Rachel and I are praying for a speedy recovery for our old George Fox professor Professor Dykema. Yesterday he and his wife were walking on a very lovely street in NW Portland. As he was opening the door for his wife at a popular restaurant/pub that everyone in Portland has visited - and this is where it gets bizarre - a man came out of nowhere and stabbed him in the back with a butchers knife. According to reports, he is expected to survive.
He has had a profound impact on our lives ... and he doesn't even know it! As a sardonic sophomore, he was my Microeconomics professor. He may remember me as half devils-advocate and half slacker. He always tied New Testament ethos into the concept of utility, and spoke about "guns and butter" as if it was an economic tug-of-war between the production of civil good and evil. As seniors, Rachel and I took his "Global Political Economy" class where we were deeply moved by his passion towards helping less fortunate populations and peoples. He lectured future business and policy leaders in his classes, and taught us that our lives impact those around us even if we don't know it. Rachel remembers one of his class examples: "If you own two coats, and your neighbor owns none, then you are at worst guilty of steeling from him, and at the least guilty of not being the example that Christ has called us to be." Professor Dykema directly influenced our decisions to volunteer with the Peace Corps, and can thereby be indirectly linked to the current state of our lives.
He is an incredibly altruistic and deeply spiritual man. Which is why this random act is so ironic and tragic. We pray for his wife Rosemary and for his full recovery.
No comments:
Post a Comment