So, an old College buddy this morning directed me to the WIKI page for my Alma Mater wherein I discover a section that it has a list of “Notable Alumni.” I was shocked not to have been on that list. Beyond that, keep in mind that this school (Marion College when I attended… Indiana Wesleyan University today) was and remains the flagship college for the Wesleyan church. IWU is the place that Wesleyans send their sons to be trained to be ministers in their churches. When I attended chapel was required and there was a ‘Spiritual Emphasis Week” every year.
Back to our list of Notable Alumni. Now, I may not be able to communicate the humor in all this as it kind of lands in the territory of an “inside joke.” However, I’ll give it a try.
There was a chap on the Notable Alumni list I was friends with when I attended. His name is Joseph Adda. Somewhere there is a photo of Joe and me on graduation day standing together w/ our diplomas in graduate gowns and mortar caps. Joe, it seems went on to be a member of the Ghana parliament. There is another chap who was a high ranking official at one time in Syria. But the one that really caught my eye and filled me with mirth was Notable alumni Silky Nutmeg Ganache whose claim to fame per WIKI was being a Drag Queen and Contestant on Season 11 of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Here is just one of many Silky Nutmeg photos you can find on the web;
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/8513909/drag-race-finalist-silky-nutmeg-ganache/?fbclid=IwAR1Ps2-962ztfkxx9ufLSmdrhMySjUPbc3f3RhBcu9Eo_hOj6kFRRPhG5fI
Now the humor here is not at the expense of that poor creature going by the name of Silky Nutmeg Ganache. He is in a bad way. The humor is that Silky would be listed as a Notable Alumni of this Indiana Wesleyan University. You see IWU is a real buttoned-down Institution afflicted with the typical kind of uptight pietism that one often finds among Christians (especially as existing in the Holiness tradition). Now, it’s been 40 years since I was a student and 10 years since I was on campus last but IWU was afflicted with the polyester panted AMEN corner who thought coloring outside the lines was something only pagans did. IWU was run by the God, baseball, and American pie crowd. These chaps had such starched piety that they would wrap the Christian flag around them as sleepwear. If IWU were a woman it would have to have been said to her what Rhett Butler said to Scarlett O’Hara… “You need kissed; and badly.” Given all that reality and then to see IWU have a Notable Alumni named Silky Nutmeg who is famous for being a Drag Queen enters into a humor orbit heretofore undiscovered.
To be honest, the piety of Indiana Wesleyan University and the Wesleyans in general probably needs a few more Silky Nutmegs as a graduate. Maybe IWU will start a “Drag Queens Honors Program?”
Silky Nutmeg … I sincerely hope you discover the goodness of God in the land of the living but even if you don’t I thank you for the belly laugh this morning at IWU’s expense.
