Thoughts from Dr. Joe: Answers will come in time
After last week’s write about taking Simone to college, I received an email from a reader requesting advice on what to tell kids as they leave for college. “Dr. Joe! Can you offer any wisdom that would help kids navigate their college experience? Also, what will you tell Simone?”
I can only think of the immortal words of Yogi Berra, “I wish I had an answer to that because I’m tired of answering that question.”
Being a philosophy major is a bum rap. People expect you to have all the answers. All I have are the questions. Nevertheless, I’ve tried to think of a magic pill that might help La Cañada parents find the Hail Mary pass as their child transitions to college.
Often, answers to complex questions are so obvious they appear inane. I’m sure you’re familiar with Lewis Carroll’s story about Alice, the little girl who visited Wonderland. The novel is filled with absurd encounters that depict mindful philosophy. Carroll asserts that when approaching a seemingly difficult task, “Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” It’s the sides of the mountain and not the top that sustain life. College is a journey unlike any other — beautiful and bad, exciting and exhausting, unique and ugly, happy and horrendous, lovely and lonely. Embrace the dragon!
Back to my story about the adventure of taking Simone to college. I want her to realize that outside the bubble of La Cañada there’s a whole new world. Austin was merely the current destination.
I’m impressed that Texans have a sense of place, which is in sharp contract with the transience of many a Southern Californian. When you know where you’re from, you know who you are. Texas is a mystique, the foundation of which is the Alamo. With no hope of success and against all odds, 189 Texans crossed the line in the sand and chose to die instead of surrender. They were all slaughtered, but people still shout, “Remember the Alamo!” Texans turned failure into victory. That explains a lot about the people.
We traveled through Gillespie County and into the heart of the Texas Hill Country, an escarpment west of Austin and San Antonio. Its surface is an extraordinary system of aquifers, streams, rivers and caves.
I took Simone to Luckenbach, Texas, where Waylon, Willie and the boys were known for guitar-picking at the dance hall. We had pulled-pork sandwiches and listened to the best guitar-picking west of the Guadalupe river.
According to the website luckenbachtexas.com, in 1970 Hondo Crouch answered an ad in the local paper: “Town for sale — lock, stock, and dance hall.” Beneath 500-year-old oak trees, the town became known for its guitar picking, domino playing and beer drinking.
In 1973 Texas country singer Jerry Jeff Walker brought his Lost Gonzo Band to Luckenbach and in the old dance hall he recorded the album “Viva Terlingua.” The album created what Austin musician Steve Fromholz called “the Great Progressive Country Music Scare of the Mid-1970s” making Luckenbach a destination point for Texas country music.
The town is particularly meaningful to me since the heroine and heroes of my novel are from Luckenbach and after two years of writing and editing, I know every inch of the town and what trees give the best shade along the South Grape Creek.
We arrived in Austin prior to move-in day and watched the university transition from a few scattered students to 40,000 Texas strong. That gave Kaitzer enough time to prepare our daughter for every eventuality from flash floods to the Zika virus.
My point is that transitions are fraught with experience and the best part of the next four years is getting there.
My dear reader, here is the answer to your question of what I told Simone: “Eat a good breakfast, be yourself, and be brave.”
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JOE PUGLIA is a practicing counselor, a retired professor of education and a former officer in the Marines. Reach him at doctorjoe@ymail.com. Visit his website at doctorjoe.us.
