46. Work

The Library We'd Like To Have

I would say one has to be obsessive to carry on our work with ancient texts.  Agnes constantly has to pull brothers from their manuscript copies, books and notes and hustle them along to their other duties. I would not say any of us are truly dedicated to scholarship, but once you find yourself involved in a task that you know will help a professional researcher at a university, you naturally want to do your best for him or her. 

If I could simplify the day-to-day work of a research scholar, it consists of first becoming learned in your field and then doing an awful lot of library research and summer field projects for the fun of it.  That’s really true … summer field projects seldom yield anything useful, but without R&R the academic specialty would lose scholars yearly, I believe.  When a scholar has been a practicing journeyman for a few years, sometimes excellent ideas for research will occur to him and he will put together a proposal for further research leading down a particular avenue.  The actual work of finding texts, cross referencing and carefully annotating them can take years and tie up a scholar forever, preventing him from going on to his next research idea.  That’s where we come in, thousands of research assistants like us across the world, unsung heroes of scholarship.  Some of us are quite educated in antiquities.  None of us ever get our names on a paper, except for an occasional mention in the footnotes.  Among those of us who are essentially slaves … religious brothers and sisters cloistered and set to our tasks … many don’t even like the work.  Beep is an extreme example, because the work drives him crazy … literally.  I’ve seen him jump up from his desk, and run out of the Chapter House while pulling his clothes off.  He runs down the road naked as if he could escape.  Normally, we catch up with him.

Terd is the only recognized scholar among us and his work on Athanasius has won accolades from the academic community.  He does all of his own grunt work, however.

Much of our effort takes place among the carrels and tables located in various nooks and crannies around the house and the adjoining building we call The Pit, because it’s down three steps from the Chapter House’s main floor.  Many years ago The Pit was the resort’s main dining room for guests.  We have semi permanent work areas around the perimeter of the large open room and leave the center of the floor open.  When one or more of us is laying out a flow chart or logic diagram or drawing an impromptu map, the piece of work can get quite large.

In the main building, our Chapter House,  the old staff dining room is now called the Scriptorium for traditional reasons. But it is more like a day room with a bulletin board, mail and all the other accoutrements of an office.  It has reminded some visitors of an academic department office.

Our tradition has been to review the literature and choose projects that will help the academic researchers  regarding the writings of the Church Fathers.   These folks are normally short staffed and can use our help.  We don’t attempt to drive the bus, but rather change the tires and clean the windows.  We leave the glory work to those in the outside world of academia who feel they need the publicity, while we make less dramatic contributions.  Still, we feel our efforts are significant to the underpinnings of our field of study.