Inside King's-Edgehill School
Dear KES Family:
My father-in-law is a retired art teacher and a prolific artist. Even though he is quite good, none of his hundreds of paintings can be found in galleries or on the walls of private buyers. His life work is in his own house or in the homes of his children and extended family. In a labour of love, Belinda has put together a photo album and chronicle of her father’s life which includes over 150 images of his artwork.Years ago, KES’s student production of Rent stole our hearts. In a mini-reprise this year, our current students sang the show’s wonderful song “Seasons of Love”. I have always found the lyrics both beautiful and haunting. They ask “…How do you measure the life of a woman or man? Is it in truths that she learned, Or in times that she cried?...”
I don’t know how one’s life is measured, or whether one should even attempt a calculation. It seems to me that the song, like Belinda’s book, is about love and remembering the love that one has shared in one’s life. (“Remember the love...remember the love…sing out, give out, measure your life in love”)
There are places in the School where students have left their mark. One can find signatures and
names of students from the past few years penned on the display table in the School Store. Over the decades students have scratched and etched their names into the wood of the pews in the Chapel. On the oldest stones of Convocation Hall are the names of Alumni from generations past. I used to get upset when I saw the names. I thought they were a kind of graffiti. Now I feel a sense of kinship, a kind of love. I see them and remember the faces and their antics and their stories. As time has passed I can now put faces to the names of Alumni who attended long before I arrived in 2008. They warm my heart.
names of students from the past few years penned on the display table in the School Store. Over the decades students have scratched and etched their names into the wood of the pews in the Chapel. On the oldest stones of Convocation Hall are the names of Alumni from generations past. I used to get upset when I saw the names. I thought they were a kind of graffiti. Now I feel a sense of kinship, a kind of love. I see them and remember the faces and their antics and their stories. As time has passed I can now put faces to the names of Alumni who attended long before I arrived in 2008. They warm my heart.Today I am attending the funeral for Joshua Michael Baker (Class of 2013). We are all feeling the loss. Through our tears we are sharing the stories and remembering the love. There was a lifetime’s worth of love in that young man, and for him.
I wish I knew where Josh wrote his name.