Long past are the days when the oral tradition served as the primary way humans shared ideas and information. After scribes came ways of artificial writing, through the advent of the printing press. Now, in most cultures, the internet serves as the primary means of sharing information, through writings and videos.
In spite of this, the oral tradition has not disappeared. You see, the oral tradition exists through the present moment only. It requires attention and time. It's found in the moments spent with people, talking about life. In college, I think it could be argued that discussions and lectures constitute the oral tradition.
However, there is another source I've tapped into this year, and that is the greater George Fox University faculty, alumni and employees. A group of them consistently eat lunch together at Canyon Commons at least every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, if not every week day. Every week or so, I like to go eat lunch with them. More than anything, I listen to their stories. They have struggles too, not unlike our own as students. They love our campus dearly and make the effort to support our sports teams by attending home games. Many of these wonderful people attended George Fox twenty to forty years ago, and it's interesting to hear them talk about how the university has changed over the years.
Just today, as I sat with this lovely little group for lunch, I heard about a time twenty or thirty years ago when students were fundraising for library books. They held a beard fundraiser, where men entered their beards and promised to shave them during chapel. The longer the beard, the more the money.
Personally, I'm imagining a whole section in Bauman shaving in the midst of chapel, to the campus pastor's chagrin. It's probably the best mental picture I've entertained all week.
Even though I'm writing this story down, my memory of a story told at lunch is nothing compared to the way it was told to me, by people who witnessed the event. Stories like this shape us. The fundraiser probably provided many learning resources which we still have today.
All this is to say that the oral tradition is alive and well at Fox, if you seek it. Listening to stories such as these may feel like a waste of time, but they're enriching and more engaging than a YouTube video or blog post could ever be.
