The last act of "A Privileged Past" is devoted to the author’s life and work in higher education at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and its ecological niche on the northern-most edge of the Shawnee National Forest. The faculty member’s teaching, research, and service are described and set within the context of an evolving academic community and its relationship to a larger environment. Given the limitations of empirical knowledge, the chapter’s chief metaphor is a sixth sense of what is right and of use to others, students especially, who are intent upon a better life for themselves.