Lessons in Human Chemistry

Winter Break 1983 marked the middle of my college years. It also marked the moment I received a pebble of wisdom polished by a river of experience – wisdom that transcended my chemistry curriculum and extracurricular efforts.

As an active(ist) student at the University of Oregon, I transitioned from the sunlit meadows of adolescence into the nuanced, sometimes darker shadows of reality. There I began to view my country more soberly. In addition to my studies, I addressed classmates in the public square and led protests imploring school leaders to divest our investments that underwrote South African Apartheid.

Altruistic adrenaline coursed through my arteries. I needed little litmus beyond the knowledge of who a person voted for to decide whether I might enjoy their company.

Except - that Winter Break I met Dr. Bauer, the father of a college colleague. I had unfortunately learned in advance the friend’s father had voted for the sitting US president who I distrusted. How could I be in the same room as the parent let alone his home?

Instead, I learned that litmus tests work when assaying the pH of laboratory reagents but not the chemistry of a person’s hearts.

I immediately found Dr. Bauer to be measured and mindful, generous and gracious, resourceful and reliable. Preferring to mend a sagging gate or replace a broken lock in conversation with him - about what I don’t recall -we bonded in service to the personal rather than political. From then I looked forward to each opportunity to indulge Dr. Bauer’s unpretentious wisdom. Like the chemistry that now fuels the batteries of our ubiquitous gadgets, perhaps a similar gradient powered the flow of respect between the poles that connected the two of us.

Similarly, the poles of passion and philanthropy are still working out their harmonies in me. But the unalloyed truth that now courses through my body is that integrity - which Dr. Bauer exemplified - matters much than ideology.

My aim in this new year is to manifest the wisdom that Leo Bauer left with me that Winter Break: A lesson in human chemistry.