Kenyon's Community: The Struggles and Triumphs

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My group is working on the "The Hill and the Next 200 years".  At first it seems to be an ambigious realm of archives, but very interesting nontheless. Before we transition into future plans of kenyon, we are looking at the past 100 years as a baseline of what got us to the present. There are two articfacts that my group and I focused on this week. Both of them coming from the Kenyon Collegian. The first was the article from when Old Kenyon burned down. It was a scary artifact, and one that still saddens the college. On Febuary 27th, 1949, an irate fire advanced through the halls of Old Kenyon. It left 9 students dead and many terrified. This event is a scary one, but it is a part of our history. Old K is one of the most iconic buildings on campus and it had to be rebuilt. The other artifact that sparked my groups interest was the article from 2005, on the Peirce "Master plan". This article described talks of a Peirce renovation, which had not occured in the previous 80 years prior to 2005. An anonymous 8 million dollar donation was made for this renovation. This is important because it contributes to the lovely dining hall we have today. It is cool to ready about how the campus I live in came to fruition. Obviosuly I still have my complaints about Peirce food, but the. buiulding itself I find amazing. 

    The reading I am going to focus on is from the textbook (Bellah, Robert et al. "From: 'Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life'." Pp. 229-230 in The Collective Memory Reader). The focus is on history of communities,  and the collective memory of communities. First, the stories that come from  communities are vital to group traditions. The great memories are held tightly to the the present. The reading also emphasizes the importance of holding on to the other end of the spectrum. Difficult times. If diffucult times are thrown away from our memory it takes away from the sence of our community. We need to be honest about all of our history. About the pain we have endured, and even the pain we have put on others. If we can do this it will give our whole community and genuine sence of hope for the future. We can use our past struggles to lead us to our future triumphs. We hold on to the good in order to keep our community tradition and sence of happiness. Whether a communties struggles are deeply embeded through the whole group, or just a smaller wound, They need to be acknowledged. It makes the sence of identity more whole, and helps the group move foward in a natrual way with a strong sence of hope to get better. 

This reading and my groups work for the week are deeply intertwined. The Peirce renovation resembles a  positive collective memory. The campus body remebers it in a good light because a builing was bettered. The Old K fire resemlbes a wound and a memory where pain was inflicted through campus. I am very glad I had this reading for the two atrifacts that I looked deeply into, because they match up so well. These artifacts and events help prove the readings point. This fire and traumatic event cannot be forgotten. It caused pain in our community. That pain does not go away. What we can do with that is remeber and process it. We can first try to not let it happen again, but most importatly keep every part of our community with us. The peirce renovation is on the other end of the spectrum, and is an example of a good collective memory that sticks with us. We are more inclined to keep this memory, but it is still important. Having the good ones helps us be more availible to process the bad ones. Most imporatantly, both contribute to our future hope and exitment for the Kenyon community. 

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