One hopes that when the deans meet that no one brings up two old dreamers, those roamers of open fields, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Class of 1821, and Henry David Thoreau, Class of 1837. Writing of his fellow alumnus, Emerson observed, "He declined to give up his large ambition of knowledge and action for any narrow craft or profession, aiming at a much more comprehensive calling, the art of living well... He was therefore secure of his leisure."
Leisure? How antediluvian! But what do you expect from a couple of three-mealers?
Martha Ackmann is a women's studies professor at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
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