Head of School’s Notebook | Jim Durham

November 14, 2017

Nearly two decades ago, English teacher and Cate legend Jim Durham delivered remarks to the community in the chapel. Only twice in his nearly forty-year tenure did Jim take to the podium, and both times he referenced a poem by Carl Sandburg: The Limited Express. It is the story of a train ride, though Jim used it as a metaphor for life. The journey is what matters, he said, not where you get on or get off.

The second time Jim delivered his speech was about this time of year, when seniors were worrying about colleges to which they had applied and the rest of the students were growing fatigued by the full and busy fall trimester. There was a motive for his choice, of course. He said afterward to several of his colleagues, “Life is not meant to be an eternal postponement. Value the present and the future will take care of itself.”

I don’t know, candidly, how carefully our students listened to Jim’s words that day or understood his meaning. It is hard to tell anyone – least of all a teenager – what to want for him or herself or not to worry if all does not seem to be going according to plan. The future seems a problem to be solved with aspiration and effort, something that Cate students have in abundance.

In twenty years on the Mesa, I haven’t yet seen them fail. Sure, sometimes things don’t go according to plan, but often that proves to be the good news, not the bad. And it’s probably a good time to remember that. For the Thanksgiving holidays loom, everyone is taking a collective deep breath, and we can look back with pride on a remarkable first trimester of endeavor.

We will look forward, too, and imagine what might be next, what our new electives will be like, what that special college or university will say, what the winter athletic season might hold, when the next free day will be, or who will win the Elimination Game. These are not life-changing questions – of course – but they speak to things that will matter, events or experiences that will color the soon-to-be present that we are both in and racing towards.

The main character in Sandburg’s poem gets off in Omaha of all places, a destination distinctive only because that is where the man intends to go. He makes it important. No one else does. And that may be exactly why Mr. Durham kept coming back to the poem: to remind our students that they make each new destination or experience or sensation important. Only they can do that and they must do it for themselves.

As they sit down with family and friends around a table in the coming break, I hope they will remember that and feel the pride they should in the lives they are leading. Regardless of the next stop, the ride really is magical and there is much to be thankful for.

Read Durham’s 1980 Commencement Address below