Remembrance and Translation: An Action of Remembering and Positive Expression
In 1974 when I was 16, I went to a “Three Dog Night” concert at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York with one of my best friends Mark Printski. There were twenty two thousand people filling up just about every open space on the beautiful lawns surrounding the covered seating area. It was not only the largest group of people I had ever seen assembled, it was my first exposure to a big-time musical group whose three founding members and lead vocalists (Hutton, Wells, and Negron) took on the eponymous name of how to stay warm on a bitterly cold night coined by aboriginal Australians. Mark has passed on; but whenever I think of my first concert, I think of Mark, that iconic group, and my joyful experience that night. It makes me smile and lifts my spirit … every time.
My family and my experiences have allowed me to create so many wonderful memories and while we have had no shortage of difficult experiences from an important perspective, my positive memories far outweigh my negative ones. Even my memories of difficult experiences or memories of not understanding why an event occurred can be used for positive action and expression.
In 1978 while attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), I took a course in Physical Chemistry. One of the hardest yet most memorable classes I ever took. The professor was amazing at bringing his real-world experiences and research involving chemistry and physics into the classroom. Every class started with a question for us to consider, like; Why do razor blades get dull? Why would a stainless steel, high strength, corrosion-resistant razor blade be dulled by cutting simple pieces of hair? I loved his questions and especially when he would unwrap the answer in a simple yet elegant fashion.
I remember preparing for a big test. My study notebooks were meticulously organized, my study material reviewed in-depth, I wanted to do so well on this test! When the test day came I felt like I was being asked to answer questions that had familiar words and concepts but was out of my league in terms of putting together solutions. I felt defeated. The following week our professor gave back our test results. The average score was about 20 out of 100 … I received something like an 18. The mood in the class of 100 students, a group not used to underperforming, was overwhelmingly one of defeat. One of the students asked, “Professor, Why Would You Give Such a Test to Us?”. He then displayed a chart of all 100 grades on a curve … and there were five grades clustered in the low to mid-90s and then nothing until much farther down the curve. His simple response pointing to the five was, “I wanted to find them”.
For many years after my professor’s explanation of, “I wanted to find them”, I struggled with his approach. Was he sacrificing learning for 95% of the class just to expedite the process of identifying future Ph.D. students or was there something pedagogical in his approach to learning for me and my entire class that would inform our future actions and expressions? It was not until I was in positions myself where I needed to choose the best candidates to invest time and money in business, education, and not-for-profit endeavors that I reflected back on that class and saw it as a positive to guide my own life. No, I don’t use the same approach he did; but my own life skills have improved through various experiences and study, and I have found more nuanced ways to evaluate talent, skill, and character. In all cases, I seek for myself and others around me to live in a framework supporting the fullest expression of our humanity.
So, I choose to remember my Physical Chemistry class at RPI and, in particular, that test, not as a negative memory but actually a pivotal moment in my lifetime learning. First, there are some seriously smart folks out there. Second, and of lifelong importance to me was the lesson from that class where I translated my professor’s approach to learning that I struggled with into my future actions of seeking out people in life who care enough about others and their community to be engaged and active in making their part of the world better. Perhaps the thought is a little sappy, but I do believe we all have the responsibility to make our part of the world a little better and to encourage everyone’s right to pursue happiness for themselves regardless of their ability. My Physical Chemistry class at RPI is part of my journey to that realization.
This is how I continually seek to translate that classroom remembrance into positive expression. And every time I think about it, … it makes me smile … every time.
DJRRYAN's Blog 
Leave a comment