"Adventures of Time and Space Travel Abroad an Amazing Machine: The Wheel as a Political Metaphor"

Nancy Chaney
Mayor of Moscow

April 10, 2012
Whitewater Room, UI Commons
12:30 p.m.

Abstract: As I contemplated Rodney Frey’s tantalizing invitation to join this humanities exploration, with its symbolic wheel hub, rim, and spokes symbolism, I got stuck on the image of a wheel as a static horizontal shape. Wheels move. They roll. They are integral parts of the vehicles that transport us. They are part of the momentum of life. From the political perspective, the hub is “us,” here and now…ourselves as individuals, the “we” of our communities, the factions and composite of a nation, a generation of people. The spokes are our experiences and connections to each other over generations, spanning disciplines, across neighborhoods, countries, and continents, the temporal nature of being…the ultimate of mobile networking. The rim in this model is the wholeness of being, the collective impacts of existence, the planetary ecosystem that supports us, and the emotional, social, and spiritual blanket that swaddles all. Accordingly, I will focus on life’s journeys, incremental destinations, and some of the traveling companions who influence policies, places, and our future.