Link to Gathering 2011

Redirecting to to Gathering 2011

2011 - Homecoming at The Gathering

Our theme this year is -  "PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL HOME: MEMORY, GRACE, AND STRUCTURE".

Anytime fancy words like "Metaphysical" are trotted out, I start limbering up for some mental gymnastics. To be sure I knew what I was talking about I went and looked up "Metaphysics" in the Dictionary:

• Metaphysics - "the philosophical study of the nature of reality, concerned with such questions as the existence of God, the external world, etc".

Wow! There is nothing I love more than ruminating about the nature of reality. But to be honest, I have floundered a bit with the abstraction of this theme until I was inspired at dinner tonight.

During her introduction, Charlotte Ravioli mentioned how Keystone College President Dr. Edward G. Boehm, Jr has fostered a greater awareness of the school's history. Specifically that in 1868 the founders of Keystone Academy chose to start the school as a memorial to all the souls from this area that did not return from the Civil War. 

 MEMORY + GRACE = STRUCTURE

• MEMORY The memory of those who did not return home
• GRACE  the kindness of those remembering the ones they lost
• STRUCTURE brought this school and this event into being.

Through the farsighted kindness of those remembering their loved ones a far reaching legacy emerged - Keystone College.
This may be an overly literal interpretation of our theme this year, but it works for me.   
How do you interpret the theme of "PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL HOME: MEMORY, GRACE, AND STRUCTURE"? 

Please feel free to comment.