The only word for university is "expansion". It does not replace. You are not moved away from the place you came from. Even if you are far, far away, it is still with you because it is you: the majority of everything you've ever done is in your past. Thus either you go forth totally unarmed, or rather you are more expanding to cover a greater area than being transplanted to flower somewhere else.
We have been awfully cramped. It was comfortable. There was almost not enough room for all of us, and so we, pressed closely together, turned into friends. Now the walls are open, and we all spilled out into a bigger box, a bigger world. In this spacious mindset, we stand with space between us; it now takes effort and will to magnetize each other. This is our drifting hour.
In the same way, we are like kittens whose eyes open after a certain time, and are born naked. The roof has come off, and the light is coming in. Our eyes adjust and, in our huge education, we are liable to be blinded. We cover ourselves up, being now standing in the light. There is so much light, so much visible--we are confused by the grear many new images. God help us distinguish.
That is the latter trouble, that it is very, very loud in the universities, in the bigger world, because everyone must make noise; a billion creatures mew for warmth, food, attention. Though it is a sweet sound, our God rarely speaks above a whisper; that is a sweeter noise, but I cannot hear it. And He knows where I ought to go, whereas I am trying to discern that from my fellow blind.
Well--it's a challenge, and the dead nerves are happily brought to life by an insensitive touch to a sensitive place. We are here to gain the things we lack--understanding, companionship, survivability--and it may be that it only seems that we lack these things here, because here we are given the ability to see the needs we always had.
