Jane's Pocket Change: Gravity and Grace
A few weeks ago, I shared on this blog my reflections on these events and how grace will inform our work. During my remarks to the community at an opening all-school assembly, I expanded on this theme as a way of setting the tone for this school year.
A few weeks ago, I shared on this blog my reflections on these events and how grace will inform our work. During my remarks to the community at an opening all-school assembly, I expanded on this theme as a way of setting the tone for this school year.
Below is an excerpt of my address:
This past summer was packed with a number of key American events and changes. The New Yorker writer David Remnick said: “What a series of days in American life, full of savage mayhem, uncommon forgiveness, resistance to forgiveness, furious debate, mourning, and, finally, justice and grace.” Legalizing the Affordable Care Act, creating marriage equality, bringing down the confederate flag, and the death of nine innocent people in a church in South Carolina—just a few of these momentous changes. Had we been in school, there would have been collective cause for celebration and consternation throughout our time together.
So now, as we come back together in September, how might we address all that happened—and there was a lot more of course—during this past summer? And how might we determine our path forward?
I am choosing to consider these events and changes in the light of GRACE and GRAVITY.
During President Obama’s eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine people gunned down in the AME Emmanuel Church in South Charleston, he chose to focus on the “giving of grace” rather than forgiveness alone, and he drew on the words from “Amazing Grace.” He describes grace as a “reservoir of goodness, beyond any other kind” from writer Marilynne Robinson and he urges us to keep an open mind. In his speech, he consistently used the phrase from the hymn: “we’ve been blind / but now we see.” His focus on “seeing” is one I hope that we can take to heart—we may have been blind, but now we see.
Grace is a word from Christianity meaning: the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. It is a bigger concept than forgiveness and it implies a free, unobstructed passage beyond any wrong-doing we may have committed. Open mind, drawing on a reservoir of goodness. These are big, complex concepts that I know that I want to access for myself.
Later in the summer, during a drive back home one Sunday evening, I heard one of Krista Tippett’s shows: “On Being” on NPR and her guest was john powell, professor of Law; Professor of African American Studies and Ethnic Studies; at the University of California, Berkeley. His words stuck with me: “Race is a little bit like gravity,” he said: “experienced by all, understood by the few.” He is an esteemed legal scholar and thinker who counsels all kinds of people and projects on the front lines of our present racial turmoil. Race is relational, he reminds us. It’s as much about whiteness as about color. “And it largely plays out, as we’re learning through new science, in our unconscious minds.” He urges us to reach out and claim our belonging to others—claim it—see it as important as gravity (even though we do not fully understand it.) Watch the episode here.
We must claim it. Race is a human issue---the issue of our times and one that we all have the power to grapple with and integrate into our lives for the good. Race is like gravity—we all experience it, few of us understand it. GRAVITY—vital to our everyday lives, never questioned, always present for all of us.
Grace and gravity are both enormous and unfathomable. I see them as inextricably aligned when I look back to the events of June and July and forward to our future. I hope that we all, here at CSW, can begin this year with open hearts and dig into that reservoir of goodness.
I hope that we can all claim and take hold of who we are as individuals, how we are connected to everyone around us, and how we might, as a living, caring, mindful community embrace the difficulty and conflict that comes with living in this world. As I look around this room, I have the faith that we are willing to take on this difficult and necessary task. Thank you. Here’s to a good year.
____________________________________________________
Pocket Change is a web diary written by Jane Moulding, head of school.
Below is an excerpt of my address:
This past summer was packed with a number of key American events and changes. The New Yorker writer David Remnick said: “What a series of days in American life, full of savage mayhem, uncommon forgiveness, resistance to forgiveness, furious debate, mourning, and, finally, justice and grace.” Legalizing the Affordable Care Act, creating marriage equality, bringing down the confederate flag, and the death of nine innocent people in a church in South Carolina—just a few of these momentous changes. Had we been in school, there would have been collective cause for celebration and consternation throughout our time together.
So now, as we come back together in September, how might we address all that happened—and there was a lot more of course—during this past summer? And how might we determine our path forward?
I am choosing to consider these events and changes in the light of GRACE and GRAVITY.
During President Obama’s eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine people gunned down in the AME Emmanuel Church in South Charleston, he chose to focus on the “giving of grace” rather than forgiveness alone, and he drew on the words from “Amazing Grace.” He describes grace as a “reservoir of goodness, beyond any other kind” from writer Marilynne Robinson and he urges us to keep an open mind. In his speech, he consistently used the phrase from the hymn: “we’ve been blind / but now we see.” His focus on “seeing” is one I hope that we can take to heart—we may have been blind, but now we see.
Grace is a word from Christianity meaning: the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. It is a bigger concept than forgiveness and it implies a free, unobstructed passage beyond any wrong-doing we may have committed. Open mind, drawing on a reservoir of goodness. These are big, complex concepts that I know that I want to access for myself.
Later in the summer, during a drive back home one Sunday evening, I heard one of Krista Tippett’s shows: “On Being” on NPR and her guest was john powell, professor of Law; Professor of African American Studies and Ethnic Studies; at the University of California, Berkeley. His words stuck with me: “Race is a little bit like gravity,” he said: “experienced by all, understood by the few.” He is an esteemed legal scholar and thinker who counsels all kinds of people and projects on the front lines of our present racial turmoil. Race is relational, he reminds us. It’s as much about whiteness as about color. “And it largely plays out, as we’re learning through new science, in our unconscious minds.” He urges us to reach out and claim our belonging to others—claim it—see it as important as gravity (even though we do not fully understand it.) Watch the episode here.
We must claim it. Race is a human issue---the issue of our times and one that we all have the power to grapple with and integrate into our lives for the good. Race is like gravity—we all experience it, few of us understand it. GRAVITY—vital to our everyday lives, never questioned, always present for all of us.
Grace and gravity are both enormous and unfathomable. I see them as inextricably aligned when I look back to the events of June and July and forward to our future. I hope that we all, here at CSW, can begin this year with open hearts and dig into that reservoir of goodness.
I hope that we can all claim and take hold of who we are as individuals, how we are connected to everyone around us, and how we might, as a living, caring, mindful community embrace the difficulty and conflict that comes with living in this world. As I look around this room, I have the faith that we are willing to take on this difficult and necessary task. Thank you. Here’s to a good year.
____________________________________________________
Pocket Change is a web diary written by Jane Moulding, head of school.
The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.