The Face in the Glass

It is the disquieting habit of the compilers of the twenty-fifth-anniversary reports of College classes to publish a photograph of a class member as a senior and another one showing how he or she looks today. Stephen Michael O'Donnell '76, who has made his living mostly as a TV writer, notably for David Letterman, sent in the up-to-date photograph (right) and began his report as follows: "How much lovelier to begin this summary with 'I have discarded...' As in 'I have discarded prejudices, harmful delusions, material possessions,' etc. But the truth is that what I've been doing feels more like 'accumulation.' I have accumulated books, flesh, odd warts, moles and blemishes, souvenir coffee mugs, heartaches, Bic pens, CDs, videotapes, computer disks, good art, goofy art, some happy memories, and some real stinging hard ones....Sometimes, here in my forties, I feel like some wisdom and depth is accruing to me. (Accumulating?) Other times, I feel like the same old dope."