Carolina Friends School

like a grand theater

the show must go on:

our school is like a grand theater
with teachers and all as producers and support staff
for show after show
directed, acted, presented by the students,
each of whom come and stay for awhile,
if we’re lucky, up to a decade and a half,
as students and staff come and go
what is constant is the production itself,

some of us give our lives to this structure
and to the students who find their way to it,
some others give just as fully but are called to other plays,
to other ways of being true to the best of themselves,
many goodbyes I have felt and still feel keenly
like I did at that moment when I first realized
their heart and their feet were carrying them away,

twice in the last week
some former staff, students, parents have felt a call
and retraced a way back,
it has been a time to reunite in echo
to remember who we were together in that time past,
who we are now still somewhat embodies that time
as an older self hears the guidance of a younger,

this month I also sought out a former student
and a former teacher in Maine,
I wanted our lives to touch again if only for an hour,
yesterday Facebook helped another former student find me and reconnect,
we talked on the phone for 30 minutes, and it was good,
today some of my current students particularly needed my support,
and, for some reason, I seemed even more than usual there for them
in the present of the show
that the best in them ached to present well,

what a paradox that I can be so present now
while my heart soars back and out
to so many former staff, parents, and students,
who still deeply touch who I am,

the show must go on
and the show that is now in production is amazing,

I also remember how amazing each show has been
across what is now four decades for me here
at the grand theater called Carolina Friends School.

by Henry Walker
April 18, ’11