Head of School’s Notebook | What We Need

September 16, 2015

It rained today. There was actual rain that you could hear on the roof and see on the pavement.  Students and faculty were all smiles, even on the first day of classes after our week-long wilderness adventures.

The Hunter boots are out in force, all the fair-weather clothes are still in the dresser (at least for the day), and there are even a few raincoats to be seen.  It’s amazing when the once mundane becomes cause for celebration.

Perhaps the coverage of the drought in California has led us to believe that the crisis we face is entirely about water.  Most of it probably is.  But there is something else happening here, something for which the rain or its absence is just a vehicle.

Certainly the last week spent in the wilderness reminds us all of what we take for granted – refrigeration, hygiene, cutlery, fresh vegetables, toilet paper, etc.  Somewhat surprisingly, there was plenty of water in the Sierra – at least for our purposes.  It was the absence of other amenities that we noted.

Technology was among them, of course.  One student wasn’t afraid to say that he missed his computer.  But most indicated that they liked being “away from it all” at least for a little while.  It’s strange that for them the absence of tech is an anomaly.  For me and the rest of my generation – at least at their age – it was just life.

It’s also interesting that connectivity – which the kids seem to crave – is a double-edged sword.  They get tired of their phones even though they will rarely willingly give them up.  Maybe they don’t want to check Instagram or Twitter or other forms of messaging as often as they do, but some don’t seem to feel like it’s a choice.  God forbid anyone fall behind, even in the race to accumulate relatively meaningless communications and posts.

So in the respite from such things we found other ways to keep ourselves occupied: conversation, games of mafia, cooking on camp stoves, making menus out of nothing … or at least very little.  Has anyone else had trail mix in their burritos?

And in the end what we share even beyond the experience is appreciation – for the time, for the people, for the struggle up those mountains, for the weight of our packs, and for the opportunity to make more out of less.

Maybe that’s why we so loved the rain too.  Sure we’ve missed it and were worried about its absence.  But its arrival on this day of all days was a reminder of how wonderful the simple things are; how much joy we can and should take in those things that may not – at least at first blush – seem all that remarkable.

In the wilderness, after all, we were reminded of what we need.  Then we got home and a little morning shower seemed to crystallize all we learned the previous week.  Life is funny that way.  Timing is everything.  And sometimes the little things aren’t so little.