Community, the season, and keeping it real

By Julia Stuble,
Graduate Student

Our little community saw its first big split, when many of my fellow graduate students and I fled for home over Thanksgiving break. The class work load had steadily increased as due dates loomed before the break, and it was with stealthy looks of desperation that heartfelt goodbyes were quickly exchanged. The homework and assignments had reminded us all that we were actually in graduate school, and like it had been in college, these holiday breaks were much enjoyed.

Now, only a few weeks later, we have exchanged more holiday wishes and hugs and temporarily split our community once again, though not without first enjoying a holiday retreat together.

Last night, after a four mile ski in to a private cabin, along with faculty, all of our graduate class sipped cider and other ruby-jeweled or potent dark brown beverages and had a Yankee exchange of holiday gifts as a final toast to the season we would thereafter be spending with our other families. The retreat was filled with good old-fashioned and clichéd, in a good way, holiday cheer.

For me bits of reality were encapsulated last night, at the retreat, but also in several other, seemingly small, ways.

Across campus, for the last two weeks, Secret Snowflake gifts have been cleverly wrapped, hidden and apparated into our offices, homes, and even the dining table. Some were small, some were playful and silly, some were meaningful; all were wonderful. There seemed to be a constant stream of “Wow! My secret snowflake is the best ever!” Why did we all exclaim thus? Because we live in a wonderful community that takes the secret snowflake charge seriously, and meaningfully. We work, and mostly, live together, and because of this, know each other well and gifts were suitably and thoughtfully chosen for each other. These gift exchanges can so often fall into the pit of lameness and casualness. But on Kelly campus, they were serious and well-chosen for the recipient.

Though I missed both, graduate faculty Mike Windsor held a seriously non-denominational holiday movie night, filled with old favorites. And faculty member Robin Brooks invited students over for a morning of making good holiday treats like peanut brittle. Real buckeyes were found in the shared fridge. Both candies were far superior to their counterfeit copies sold in cheap tins for several dollars. People we knew and loved had made them.

Rugelach was made and shared in celebration of Hanukah, and emphasis across the campus was made on “holiday” rather than “Christmas” season.
My heart was even softened to the lights strung early around the Town Square. A tad blue and garish, while leaving a store with Christmas presents under my arm, the owner turned to me and said, “Now doesn’t the square look nice.” And it was true – like me, others were bustling about with gifts for loved ones, and the lights were a welcoming guide along the darkened and cold streets.

And finally, the retreat, and the whole reality of this season. Jean Baudrillard wrote of a trend in the material and symbolic world of ours, a trend flowing from the original to the counterfeit to the produced, mechanical copy, and finally to the age when the produced copy has completely replaced the original.

From what I saw in our residential education program, TSS follows a trend of taking away symbol in favor of reality and its experience, and the night was a highlight and celebration of this.

It felt like a family gathering. A large family gathering, with distant relations you may not know so well, but accept and appreciate into the family. A gathering with the intimate relations you love and care for. A gathering filled with fun and acceptance, and the simply enjoyment of each other, an enjoyment heightened by the sharing of good food, good music, thoughtful gifts, and the incredible outdoors we all love. A gathering that celebrated exactly what we all know deep in our hearts this holiday season was about. Thanks to all those who shared it with me.

Note: the moderator apologizes for the late submission of this entry. May it bring us some delayed holiday cheer as we return back to our teaching, our work and our home in the valley!