Since 1851
Barbara Simmons at the KQED studio.
I admit it. I have been looking for ‘meaning’ in the ending of the old year and the beginning of this new one. And, nothing big has appeared. What I wanted was weight, and gravitas, and a way to have my own top 10 epiphanies light up on my own personal billboard of “getting it.” All I could come up with were the following three things, like motifs on personal wallpaper.
A phrase from a church service on the last Sunday of last year.
A bicyclist I saw riding backwards on his seat looking over his shoulder, forwards, and peddling backwards to move ahead.
And, an e-mail from a student saying she was cross-stitching again.
Were these the way to revelation?
What did I know?
I know that I am finishing the last year of my 5th decade, that I am one of Hillary’s college classmates and that I was born on the same day, month, year, in the same hospital and city, as James Taylor.
I know that the two minutes I am taking to reflect on this is more than some homo sapiens have energy and luxury to do and that these two minutes of reflecting are far fewer than the candidate and singer have shared with all of us. But, they are mine.
The cyclist performing on the street, sitting backwards, moving forwards, was easy. Do not forget my past. As much as I, like Huckleberry Finn, want to ‘set out’, I also know that moving forward means looking back at where I have been. Each year has me looking over more geography behind me than ahead of me, but wherever the ride will lead me, I need to look over my shoulder to get the big picture.
Cross-stitching, writes one of my seniors. “I’m cross-stitching again.” She had just pressed “submit” on her last college application; she could turn to something else, knowing how to look over her shoulder at a horizon larger than a college essay.
Knowing what we know, seeing what we are looking at, and stitching it all together. Maybe meaning is as simple as taking three disparate items and, knowing that we know, reflecting about them, we get someplace beyond ourselves.
Barbara Simmons
Director of College Counseling
Notre Dame High School
San Jose , CA
(408) 294-1113 ext. 2113