The Oneness of Us All

Emmett Miller ’63 shares “some random experiences etched indelibly on my mind.”  

Kim sprinting nimbly across the quad to catch my wobbling forward pass  

John Norman’s spectacular one-hand rebounds, something I had never seen before, nor have I since  

Dick Tuttle’s lifelike sketches of horses and the like  

Discovering pool and ping-pong (or G’nip-G’nop, as we used to call it) when the game room in Mather was installed  

Frisbee tossing for hours  

Arriving 10 minutes late to every lecture because I had to finish the game I was playing in Mather  

Being chosen by Dr. Lundborg to spend a year sleeping above the infirmary, where it was much easier to sneak girls in  

My experience of the mentoring of my philosophy professor, who was the first to ever really appreciate my perspective (and my shock a few years later to discover his suicide)  

Mr. Smith sharing the results of my vocational guidance test (breaking his own rule to not do this) because it was so extreme; I was, he said, an extreme “do-gooder” (“maybe the biggest do-gooder since Jesus [sic]) and should consider medicine instead of math as a vocation. 

Falling in love with the microorganisms I discovered under the microscope in bio; thrilled to think we shared the phenomenon called life  

Sneaking a full-sized upright piano up the convoluted stairway in Seabury to our third-floor “suite”  

Listening to the extraordinarily talented Ray Drate as he composed “The American Way” on our piano  

Days and nights ’neath the elms   

The beauty of the quad and the old buildings after an all-night snowstorm  

Hearing that a bunch of renegades had abandoned their fraternities to form Q.E.D., Trinity’s first frat open to folks of color (alas too late for me)  

Traveling to away games and track meets on the bus, singing bawdy songs (almost like being in a frat!)  

Hearing the crowd chant “Big E, Big E” until the coach put me in for the last 90 seconds of a game, then throwing in a hook shot from mid-court to an ovation (my Steph Curry moment)  

George, Ray, and I sneaking into the yearbook photos of as many different groups as possible (if you can spot all of them in the ’63 yearbook, I will send you a free program on honesty, maturity, and integrity)    

Making our unique bird calls back and forth with fellow high-jumper Stan Hoerr whenever we passed along the way  

Discovering the fundamental skeletal pattern shared by all vertebrates, and deeply understanding the oneness of us all  

My freshman hallmate confessing tearfully his failure to stand up against the racism in his junior high, asking my forgiveness, and receiving it and my deep respect  

Smoking my pipe and blowing smoke rings in class such that they would settle, halo-like, over the heads of those in the row in front of me  

Sliding under the door and sneaking into the kitchen after hours to fill up on some of Rudy’s baked goods (“nothing but the best”)  

Discovering that the energy in flatulence could be converted into a beautiful blue flame by a cigarette lighter