The ends of things very often become the beginnings of other
things. Here we are at the end of the school year, and I’m sure that you, like
myself, have found the time zipping by with little sense of decency for the
seriousness with which we had approached it. The traditional analogy of “time
is like a river” seems more and more apt, as often we are carried along with
little volition, and all we can really do is admire the scenery in passing.
But there is one thing that seems to remain, to stay with us
on that river, and it is the grit of relationships, those bonds of
all-too-human personal encounter that both irritate us and give real traction
in life. Somehow, despite all the rest, a real relationship or friendship
endures, even grows. Its epitome is expressed by William Shakespeare in Sonnet
116: “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending
sickle’s compass come. Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but
bears it out even to the edge of doom.”
This may seem a bit overblown for a simple reflection at the
end of a school year. Yet little do we realize the experience of others. It
wouldn’t be very wrong to say that for many students, big changes lie ahead
around the bend. What to parents or administrators or staff members with years
of experience might simply seem to be another holiday break before school
resumes, to others is the end of one world and the beginning of a whole new
world of experience, whether it be Grade 1, Grade 6 (PSLE!), Grade 7, Grade 11
(IB!) or NS.
The good thing is that most of us look forward more than we
look backward. We seek new things ahead, and these carry greater weight than
those things that we’ve left behind. We still appreciate Woody in his toy box,
and we may even carry him with us to college, but he’s now a passenger on a
brand new ride. The great wonder of humanity is the fact that we can wonder at
all. When imagination is ignited by reason, magic happens.
At some point in one’s life, the whole thing sort of
reverses. What was old once now seems new, and those new-fangled things are
just newer versions of old notions. We return to things in the past that had
never received much attention from us and discover previously unknown realities
because they were previously, quite literally, unseen. Eyes are opened, and
what had been there all along, what was available all along, becomes graced
with new meaning and suddenly carries real substance. (The bible is chock full
of those stories.) Life begins anew.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
(T.S. Eliot -
Little Gidding V)
