hope calls

is the play the thing, or not?

our Upper School hoped to put on a play, 

The Foreigner,

that takes Southern culture to task,

and ridicules the parts of us

that hate the other,

that center self in those like us,

our national culture 

increasingly gives room for hate,

room to deny the other as us, too,

student and staff alike

have been both drawn to and repelled by the play

which forces us to hurt, to think,

to consider how zero-sum our choices can be,

we seek truth,

and we can be lost,

we find truth,

and we open ourselves to grow,

my heart and my hope reach out

to the high school students of the play

who give of their souls

to understand, to move forward,

to see the future, and the past, and the now,

and work their best to be their best,

to call for hope to save us from the least of these within.

by Henry H. Walker

November 16, ‘18

We of the South

we of the South

know loss,

we know tragedy,

for some of our ancestors

bought their family’s future

by enslaving humans into property,

for some of our ancestors

were stolen from their homes

to serve as things, as tools, for others’ dreams,

we of the South

lost a war to continue a Devil’s bargain,

we of the South

won a war so that we could reach to be free,

who we are in the South has incredible diversity about us:

our food, our music, our sports, our childrearing, our relationships,

there can be a wonder in opening to the other,

of expanding who we can be,

there can also be a disaster of losing ourselves,

of burning the Cross rather than living the Sermon on the Mount.

by Henry H. Walker

November 16, ‘18