Homecoming at Mars Hill College

In Of Time and the River, Thomas Wolfe declares, "All things on earth point home in old October: sailors to sea, travelers to walls and fences, hunters to field and hollow and the long voice of the hounds, the lover to the love he has forsaken--all things that live upon this earth return, return."

The Quad

This weekend Mars Hill College celebrates Homecoming and both Marcus and I will be returning as alumni of the school. Marcus will be showing his art in the Montague Building, a gallery exhibit to mark the launch of Flight of the Mind. I'll be giving a reading and presentation, a sneak preview of the page design and images. 

Marcus' painting, The Quad is a tribute to our alma mater and it captures the spirit (and perhaps the ghosts) of the place: homesickness tempered with whimsy, meaning deepened by mystery.

Thomas Wolfe, who I read as a student at Mars Hill College, winding my way through sentences thick as the ivy that once grew on the Montague Building, seemed to have known Mars Hill College in October when he wrote the quote above.* We return from our far-flung journeys, changed. Yet recognized. Our memories of the place, and of our earlier selves, seem as real as leaf and stone, flesh and blood. We meet ourselves coming and going in October in the mountains and it seems only right to bring out the best work we have and celebrate the timing of the full circle.

Whether you've ever been to Mars Hill College or not, all are invited to join us there as Marcus returns to the place where his love of nature, once lived through his body, now lives in his art. In honor of his journey and the work born of the soaring travels of his spirit, the college will be recognizing Marcus as Alumnus of the Year.

The exhibit opens at 9am with the reading at 11am. The Alumni of the Year presentation precedes the game at 12:45pm. The entire weekend is full of activities from music concerts to an invitational alumni art exhibit to the game itself. Get the full schedule here. You can even sit beneath a maple in full autumn glory and read Thomas Wolfe.

*Special thanks to Brandon Johnson for the Wolfe quote.