Just another Duke weekend - and it's only Sunday morning....
As I sip my coffee and listen to Keith Jarrett on a somewhat lazy early Sunday morning, doing a little work and preparing, with thousands of others for a Sunday of watching our Blue Devil women's and women's hoops teams light up the scoreboard and the spirit of our community, I thought a few notes on an amazing weekend - or is it just another Duke weekend? - might be in order. Just as we sometimes can become too blasé about the good fortune and opportunities we share, so too can we forget how great things can be on our campus, how fun and lively, filled with energy and initiative.
Friday: Well there was Duke Plays. Two thousand plus students, faculty and administrators dressing up and getting down in an elegant, graceful fun filled event in, of all places, the library; of course, not any library but our new Perkins/Bostock library. And what fun it was: postcards of old Duke and afro-headed trustees, music to enliven the spirits of the young and jangle those of the older, alcohol for those with the age to drink and just good fun and good spirits all around. And, not to be forgotten: organized by two remarkable young undergraduate women from North Carolina, of different backgrounds (dare we say, diverse, backgrounds) who had the idea, raised the support, put together the event and then enjoyed every moment of it.
Saturday: OK, let's start with Duke Lacrosse - I don't know what happened in the morning because I was working but I expect not too much, given Duke Plays the night before. A really big, positive crowd, laced with parents happy for their children coming out of the tunnel - literally and figuratively - and others there to celebrate getting past the past, without forgetting it or its still deep pains or the work on serious campus culture issues to come - moving on to a good time and good sport on a day a little too warm for February and too cool for spring. And we won big after all the excitement of starting over had passed through the hearts, minds, legs and arms of our players.
In the evening, the Axis of Evil comedy concert in Page: packed, just packed with the most engaged, inclusive audience you could imagine. Filled to the gills with laughter and enjoyment and attentive to the sly - and sometimes not very sly but almost always entertaining - humor of the comedians engaging difference in a somewhat different way than we usually intend those words. Sure one performer made some stupid jokes about the South - somewhat silently greeted by a crowd which probably didn't have that many southerners but wasn't really going to join in in that form satire, so much less telling than much of the rest - but then another performer caught the silence, made fun of his colleague and overall the humor kept coming - not juvenile but adult humor - and the laughter was abundant and the commentary afterwards engaged and enlivened. Ah yes, and let's not forget: an event organized by a Duke female undergraduate of non-US background who thought of the idea, raised the money and greeted the crowd with a familiarity and joy borne of community.
Oh yes, did I mention: just another Duke weekend... and Sunday's barely begun.
Peter Lange is the provost for Duke University. He wrote this editorial at 9:30 a.m. on a rainy Sunday.
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