Back Talk

The Monk is now sweeping up after 5 weeks of painstakingly placing the colored sand almost grain by grain to make the design. Ok, I’m s senior citizen, times have changed, but what’s with all the touchy-feely, quasi spiritual, mystical, transcendental stuff our colleges and universities are so enthralled with nowadays? My college had exhibits and displays, but they were never intended to make one feel otherworldly or restful of spirit. They were intended to simultaneously interest and educate (imagine that.) A couple of times the Engineering department set up a “Foucault Pendulum,” a specific weight pendulum swinging on a 70 foot wire that swings indefinitely, and traces an arc covering a full circle demonstrating the earth’s rotation. Incidentally, who paid for this soul-changing experience? Is there a budget line item in the Chico State budget called “sand mandala” or “Buddhist Monk” or “weird things for which there is no category?” How many taxpayers got their money’s worth of soul tweaking for this? A few months ago there was an article about the Chico State professor (that’s right, a tenured professor) who, in her spare time, performs a laying-on of hands to cleanse a person’s aura. It’s hell working one’s way through life with a dirty aura. I’m assuming Chico State is no worse than any other college – although we are talking California here – but they give degrees in fields they can’t even really describe and classes in such vague things as “environmental psychology.”