Bryce

The Second Semester

Chapter 41 - Looking Ahead

            For the next few days, there was little to ruffle the smooth surface of Bryce’s existence.  Oh, there was the self-satisfied carping of a few ideologues in the French class, and of different kinds of ideologues when he encountered Jason, but he knew there was no sense in arguing with people who would not listen.  They were so busy digging up their next half-truth, they paid no attention when someone presented them with a fact which did not fit into their preconceived notions.  Even the SAT meeting on Tuesday evening held little to cause Bryce to get on one of his soap boxes.  During the week which followed the SAT party, Professor Dickinson covered the domestic developments in Great Britain during the time the country was at war with revolutionary France, especially the rise to dominance of William Pitt the Younger and the new Tory party.  As interesting as Bryce found that, it was still not something exciting.

            The most interesting event of the week, though, was the joint meeting of the GLBT Club and the Biology Honor Society, Beta Beta Beta, commonly called Tri-Beta.  At that well-attended meeting on Wednesday evening, Dr. John Harris discoursed on “Biological Factors in Sexual Orientation.”  Gary Woodson, the GLBT President, in his preliminary remarks, noted that Club members had only one more week to vote on the proposed Club name change.  He then launched into his introduction.  He noted that the Professor of Biology regularly devoted a class in his survey courses to this topic, which was much appreciated by the membership of the GLBT Club.  He professed the hope that continued education on this point would lead to a diminution of bias against those of the minority sexual orientation.

            Dr. Harris presented the same kind of information he imparted in his classes, but in this context he felt free to indulge in some personal comments.  He noted that the scientific evidence concerning sexual orientation was not absolutely certain, but few things were.  The overwhelming preponderance of evidence indicated that sexual orientation was fixed by factors outside normal human control.  Scientists tend to support the theory that it is genetic, a position to which he subscribed as a geneticist, but there were some who maintained that orientation was fixed by chemical factors in the womb.  Thus far, there has been no “gay gene” identified, but the  probability exists that, within the lifetime of those in the room, such a discovery would be made.  There is on-going genetic research with promising results being published almost with every issue of the relevant scientific journals.

            During the question and answer session which followed Dr. Harris’ prepared talk, it became apparent that there were a few in the audience who did not like the consequences of the facts presented by the professor.  One older questioner, who may not have been a student, as the talk was open to the public, asked whether Dr. Harris was saying that some people were pre-ordained to engage in deviant behavior.  The professor responded that on matters such as this, there was no one-to-one relationship between scientific stimuli and human action.  In other words, genetics could establish a tendency towards certain actions, but not determine individual actions, or, “you don’t have to do it just because it feels good.”  That evoked laughter from most of the audience.  Another questioner asked whether homosexuality could be considered something like a cancer or weak heart, something one is born with, but which might be cured.  Before the questioner completed his question, he was interrupted twice with heckling and boos.  That actually won him some sympathy, if not agreement, from the audience.  Noticing that the young man who asked the question used his left hand by preference, Dr. Harris replied, “I would compare it rather to being left-handed.  It’s a distinctly minority condition, and one which has been looked upon with distrust and distaste in the past, but I know of nothing pathological about sexual orientation.  A great deal of our physical self is determined by factors beyond our control.”  At this point, he looked directly at Bryce and Damon, seated in the front row.  “For example, Bryce is blond and blue-eyed, whereas Damon ... is not.”  That evoked considerable laugher, and alleviated some of the tension created by the question and the earlier response to it.  Dr. Harris decided this was a good time to bring the session to a close.  “I would urge you to remember that, no matter how much we are influenced by out biological inheritance, there are still what we might call free factors.  Human beings are not robots.  Among the things we can chose is whether to be civil to each other or not.”  That was greeted with a hearty round of applause.

            As the meeting broke up, Bryce noted the young man who had asked about curing homosexuality standing off to one side.  He was half-heartedly trying to pass out some kind of pamphlet, while muttering about “abominations.”  Bryce was tempted to engage him in debate, but was sidetracked when another student, whom he recognized as an officer of Tri-Beta, approached.

            In his best Andy Griffith voice, the student asked, “Are you guys some of them filthy queers I been hearing about?”

            Realizing that this was not the student’s usual mode of talking, Bryce responded in the same way, “Well, I don’t know who all you got in mind being filthy, but I can swear on a stack of Bibles that my friend Damon, here, and I showered before coming to this here meeting.”

            The other student broke out laughing, abandoning his accent.  “Good.  Just want to be clear on that point.”

            Still in character, Bryce responded, “I guess that’s one of them there free factors the professor was a-talking about.”

            On that note, Bryce, Damon, and two biology majors adjourned to Pat’s Tavern, leaving the mutterer still muttering.

            The rest of the week went by with both Bryce and Damon working on the various papers they had due in their respective classes.  Bryce was not finding his paper on Samuel Johnson nearly as interesting as that on John Milton the previous semester.  Nonetheless, he slogged away, bringing the first draft to conclusion, then setting it aside for at least a week before approaching it again, just to make sure he actually said what he intended to say.

            One very interesting project was Bryce’s personality study for his Psychology class.  He chose to analyze his partner, Damon.  During the initial phases, Damon was quite cooperative, answering all kinds of personal questions and joking about some pretty hairy events in his previous life in the projects.  But, when Damon saw the first draft of that paper, he became very defensive.  He complained that Bryce made him look like some kind of wimp, and that what was said was entirely too personal to be put into a class project.  Although Bryce adjusted some of his language, he refused to alter his basic conclusions.  He argued that he was not showing Damon as weak and pusillanimous, but rather was highlighting his strength of character in overcoming very adverse conditions in his early life.  As to being too personal, Bryce said, “Most likely only me and the instructor will ever see this.  But even if Dr. Greene should read it out to the whole class, it’s no big problem.  Number one, you are not named anywhere, nor do I say anything about the subject of the study being my partner, or even a friend.  Number two, you will most likely never meet any of the kids in that class anyway.”  That set Damon off on another round of worries about the paper being read aloud in class.  That was only resolved by a trip to Pat’s and then a romp in the hay.

            Saturday was a trash pick-up day for the fraternity.  Bryce and Damon dutifully reported to the Sigma Alpha Tau house at seven in the morning, after not partying too late the night before at the fraternity of Mike Sandoval and David Simpson.  They were far from the only bleary eyed brothers, and some did not show up at all.  At least by mid-April it was light when they spread out along the highway leading to the airport to pick up the leavings of those with no personal or civic pride.  After about an hour, Bryce and several other workers witnessed a driver flick a still smoldering cigarette out his car window onto the median.  Fortunately, this was April, so the grass was green and it had rained recently, but in late summer that could very easily have started a fire.  Those who witnessed this public endangerment booed the driver, but he probably never noticed.

            After putting in several hours at this public service, the brothers returned to the house, where most compensated themselves for their effort with what is arguably the greatest German contribution to civilization.  Refreshment consumed and camaraderie celebrated, Bryce and Damon adjourned to the University Center for lunch.  Lunch over, they checked their campus mail boxes.  It was kind of sad that Damon usually received nothing from his family or former acquaintances back in Chicago.  Bryce, on the other hand, had his weekly telephone calls to his mother, frequent e-mails from his sister Nan, and an occasional contact from his father when there was something specific to say.

            Bryce excitedly ripped open a thick envelope addressed to him.  “Look at this!  This is from the travel agency.  Our plans for the summer are beginning to fall into place,” he exclaimed.

            “You know I’m still uneasy about all that,” Damon complained.

            Bryce set aside the papers he was perusing, and gave his partner an exasperated look.  “We’ve been through this over and over.  I have money and you don’t.  We’re partners.  So it’s only right that I pay for things we do together.  Kind of like community property.  Besides, you desperately need to experience more of the world.  Yes, Virginia, there is something outside Chicago.  I thought we settled this when we went to Puerto Rico.”

            “Yeah, yeah, I heard it all.  But I still ....”

            Damon got no further.  Bryce grabbed him, placed a hand over his mouth, and steered him to the nearby elevators.  They arrived two floors up at a lounge area.  There, Bryce directed his partner to a couple of comfortable looking chairs.  It was, in fact, the same location where the two of them had talked with Mike, David, and Marc at the beginning of the semester.

            “Now, just shut up and look at this.  The agent even included a map – no, a whole series of maps, so we can follow the route more easily.  Look, here we are.  We land in Lisbon and spend a few days there, then travel north to Fatima.  Jack might not know what it is, but you are going to learn about Catholic culture, even if you never convert.  Otherwise, you’ll never understand me.  ME!  I’m involved in this, too!” Bryce indulged in extravagant oratory.

            Damon just looked at him and laughed.  “You really want to do this, don’t you?”

            “Is that finally sinking in?  YES!  I really want to do this.  Some of it will be new to me, but a lot of it will be revisiting places which are important to me.  I want to share this with you,” Bryce proclaimed.

            “Okay.  I surrender.  Tell me what’s in store for us.  What’s this Fatima place?” Damon conceded with grace.

            “In 1917 Our Lady appeared there to three shepherd children.  It’s not my favorite Marian shrine, but it’s important to know about these things,” Bryce explained.

            “By ‘Our Lady’ you mean ....”

            “Mary.  The Blessed Virgin.  The Mother of God.  The Theotokos.  The ....”

            “Okay.  That’s what I thought.  I just wanted to be sure.  So, Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared to three children?  Why children?  Why not the pope? ... or some emperor or president?  Somebody who could command obedience?”

            “God has always chosen to act through insignificant people.  Like a Jewish carpenter.  If he acted in such a way that he could force people to accept him, well, there we are.  That’s force.  God wants our free love, not rape.  It’s called faith.  If you read the Gospels, the Jews at the time of Christ, including his own disciples, were asking the same question.  They wanted a Messiah who would command an army, defeat the Romans, and reestablish the political kingdom of David and Solomon.  But my God does not force himself on us.  We have to be willing,” Bryce stated.

            “Okay.  Fatima.  Then what?” Damon conceded.

            “North into Spain, to the great shrine of Santiago de Compostella.  Legend has it that the remains of the apostle St. James the Greater are located there.  In any case, for centuries it was one of the most visited shrines in Europe, and the camino de Santiago was one of the most traveled routes in the entire West.  Even today, pilgrims walk the route, sometimes for hundreds of miles, in the footsteps of their spiritual ancestors.  We won’t get to do that, because time won’t allow, but I’d like to do it someday, and collect my own compostella, my certificate as a pilgrim of St. James.  Santiago means St. James, who is a patron of Spain.  That’s why you find Santiagos all over Spanish America.

            “I’d like to dip down and visit St. Teresa at Avila, but, again, time restraints put a limit  on what we can accomplish.  But see here, this shorter dip.  That’s Burgos, where we’ll visit El Cid Campeador.  He’s there in the cathedral.”

            “You talk like these people are real,” Damon wondered.

            “They are real.  You mean like they’re alive.  Well, in a way, if you really get to know them, they are alive.  They talk to me.  They’re more real than some actor or rock singer that everyone goes ape-shit over, but in a year or two you never hear about again.  Anyway, back to the itinerary.  After Burgos, we stop at two little places in the Basque country called Loyola and Javier, and we’ll spend the night at Pamplona.  Read Hemingway.  But I hope we don’t get chased by bulls.

            “We’ll cross the border and arrive at my favorite Marian shrine, Lourdes, in the Pyrenees.  It is truly beautiful, and I find it spiritual, despite the inevitable commercialization.  After all, Lourdes has been a tourist destination for a hundred and fifty years, long before Disney World.  The site alone is awesome. Then it’s farther north, to Tours and the Loire country.  We’re in France now.  There we’ll visit St. Martin, but also at Amboise Leonardo ....”

            “Not De Caprio?” Damon surmised.

            “No, Da Vinci,” Bryce answered.

            “I thought he was Italian.”

            “People move.  ... and then the ladies of Chenonceau.  Now there’s a lively bunch.  But I’ll let you sweat a bit, or find out about them for yourself.  From Tours, we go still farther north to visit the other St. Thérèse, the Little Flower, at Lisieux.  After Lisieux comes something every American can appreciate, not just Catholics.  Well, with Cody Underwood in mind, perhaps I’d better say just about every American.  Omaha Beach in Normandy, and the American cemetery.  If any place will convince one of the price necessary to defend freedom, and free the world of the Nazi nightmare, those rows and rows of white markers on the bluff overlooking the Channel will do it.  I get all choked up just thinking about it.”  Bryce paused to clear his throat and recover his aplomb.

            “Still in Normandy, we’ll visit Rouen, where the heart of Richard Lionheart is interred in the cathedral, and where St. Jeanne d’Arc was burned at the stake by the English.  Obviously, God is an Englishman, and if you’re inflicting defeats on the English right and left, you must be in league with the Devil.

            “At last, we arrive in Paris, the city of lights.  I have us down for a week there, but that will not be nearly enough.  We’ll have to come back some other time and spend more time.  Paris is both a Catholic city and a secular city.  We’ll visit Nôtre Dame and Sacre Coeur, but also the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, and some discos in the Latin Quarter.  And there’s a hedge just outside the Louvre that I must warn you about.  Scared me to death.  We’ll have to get out to Versailles as well, and we’ll do it on a Sunday afternoon when we can experience the fountains en grandes eaux.

            “A quick trip eastward will bring us to Cologne – Köln – and the shrine of the Three Kings.  Then, up the Rhine to Mainz and a combination of St. Boniface and Gutenberg.  South through the Black Forest will bring us to Switzerland, where we’ll visit Luzern, William Tell,  and Einsiedeln before crossing over the St. Gotthard and so into sunny Italy.

            “Italy is an absolute joy to experience.  There’s something to see at just about every step.  We’ll stop at Milano for a day or two, and while there take a trip west to Turino, to visit the Holy Shroud.  There’s a really interesting book about that relic I read a couple of years ago with the intriguing title The DNA of God.  Maybe we should review it before arriving there.  In Milano, we must see Leonardo’s Last Super in the refectory at Santa Maria delle Grazie.  Then, on across Lombardy to Verona, where we’ll encounter two star crossed lovers.  After that, Padua, and a visit to St. Anthony, before we arrive at the city of canals, Venice – Venezia.  That’s another world to its own.  Saint Mark’s.  The Doge’s Palace.  The Rialto.  The Bridge of Sighs.  Maybe a trip out to the Lido.”

            “Will we get to ride in a gondola?”

            “Oh, absolutely.  It’s required.  I’m sure it must be a law or something.  And shops and shops of beautiful glass work.  From Venice we’ll head south, across the Apennines, stopping in Bologna.  Even more than for its sausage, Bologna is important for its university, one of the oldest in the West.  The first Western law school.  Bologna has a lot to answer for.  But that’s just a stop on the way.  Our next real destination is Florence.

            “Florence is another of those places where we’ll just touch the tip of the iceberg.  There is so much there, you could spend months, years, a lifetime, and not grasp it all.  Florence is the cradle of the Renaissance.  Just about all the top notch Renaissance figures, from Petrarch to Galileo, were Florentines.  Wait until you see Brunelleschi’s dome on the cathedral, or Luca della Robbia’s beautiful images.  In my book, the most beautiful room in the world is the Pazzi Chapel.  Then, there’s Michelangelo’s “David” and his disturbing Medici Chapel, and the Uffizi, and, oh! a hundred thousand other things.

            “A side trip to Pisa to try to push the tower back upright might be squeezed in.  Then further south to Siena, to visit St. Catherine.  From there, we leave Tuscany and go into the Umbrian hills to visit St. Francis and St. Clare at Assisi.  Finally, we arrive in the eternal city.

            “Roma aeterna.  Roma caput mundi.  There is nothing quite like Rome.  We’ll have to do both classical and Christian Rome.  The Forum.  The Colloseum.  The Palatine.  The Capitoline.  Say hello to Julius Caesar.  Shake hands with Marcus Aurelius.  But then there’s the Mamertine Prison, the Scavi, the catacombs, the seven great basilicas with their invaluable treasures.  We might take a side trip to Naples, visit Capri and Pompeii, and stop at Monte Cassino, but that’s not settled yet.  We don’t want to slight Rome.  Thanks to a priest my dad knows, who’s studying in Rome these days, we can get tickets to some very special events.  By the time we get back, you’ll be a seasoned traveler.  They say travel is broadening, especially in Italy with all the pasta.”

            Damon started to object, but instead just bopped his partner on the head.