Thoughts from Places: Old Main, Plato's Conspiracy, and Lincoln's Ass

Old Main

Hey guys, today I want to talk about my favorite building on Knox College campus and whatever else happens to pop into my head.

Old Main is my favorite building, with a close second being the library, both buildings where history fuses with the present. It's lucky that I like the building so much because at least 90 percent of my classes have taken place there. It houses the philosophy, history, and English departments which are pretty much all of the classes I've taken at Knox.

For a long time, I could not explain why I liked Old Main so much. I mean the architecture is nice, which I will come back to in a second, and every time I enter the building it feels like stepping into a weird time-locked world where the 1800s are somehow mixed seamlessly with modern technology, but I did not get it. Nothing really clicked in my mind until I took Ethics class with Professor Factor.

This is the Common Room in Old Main.

Professor Factor told us the history of the building and more about its architecture than I could have ever known. He told us about the Divine Proportion, also called the Golden Ratio, which Plato studied, and how it had been built into the building's every nook and cranny as a pagan rebellion against the Christian ministers who had commissioned the building of the structure.

The Divine Proportion is kind of difficult to explain. Mathematically it is an irrational number like Pi. It is about 1.6. For more information about the Divine Proportion go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

When it is used in architecture, the Divine Proportion signifies that the Divine is watching over that building and its power, the power of creation, is infused into it. I don't know about that, but I am a spiritual person and something about that statement clicked within me. For some reason, when I am within Old Main's walls I feel the creative juices flow stronger than at any other time. I could sit in that building and write for hours and be happy. I have done just that, in fact. I often wonder why that is the case. I guess that it does not matter so much as long as I'm happy creating there, but I want to know why. I'm a philosophy major, it's in my nature to question everything.

Some may say that I am feeling God's creative power run through me. I'm not Christian, but like I said I am very spiritual. I can feel the power that exists in that building, but it could be anything. Maybe the lesson we are meant to learn is that it doesn't matter what the thing that gives us that power is, only that it does. It makes us believe in ourselves more than we might normally because we think that there is some great force watching over us and lending us its creative energy. Whether you believe that force is God, the universe, or any other god or spirit from any age, that is okay. They are all equal. They all give us a power far greater than most people realize. They give us strength in faith. Not faith in some great power beyond us, but a power within ourselves, our souls. As long as we have faith in ourselves, we can accomplish great things. It is this that the Powers that Be gives, in whatever form they take in your mind, and for that I thank them.

The holy light of Plato's Good bathing Old Main.

Personally, I do like the idea of Plato's spirit guarding the entrance to Old Main like a bouncer to a club. That makes me smile. I'm just saying, it could happen.













The last thing I want to mention, on a much less serious note, is Lincoln's chair (see picture below). That chair is a piece of pride for our college. It is a testament to our history as an important institution in America. President Abe Lincoln actually used that chair when he visited Knox College after he climbed through the window and onto the stage outside just to show up his debate opponent who walked out the front door.

That chair also has seen more action since the mid 1800s than Genghis Khan! Okay, I may be exaggerating, but for some reason that chair seems to be a very common place for students to get some swoodilypoopin' fun on. More evidence that history is cool, kids.