by Justin and Hannah Bowersox, Samecity is an alternative/folk rock group that will be playing the songs from their new EP that was released this week. Graduate Justin Bowersox, lead vocals, said that the band’s music “[addresses] the issues of brokenness and hopelessness and reconciling them with the hope found in Christ.”

Hannah Bowersox, senior, said that for Samecity, the Palooza is “an opportunity to play for friends…they can see what we devote our hearts to.”

Many involved with the event are hoping for and expecting a big turnout. For many of this year’s performers, the Palooza is an opportunity to showcase a year’s (or more) worth of hard work and practice. Senior Dan Larson, drums of Samecity, said, “it’s nice to see all our friend’s bands and what everybody’s put together.”

Sophomore Aaron Arber and his band “Crowning Achievement” will also be playing at this year’s Palooza, performing a selection of covers and some original songs ranging from pop punk to heavy rock in genre. This is the band’s first time playing at the festival, and Arber said, “We’re going to try our best to entertain, but we’re mainly playing to have a great time.”

In addition to the musical main event, there will be several different clubs making an appearance and hosting booths. For instance, junior Nathan Hatch said that Printed Matter Press will be offering screen-printing and that the Environmental Club will offer Henna tattoos. Senior Lanthorn Committee members Hannah Hanover and Megan Specksgoor will also be joining the festivities and hosting a face-painting booth.

Hanover said that, in addition to face-painting, the Lanthorn’s booth will feature some free books as well. Hanover added that she and her fellow editor, Specksgoor, “can’t wait to relax with other clubs on campus…and to have the opportunity to share [their] enthusiasm for student art with the campus.”

Hatch said that this year will be different thanks to the involvement of several different clubs, making this year’s Palooza “a better event for everyone.”

Accompanying the music and various activities hosted by each club’s booths, Hatch said that there would be “plenty of 3 Bums pizza, cotton candy, and smoothies.” Hatch also said that Silas and Sadie Miller will be selling lemonade to raise money for Silas’ well fund in Africa.

This year’s Houghton Palooza is sure to be a “rollicking good time in the sunshine and a great opportunity to socialize, relax, and listen to live music,” said Hanover.

Categories
Sports

Spring Sports Update

The end of another school year also marks the end of an athletic season and a collegiate career for the graduates. Although Houghton athletes were honored earlier this month for their accomplishments, some athletes are still working hard to finish their seasons.

“We are looking forward to getting into year two and continuing down this road with our involvement in Empire 8,” said Athletic Director Skip Lord. “We are excited about what is happening with the National Christian College group.”

The track team participated this past weekend at the Empire 8 Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Nazareth College. The women finished fourth and the men took seventh. Freshman Tim McGowan, sophomores Mary Strand, Marina Slavin, Cara Davenport, Andrea Melhorn, Danielle Lyndsley, Jordan Cady, and juniors Leah Williams and Alyssa Figueroa had notable performances.

At the Empire 8 Championships this weekend, men’s golf finished ninth out of nine teams. Junior John Carpenter led the team with the lowest score; however, it did not figure into the team’s overall score since he did not compete in the fall. Thus, sophomore Evan Castle’s score of 367 led the team.

Courtesy of facebook.com
Courtesy of facebook.com

Last week the women’s golf team beat Keuka at the Keuka College Spring Invitational on Wednesday. Sophomore Hannah Fink led the Highlanders with a score of 94. However, the team came in third at their home tournament last Saturday. Fink led the team again, shooting 109.

As a new program, women’s lacrosse has fought hard to earn their first win. The Highlanders defeated Hilbert 14-13. Junior Amanda Zacchigna had a career high of six goals and an assist, sophomore Tyler Reese contributed three goals and an assist, and sophomore Nicole Mason had two goals and an assist.

Men’s lacrosse has been struggling as well this season. Their top scorer, senior Tyler Kempney, has been out due to injuries. They conclude their season this weekend against Bryn Athyn. Unfortunately, neither lacrosse program can participate in postseason play through NCCAA because there are not enough teams.

“It is really hard to progress as a team made of a bunch of guys who have never played before, but considering we are a new program we have done really well,” said junior Shawn Schelble. “Everyone who is playing is there because they want to play. In practice everyone is intentional and deliberate in what they do.”

The baseball team continued their winning streak against Utica this past weekend. Sophomore Kevin Cassar earned Empire 8 pitcher of the week for striking out nine hitters and walking no one. The win was a team effort, with exemplary performances from seniors Kaiden Bowers, Jacob Bannerman, Ignacio Villalobos and sophomore Seth Cornell.

“Baseball is sort of ahead of the game [regarding the new programs]. They are winning some games and knocking some of the Empire 8 teams as a brand new program,” said Lord. “Softball, although they are still looking for their first win, tend to play competitively, usually struggling in one inning.”

Senior Megan Musser, junior Samantha Patoff and sophomores Sarah Beirne and Morgan York have all competed well on the softball field. It has been a challenge with both softball and baseball playing their home and away games on a different field.

“The fact that we are away so much, makes it so difficult to keep up with our tough academic loads,” said senior Cydney Blong. “It really tests our ability to stay focused every day.”

The softball and baseball fields should be completed by this July. There will be a special board meeting on May 3 regarding the progress of the field house. Potentially, they could break ground as early as this May, meaning the field house could be completed by next April.

More change will come as the transition to NCAA continues. Tennis will be added next fall, playing a full Empire 8 schedule. Coach Charlie Ellis has already been hired and is actively recruiting. As new players come in, seniors say goodbye to their collegiate careers at Houghton.

“I have learned a lot after four years as an athlete,” said Blong. “Coach Lewis helped me to develop my faith, Coach Dougherty taught me the importance of staying focused on the prize, and Coach Shepherd helped me to learn patience and perseverance in trying situations.”

 

Categories
News

2013 Summer Ministry Team Starts Training

Every summer Houghton sends out a ministry team composed of six students who serve at summer camps over a 10 week period. The program is run by Betsy Sanford, Church Relations office manager, who prepares the students on the ministry team by organizing training by a variety of Houghton staff. This summer the ministry team will be led by Andrew McGinnis and made up of Emily Bradley, Jody Crikelair, Janelle Conklin, William Strowe, and Ryan Ovell.

Courtesy of facebook.com
Courtesy of facebook.com

The students are trained during the first week of the program here on campus and then travel to different camps, usually staying about six days before travelling on to another camp. The team is comprised of students with strengths in different areas so that they can assist the staff at camps in many different ways.

“When we get to a camp, if they need anything from us, we are ready to go. I think that’s what sets us apart from all the other teams that we meet over the summer because some teams are just worship bands or just counselors, whereas the six of us, we’re ready to go. Whatever task you give us we are going to execute it and execute it very well.” said Zina Teague, a student who participated in the program for two summers.

This program provides the opportunity for Houghton students to connect with youth and to work in areas about which they are passionate.

“Being at camp, student are out of their comfort zone, away from their families, immersed in nature—really a unique opportunity to form relationships with campers,” said Sanford.

Hannah Prentice, a Houghton student who took part in the program said, “My favorite part of the summer was always the nights of cabin devotions with all my girls. We would just sit around and talk about life issues and relate that to my experience and my testimony and how God has used that in my life.”

Besides relating with students about their walk in life, the Houghton team also talks to the youth about higher education and Houghton College.

“It’s not even just telling them about Houghton, it’s telling them how to be prepared for college in general,” said Teague.

Overall the aim of the ministry team is to serve other people outside of the Houghton community.

“We come in ready to serve in whatever capacity the camp leaders want us to serve, and that’s how we’ll serve,” said Teague.

Categories
Sports

Golf Team Hosts Invitational

The women’s golf teams will be hosting the Empire 8 Invitational this Saturday. The tournament will take place on Houghton’s home course at Allegheny Hills Golf Course in Rushford. The women will be hosting both Nazareth College and Hobart and William Smith, both established programs.

“I am really excited because it is our first match on our home course,” said sophomore Hannah Fink, “So hopefully it will be a beautiful day to compete.”

This season the golf team had two tournaments cancelled in March. One was rescheduled for this coming weekend while the other was dropped. Overall, the team has five tournaments to compete in within two weeks.

“We practiced in the sleet and rain and 36 degrees on Saturday so this recent weather has been good, especially because we only have two weeks left,” said Coach Thomas Kettelkamp.

At the Westminster Invitational last week, Fink had a score of 98, ranking thirteenth out of forty-seven competitors. The other members of the travel team included freshman Breanna Smithley and Kourtnie Franklin, sophomore Taylor Button, and senior Andrea Ypma. The women returned to Keuka this Wednesday to defend their championship title earned at the Keuka Invitational last fall.

“Hannah has been very competitive, while the others are new at the game. It is their first year and I expect them to knock their scores down quite a bit,” said Kettelkamp. “So I would not be surprised if we did not win it again.”

The golf team rarely practices with each other because of the inherent individual nature of the sport. However, they still push each other to practice and do their best as only a certain number of members are able to travel and attend each tournament.

“Although practices are individualized for what you need to work with, like your swing, [golf] is very team oriented because we are always encouraging each other to meet our next goal and do well as a team,” said Fink. “Overall, we have really good team chemistry…and we have a lot of fun.”

Both the men’s and women’s teams have new additions this spring, including freshman Maggie Reynolds and sophomore Jordan Hobba for the women’s team and, for the men, junior John Carpenter and senior Michael Ball.

Courtesy of athletics.houghton.edu
Courtesy of athletics.houghton.edu

Thus far, the men’s team has performed in one tournament, hosted by Utica College. The top performances came from Ball, Carpenter, and sophomores Evan Castle and Nathan Sircy at this match. Castle led the team with a score of 92, ranking 31st of 52 golfers. The men are currently preparing for the Empire 8 tournament this weekend in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

“Our goal for this season is to keep on improving,” said Sircy. “We are playing better than last season and we hope to keep doing so in the future.”

“Last year, we were last place in every contest. This year, the men were seventh of [nine] … and the women were eighth of [nine], that’s progress,” said Kettelkamp. “We are not going to start at the top, but I do expect to move into the mix a bit. This fall we were not, this spring I think we will be.”

Categories
Sports

New Tennis Coach Selected

Next fall, yet another sport will be introduced to the athletic department at Houghton: tennis. Coach Charlie Ellis will lead both the men’s and women’s teams.

Courtesy of atheletics.houghton.edu
Courtesy of atheletics.houghton.edu

Ellis has over 30 years of experience within the tennis world. He began learning what he could at a young age until he joined the tennis program at the University of Georgia. Ellis was ranked eighth in college tennis and then went on to be first in the state of Georgia, earning a World ATP top-300 ranking. From there Ellis went on to coach and then settled into the field of club management, where he has stayed for over 20 years.

The nationwide search to find Houghton’s first tennis coach was extensive and competitive, in hopes of finding a near perfect fit to Houghton’s athletic program. Athletic Director, Harold Lord, said that Ellis was ideal for this position. Lord believes that Ellis will be a “quality member to the department, campus, and community”.

Up to this point Ellis has developed numerous tennis programs for all ages and skill levels ranging anywhere from toddlers to elite adult players. He also spent time as the general manager for Sportime Fitness in Schenectady, NY where he taught lessons to over 100 players. In addition, Ellis founded Fair Play Tennis, a company dedicated to helping young athletes create individual plans to enjoy and succeed at playing the game of tennis.

Ellis approaches this new opportunity with three principles in mind. He begins with the foundation of a faith based team with players who “show a godly respect for one another.” His next principle is that each athlete will have a particular group of people who will be devoted to promoting and maintaining his or her academics. Lastly, Ellis wants the team to “enjoy the journey of getting better at tennis.”

As Ellis looks forward to the upcoming season, he is eager to be working at a college level again. He said he wants to “get as many people involved and interested as possible in embracing the game of tennis.”

Lord said that the addition of tennis will hopefully create a different atmosphere on campus, spurring students to play recreationally. He said that, “tennis is an intercollegiate sport that will last a lifetime.”

As a result of the integration of NCAA tennis into the athletic program at Houghton, the first season will have an abbreviated schedule. The season is also split, with the women’s team beginning with their Empire 8 conference meets in the fall while the men’s team participates in non-conference events. The teams will then switch in the spring.

Each team will consist of approximately 12 to 15 individuals who will play both singles and doubles matches. The season will conclude in the spring with the NCAA National Championship.

Bethany Chesebro, freshman, began playing tennis sophomore year in high school. She chose Houghton knowing that there were plans to form a tennis team. Chesebro said she is excited “about being part of a team and being challenged at a more competitive level.”

Categories
Opinions

Ambiguity and Confusion in the Imitation of God

As a kid, my parents bravely took me on a trip to the geysers at Yellowstone National Park. This was daring because they were taking me out on a wooden walkway, surrounded by boiling water mixed with sulfur. I remember being terrified that the wooden structure would break, and my entire family would plummet to our boiling doom. I thought it much better to remain on the dry land, away from the scary wooden walkway, where nothing bad could possibly happen.

Courtesy of travel.nationalgeographic.com
Courtesy of travel.nationalgeographic.com

My mother would have none of this. She had dragged two squawling toddlers across the continent, and had no intention of remaining on the boring, dry land when she could be walking six inches above a boiling geyser. As I loudly denounced her, she dragged me by my skinny wrist out to the observation platform. Every time I tried to bolt, she would bring me back, until it finally dawned on me that the wooden walkway was not in fact going to plunge us into Nature’s cauldron.

As a senior in high school, I was pulled aside by a well-meaning, but very conservative, friend. He was afraid that “those professors” with their theories would undermine my pure, simple, uncritical faith. He was afraid I would wander off the walkway of faith, and boil to death in the sulfurous world of academics. Little did he know how correct he would prove to be.

At Houghton, I have learned to doubt. I have learned to doubt simple answers, quick replies and the reduction of life to the formulaic. There are very few parts of my pre-college life that I haven’t learned to doubt. Morality? Check. Faith? Check. Political affiliation? Check. Social views? Check. Star Wars vs. Star Trek? Check. The list goes on and on, until at last I realize that I have, at some point or another throughout my college years, held every single opinion on almost every issue Out There in the world. I have waffled between the isms like a sail in a crosswind.

I also doubt whether this is a bad thing.

There must be a space for ambiguity in this world. Back on that wooden walkway in Yellowstone, I was convinced we were about to topple into the geyser. My four year old brain knew nothing about structural integrity or about the fact that wood floats on water. I didn’t know that the government sent out inspectors to make sure that no one plunged to their doom in the geyser. The entire regulatory and building structure of modern society was almost entirely unknown to me. I hadn’t learned to trust the world.

Nor would I have learned about the trustworthiness of modern carpentry if I hadn’t eventually wandered out onto that wooden walkway. The only way to learn to trust is to nearly fall into boiling water. I could hardly have known, later in life, that airport terminal arms, skyscrapers, bridges, or the infamous road climbing into the Dalmatian hillside called “The Stairway to Heaven” were reliable if I hadn’t learned to trust that walkway.

Similarly, I could hardly learn to trust modern society and its multitude of intellectual, spiritual and moral developments without going through a period of complete bewilderment and ambiguity. As human beings, we can’t learn without experiencing confusion, and we can’t love without feeling pain. Houghton’s official religion, Christianity, contains this belief at its core.  God entered the particularity and confusion of human existence, and felt pain, in order that we might understand love.

Here’s to ambiguity and confusion in imitation of God. Here’s to inching out slowly, ever so slowly, onto the wooden walkway. Here’s to continuing to study and analyze and synthesize. May you never wander off the walkway, but please don’t remain back on the land looking anxious. If I try to bolt to the land, make sure I don’t succeed, and when you try to bolt I’ll drag you back to the observation deck. The confusion and the uncertainty is good, and ambiguity is actually healthy, for this is the only way to learn to love. May God protect us all from the denial of confusion, and the elimination of ambiguity.