A Franciscan College Celebrates Ideas

Paul Keggington

April 06, 2013

Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity-sponsored Silver Lake College of the Holy Family’s Spring Student Symposium is ‘A Celebration of Ideas’. On April 5, 3013 Interim President Sister Adrianna Schouten introduced the day’s activities. Postulant Rexann Hammons  was one of the presenters later in the day. Her talk entitled ‘The Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’ was a critical evaluation of social psychological aspects of the common perception of groups, focusing on the negative and positive elements in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans, LA during August 2005. Here are Sister Adrianna’s notes.

Ever hear someone say “I’ve got an idea.” This is followed by various reactions: interest, energy, skepticism. In the Bible, if I can paraphrase, God got the idea of creation and the first thing God made was light. The usual ‘image’ for an idea is expressed in the intaglio print by Randy Gruenweller in your program-‘a light goes on’. The light enables us to see. The etimology of the word ‘idea’ comes from the Greek and Latin-ideim which means ‘to see’.

Seeing with our eyes is one way.

Another is to see with your minds.

And a third way to see is with our hearts.

Today ideas will be shared to help us “see”.

Through experiences: (seeing with our eyes) service to others, religious practices, life experiences, nature, even a technology experience and of course some fun

Through learning: (seeing with our minds) about how we learn, education, art, literature nature

The ideas shared today will help us to see many things with our eyes and our minds.

The task left for those who listen, is to reflect (to see with your heart) the aspects of good which will empower you to see how the ideas can influence life.

May what you see and hear give life and light to you.

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