I’ve just returned from the Trappist Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia, where Dr. Victor Kramer led a three-day retreat/conference on Walker Percy. Dr. Kramer is professor emeritus of literature from Georgia State College; he’s also the founder of The Merton Annual.

I don’t, as a rule, attend this sort of thing. Maybe I have ADD or something, but I have a great deal of difficulty in sitting still and paying attention for any sustained period of time to anything. The conference was good, yes, but it was the way Dr. Kramer presented that made it possible to sit still. He used The Moviegoer as the common ground for discussion, sharing insights into Percy’s philosophical foundations I hadn’t heard before, but way more importantly, he presented them without all that academic literary jargon that so neutralizes anything of substance in talking about literature. His presentation manner was light- rather than heavy-handed, allowing the small group to comment at will and responding to comments in ways that evoked more thought, rather than less. (Some people respond to comments by putting an intellectual blanket on them—I don’t know why, it may be a need to be “in charge.”)

Unfortunately, I had to leave early, after the second day. For once, not because I was bored or restless, but because I was freezing! Trappists are an ascetic bunch, we know that, and they probably think that retreat house is luxurious. I can endure some discomfort but not sustained cold. When I couldn’t get warm even in my coat, I knew I was “bone-chilled” and had to leave. Usually, I love to walk in the woods around the monastery and to attend the prayers in the unheated church, but while one can go from warm to cold for such pleasant experiences; one cannot go from cold to colder. One drinks a lot of hot coffee and sits huddled in the warmest spot one can find—which turned out to be my car.

The conference was great, one of the best small conferences I’ve ever attended And I love the monastery, especially the woods. I shall just try to remember never to go there until April!