A Wedding and Reunion

from Ben's mom

Friday night we drove to Portland for a wedding. I was able to see some former coworkers and some of the faculty from my alma mater. We were a little worried about the weather but we are at the southern end of the snow and so we had no trouble.

One of my former professors, Dr. Brandt, was there with his wife. We had a good chat and on the way home I was telling Dr. Brandt stories to my husband. It brought back some good memories. Dr. Brandt was one of my three major (Humanities) professors. He is of German heritage (he appreciated my new German surname) and he lived in Germany as part of his post-graduate education. He LOVES Martin Luther (he's Lutheran), and we would hear about Luther often. ("Do you know what today is?" he would ask. "It's Martin Luther's birthday.") He would go on "rants" quite often, against mega-churches, or about baseball, or about the advantages of a good German beer now and then. It was impossible to have a 2-minute conversation with him. If you had to talk to him after class, you had to be certain that you didn't have another class immediately following. I learned a lot from him, and was honored when after graduation, he agreed to let me teach a few days of a class he co-taught with one of my other professors, and asked me to call him "Dwaine." (I couldn't do it. He is "Dr. Brandt" to me.)

We had daily (non-mandatory) chapel at my college and one of the non-spiritual benefits of attendance was coffee time afterward. Those who attended would all partake of free coffee and chat for a few minutes before heading off to 10am classes. Dr. Brandt was a regular attendee, as was I.

One morning after chapel, he proceeded to question me as to about how old I was, was I dating anyone, etc....? The nature of his questions were enough to get a prof in some hot water these days, and one of the other professors, overhearing him said, "Dwaine, are you trying to propose?" It was pretty funny. He then proceeded to ask if he could give my phone number to his son who was in the military overseas and coming to town for the holidays. He was worried he would be bored and thought he might like to spend "some time with a nice young lady like you." I was scared to death, but quite honored and agreed. I can't even remember exactly what we did when we went out, but he did call me, and I do remember that we went to the University of Oregon gift shop at some point together to shop for his dad for Christmas. There wasn't much of a connection, however, and when he called for a second date, I politely declined. But I am still honored that his dad thought enough of me to set us up. And it was very nice to see him again.

Teachers have a powerful effect on our lives. I have been blessed to have maintained friendships with four of my professors from college. Nearly all of my professors were wonderful in some way or another and I remember them fondly. I feel like I'm friends with a celebrity when I receive an email telling about a new book written, a new grandchild, or a trip to the beach. The lessons they taught me went deeper than history, literature, and art. They opened the door to helping me understand myself better and to finding my place in the world.