All's well in Walla Walla

Downtown Walla Walla looked surprisingly well preserved today when I took a quick tour of the city before checking into my domicile for the next five days.

Familiar looking buildings populate a dozen or so downtown blocks, many rising several stories above the street. What was absent were the empty storefronts that so often signal that a town center is dying.

Though not overcrowded, downtown Walla Walla was busy. I had to circle the block to find a parking space and then had to wait for a seat to open up at Starbucks.

It was at that popular establishment that I began to realize that Walla Walla has a western Oregon feel to it.

I listened with great interest to a thirty-something social worker as he explained his view that sex is the only significant motivating force among humans – he categorized his philosophy as “neo post-Freudian” and I have no reason to apply any other label.

Eavesdropping on conversations around me at Starbucks and at a local bookstore (not one of the big boxes, but a thriving establishment nonetheless) revealed several thoughtful conversations on a range of topics – none of which was Anna Nicole Smith or the American Idol.

After supper I made my way to Whitman College, which is inside the city limits, northeast of downtown. It’s a private, liberal arts school with about 1,500 students.

The evening’s offering was a lecture by Yazir Henri, a South African who was jailed as a very young man for fighting Apartheid in his native land.

I arrived early and discovered only a small handful of people in the large auditorium. But in the few minutes just before the start time the crowd multiplied and became quite respectable in size, with a smattering of faculty and other older folks among the students.

Henri’s talk was long. He brought new meaning to the phrase “speaking from the heart” as he chose his words with deliberate care and punctuated his message with frequent references to his personal feelings and philosophy.

The audience was courteous and attentive and responded with a standing ovation.

It was during the question and answer session, however, that Henri really captured my interest. He challenged the questioners and struggled to provide thoughtful responses. These remarks hit home for me and, I believe, to others in the audience.

It was a remarkable two hours – remarkable in part because interest seemed to be increasing as the evening wound down even though some of the students had spent part of the day with Henri before coming to the lecture.

The speaker’s intelligence and knowledge base were impressive, his self-deprecating humor was disarming and his obvious desire to do justice to each topic at hand, to the audience and to the memory of friends and family who suffered under Apartheid made this a powerful experience.

I was surprised by the crowd. There was no sign of restlessness – though some did leave during a brief break between the lecture and the Q and A. They seemed interested and engaged.

It was the kind of evening I remember from my own college days, a night during which ideas gained entry into my head where they continued bouncing around for the succeeding three or four decades.

And to think that it happened again; this evening, right here in Walla Walla, Washington.