Making Friends

Arts Eve ‘19

I remember the Weebles,

“they wobble but they don’t fall down,”  

that’s how my spirit works to be,

I keep seeing the positive,

despite the buffeting negativity throws at us,

tonight was of the positive,

tonight was particularly of the arts:

what a middle schooler can create on their own,

with vision, effort, a pencil, paint, papier-maché,

two dimensions, then three,

what middle schoolers together can create

with drama, with idea, dance, video,

the reaching of perception from the known to the unknown,

with music—the instrument alone,

then with other conduits,

from the piano 

to the voice, to the signing,

as movement seeks to convey the words that set to convey the thoughts,

tonight was of what a group of middle schoolers can create as a chorus,

the individual and the group genius released in song,

perfected when voice harmonizes with voice,

the sound just feels right, and beautiful,

three dimensions become four, maybe more,

what particularly gets to me tonight 

is the joy which erupts from their friends

as middle schooler after middle schooler celebrates another’s shining,

cheers, high-fives, a bouncing vivaciousness within the audience,

it saddens me when we lose addition as we fear subtraction,

at the heart of our school we love addition, community,

the sense that we are Friends,

that we are at our best when we come out of ourselves

and find the other who helps us be more complete,

more true to who we are.

by Henry H. Walker
May 10, ‘18