As always Holly writes about her life better than anyone else could. This is her idea of how to introduce herself to schools that may desperately need her many talents.
Holly p. rhodes
4785 Jett Rd.
Atlanta, Georgia 30327
hollyrhodes1@gmail.com (404) 550-6424
World Enough and time
Now that
my nest is empty, long latent gifts seek expression.
Education
Lingate
Swim Club, In retrospect, everything I ever needed to know
University
of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Bachelor
of Arts in English and Religion, 1982
Emory
University, Candler School of Theology
Master
of Theological Studies, 1999, Magna Cum
Laude
Songs of innocence
Played school
with an imaginary class of children. I populated
my class with children with monosyllabic Anglo-Saxon surnames—Smith, Jones,
etc. It was a different time.
Set up
an employment agency in my nightstand drawer with cast off IBM computer cards
and a lending library in my basement. A
prodigy of organization.
Was a
friend to Corrine and Cordia Bonney, the shabby, rail thin poor twins no one
else talked to. Was a friend to Betty
Buckner who developed early and was threatening to all flat-chested girls. Was a friend to George Cotner until he got
the wrong idea. Everyone liked me.
Songs of experience
Lingate
Swim Club. See above.
1982-1987 Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship
Staff (Boston: Harvard, Brown, Bunker Hill Community College; Atlanta: Emory and University of Georgia) Worked with and for Black People. Learned firsthand—painfully, joyfully—about race.
1987 Became a Jane Austen devotee. Bought her CD and her videos.
Went to
Breadloaf Writers Conference and discovered I can write a sentence but not a
story. Mad crush on Nicholas Delbanco.
1988-1993 Added three to the madding crowd.
1993-present Diffident forays into the preparation
of various cuts of meat and other miracles of housewifery.
Read all
the Booker Prize books, the breadth (and depth where there was affinity) of
Nobel laureates, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winners. Dickens, a second run through the Bronte
sisters, the James brothers, and the Russians, sundry poems, Kierkegaard,
Kafka, Weil (again and again), etc.
Lolita. Hmmm. Traveled the dim pathways of the human psyche
with these bright lights.
1999 Graduated from Candler School of Theology. Wrote a 20 page paper at one end of the
dining room table; sewed Halloween costumes at the other. Dinner twice a week at Los Bravos. Held on to my faith by a thread; after all,
Nietzsche had a point.
2000 ff. Undertook the sport of rowing. Discovered I’m a natural. Old dog; new tricks. Won the Georgia Games and competed
respectably in the Masters Nationals.
2003 Visited Rome and was uninspired by the many
beautiful churches. Went to the
apartment where Keats died and had a religious experience.
2008 Taught a class on Wine and Jesus for The
Atlanta Wine School.
2009-present Substitute teaching at The Lovett
School including a ten week
stint in the august company of Ulysses and
Holden Caulfield with 31
lucky freshmen.
2011 Undertook the reading of Ulysses in the merry company of five like-
minded fellows well fortified with Irish
stout.
1987-present I’ve been out there mixing it up in a
world gone awry—exercising valuable leadership with non-profits and giving as
I’ve been given.
Three years tutoring kids at Scottish
Rite
Three non-profit boards(presently
serving): Hands on Atlanta, Sanders/
Buckhead YMCA, Global Partners for
Development
Five years teaching Sunday school to kids
who wanted to be elsewhere
Five years ushering at the Shakespeare
Festival
Thirty five hundred+ miles on Bike Ride
Across Georgia (five trips) and
the Underground Railroad route with
the Dream Team, inner-city middle
and high school students
Eight years of dedicated service to the
homeless and addicted at Café 458
$35,000+ raised for the YMCA Partner With
Youth, Buckhead YMCA
Volunteer of the Year
Volunteer of the Year
Innumerable glasses of milk spilled and wine
consumed
Mostly, I was just a good mom.
Almost everyone likes me.
