COA THE COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE Volume 13 Number 2. Fall 2017 THE QUESTIONS WE ASK COA The College of the Atlantic Magazine Letter from the President 3 News from Campus 4 New Faculty 6 Philip S.J. Moriarty Board Chair 9 THE QUESTIONS WE ASK 10 Faculty The Endurance of Questions John Visvader 12 Question Queen Karen Waldron 13 Stories John Anderson 14 The Space Between Nancy Andrews 15 The Forgotten. The Ignored. Dru Colbert 16 Why Go On? Colin Capers 17 I Does it Sound Good? John Cooper 18 Students My Summer with Großmutter Maria Hagen '17 19 Something Good Will Come of This Ursa Beckford '17 24 Nnimmo Bassey Aneesa Khan '17 26 Artwork Melancholia Sean Foley 30 Politics The Champlain Institute 34 The Bow Shop, an excerpt Jack Budd '19 36 Poetry Ite Sullivan '18 42 Alumni Notes 43 Books & Music 48 Community Notes 52 In Memoriam 55 The Education of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree '79 57 misming This spread: The historic center of Nuremburg, as seen from the Imperial Castle of Nuremburg (see page 19). Photo by Maria Hagen '17. Front cover: Sean Foley, Curses and Oaths, detail, 2017, oil on canvas, 33"x28" The image is part of art faculty member Sean Foley's series Melancholia, an interrogation of depression (see page 30). Writes Sean, "This is basically the Irish flag behind the clover. Depression runs on the Foley, Irish, side of the family. The four-leaf clover was from a plant given to me by a dear friend to cheer me up on my birthday. / planted it and it died. But / saved the clover. Years later it became a subject in this painting." COA From the Editor The College of the Atlantic Magazine Volume 13 Number 2 Fall 2017 Editorial What makes us who we are? What drives us? How close can we get to another's Editor Donna Gold consciousness? To their perspective? Editorial Advice Heather Albert-Knopp '99 Rich Borden These questions drove me to incessant reading as a child, to anthropology Lynn Boulger as a college student, and to journalism after college. They also pushed me to Dianne Clendaniel Dru Colbert ask unanswered questions of my immigrant grandparents and my parents. Darron Collins '92 There have been other questions: Can there actually be justice for all? Can Lothar Holzke '16 Jennifer Hughes humans of differing cultures, ideas, and ideals learn to live with each other? Amanda Mogridge Can we coexist with the natural world without destroying it? For years, these Suzanne Morse Matt Shaw '11 questions, and the search behind them, have been enriched by the passion Hannah Stevens '09 of COA students-along with the staff and faculty I have worked beside. Such Editorial Consultant Bill Carpenter commitment, charm, and humor blossoms here! Just read the essays, the Design questions, the devotion present in this issue. Art Director Rebecca Hope Woods But the questions that we have as children, as young people; the questions COA Administration that live within us, cannot ever be placated. They propel our lives; they form President Darron Collins '92 us. For there is a quest, at least one, within each one of us. I am sure of it. And Academic Dean Kenneth Hill while such questions are seldom followed by answers, they must be heeded or Administrative Dean Andrew Griffiths Associate Academic Deans Chris Petersen we wilt inside. Karen Waldron For nearly fourteen years, I have sought to know, to understand, and to Dean of Admission Heather Albert-Knopp '99 Dean of Institutional Lynn Boulger reveal the beauty and mission of this college. I have been taught so much by so Advancement many here, and rewarded beyond any expectation. Now my journey must take Dean of Student Life Sarah Luke a more personal form. As a journalist, as an editor, and as a writer, one of my COA Board of Trustees greatest privileges has been to hear the stories of people's lives, then present Timothy Bass Casey Mallinckrodt these stories-not in my words, but in theirs-helping them to see their own Ronald E. Beard Anthony Mazlish Michael Boland '94 Jay McNally '84 lives. This is work I've done for communities, for individuals, and also for COA. Leslie C. Brewer Philip S.J. Moriarty From people who spent their lives cutting wood and driving buses, to creating DO Alyne Cistone Lili Pew Barclay Corbus Hamilton Robinson, Jr. computer code and building libraries, these stories have fed me; I long for Lindsay Davies Nadia Rosenthal more. Beth Gardiner Abby Rowe ('98) Amy Yeager Geier Marthann Samek And so, since I cannot be two people, I am retiring from this magazine to H. Winston Holt IV Henry L.P. Schmelzer my own work, to enable myself to listen more, and to continue my Personal Jason W. Ingle Laura Z. Stone Diana Kombe '06 Stephen Sullens History efforts, helping families and communities record their stories. Nicholas Lapham William N. Thorndike, Jr. Coincidentally, Rebecca Hope Woods, the college's graphic designer, is Life Trustees also leaving. For nine years she has shepherded the visuals of the magazine. Samuel M. Hamill, Jr. John Reeves Beyond her amazingly swift design capacities and precise proofing skills, she John N. Kelly Henry D. Sharpe, Jr. has inched me on to become a more visual reader. Rebecca is someone who William V.P. Newlin asks the most startling but basic questions, like why are you doing this? What Trustee Emeriti David Hackett Fischer Philip B. Kunhardt III '77 are you trying to achieve? William G. Foulke, Jr. Phyllis Anina Moriarty This letter is almost too difficult to write. | will miss COA and this magazine, George B.E. Hambleton Helen Porter Elizabeth Hodder Cathy L. Ramsdell '78 which was launched quite casually one morning when Steve Katona, president Sherry F. Huber John Wilmerding at the time, said something to the effect of, I'd like you to start a magazine. What a gift! What a challenge! Just as COA is not like any other college, this The faculty, students, trustees, staff, and alumni of magazine had to be imbued with human ecology, with interdisciplinarity, and College of the Atlantic envision a world where people value creativity, intellectual achievement, and with the overall humanity evident in the questions, the quests, that you will diversity of nature and human cultures. With respect find from students, faculty, staff, and alumni throughout this issue. I have and compassion, individuals construct meaningful lives for themselves, gain appreciation of the learned so much from this effort-from you, the readers, from this very special relationships among all forms of life, and safeguard community, from its struggles and its triumphs. COA will always be a cherished the heritage of future generations. part of my life, along with COA, the magazine. | can't wait to read and admire COA is published biannually for the College of the what the new editor and designer create. Atlantic community. Please send ideas, letters, and submissions (short stories, poetry, and revisits to human ecology essays) to: COA Magazine, College of the Atlantic, 105 Eden St, Bar Harbor, ME 04609, or magazine@coa.edu. WWW.COA.EDU PRINTED WITH Donna Gold, editor MIX CERTIFIED Paper from responsible sources WIND FSC FSC® C021556 POWER