OXFORD - CHRIST CHURCH AUGUST 2003

Happy memories of my reading at Oxford in the 1980's with Malcolm still alive then.

I was so overwhelmed with college life, we had to move into a small apartment, where we could have bagels for breakfast, and Malcolm could have cold beer.

Now that I am 84, I am settled in a huge room, with two couches and a bed, about 35' x 50'. I am so thrilled to have all meals at the common room. A magnificant mahoney walled room, with pictures of famous people of the Christ College displayed with all the regalia of its period.

My day starts at 6:30 with a brisk walk around the campus. Then l/2 service at the Cathedral, and breakfast at 8 AM, before class at 9:30. All within a few minutes walk from my Old Library digs.

People have come to Oxford's Continuing Education from all over the world. Already, the Muslim Delegation, coming to Oxford, through the British Council and I have been exchanging cards and I have become the family grandmother.

Trudy with David Beard at Buildwas Abbey during a class visit with the Oxford Experience Picture taken by Ellen Molz

Between the residency at Cambridge and this residency, there was a week visit to Flagship Time Share. My studio overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. Khatmet and her family occupied a one bedroom condo. Two children, her husband, his mother, and her father was with us. It was Atlantic City, with casinos and plenty of excitement!

I was back to my youth when I spent all day at the beach, reading, listening to the waves, and walking the boardwalk.

This lapse into Nothingness, as Sun Ra would say, prepared me for Everything.

And here I am studying one of my favorite subjects, St. Benedict and the monastaries he established all over in Europe, around 500 AD.

Hildegard is also part of the Benedictines, devoted to the Rules of their Order. Not a Chosen People, not even claiming the Old or New Testament, as guidelines for a good life on earth. They just had Rules of the Order.

Theirs was just good common sense. Education, work at any level, as Malcolm used to say it
well: Whatsoever thy hand find it to do, do it with all thy heart, might, and soul.

Self sufficiency in the monastery, solitude, companionship, prayers, and song. Everything in moderation to live a good life. All over I have seen ruins of the abbeys. Here in England, they are the foundations for many of the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge.

In Estonia, their abbeys were used for the education of the peasants, and today, Estonia still has a very intelligent population, with the old buildings still intact.

Although King Henry took over their property, destroyed their buildings, Oxford and Canterbury still are considered some of the finest areas in the world.

And I feel so good, living in medieval style, walking the streets of the past, with all the modern conveniences of the present.

I leave here for York, another medieval town, and back to the hostel for four more days.

When I am not in class, I wander through the streets, see plays at the Oxford Theatre (Design for Living, by Noel Coward. And tonight, Betrayal by Pinter.) Our Chapel and others have concerts or sacred music every evening, similar to Cambridge.

Through e-mail, I keep in touch with Mir Corp for passport, Visas, for my three week visit of Central Asia.

Sheri and Gene have been so kind to meet me at Dulles Airport August 24, and I leave for Central Asia on August 25. I stay overnight at their home.