Why build houses to be filled with empty hopes....

"Why build houses to be filled with empty hopes and no dreams? If we fail to act boldly and bravely, we shall bequeath a society in which those of us of academic privilege have more in common with our counterparts in London and Tokyo than with our neighbors across the street or around the corner - the very people with whom we share a city’s history and its dream for the future. " President Evan S. Dobelle

This speech was referenced in yesterday's sermon at Plymouth Congregational Church, and feeling inspired after the first sermon encouraging, if not demanding, a Christian's active participation in politics, I had to check it out.

I realized today, that after an early morning and hours taking the GRE, that once I got to my kids this afternoon, words like 'masters', 'analytical' or 'quantitative' would matter very little. Cripes, I've got a fourth grader who's ready to drop out, nevermind higher education. I'm a little nervous that perhaps my education has created more barriers for me to tear down in my quest to change the world.

I'm so proud to have come from an institution that worked fervently against the idea of an "ivory tower", but perhaps it didn't do enough to break down the ivory towers that all of us who were so warmly welcomed at Northwestern were already living in.

What does really connecting to our neighbors look like? Maybe it has less to do with bulldozing our ivory towers and more with building ladders....