Ivy Tech professor publishes book, takes spiritual look at everyday life

Damaris Zehner, an English professor at Ivy Tech of Greencastle, signs a copy of her newly-published book Thursday during an interview with the Banner Graphic. Zehner, who has spent much of her life serving third-world countries, now shares her experiences in "The Between Time."

For a woman who has spent much of her life serving impoverished communities in countries like Germany, South Africa and Kyrgyzstan, the possibility of recording each and every one of her experiences may be slim to none.

Nonetheless, Ivy Tech author Damaris Zehner recently published a book titled "The Between Time" in efforts to not only share the wisdom she has acquired, but to impart an empathetic collection of essays for those who are struggling to realize their religious roles, aspirations and dreams in a harsh world.

"I didn't know what to call (the book) so I looked through all the essays that I'd been putting together and the concept of that title kept coming up," Zehner said in a recent interview with the Banner Graphic. "We're told that God has conquered the world, but it's still a mess. We're told that we're saved, but we're still awful people. We're still on the road -- we've set off but we haven't got there yet.

"The whole book is about the positive and negative sides of that."

Born in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) as the daughter of a U.S. diplomat, Zehner has seen what many cannot imagine: She has spent time in many countries as a member of the Peace Corps teaching English, among other subjects, to poverty-stricken peoples who may someday benefit from the ease of lingual transition.

Among the aforementioned countries was also Greece, from which she gained her early education at an American elementary school.

Zehner, now a professor of English at Ivy Tech, first went to college in Fort Worth at Texas Christian University and attended graduate school at Columbia.

Although the essays only took around three months to produce as a collection, the book has been in the works for quite some time.

"The essays were bits and pieces over five years," Zehner said. "Basically, it's divided into three sections ... the first section is called 'Nature,' the second -- 'Ourselves' and the third -- 'God.'

"The essays have to do with those broken, healing relationships and our struggles to understand nature, each other and God."

Zehner and her husband, who married and raised a family inside Kyrgyzstan, have also acted as missionaries in south-central Asia. Now that they have been back in the states for about 10 years, Zehner said her family has coped with the transition very well.

"It's as weird or as normal, depending on how you look at it, in Putnam County as it is anywhere," Zehner said. "I think it was hard for my kids, my second daughter particularly. She was four (years old) when we moved over there and she was quickly and absolutely fluent; I think she spoke Kyrgyz better than English. When we came back she began to lose it -- watching her lose not just the language but the memories as well -- that was hard."

Although the children had to endure a bit of culture shock when returning to the United States, Damaris said the Zehner family feels right at home here in Putnam County. In fact, the back summary of the book describes her homestead as being "surrounded by a large garden and too many animals."

First coming to Ivy Tech as an adjunct-professor in 2010, Zehner became a full-time professor of freshman composition, advanced college writing and various literature classes that focus on practicality. She also heads an intro to poetry class that she said has cultivated a relationship between here and a Kenyon student.

Zehner's book, subtitled "Savoring the sacred moments of everyday life," is available for purchase through several retailers and their respective websites.

"It's available on the publisher's website (twentythirdpublications.com), on Amazon, on various Dutch, German, Australian markets," Zehner added. "You can also 'Google it.'"