R.I.P., Fr. Galdon --

Not in a silver casket cool with pearls
Or rich with red corundum or with blue,
Locked, and the key withheld, as other girls
Have given their loves, I give my love to you;
Not in a lovers'-knot, not in a ring
Worked in such fashion, and the legend plain-
Semper fidelis, where a secret spring
Kennels a drop of mischief for the brain:
Love in the open hand, no thing but that,
Ungemmed, unhidden, wishing not to hurt,
As one should bring you cowslips in a hat
Swung from the hand, or apples in her skirt,
I bring you, calling out as children do:
"Look what I have!--And these are all for you."
- Edna St. Vincent Millay


At the start of every PDC, (Prayer Days for Coeds), Fr. Galdon gives a talk and ends it with this lovely poem.  I remember sitting there across from him, and he opened his hands palm up as he said the last lines of the poem. 


And it was then that I understood what love was.  And it made me cry.  (I still cry every time I read this poem.)


I took his courses, Great Books 1 & 2 in my junior and senior year -- and I loved his class.  He inspired me to teach the way I did -- and to think the way I do.  


"It Pedends!" he would exclaim playfully.  (It Depends.) -- reminding us that everything was about having a point of view and challenging us to HAVE a point of view.


He will be remembered always and he will be missed always.