Headmaster's Weekly Newsletter -- Week 16

I went to Convocation Hall this week in search of a book that Mr. DeCoste had recommended to me. It is entitled Morality.  My intention was that I would use it to add weight to my perspective on the significant current events occupying today’s headlines.

 

(What a mistake that would have been! Ugh. Best thing I never wrote.)

 

Our fabulous librarian, Marilyn Curry, helped me sign out the book, but then to my surprise and delight she informed me that she was making me take out an additional book. I had never heard the title, but she was not-to-be-stopped, and before I knew it, I had not one but two books in my hand!

 

I read the second book, cover to cover, when I arrived home. This is not so impressive an accomplishment as the font is huge and there are lots of pictures(!).  Afterwards, I left it on the kitchen table and went out with the dogs for a walk. When I returned, Belinda was reading the book and already well into it. She was laughing and happily reading parts out loud to me as I removed my snow boots.

 

Entitled, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse and written and illustrated by Charlie Mackesy, we were drawn to the simple but soul stirring wisdom of each different creature as they asked questions of each other.

 

“I’ve learned how to be in the present.” said the mole.

 

“How?” asked the boy.

 

“I find a quiet spot and shut my eyes and breathe.”

 

“That’s good, and then?”

 

“I focus.”

 

“What do you focus on?”

 

“Cake,” said the mole.

 

Like the mole, I like cake. It makes me happy. I suppose the mole would be fine if you focused on something different, as long as it was something that brings you joy.

 

We did not know what to expect over the Christmas holidays. Having over sixty teenage boys and girls on campus for two weeks without the structure of classes and sports and clubs sounds like a recipe for disaster. But it wasn’t. It was lovely. As Mikaela Hinds (Grade 12 from Barbados) described to me, “I missed my family this Christmas but being here with everyone was very special.”

 

“Doing nothing with friends is never doing nothing is it?” asked the boy.

 

“No.” said the mole.