Yesterday I started the monumental task of the 2008 Student World. (Go look at our 2007 Student World). 2008 is the Centennial Anniversary of our first publication of Student World. I am humbled to work on a journal that is over 100 years old. Due to timing delays I will finish the 2008 Student World and then hopefully finish the 2009 Student World too. This means I will be doing a lot of editing and threatening deadlines and such. However, for 2008 we are taking articles from Old Student Worlds. I have the chance to look through these journals. During some of the 20th Century these journals were the ONLY Ecumenical journal. Many people have written in them. From Mahatma Ghandi to President Wilson. I am currently reading/re-typing an article written by Suzanne de Dietrich. She was an influential person in WSCF . The article is amazing. I am learning so much about what it means to be Ecumenical. This article was published in 1933. Yesterday, I read an article published in 1934 about the role of women in WSCF. It blew me away that in 1934 the WSCF was forward thinking enough to dedicate it's entire Student World to "Women Students." The article I read affirmed the role that women, even in the formation of the WSCF played. In the 1930's. I am loving looking at the old docments and reading what people wrote. These are not just any people - they are people that we still talk about about and still hear about today. They are the founding fathers and mothers of my organization as well as many other Ecumenical organizations. I am beginning to feel the presence of the history of an organization that is over 115 years old!
I also received a book from my father today. It is a collection of talks given by Joseph Matthews. He was an influential part of my parents life, and I suspect, even though I never met him, a part of my life as welll. I am excited to get started on that book.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
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i love reading "old" things. (i hereby define "old" to be 1930's and earlier). you get perspectives from a different era. also people tended to write more elegantly back then - at least it seems that way when i extrapolate from what i've read. i think its because the level of education was lower - i.e. not as widespread, which means that reading material was targeted towards people who could be assumed to be highly educated. in other words, more people have been educated since the 30's, but in order to accomplish this the level of education has had to become less stringent. that's my theory, anyways.
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