At the last WM Editorial Advisory Board meeting, we were thinking aloud about themes that would interest well-known writers in penning our “A Man’s Life” essay. “Speaking of award-winning authors,” I said, turning to board member Dan Simmons ’70. There was a moment’s silence as we fixed our eyes on Wabash’s most accomplished and inventive multiple award-winning writer. “Well, if you ever have a ‘Brothers’ issue, I’ll write one,” he said. So the day after we set the date for the “Brothers” issue, I emailed Dan to see if he was still game and found him finishing a film treatment for one of his novels and running behind schedule on the second part of his Ilium epic, Olympos, thanks to recurring kidney stones. But, true to his word, Dan said he’d “take a stab at it.”
“Some things have happened recently—including something I heard as I waited to go into surgery this afternoon—that remind me how much I want to write that piece.”
When I asked Associated Press correspondent Peter Prengaman ’98 (at right, interviewing the Governor of Oregon) for permission to reprint an email he’d sent me detailing his near-death experience during the fall of Haiti’s Jean-Bertrand Aristide this year, he wrote back: “I want that letter to be published, if for no other reason, so aspiring foreign correspondents from Wabash get a glimpse of the downsides of this job.”
Peter had just returned from covering recent flooding and the tragedy it caused on the island. “Covering that might have been even more difficult than covering the fall of Aristide. I’ve never seen so many dead bodies in my life. And I’ve learned this about mass graves: if you ever get the chance to see one, don’t take it. Some things are better left to the imagination.”
Senior art major Michael Bricker ’04 (right) isn’t one for lengthy artist’s statements. He prefers to let his images speak for him, then hopes that his audience will ask questions. That certainly happened when he affixed 600 silhouettes of soldiers to the walls of Baxter Hall on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It happened again when his series “African American” was first displayed, without title, without comment, in the lobby of Salter Hall.
“I guess I do tend toward controversial subjects,” Bricker says.
When Cal Black ’66 told me the story of Mike Rapier ’87 and how he’d learned he had a brother he’d never met, Indianapolis Monthly Staff Writer Evan West ’99 was the first person I thought of to write the story. A consummate professional, Evan interviewed those involved—including the Wabash doctor who performed Mike’s brother’s life-saving bone marrow transplant 18 years ago— and penned a sensitive, rewarding narrative here of perhaps the most amazing Wabash story we’ve told in WM. After I’d read the article and thanked him for his excellent work, Evan’s response was in character: “Thanks for the assignment. It makes me proud to work for my alma mater.”
The former president of St. John’s College, John Agresto is a quick study who became a good friend of Wabash in only a year on campus. That ability to hit the ground running served him well last year in his new assignment—helping to rebuild the university system in Iraq. We’re pleased to report that in June, John returned safely from his 10 months in Baghdad and passed along a copy of the commencement address he gave to Samford University graduates in May.
“Just because you’re always encouraging me to write up my experiences, here’s a copy of the address,” John wrote to me. We’ve excerpted a short passage in “Voices.”
If you’re a National Public Radio listener, you may remember commentator Margaret Erhart’s audio essay about the death of Pfc. Lori Piestewa in the war in Iraq and the way schoolchildren from Tuba City, Ariz., reacted to the news. But it was her brief experiment with single-sex education while she was artist-in-residence at a Massachusetts grade school that grabbed our attention on April 8. From that experience she drew a poignant piece that speaks powerfully of one of the strengths of a Wabash education— a discussion of the merits of single-sex education in an unexpected forum. The writer, novelist, and arts advocate was kind enough to grant us permission to reprint “Who is Brave Enough to Try?” as this
issue’s “End Notes.”
What motivates men like Mike Markland ’94 to work in Saudi Arabia and, most recently, in the high-risk environment of Iraq? His letter in this issue’s “Voices” offers some clues. It came to us thanks to Mike’s friendship with Wabash Director of Public Affairs Jim Amidon ’87. Markland offered this detail as he listened to the call to prayer in Baghdad at 5 a.m.
“The call to prayer is open to the interpretation of the muezzin , who sings as the spirit of Allah possesses him at the time.
“Each place has its music,” Markland writes, “and this is Iraq’s music. [Hearing it this morning] is the closest yet I’ve come to understanding this place and its complexity.”
The moment you walk into the home of Mary Lou and Paul Mielke ’42 , you’re in the midst of the Wabash community. They’re right there on the entryway wall—the professor’s artful portraits of friends and colleagues through the years.
“What if you choose your favorites from this wall,” I suggested. “Talk about them, and we’ll start there?”
The result is a perfect fit for this issue’s “Brother’s” theme, and by no more fitting a Wabash man.