Visits From Special Friends and Moments of Particularity
After almost a decade of teaching, visits from special friends and moments of particularity help distinguish the years. This year Zion Zhang rescued a youthful Carolina Wren who found herself trapped in the bathroom, and Dido the cat stopped by to hear our discussion on The Aeneid. She was understandably bothered by Aeneas’ betrayal, but when she started jumping up on the tables we had to ask her to leave. I bought her a little backpack for her books and am hoping that she can join us next year once she has learned to sit properly in her seat.
This year also marked the invention of “Tennis Ball Kick-Cricket.” It is kind of like Wack-Bat but without the bat and fiery pinecone. The rules are rather abstruse (difficult for one of ordinary knowledge or intelligence to understand), but I think a point is scored if, after kicking the tennis ball from the top of the front porch steps, the kicker successfully runs down the sidewalk to the gate and back without falling and skinning his knee on the sidewalk before the pitcher can recover the ball and hit him with it.
This was also the year of the epic Gentino vs. Beaty formal debate on the length of the days of creation, the powerful and memorable in-class recitations from the works of Shakespeare, Sophocles, and Earnest Thayer, and the impromptu, unofficial, and overdue public listening event for the release of Next Skyline’s (Tobias Wood and Jacob Cargo) debut EP “The Way Things Are Right Now.” I’m probably forgetting many other good things, but hopefully someone remembers.
One particular day, however, I will never forget. On February 15th, Mrs. Mary Burkett visited class and presented her collection of portraits, Beloved: Children of the Holocaust. As Mrs. Burkett displayed her sketches and told us the stories about the children of the Holocaust, they came to life in our classroom in a way that a digital image or text book description could never convey. “I draw their eyes first,” said Mrs. Burkett, “and I reach a moment where I just make some little subtle shading, and all of a sudden, I see the little person, and I just sort of say, ‘Hey, darling.’” “It is so wonderful that they are there. They seem to me as though they are hiding in the paper, and I just reveal them. I just find them.”
One evening as I was washing dishes, Eli asked me, “Pop, do you think you are a good teacher?” I thought for a minute and said, “No, not really. But I have read a lot of books, and I know truth, goodness, and beauty when I see it.” In class, we talk pretty regularly about what the medievals called “the transcendentals,” but it is one thing to talk about the concepts of truth, goodness, and beauty that transcend space and time, and another to see and experience them in a life or in a work of art. This year God graciously pulled back the veil for a moment and gave us a transcendental glimpse of truth, goodness, and beauty displayed in the life and art of Mrs. Mary Burkett and her Beloved: Children of the Holocaust.
Now that the term is over and the holidays have begun, may God graciously grant you visits from special friends and moments of particularity. And rather than counting down how many days of summer are left or how many days until summer is over, try to enjoy, with a grateful heart, each day and adventure that God has given you. And remember, for those who are Beloved: Children of God and friends of His Kingdom, all their adventures on earth are “the cover and the title page.” One day at last you will begin “Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before” (Lewis, 122).
Knowledge and Wisdom in Submission to God,
Chris M. Blackwell
Lewis, C.S.. The Last Battle. HarperCollins.
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