Each semester, our moderators host “Food for Thought Dinners” for the students in the Colorado University Leeds Scholars Program. The dinners are informal affairs with everything from a pot of chili to a homemade lasagna and fancy appetizers. For students, it is a wonderful time to get off campus, get together with a group of friends, eat homemade food and…talk about things that matter. For the moderators, it is an opportunity to get to know the students better. In order to facilitate the conversation, there was a required reading. This autumn, we used two short poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay⁽ⁱ⁾.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
First Fig
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!
Second Fig
Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!
Just as we do in our curricula, these texts were chosen and arranged to assist in examining ourselves and our world. They anchored our discussion by providing us a common starting point in the exploration of fundamental human values. Those included: How so we set our priorities? Do we tend to keep an eye on the short- or long-term goals? When do we “burn candles at both ends”? Is it sustainable? The texts also function as intellectual tools for helping us analyze moral problems and the tensions inherent in values-based decision making. In this case, we talked about the importance of “solid rocks” and “ugly houses” versus “shining palaces built upon the sand.” Texts we use are also springboards that challenge us to reaffirm and/or re-think our fundamental values and the ways in which we live our lives.
Our dinner guests talked a lot about the pressures of college, like having to make choices between short-term gratification (E.G, going to a party) and reaching long-term goals (E.G, studying to get good grades). They also discussed how it is easy to “burn the candle at both ends” because there is always something to do: a paper to write, an exam to study for, an application to complete, a resume to refine. We discussed ways in which they could hit their own “pause” button when life gets to be too much. They also dug deep discussing what it meant to have a “solid rock” and “an ugly house” versus a “palace built on sand.” While for most, they would choose the first option, they had plenty of examples of the latter in the lives of their peers and their own. Hearing the voices of our dinner companions, made us reflect on our own choices and re-examine what we are naturally pulled towards and why.
See how these two poems resonate with you. What choices are you making in your life? Why?
