The measure of wealth in a civilized nation is not the currency accumulated by the lucky few, but rather the strength and resonance of social relations and the bonds of reciprocity that connect all people in common purpose- Wade Davis


Yesterday was an odd day that began with a coyote lunging at my dog on our morning walk, and concluded with several hours of playing guitar with my neighbors. We played songs by Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Van Morrison, artists from another time who held lofty ideals about community and society. My dog is ok, my spirit fed by music, and today marks another day. 


This sobering read in the Rolling Stone- How COVID-19 Signals the End of the American Era– places our national crisis in a global context. There is much work to do and challenges abound. I recognize how fortunate I am for the professional community I am part of, for the neighborhood I live in, and also for the blessing of being with my wife and kids. 


Stay healthy and safe. Enjoy this video – You’ve Got a Friend – reminding us of the strength in community. Let’s make the best of the weekend ahead.

“We’re talking about fostering an inclusive environment and caring relationships that elevate student voice and agency.” Justina Schlund

I have spent much time this past week as part of a parent task force for my kids’ school. We are discussing important things like building relationships, quality academics, community, social/emotional health, screen time and physical fitness. The schools that I work with are exploring these same areas. I found that this article provided some good insights into how schools are preparing for this upcoming round of distance learning:

Kids’ mental health can struggle during online school. Here’s how teachers are planning ahead.

As I think about this concept of “preparing,” I realize that educators and parents do have an advantage over our experience of emergency remote learning last spring. We do have the benefit of time to prepare, and also the ability to learn from those schools who are able to re-open safely in certain parts of the country. However, a significant difference lies in the physical and mental exhaustion that we all face, and its cumulative toll. Summer was a misnomer in some ways (although my family did enjoy a weeklong vacation, which I greatly appreciate as a privilege that not all were able to experience).

So we prepare with uncertainty and with faith. I look to Jesus’ example of going away to the desert and to the mountains to think and pray, as one of the ways by which he took the time and space to prepare. Simple acts like playing my guitar and walking my dog assist me with my mental health, and will continue to do so throughout these pandemic months. I hope that each of us can commit to simply, daily acts of mindfulness. We will be better to ourselves and to our children as a result.   

Empathy is the social glue that holds a civilized society together. Empathy lays the core for helping kids live one truth: we are ALL humans who share the same fears and concerns, and deserve to be treated with dignity. -Dr. Michele Borba

Last week I was involved in meetings with a group of Brothers and with my children’s school, both of which discussed the importance of connectedness amidst virtual community. The loss of in-person community is real, yet we also have an opportunity to leverage our common mission to overcome the inherent obstacles of being physically separated. Keeping students at the center of our efforts will provide the clarity of focus that we need during this unique back to school time. 

And unlike last spring, we have had time to “prepare.” At home, this meant spending time this past weekend setting up our kids’ work spaces so that we could all get re-accustomed to these different learning environments. We are working to meet end-of-summer book report deadlines, while also continuing to fit in bike rides and hikes. Our kids- and us parents- hope to make the most of these remaining summer days while also doing our part to get ready for the what lies ahead. 

Students are returning in varying ways to our New Orleans area Lasallian schools these weeks, while our California schools monitor the state watch list to inform distance learning, hybrid schedules, and timelines. In every scenario, school leaders and teachers are making plans for educators to establish relationships with students and families. For as John Baptist de La Salle declared, “Young people need good teachers, like visible angels.” Home and school will partner to ensure that these angels are visible to students, in whatever format is safe. 

SONGS: ON LOVE

Bill Frisell Trio – What The World Needs Now

Sheryl Crow – All You Need Is Love

PRAYER: ADAPTED FROM LASALLIAN REFLECTION 2

Loving Creator God, Saint La Salle and the first communities were marked by a total self-giving for the young people God entrusted to them. Today, we are called to the same dynamism. By our example and our accompaniment may we give the young what they most hunger for: the spirit of generosity and freedom. Help us to answer the call to be contemporary Good Shepherds “announcing the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel.”

ARTICLES

The Essential Teacher Trait That Has Emerged in the Pandemic

Why Saving Catholic Schools From Covid’s Impact Is A National Imperative 


6 Myths About Coronavirus Herd Immunity, Debunked By Doctors

Children Will Pay Long-Term Stress-Related Costs of Covid-19 Unless We Follow the Science

How to Proactively Prepare for Distance Learning: This fall doesn’t have to be like the spring.

“I Was a Little Scared”: Inside America’s Reopening Schools

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. – Author Margaret Meade

Last night, 85 parents from my children’s school gathered via Zoom. Our virtual meeting provided the time and space for us to reconnect as parents and as a community of support. Concern, anxiety and questions were all present, as were laughter, compassion and appreciation for our school and its teachers.

This experience of community, and the empathy that was demonstrated by parents, reminded me of this insightful article from EdWeek: The Essential Teacher Trait That Has Emerged in the Pandemic. Empathy is identified as today’s essential teaching trait, and is defined as being “at the heart of social-emotional learning, an approach that, when applied systematically, is intended to cultivate a caring and equitable learning environment that supports the development of essential skills such as responsible decision-making and emotional regulation.” In our society, the cultivation of these gifts is recognized as imperative, among parents and educators alike. How to prioritize social-emotional learning in the midst of such a different learning environment for students and for parents is our challenge and an opportunity.

These upcoming weeks are uncertain. As our return to school takes shape in varying ways, I hope that our schools and parents enter into the experience ahead with understanding, appreciation, and a shared commitment to safety, growth and ongoing dialogue. Our children deserve it.   

Faith lifts the soul, Hope supports it, Experience says it must and Love says…let it be! -Elizabeth Ann Seton

Actor Martin Sheen turned 80 earlier this week, and I recently came across his inspiring recitation of this 1910 Begali poem by Rabindranath Tagore. I have long admired Martin’s faith convictions along with his acting. You can view his rendition of the poem here.

“Let My Country Awake” – Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action –
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

British journalist Ed Yong has covered the pandemic extensively in The Atlantic. His lengthy article here provides an extensive overview into the challenges facing the United States. I found his description of how socioeconomics influence one’s experience of the pandemic to be particularly insightful, and I appreciate his recommendations below.

“COVID‑19 is an assault on America’s body, and a referendum on the ideas that animate its culture. Recovery is possible, but it demands radical introspection. America would be wise to help reverse the ruination of the natural world, a process that continues to shunt animal diseases into human bodies. It should strive to prevent sickness instead of profiting from it. It should build a health-care system that prizes resilience over brittle efficiency, and an information system that favors light over heat. It should rebuild its international alliances, its social safety net, and its trust in empiricism. It should address the health inequities that flow from its history. Not least, it should elect leaders with sound judgment, high character, and respect for science, logic, and reason.”

May our faith, hope, and experience anchor our day. And may love inform our thoughts and actions. Blessings to you.

May our singing be music for others, and may it keep others aloft. – Eric Whitacre

Last week’s passing of Civil Rights icon John Lewis challenges us to continue his life’s work toward access, equality and standing up for what is right. In our continuing experience of this coronavirus pandemic, and throughout our country’s attempts to reconcile our systemic racial injustices, there are many opportunities to do just this. Let us look to our rich history as people of faith, and to the Lasallian Core Principles of Social Justice and Inclusive Community, as our guideposts along this journey toward health & healing, and reconciliation & hope. 

In a recent webinar, “Tending to the Relationships that Matter Most During COVID-19,” (available here) theologian Dr. Ann Garrido shared the below excerpt from St. John Baptist de La Salle’s 71st Meditation for the Time of Retreat. Ann’s selection of this passage reminds us of the importance of faith and patience during these trying times. I pray that God provides these virtues to each of us.  

“It sometimes happens that God’s servants find themselves in a kind of inability to do good…They must then patiently wait until Jesus passes by, bringing a remedy for their ills. Because he has won for us the grace of redemption, he knows how to strengthen our soul and to give back the movement it has lost.” – Saint John Baptist de La Salle

Let us keep in our prayers all of our Brothers and school communities throughout the week ahead. May God bless you and your families.

In hope,

Mike

“Sing Gently” – Eric Whitacre

May we sing together.

Always may our voice be soft.

May our singing be music for others,

And may it keep others aloft.

Sing, sing gently always. Sing, sing as one.

May we stand together, always.

May our voice be strong.

May we hear the singing,

And may we always sing along.

Sing, sing gently always.

Sing, sing as one, as one.

Sing gently as one.

ARTICLES

On faith: 

On leadership:

On COVID-19: 

Walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide. -John Lewis

Rest In Peace, Congressman John Lewis

From https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html

John Lewis, the civil rights leader and congressman who died on July 17, wrote this essay shortly before his death, to be published on the day of his funeral.

OPINION JOHN LEWIS

Together, You
Can Redeem the Soul
of Our Nation

Though I am gone, I urge you to
answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.

By John Lewis

July 30, 2020

While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity.

That is why I had to visit Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, though I was admitted to the hospital the following day. I just had to see and feel it for myself that, after many years of silent witness, the truth is still marching on.

Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor. He was 14 when he was killed, and I was only 15 years old at the time. I will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me. In those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars.

Though I was surrounded by two loving parents, plenty of brothers, sisters and cousins, their love could not protect me from the unholy oppression waiting just outside that family circle. Unchecked, unrestrained violence and government-sanctioned terror had the power to turn a simple stroll to the store for some Skittles or an innocent morning jog down a lonesome country road into a nightmare. If we are to survive as one unified nation, we must discover what so readily takes root in our hearts that could rob Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina of her brightest and best, shoot unwitting concertgoers in Las Vegas and choke to death the hopes and dreams of a gifted violinist like Elijah McClain.

Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.

Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.

Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.

When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.

As a spiritual practice, we can wake up to the possibility of building a new order. – Author Barbara Holmes

I write following a weeklong break from work. I am blessed to love what I do, AND I am also privileged to have spent time this past week out in the woods with my family. Nature feeds my soul, and I feel refreshed. It was time well spent as our world continues on this pandemic marathon.

Last week’s feast of Saint Mary Magdalene celebrates the friendship and support she provided to Jesus. As the first to whom Jesus presented Himself following His Resurrection, she represents the trust and leadership God expects of each of us. Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, described her witness as one that reminds us to be fully present to God:  “Mary Magdalene and the other women were the first witnesses to the resurrection because they remained present for the entire process.” 

My faith, my family, my Lasallian community, music, and a practical, informed approach to daily life anchor my experience throughout these times. Blessings like these have prompted these ongoing reflections.

May God continue to bless you and yours, with special care granted to all those on the frontlines serving as our essential and care workers. Let us also pray for those on the margins and in need of assistance, along with all those who are battling or have succumbed to COVID-19. Stay healthy and safe.

May Jesus live in our hearts, forever!

Mike

PRAYER

Lasallian Student Leaders (July 15, 2020)

Everyone stumbles. The difference is in the response.

Max Lucado

SONGS

Ubi Caritas – Ola Gjeilo

Patience – Nora Jones

ARTICLES

On faith:

On leadership:

On mental health:

On COVID-19:

Introduction

I hope these thoughts inform our approach to making the most out of each day.

Striving to find the joy in every encounter, I share these reflections from my perspective as a husband and father, brother and son, educator and person of faith. Fellow educators, parents, others in leadership, and seekers of all truths may find these resources to be informative.

The music, poems and prayers contained within this blog are intended to provide sustenance for our journey. All views are my own. Enjoy!