Graduation Reflection: We Dream a World
By: John Blumenstein, Head of School
Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to give a final commencement address in my role as Head of School at Cambridge.
As I looked out on the faces of these resilient and joyful graduates, I was filled with hope. Hope was the theme for the 2020-2021 school year, and I have reflected many times on the depth of the word.
Recently I was made aware of a word, “respair,” that has been extinct in the English language for approximately 600 years but that might be making a comeback. Unlike extinction associated with animal species, words can disappear from everyday usage, but they can reappear thanks to human records and human memory. In his poem entitled “Respair,” the poet Craig van Rooyen resurrected the word from centuries of dormancy in the midst of the pandemic.
His poem announces in the first line, “Every six minutes another word is dropped from the lexicon.” Then he provides an ode to such words as “woolfell” and “mooncalf,” poetically mourning their loss. The poem ends with a longing to bring back to life the word “respair.”
“. . . And if I could, I’d turn myself inside out to resurrect
respair, that forgotten Emmaus Road word for
the return of hope after a long period of desolation.”
English literature never ceases to amaze me with biblically inspired allusions, in this case the reference to “Emmaus Road” from chapter 24 of the Gospel of Luke, which recounts an amazing post-resurrection appearance of Jesus among two disciples, one of whose names we know as Cleopas. During that intriguing interaction, these two disciples, presumably overwhelmed by Jesus’ violent and unjust death, do not recognize Jesus at first, but they finally recognize him “in the breaking of the bread,” doubtless an allusion to Jesus’ last supper with the 12 disciples.
Another way to appreciate the richness of this word that has been out of commission for so long is to look at its opposite, “despair,” a word that is certainly alive and well. How many of us have experienced moments that felt like the departure of hope? I eventually lost count of those moments as I watched press conferences, as I listened to interviews with medical experts, as I visited websites with graphic summaries of COVID data, as I attempted to navigate the often perplexing waters of published health guidelines and government orders in the midst of political turmoil and unrest, as I followed heartbreaking stories of the death of people of color at the hands of law enforcement officers, and as we experienced outbreaks of social and political unrest. Have we paused to consider all that we’ve been through since March of 2020?
The Cambridge Class of 2021 filled all of us with respair as they responded to a challenging year. While the 8th grade class typically travels to Nogales, Mexico, and New York City, this class navigated masks and virtual learning. While the sanctuary is typically filled with hundreds of students and family members, this class stood before their immediate families.
Yet this class modeled for our school community resiliency, flexibility, and laughter. During their graduation ceremony, they reminded all of us what matters most as they shared their legacy gift with the school community.
What was one of their gifts? They documented the stories and lives of residents of Sandtown in Baltimore City through video, residents that they met with interviewed these last several months as part of their final unit of their 8th grade year.
Ella Rambissoon, Class of 2021, presents one of their legacy gifts, documented interviews with and for residents of Sandtown.
Another highlight of the year was hearing their “I Dream a World” speeches based on the original poem written by Langston Hughes. These speeches so inspired our community that we’ve published them here.
ebook
Dedicated to the Class of 2021
As another school year comes to a close, I am overwhelmed with immense gratitude for all that the students have accomplished this year, overcoming so many obstacles, for the teachers who have diligently practiced their craft under very stressful circumstances, for administrative and office staff who have supported the teachers, for the parents and family members who have faithfully partnered with us while enduring stressful circumstances themselves. We have been so accustomed to the realities of social distancing, mask wearing, and frequent hand-washing that we are perhaps unaware of all the stress that we have been under.
I would encourage us all to pause, to take a deep breath, and to give thanks for all that we have been through together. Peruse the ebook and read the poem “Respair” by Craig van Rooyen as an exercise in hope for our communities and our world.