Amy Bower of AY Magazine
Wednesday, February 4, started with a request for information from a legislator and we scrambled to get that information in on time. It was some pretty detailed budget information about the law school. Once we got that out, I had an interview at 1:30 p.m. with Amy Bower of AY Magazine because I will be featured in the March edition as one of the top ten most powerful women in Arkansas in the category of law. I’ve been teasing the folks around me saying I think it’s a lot more fun to be a top ten hottie at 50, but as one of our young alums, Chris Nebben reminded me, being a powerful woman is hot for guys who are smart. So, I’ll take that compliment! I’m very honored to be featured in AY Magazine. Amy and I completed the interview that afternoon. At 2:00 p.m. that afternoon we had a quick meeting to go over the upcoming events for the semester. Michele Payne would be out for three weeks due to surgery, and the trooper that she is, she wanted to make sure that everything was in order before she left. I very much appreciate her. She is a delight to work with, very organized, and keeps me on task.
Frere Roger Shutz, Founder of the Taize Ecumenical Community
Right after our meeting, I left for Little Rock and attended a Taizé service at 5:30 p.m. A Taizé service is a service of prayer through song, words and contemplation. It’s a very quiet, meditative reflective service. A little bit about it . . . Taizé is the name of a village in the Burgundy region of France where a young Swiss theologian named Roger Shutz founded a Christian ecumenical community at the beginning of World War II. He wanted to work for peace and help Jewish refugees by celebrating Christian unity. His dream was to live in community with others who would practice the essential dimensions of the Gospel in a manner that would offer a response of Christian Reconciliation and hope in the face of the horrors of the war. Brother Roger, as he became to be known, founded such a place in Taizé. Taizé worship, now held in most major cities in the world, could be said to provide a ring of prayer, constantly encircling the earth. The service was held at First United Methodist Church in downtown Little Rock. It’s held there the first Wednesday of every month and I was fortunate enough to be invited by my friend Steve Shults to attend the service with him that evening. It was a wonderful way to stop in the middle of what had been a very hectic and challenging time and to be quiet, reflect, and become centered again. I’m very grateful to him for the invitation and very much enjoyed that service.
Dinner at the Vermillion Water Grille
What I did after that was a lot of fun. I checked into my usual hotel, the Hampton Inn in downtown Little Rock, and walked down to Vermillion Water Grille where I met Jane Kim, Chris Nebben and Cameron McCree for a rollicking, laughter filled evening and a wonderful dinner. It was delightful to be with them. They always make me laugh and lift my spirits and they were fantastically fun as always. Thanks very much to Jane who treated me to dinner. I didn’t expect that at all. The treat was being with them. By the way, let me add here for those of you who read the blog, if you’d like me to get in touch with you while I’m in Little Rock or to share a meal or break bread, just shoot me an e-mail at cnance@uark.edu or send me a Facebook message and I’ll certainly get in touch with you and we’ll set something up.
Nancecy 