Monday, January 23, 2012

Once upon a time, there was a small, liberal arts college in Illinois that really wanted me to enroll with them. They did a rather splendid job of recruiting with me, corresopnding with me, and keeping me "in the loop."

To whom it may concern:

The proximate cause of this e-mail being written was my mother's death this past 31, July, 2011.  I have become the family archivist, and have for many months now been diligently exploring long-ago-forgotten nooks and crannies of the house where my parents had lived since 1964 and retrieving 10's of 1000's of pages of letters, greeting cards, children's school work, notebooks, laundry lists, grocery lists, christmas newsletters, etc, etc, etc (oh, and let us NOT forget photos, of which there might be 100,000).  What to leave in, what to leave out is the issue, as in all things.  Now, my mother was an inveterate keeper of "stuff;" all sorts of scraps of papers, drawings, doodlings, cashed checks, household records etc, etc, etc, and, to the best of my knowledge, the only thing of mine she might ever have tossed was my entire 1960 TOPPS baseball card collection; although I hold out hope, however faint, that this too, may appear.

Two nights ago I discovered a file folder with papers and correspondence from MacMurray to me (Mark Raymond Ganzer) that began in early September, 1968, and continued through July of 1969.

As you doubtless have determined, I did not end up attending MacMurray.  There were several issues mitigating my decision - failure to obtain State of Illinois scholarship funding being one, my certain belief that I would be drafted, go to Viet Nam and be killed, as had my Uncle, 1st Lt James Raymond Hockett (Lord, save us from "sensitive" teen-aged boys - they almost never survive it), and finally, because I felt that MacMurray was a tad small for me; but, mostly for financial reasons - I didn't want to be a burden on my parents, and I had not real reason to want to go to college other than that it was expected of me, and I had been a student who had gotten good grades all though his academic days; albeit, only because I was quite a good parrot, memorized well and quickly, and readily grasped the basics of most subject material (being able to read from age 3 and forward helped greatly, also).

Almost by accident I ended up attending Western Illinois University, my father's alma mater.  At his 20th college reunion some of his former class mates asked what I was going to do, and dad didn't know.  Bring him on down to Western, they suggested.  So he did, and we played golf with the legendary WIU coach, Harry Mussato, and I shot 39, and Harry said I might be able to make the team, and dad bought me a beer at the Holiday Inn, and I was sold.  Funny; serendiptious; and it was a good decision for me at the time, and also in retrospect.  IN fact, as a believer in the Hand of God working His plan for us here on earth, it was the only possible decision.

But what compels me to write is to let you know what a brilliant, masterful, wonderful job you did of corresponding with me, keeping me in the loop, making me feel special (although, I do not remember this correspondence, and, as I have suggested above, attending college was not really something I wanted to do - it was more like a duty, that task which the dutiful son must perform, no matter how much he despises the performance of that task).

You did everything right!  And you should be very proud of that.  I have every reason to suspect that you continue doing everything right (although, I would rather that you make chapel mandatory, which indicates only that my thinking in this matter has come round about 180 degrees since 1969 - when one of the things going to college meant was that I did not have to get up early on Sunday morning to go to church - which was a relief!)

Sometimes I get the romantic notion of attending college again; I even applied for a graduate program at my alma mater.  Stunningly, they did just about everything possible to let me know that my scholarship was not sought by that esteemed institution.  Let me just say that I did disclose a LOT of "imprudent" personal stuff, but, what I was seeking was an interdisiplinary studies program that would have allowed me to use my life's experiences as an actuary in the health insurance industry, a consumer of hospital and health care services, the victim of a diagnosis of a set of symptoms with no etiology or toxicity that can ever be detected by authopsy, and a political radical (in that I believe in the transformative powers of a true democracy to take the will of the majority of its citizens and bend the will of the democratically elected politicians to do that will.  This is simultaneously a glorious and a terrifying point of view - depending upon how deeply one is invested in "the system."

I wish you all the best in your recruiting efforts, and in your mission to inspire and create critical thinkers who feel a sense of obligation to return to their communities of their time, their talents, and their energies.

For of what use is an academic institution if it will not do at least that?

For my own part, all I ever wanted to do was play the piano and sing for people.  And this I am getting in to process of preparing to do, and, God willing, I will have the opportunity to perform at your college, one of my fund-raising concerts.

Good health toy ou, Peace, and Blessings upon you, and upon all of them you love, and unto all of those that love you.

Sincerely,

Mark Raymond Ganzer

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