December 3, 2011 - In State College there is a mural on a wall on Hiester Street. Past greats, legends that have made this sports city a Mecca for college sports, images all found in "Inspiration", the work of artist Michael Pilato. Where Jerry Sandusky once sat, here near the center toward the bottom of the mural, you now see a chair, empty except for a blue ribbon memorializing victims of pedophilia. It wasn't an easy decision, but one that had to be made. This blog has other references to those abused - a link below and in the links section to Karen Holt - but a link is rarely enough for a voice silenced by abuse.
Wrapped in the mountains of Pennsylvania, snuggled into the hills waiting for the coming winter, State College sits centrally in Pennsylvania and for much of the past month has been at the epicenter of sports talk. One by one new revelations in other places slip out. Syracuse? Maybe. And where next?
It wasn't the scandal that had brought me there - though I seem to have a knack for finding myself in the midst of it. I'd come to State College to play a House Concert, hosted by my Kerrville friend Laurel Zydney, her husband Andrew and son Ben (my roadie for the show). It was a soothing night, though the trauma was ever-present in conversations. Tired from too much travel, I was able to sit on a stool in their living room with thirty or so guests in attendance and together we embarked on a bit of a journey - reflection, humor, and a touch of sadness. All taking us away form the reality of their past month. In the end the conversations - during the show, the breaks, and after - snaked into the late evening and early morning hours ending with a reconnect to an old Alaskan friend Michael Pelikan. It is the nature of these evenings to remember the connections between each of us. And so it was with this night and has been with the others on this tour. It soothes me, these moments of grace. These connections across distance, time and place.
I'm on the road again today after a brief stop in Kansas City and tonight it will be New York and more connections. For now that is enough.