We stride up and down the main walkway from Founders Hall day after day, and in our usual hurry we don’t notice that the lamp posts have put on new attire this fall. The signs read: “Celebrating the Year of Spirit and Spirituality” – so neat and conspicuous. “It’s so cool to be spiritual!” I will tell the first-years next fall. “Things are moving here at Guilford.”

I will explain that Archbishop Desmond Tutu came to Guilford and how open-minded we are. We’ve all heard this, but there is no commitment involved in noticing change without becoming a part of it. Yet, how can we become change agents if we can’t first detect change around us?

So one may ask what these spiritual signifiers are for. One may even go further and explore what lies behind the words. One can become spiritual.

This is no piece of cake, however. If you have put greatest value in a class you are taking, your new job, the sport(s) you play, a dear friendship, or maybe the way others perceive you – in other words what you already know – you will find it unbearably hard to get your spirit out of this place of value.

It’s necessary to have something of great worth you are anchored to, but ask yourself if this prevents your spirit from moving! Do you feel free to go to strange or ugly places where your comfort is sacrificed and seek a precious jewel there?

I thought, however, that Guilford promoted change – positive change – and that we came to Guilford because we wanted (and hopefully still want) to go into the world one day and make a difference. The idea is good, but it’s useless if not taken seriously. And I know that as long as things are going slow ‘n’ easy, they ain’t ever gonna change!

We all talk about change, yet I have never heard anyone say, “This extra credit changed my life,” or “This A made me a new person.” Is getting A’s the only thing we can learn in college? Aren’t we coming for a purpose that goes beyond this paper, and this class, this meeting, beyond reading this column? I believe we are. But as long as we do things just for fun’s sake, or to “get this in my resume,” or to not risk disappointing a friend, we are only going to skim the surface. We need to become not cool and dig a little deeper in order to put some real meaning into the things we do.

A friend of mine interrupted one of our class discussions, indignantly blurting out: “You close-minded liberals!” It occurred to me then, for he was a liberal himself, that our problem is not in being liberal (or conservative), but the close-mindedness we hide behind. We had chained our spirits in bias and complacency while we claimed freedom from blame.

Living diversity – something Guilford takes pride in – requires not only a presence of different voices here and there, but an effort to sincerely engage our minds and (hopefully) hearts in the process. It means being vulnerable and thus allowing for change. We need to pop the safety bubble, engage the community, and be unafraid to embrace and be embraced.

As Robert Thurman declared at this year’s opening convocation, we are called to enlightenment. The Year of Spirit and Spirituality has called us to a real conversation that can change us from within before we can change the world without.

I am tired of misdirected monologues. How about you?