Facebook and other electronic media ask for brevity; in this they are like a telegram. At least I imagine that they are like telegrams in this regard. One is forced to think carefully about how to pack the most information into the fewest, most efficient words. My relatively recent entry to Facebook combined with our also recent discussions and exercises focused on sentences have heightened my awareness of my own sentences. Today, for quite some time, I fussed with this one. I hope that the lack of specific information about what the business is and who the people are draws readers into the anticipation that is the kernel of the sentence, the doing that the doer does.
L. DeAne Lagerquist is anticipating next weekend's trip to Chicago, doing the college's business, in no small part because she has dates with several of her favorite people.
What is the business? It has to do with the ACM program in Pune India for which I am the St. Olaf program advisor.
Who are the people? They include one former student, another Ole who is also a family friend whom I have known since she was a child and whose grandfather was my teacher, a third Ole who I never had in class but with whom I have long been a friend; and a woman whose intellect, integrity and wisdom I admire and have benefited from for two decades; also some of these women's family members. All these are reminders of the richness of life that is multiplied by friendship. And, writing the sentence was an exercise in noticing and appreciating the gift of these friendships.
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