Tell them they're lucky....
I would like to share a story about my son, Kevin. Our family was blessed to have our son, brother, and friend with us for sixteen years. When he was eleven he was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, an aggressive cancer that wrapped around his spine. After surgery and five years of radiation and chemo...then hope, courage, perseverance, despair... and then peace, reconciliation, and joy, Kevin passed away. I will come back to his story in a moment.
One of the great gifts in education is the opportunity for renewal. There is a formal, often ceremonious end to one year sometime in June and then another beginning is marked sometime in August with meetings and wonderful ceremonies and traditions. The time between provides very special opportunities to take off the old and put on the new--ranging from teacher-student-parent-administrator energy and spirit to boiler repair and floor wax. Each new school year provides familiar--and yet somehow new--smells sights, sounds, hopes, aspirations, and intentions. This brings me back to Kevin.
I was serving as superintendent and about this time of the year was preparing for that new year. In the spirit of renewal and new beginnings, I worked hard to prepare some comments for the principals and teachers that would hopefully capture and build on the spirit of this moment given to us in the life of our schools. As I was leaving the house for the meeting I stopped by Kevin's room. He was now paralyzed from the waist down and confined to his bed or a chair that I would lift him into each day. We talked for a few minutes and as I was leaving I asked if there was anything I should say to the principals and teachers (I often sought his wisdom). Without hesitation he said, "Tell them they're lucky."
I was stopped short as these four simple words of wisdom, insight and challenge seared into my heart. They took on extra meaning coming from a young man who knew that we would soon pass from this life. The words were not spoken with a tone of anger, jealousy, or self-pity; instead, they echoed hope and promise that each new day, each new year brings to our lives. Whatever words I had prepared were never shared and are long forgotten. But each year thereafter, I shared Kevin's.
"Tell them they're lucky." Indeed we in schools are. We have life. And we have a new opportunity to come together as a community to share in the challenge, hope, and promise of another school year and to continue investing in the future of our children.
Peace and best wishes for this school year.
I'm so moved by this post. Thank you for writing it. I needed to read it, especially as I dread my return to Virginia and the beginning of another school year. I need to keep Kevin's wisdom about many things in mind as I proceed through an otherwise healthy and full life. There are times when I'm in the classroom and register how lucky I am to share a space with smart students, to build a community of inquisitive minds and good hearts who (mostly) want to make the world a better place. I'll return to your (and Kevin's) words here in order to keep these moments more present.
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Our family has enjoyed a relatively care-free summer and though it would certainly be nice if life could continue in "summer mode", theae words put it in perspective. We are indeed lucky to have parent meetings to attend, college decisions to make, and schedules to keep!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Hearing Kevin's words, through you, brought tears to my eyes. How easily we lose perspective. How easily we dwell on the trials of life rather than the joy. And how easy it is to forget that it's ALL joy! This came in at a busy time, and like you, "I was stopped short as these four simple words of wisdom, insight and challenge seared into my heart." Although you no longer have those school meetings to pass on these words, thank you for passing them on here, to a new audience needing wisdom and encouragement! Grateful for a new day, a new year, with which to echo hope and promise! Indeed we are lucky!
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