Date & Time (2/3)

 When applying for this university I had no prior knowledge of what a Jesuit was, I didn’t even know the word. After being accepted into the university I still had no idea what a Jesuit was or how to be one. After almost two years of being at this university, I now feel I have a much better grasp on what it means to be at Jesuit institution receiving that type of education. To me being a part of a Jesuit community means to be accepting of diverse appearances, backgrounds, and ideologies while also serving the community in a way that not only betters the whole but also the self. A Jesuit community is accepting of whoever may wish to join as long as they participate in their manner. If someone has felt as if they were left behind or that they don’t fit in, joining this type of community is the first step to reclaiming what you believe you have lost or gaining something you never had. This distinct location also plays a distinct role in the fabric of its character. Being in Baltimore, the school is surrounded by one of the most diverse populations in the country, giving its members a great opportunity to learn about the experiences of others from different walks of life. 

Phil Kaye in Date and Time, cornicles his experiences in various different fashions to express his struggle with his acceptance in the community, and his acceptance with himself. In multiple of the poems he writes, Phil Kaye discusses feeling out of touch to his contemporaries and his surroundings. He discusses that his peculiar family background has placed him in adverse positions at various different points in his life. Kaye is of both Japanese and Jewish descent, a combination that would cause many bewildered faces. Kaye details how he can still recount receiving conflicting looks from strangers simply walking along with his parents. Not being a member a what some would consider the “normal” American family placed Phil at odds with both himself and his peers from the very early years of his life. Being a part of a community like the one we have here at school would have been of great benefit to Phil as a young child. In our community, he would have seen that there is no “normal” look for a family and that the differences that he sees between himself and the rest of the folks around him are what contribute most to who he is and his individuality. 

In the second third of the book, Kaye dives into further detail on his feeling of acceptance. In the poem, Apparition, Phil tells us about someone who he was forced to consider a friend turned and stabbed him in the back. A friend that his parents were fonder of than him, Phil was left spending time with someone who didn’t accept him for who he was and even used it against him. A day a lunch while Phil and his friend were hovering around waiting to be accepted to a new friend group when his so-called “friend” decided that Phil was no longer necessary. His friend stabbed him in the back cracking inappropriate jokes at his expense leading to his acceptance in the new group and Phil’s continued embarrassment. This encounter continued to reaffirm much of the lack of attachment Kaye felt over the course of his whole life. Once again he was left by someone for the sake of someone or something better simply for acting and being the way he only knows how, himself. After almost two years at this university, I have never seen or experienced any form of behavior remotely close to the type endured by Kaye in his tenure at school. Such behavior would not be prevalent or accepted by a Jesuit institution or community and those who chose to participate would most likely be asked to leave. The foundation of a Jesuit community is the acceptance and love for the differences that define our individuality and our appreciation and respect of those differences. Phil Kaye throughout most of his young life did not have such a community to turn to, so illustrating to us his experiences in these forms to show his readers of what he did to cope with his differences and conflicts, and how they may learn to cope as well.