on the same mission

To Share the Rising

like a parent

I cross my fingers and hope

that the next adults in my kids’ lives

will love my kids like I do,

will see them at least as well as I see them,

will take care to both challenge and support them,

every transition into the new? a leap of faith . . .

the C.F.S. Upper School play I saw tonight

captured me into its magic,

the students I know and the students who are new to me

all found this production of “The Little Shop of Horrors”

to be a vehicle within which each could shine,

individual strengths nurtured and tailored

to fit into a collective whole

which told a story well—

song and movement and self honed to a sharp edge

so that they cut into the humdrum complacency

within which we can slumber our days,

here a story that seems formulaic early on

so that we want the boy and the girl to get each other,

the Oliver like protagonist to find himself whole and successful,

instead the story rewards a carnivorous plant,

as it consumes the protagonists, 

and later, it seems, the whole world,

I don’t feel a metaphysical message from the musical,

yet I do feel a metaphysical message from the Upper School,

that they have our backs,

that the kids we passed on to them

are well taken care of,

I hug the director, Catey Christiansen,

and murmur to her the highest compliment

the surrogate parents in me can deliver:

that she sees the kids, knows the kids,

releases the best in the kids,

and takes the care with them they need

to keep moving forward,

despite all that can work to hold them back,

at the best, we can have colleagues

that are true to the same mission we live,

thank you, Catey,

for loving the kids so well.

by Henry H. Walker

May 4, ‘17