My brothers and I were trying to remember all the things New York City police officers have called us over the years: Yo, Buster, Bud, George, Freak Flag, Butthead, Meathead – that was my brother Kevin, “Hey Meathead!” This reminds me of a story. My brother Tommy once jumped over the balcony in a bar in New York and landed on a table. The idiot who was sitting at the table had said to a girl “Hopefully you and I…” and my brother Tommy jumps over and lands on his table and says, “Never f**ing begin a sentence with an adverb!” which sent us into hysterics. -Why do you love telling stories? Stories are food. Stories are everything. Stories are prayer. Stories are holy. Without substantive stories, people will sell you lies. Religions are stories, politics are stories, nations are stories, towns are stories, families are stories. That’s why Alzheimer’s is so cruel, because it sucks out all your stories. If you don’t have real stories, whether they’re silly or funny or brave or stories of unbelievable courage or defiant grace, then you’ll be sold nothing but murder and lies. So I’m a story catcher. That’s my job. And more and more as I get older, stories are where it’s at. Everything that we are is composed of stories.
I’m reading about “otherness” by Simone de Beauvoir right now. I’m trying to understand how to view women’s otherness objectively and not through the male gaze. Because if a woman’s consciousness and self is only what is projected onto her, how can she have any agency and understanding of what she is as a woman? But how do you discover that from a female perspective when you have been “othered” your entire existence?
-What are some of the favorite things you’ve built on campus? A long time ago, Dann Pierce had a TV studio, and there was a room down in Buckley that was wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling cabinets for monitors. It’s gone now, but I saw a picture of it the other day and that was really fun to make. Of course the altars I’ve made were a lot of fun, and the Bible cabinet for the Library – I really liked making that one. One of the most fun projects was when Fr. Corso wanted a solid cherry processional cross that was seven feet tall and three inches thick. I thought, “That’s going to weigh 200 pounds! How am I going to do that?” I ended up using four-inch rigid insulation, like you’d put around a foundation, and I cut the foam and put it all together and took cherry veneer and glued it on there. It’s still down in the basement of St. Mary’s – I saw it down there a few months ago.
I’ve worked with probably 30 or 40 thousand students over the years. They keep me in touch with what’s going on in the world. They tell me all about the new stuff, and I tell them about what a great place UP is. People are friendly and it has great academic programs and it’s a marvelous place to be… if it’s right for them. If it’s right for them – that’s the main issue.
This is where we hung out the day we met. We came out here for quite a few hours and just sat and talked, and it was very fun. And now we’re dating.
I just really like boats. I miss sailing. -What do you like about being out on the water? Just kind of… you know, if you wanted to you could just keep going. Freedom.
We have great students who are really interested in what the future is going to be like, because they are the ones that are going to be there. I try to teach them to discern what’s really going on and try to teach them to think critically, to look at what’s around them and not accept the surface story of things, to dig deep and try to understand what’s really happening. It’s the only way we’re going to pass on a world to our kids and kids’ kids that is going to be healthy for them to live in and in which they can live up to their aspirations.
