[applause] >> zena hitz? >> so i also want to offer my thanks to the madison staff, to robbie, brad, betsy for organizing this wonderful conference. i'm deeply honored to be part of this panel and especially happy to be celebrating leon kass of models in so many ways what it means to be a teacher of liberal arts. so i want to admit that since i returned to teach at st. john's college a couple of years ago, it's also where i was an undergraduate, that's what i say returned, i was sometimes overwhelmed by a sense of my own inadequacy to follow in the work of my teachers. this might seem like awkward over sharing but i think it's interesting to a couple of reasons and that's what i bring it up. on the one hand, i think the sense of inadequacy of sort of outgrowth of my enormous gratitude for the education and to all of the teachers who made it possible, and leon was one weekly as a graduate student and others are present, and i can formulate this gratitude in the following way. i arrived at st. john's as a 17-ye