Character and Community Through Timeless Values
Carl Sagan (a famous scientist of the 20th century) emphasised that time is not easily defined. However, we are all stuck with the concept of time; indeed, we may be “stuck in time”, constantly moving forward into the future, at the rate of one year every year, one day after another.
He said we are, in fact, all time travellers, with a one-way ticket. Sagan was sceptical but open-minded about travelling into the past. He emphasised the importance of the fourth dimension and that the sun was not static in space but moving through time. He described our journey through time as a combination of orbiting around the sun and progressing through time. Consequently, we are “spiralling through time”, not orbiting around the sun at a fixed point. We are spiralling forward, held in orbit by the gravity of the sun.
The challenge for us is that what we do each day prepares ourselves for the future. It follows that as our actions shape the future, our actions in the past have shaped who we are today and the world we live in.
The experiences we have shape our development.
“We are all time travellers journeying together towards the future. But let us work together to make the future a place we want to visit” – Stephen Hawking
As a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawking’s vision of time and our world was slightly different, but it complements Sagan’s view of time. Hawking is attributed with saying: “We are all time travellers journeying together towards the future. But let us work together to make the future a place we want to visit”. The longer quotation is this:
“Let us fight for every woman and every man to have the opportunity to live healthy, secure lives, full of opportunity and love.
We are all time travellers journeying together towards the future. But let us work together to make the future a place we want to visit.
Be brave, be determined, overcome the odds. It can be done.”
My message is for us to be intentional in our actions and to know our values. Ensure that it is your values that provide the gravity for your orbit as you spiral through time. This is not only applicable to individuals but to us as a School community, too.
The experience of a holistic education that recognises the formation of intellect, character, faith and physical prowess at a school like Shore guides each student and our community into the future.
The questions are “Where do our values come from?” and “How do they stand up to the test of time?”
I believe Shore is particularly well placed to constructively shape the future of our students by providing our boys with experiences that better prepare them for life beyond school. I hope Shore’s espoused values are lived in the day-to-day life and interactions among the boys, staff, parents, and between these groups. It’s not easy!
At the core of our holistic education are the Christ-inspired virtues made explicit in our day-to-day interactions at Shore.If, by chance, you are looking for guidance and confirmation of the gravity to keep you in orbit as we spiral together into the future, I strongly encourage you to consider the following words attributed to St Francis of Assisi, who lived from 1182 to 1226.
“Lord make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Lord, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
it is in dying that one awakens to eternal life.”
These words are at the core of our boys’ school experience. Our challenge is to provide our boys with the ability to enact them beyond our gates into the future as they spiral through time.
Dr Peter Miller
Headmaster