Awakening to the Genius of Our Land
with Stuart Weeks,
Founder of the Center for American Studies
Friday, September 9, 2016
7:00 – 9:00 pm
The Loft
Academe of the Oaks
146 New St. Decatur, GA 30030
“America is great, because America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” Alexis de Tocqueville
In the 19th century, the literary, poetic, oratorical name for America was Columbia, as in the “District of Columbia,” the name of our nation’s capital; as in the Columbia-Tammany Society of which Ben Franklin and our Founding Fathers were members; as in “Hail Columbia,” our first national anthem that was played at Lincoln’s behest at all important affairs of state; as in the name of the Columbia Space Shuttle that went down over the home state of our president as he was leading us to war in the Great Gulf.
Who is Columbia? What is our essential “calling” as Americans? And how can we draw on such a promise, so that we can take up the “Geistes Gut”/Spiritual Gift that this remarkable friend Rudolf Steiner offers us — out of our own genius as Americans?
In Emerson’s words:
“We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds. . . A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself to be inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.”
About Stuart Weeks:
President John Adams wrote that the great-grandfathers study war, so the grandfathers can study politics, so the fathers can study business, so the sons (and daughters) can study history, literature, and philosophy. Stuart-Sinclair Weeks’ forbears have served in state or national office for the last eight generations. His great-grandfather, John Wingate Weeks, was a United States Senator, Secretary of War in the Cabinets of Harding and Coolidge, and one of the central “actors” in one of the central dramas of the our age: the passage of the Federal Reserve Act. His grandfather, Sinclair Weeks, was a political leader, U.S. senator, and Secretary of Commerce under Eisenhower. His father, Sinclair Weeks Jr., was a business leader, as CEO of Reed & Barton and director of the National Association of Manufacturers.
Stuart Weeks has directed his creative energies into the cultural sector as a writer, educator, radio host, and founder and director of The Center for American Studies in Concord, Massachusetts. He has hosted programs for a wide range of audiences, including over 500 international leaders from 68 nations, introducing them to American culture through the window of Concord. Stuart is the author of the column, Uncommon Sense; A Prayer for Our Land; and the book, The Lord of Cat Bow. In 2002, Stuart initiated the publication of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s complete masterwork, The Natural History of the Intellect, and is drawing to conclusion a triple-trilogy that, together, comprises “chapters” that would contribute to the unfolding “story” of our age.
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Cost: Contributions welcome to cover expenses as your fortunes allow
Questions: elizabeth@anthroposophy.org
RSVP is helpful for planning.
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