...my mother is at a Chautauqua of her own.

Go figure. My first week working at the Chautauqua Institution is the one time of the year that my mom spends a few days at Lakeside, Ohio, the Chautauqua on Lake Erie. According to good ol' Wikipedia, "Chautauqua" is an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers and specialists of the day. Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was quoted as saying that Chautauqua is "the most American thing in America."

Lakeside hosts the East Ohio Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, for which my mother is a sort of delegate. I don't really understand a lot of the politics behind the church, nor do I want to. But I went to the conference once when I was in high school. As an aspiring journalist, I tagged along and hung out in the communications trailer, immersing myself in the hubbub and buzz of reporters and editors. And now, here I am, in the original Chautauqua and in the heart of communications: the newsroom itself. It's like deja vu all over again.