It is not like we are all close buddies. But there is something about being fellow members of the Board of Trustees at a College, in our case, Southwestern College in Santa Fe, that is a truly bonding experience. I know that sounds kind of schmaltzy, or could. “Bonding Experience.” But I will offer you these photographs, taken today, August 10th, 2012, of members of our Board roaming the new 4.39 acres we recently purchased, each alone feeling the energy of the land, and some in group and ceremony creating their own way of welcoming the land into the family, or asking the land to accept US as family, whatever our own individual “take” is on what it means to “buy land”…
And it is hard to explain how we can spend 6 hours together talking largely about the mundane aspects of running the College, when most of us are really operating on another level–what do you want to call it? The Energy Level? The Mystery Level? The Deeper Level of Meaning? We know we are a College that has an important mission we know that the transmission of light first through ourselves, informing and forming ourselves, and on outward into the world, is the real work.
As usual, I am the camera guy. It gives me a whole different perspective on an event to be behind the camera, watching my colleagues “be” with the land….I am humbled and honored to have this job, and also think it keeps me on the quiet side, while others get to be the images that convey the mission and transmission…..
I think it is probably best if I say no more and just let you be with these images………
About the Moderator
Jim Nolan is in his 6th year as president of Southwestern College. He has worked for a dozen universities or colleges, both online and on the ground. He holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, and attended graduate school in English/Irish Literature. He reads a lot of books, takes a lot of photos, plays guitar, got married in India in 2010, and has a wire haired fox terrier named Barney. He is the opposite of a guru, whatever that is called.
