When I blast e-mailed Kansas and Missouri alumni before heading east from Colorado many miles ago, Davidsonians came through. My thanks to all who offered to meet for coffee or a meal or more. My only regret is the need to keep the miles rolling in this my last week on the road, so I won't get to visit with you all personally. So many alumni, so little time... One who responded to the call was Andrew Campbell '00. He opened the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History in Lawrence to me for a private tour on a Monday, when they are usually closed. Andrew is collection manager for herpetology, which made for an appetizing tour before lunch. Mmm, tastes like chicken! (Andrew avowed that he has probably heard every tastes-like-chicken joke there is, and with some 360,000 reptilian and amphibian specimens under his TLC, one of the five largest such collections in the nation, I believe him.)
Turtle soup, anyone?
For lunch, Andrew took me to a sandwich shop that takes its bread so seriously they contracted Spanish stonemasons to fly in and build their ovens. I wish I recalled the name of it, but I'm at least glad Andrew had the presence of mind to suggest I buy some for the road. The olive pain de campagne is already gone, and the ciabatta is not far behind it.
While I munched a portobella and wilted kale sandwich, and Andrew a turkey and swiss, our liberal-artsy conversation ranged across the spectrum of sciences, arts, and humanities. Andrew says he's in an interesting spot there in Lawrence. He and his new bride are members of the relatively conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church. "But I'm also an evolutionary biologist," he says with his clear-eyed smile. Everyone at church knows what kind of work he does, and everyone at the office knows he is a Christian. No conflicts for him, seeing the active hand of God in creation through his work, and also believing strongly that Jesus Christ brings the "something more" to human spiritual life. But he gets in the middle of some interesting conversations, nonetheless, particularly in church.
As for the two of us, we had one of those great Davidson discussions that hinges not on agreement on all points, but on absolute respect, not on winning an argument, but on enlarging the perspectives in question.
Salamandridae Notophthalamus viridescens, an extinct species of salamander, is still used in classifying other species, extinct and not. The shelves to Andrew's left contain mostly extinct species.
Back in the specimen collection, Andrew had hoisted several jars of salamanders collected in New Jersey in the 1930s. "If you went there today, I'm sure you'd find a shopping mall," he had told me. Our lunch conversation about God and creation brought me full circle back to that moment, and it struck me that, whatever an individual's beliefs might be or not be in a creator of this world, there is, in fact, a creation that we must all help manage. Thanks, Andrew.
You betcha, buddy. It was good to see you then, and who knows, maybe we can do another drive-by on my way to Oak Ridge on Thursday?... Smooch Bailey for Dodger!
Hey, John! Sounds like you've had a "mahvey" adventure! So glad I could have been a part of it.